Mark Hansen's Blog

One Hard Drive in a 4-bay Synology Network Attached Storage case.

Imaging Bad Hard Drives (with a Synology NAS)

2 months ago 5 min read Forensics

How to image a hard disk with bad sectors to a disk image file with `ddrescue`, even if some sectors have I/O errors reading the data.

Booting Linux from CD, in 2022

4 months ago 6 min read Forensics

Yes, "CD", not USB, not network-boot, not DVD. TL;DRUbuntu Oneiric ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso, at 695MB, is the newest 32-bit graphical Ubuntu live image that will fit on a 700MB CD-R. If I

Run a website off a Google Sheets Database, with Hugo

6 months ago 11 min read Programming Profiling Documentation

Here’s how I built a website, Profilerpedia, using a Google Sheet as the backing database. Profilerpedia aims to map the profiling ecosystem and connect software with profilers and profilers with great analysis

Log backtraces at obfuscated Android methods

6 months ago 3 min read

Logging a stack trace is a useful way to tell why a method is being called. But it's not always so easy to log a backtrace. Tools like dtrace and linux-perf can log

Book cover of Gene Kim's "The Unicorn Project"

Book Review: The Unicorn Project

6 months ago 7 min read

These are my notes from Gene Kim’s book The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Developers, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order. I enjoyed this book and recommend it. I delayed