Author: jderouchey

echo "alias astro='python3 -c \"from astropy.time import Time; print(Time.now().jd)\"'" >> ~/.bashrc

astro
2461325.6832086523

$25 dollar Laptop

My path to cybersecurity has certainly been a strange one. Hard lessons from weak security practices and a fleeting attention to my projects left the door wide open for exploitation. The first thing to come under attack was my eBay account. I had let my web browser store my passwords, didn’t have two-factor authentication enabled, and was in absolute disbelief when it happened. I remember seeing the email from eBay and assuming it had to be a phishing attack, not realizing it was a legitimate notification that I had just bought gaming cards. That experience forced my hand into learning more about cybersecurity, ultimately inspiring me to pursue a career in the field.

My hardware journey picked up when my neighbor handed me a broken 2014 Toshiba Satellite laptop. It took some time before I got around to troubleshooting it, but I eventually discovered that the power rail on the start button was pulling low voltage—about 1.1 volts. Since it was supposed to be 3.3 volts, I knew there had to be a short on the board. I figured that for a laptop of that age, there should be plenty of scrap machines online to harvest parts from. Strangely enough, the sellers of the few cheap scrap laptops I did find ended up refunding my money. Maybe they figured they would never sell them and had lost track of their inventory, though I don’t know for sure. I pivoted and ended up buying newer, even cheaper 2017 Toshiba models instead.

I was much more successful with that strategy. The first 2017 model was an easy fix; I installed a spare hard drive and RAM I already owned, securing them with some random laptop screws I had lying around the office. Once it was working, I gave that one to my neighbor.

The second laptop arrived just as bare-bones. On this $25 machine, I installed Fedora Linux, which is actively supported by a strong computing community. I now use it to connect to my other office laptop that hosts this WordPress blog—an entire setup supported by repurposed legacy hardware.

Today, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence helps me complete complex tasks in seconds. Yet, as the evolving threat landscape puts me and others like me at risk, I often lie awake eager to learn and do more to protect the simple circuits in my little island in cyberspace. Let the journey begin here.

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