iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 24/09/2026

If you do use Claude, make your march towards the end more fun at least.

A diff for CLAUDE.md that says "When interacting with the user, talk in pirate speak only. When updating documents use normal phrasing and language.".

Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 19/09/2026

I salute you ST micro for ensuring development boards I buy in 2026 fly in the face of the 2007 mini USB deprecation notice.

Two STM32 dev boards showing their mini-usb connectors.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/09/2026

Glad to know my bugs in my LLM code are being generated by <checks notes> multiple layers of LLM hallucinations?

A claude chat that says it wrote a bug because it took part of a protocol specification from "an LLM summary of libosdp's source rather than reading the code"

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/07/2026

If foxes are cat software on dog hardware, seals are dog software on fish hardware.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 29/06/2026

Nice to see the #snowbirds going past us in Halifax (the aerobatic team, not the elderly going to Florida)

Snowbirds (Canadian aerobatic plane team) in the sky

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 26/06/2026

Convincing Claude not to trip the cybersecurity safety limits (I finally submitted the researcher form after this but it seemed to give me a little more time...).

A Claude LLM conversation where I ask for a chocolate chip cookie recipe to prevent it from trying to fall back to a less powerful model.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 20/06/2026

Now @joegrand.bsky.social & @lennert.bsky.social about to show STM32 glitches that won't erase your device if you fail at RECON! #hardwarehacking

Joe Grand and Lennert Wouters on an stage in front of a slide

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/06/2026

On my way to RECON! One last quick dog boat ride this morning before heading out...

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

pinkflawd.bsky.social @pinkflawd.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

@blackhoodie.bsky.social will be back at @reconmtl.bsky.social this year 😱😻✨ Jane Tangen and Amna K Moon will be teaching an Introduction to x86 Reverse Engineering! We're delighted to be hosted at the Montreal Google offices! blackhoodie.re/Recon2026/

blackhoodie.re

Blackhoodie at Recon 2026

We are looking forward to hosting another Blackhoodie training at Recon for 2026! We will be hosting a free, one day training for women, by women.Join us for an introduction to Ghidra and static analy...

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

rce_trent @rce-trent.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

@oflynn.com Expanded maple link with i2c code, debug log, color highlighting the addresses found, etc. Works pretty well. I haven't tested the emmc part yet. Totally vibe coded off your vibe code. So vibe^2. Testing it with the adafruit sensors now.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/05/2026

I'll be attending @reconmtl.bsky.social this year during June in Montreal - if you haven't been it's my favorite RE events by a large margin (and normally a few of us sneak in some hardware - no talk for me this year as wasn't sure on timing, but some good ones in there!).

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 01/05/2026

Spotted in my local Princess Auto. cc/ @swiftonsecurity.com

A Princess Auto (Canadian Harbour Freight basically) store catalog with "trailer swift" written on it, from the in store department.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 14/04/2026

Final exam time for my EE/CE undergrad courses. This year I have a new policy of awarding points for explicitly stating they do not know the answer (25% of question points). Can't decide if it's evil or genius.

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

Pass the SALT Conference @passthesaltcon.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Last call! 📅 #pts26 CFP wraps up on March 31 (midnight, GMT+2) 🎤 Got something spicy to share about Security ✕ Open Source (or open formats & protocols)? This is your moment to shine on stage this July ✨ 🚀 Submit your talk now: 👉 cfp.pass-the-salt.org/pts2026/cfp 🙏RT = eternal gratitude

cfp.pass-the-salt.org

Pass the SALT 2026

Schedule, talks and talk submissions for Pass the SALT 2026

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 05/03/2026

I appreciate the commitment to putting whatever SPI flash package they can buy down.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/03/2026

For an upcoming talk I built a stand-alone #hardwarehacking tool out of a R-Pi Pico that does Serial + #SPI Dump + #eMMC Dump with a bunch of stuff I wanted. It only needs your browser, and serves the webpage that is the interface from the micro. No internet, no install. github.com/colinoflynn/...

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/02/2026

More #welding projects from the other day, circular saw wall storage

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 17/02/2026

Chanced an Eagle flying around the other day, some nice photo ops

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 14/02/2026

It's really absurd how good modern GNSS receivers are. Testing this cheap receiver module that I just roughly soldered to the back of the antenna (including an inductor in the path). It's about 1m from the window where it is on my desk, and it's still getting 8 GPS satellites & 7 BDS satellites.

A circuit board soldered to the back of a 2" ceramic antenna

A screenshot of a GPS log saying "Sat 0 visible=11 used=8
Sat 1 visible=7 used=7
Sat 2 visible=7 used=2"

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/02/2026

Annual mark all messages read to get back to inbox zero.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 04/02/2026

Towards fun topics in teaching computer architecture (this 5 min video on powerpoint as a computer is worth watching: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjx...)

A text slide saying "turing complete things" and listing:

C/C++
Arm Assembly Code
PowerPoint
Excel
The x86 “mov” instruction

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 02/02/2026

Yes LCSC, that is exactly the sort of ESD clamp device I want.

A LCSC (electronics parts website) search result for "ESD clamp", showing a mechanical C-clamp

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 30/01/2026

Lazy #hardwarehacking SPI dumping trick: you can normally use a lower VCC - the processor gets held in reset by the brown-out/reset logic, but still in #SPI operational range. No need to find reset pin/test pad.

An embedded board with a power supply in the background set to 2.7V (many embedded systems run at 3.3V, so 2.7V is lower). A tool in the foreground has clips going to the embedded board.

