#Vin Lock

[certified3nakin]

"Lock and Key" Masterpost

Hey there, it's Kat! I've been recently working on a project (still in the works) that details my Murder Drones OCs, and their lives on Jupiter's moon, Sulfate-12.

So, what is "Lock and Key"?

"Lock and Key" is the name of my ongoing story that provides a narrative of my characters! It follows Vin, a teenage soldier-drone, who meets another drone who is a lot nicer than she expected. This encounter flips her worldview upside down, and prompts her to explore the secrets of the SDAD.

Wait, what's the SDAD?

The SDAD (Soldier Drones Against Disassemblers) is an organization that helps to train workers in preparation to defend against Disassembly Drones.

Where can I read this?

Aren't you an artist? Will you be drawing these characters?

I've already posted a bit of art of the characters, actually! Here's the full-body design references + color palettes. (Will be updated as I finish more reference sheets!)

Complete reference sheets are currently in the works.

Image guide:

Blue hair - Alvina "Vin" Lock

Pink Disassembler - Serial Designation S

Askblog

[lockandkeyaskblog]

Blog guide

Hey guys, it's Kat, the author of "Lock and Key" on AO3!

This is an askblog where you can ask my characters questions about their world, relationships, etc!

(Asks regarding spoilers will not be answered. If an ask relates to a specific chapter, please specify so I can give proper spoiler warnings.)

So, who can I ask questions?

You can ask any of these characters questions! (Potential spoilers?) -

"The Creator" (aka me, Kat!)

Alvina "Vin" Lock

Calli Socket

Serial Designation S

Serial Designation Y

Serial Designation K

(More characters will be added as the story progresses)

[the-prince-of-the-ravens]

kinda starting to think that Alecto the Ninth isn’t coming out in 2023…………….

[amphitriteswife]

🌹🛑Red haired characters🌹🛑

Tags: @mizz-sea-nymph @tinyy-tea-cup @monstertreden @zendersenders @rukia-writes @itz-hel @nicasdreamer @das-jaim3 @swallowtail-lotus @salmonpoki @praisethesuuun @riseofamoonycake @telvess

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Apple fucked us on right to repair (again)

Today (September 22), I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. Tonight, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

Right to repair has no cannier, more dedicated adversary than Apple, a company whose most innovative work is dreaming up new ways to sneakily sabotage electronics repair while claiming to be a caring environmental steward, a lie that covers up the mountains of e-waste that Apple dooms our descendants to wade through.

Why does Apple hate repair so much? It's not that they want to poison our water and bodies with microplastics; it's not that they want to hasten the day our coastal cities drown; it's not that they relish the human misery that accompanies every gram of conflict mineral. They aren't sadists. They're merely sociopathically greedy.

Tim Cook laid it out for his investors: when people can repair their devices, they don't buy new ones. When people don't buy new devices, Apple doesn't sell them new devices. It's that's simple:

https://www.inverse.com/article/52189-tim-cook-says-apple-faces-2-key-problems-in-surprising-shareholder-letter

So Apple does everything it can to monopolize repair. Not just because this lets the company gouge you on routine service, but because it lets them decide when your phone is beyond repair, so they can offer you a trade-in, ensuring both that you buy a new device and that the device you buy is another Apple.

There are so many tactics Apple gets to use to sabotage repair. For example, Apple engraves microscopic Apple logos on the subassemblies in its devices. This allows the company to enlist US Customs to seize and destroy refurbished parts that are harvested from dead phones by workers in the Pacific Rim:

https://repair.eu/news/apple-uses-trademark-law-to-strengthen-its-monopoly-on-repair/

Of course, the easiest way to prevent harvested components from entering the parts stream is to destroy as many old devices as possible. That's why Apple's so-called "recycling" program shreds any devices you turn over to them. When you trade in your old iPhone at an Apple Store, it is converted into immortal e-waste (no other major recycling program does this). The logic is straightforward: no parts, no repairs:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

Shredding parts and cooking up bogus trademark claims is just for starters, though. For Apple, the true anti-repair innovation comes from the most pernicious US tech law: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

DMCA 1201 is an "anti-circumvention" law. It bans the distribution of any tool that bypasses "an effective means of access control." That's all very abstract, but here's what it means: if a manufacturer sticks some Digital Rights Management (DRM) in its device, then anything you want to do that involves removing that DRM is now illegal – even if the thing itself is perfectly legal.

