iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Some more really old vendor swag from my first ever conference…

David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I'm re-reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008), and hit this fairly prescient passage. "Crap" (well-written but subtly false information) deliberately inserted by into the "reticulum" (Internet), with the goal of then being able to sell services to filter […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Screenshot of a few paragraphs of Anathem, where the characters discuss disinformation campaigns on the internet powered by "Artificial Inanity" programs.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Amazon is haggling now? I bought a pair of Thread/Matter controlled plugs, discovered I can't get them to work in Home Assistant, and went to return them. I'm 90% through the return process, and amazon makes this counter offer.

Dialog box from Amazon offering a $17 refund for a $74 product, letting me keep the product. (Essentially, adding a discount to my original purchase?)

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Possibly the first con / booth swag I ever received. Must’ve been like 1988 or so? I think it was some kind of FidoNet conference. From System Enhancement Associates, creators of the ARC file archive format. @tomjennings

A pull apart bottle opener and corkscrew.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2026

and here's the section actually in the song.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026

@mattblaze I hadn’t been aware of wet bulb temps until a couple years ago. When they get really high, it’s terrifying. And today approached that point (mid- to high-80s). Carrot weather (on the iPhone) supports wet bulb calculations and predictions. The […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

A graph showing the wet bulb temperature for my area (northern Virginia) over the course of the day. It plateaued at about 83°F for most of the afternoon.

Also included is some background information on wet bulb temp, which was taken from Wikipedia (link included in main toot).

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 05/07/2026

One for your collection? :) Glen Jean, WV.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

Been an eventful day. This next week will be even more so. So glad for the chance to help our youth grow.

A neckerchief for the Scouting America program National Youth Leadership Training. Included are 4 Wood Badge beads on a leather cord, awarded to adults who “run” such a course (really it’s run by the youth - I just guide them
on their journey).

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 23/04/2026

Vaguely considering running back into the fire... Change My Mind.

(Jut the guy at the park with the table and "change my mind" sign, with the text from my toot....)

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026

My phone may be overdue for some spring cleaning.

iPhone App Store icon showing a badge count of 326.

Indicating that not only do I have 326 apps which need to be updated, but that I have OVER THREE HUNDRED APPS on the phone to begin with.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026

Well, this was exciting. And more than a little surprised that the line was hot. (I’m fine - never actually felt any current myself).

Close up of pliers in a utility tool. A chunk has been melted and a gouge blown out.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2025

Now here’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 21/12/2025

I can do this one in under ELEVEN parsecs.

Green roadside sign announcing the presence of a creek directly ahead.

The sign reads “Kettle Run”

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 29/11/2025

A very different choice for the night after Thanksgiving.

Our favorite beach restaurant, Goombay’s, changes to Goombrrs for the Christmas season along with other local restaurants and bars.

Photo of a snowy and icy looking sign with …maybe a yeti on a lounge chair drinking a cocktail.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 08/11/2025

Does anyone know what causes this particular failure mode? I’ve only seen on gas station pumps. Sometimes as many as 3 or 4, I think they’re always complete circles.

Gas station pump screen. A black circle about an inch in diameter obscures part of the text, clearly some kind of broken screen.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/11/2025

Fifteen trick-or-treaters last night. :( More than last year, but only barely. Our neighborhood is full of kids but I think there's so little decorating down near our house that our side of the loop is just skipped. Also, moving in much smaller groups -- we […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Bar and line graph of Halloween trick-or-treaters, 2025. Shows 15-minute time blocks from 6:30 pm (1830) until 8:45 (2045). Bars show peak visitors per block, with highs for most blocks being over 20 visitors each (with clear peak from 7:30-7:59 over 30 each block).

Lines show average over past 15 years of data (2008 to present, closed for 2020). Average about 10 per block until 8pm, then tails quickly down to the x-axis.

Another line shows this year's visitors. Again, beginning at 6:30 block: 0, 1, 4, 2, 6, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0.

Bar graph of cumulative trick-or-treat visitors each year since 2008 (didn't hand out candy in 2020). Some low blocks here and there, but mostly a clear trend downwards from a high 119 in 2008. Last year was lowest since we started recording. All data, beginning in 2008 (again, skipped 2020): 119, 72, 116, 110, 56, 92, 87, 62, 40, 24, 62, 44, n/a, 58, 57, 27, 11, and 15.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2025

From the Council of Elrond, happening on October 25, ages ago….yet still somehow resonant.

Screenshot from the Lord of the Rings. The relevant passage is:

“Despair, or folly?’ said Gandalf. ‘It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.”

Excerpt From The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
J.R.R. Tolkien
This material may be protected by copyright.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 16/08/2025

I wonder if I can just respond to all of these….could make a lot of money.

Screenshot of my phone email app showing 7 (of probably a half dozen) spam emails from “SIS Research” offering $200 to complete a survey.

Each one addressed to a different (non-existent) name at my personal email domain.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 18/06/2025

WTF is the point of a search box if you don't even try to give matching results?

Search results for online shopping at Harris Teeter grocery store. The request is for “shallot”. Results shown (in order displayed) are: Shallot, lemon, peeled red onion, garlic, and green onions.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 22/03/2025

@caseyliss I’ve been having this bug in CallSheet a lot lately. Have you seen it before? Sometimes force quit & restart fixes it for a bit, sometimes not.

An actor’s list of credits in the CallSheet app, mostly filled with erroneously empty rows.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 15/02/2025

The drive on my 2018 Mac Mini (Sonoma) keeps filling up. Yesterday I finally found a bunch of data I could purge, and went from 0.7 gig to 43 gig free (most of that spotlight data). Over the next hour (after a reboot to restart all the spotlight indexing […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Line graph of disk usage on my 2018 Mac Mini running Sonoma. Starts with a high (% usage) of 696 meg free, drops a bunch from deleting some caches, then slowly creeps up until I remove a spotlight cache and reboot.

The line drops nearly straight down, then creeps back up a bit over an hour, then slow rises in a reasonably consistent shallow slope over the next 20+ hours.

Occasional spikes are seen - possibly when filesystem snapshots are made and backed up to Time Machine? But overall, the graph indicates a climb from 43 gig free to only 14 gig, between 4:30 pm on 2/14 and 3:00 pm on 2/15.

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David Schuetz @darthnull.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 27/01/2025

Wow. The spam I've been getting from legit companies (apparently from legit companies) is out of control. Each message, of course, has an opt-out link, but since none of these addresses are real, they never opted-in in the first place: so it's all SPAM. I […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

An email window showing 23 different SPAM emails from Toll Brothers construction, all to non-existent addresses at my home domain. All messages received over an 8-minute span.

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