hrbrmstr's Daily Drop

  • Drop #635 (2025-04-09): Happy WednesdAI!

    Today’s “AI”-centric edition of the Drop focuses on the “Model Context Protocol” (MCP). This new, standardized integration system for LLM/GPT-ops enhances data connectivity and addresses prior fragmentation. However, it significantly lacks security measures, making it vulnerable to command injection and tool poisoning. Practical examples, including a Star Wars API implementation, highlight MCP’s potential while also…

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  • Bonus Drop #77 (2025-02-23): Hidden Agendas

    The weekend Bonus Drop showcases how to encode hidden data within Unicode characters, the Atlas of Surveillance which documents law enforcement technologies, and a crowdsourced Project 2025 “progress” tracker.

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  • Bonus Drop #74 (2025-02-02): It’s Been A Long Week

    Today’s pseudo-Bonus Drop slings your way systemd-nspawn, a lightweight containerization tool integrated with systemd, linuxpdf/doompdf; and 5 Calls, an advocacy app enabling folks to easily contact representatives for civic engagement.

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  • Drop #594 (2025-01-20): Tidying Up

    Today’s Drop discusses various technology topics, including misconceptions about Xiaohongshu’s “backdoor” , the dangers of malicious Google Ads mimicking legitimate software, enhancements for accessing Cooked.Wiki, and urgent Vite development server upgrades to address critical security vulnerabilities affecting older versions.

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  • Drop #583 (2025-01-01): Wrapping Day

    The inaugural Drop of 2025 takes a look back at the Drops of 2024, my 2025+ daily drivers, and covers a new-to-me tool: Mise.

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  • Drop #580 (2024-12-20): Safety First

    Today’s Drop puts us back into the safety zone, starting with “The 2025 Digital Security Checklist” which highlights strong passwords, encryption, and multi-factor authentication as essential for protecting digital assets. We then get introduced to systemd’s Credentials system to avoid keeping seekrits in the clear. Finally — just in time for the holiday season —…

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  • Drop #567 (2024-12-06): In Defense Of…

    Today’s Drop explores three distinct topics centered around safety. We take a deep look into DuckDB’s sophisticated query optimization capabilities, examine a new security tool for GitHub Actions workflows, and review the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s comprehensive guide to surveillance self-defense. Each section provides practical insights and actionable guidance for their respective domains.

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  • Drop #563 (2024-12-02): Awash In Advents

    December features various “technical” advent calendars, such as Advent of Code and Advent of Rust, offering daily programming challenges to enhance skills. Today’s Drop showcases a bonkers number of code, “no-code”, and absolutely no-code challenges to keep you occupied throughout December.

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  • Drop #558 (2024-11-20): Pipes • PDS Files • Proxy

    Today’s Drop discusses three data-centric tools: Vector, a high-performance observability data pipeline enhancing data collection and routing; ATFile, a shell script for storing and retrieving blobs in ATproto/PDS infrastructure; and Betwixt, a web debugging proxy for effective traffic analysis outside browsers using a familiar interface.

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  • Drop #542 (2024-10-16): Happy WebsDay

    Today’s 🕸️ web-focused Drop discusses Apple’s proposal on reducing TLS certificate lifespans to 45 days, shows how to extend the Manifest V2 extension lifespan in Chromium-based browsers, and introduces the Gosub project, which is a new Rust-based web browser engine.

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