iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Trying to figure out what was going on with this car, parked in a “Police Cars Only” area around Judiciary Square in DC. Make it look like a real scofflaw, to be really unmarked?

A white Bronco with NY plates with three characters taped over.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

Maybe the NY Times shouldn't have axed so many copy editors. (This is on the homepage; the linked-to recipe spells it correctly.)

Here’s One of the Most Popular Recipes We’ve Ever Published

Get in the mood for fall with this no-kneed bread recipe, which has over 22,000 ratings.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

@mattblaze Total solar eclipses are like nothing else. I've seen two, in Oregon in a fairground in 2017 (we slept there in our rental car the night before) and Vermont in 2024 in a Walmart parking lot that we stumbled into, with many other eclipse watchers […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

A total solar eclipse, showing bright spots on the rim in the lower left and prominences near the bottom of the disk and at 4 o'clock.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

“Thumb” surgery. The sling is because of a nerve block, part of the pain control regimen; I’ve had no sensation in my entire arm since early this morning, and may not until tomorrow morning. Then it may be time for drugs… But the entire forearm is bandaged. The eventual outcome *should* be worth it.

A selfie, with my left arm in a large sling.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

Trains, of course, have restrooms. (I believe that this work train is on a track for the Purple Line, a light rail line under construction in the Maryland suburbs of DC.)

A small red diesel locomotive coupled to a flatcar that is carrying, among other things, a portable restroom. In the background is a parking garage.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026

@sundogplanets If you want, you're more than welcome to use this very amateur photo as an example. I took it in Death Valley (a dark sky area) in mid-January of this year, and it shows *6* satellite tracks. (50mm, f/1.8, ISO 2800, 3 seconds, slightly […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

A night sky picture, showing lots of stars and 6 satellite tracks.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2026

Why "DEI"—that is, attention to race, etc.—is important to health care: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/science/…. And, per the screenshot, it even matters if you're 100% of European (whatever that is) descent.

Genetic blind spots can also cause scientists to miss discoveries that benefit everyone. One example: the PCSK9 gene. Scientists found that a rare mutation that occurred mostly in a small proportion of Black people could naturally reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease by 88 percent. That set off a race to develop drugs that mimic the mutation for people of all races and ethnicities. But scientists only found the variant because one study in Dallas had ensured that its participant pool was more than half Black.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 22/06/2026

@chris_bloke @mattblaze From my photo archive… I've only rarely seen blue-winged teals, and only have pictures of a few females—but if you look closely, you can see a patch of blue under its wing towards the back. For comparison, I've included a female […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Female blue-winged teal, in greenish (from duckweed) water.

Female green-winged teal, swimming in brownish water.

Male green-winged teal, swimming in brownish water.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

So the Knicks won the NBA Championship and the Mets just took a series from Atlanta, the team with the best record in baseball. This may mean that the Messiah's arrival is next… On the other hand, and of perhaps more immediate import, someone forwarded me the following image.

"Last time the Knicks won the championship the president resigned in disgrace shortly after. Here's hoping history repeats itself."

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

Another kind of bird crashing my party today. (Google Images says it's a C-17 Globemaster III.) Pro tip: if you hear a plane that's a lot louder than its distance or altitude would suggest, it's probably a military plane.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2026

@aka_pugs I remember the original CACM paper, but I also have a copy of the 1.0 spec.

The cover of a booklet:

The Ethernet

A Local Area Network

Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications

Version 1.0, September 30, 1980

By Digital Equipment (DEC), Intel, and Xerox.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 23/04/2026

Someone still likes tail fins on their car, a stylistic feature I thought went out ~60 years ago… #retroStyling

A parked white four-door Honda hatchback with what appear to be add-on tail fins.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2026

Someone uninstalled VLC player on their Mac.

