You can download ready-to-use binaries for [Linux x86_64](http://(https://github.com/basiliscos/syncspirit/releases/download/v0.4.1/syncspirit-fltk-v0.4.1-x86_64.AppImage) (AppImage), Windows (WindowsXP is supported) and Mac OS X (Apple silicon).
Notable changes:
- unified shared folders model, which allows to inspect on a local and remove devices
- possibility to import files from local storage
performance improvents, upto 5 times on a smaller files - fix compatibility with global discovery v3 protocol
- support folder_type folder setting (send only, receive only, send & receive)
- support pull_older folder setting (alphabetic, by size, by modification date)
- support disable_temp_indixes (hardcoded to 1 for atm)
- support ignore_permissions folder flag, permissions and no_permissions file flag
- support ignore_deletes folder flag
- support device auto-accept folder flag
- support device introducer and skip_introduction_removals markers
- support outgoing messages to be compressed using lz4
Syncspirit is a syncthing-compatible is written from the scratch software in C++ as classical desktop application.
Tells The Reg China's ability to p0wn Redmond's wares 'gives me a political aneurysm'
Roger Cressey served two US presidents as a senior cybersecurity and counter-terrorism advisor and currently worries he'll experience a "political aneurysm" due to Microsoft's many security messes.
In the last few weeks alone, Microsoft disclosed two major security vulnerabilities – along with news that attackers exploited one involving SharePoint as a zero-day. The second flaw, while not yet under exploitation, involves Exchange server – a favorite of both Russian and Chinese spies for years. //
"This is the latest episode of a decades-long process of Microsoft not taking security seriously. Full stop," Cressey said, acknowledging that the government continues spending billions on Microsoft products. "Anytime there's a major announcement of a Microsoft procurement by the government, the happiest people in the world first are in Redmond and second in Beijing."
Microsoft declined to comment for this story, but did point out that Google Cloud is a client of Cressey's in his consulting work.
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward
"got sick of telling them what was wrong and not having them fix it"
I don't know the situation with these guys, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but that phrase is everything wrong with a lot of cybersecurity professionals in a nutshell...plenty of goons willing to run scans and test 'sploits then suggest insanely expensive mitigations..."Man, that £1m worth of data is exposed it needs to be protected. I recommend this firewall from Ironballs Labs in California, it's only £5m".
Person: building a sandcastle
Cybersecurity: It's shit mate, it's not going to work.
Person: looks confused, doesn't understand
Cybersecurity: Man, I keep telling you it's shit.
Person: sad because his sandcastle fell over
Cybersecurity: See I told you, I've been telling you for ages you need to make your sandcastles better.
Person: Hey man, my goal here was to just have fun and chill out on the beach, a cheap day out. What would you have done?
Cybersecurity: Well, I would have used those boulders over there to fashion a small blast furnace, scavenged for iron ore at the bottom of those cliff and collected all the drift wood over there as fuel.
Person: Man, that's not worth it, I just wanted to build a sandcastle.
Cybersecurity: Why doesn't anyone ever listen?
Usually if a cybersecurity person moans about not being listened to and having their advice ignored, it's an indicator that their proposals for mitigations are just insane.
Yes, security problems can kill your business...but so can overspending on mitigating vulnerabilities that have significantly lower ALE and ARO than the solution costs.
Cybersecurity isn't about "perfect hardened security", it's about balancing risk and cost. You wouldn't protect a £10 note with a £1m vault. Similarly, you wouldn't protect £1m with a £10 petty cash tin. You have to find the balance where the cost is reasonable vs the asset being protected and the risk is sufficiently low that the cost of attacking the asset prevents it being a worthwhile exercise.
Anyone can find a security issue and then suggest the latest and greatest cutting edge security software / hardware to protect the vulnerability...that's the easy part of cybersecurity. The hard part is finding solutions that are feasible and practical that don't result in costs that are higher than the assets are worth.
Black Hat Four countries have now tested anti-satellite missiles (the US, China, Russia, and India), but it's much easier and cheaper just to hack them.
In a briefing at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Milenko Starcik and Andrzej Olchawa from German biz VisionSpace Technologies demonstrated how easy it is by exploiting software vulnerabilities in the software used in the satellites themselves, as well as the ground stations that control them.
