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

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

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...).

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

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

@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/

@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.

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!).

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

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.

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

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

Me with LLM coding

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/...

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

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

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.

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

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...)

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

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.

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.

2D Transmission Line Field Solver

2D transmission line field solver

hforsten.com

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.