Chris Swan

Chris Swan

@cpswan.net

Engineer at Atsign & Dart GDE. Husband, dad, maker, hacker, InfoQ editor, co-host TechDebtPodcast. He/him. #include stddisclaimer.h Don’t try to chat with me here, as I’ve not jumped through age verification hoops. I’m cpswan.23 on Signal.

385 followers157 following483 posts

Chris Swan reposted

Andres Guadamuz
@technollama.bsky.social

Everything I know about AI regulation I learned from music videos It's been an exceptionally busy month here at Llama Towers, so I haven't been able to write much. But for now I wanted to bring to your attention a fun development in the world of AI. First, I have a confession to make. I have never…

technollama.co.ukEverything I know about AI regulation I learned from music videosIt's been an exceptionally busy month here at Llama Towers, so I haven't been able to write much. But for now I wanted to bring to your attention a fun development in the world of AI. First, I have a confession to make. I have never liked AI music. I mean, nobody does, right? But I truly disliked it. I have written about it, taught about it, given evidence about it, and I have generally found the actual output to be no better than elevator muzak.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] InfoQ - eMudhra Intermediate CA Compromise Private keys for eight eMudhra intermediate CA certificates have been compromised, allowing attackers to forge certificates for any site. The keys were revealed due to low entropy, not through a known breach.

blog.thestateofme.comInfoQ – eMudhra Intermediate CA CompromisePrivate keys for eight eMudhra intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) certificates have been compromised, making it trivial for attackers to forge certificates that would be trusted by unpatched roots of trust. Six of the impacted certificates were for Transport Layer Security (TLS) and trusted by the Apple, Chrome, Microsoft and Mozilla root programs. The other two certificates were for codesigning and trusted by Microsoft.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] September 2026 Caskmaster whisky tasting competition, Buxted Park hotel, Cory Doctorow book tour, RC2014 Assembly 2.0, two laptop repairs and an ellipitical trainer fix; and the usual pupdate and solar diary.

blog.thestateofme.comSeptember 2026Pupdate The heat wave(s) finally let up, but much of the month was still warm and sunny, allowing for some good walks. Miniature Dachshunds Max and Milo paddling in a stream As I covered in an earlier post, Milo's back in remission 🙂 Caskmaster The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) has started running a tasting competition called…
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

I chatted to Olimpiu Pop on the @infoq.com Podcast about this year's QCon London security track, and some plans for next year's. We talk about hardware (#CHERI), #CRA and #SBOM, #postquantum_cryptography and of course #LLM and #AI www.infoq.com/podcasts/fut...

infoq.comFuture Cybersecurity: Hardware Memory Safety, Automated Governance and Post-Quantum CryptographyIn this episode, Chris Swan, engineer at Atsign and security track host at QCon London, reflects on the ideas shared during QCon London 2026 and teases topics of the future edition. The discussion exp...
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] Milo cancer diary part 25 - remission again (again) The fifth protocol has worked, and once again everything went smoothly until the visit to NDSR for Epirubicin where we had to delay things a little whilst his neutrophils recovered.

blog.thestateofme.comMilo cancer diary part 25 – remission again (again)This is very much a repeat of part 22 'remission again' from earlier in the year. Milo in his car carrier on a trip back from the vets with a bandage on his foreleg The fifth protocol has worked, and once again everything went smoothly until the visit to NDSR for Epirubicin where we had to delay things a little whilst his neutrophils recovered.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] The stories we tell LLM based AI may be great at cranking out plausible sentences. But stringing those together to form some kind of narrative doesn’t get a good story. That’s a problem, and an opportunity; because humans run on stories, and we still need humans to craft good stories.

blog.thestateofme.comThe stories we tellTL;DR Large Language Model (LLM) based Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be great at cranking out plausible sentences. But stringing those sentences together to form some kind of narrative doesn't get a good story. That's a problem, and an opportunity; because humans run on stories, and (for now at least) it seems that we still need humans to craft good stories.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

This is the best articulation of what LLMs are doing to programming and security that I've seen

halvarflake.bsky.social@halvarflake.bsky.social

I gave a talk at Bluehat Singapore today. The slides are here: thomasdullien.github.io/about/slides...

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] The impersonal AI advantage Open source projects that I contribute to have adopted AI bots to ease the pull request process. It might just be me (though I doubt it), but somehow it feels less like a personal attack when a bot tells you what’s wrong with your PR than when it’s a person does..

blog.thestateofme.comThe impersonal AI advantageTL;DR Open source projects that I contribute to have adopted AI bots to ease the pull request (PR) process. It might just be me (though I doubt it), but somehow it feels less like a personal attack when a bot tells you what's wrong with your PR than when it's a person doing it. This is likely a multiple win for maintainers - less toil, fewer confrontations, and thus more precious attention to focus on making their project better.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

Omacom is a PAC Or at least Omacom is to open source what a political action committee (PAC) is to politics - an attempt to buy influence with the $€£ of the rich and powerful to further benefit the rich and powerful. hachyderm.io/@davidculley...

hachyderm.ioDavid Culley (@davidculley@hachyderm.io)I wish I needn't care about Omarchy or DHH. Maybe you're annoyed by now by all the posts about Omarchy. I mean, we get it: DHH recently discovered Linux after he got sick of Apple taking 30% of all h...
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

It's not just a fascist project because of who's involved (though the list of shame grows longer and more cringey by the day); it's an inherently anti democratic thing because that's what PACs are.