"I used to work at the European Space Agency on ground station IT and got sick of telling them what was wrong and not having them fix it," Olchawa told The Register, "So I decided to go into business to do it myself." //
"We found actual vulnerabilities which allow you to crash the entire onboard software with an unauthenticated telephone," claimed Starcik.
"So basically, you send a packet to the spacecraft, and the entire software crashes and reboots, which then actually causes the spacecraft, if it's not properly configured, to reset all its keys. And then you have zero keys on the spacecraft that you can use from that stage on."
Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh
·
🚨 JUST IN: President Trump wants total peace to break out in the Middle East. He has now called on EVERY country in the region to join the Abraham Accords.
7:33 AM · Aug 7, 2025
So far, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan have endorsed the Abraham Accords. In the next phase of the diplomatic push, President Trump wants the leading Arab Gulf state, Saudi Arabia, to enter the framework agreement. “It’s my fervent hope, wish and even my dream that Saudi Arabia will soon be joining the Abraham Accords.” It will be a special day in the Middle East,” the president said during his visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-May. //
Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch @BabakTaghvaee1
·
#Breaking: The #IRGC intelligence org. of #Iran's Islamic regime has arrested nearly all top #Iranian nuclear scientists who weren’t assassinated by #Mossad. They’re accused of being Israeli spies—simply because Mossad didn’t kill them. Roozbeh Moradi was one of them who was Show more
9:19 AM · Aug 7, 2025
It turns out, pushing unrealistic green energy schemes onto low- and middle-income people at the expense of a safer fuel source was not only bad science, it was dangerous propaganda.
It's going to be difficult to fix, they said, and would require a significant code rewrite or trying to use the TPM module to store the biometric data - which might not be possible. They recommended that, if you are using Hello for Business without ESS, then disable the biometrics and stick with logging in using a PIN. //
Using Sysinternal's CoreInfo tool and a webpage from 2011 (yes, apparently 14 years ago if the date is trustworthy), you can check if your computer meets the requirements.
Note: Do execute the correct bitness version of coreinfo.exe. Running the 32-bit version on a 64-bit OS fails to work.
The IOCCC, as it's familiarly known, is back after a four-year gap, giving the entrants more time to come up with some remarkably devious code.
This week, the results for the IOCCC 2024 were announced, with a record 23 winners. It's the first IOCCC in four years, but you shouldn't take that to imply it's as regular as the Olympics. In fact, almost nothing about the IOCCC is regular: this was the 28th edition of the event, and celebrated its 40th anniversary.
We confess that we have not yet studied the source of all the winners closely, but we have already got some personal favorites. Adrian Cable won the "Prize in murky waters" for this magnificent effort:
Dr Cable offered this 23 second Youtube clip by way of explanation. The chances are that you may already be familiar with it, but if not, it won't take you long. We also confidently predict that it will not help in any way.
Whatever you think the code does when run, you're wrong, but you're not going to believe what it actually does generate. Don't try to copy and paste it from the above, because as well as flagrant abuse of the C programming language, it also contains flagrant abuse of Unicode encoding. The IOCCC organizers have their own explanation, which will show you what this infernal masterpiece does in fact do.
In the late 5th/early 6th century BC, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote of battle:
Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.
We need to build a force of fighters, and more, of warriors. This is a step in that direction. //
Laocoön of Troy
6 hours ago
Amen!
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
‘To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods,
[snip]
When the goodman mends his armour,
And trims his helmet’s plume;
When the goodwife’s shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom;
With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
anon-j4cj Laocoön of Troy
2 hours ago
When I was a lad of 14, after having read of the Horatius Brothers in Latin class, I was fortunate enough to see the famous painting (Jacques-Louis David, 1784) "Oath of the Horatii" in the Louvre in Paris, France. It was awesome; that and seeing the "Winged Victory" statue made incredible impressions on me. I prayed at the time that through Grace, I would find the "right stuff" within to be able to answer the bell when called. Boomer.