When Congress passed this stupid law in 1998, it had a very limited blast radius. Computers were still pretty expensive and DRM use was limited to a few narrow categories. In 1998, DMCA 1201 was mostly used to prevent you from de-regionalizing your DVD player to watch discs that had been released overseas but not in your own country.

But as we warned back then, computers were only going to get smaller and cheaper, and eventually, it would only cost manufacturers pennies to wrap their products – or even subassemblies in their products – in DRM. Congress was putting a gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, and it was bound to go off in Act III.

Welcome to Act III.

Today, it costs about a quarter to add a system-on-a-chip to even the tiniest parts. These SOCs can run DRM. Here's how that DRM works: when you put a new part in a device, the SOC and the device's main controller communicate with one another. They perform a cryptographic protocol: the part says, "Here's my serial number," and then the main controller prompts the user to enter a manufacturer-supplied secret code, and the master controller sends a signed version of this to the part, and the part and the system then recognize each other.

This process has many names, but because it was first used in the automotive sector, it's widely known as VIN-Locking (VIN stands for "vehicle identification number," the unique number given to every car by its manufacturer). VIN-locking is used by automakers to block independent mechanics from repairing your car; even if they use the manufacturer's own parts, the parts and the engine will refuse to work together until the manufacturer's rep keys in the unlock code:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

VIN locking is everywhere. It's how John Deere stops farmers from fixing their own tractors – something farmers have done literally since tractors were invented:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

It's in ventilators. Like mobile phones, ventilators are a grotesquely monopolized sector, controlled by a single company Medtronic, whose biggest claim to fame is effecting the world's largest tax inversion in order to manufacture the appearance that it is an Irish company and therefore largely untaxable. Medtronic used the resulting windfall to gobble up most of its competitors.

During lockdown, as hospitals scrambled to keep their desperately needed supply of ventilators running, Medtronic's VIN-locking became a lethal impediment. Med-techs who used donor parts from one ventilator to keep another running – say, transplanting a screen – couldn't get the device to recognize the part because all the world's civilian aircraft were grounded, meaning Medtronic's technicians couldn't swan into their hospitals to type in the unlock code and charge them hundreds of dollars.

The saving grace was an anonymous, former Medtronic repair tech, who built pirate boxes to generate unlock codes, using any housing they could lay hands on to use as a case: guitar pedals, clock radios, etc. This tech shipped these gadgets around the world, observing strict anonymity, because Article 6 of the EUCD also bans circumvention:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Of course, Apple is a huge fan of VIN-locking. In phones, VIN-locking is usually called "serializing" or "parts-pairing," but it's the same thing: a tiny subassembly gets its own microcontroller whose sole purpose is to prevent independent repair technicians from fixing your gadget. Parts-pairing lets Apple block repairs even when the technician uses new, Apple parts – but it also lets Apple block refurb parts and third party parts.

For many years, Apple was the senior partner and leading voice in blocking state Right to Repair bills, which it killed by the dozen, leading a coalition of monopolists, from Wahl (who boobytrap their hair-clippers with springs that cause their heads irreversibly decompose if you try to sharpen them at home) to John Deere (who reinvented tenant farming by making farmers tenants of their tractors, rather than their land).

But Apple's opposition to repair eventually became a problem for the company. It's bad optics, and both Apple customers and Apple employees are volubly displeased with the company's ecocidal conduct. But of course, Apple's management and shareholders hate repair and want to block it as much as possible.

But Apple knows how to Think Differently. It came up with a way to eat its cake and have it, too. The company embarked on a program of visibly support right to repair, while working behind the scenes to sabotage it.