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

FWIW I don't think PAC money will buy influence with open source users, contributors and maintainers in the same way that it does with voters. But we're all about to find out the hard way whether that's true... HT infosec.exchange/@wendynather for the dialogue that brought this realisation.

infosec.exchangeWendy Nather (@wendynather@infosec.exchange)19.1K Posts, 393 Following, 5.16K Followers · Recovering industry analyst, research director & CISO. Senior Fellow at @AtlanticCouncil @CyberStatecraft. Single, childful cat lady. General Content War...

Chris Swan reposted

Andy Scollick
@andyscollick.bsky.social

Another compilation video from yesterday's fascist paramilitary 'storm' action in #Dover town and at the Port of Dover. #FarRight Some national security-related observations below.

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] August 2026 Wine tasting and dinner at Chapel Down, a trip to the Lake District, OSHcamp, Vespa repair (despair), Universal remote control for TV/DVR/AV; and the usual pupdate and solar diary.

blog.thestateofme.comAugust 2026Pupdate We were back in the Lake District (more on that later), so the boys were able to get out for some nice long walks. Max and Milo by a stream as we walked the 'coffin trail' from Grasmere to Ambleside Going a month later than usual meant that there were no grouse on the estate but there were loads of ripe blackberries, which the boys enjoyed browsing.

Chris Swan reposted

Mary Branscombe
@marypcbuk.bsky.social

my off the cuff reaction to this is that given how good humans are at using language to represent symbolic domains, a model large enough is going to have vectors that encode those because we talk about them; it's how I make sense of them being so useful!

Tom McCoy@rtommccoy.bsky.social

🤖🧠NEW PAPER🧠🤖 (The result of an 8-year project!) LLMs seem very different from symbolic systems. Yet LLMs excel in symbolic domains (e.g., language/code/math). How do they do it? Our finding: LLM representations have implicit symbolic structure! Link in thread ⬇️ 1/n

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] Milo cancer diary part 24 - Fifth protocol Milo's had a lovely summer without vet visits, but a scan at the start of the week indicated relapse, and he's had to start chemo again. Thankfully the vets, and pharmacist (and even the insurance company) have been great.

blog.thestateofme.comMilo cancer diary part 24 – Fifth protocolIt's been a couple of months since Milo finished his fourth (modified) CHOP/CEOP protocol, and he's been able to enjoy the summer without any vet visits[1]. Milo snacking on raspberries from the bush We'd been hoping for a nice long remission like last year, but that wasn't to be. A scan at the start of this week found a lesion on his duodenum, and the advice was to restart chemotherapy.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

Oh no - they've cancelled xcancel - clearly no care for free speech :0 I was about to scold a colleague for posting an X link rather than xcancel, and I get:

Chris Swan reposted

Jonty Wareing
@jonty.bsky.social

I always suspected a UK government would eventually reverse course on "coding in public". So I've been backing up all government code. For six years. Today I finally generated a report on what has been deleted. Its much worse than I realised. github.com/uk-gov-mirro...

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] Outrage for groups, adoration for individuals The attention economy dynamics for AI chatbots and agents are very different from social media, and so we're seeing a whole new approach to capturing (and keeping) our attention. This comes down to fundamental human nature...

blog.thestateofme.comOutrage for groups, adoration for individualsTL;DR The attention economy dynamics for AI chatbots and agents are very different from social media, and so we're seeing a whole new approach to capturing (and keeping) our attention. This comes down to fundamental human nature - the strongest fuel for groups is outrage; and whilst it might burn dirty and contaminate everything around it, it burns hot, and that keeps the money wheels turning.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] Home networks, security, and things (IoT) As Internet of Things (IoT) devices become more commonplace managing the risks they bring becomes more of a bother. I've chosen to deal with this by having different network zones for different trust levels; implemented mostly with OpenWrt...

blog.thestateofme.comHome networks, security, and things (IoT)TL;DR As Internet of Things (IoT) devices become more commonplace managing the risks they bring becomes more of a bother. I've chosen to deal with this by having different network zones for different trust levels; implemented mostly with OpenWrt. But it's still a compromise where various security risks are accepted as OK given the effort it would entail to deal with them properly.