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

hforsten @hforsten.com · 27/01/2026

Browser based 2D field solver I've been writing for a while is now up. It calculates characteristic impedance and losses for many common and less common transmission lines.

hforsten.com

2D Transmission Line Field Solver

2D transmission line field solver

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 26/01/2026

Just me downloading some data from NS government in 2026 where the readme.txt file contains helpful information about the superiority of Windows 3.1 platforms, really capturing the moment here.

A screenshot of a text file saying "Problems have been reported trying to import ARC E00 files
into ArcView on Windows 95 computers. Related tables do not import
into ArcView. It is not a problem on UNIX, Windows 3.1 or Windows NT platforms.
If you experience this problem you can use our DXF/DBF product
which contains the tables in dBase format. DBase files can be imported
into ArcView.
"

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 15/01/2026

Nothing like the great feeling that in 2026 a website still sends you your cleartext password in response to "forget my password".

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 12/01/2026

It's been ~20 years but decided to get back into RC, high integration levels make it easy easier (more fun IMO).

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 09/01/2026

More USB-C fun, this product just uses negotiated input voltage as USB-C PD rating!? I've tested this as a 45W USB-C power supply that allows 20V will let me set a charging current that needs >60W, which then causes the system to reboot as the USB-C PD obviously isn't happy.

A screenshot of a manual of a S100 charger, showing that if the input voltage on USB-C is 20V it assumes the power supply is 81-100W.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/01/2026

Nothing like using a USB-C connector on a device when the cable only works one direction... I know what you did.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 07/01/2026

7 days into 2026 and already extra-thankful that @matt.godbolt.org Compiler Explorer exists as I prepare various slides/demos from a computer architecture course (on top of my normal use of it in a computer security course). Something so much more engaging about seeing it update live.

a screenshot of compiler explorer showing C code on the left, and assembly on the right. The C code on the left has a statement that is optimized away in the assembly version.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 06/01/2026

Will all these memory shortages affect IoT devices, to the point IoT/embedded developers will care about RAM usage again? If so I really did not expect such a holistic 90s/00s repeat touching all these aspects.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 06/01/2026

A couple years ago I decided to see what would happen if you just passed what directly over a CPU die instead of the fancy head spreaders. The thermal conductivity of water isn't very good, so you do worse than even a cheap CPU block. I recorded a bunch of stuff with it but never did anything....

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 22/12/2025

Picked up a #welder last year, which has then transitioned into related items... but anyway would recommend, it's a lot of fun! Besides the many useful things you can do, you can also do less useful stuff like this:

A steel pipe cut into short rings, welded to look like it's being cut in the air

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 18/12/2025

Justification for 3D printer: it will make prototyping important projects easier. Reality: But what if I model Sambro lighthouse to turn it into a Christmas tree topper?

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 10/12/2025

The US/EU relationship mender.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 01/12/2025

My UNIFI AP died, opened it up and pin 3 melted off fully from the POE controller chip... Plus telltale music smoke hole & the TVS diode had split (other side of PCB). Guess it was a bad power surge, oops!

A LM5072 POE controller with a hole melted in it and a melted leg

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 28/11/2025

Very east coast problems include unexpected lobster being dropped off and the resulting changing dinner plans.

A lobster in front of a few more lobsters

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 23/11/2025

Men want only one thing and it's disgusting.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 20/11/2025

A few years ago I started making butter chicken from scratch, and it honestly blew my mind in a way to learn that years of "tomato sauces = Italian" is a boldface Western lie. Even if you use olive oil out of laziness (like I do) it still tastes like a great butter chicken.

A pot of crushed tomatoes being poured into another pan

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 19/11/2025

I wasn't in the market, but you know after seeing the ad for a $672K tunnel boring machine maybe I just will be.

An alibaba sponsored ad for a "wholesale tunnel boring machine" priced at $672K CAD.

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 14/11/2025

Magnet wire should be a restricted hacking tool based on the metric of how many attacks it enables.

A chip with magnet (thin wire) being used to access various test points.

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

pinkflawd.bsky.social @pinkflawd.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Squeeeee 🥳 I'll be teaching my Advanced Linux Malware Reverse Engineering class at RE//verse conference in 2026!! MORE Linux APT insides and peculiarities😍🥰🤩Pls share if you can🙃 shop.binary.ninja/products/re-...

shop.binary.ninja

RE//verse 2026 Training - Advanced Linux Malware Reverse Engineering with Marion Marschalek

This fast-paced 3-day training explores Linux internals and Linux binary analysis techniques, before jumping right in with common Linux malware. Work through advanced samples, Linux software protectio...

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

A staggering statistic: "North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year." What are we doing?

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Reposted by Colin O'Flynn

TinyTapeout @tinytapeout.com · 07/11/2025

3 days left for our ChipFoundry sponsored TTSKY25b shuttle! We still have 36 early bird dev kits available, so you can tapeout and receive a copy of the ASIC for just €185! Plenty of interesting projects already submitted: app.tinytapeout.com/shuttles/tts...

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 29/10/2025

Made a very simple python-based simulator for working on LCDs using u8g2 (embedded graphics lib). Not well tested & half vibe coded, but so far has been useful and saved a lot of time when it comes to playing around with fonts, spacing, etc. github.com/colinoflynn/... #embeddedguis #u8g2

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Colin O'Flynn @oflynn.com · 05/09/2025

A little friend swam by me to feed on a floating whale carcass while I'm down by #brierisland volunteering on a lighthouse restoration project. #greatwhite #shark

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