A litter basked showing some vegetation and a traffic cone sticking out.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 10/04/2026

@adamshostack Long ago, on Usenet, after yet another in-flight repair on the Space Shuttle, I wondered online what the astronauts' spare parts and tool kit looked like. Someone who worked for NASA saw the post and sent me the catalog… I don't know how many […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

A book titled "In-Flight Maintenance Tool Catalog", from the Missions Operations Directorate, Systems Division, Basic, July 1990, from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2026

No one come off looking good in www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/polit…, but let me point special attention to Gen. Caine. The quoted passage, below, shows precisely why "stay in your lane" is bad advice. When you're at a certain […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

General Caine’s role in the lead-up to the war captured a classic tension between military counsel and presidential decision-making. So persistent was the chairman in not taking a stand — repeating that it was not his role to tell the president what to do, but rather to present options along with potential risks and possible second- and third-order consequences — that he could appear to some of those listening to be arguing all sides of an issue simultaneously.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2026

For those who keep suggesting the 25th Amendment: it can't save us. Impeachment and conviction, in fact, is easier. The 25th Amendment requires the assent of the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet, a cabinet selected for loyalty to Trump. But […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

The text is too long for a description—see Section 4 of the Amendment at https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2026

On initial reading, I parsed this headline incorrectly. To see how I read it, substitute "Epstein" for "SpaceX"…

"SpaceX Files to Go Public, Setting Stage for Huge I.P.O."

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 27/03/2026

This was during a cabinet meeting. The man is senile at best…

Washington Post headline and subhead:

Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens
 Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 21/03/2026

Two headlines, side by side, in the New York section of the NY Times.

Two headlines, one saying "Sanders Will Rally for NY Tax Increase. Mamdani Does Not Plan to Join", and the other saying "The 'Hunger Games,' Hamptons-Style: Hiring a Private Chef for Summer"

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2026

Yesterday's high: 86 ℉ (30℃). Today: not so much…

A screenshot showing that it's 37℉ (2.8℃), going down to 34℉ (1.1℃), feels like 24℉ (-4.4℃), and snowing heavily for the next few hours.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

Are the houses on these streets very small? Or does it mean that as the street gets narrower, the building and plant layouts mean that the owners have more privacy?

A map section showing the intersection of Epsilon Drive and Epsilon Place.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026

Two stories, side by side, in the NY Times Technology section.

The first story is captioned "Meta plans to add facial recognition technology to its smart glasses"; the second is "Iran turns to digital surveillance tools to track down protesters."

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 13/01/2026

You were asking about the antenna at Patuxent Research Refuge, @mattblaze. Here's a better shot of it, though the arms pointing towards/away from the camera are, I think, foreshortened—I believe they're the same length. The Visitor's Center was closed today […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 29/12/2025

@mattblaze What's really funny to me is this 1853 book that Ches and I quoted in the first edition of "Firewalls", about whether it's proper to discuss vulnerabilities in locks.

The full text is too long for the alt-text. Briefly, it says that there's been a debate about the propriety of discussing flaws in locks. The author of this book, Charles Tomlinson, points out that crooks already know this stuff, and it's important for the public to understand it. He analogizes to a discussion on adulterating milk, pointing out that producers, honest or not, were already aware of this.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 14/12/2025

From the Washington Post coverage of the shooting in Australia (www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1…). And from the NY Times (www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/14/wor…): "hootings are […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Mass shootings are rare in Australia, and Sunday’s attack is the deadliest since 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people near Port Arthur, Tasmania, using a legally purchased Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

That attack — the country’s deadliest massacre of the 20th century — prompted the government to buy back firearms and strengthen gun-control laws. Within a year, the government bought back 650,000 firearms.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 05/12/2025

This administration is sounding more and more like North Korea, where even apart from the totalitarian "tendencies" (to put it mildly), all good things have to be attributed to Dear Leader. Even the arrest of a suspect in those pipe bombs apparently could […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

Mr. Patel, offering ritualized political flattery, thanked President Trump, along with federal investigators, for solving what he described as “a case of massive public importance.”

While arresting a suspect in the case was a significant achievement for the F.B.I. and the Justice Department under Mr. Trump, Ms. Bondi used the moment to criticize Mr. Biden, falsely claiming that the case had been left to languish under his administration.