Chris Swan reposted

Taggart
@taggart-tech.com

This is fantastic research from Unit42. My takeaway here is that passkeys are still much better than passwords, and Chrome as a credential manager is still a terrible idea. Use a separate password manager.

unit42.paloaltonetworks.comPass the Passkey: A Novel Attack Surface in Passwordless AuthenticationExplore how passkey implementation gaps undermine security when relying parties fail to validate the User Verified flag, reducing MFA to a single factor.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

Orange to Orange website migrations TL;DR If you're migrating between hosting services that both use Cloudflare then don't be surprised when you see the old site after cutting over DNS to the new provider. Your request is going into the new IP, but being served from the old cache. The old provider…

blog.thestateofme.comOrange to Orange website migrationsTL;DR If you're migrating between hosting services that both use Cloudflare then don't be surprised when you see the old site after cutting over DNS to the new provider. Your request is going into the new IP, but being served from the old cache. The old provider needs to be de-provisioned so that Cloudflare can pick up the new content.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

TIL: Orange to Orange (O2O) website migrations. When moving between hosting providers that both use Cloudflare it’s not enough to just migrate DNS, as the edge cache will still serve the old site. You have to remove the site from the previous hosting (which will invalidate the cached pages).

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] July 2026 My daughter's graduation, EMFcamp, a new TV and (unsuccessful) hunt for a new (e)scooter. Air conditioning and solar output in a heatwave, and the usual pupdate.

blog.thestateofme.comJuly 2026Pupdate The whole of July has been hot and sunny (more on that later), so quite often the boys have been having an early morning walk in the shade of the woods before it gets too hot. Max and Milo walking in the woods The apple tree seems particularly bountiful this year, so they've both been enjoying the windfalls (particularly Milo).

Chris Swan reposted

Andres Guadamuz
@technollama.bsky.social

Fahrenheit 451 or Rainbows End? AI, books, and copyright law One of my favourite science fiction novels is 'Rainbows End' by Vernor Vinge. The year is 2025 (yes, seriously), and the world is a mixture of the familiar and the bizarre. Advances in medicine allow older people to become mobile and…

technollama.co.ukFahrenheit 451 or Rainbows End? AI, books, and copyright lawOne of my favourite science fiction novels is 'Rainbows End' by Vernor Vinge. The year is 2025 (yes, seriously), and the world is a mixture of the familiar and the bizarre. Advances in medicine allow older people to become mobile and youthful again, but these newly young old people are unprepared for the world in which they awaken, full of digital wonders and wearable tech, particularly augmented reality, which is everywhere.
Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] Brewster's Trillions The AI infrastructure bubble has reached a point where companies just can’t actually spent all the money they might (notionally) have allocated. There might be money on a balance sheet somewhere, but good luck exchanging it for actual stuff like GPUs, or HVAC...

blog.thestateofme.comBrewster’s TrillionsTL;DR The AI infrastructure bubble has reached a point where companies just can't actually spent all the money they might (notionally) have allocated. There might be money on a balance sheet somewhere, but good luck exchanging it for actual GPUs, or HVAC, or HVAC installers, or... When the sums of money get large enough it turns out that it's difficult to actually spend it.

Chris Swan reposted

Laura James
@laura.social.coop.ap.brid.gy

#emfcamp was excellent. Didn't go to any talks or workshops, just chats, meetups, dancing, puzzles, volunteering, and wandering admiring the art. Huge thanks to everyone who made it happen ❤️ Maybe see some of you in 6 weeks for #OSHCamp? https:// oshug.org/event/oshcamp2026 #OpenSourceHardware

Chris Swan
@cpswan.net

[blog] June 2026 (Should have been published many days ago :/) A trip to Berlin followed by a Queen tribute band. (More) scooter bother, and the usual pupdate and solar diary.

blog.thestateofme.comJune 2026Pupdate The start of the month saw the raspberries coming out on the bushes in our garden, so Milo (in particular) got busy harvesting what he could reach (and barking at any birds that dared to come nearby). Miniature Dachshund Milo eating raspberries Max seems to be back to normal after his back trouble last month, and Milo has finished his chemo and had a scan that confirmed he's still in remission 🙂

Chris Swan reposted

Dave Jones
@cleanpowerdave.bsky.social

Conventional wisdom says rooftop solar meets **exisiting** electricity demand. What if rooftop solar actually **increases** electricity demand, improving living standards and driving economic growth? This is exactly what our new analysis of Pakistan's solar boom shows. Let's dig in.. 🧵

Chris Swan reposted

Andres Guadamuz
@technollama.bsky.social

Fable and the impending AI Cold War Even by the standards of AI development, where each month often feels like a year, this has been quite the week. Back in April, Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, a frontier model that was supposed to be exceptionally capable of finding and exploiting software…

technollama.co.ukFable and the impending AI Cold WarEven by the standards of AI development, where each month often feels like a year, this has been quite the week. Back in April, Anthropic unveiled Claude Mythos, a frontier model that was supposed to be exceptionally capable of finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities, which led the company to delay its public release, which is a remarkable measure from a commercial AI lab.