Hey, remember that Apple iOS fix last month?

It looks like the Bad Guys are attacking older devices as well:

Apple backported a fix to older iPhones and iPads for a serious bug it patched last month – but only after it may have been exploited in what the company calls "extremely sophisticated" attacks.

The latest security update, pushed on Monday, fixes an out-of-bounds write issue tracked as CVE-2025-43300 in the ImageIO framework, which Apple uses to allow applications to read and write image file formats. It's available for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 1st generation, and the iThings maker on August 20 patched the same CVE in its newer devices.

Well done to Apple for this.  iPhone 8 was released a long time ago, but they're still supporting it with security fixes.  Bravo. 

Tagged with my Apple Sucks tag because this time they absolutely do not. 

 

Seen in the neighborhood

 

All I've ever seen before in this neighborhood are the usual run-of-the-mill printed campaign signs, and only during election season.

Something is different. 

A message to commenter "DTWND" (and people who think like him

I recently posted The Lamps Are Going Out All Over America.  For the two of you (likely including DTWND), the reference was to the beginning of World War I, when the politicians realized that the New World that they had created was basically everyone standing is a room filled with gasoline waving lit matches around.  We know how that turned out.

My post was not inflammatory; it was sad. Nonetheless, reader DTWND left the following comment:

Those of you on the right are really, REALY [sic] hoping that something in the shooter’s background will tie him to the leftist, liberal side of politics. Meanwhile, you’ll continue to deny and obfuscate the truth that this was one of your own. Just like the group that planned to kidnap Michigan’s governor Whitmer; the guy that shot and killed the two Minnesota legislators: the folks that marched in Charlottesville: the shootings at the LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando: the ‘peaceful demonstators’ [sic] at the Capitol on January 6th; etc.

I find it telling that all the former presidents, Democrats and Republican, issued messages of condolence, condemnation of the event, and calls to end political violence, while the current president condemned the violence but also expressed the point that those of the left persuasion need to under scrutiny and should not be trusted.

As Mr Kirk had stated, “Prove me wrong.”

Here is the pertinent part of my original post, and my replied to Mr. DTWND:

Who would have figured 24 years ago that society would be destroyed from within?

[Memes deleted]

If you don't know the people who don't understand that sentence, then they are the ones who you need to not know. 

Not particularly well said, but perfectly understandable.  And so you clearly failed on multiple levels: 

1. It sure as shootin' looks like the shooter was a leftist freak.  The 72 hour rule applies here, which you either ignored, didn't know, or skated past because you were angry.
2. It "wasn't one of our own", it was exactly what you'd expect from a rabid Left baying for the blood of conservatives.  See #1, above.  Nicely done, getting two own goals from the same ball, though.
3. The group that was going to kidnap Governor Crazy Eyes was led by a FBI asset.  Sorry you're so behind on this, but not really surprised.
4. The rest is IQ-90 level Leftist boilerplate.  Ashley Babbit would reply but could not be reached for comment, as she was shot in the back by a Capitor Hill police officer on January 6.  Some of us are aware on the rules for the use of Deadly Force; you clearly are not, but thought this was a winning argument for "conservative violence".  Dumbass. 
5. Former Presidents call for the end of political violence?  Gosh, why might this be hard to believe?
    
   
6. Most significantly, you (a) did not reply to the content of my original post and (b) chose to try to insult me and hijack my site for your absurd political dogma.

Fine, then - let it be so.  DTWND, go away and don't come back.  We don't need your thoughts polluting this site. You're banned.  Go hang out with your leftie assassins.

The lamps are going out all over America

Who would have figured 24 years ago that society would be destroyed from within?

If you don't know the people who don't understand that sentence, then they are the ones who you need to not know.

We Swore to Remember

Another declassified NSA Cryptanalysis doc

This one is from 1965 (i.e. it was classified for 60 years!) [PDF warning].

It's the output from a computer program (from 1965!) that takes an encrypted cypher stream and performs tricks of the trade like frequency analysis of each character and other statistical analysis.  The test was for the cryptanalyst to use this to identify which language was being enciphered.  Essentially, it was a training class for Secret Squirrels. 

Pretty cool in a very crypto geeky way.  It took me back to some training I had as a larval engineer as the class of new hires waited for their clearances to be approved.  I wasn't great at it (I was an electrical engineer, not a linguist).  The Queen Of The World eats this sort (cryptograms in the newspaper) of stuff for breakfast.

(via) 

War Department bans Chinese nationals from Cloud environments

This is an area that has needed reform for years:

The Pentagon will no longer allow Chinese nationals to support Department of Defense (DOD) cloud environments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted to X on Aug. 27.

Hegseth said the arrangement – part of a Microsoft program known as “Digital Escorts” – allowed coders from China, remotely supervised by U.S. contractors, to assist with sensitive DOD cloud systems. He called the setup an “unacceptable risk” to national security.

Well, yeah. 

Here's how the rules have been bent for years.  Initially what was mandated was that only U.S. Citizens could work in these environments.  After lots of complaints from tech companies (*cough* Jobs Americans won't do *cough*) this was changed to "US Persons".  This added both Green Card holders and H1-B Visa holders to the list of acceptable people allowed into the environments.

Fast forward a decade and Silicon Valley has so gamed the H1-B system that the US imports a huge number of foreign workers while laying off US citizens.  So the question is how much loyalty to the USA do these people have?

Green Card holders?  Probably a lot.

H1-B holders?  Dunno.

Chinese H1-B holders?  Per the SECDEF, they represent an overwhelming security risk. 

Like I said, this area has been ripe for reform for years.  We will see if this policy gets extended from the War Department for Fed.Gov in general. 

Dad Joke CCCLX

You've heard of Pop Tarts.  Why aren't there Mom Tarts?

Because of the Pastry-archy. 

How the USA won the Cold War

We did it by treated German POWs held in the USA well.  Not just the US Government, but the American people treated them well.  They had been told by the Nazis that America was weak, divided, and a mongrel race.  The POWs saw the American people and society with their own eyes and then went home after the war.

And then built modern Germany.

We came to America as enemies, as Nazis, as believers in a lie.  We left as friends, as democrats, as men who had seen the truth.   

Many of the POWs who were employed on Kansas farms corresponded for decades with the families who showed them friendship as POW workers.

Playback has been disabled for this video (from which I got the quote above), but I encourage every reader to go watch it.  If you don't - like I did - end up with watery eyes then we just cant be friends anymore.  And to those who think this video is a one-off, there are more.  So many more.  You can watch them at the link (from Youtube suggestions) or you can watch this: 

And a note to the Usual Suspects who fancy themselves as "Anti Nazi": this is what anti-Nazi is really about.  This is how you turn actual, you know - Nazis - into anti-Nazis.  It must really bust your chops to have Primary Sources telling you that your philosophy of life is full of shiest.  You Commie Bastards.

Oh, this will too (note the substitution of the word freiheit - freedom - for freunde -  I could translate for you but I wouldn't want to insult you; me, I think that Schiller would have approved of Bernstein's substitution at the fall of the Berlin Wall).