Last year, Apple announced a repair program. It was hilarious. If you wanted to swap your phone's battery, all you had to do was let Apple put a $1200 hold on your credit card, and then wait while the company shipped you 80 pounds' worth of specialized tools, packed in two special Pelican cases:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

Then, you swapped your battery, but you weren't done! After your battery was installed, you had to conference in an authorized Apple tech who would tell you what code to type into a laptop you tethered to the phone in order to pair it with your phone. Then all you had to do was lug those two 40-pound Pelican cases to a shipping depot and wait for Apple to take the hold off your card (less the $120 in parts and fees).

By contrast, independent repair outfits like iFixit will sell you all the tools you need to do your own battery swap – including the battery! for $32. The whole kit fits in a padded envelope:

https://www.ifixit.com/products/iphone-x-replacement-battery

But while Apple was able to make a showy announcement of its repair program and then hide the malicious compliance inside those giant Pelican cases, sabotaging right to repair legislation is a lot harder.

Not that they didn't try. When New York State passed the first general electronics right-to-repair bill in the country, someone convinced New York Governor Kathy Hochul to neuter it with last-minute modifications:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/weakened-right-to-repair-bill-is-signed-into-law-by-new-yorks-governor/

But that kind of trick only works once. When California's right to repair bill was introduced, it was clear that it was gonna pass. Rather than get run over by that train, Apple got on board, supporting the legislation, which passed unanimously:

https://www.ifixit.com/News/79902/apples-u-turn-tech-giant-finally-backs-repair-in-california

But Apple got the last laugh. Because while California's bill contains many useful clauses for the independent repair shops that keep your gadgets out of a landfill, it's a state law, and DMCA 1201 is federal. A state law can't simply legalize the conduct federal law prohibits. California's right to repair bill is a banger, but it has a weak spot: parts-pairing, the scourge of repair techs:

https://www.ifixit.com/News/69320/how-parts-pairing-kills-independent-repair

Every generation of Apple devices does more parts-pairing than the previous one, and the current models are so infested with paired parts as to be effectively unrepairable, except by Apple. It's so bad that iFixit has dropped its repairability score for the iPhone 14 from a 7 ("recommend") to a 4 (do not recommend):

https://www.ifixit.com/News/82493/we-are-retroactively-dropping-the-iphones-repairability-score-en

Parts-pairing is bullshit, and Apple are scum for using it, but they're hardly unique. Parts-pairing is at the core of the fuckery of inkjet printer companies, who use it to fence out third-party ink, so they can charge $9,600/gallon for ink that pennies to make:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Parts-pairing is also rampant in powered wheelchairs, a heavily monopolized sector whose predatory conduct is jaw-droppingly depraved:

https://uspirgedfund.org/reports/usp/stranded

But if turning phones into e-waste to eke out another billion-dollar stock buyback is indefensible, stranding people with disabilities for months at a time while they await repairs is so obviously wicked that the conscience recoils. That's why it was so great when Colorado passed the nation's first wheelchair right to repair bill last year:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

California actually just passed two right to repair bills; the other one was SB-271, which mirrors Colorado's HB22-1031:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB271

This is big! It's momentum! It's a start!

But it can't be the end. When Bill Clinton signed DMCA 1201 into law 25 years ago, he loaded a gun and put it on the nation's mantlepiece and now it's Act III and we're all getting sprayed with bullets. Everything from ovens to insulin pumps, thermostats to lightbulbs, has used DMCA 1201 to limit repair, modification and improvement.

Congress needs to rid us of this scourge, to let us bring back all the benefits of interoperability. I explain how this all came to be – and what we should do about it – in my new Verso Books title, The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

Image: Mitch Barrie (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daytona_Skeleton_AR-15_completed_rifle_%2817551907724%29.jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

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kambanji (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kambanji/4135216486/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Rawpixel (modified) https://www.rawpixel.com/image/12438797/png-white-background

[midnightstress]

have some old very paltonic bonding necromancer-cavalier exercises between my tlt ocs

[girddlepatchilles]

Post 10 of your fave female characters

[myuiis]

i need taejin dead so bad right now you guys dont even understand

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Here's a little thing I talked to my boyfriend about:

Brian comes into the kitchen in the morning to see Tim and Birdie listening to music and arguing about how many chocolate chips are acceptable to put in pancake batter before it just stops being pancake batter anymore, and he just sits there watching them with tears in his eyes. He's known Tim since they were both 16, he lost Tim after uni, then he found him again over a decade later, after he'd almost died and assumed that Tim had died. He found Tim again, but this Tim had a daughter he loved more than anything in the world, and this Tim had worked his absolute ass off to make sure he could look after his daughter properly, making sure she never had to deal with what he did growing up

And now Brian is a part of that life that Tim is so wonderfully happy in, they're together properly, far more official than they ever were in uni but still just as in love, probably even moreso. He loves getting to see what a good dad Tim is to Birdie, he loves getting to see how well Tim managed on his own for the first ten years of Birdie's life, and he's so in love with how happy Tim is now.

[girlboss-malewife-gauntlet-melee]

ROUND 1 MATCH 19: VIN/ELEND VS. MAGNUS QUINN/ABIGAIL PENT

Vin/Elend Propaganda: "They didn't die only to lose:("

Magnus/Abigail Propaganda none

if there's a ship name for either pls give as usual

[alex-finechi-is-back]

What getting greater Restoration cast does for a mf

[certified3nakin]

Chapter 2 is out!! 

[daughterofsarenrae]

one of these days i will actually read rhythm of war, which i have owned since release day, except that i really want to reread the series up until then before i read it. except that is. 3,565 pages. and then RoW is an addition 1219

[the-prince-of-the-ravens]

i don’t know how many people will agree with this but tamsyn muir really could keep pulling a nona and writing more books until the end of time and i would love her more for it. in fact i encourage her to do so. if it takes 10 locked tomb books to tell this story then so be it. i will wait for them all. if it’s just alecto and it takes another 10 years to come out, i will be here waiting with open arms. will it suck waiting that long? yeah. it already does. but she can do whatever she wants because at the end of the day the locked tomb really is one of my favorite stories ever told, and i will wait as long as it takes for her to finish it

[starboye]

nintendhoe

to say you were horny right bow would be a great understatement, you were i need of vinnies dick like an absolute need at this point and it showed by how much you kept pestering him to fuck you was an unbearable amount for vin who was trying to play his game

"vin cmon i promise we'll be so quick then you can go back to doing whatever" you tugged at his hoodie "im almost done then we can do whatever" he was locked into the game way more then he would admit and as much as you wanted to leave him alone the need was just to much

so why not compromise and just straddle his lap, slipping his pants down enough to let out his cock "what are you doing" he tried to ask but you shut him up with a kiss "dont worry just play your game" you spit in your hand and start jerking his hardening cock and once it was hard enough you slipped it inside you

vinnie letting out a shaky moan, wrapping your arms around his neck, bouncing your ass up and down in his crotch, it felt to good for vinnie not to be spilling moans from his mouth "fuck y/n slow down" he tries to slow you down a little bit it was to good to stop you "dont mind me vin just play your game" you kiss up and down his neck, leaving hickeys everywhere

"fuck" vinnie mutters spreading his legs wider while his hips subconsciously thrusted upward into your warm hole "you like that hm" you tease him, rolling your hips to push his dick deeper in you "mhm so much" he whines putting his controller down to wrap his hands around your waist before his cum floods your hole, painting your walls white

but that wasn't enough for you, not even five seconds later going back to bouncing your ass up and down on his sensitive cock, his eyes shooting to the back of his head from your walls rubbing against his overstimulated dick "oh fuck oh fuck oh fuckkk" vinnie moaned

you lift your head up just to lean in and make out with vinnie, your hands running up and down his hoodie before slipping under it to rub on his abs, strings of saliva connecting both your mouths, it was just a work of art "want me to keep going" you ask "mhm please" vinnie whimpers "im not gonna stop until i get evey drop" you kiss him again and again and all over the voice

a smile making its way on vinnies face at all the overwhelming feelings "yes please keep going" he begs, his hands digging into the arms of his gaming chair "so desperate" you mutter with a smirk

xoxo, starboye💋

taglist: @mailmango @boypied @ghostking4m @gayaristocrat @addictedtomalepits @staarb0y @crispysoup318 @its-ares @gargoylesworld09 @znerac @r0mcom-8ngel @bbibbiiu @tqrgaryenfilms

