Notes on software, history, and the odd rabbit hole. Written for future me, published in case they help you.https://blog.phasi.uk/https://blog.phasi.uk/attack-on-rtx-titan/https://blog.phasi.uk/attack-on-rtx-titan/In the year 845, humanity was reminded of the terror of living in awe of Nvidia, and the humiliation of being trapped inside the Walled Ecosystem.Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTcreativetopic/shitpoststocks/NVDAhttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-meta-verse-knight/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-meta-verse-knight/It was a peaceful morning in Cappy Town. Tokkori was insulting the sunrise, Kawasaki was burning something he called "breakfast," and Kirby was asleep in his dome house, drooling on his pillow.Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativegame/kirbyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/we-arent-called-everyone-noble/https://blog.phasi.uk/we-arent-called-everyone-noble/NEW YORK—In a dramatic bid to distinguish itself from e-commerce giants and boost declining in-store traffic, Barnes & Noble announced Wednesday a radical restructuring of its corporate identity: effective immediately, all retail employees must hold a recognized title of nobility, and the chain…Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTcreativetopic/shitposthttps://blog.phasi.uk/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-stories/https://blog.phasi.uk/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-stories/San Fierro, 2026. The fog rolls in over a city where a one-bedroom apartment costs $4,200/month, but parking your car overnight costs you a window. The tech boom never ended — it just kept pivoting. Crypto became Web3 became the Metaverse became AI, and every time, the same twelve guys in…Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.phasi.uk/knowledge-base-jsx/https://blog.phasi.uk/knowledge-base-jsx/Browsers cannot natively parse JSX syntax. During the build process, compilers (such as Babel, TypeScript, Vite, or SWC) transpile JSX elements into standard JavaScript function calls.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-last-century-of-earth/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-last-century-of-earth/Beyond the four-dimensional universe lies a higher domain [O] — home to a wave-form existence and to the collective unconscious of all thinking beings [F]. The golden, cross-shaped Gate is the physical aperture to that domain [O]: an object of limitless energy that can warp reality and pass…Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTgame/xenogearsgame/xenoblade-chronicleshttps://blog.phasi.uk/make-lordaeron-great-again/https://blog.phasi.uk/make-lordaeron-great-again/Being the Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Regrettably Accurate Transcript of the Most Divisive Political Season in Azerothian HistoryMon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativepoliticshttps://blog.phasi.uk/middlesex-mandates-middle-sex/https://blog.phasi.uk/middlesex-mandates-middle-sex/MIDDLESEX, MA— In a sweeping local ordinance aimed at "preserving historical accuracy and geographic integrity," officials in Middlesex announced Tuesday that all 1.6 million residents must legally register their biological sex as "Middle" on all municipal and state documents, effective immediately.Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-generals-fail-consensus/https://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-generals-fail-consensus/The air in the Great Palace of Constantinople was thick with myrrh and the suffocating heat of an Anatolian summer, yet Basileus Alexios I Komnenos shivered in his sleep. His empire was besieged by Seljuk Turks to the east and Norman opportunists to the west. He desperately needed a way to…Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTcreativetopic/shitposthttps://blog.phasi.uk/duke-demanding-duke/https://blog.phasi.uk/duke-demanding-duke/DURHAM, NC—In a bold bid to elevate its global academic standing, Duke University announced Monday that all current and prospective employees must acquire a recognized title of nobility, effective immediately, or face immediate termination.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehigher-educationhttps://blog.phasi.uk/mcdonalds-llm/https://blog.phasi.uk/mcdonalds-llm/CHICAGO—In a historic leap forward for artificial intelligence and public health degradation, McDonald’s Corporation announced Tuesday the release of McLLM-7B, a dense, open-weights language model designed exclusively to negotiate, Upsell, and orchestrate the fast-food ordering experience.