August 6th, 1955; As part of the Dash 80's demonstration program, Boeing invited representatives of the Aircraft Industries Association (AIA) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the Seattle's 1955 Seafare and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington
The Dash 80, Boeing's newest and biggest thing, was scheduled to perform a simple flyover. At the controls was Chief Boeing test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston, ex barnstormer, civilian flight instructor, U.S. Army Air Corps Ferry Command pilot, flight test engineer and winner of the Thompson Trophy at the 1946 National Air Races. (Alvin earned his nickname "Tex" because of his unique flight gear, consisting of cowboy boots and a Stetson hat)
Boeing Dash 80
Tex had other plans. As Boeing's pride and joy, approached low over Lake Washington, in front of 250,000 people, including several of the nation's top aviation executives, watched as the Dash 80 pulled nose up and gracefully entered a barrel roll, causing the crowd to drop into silence.
Security firm Malwarebytes on Friday said it recently discovered that porn sites have been seeding boobytrapped .svg files to select visitors. When one of these people clicks on the image, it causes browsers to surreptitiously register a like for Facebook posts promoting the site.
Unpacking the attack took work, because much of the JavaScript in the .svg images was heavily obscured using a custom version of “JSFuck,” a technique that uses only a handful of character types to encode JavaScript into a camouflaged wall of text.
Once decoded, the script causes the browser to download a chain of additional obfuscated JavaScript. The final payload, a known malicious script called Trojan.JS.Likejack, induces the browser to like a specified Facebook post as long as a user has their account open.
“This Trojan, also written in Javascript, silently clicks a ‘Like’ button for a Facebook page without the user’s knowledge or consent, in this case the adult posts we found above,” Malwarebytes researcher Pieter Arntz wrote. “The user will have to be logged in on Facebook for this to work, but we know many people keep Facebook open for easy access.”
17 U.S. Code § 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use] said:
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
A century ago, somewhere around 8–10 percent of all psychiatric admissions in the US were caused by bromism. That's because, then as now, people wanted sedatives to calm their anxieties, to blot out a cruel world, or simply to get a good night's sleep. Bromine-containing salts—things like potassium bromide—were once drugs of choice for this sort of thing.
Unfortunately, bromide can easily build up in the human body, where too much of it impairs nerve function. This causes a wide variety of problems, including grotesque skin rashes (warning: the link is exactly what it sounds like) and significant mental problems, which are all grouped under the name of "bromism."
Bromide sedatives vanished from the US market by 1989, after the Food and Drug Administration banned them, and "bromism" as a syndrome is today unfamiliar to many Americans. (Though you can still get it by drinking, as one poor guy did, two to four liters of cola daily [!], if that cola contains "brominated vegetable oil." Fortunately, the FDA removed brominated vegetable oil from US food products in 2024.) //
After the escape attempt, the man was given an involuntary psychiatric hold and an anti-psychosis drug. He was administered large amounts of fluids and electrolytes, as the best way to beat bromism is "aggressive saline diuresis"—that is, to load someone up with liquids and let them pee out all the bromide in their system.
This took time, as the man's bromide level was eventually measured at a whopping 1,700 mg/L, while the "reference range" for healthy people is 0.9 to 7.3 mg/L. //
ChatGPT did list bromide as an alternative, but only under the third option (cleaning or disinfecting), noting that bromide treatments are "often used in hot tubs."
Left to his own devices, then, without knowing quite what to ask or how to interpret the responses, the man in this case study "did his own research" and ended up in a pretty dark place. The story seems like a perfect cautionary tale for the modern age, where we are drowning in information—but where we often lack the economic resources, the information-vetting skills, the domain-specific knowledge, or the trust in others that would help us make the best use of it. //
darlox Ars Centurion
12y
291
There's clearly a bell-curve of "the right amount of information" for society to function well. Too little, you end up with quacks selling cure-alls and snake oil because nobody can effectively do any research. Too much, and you end up with quacks selling cure-alls and snake oil because everybody can effectively do terrible research.
Sooner or later this will work it way out of the gene pool.... one way or another. 🤦♂️ //
Steel_Sloth Smack-Fu Master, in training
3y
26
Subscriptor
You should cut down on your use of table salt? Ah, that old bromide... //
Frodo Douchebaggins Ars Legatus Legionis
12y
11,409
Subscriptor
Some people are on this planet solely to become cautionary tales. //
UweHalfHand Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
5y
153
Subscriptor++
ajm8127 said:
Don't you need some chlorine? For example to form HCl and break down food in your stomach. I am sure the body uses it for other processes as well.
Remember, a BALANCED diet is what you are after.