[elsiewritesss]

a smut of the reader and Vinnie getting married and they decide to have a quickie before the wedding

Before the I Do's

pairings: vinnie hacker x fiancé reader

warnings: smut, p in v, unprotected sex, swearing, slight fingering, slight choking, exhibitionism (slight i think??)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“We gotta make this fast baby.” Vinnie whispered loud enough for Y/N to hear.

The two of them locked themselves in a bathroom far enough away from anyone to hear them.

“Okay. Just hurry.” Y/N whined as she pulled up the fabric of her white wedding dress for Vinnie to have easier access.

Here they were, on their wedding day. The two anxious of not being able to see one another until their first look brought all the sexual tension with it. When it was time for the first look, anyone could feel the sexual tension, which led them to where they are now.

The two snuck off to a bathroom twenty minutes before the ceremony started and they have not taken their hands off of one another.

Vinnie reached under the dress, feeling up until he reached the fabric of Y/N’s white lace thong.

“Fuck baby, I cannot wait to rip these off later tonight.” Vinnie spoke against her lips as he undid his belt with one hand, pulling down his pants just enough to free his pulsing cock that slapped right against his stomach.

Vinnie moved forward as he picked Y/N up and gently set her at the edge of the counter, giving him perfect access to slowly ease into her.

“Oh fuck,” Y/N whispered, her pussy welcoming every inch of him until his hips were flesh with hers.

“God baby you feel so good.” Vinnie moaned softly as he began to rock his hips.

Y/N bit down on her lip as she closed her eyes to quiet herself as Vinnie hit every right spot inside of her.

“Fuck baby…take me so fucking- good. Can’t wait to fuck this pussy all night tonight.” Y/N whimpered at his words, moving part of her dress as she looked down at the sight where the two of them met.

“You like that pretty girl huh? Watching me fuck your perfect pussy?” Vinnie lightly grabbed the front of her throat, tilting her head up to look at him as she nodded the best she could. Her small whimpers coming out as she still had her teeth latched onto her bottom lip.

Vinnie took his hand that wasn’t holding her hip and began to rub small, fast circles on her swollen clit.

Y/N’s teeth unlatched from her lip as her mouth opened, a moan falling out as Vinnie quickly pressed his lips against hers.

“Quiet baby. Don’t want anyone…knowing how well I’m fucking you right now.” He whispered against her lips as she began to clench around him.

“Come on baby, know you're close.” Vinnie quickened his pace on her clit, his thrust getting rougher.

“Vin-Vinnie,” Y/N breathed out, grabbing onto Vinnie’s biceps for support as she reached her orgasm.

Vinnie’s orgasm followed behind as he spilled inside of her, his thrusts slowing to a stop. All that could be heard was the pants of the two trying to catch their breaths.

Vinnie slowly eased out of her, watching as their combined juices spilled out of her before he leaned down and pushed it back in.

“Vin. St-stop. Sensitive.” Y/N squirmed as Vinnie held her hip down.

“I know. I know.” He whispered, satisfied with himself before placing one small kiss to her red puffy clit, fixing her thong back in place.

Vinnie stood back up, fixing himself before placing Y/N back down on the floor and fixing her dress around her.

“Okay. I don’t have sex hair and my makeup didn’t smudge. We’re good.” Y/N looked at herself in the small mirror above the sink before turning back around to Vinnie who was already smiling at her.

“We should probably get back out there.” Y/N whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck as Vinnie’s went around her waist.

“I’ll see you at the altar pretty girl.” Vinnie spoke, leaning down to capture her lips in a kiss as Y/N reciprocated the kiss.

“I’ll be the one in white.” She whispered back before opening the bathroom door and slipping out.