Mr. Bongino, known for his hot temper and hyperactive social media presence, did not address the issue during the news conference announcing the arrest. But he offered praise for the F.B.I., the Justice Department and especially Mr. Trump, and appeared to bask in praise from fellow Trump appointees.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 27/11/2025

Happy Turkey Day! The first is one of the older (non-family) pictures in my archives, from 1987 and well before I was a birder. This *large* bird showed up in my backyard in New Jersey, so I grabbed my camera… The second is fairly recent, from the Berkshires […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

The turkey is walking left to right at the margin of a road, heading for a grassy, bushy area.

The turkey is crouched down, and nestled amidst some vegetation. A pole of some sort is behind its shoulder.

The vulture is just landing in a grassy meadow. Its wings are still spread wide.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 15/11/2025

From Lynne Olson's new book "Sisterhood of Ravensbrück". If you hear someone suggest that people awaiting deportation in ICE's concentration camps could actually work, be even more afraid—the next paragraph notes that workers who had become unproductive were […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

"As she dug deeper into the history of Ravensbrück, Germaine learned that it was operated by a limited company, whose main shareholder was SS head Heinrich Himmler, the creator and administrator of all German concentration camps. Himmler, who owned the lease of the land, about fifty miles [~80 km] north of Berlin, on which the Ravensbrück camp was built, made enormous profits from its slave labor trade.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 05/11/2025

Posted for no particular reason. Well, that's not true… #ElectionDay

An adult bald eagle, perched on a bare forked branch.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 03/11/2025

A draft provision in the 1776 Pennsylvania state constitution. Sadly, it was dropped. (From Jill Pepore's new book "We the People".)

'A draft of the bill of rights stipulated that, because "an enormous Proportion of Property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the Rights, and destructive of the Common Happiness of Mankind… every free State hath a Right by its Laws to discourage the Possession of such Property." During the convention's deliberations, delegates dropped this 'enormous Proportion of Property" assertion."

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2025

This is why the NY Times and most other responsible news outlets refused to sign Hegseth's "offer". flipboard.com/@newyorktimes/politic…

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2025

What I wore today… (Aside: I bought this during W's administration, and hoped I'd never need it again.) #NoKings

A t-shirt that says, in many different languages not including English, "I'm sorry my president is an idiot. I didn't vote for him."

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2025

I saw someone carrying this sign, which made me think of this old Pete Seeger song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=phTi9NDSHe0… #NoKings

"I need to be able to tell my grandchildren I DID NOT STAY SILENT"

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2025

Part of an art installation outside Waterloo Station in London.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2025

Just noticed this: quite close to the NSA, there's a Snowden Pond… (I wonder if the pipes or streams feeding the pond leak.)

A screenshot of a map. In the lower left, you can see Snowden Pond; in the upper right, there's Fort Meade. They're about two exits apart via the Baltimore Washington Parkway.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2025

From the Forward, an old Yiddish newspaper, an op-ed at forward.com/opinion/772696/yom-kipp… — it's an addition to a traditional Yom Kippur prayer.

Al Chet additions for 5786

Al Chet for the sin of sullying the name of God and Judaism.
Al Chet for the sin of abandoning the mitzvah of redeeming the captive.
Al Chet for the sin of bringing death and devastation upon our neighbor.
Al Chet for the sin of imposing our own suffering on the other.
Al Chet for the sin of denying our neighbor’s right to live.
Al Chet for the sin of violating the dignity of other human beings.
Al Chet for the sin of waging a war of revenge
Al Chet for the sin of starving people, especially innocent children.
Al Chet for the sin of stealing another’s land.
Al Chet for the sin of mastery and supremacy over others.
Al Chet for the sin of indifference and blindness.

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Steve Bellovin @stevebellovin.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2025

Umm, @cstross ? (From www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/books/re…, a review of David Baron's new book "The Martians", about Percival Lowell et al. and the belief that there were canals on Mars constructed by intelligent beings.)

A quote from the article:

Camille Flammarion, the public intellectual so admired that a countess dying of tuberculosis bequeathed him the skin of her shoulders to bind one of his books — and he complied!— fanned the flames by envisioning ways we could communicate with our neighbors in space, flashing them shapes like a preteen neighbor from a suburban window.

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