How to hack a computer

Google and the Algorithm that powers the web

We are back. In this episode we look into the web in the 1990's, how that web gave birth to Google and how the algorithm that powers Google works. Sound effect attribution: https://freesound.org/people/TheGoodstuff2048/sounds/656116/

How to hack a computer

Hollywood has many ideas about how to hack computers. But, unfortunately, those are mostly not related to reality. So how do you actually hack a computer? In this episode, we will look at some of the ways nefarious neverdowells have hacked computers in the past and see if we can learn a lesson or two from them. This is quite a long podcast, so I have included section markers you can pause at if you want. Links I mentioned in the show: 1. Yahoo and their medireview https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/medireview [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/medireview] 2. Samy Kamkar https://samy.pl/myspace/ [https://samy.pl/myspace/] 3. Technical description of the worm https://samy.pl/myspace/tech.html [https://samy.pl/myspace/tech.html] 4. The podcast episode about VPNs [https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e1el4tp] 5. The podcast episode about cookies [https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e1d9rti] 6. OpenSSL's latest bug [https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-3602]

Zip it

You dealt with it. You may have wondered how it could possibly work. In this episode we do a deep dive on the zip format, what the idea is and how compression works. A couple notes on the recording: I didn't want you to wait any longer, but unfortunately my voice was a little broken when I did the recording, so it gets weird in a few places. In addition I managed to record at too low a volume, so there are some issues with that. I promise to fix them for the next episode.

The story of the Fax

We live in a world where it has never been easier to send messages across the globe. In this episode we take a look at the first technology that made this possible: the Fax machine. While dull compared to what we have today, it still has some interesting technology behind it. Links from the show: 1. Very old color photos https://www.boredpanda.com/first-color-photos-vintage-old-autochrome-lumiere-auguste-louis [https://www.boredpanda.com/first-color-photos-vintage-old-autochrome-lumiere-auguste-louis] 2. The LDX System  https://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/2012/08/03/flashback-fridays-looking-back-in-time-at-xerox-history/ [https://digitalprinting.blogs.xerox.com/2012/08/03/flashback-fridays-looking-back-in-time-at-xerox-history/]

Bitcoin

Back when this podcast didn't exist yet, Bitcoin was one of the first things I tried to explain to anybody. I partially based the script on the ideas in that presentation, readapted for an audio media. I have changed how I record podcast episodes, so hopefully it will be easier to record for me in the future. The audio quality does suffer a little, but it should otherwise be good. If you have any comments or questions, please don't hesitate to write to feedback@techwithtommy.com [feedback@techwithtommy.com]