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativecomputer-science/large-languge-modelshttps://blog.phasi.uk/sandisk-gundam/https://blog.phasi.uk/sandisk-gundam/The annual Neo Japan Gunpla Expo was supposed to be a standard affair of plastic, paint fumes, and grown adults weeping over limited-edition plastic runners. That was until the Chief Design Officer of Bandai Namco stepped onto the main stage, flanked by two armed security guards, holding a single,…Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/sengoku-sudoku/https://blog.phasi.uk/sengoku-sudoku/In the year 1582, at the burning Honnō-ji temple, Oda Nobunaga realized all was lost. Surrounded by treacherous troops, he reached into his robes, pulled out a parchment grid and a sharpened brush, and knelt on the tatami mat.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/winnie-the-pooh-and-the-bullish-day/https://blog.phasi.uk/winnie-the-pooh-and-the-bullish-day/The wind was blowing from the East, and it was a very blustery day in the Hundred Acre Wood. But it was not just the wind that was full of hot air; the entire Wood had recently discovered Decentralized Finance.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/a-programming-paradigm-for-spatiotemporal-composability/https://blog.phasi.uk/a-programming-paradigm-for-spatiotemporal-composability/The paper gives dynamic software composition a formal foundation by splitting it into two orthogonal problems. Temporal composability asks whether a component can be removed without leaving behind any of the state or resources it installed. Spatial composability asks whether components can declare…Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/programming-languagescomputer-science/software-engineeringcomputer-science/distributed-systemshttps://blog.phasi.uk/turkey-province-names-and-root/https://blog.phasi.uk/turkey-province-names-and-root/The historical spellings are broadly checkable against the State Archives’ Osmanlı Yer Adları. Modern administrative changes are documented by the Interior Ministry’s list of renamed provinces and districts.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/geographytopic/statelinguisticshttps://blog.phasi.uk/kamehameha-is-kamehameha/https://blog.phasi.uk/kamehameha-is-kamehameha/The year was 1795. The Battle of Nuʻuanu was raging, and King Kamehameha I stood at the edge of the towering cliffs of Oʻahu. Below him, the forces of Kalanikūpule were holding a surprisingly stubborn defensive line.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehistory/early-modernhttps://blog.phasi.uk/final-fantasy-vii-refusal/https://blog.phasi.uk/final-fantasy-vii-refusal/The sprawling metropolis of Midgar is powered by Mako—the lifeblood of the planet, aggressively extracted by the Shinra Electric Power Company. Enter Avalanche, an eco-terrorist cell determined to save the world. To ensure their latest mission succeeds, they’ve hired a mercenary: Claude Strife, an…Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostgame/final-fantasy-viihttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-boy-who-lifted/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-boy-who-lifted/Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Twigg, of number four, Sedentary Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly soft, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to have a single striated muscle fiber between them, because they simply didn't hold with that sort of nonsense.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostharry-potterhttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-boy-who-lifted-%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-boy-who-lifted-%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87/住在久坐路四号的弗农·特维格先生和太太总是得意地说，他们是再松软不过的人了，多谢关心。他们无论怎么看，都不像是身上能找出哪怕一根横纹肌纤维的人，因为他们压根儿不赞成那种胡闹。Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostharry-potterlanguage/zh-cnhttps://blog.phasi.uk/golden-horde/https://blog.phasi.uk/golden-horde/No Mongol successor state stands taller. From his new capital of Sarai al-Jadid on the Volga, Öz Beg Khan rules the largest realm west of China — the steppe from the Danube to Siberia, with the princes of the Rus as his tax farmers and the trade of the Black Sea as his toll booth. He has made…Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/ilkhanate/https://blog.phasi.uk/ilkhanate/The name is the mission statement: Ilkhan means something like "subordinate khan," a polite fiction that Hülegü's house was merely the Toluid family's western office reporting to the Yuan headquarters of his brother Kublai. In practice, once the Mongol Empire fractured in the 1260s, the Ilkhanate…Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/attempto-controlled-english/https://blog.phasi.uk/attempto-controlled-english/Everyone hates natural language and its ambiguity (maybe except your manager), because ambiguity is where responsibilities go to die. "The customer entered the card with the code" sounds harmless until you ask whether the code is on the card, used as the instrument of entry, typed after the