Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

sprocketfox.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 194 posts

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#21

Post by xur17 »

It's fun to see habhub in an article. ~10 years ago a group of friends and I launched 2 weather balloons for fun with a GPS logger, APRS transmitter, and a few sensors, and then retrieved it afterwards.

I have a bunch of memorable experiences from it, including:

1. Under inflating the first balloon because our helium provider was closed, and instead buying lower pressure "party" balloon containers (and not realizing until too late that lower pressure meant more helium left in the containers)

2. Chasing down the balloon at night and trying to explain why you wanted to walk onto some guys field to check for a weather balloon

3. Later calling a gas station to ask if "some guy just arrived with a weather balloon in their truck" when trying to track down the balloon

If anyone has kids and wants a fun project, I highly recommend it. There are a few companies online that sell kits, and it's neat to watch the different layers of the atmosphere (temperature and wind), and try to "chase" after the balloon and find it afterwards.

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#22

Post by TZubiri »

iamnothere wrote: post #7

The part where he gets contacted over the hit-and-run reads like the curl guy’s experience with people investigating “hacking”. I wonder how often this happens outside of software? Do fence manufacturers get emails asking to identify the culprit when someone crashes through a fence?

Rings a bell, I think it was because Curl showed up as the user agent for malicious activity.

You have to be kind of lost to contact Daniel about it, but I think it's ok behaviour for junior sysadmins that are just starting out, everyone was starting out sometime, and curl is like a lightning catcher for the world's daily lucky thousand.

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#25

Post by cronin101 »

xur17 wrote: post #21

It's fun to see habhub in an article. ~10 years ago a group of friends and I launched 2 weather balloons for fun with a GPS logger, APRS transmitter, and a few sensors, and then retrieved it afterwards. I have a bunch of memorable experiences from it, including: 1. Under inflating the first balloon because our helium provider was closed, and instead buying lower pressure "party" balloon containers (and not realizing…

Can you “just do this” or is there some preapproval you’re meant to get beforehand? Presumably the answer varies wildly by jurisdiction.

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#26

Post by xur17 »

cronin101 wrote: post #25
xur17 wrote: post #21

It's fun to see habhub in an article. ~10 years ago a group of friends and I launched 2 weather balloons for fun with a GPS logger, APRS transmitter, and a few sensors, and then retrieved it afterwards. I have a bunch of memorable experiences from it, including: 1. Under inflating the first balloon because our helium provider was closed, and instead buying lower pressure "party" balloon containers (and not realizing…

Can you “just do this” or is there some preapproval you’re meant to get beforehand? Presumably the answer varies wildly by jurisdiction.

We did it in the US, and filed a NOTAM with the FAA. The hardest part was figuring out how to convert what I had (we are launching a weather balloon from X, Y coords at Z time) to what they wanted (distance, direction, etc from nearest air tower). It's just a phone number you call, and they were pretty friendly (helping convert my lat / lng to what they needed).

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#27

Post by colechristensen »

cronin101 wrote: post #25
xur17 wrote: post #21

It's fun to see habhub in an article. ~10 years ago a group of friends and I launched 2 weather balloons for fun with a GPS logger, APRS transmitter, and a few sensors, and then retrieved it afterwards. I have a bunch of memorable experiences from it, including: 1. Under inflating the first balloon because our helium provider was closed, and instead buying lower pressure "party" balloon containers (and not realizing…

Can you “just do this” or is there some preapproval you’re meant to get beforehand? Presumably the answer varies wildly by jurisdiction.

There are rules you have to understand and follow, notifications required but no approvals if you meet certain criteria. It's mostly an FAA thing in the US, so one jurisdiction.

Re: A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare

#28

Post by Arrowmaster »

TZubiri wrote: post #22
iamnothere wrote: post #7

The part where he gets contacted over the hit-and-run reads like the curl guy’s experience with people investigating “hacking”. I wonder how often this happens outside of software? Do fence manufacturers get emails asking to identify the culprit when someone crashes through a fence?

Rings a bell, I think it was because Curl showed up as the user agent for malicious activity. You have to be kind of lost to contact Daniel about it, but I think it's ok behaviour for junior sysadmins that are just starting out, everyone was starting out sometime, and curl is like a lightning catcher for the world's daily lucky thousand.

It's because curl is often embedded as a library or standalone executable with other software. So when a malicious or compromised piece of software is found, a less experienced investigator might see curl with its author tags in the file metadata, and follow it back to upstream.
Post reply on HN