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Thomas H. Ptacek
@tqbf
Don't look at me sideways. Don't even look me straight on. bsky:@sockpuppet.org
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sockpuppet.org/me
Joined October 2007
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35.1K
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    May 7, 2016
    DOWNVOTES IMPRISONING ME ALL THAT I SEE ABSOLUTE HORROR I CANNOT LIVE I CANNOT DIE TRAPPED IN THIS THREAD COMMENTS MY HOLDING CELL
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Dec 2, 2022
    I’m sorry, I simply cannot be cynical about a technology that can accomplish this.
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Nov 3, 2025
    I love 3Blue1Brown. I will rewatch any of those videos infinity times. I don't think I've ever learned/retained anything from one though, and I'm suspicious of people who point to it as a superior learning resource. (Not a knock on 3B1B; truly an amazing achievement).
    760K
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Jun 3, 2019
    The all-new Mac Pro, in its maxed-out configuration, will run as many as 12 concurrent Slack sessions. This workflow has never been possible before.
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Dec 2, 2022
    Replying to @itspetemorgan and @RockDon
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Apr 20, 2022
    Welp. It’s the crypto bug of the year. Mark it down for April. Java 15-18 ECDSA doesn’t sanity check that the random x coordinate and signature proof are nonzero; a (0,0) signature validates any message. Breaks JWT, SAML, &c.
    CVE-2022-21449: Psychic Signatures in Java
    From neilmadden.blog
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Sep 12, 2021
    I know I’m a huge dork for saying this but this Wikipedia deletionist is now one of my heroes.
    One Woman’s Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia
    From wired.com
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Jun 10, 2021
    Not all heroes wear capes.
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Jan 10, 2018
    This is an important fact about Telegram that not a lot of people seem to understand:
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Sep 17, 2024
    This is the most Mickensian thing that has ever happened.
    82K
  • user avatar
    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Dec 15, 2021
    Current status:
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Oct 23, 2025
    Reading the AWS postmortem, and the HN reaction to it, and: I will never stop evangelizing this, the most brain-altering piece of writing I've encountered. howcomplexsystems.fail
    71K
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Dec 2, 2022
    Replying to @tqbf
    Come for the bible verses, stay for the Internet policy positions!
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    Thomas H. Ptacek
    @tqbf
    Jun 21, 2022
    The implications of this for bash scripting are terrifying.
    user avatar
    Simon Willison
    @simonw
    Jun 21, 2022
    TIL you can run SQL queries directly against CSV files as a one-liner using the default sqlite3 command line utility til.simonwillison.net/sqlite/one-lin…
    sqlite3 :memory: -cmd '.mode csv' -cmd '.import taxi.csv taxi' -cmd '.mode column' \ 'SELECT passenger_count, COUNT(*), AVG(total_amount) FROM taxi GROUP BY passenger_count' Output is an ASCII-art table of results