card,…Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencecomputer-science/programming-languagescomputer-science/natural-language-processinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/five-gays-and-five-straights/https://blog.phasi.uk/five-gays-and-five-straights/ARLINGTON, VA — In what industry analysts are calling "the most unnecessary corporate restructuring in fast food history," Five Guys Burgers and Fries announced Tuesday it will split into two separate chains, Five Gays and Five Straights, in order to "better serve an increasingly polarized burger…Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/chagatai-khanate/https://blog.phasi.uk/chagatai-khanate/Alone among the heirs of Genghis, the house of Chagatai still holds its founder's whole inheritance — on the map, at least. The reality is uglier. Three years ago the nobility overthrew the khan Tarmashirin for the crime of loving Islam, Transoxiana, and city life a little too much, and the throne…Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/ripleys-get-it-or-not/https://blog.phasi.uk/ripleys-get-it-or-not/ORLANDO, Fla. — In a bold move to disrupt the gig economy and terrify hungry people nationwide, Ripley Entertainment announced Thursday its entry into the crowded logistics market with Ripley’s Get It or Not!—the world’s first thrill-based food delivery service where actually receiving your dinner…Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-black-death/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-black-death/Then his army begins to die. Not of arrows, not of hunger—of swellings. Men wake with black lumps in the groin and armpit and are corpses by the third day. The tumens melt faster than any sortie could thin them; the camp fills with a smell the oldest campaigners do not recognize. The steppe has…Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/healthhttps://blog.phasi.uk/timurid-empire/https://blog.phasi.uk/timurid-empire/Here's the catch: he was not a blood Genghisid, so by steppe law he could never legally call himself Khan. His workaround was a masterpiece of bureaucratic cope. He ruled as a humble amir standing behind a puppet Chagatai khan, married a Genghisid princess to earn the honorific Gurkani ("royal…Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/statehistory/medievalhttps://blog.phasi.uk/popeyes-rebranding-pope-yes/https://blog.phasi.uk/popeyes-rebranding-pope-yes/VATICAN CITY—In a historic joint press conference from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, representatives from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and the Holy See announced a comprehensive corporate-spiritual merger that will see the global fast-food chain officially rebrand as "Pope Yes: The Vatican…Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/%E5%AD%94%E8%9E%8D%E5%92%8C%E6%81%90%E9%BE%99%E7%9A%84%E6%95%85%E4%BA%8B/https://blog.phasi.uk/%E5%AD%94%E8%9E%8D%E5%92%8C%E6%81%90%E9%BE%99%E7%9A%84%E6%95%85%E4%BA%8B/融年十岁，特聪慧。时有大异自天而降，轰震如雷，庭墙皆崩。Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/kernelsnitch-side-channel-attacks-on-kernel-data-structures/https://blog.phasi.uk/kernelsnitch-side-channel-attacks-on-kernel-data-structures/KernelSnitch presents a new class of software-induced timing side-channel attacks targeting Linux kernel data container structures (hash tables, radix trees, red-black trees). By measuring syscall time variances caused by occupancy-level differences in shared kernel structures, an unprivileged,…Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/side-channelscomputer-science/operating-systemshttps://blog.phasi.uk/martian-invasion-and-git-scheme/https://blog.phasi.uk/martian-invasion-and-git-scheme/The terminal cursor blinked on Linus’s monitor, a rhythmic green heartbeat in the dark room. It was 3:14 AM.Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/gale-shapley-algorithm/https://blog.phasi.uk/gale-shapley-algorithm/Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.phasi.uk/sok-agentic-supply-chain-runtime/https://blog.phasi.uk/sok-agentic-supply-chain-runtime/This SoK systematizes security threats to LLM-based agentic systems arising from their dynamic runtime supply chain — the inference-time data and tool dependencies that agents acquire and resolve autonomously. The authors introduce the Man-in-the-Environment (MitE) adversary who exploits…Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/large-languge-modelstopic/paperhttps://blog.phasi.uk/bluetooth-method-confusion-fixes-insufficient/https://blog.phasi.uk/bluetooth-method-confusion-fixes-insufficient/Bluetooth Method Confusion attacks — where devices are manipulated into using conflicting key establishment methods leading to compromised keys — were thought to be addressed by proposed fixes. This paper shows those fixes are insufficient: the attacks still work against devices implementing