#reverse train

[gov-ontario-transit-official]

TW: Loud as hell noises. Constantly. I thought it sounded nice but it's a crossing with the lights and bells going and then the train passes by. So just lower your volume by 66%. Took this video on sunday. Hope you all like it! Also voice reveal I guess.

[foone]

Have you heard about the Polish Train company, Newag, and the bullshit it turns out they got up to?

So, the regional rail operator Koleje Dolnośląskie bought some Newag Impuls back in 2016 . In late 2021, some of them need to have major maintenance done, as they've been in service a while. So the company SPS (Serwis Pojazdów Szynowych) gets the contract to fix them. They basically take the train apart, replace a bunch of it, following all the rules in the documentation Newag gave them, and... it won't move. The train says everything is fine, the brakes are off, there's plenty of power, but you push the throttle up and it won't move.

SPS spends a while trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong, with no luck. So they hire some hackers from the Polish security group Dragon Sector. Dragon Sector figures out how to get into the code of the computer system that runs the train, and OH MY GOD.

So it turns out there's a secret train-lock system. If it's on, the train won't move. This will be triggered in some situations you might think are normal: the clocks are wrong, the serial numbers of the various parts have changed, and a firmware mismatch between the main computer and the power system. Now, the fact that it makes sense to not run the train in these situations until someone can check it? that doesn't extend to the fact the train uses a SECRET lock system, rather than just popping up an error message telling you what's wrong. There's also the problem that while these are all potential error problems, they can't be cleared by anyone with the technical manuals, which are supposed to cover everything about how to run these trains. Only Newag themselves can reset this system.

Which, you know, keeps SPS from properly fixing them. Only Newag can fix them now, but not because SPS lacks any technical ability, but because Newag sabotaged their own trains. But don't worry: it gets worse.

So now that Dragon Sector knows what's happening, they get to look at other trains. It turns out the trains aren't all running the same software, and there are other tricks in there.

One of them is a "how long has the train been stopped?" check. If the train hasn't hit 60 km/h in 10 days, the train locks itself and won't move until Newag can clear it. So, like, if a train is ever out of service, like it's going to a repair place... it'll break itself. Unless the repair place is owned by Newag.

But two of the trains go further: See, these trains have GPS built in, right? You may be able to guess where this is going...

THEY JUST MAKE THE TRAIN CHECK IF IT IS PARKED AT THEIR COMPETITORS' REPAIR YARD AND BREAK ITSELF IF IT WAS.

The sheer audacity of this move. This is frighteningly bullshit anti-competition self-sabotage.

This has, obviously, made some parts of the Polish government to start investigating this. Newag may be (and hopefully will be) in a lot of trouble.

For more info, there's a great video of a presentation by the three people from Dragon Sector who did the hacking, which was presented at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Ars Technica also has an article on it, but it predates the presentation so it doesn't have some of the later details.

Anyway, the good news is that in the end the hackers at Dragon Sector were able to unlock most of the trains: A few had additional trickery that they didn't want to hack around, because it might break the train's certification. For the others, they discovered undocumented "cheat codes" in the software that they could use to bypass the secret lockouts... presumably the same ones that Newag would have used when they "repaired" trains.

[nancywheeeler]

hopeless time loop. the way out isn’t to save everyone. the way out isn’t to save even one person. the way out isn’t to change anything. the way out is accepting how it happened the first time is how it always will be. that’s how you acted, that’s how they acted, that’s how you would have acted every time if you weren’t given the curse of hindsight. the way out is accepting you can’t fix the past; you can only forgive yourself for it.

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Damian, who has just lost the last member of his family, goes off the deep end and, in a fit of violent rage, goes tumbling through a portal and back in time.

Jason doesn’t know how the scary guy with the gunshot wound became his problem but he’s not heartless enough to leave him to bleed out beside some dumpster in Crime Alley.

[drchucktingle]

spin the wheel bud

[santokostentino]

Life's been craaazy recently

But so am I apparently

[asiaphotostudio]

China, 2000 Sleeper train, Guangxi , China. 中国 広西 上海から南寧への寝台列車内 Photography by Michitaka Kurata

[rocketbirdie]

destiny intersects with the ruined reactor...

little details!

[alkalinefrog]

“My ride’s here.”

