Generator

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[Aircorridor @_aircorridor]

Investigating Google Accounts with Ghunt

Gather custom profile pictures, activated Google services, and where a person has been moving according to Google Maps.
https://t.co/9PaqUpQOAY

[Dave W Plummer @davepl1968]

This is the story of FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8.

I was the primary author of Windows Product Activation on the operating systems side. Not the key math – those were the ACTUALLY smart guys with heads so big that they bumped the doorjamb on the way into your office. I just did the protection of and integration into the operating system.

As you likely recall, Product Activation required that you have a key, and you’d have to activate it online or over the phone.

But Microsoft had large corporate customers, think hundreds of thousands of PCs, and those customers did not want to have to activate every offline PC. So in that case, you would be given special “Volume Media” that could be unlocked with a Volume key.

That way, a volume key could never unlock your retail CD.

Now, to know what media you have, I inspect the disc image. And the Volume licensing media contained a special binary blob that I made. It was about 10MB of data, entropy stripped, hard to duplicate on Usenet at the time. And it was only present on the Volume media.

That secret data, which I hashed and checked to match to the key, was Microsoft Bob. I took their disc data and compressed and encrypted it several times. Rest assured it’s encrypted and even in the AI age no one has extracted it yet. I really just needed random data, so I started with a precompressed binary image because, secretly, I was young and didn’t know if I could trust CryptGenRand 

And so, if you ever tried the FCKGW key on a regular XP CD, it wouldn’t work, because you didn’t have Bob buried in your bits.

But if you had the means in 1995 to download large ISO binaries or copy CDs, all it took was the key and a copy of the disc.

The key itself still had to pass the product-key validation math (the part I didn’t own). Once it did, WPA simply skipped the rest of the process. That combination—valid VLK + matching volume media—is what made the install look fully legitimate, including early Windows Update checks.

How it leaked

RTM went to manufacturing on 24 August 2001. Retail launch was 25 October. Roughly five weeks before launch the warez group Devils0wn (often written “Devil’s Own”) posted a complete, non-beta “Windows XP Pro Corporate” ISO together with the FCKGW key. That ISO was the volume media. Pirates then started baking the key into images or just writing it on the CD with a Sharpie. The famous photo of the marked-up disc is from that scene.

The most plausible source is an OEM or hardware partner that received final media early so they could ship PCs on launch day. Dell is the name that comes up most often; Intel has also been mentioned because of later source dumps. There were very few organizations that actually possessed a VLK that early, which is why the timing points at a partner rather than a random corporate customer. But I do not know. Presumably someone does.

Aftermath

We started blacklisting the Product IDs that belonged to the leaked keys (FCKGW decoded to one of the 640-range PIDs we later treated as toxic) in SP1. SP2 and Windows Genuine Advantage made the check more aggressive and also started blocking updates for those installs. Other, un-leaked VLKs continued to work on volume media for years; Microsoft did not kill the entire volume-licensing path, just the ones that had escaped.
So the design decision was “give trusted big customers a convenient offline path.” The operational failure was that the media and one of those keys left the building before the product even reached stores. Once both pieces were public, WPA’s hardware-binding never got a chance to run.

These Days

If you’re curious about what I’m doing today, check out Task Manager TMOG at https://t.co/OZcq1axGTb where you can download the Free version! It runs fully native on Windows, Mac, and Linux!

[blueprint.io @tryblueprint_io]

Introducing Claude for Hardware

Simply enter your hardware idea and Blueprint creates you a full design in minutes.

This is honestly crazy.

Try for free: https://t.co/MXVC26hYJD

[Sachin Naik @sachindn]