the…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/cascading-spy-sheets-css-fingerprinting/https://blog.phasi.uk/cascading-spy-sheets-css-fingerprinting/This paper demonstrates CSS-based browser/email fingerprinting that works even when JavaScript is completely disabled — directly threatening Tor Browser and privacy-conscious email clients. By exploiting modern CSS features (custom properties, @media queries, font metrics, scrollbar styling),…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/webcomputer-science/privacyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/chaos-exploiting-802-11-timing-synchronization-covert-channel/https://blog.phasi.uk/chaos-exploiting-802-11-timing-synchronization-covert-channel/CHAOS is a novel WiFi covert channel that exploits the Timing Synchronization Function (TSF) inherent to 802.11 beacon frames. It encodes data through two mechanisms: (1) manipulating beacon frame ordering (no natural ordering requirement exists), and (2) imprinting data onto TSF timestamp…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkingcomputer-science/side-channelshttps://blog.phasi.uk/cross-layer-rtts-fingerprinting-proxy-traffic/https://blog.phasi.uk/cross-layer-rtts-fingerprinting-proxy-traffic/This paper reveals a protocol-agnostic fingerprint for detecting obfuscated circumvention proxy traffic: the misalignment of transport-layer and application-layer Round-Trip Times (RTTs) caused by proxy routing. Because transport-layer sessions break at the proxy while application-layer sessions…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkingcomputer-science/censorshiphttps://blog.phasi.uk/cross-origin-attacks-via-http2-and-sxg/https://blog.phasi.uk/cross-origin-attacks-via-http2-and-sxg/This paper reveals how HTTP/2 Server Push and Signed HTTP Exchange (SXG) — two modern web performance features — can be exploited to break the Same-Origin Policy (SOP). Attackers can mount cross-origin attacks that bypass SOP, the fundamental web security boundary, by exploiting how these features…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/webcomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/fuchsia-gvisor-network-stack-security-analysis/https://blog.phasi.uk/fuchsia-gvisor-network-stack-security-analysis/First holistic security analysis of Google Fuchsia's network stack (shared with gVisor). Fuchsia is Google's "clean-slate" OS expected to eventually replace Android on smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices — already running on millions of Nest Hub devices. Despite being built "from scratch" with…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/idbleed-deanonymizing-iot-via-exclusive-use-side-channel/https://blog.phasi.uk/idbleed-deanonymizing-iot-via-exclusive-use-side-channel/IDBLEED introduces a boolean side channel in exclusive-use wireless communication (BLE/WiFi) where devices only communicate with trusted peers. By observing whether communication succeeds or fails — regardless of encryption, authentication, or MAC randomization — an attacker can determine if two…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkingcomputer-science/privacycomputer-science/side-channelshttps://blog.phasi.uk/imsi-catcher-detection-via-cellular-identity-messages/https://blog.phasi.uk/imsi-catcher-detection-via-cellular-identity-messages/This paper presents a new approach to detecting IMSI-catchers (stingrays) — devices used to covertly track mobile phone users. Unlike prior work that relies on correlated behavior analysis (subject to false positives), this method analyzes identity-exposing messages in cellular protocol traffic to…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/leakybeam-wifi-beamforming-feedback-privacy/https://blog.phasi.uk/leakybeam-wifi-beamforming-feedback-privacy/LeakyBeam exploits a new WiFi side channel: beamforming feedback information (BFI) packets. Unlike analog CSI signals that attenuate through walls, BFI is transmitted as unencrypted digital packets that retain movement information even at distance. LeakyBeam achieves 82.7% TPR and 96.7% TNR for…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkingcomputer-science/privacyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/leo-satellite-time-varying-bottleneck-attacks/https://blog.phasi.uk/leo-satellite-time-varying-bottleneck-attacks/This paper performs the first security analysis of time-varying bottlenecks unique to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks like Starlink. As satellites move at 7.8 km/s, the bottleneck link between a ground station and the constellation changes every few seconds — creating predictable patterns…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/mineshark-cryptomining-traffic-detection/https://blog.phasi.uk/mineshark-cryptomining-traffic-detection/MineShark addresses the growing cryptojacking threat with a scalable cryptomining traffic detection system. As regulatory bans on cryptomining increase and organizations