Hijack Week Day 6 - Punk/Nerd AU

[ugackminer]

So, I made a tool to stop AI from stealing from writers

So seeing this post really inspired me in order to make a tool that writers could use in order to make it unreadable to AI.

And it works! You can try out the online demo, and view all of the code that runs it here!

It does more than just mangle text though! It's also able to invisibly hide author and copyright info, so that you can have definitive proof that someone's stealing your works if they're doing a simple copy and paste!

Below is an example of Scrawl in action!

Τо հսⅿаոѕ, 𝗍հᎥꜱ 𝗍ех𝗍 𐌉ο໐𝗄ꜱ ո໐𝗋ⅿаⵏ, 𝖻ս𝗍 𝗍о ᴄоⅿрս𝗍е𝗋ꜱ, Ꭵ𝗍'ѕ սո𝗋еаⅾа𝖻ⵏе!

[Text reads "To humans, this text looks normal, but to computers, it's unreadable!"]

Of course, this "Anti-AI" mode comes with some pretty serious accessibility issues, like breaking screen readers and other TTS software, but there's no real way to make text readable to one AI but not to another AI.

If you're okay with it, you can always have Anti-AI mode off, which will make it so that AIs can understand your text while embedding invisible characters to save your copyright information! (as long as the website you're posting on doesn't remove those characters!)

But, the Anti-AI mode is pretty cool.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

Legacy

Heroes exist.

Yes, heroes exist. But they're, y'know, special. Different. Chosen, maybe. They live in a whole other world than you. They've got these grand destinies you can only imagine. You? You work your nine-to-five and then go home and blow another six hours on whatever before turning in for the night and doing it all again. And it's good enough.

And then there's a disaster and you find yourself in a remote corner of the battlefield cut off from everyone else. And one of those heroes staggers out of the dust and the smoke and the rubble, and it doesn't take a doctor to tell they're on their last legs. And then the mask comes off, and it's a kid.

A kid who's way to young to be doing this and has been going up against odds way too big for them for who knows how long and the other shoe finally dropped. And they're a kid and they're dying and you've already called 911 but you already know, you can just tell, they aren't going to make it in time. There's nothing you can do to save them.

But God help you if you're going to let this kid die alone.

So you make them comfortable, as comfortable as you can. You keep them talking, keep them focused on something, anything other than the dust and the smoke and the rubble. And you hold their hand tight and they don't hold your hand anywhere near tight enough for someone with superhuman strength and it breaks your heart, but you don't let it show. You can't. You don't. cry.

They don't either. They don't rant or scream or rage about how unfair it all is, though they've every right to. (You wonder, as you often will afterwards, who did the choosing. Who exactly you should blame for handing this destiny, this responsibility, this fate, to a child). They tell you about the date they were going to ask to prom next week. They... they ask you to find their parents, once the news plasters their face everywhere. To tell them sorry.

And then they're gone. The light goes out of their eyes. And light, real light this time, real power, flows into you, through your hand that's still holding onto theirs. And there, in the dust and the smoke and the rubble and the tears, you make a promise. To them. To yourself.

You will be a hero. You will carry this weight.

Because for as long as you do, maybe one more kid won't have to.

[waters-and-the-wilde]

it's just. the lock, the fucking lock right? the stim toy lock where the combination changes as you try to pick it. like we actually saw them do it, the executives scrambling the parameters to force him to keep up (also WHOOP right in tandem with the impact of the 'making radiation treatments free' thing!) but also there's this sense of it almost doesn't matter because it's literally their game and they can make him play along, nothing's going to give until they show their hand

[myonmukyuu]

markers #18-#19: dollchestra 🌷

[arbitrarycategories]

my own reverse robins au has me in a vice-grip I swear. Little Duke Thomas I love you so much.

[nefja]

She has to suffer through great things living with me.

[carrotkicks]

WAIT. WAIT. fr the reverse au i just had a thought but. What if the Flags were a vigilante group totally seperate from the mafia and the ada. And they play a part in the 15 arc too. They want to recruit Chuuya to their team, meanwhile Daz is trying to convince him that the Sheep suck and he shouldn't stay with them, all the while Rimbaud and the Mafia are trying to kill him. So like. Three organizations playing hot potato with this one(1) fifteen year old child who DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS SHIT. (pspspstt the flags totally win. For now.)