Are we becoming a dumping ground for cheap electronics?
Something we learnt the hard way these past few months.
Customers started returning our UPS units, saying backup wasn't enough. We pulled every returned unit, charged it, loaded it up, and ran it down. Full backup, every single time. On our bench, nothing was wrong.
This went on for almost 3 months. Honestly, a wild goose chase. We suspected our design, our battery batches, everything except the actual problem.
The actual problem: The humble 12V 2A adapter powering the router. After about a year of use, even at a small 1A load, these adapters don't give 12V anymore. We measured 10.4V on some.
Our UPS sees 10.4V and thinks the power has gone. And switches to battery. Sits on battery the whole day while mains is perfectly fine. So when a real power cut comes, there's nothing left. Customer is right no backup. But the UPS was never the problem.
We thought fine, let's just source good adapters for our customers. Turns out most "Made in India" adapters are SKD kits — the cheapest possible design imported from China, assembled here. Nobody checks whether it still holds voltage after a year, because nobody's testing it after the return window closes.
So here we are, building our own 12V 2A adapter now. Yes, with Chinese components; that's just the reality of electronics today. But the design is ours. Stable voltage for years, low ripple, proper protections. Boring stuff nobody prints on the box.
A 200 rupee part quietly killing the devices around it, and the device maker takes the blame. And this isn't just our story; it's happening across categories.
We badly need stricter standards on what gets imported and assembled here. Otherwise we're just the last stop for the world's worst designs.
If you build hardware in India, I am sure most of you would have faced this too.

[Swarajya @SwarajyaMag]

Thank you! Pls check https://t.co/mbF2DcWC1X

[Skyroot Aerospace @SkyrootA]

ORBIT ACHIEVED. 🚀

Vikram-1 Test Flight-1 has reached orbit. India's first privately developed orbital rocket has completed its final burn and injected its payloads into a ~450 km orbit, making India the third country in the world with private orbital launch capability.

History is made. 🇮🇳

#Vikram1 #JourneyToOrbit #SkyrootAerospace

[Sea of Sandalwood @SaptaSagara_]

A true Masterpiece of Indian cinema 🛐

[EngiNerd. @mainbhiengineer]

It's just naive to think that if Software and MBA Jobs are gone then welding, plumbing and electrican work will still be in demand.

When people lose job, they're not going to use an app to book an electrician to fix a fan and pay 500 for that, they'll most probably watch a YouTube video and do it themselves.

In short, if high paying Software and MBA jobs are gone, many things will go away from economy, including Govt tax revenues and demand for electrician, plumber etc.

[🚨Indian Gems @IndianGems_]

"In India, Tax is competitive to the US, benefits competitive to Bangladesh."

— Ashneer Grover

[Aparajite @amshilparaghu]

You may be rich in money, but being rich at heart is rare.

This humble farmer shared his freshly grown oranges with school children during the summer — a truly heartwarming gesture! ❤️🙏

[Shubham Mishra @brahma_4u]

Bring back the R&D oriented India again.

Too much transactional businesses and traders we have got.

[Danish Sait @DanishSait]

King of BDA complex … Mr. Maadi Kodtini 😎🫡

[Introvert @Introvert_hu_ji]

Deep down, we know Indra did this to escape school, but we just can’t prove it.

[RussiaNews 🇷🇺 @mog_russEN]

This is the kind of man women look for.
​The woman was driving when she encountered a dangerous surprise on the road.

The man was incredibly kind; he didn't utter a single word of complaint.

Every feeling of comfort he expressed was silently transmitted to his wife through his hand.

[Piyush Trades @piyush_trades]

This govt is shameless. SGB (sovereign gold bond) was tax-free when they announced it but today in the budget, they’ve said that capital gains tax will be levied on SGBs. This is a massive scam to those who bought SGBs from market.

[rahi anil barve @BarveRahi]

In cinemas now. Please do share!

[Russia in India 🇷🇺 @RusEmbIndia]

📣 Dear friends!

Reminder!

🇷🇺🇮🇳 The Russian Embassy in #India invites you to the concert by the Turetsky Choir, one of #Russia’s most renowned and internationally acclaimed musical ensembles!

Hurry up!

#RussiaIndia
#DruzhbaDosti
#Music
#Culture

[Rohith Bhat @rohithbhat]

One of #SiliconBeach’s promising (hardware) startup is looking for 1000 sqft of space in industrial area (Manipal, Baikampady, Yeyyadi) to build high-tech containers as they recently landed an order for multiple containers. Anyone here who can help out? RT for good karma

[rahi anil barve @BarveRahi]

PLEASE DO SHARE..

Mayasabha: The Hall of Illusion, releasing on 30th January 2026. Enter a world of mystery as Jaaved Jaaferi unveils a powerful new avatar, joined by Veena Jamkar, Deepak Damle, and Mohd. Samad.

Watch the teaser now