No! ChlorINE is very dangerous war gas; it’s chlorIDE you need, the latter is a benign ion of significant biological use. Granted, it’s only one tiny electron difference, but that makes all the difference… a very renowned biophysicist corrected me quite emphatically on this point once. If you attempt to let that electron be added inside or for that matter anywhere near your body, you will regret it.
The decision by Secretary Driscoll to travel to Fort Stewart will not go unnoticed by the soldiers. His decision to honor both the guys who took down the shooter and the soldiers rendering aid is a great touch. Personally, I think Thomas and Turner deserved a higher award, the Soldier's Medal, but that is neither here nor there. Most noncommissioned officers will only get a Meritorious Service Medal at retirement.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is trying to revitalize the civilian chain of command in the military, and having the Secretary of the Army present these awards, rather than delegating it to the division commander, sends a clear message about who is in charge and watching day-to-day Army operations. During my service, I couldn't have picked the Secretary of the Army out of a two-man lineup. There is definitely different civilian leadership in today's Pentagon. //
Jerry's Middle Finger Min Headroom
9 hours ago
And it happened within 48 hours of the event, not months or even longer as the administrative process churns along at a glacial pace.
The rank and file notices that too, and it tells them that their leaders care about them.
streiff Jerry's Middle Finger
8 hours ago
Happened less than 24 hours after the event.
Marriage is never fair deal -- you are building something eternal
In this video, Friedman explains how socialism relies on force to achieve good. But using force corrupts, no matter how pure the intentions.
This is key to understanding why centralized control systems inevitably fail.
Poverty exists everywhere. The difference lies in which system gives people a real chance to rise.
Milton Friedman explains it in 2 minutes—why freer markets consistently deliver better lives for the poor, without government interference.
In less than two minutes, Milton Friedman dismantles the myth that government redistribution drives prosperity.
Spending isn't what matters. Production is.
The reason for asking the civil government to proclaim the goodness of traditional family life is not because men and women in marital covenant wish to become a special interest group. Rather, the official acknowledgement of the traditional family’s goodness is proper because one of the government’s most basic duties is to promote virtue. Challenging the county commission to honor this role offered them the opportunity to proclaim truth amidst a backdrop of other governments, businesses, and institutions promoting vice.
When it comes to assessing power sources, the three most significant metrics are affordability, reliability, and environmental friendliness.
For several years, we’ve been told that so-called green energy sources like wind and solar check all three of these boxes, thus making them the best choice for America.
However, this is not true. Actually, a strong case can be made that wind and solar are some of the least affordable, reliable, and clean energy sources.
On the other hand, natural gas, which has been inaccurately portrayed as being terrible for the planet and more expensive than wind and solar, is, by far, more affordable, reliable, and environmentally friendly.
This is not mere opinion. It is based on taking the whole picture into account. //
“Coal, natural gas, and nuclear are considered baseload power because they can dependably provide reliable, on-demand power whenever they are needed.” Conversely, “Wind turbines generate, on average, only about 35 percent of the power that would be possible under consistently ideal conditions.” Even worse, “Solar equipment generates, on average, only about 25 percent of the power that would be possible under sunny skies at high noon.” //
Another “hidden” cost that is often overlooked when it comes to wind and solar is that their intermittent nature “require baseload power facilities like natural gas plants to be cycling and available – racking up costs but selling no power – in the background in case they are needed at a moment’s notice when wind or solar power ramp down.”
Because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, wind and solar necessitate “cycling in the background, which adds to the cost of operating natural gas power plants, even though wind and solar power are gaining the sales and imposing those additional operating costs on natural gas power.” //
Wind and solar power pose unique threats to open spaces and species protection. It requires approximately 60 square miles of solar panels to generate the same amount of power as a conventional power plant. It requires approximately 320 square miles of wind turbines to do the same.” //
the best way to analyze the actual cost of power sources is called the Levelized Full System Costs of Electricity (LFCOE).
Applying the LFCOE, “using the relatively wind-friendly and solar-friendly geography of Texas as a baseline, is as follows, in dollars per megawatt-hour: natural gas: $40; coal: $90; biomass: $117; nuclear: $122; wind: $291; solar: $413.”
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/electricity_generation/pdf/AEO2023_LCOE_report.pdf