need to detect unauthorized mining on their networks, MineShark provides high-accuracy detection at enterprise scale,…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/off-path-tcp-hijacking-in-wi-fi-packet-size-side-channel/https://blog.phasi.uk/off-path-tcp-hijacking-in-wi-fi-packet-size-side-channel/This paper unveils a fundamental side channel in all Wi-Fi networks: the observable size of encrypted wireless frames. Despite WPA2/WPA3 encryption, an off-path attacker can infer TCP sequence and acknowledgment numbers by analyzing frame sizes (56/68/80 bytes for RST/ACK/SACK-ACK respectively),…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkingcomputer-science/side-channelshttps://blog.phasi.uk/proxy-protocol-large-scale-measurement/https://blog.phasi.uk/proxy-protocol-large-scale-measurement/First Internet-scale measurement of HAProxy's PROXY protocol reveals widespread misconfiguration: 170,000+ hosts accept PROXY protocol data from arbitrary sources over HTTP. 10,000+ servers vulnerable to access bypass via spoofed PROXY headers. The authors gained access to 500+ internal servers…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/redan-remote-dos-against-nat-networks/https://blog.phasi.uk/redan-remote-dos-against-nat-networks/ReDAN demonstrates that Internet attackers outside a NAT can launch remote Denial-of-Service attacks against hosts inside the NAT — challenging the common belief that NAT provides a security barrier against external attacks. By exploiting NAT state table exhaustion and connection tracking…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/sketchfeature-in-network-flow-feature-extraction/https://blog.phasi.uk/sketchfeature-in-network-flow-feature-extraction/SketchFeature enables in-network ML-based attack detection on programmable data planes. It addresses the critical bottleneck of per-flow feature extraction — extracting high-quality features from network flows at line rate without overwhelming switch resources. Using sketch data structures on…Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securitycomputer-science/networkinghttps://blog.phasi.uk/can-ai-agents-agree/https://blog.phasi.uk/can-ai-agents-agree/This paper investigates whether LLM-based agents can reliably reach consensus in a "no-stake" scalar agreement game, even in the presence of Byzantine (malicious) agents. Using Qwen3-8B and 14B models, the authors find that reliable agreement is NOT a dependable emergent capability; success rates…Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/multi-agent-systemstopic/papercomputer-science/large-languge-modelshttps://blog.phasi.uk/incompressible-knowledge-probes/https://blog.phasi.uk/incompressible-knowledge-probes/This paper introduces Incompressible Knowledge Probes (IKPs), a method to estimate the parameter counts of closed-source LLMs by measuring their factual capacity. By using a benchmark of 1,400 obscure, incompressible facts and calibrating it against 89 open-weight models, the authors establish a…Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/technologycomputer-science/machine-learninghttps://blog.phasi.uk/taint-style-bug-detection-in-linux-kernel/https://blog.phasi.uk/taint-style-bug-detection-in-linux-kernel/BUGLENS is a post-refinement framework that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) guided through structured reasoning steps to dramatically reduce false positives from static analysis tools detecting taint-style bugs in the Linux kernel. The key innovation is decomposing LLM reasoning into three…Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/papercomputer-science/securityhttps://blog.phasi.uk/overhead-bin-flation/https://blog.phasi.uk/overhead-bin-flation/Jeff looks at the sky, whispers, "So this is what I've done," and then tries to tip a skycap with a literal gold coin because he doesn't carry cash.Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-hidden-logic-of-http-status-codes/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-hidden-logic-of-http-status-codes/HTTP status codes are the "shorthand" of the internet. Defined by RFC 9110 (and its predecessors), these three-digit integers allow servers and browsers to communicate complex states instantly.Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/technologyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-pirate-game-and-generalized-backward-induction/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-pirate-game-and-generalized-backward-induction/The Pirate Game is a famous puzzle in game theory that perfectly illustrates the concept of backward induction—solving a problem by working backward from the end to figure out the best strategy at the beginning.Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencecomputer-science/game-theoryhttps://blog.phasi.uk/deep-double-descent/https://blog.phasi.uk/deep-double-descent/Deep Double Descent is a phenomenon in neural network training where test error follows a non-monotonic "W-shaped" curve. As model complexity, data size, or training time increases, performance first improves, then worsens (peaking at the interpolation threshold), and finally improves again in the…Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/machine-learningstatisticscomputer-science/optimizationhttps://blog.phasi.uk/ff%E5%A4%96%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E5%A4%B1%E7%A4%BC%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E3%82%BE-%E7%8E%89%E9%9F%B3/https://blog.phasi.uk/ff%E5%A4%96%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E5%A4%B1%E7%A4%BC%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E3%82%BE-%E7%8E%89%E9%9F%B3/「FF外から失礼するゾ」を、玉音放送で読まれた『大東亞戰爭終結ノ詔書』風の勅語体に寄せました。個人宛てのクソリプを、国家非常時の重大布告のように扱うところが主眼です。Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostlinguisticscreativehttps://blog.phasi.uk/model-abliteration/https://blog.phasi.uk/model-abliteration/Model Abliteration is a weight-editing technique that removes specific high-level concepts (typically "refusal") from an LLM by orthogonalizing the model's weight matrices against a discovered concept vector. Unlike fine-tuning, which shifts probability distributions, abliteration physically…Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/machine-learningmathematics/linear-algebrahttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-physics-and-mathematics-of-musical-tuning/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-physics-and-mathematics-of-musical-tuning/The baseline for modern musical tuning is A4 = 440 Hz.Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTmusic-theorytopic/sciencephysicsacousticshttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-primate-monolith-obsession/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-primate-monolith-obsession/Researchers recently decided to see what happens when you give chimpanzees shiny minerals like quartz and calcite. The result? Total primate obsession. The chimps didn't just look at them; they treated them like high-value treasures.Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTprimatologytopic/triviahttps://blog.phasi.uk/zfc/https://blog.phasi.uk/zfc/Before the 1900s, Georg Cantor's "Naive Set Theory" ran on a single, extremely permissive axiom of unrestricted comprehension: If you can describe a property, you can form a set of all things with that property.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencemathematics/set-theorymathematics/logichttps://blog.phasi.uk/arminiya/https://blog.phasi.uk/arminiya/At first, the Caliphs were content with a "hands-off" approach—letting Armenian princes (nakharars) run the show in exchange for tribute and loyalty. But eventually, the Umayyads and Abbasids decided to enforce direct rule via a governor called an ostikan operating out of Dvin. This triggered a…Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/eclipse-attack/https://blog.phasi.uk/eclipse-attack/In a decentralized network like Bitcoin, security relies on the assumption of perfect information—that everyone can observe the proofs-of-work and the true state of the blockchain. But what if an attacker controls your router? Or, more insidiously, what if they don't control the infrastructure,…Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/distributed-systemscomputer-science/securitytopic/sciencehttps://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-generals-problem/https://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-generals-problem/Before we talk about servers, let's talk about the people who framed the problem. The Byzantine Generals Problem was formally introduced in a landmark 1982 paper by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak, and Marshall Pease.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/game-theorycomputer-science/distributed-systemstopic/sciencehttps://blog.phasi.uk/imp-language/https://blog.phasi.uk/imp-language/If the Lambda Calculus is an elegant mathematical dream where everything is a pure, side-effect-free function evaluating to a value, IMP is the blue-collar reality of moving boxes around in a warehouse.