The Classic Mac OS refers to the operating system that Apple Macintosh computers ran from 1984 to 2001. While it was one of the first popular operating systems to feature a graphical user interface, it hit some very real growing pains by the 1990s. In this episode, prolific hacker of the classic Mac OS, Elliot Nunn, joins us to dive into some of the quirks of this landmark operating system. We discuss some of its unique traits, how it compares to a modern operating system, and some of Elliot's projects to reverse-engineer it. By the end of the episode you'll have a much stronger understanding of how the Classic Mac OS (System 1 through Mac OS 9) worked.

• Elliot Nunn's Website
• Elliot Nunn on GitHub
• Elliot Nunn on Mastodon
• os9.shop
• Classic Episode: What is an Operating System?
• Episode 111: The Apple Lisa
• Episode 38: The History of macOS
• Episode 29: Why was the Original Macintosh Significant?

You can also find Elliot on #mac68k on Libera.Chat

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On July 19th, 2024, the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike released an update for its Falcon Sensor software that brought down millions of Windows computers around the world. Some of these computers were involved in critical infrastructure like airlines, hospitals, and governments. Falcon Sensor, which hooks into the Windows kernel, was certified by Microsoft and cryptographically signed. The update triggered a classic (and common) bug reading past the end of an array. It not only crashed Windows, but didn't even allow it to complete its boot process. In this episode we explain what the bug was and why CrowdStrike did not catch it before it had the opportunity to bring down millions of machines.

• Classic Episode: What is an Operating System?
• CrowdStrike's Report on the Incident

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Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

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Approximately one in four consumers uses an ad blocker. But do they stop to consider whether that is actually a good thing for them? In this episode, we briefly touch on the technical aspects of ad blockers before having a larger discussion around the ethical and economic considerations of ad blocking technology.

• Episode 6: How Does the Web Work?
• Episode 82: What Are Cookies?
• Ad Blocking - academic article mentioned in episode

Follow us on X @KopecExplains.

Theme “Place on Fire” Copyright 2019 Creo, CC BY 4.0

Find out more at http://kopec.live

Read transcript