Thoughts of a Little Sinchen

Blog

  • Sinchen Tried Using Chatbots

    Discussions about AI are everywhere since a few years. Enthusiastic supporters announcing the greatest breakthrough in human history as well as determined opponents proclaiming the end of the world. Both groups never get tired to repeat the ever same arguments.

    I gave chatbots a try in the last few weeks using Gemini, Copilot and mostly Lumo. You can’t comment on and can’t criticize what you don’t know. That’s why I also started looking into Android a few years ago. I finally made my peace with Android after getting used to GrapheneOS (and saw pretty much all my assumptions on stock Android versions confirmed from looking deeper into it).

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  • Windows “Device Encryption” With Automatic Unlock Is Not Secure Enough

    An easy explanation avoiding technical terms (until the box at the very end)

    The Short Version​

    If your PC meets certain criteria Windows encrypts your files automatically. This is good! But the way it’s set up by default has a hidden problem: the computer unlocks itself without asking for a password, and a copy of the unlock key is stored online on Microsoft servers.

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  • Windows XP Hardening?

    How about still using Windows XP? Simplicity, lack of bloat, lack of AI, support for old games. I’ve always loved XP. Of course it didn’t feel lightweight in 2002 when installing the first Windows NT version intended for home users. Way bigger than 98SE, more demanding than 2000 Professional and with a nauseating default theme that is as dysfunctional as the (then) newly introduced Start Menu. Over the years I’ve mastered switching off all crap on a fresh XP installation in very few minutes. Still in muscle memory to this day. Using XP gives me a nostalgic feeling just like the boot sound of a PlayStation 1 coming from the powerful speakers of a big CRT TV.

    In this entry I want to explore this classic OS from the perspective of security. This could be very short by saying, “There is no way to truly secure it.” Nevertheless I’ll try my best.

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  • SD Password Functionality and Transcend RDF5


    Did you ever find an Symbian based Nokia phone containing an SD in your drawer after many years? Now you want to see if there are any worthwhile photos on there. Where is the charger with the tiny coaxial power connector again? Do you still have it? Nevermind. You will just take the SD card out and put it into a laptop. What’s that? No new drive shows up! Nothing happens. Just like “Magikarp used Splash!” in a Pokémon game. Did the old SD give up the ghost? Not necessarily. It might just be locked with a password by CMD-42

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  • Random episode from the memories of LittleSinchen

    Schools…

    Schools are a hostile place. Schools are a dangerous place. Schools are a place of torment. And schools can be a place of child abuse.

    One quote from Hermann Hesse’s “Unterm Rad” (Beneath the Wheel) has burned itself into my brain. Since I cannot possibly translate it properly into English, I used the free version of deepl.com

    “By now they had reached the country road and quickly arrived at the monastery, where all the teachers, led by the Ephorus, received the dead Hindinger, who in life would have run away at the mere thought of such an honor. Teachers always look at a dead pupil with completely different eyes than a living one; for a moment, they are convinced of the value and irretrievability of every life and youth, which they so often carelessly sin against.”

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  • SD Card Write Lock [Linux Laptop] [Android Tablet]

    SD cards are really versatile and powerful storage media. Unfortunately much of their interesting functionality is more or less unused. You will have quite some fun reading the easily available PDF file “SD Specifications Part 1 Physical Layer Simplified Specification” (currently version 9.10 with >400 pages).

    Two features are of great interest for me: write lock and password protection. This entry will be (again) about setting SDs to read-only.

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  • Reviving Old PC

    My madness must have reached a new maximum. For no reason I decided trying to reactivate an old PC. The motherboard, ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe, once had been the basis for my main PC. Bought about 2006 and upgraded over time it ended up with 8GB DDR2 RAM and 4*2TB HDD with a hardware RAID5 controller.

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  • Visit to an Apple store

    Well not really an Apple store, but a reseller featuring only Apple products. Other than the legal difference (not a shop run by Apple) there is probably nothing really different. For simplicity I’ll just go with “Apple store” from now on.
    In my effort of improving computer security and moving out of my comfort zone I thought it would be nice to learn a bit about the overpriced bitten windfall fruit technology. So I went to the store with a friendly smile and told the guy what was my goal: Improving my computer security and learn about Apple by asking an expert in a shop dedicated to selling Apple products. I’m even ready for getting a Mac Mini if the price is okay. But visiting the Apple shop turned out to be a fiasco:

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  • Look at the road, you moron, not at your smartphone! [Sinchen Rant]

    Really, I’ve enough of people behaving that way! I see it all the time, everywhere: Somebody stares at their smartphone, mesmerized, is not noticing anything around them!

    No matter if pedestrians, cyclists or motorists: In all of these groups are lots and lots of members who are unable to do without their phone for just five minutes.

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