all things very
Sep. 3rd, 2025 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- Have achieved More Event Prep: both the arrows catalogue updating (albeit not printing), and Folding All The Potions
that printed successfully. - Friend is watching Orphan Black for the first time. I am getting Yelling. It's DELIGHTFUL.
- Yesterday, leaving the lower limbs class that has been prescribed in an attempt to reduce the risk of reinjuring my ankle again, I... turned my ankle. (This is not the good bit.) In more or less the same way I did in April, that was the motivation for the current round of physio, but whether it was the exercises having actually helped anything at all or the fact that I was wearing different (and more supportive) boots or just pure luck, while it's a bit sore it is not e.g. refusing to bear weight any time I don't pay adequately close attention to how I load it, so I'm counting that one as a win.
- We forgot New Elephant Day on Monday (Sheldrick Wildlife Trust calendar) so instead had New Elephant Day today... AND IT AN ADORABLE BABY RHINO. 13/10, etc.
- I am nearly at the point where I think I might be able to read the Wikipedia page on action potentials and derive meaning from it? I'm definitely slightly less confused about the cell biologist's definition of depolarization than I was even yesterday...
Mudlarking - 41- More marmalade
Sep. 3rd, 2025 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Before that, I found part of a Victorian marmalade jar, made by Maling, who were based in Newcastle. This is the second one of these I’ve found, but this was a larger chunk. The Thames must eat a lot of marmalade.
I also found a good sized piece of combware, a green bobbly bit of glass and what looks like a piece of a beard from a Bartmann jug

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)
We need to seriously think about what to do with C++ modules.
Aug. 31st, 2025 10:14 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑08‑31 - We need to seriously think about what to do with C++ modules.
- https://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2025/08/we-need-to-seriously-think-about-what.html
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/19LIK
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/19LIK.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/19LIK.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑08‑28 - A convex polyhedron without Rupert's property: a copy cannot pass via a straight hole through the body.
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18475
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/HUM8C
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/HUM8C.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/HUM8C.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Dogs
Sep. 3rd, 2025 11:20 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
.png)
Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
You can also do the pi dogs, but then you lose business from the tau people.
Today's News:
lolsob
Sep. 3rd, 2025 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Tomorrow is the day the report I wrote will be published.
Writing the report has also involved basically being the project manager for all the moving parts: communications and social media and PR and linking people up and answering random questions and already doing a couple of media interviews and having to film myself for social media which sucks and I'm bad at it...
I think I had my first it's too early for a drink isn't it thought at like 10:30 this morning.
let's use the alphabet... TO RATE THE ALPHABET??
Sep. 3rd, 2025 12:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
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September 3rd, 2025: Boise was a great time, and I love a comics festival. You get to meet all sorts of people who wouldn't necessarily pay admission to a comics con, and sometimes get to be someone's very first comic! A delight from start to finish. – Ryan |
Indirect Prompt Injection Attacks Against LLM Assistants
Sep. 3rd, 2025 11:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
Really good research on practical attacks against LLM agents.
Abstract: The growing integration of LLMs into applications has introduced new security risks, notably known as Promptware—maliciously engineered prompts designed to manipulate LLMs to compromise the CIA triad of these applications. While prior research warned about a potential shift in the threat landscape for LLM-powered applications, the risk posed by Promptware is frequently perceived as low. In this paper, we investigate the risk Promptware poses to users of Gemini-powered assistants (web application, mobile application, and Google Assistant). We propose a novel Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA) framework to assess Promptware risks for end users. Our analysis focuses on a new variant of Promptware called Targeted Promptware Attacks, which leverage indirect prompt injection via common user interactions such as emails, calendar invitations, and shared documents. We demonstrate 14 attack scenarios applied against Gemini-powered assistants across five identified threat classes: Short-term Context Poisoning, Permanent Memory Poisoning, Tool Misuse, Automatic Agent Invocation, and Automatic App Invocation. These attacks highlight both digital and physical consequences, including spamming, phishing, disinformation campaigns, data exfiltration, unapproved user video streaming, and control of home automation devices. We reveal Promptware’s potential for on-device lateral movement, escaping the boundaries of the LLM-powered application, to trigger malicious actions using a device’s applications. Our TARA reveals that 73% of the analyzed threats pose High-Critical risk to end users. We discuss mitigations and reassess the risk (in response to deployed mitigations) and show that the risk could be reduced significantly to Very Low-Medium. We disclosed our findings to Google, which deployed dedicated mitigations.
Defcon talk. News articles on the research.
Prompt injection isn’t just a minor security problem we need to deal with. It’s a fundamental property of current LLM technology. The systems have no ability to separate trusted commands from untrusted data, and there are an infinite number of prompt injection attacks with no way to block them as a class. We need some new fundamental science of LLMs before we can solve this.
Interesting Links for 03-09-2025
Sep. 3rd, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Blocky Planet — Making Minecraft Spherical
- (tags:Minecraft sphere )
- 2. Apologies: You Have Reached the End of Your Free-Trial Period of America!
- (tags:satire doom USA )
- 3. Edinburgh primary school mobile phone ban set to go ahead later this year
- (tags:school Edinburgh Scotland phones children )
- 4. Under-16s to be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks in England
- (tags:caffeine children England regulation )
- 5. Starmer appoints ex-director of anti trans campaign group as as comms director
- (tags:LGBT Labour bigotry transgender OhForFucksSake )
- 6. Dubstep artist Skrillex could protect against mosquito bites
- (tags:music mosquito funny headline )
WeakC4: a search-free low-knowledge solution to 7x6 Connect 4.
Sep. 1st, 2025 08:49 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑09‑01 - WeakC4: a search-free low-knowledge solution to 7x6 Connect 4.
- https://2swap.github.io/WeakC4/explanation/
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/IPONM
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/IPONM.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/IPONM.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
To-read pile, 2025, August
Sep. 3rd, 2025 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Books on pre-order:
- Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)
Books acquired in August:
- and read:
- The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Work of Art (Somerset Stories 1) by Mimi Matthews
- The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd [3]
Books acquired previously and read in August:
- The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan [3][May]
Borrowed books read in August:
- A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher
- Iron Flame (Empyrean 2) by Rebecca Yarros [2]
[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited
today's tomatoes (before the spring onion and balsamic vinegar)
Sep. 2nd, 2025 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
(By "today's" I mean not "all of those harvested today, nor even yesterday" but rather "the tomato course with dinner".)
I really love the ridiculous stars on the tops of the Blue Fire.
Limits of instruction-level parallelism (1991).
Sep. 1st, 2025 11:14 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑09‑01 - Limits of instruction-level parallelism (1991).
- https://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs146-246/wall-ilp.pdf
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/FIX7P
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/FIX7P.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/FIX7P.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
How to draw a Space Invader.
Aug. 26th, 2025 01:33 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑08‑26 - How to draw a Space Invader.
- https://muffinman.io/blog/invaders/
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/83G5V
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/83G5V.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/83G5V.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Chew
Sep. 2nd, 2025 11:20 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)

