lcamtuf’s Tweets

Jan 19

266

It's possible that a specific instance will become *the* replacement for Twitter, but then, why would anyone switch? That you get to make your own rules, not play by Elon's? A weak pitch for most - plus, unspeakable horrors await as you try to scale.

In contrast, Mastodon looks like a universe of walled gardens - akin to Reddit, Discord, or IRC / Usenet back in my youth. It copies the look-and-feel of Twitter, but it's a different animal.

I've been wrong about tech trends more than once - Twitter included - but I can't see Mastodon taking off as an alternative to this. Twitter's raison d'etre is that everybody is screaming into the same void. I mean that unironically. It's unique and amazing in a way.

Some experiments with an unusual salt of copper: copper(I,II) sulfite, also known as Chevreul's salt

the government tried to warn us that we'd be better off without OpenSSL but we didn't listen

Chevreul's salt:

Oct 29

In today's episode of my Substack newsletter, you can learn more about nuvistors - the latest craze in portable electronics: lcamtuf.substack.com/p/random-objec

Oct 29

i mean, $54.20 wasn't a bad price for this site what do you mean "per share"

Late last year, at the peak of the non-fungible token (NFT) craze, I purchased about a dozen highest-rated NFT books on Amazon: I did this because I wanted to publish a balanced critique of NFTs; I...

Oct 23

The era of fake books: lcamtuf.substack.com/p/fake-books This is a second post in my new Substack; I will use it for longer-form writing about things that are interesting but *not* infosec. If you like what you're seeing, please subscribe.

lcamtuf.substack.com

Fake books

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Oct 15

I'm happy to announce the completion of my (somewhat contrarian) guide to photography for geeks: 📷 lcamtuf.coredump.cx/photo_basics/ Whether you carry a smartphone or a $5,000 rig, my hope is to help you discover the joy of experimenting with simple (and effective) photo techniques.

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Oct 10

If you want to learn a bit more info about the "infamous Google plasma globe exercise of 2012", I jotted down some technical notes here: lcamtuf.coredump.cx/plasma_globe.t

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Sep 23

Design philosophy of wristwatches, by price point < $100: Make it look like I paid several grand $1,000 - $10,000: Make it look like I paid $100 $10,000 - $100,000: How do you do, fellow oligarchs $100,000+: ώhąţ ɨ$ ţɨʍ€?

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Sep 3

Anyway - we often find it easy to mistreat others when we suspect they're motivated by greed. But if that's your reason for being a jerk to authors... just don't. They're doing it mostly because they want to share - even if it sometimes misses the mark.

I had people get angry with me for promoting my latest book on Twitter. I do very little of this: the book's timing is perfect, but it's also a handicap. I don't want to use other people's tragedies and hardships to sell copies, so I'm keeping mum and walking away from sales.

The bottom line is, you should try writing a book if you feel you have something interesting to say, can put up with the multi-month grind, and have a daytime job to support you along the way. But it probably won't pay your bills.

In the end, we're talking about $6,000/year for several months' of work - about the minimum wage on an hourly basis. Sure, there are breakout hits. But they are exceedingly rare and impossible to predict. Even more so if you're writing a tech reference book.

Most books are discounted from their list price; if the actual sale price is around $20, you're looking at ~$12,000 in profit. But that's lifetime earnings: probably half of that in the first year, with the remainder spread thinly across the next five to ten years.

A book accepted by a traditional publisher will usually sell better because the publisher is more selective; several thousand copies is the norm. Let's say you hit 4,000; the royalties on that are ~15%.

By all accounts, a typical self-published book sells around 200-400 copies. Your cut is ~50%, but that's only if you skimp out on editing, proofreading, indexing, layout, illustrations, and so forth.

Thread: it takes about 6 months to write a book. It's probably around 500 hours of actual uninterrupted work. You can speedrun it in 3-4 months if you don't have a daytime job. So, how well does it pay?

190

The first programming language I learned was BASIC. I felt inadequate because of all the articles telling you it's the wrong way to learn how to code. But knowing what I know today, I want to tell all the purists to GOTO hell

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Emotional moment today as one of the longest-serving former members of the U.N. Human Rights Council (left) meets one of the newest members of the U.N. Women's Rights Commission.

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And the lesson here is that when it comes to chainsaws vs legs, chainsaws usually win

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Jun 18

Wikipedia Short Stories presents

Apr 26

Idea: edit button on other people's tweets

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Apr 13

What happens to marshmallows in a vacuum? Now you know

0:07

5.9K views

Apr 12

this is the future you wanted

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Apr 9

What is in *your* bug-out bag?

Mar 15

World's most dangerous profession: being a knife reviewer on Youtube

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Mar 4

Twitter gives you access to some of the world's foremost experts on nuclear safety, modern warfare, supply chain dynamics, epidemiology, climate, and so much more. Even more impressive is that it's always the same three people

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Feb 12

A ringtone reverberates. It's your mom. She gets updates on your unlocks and wants to tell you she is proud. "Don't forget to like and subcribe," she blurts out before hanging up. Seven hundred more friends before she's eligible to monetize her lifestream.

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A quick hand gesture to feed your Metaverse children. A joyful chime as the exclamation marks above their avatars disappear. A keypress to kiss your Metaverse husband. Five more months and the "model family" trophy is yours.

The distant future, the year is 2025. Your daytime job is moving Bejeweled tiles in the Metaverse. You unlock your first paycheck. There's a flash of animated confetti and the number: 7.2 billion flooz. It's enough to buy yourself a brand new NFT. Which one do you choose?

230

Episode #2 of my woodworking series is now up. This weekend's project: a walnut cutting board with a knot pattern inlay. Watch the clip: youtube.com/watch?v=fxvFSd I'm trying to make videos that have more action and less talk than usual for the genre. Feedback appreciated!

Before blockchain / after blockchain

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Oct 23, 2021

This is just your periodic reminder that one of the top-ranking books on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Amazon, a publication with over one hundred 5-star reviews, explains their mechanics as follows.

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The final step is to put yourself in the reader's shoes. Forget what you know about the lingo and the nuance in your field. Would they understand what you're trying to say? Just as importantly, is it clear why you're making them read every paragraph? That's it.

Keep in mind that simple sentences and short words beat flowery language. The Economist Style Guide and The Chicago Manual of Style are worth reading. They're short and sweet.

With this done, start moving, deleting, or rephrasing the labels until the flow of the document feels right. Next, flesh out the pragraphs, but be intentionally sloppy. Get the words in, but plan on doing an angry rewrite down the line. Iteration versus perfection on first try.