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencecomputer-science/programming-languageshttps://blog.phasi.uk/khazar-khaganate/https://blog.phasi.uk/khazar-khaganate/Sandwiched between two aggressive, expansionist superpowers—the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Umayyad/Abbasid Caliphates—the Khazars played the ultimate diplomatic card. To avoid being culturally or politically absorbed by either side, their ruling elite allegedly converted to…Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/lambda-calculus/https://blog.phasi.uk/lambda-calculus/In modern programming, we are used to defining named functions that operate on built-in data types. For example, in Python:Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencecomputer-science/programming-languageshttps://blog.phasi.uk/proof-of-work/https://blog.phasi.uk/proof-of-work/PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) relies on knowing exactly how many nodes (N) exist, so it can calculate that 2/3rds threshold. But in a permissionless network (the internet), what stops a malicious actor from booting up 10,000 fake nodes in an AWS server farm to hijack the 2/3rds…Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/sciencecomputer-science/distributed-systemscomputer-science/game-theorycomputer-science/cryptographyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/substitution-cipher/https://blog.phasi.uk/substitution-cipher/Imagine you have two identical sets of the alphabet. You lay them side-by-side and draw arrows from the first set to the second. As long as every letter points to exactly one unique letter, you have a cipher.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomputer-science/cryptographyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/financial-spellbook/https://blog.phasi.uk/financial-spellbook/No capital required, just time and dignity.Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativepersonal-financegame/dndhttps://blog.phasi.uk/when-did-rome-fell-the-alignment-grid/https://blog.phasi.uk/when-did-rome-fell-the-alignment-grid/<table> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong>Lawful Good</strong><br>476 AD<br><em>The Definition.</em></td> <td><strong>Neutral Good</strong><br>1806 AD<br><em>HRE was Rome.</em></td> <td><strong>Chaotic Good</strong><br>27 BC<br><em>Rome died when the Republic died.</em></td> </tr> <tr>…Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTcreativetopic/shitposthistory/late-antiquityhistory/antiquityhistory/medievalhistory/early-modernhttps://blog.phasi.uk/eu5-loading-screen-arts/https://blog.phasi.uk/eu5-loading-screen-arts/In October 1517, priest and scholar Martin Luther reportedly nailed his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of All Saints' Church. Luther wasn't trying to start a revolution; he wanted an academic debate over the Catholic Church's sale of "indulgences" (payments for…Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTgame/europa-universalishistory/medievalhistory/early-modernhttps://blog.phasi.uk/price-discrimination/https://blog.phasi.uk/price-discrimination/First Degree Price Discrimination (FDPD) is the term describing a situation where a seller charges each customer the maximum price they are willing to pay for a good or service. Thus they strip off any surplus from their customers (or in this scenario, cash cows).Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTeconomics/microeconomicstopic/sciencehttps://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-empire/https://blog.phasi.uk/byzantine-empire/The empire of the Romans is a thousand years old and shrinking by the season, but its young emperor refuses to preside over a museum. Andronikos III, who won his throne in a civil war against his own grandfather, campaigns in person with his brilliant friend and Grand Domestic John Kantakouzenos…Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievalhistory/late-antiquitytopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/greco-bactria-kingdom/https://blog.phasi.uk/greco-bactria-kingdom/While the other Hellenistic kings were busy fighting over the Mediterranean, Diodotus I looked at the Seleucid Empire’s chaos and decided he was done with the "Middle Management" role. He declared independence in Central Asia (modern Afghanistan/Tajikistan/Uzbekistan), creating the easternmost…Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/ancienttopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/1587-a-year-of-no-significance-%E4%B8%87%E5%8E%86%E5%8D%81%E4%BA%94%E5%B9%B4/https://blog.phasi.uk/1587-a-year-of-no-significance-%E4%B8%87%E5%8E%86%E5%8D%81%E4%BA%94%E5%B9%B4/1587 was not a year where nothing happened, but a year where nothing that happened mattered. Ray Huang’s classic work of "Macro-History" argues that by 1587, the Ming Dynasty had reached a point of institutional ossification. The gap between the "Yang" (Confucian moral theory) and the "Yin"…Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/bookhistory/early-modernhttps://blog.phasi.uk/crispr-cas9-spongebob-story/https://blog.phasi.uk/crispr-cas9-spongebob-story/The mechanism of CRISPR-Cas9 represents the most significant leap in molecular biology since the PCR revolution. At its core, the system utilizes a guide RNA (gRNA) to direct the Cas9 endonuclease to a specific genomic locus. Upon binding, the enzyme induces a double-strand break (DSB), prompting…Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativebiologyhttps://blog.phasi.uk/a-buffalo-wing-vigilante/https://blog.phasi.uk/a-buffalo-wing-vigilante/By day, Arthur "Artie" Penhaligon was the definition of "market cattle." He spent twelve hours a day staring at flickering green and red candles, a mid-level analyst at a firm that valued him slightly less than the ergonomic chair he sat in. He was the guy who brought donuts, the guy who stayed…Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativefinancehttps://blog.phasi.uk/kelly-criterion/https://blog.phasi.uk/kelly-criterion/In the long run, volatility acts as a mathematical drag on wealth: even with a positive average return, excessive variance reduces your compound growth rate, and if that variance is too high, it guarantees a typical outcome of bankruptcy despite a theoretically increasing "average" wealth.Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTfinance/kelly-criterionfinance/volality-dragcomputer-science/game-theorymathematics/probabilitiestopic/sciencehttps://blog.phasi.uk/religions-a-decision-tree-view/https://blog.phasi.uk/religions-a-decision-tree-view/Q: Is there an ultimate reality?Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTworldviewtheologyontologymetaphysicshttps://blog.phasi.uk/the-mystery-of-fu-lin/https://blog.phasi.uk/the-mystery-of-fu-lin/In Chinese historiography, "Fu Lin" (拂菻) is the name to be given to a great western empire that succeeded "Da Qin" during the Tang and Song dynasties (c. 600-1200 AD). While modern scholars generally identify Fu Lin as the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), the primary sources contain…Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThistoriographylinguisticstopic/statehistory/medievalhttps://blog.phasi.uk/toxicology-of-heavy-metals/https://blog.phasi.uk/toxicology-of-heavy-metals/Heavy metal toxicology is the study of how dense elements sabotage biological systems. Unlike organic toxins, heavy metals are elemental; they cannot be metabolized or destroyed. They persist via Bioaccumulation and exert damage through [[#A. Molecular Mimicry (The "Trojan Horse")|Molecular…Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTchemistrybiologytoxicologytopic/healthhttps://blog.phasi.uk/prester-john/https://blog.phasi.uk/prester-john/Prester John was a synthetic geopolitical myth constructed by Medieval Europe to reconcile strategic anxiety with fragmented intelligence. He was not a misidentified individual, but a "geopolitical placeholder" that shifted geographically as European horizons expanded.Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThistory/orientalismhistoriographyhistory/medievaltopic/mythtopic/persongeopoliticshttps://blog.phasi.uk/ck-style-historical-soap-drama-ep-1/https://blog.phasi.uk/ck-style-historical-soap-drama-ep-1/The wind from the desert carried the taste of ash. It was the taste of defeat.Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehistory/medievalgame/crusader-kingshttps://blog.phasi.uk/dali/https://blog.phasi.uk/dali/The Dali Kingdom was caught completely off guard. The last king, Duan Xingzhi (段兴智), was captured but—in typical Dali fashion—wasn't executed. The Mongols were impressed as the Duans' capability to be the nominal ruler, so they kept him as a local governor (Tusi). The Duan family actually…Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.phasi.uk/holy-roman-empire/https://blog.phasi.uk/holy-roman-empire/'Ce corps qu’on appelle et qui s’appelle encore le Saint-Empire romain n’était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire' -- Voltaire (1756)Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThistoriographyhistory/medievalpolitical-sciencehistory/early-moderntopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/ottoman-empire/https://blog.phasi.uk/ottoman-empire/The son of Osman is proving to be something more dangerous than a raider: an administrator. From his new capital at Bursa — taken by patient blockade rather than glorious assault — Orhan mints coins in his own name, endows mosques and soup kitchens, and lets his brother Alaeddin organize something…Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievalhistory/early-moderntopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/saruhan-beylik/https://blog.phasi.uk/saruhan-beylik/From Manisa, in the shadow of Mount Sipylus, the old ghazi Saruhan Bey rules a small state with a long reach. Denied land to conquer — Ottomans to the north, the Aydinid corsair-prince Umur Bey to the south — he turned his emirate toward the water, and now Saruhanid galleys sweep out past Foça to…Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThistory/medievaltopic/statehttps://blog.phasi.uk/story-about-roman-heir-trash-tv-show/https://blog.phasi.uk/story-about-roman-heir-trash-tv-show/HOST: Janus (The two-faced Roman god, wearing a sharp suit but with a prosthetic face on the back of his head that occasionally whispers insults).Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTtopic/shitpostcreativehistory/medievalhistory/early-modernhistory/modern