Click here to go see the bonus panel!
Hovertext:
There was a fairly intricate debate on an early version of this posted to bluesky, the contention being over whether OR was sufficient. I think the ORs have it, but XOR is a funnier word, so there.
Today's News:
Announcing The Cautionary Club
Sep. 2nd, 2025 01:01 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)

Do you want more Cautionary Tales episodes in your life? Do you want behind the scenes stories and bonus conversations with me? Or do you want to support us in making the show?
On behalf of the whole team, I’m excited to announce the brand new Cautionary Club on Patreon. Subscribers will gain access to exclusive content every month, including a behind-the-scenes exploration of the details we couldn’t quite squeeze into a recent episode, a bonus conversation between me and one of the team, and a full length Cautionary Tale.
It’s also going to be a space where you can discuss episodes with other listeners, vote for topics you want to hear about, ask questions, and be the first to hear any Cautionary Tales news.
It’s free to take a look around, and you can join today at patreon.com/cautionaryclub
Our weekly free episodes of Cautionary Tales will continue to appear every Friday, and, if you are a Pushkin + subscriber, you will continue to gain access to exclusive shows from across the Pushkin network. If you are interested in switching your subscription, or have any questions, please email info@pushkin.fm
I am an AI hater.
Aug. 28th, 2025 11:16 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
- 2025‑08‑28 - I am an AI hater.
- http://anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/haterdom/2025/08/26/i-am-an-ai-hater.html
- redirect https://dotat.at/:/KJKNR
- blurb https://dotat.at/:/KJKNR.html
- atom entry https://dotat.at/:/KJKNR.atom
- web.archive.org archive.today
At Seven am
Sep. 2nd, 2025 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Each one lasts at least two hours
By lunchtime it is teatime
By teatime I am ready for bed.
My favourite day starts after nine am
and rushes through to lunch
at two pm
Why are afternoon hours long
When I get up too early?
The whole day drags by slowly
until eachc hour lasts three at least
My favourite day starts after ten am
and rushes through to lunch
at three pm