The Dark Assassins Podcast

Cloud computing experience isn’t just a nice-to-have on a resume anymore; it’s a must-have. However, cloud computing is expensive, and shelling out hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a month to play around with cloud computing to gain experience isn’t exactly a very cost-effective option. That’s where homelabbing comes in. Having a homelab can allow you to gain comparable cloud computing expe...

Homelabs are great, but they have one glaring weakness: they’re only accessible at home (hence the name), or are they? In this episode, we look at how, and why, you would want to configure your homelab to have access to it from anywhere in order to not only have access to your homelab’s resources but also get real work done while you’re away from home. We are covering all of this and more on this...

Homelabbing and software development is a match made in heaven. In this episode, we focus specifically on game development and how homelabbing can help developers create and test their games. We'll discuss the hardware and software requirements for game development, and real-world examples of how homelabbing is used in the creation of video games. We are covering all of this and more on this e...

What happens when you mix software development with open source and the love for the open road? An amazing application that allows you to find the best roads to drive anywhere in the world with the help of a little Python and crowdsourced map data. Also, in this episode, we answer some of the most commonly asked questions to software engineers. We are covering all of this and more on this episode...

Encryption is vital to securing your data and keeping your information secure. Ensuring that data is properly secured is one of the best ways to keep information safe in the event of a data breach. In this episode, we dive into how different encryption and key management principles work in order to equip developers, security professionals, and privacy-conscious individuals with the knowledge to im...

Taking shortcuts in life can lead to negative consequences, such as compromising quality and missing out on valuable experiences. It has become more and more apparent with the rise of generative artificial intelligence that taking shortcuts has become easier than ever and is especially true in the software development world. In this episode, we look at a couple of cases where using AI to take shor...

It’s March Madness season, and college basketball teams aren’t the only ones going head-to-head to see who is the best. In this episode, we look at the top 16 most popular programming languages and put them head to head to see which programming language will be crowned the champion! We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, ple...

Understanding how networks work is essential for anyone working in IT, regardless of if you are a sysadmin, software developer, cybersecurity researcher, network architect, etc. The core of any network is TCP/IP. In this episode, we break down what it is, what each of its layers are, and how it relates to the OSI model and why TCP/IP is used over OSI. We are covering all of this and more on this e...

Insider threats are among the most difficult cybersecurity risks to detect and mitigate because they come from trusted individuals inside an organization. Whether it’s a disgruntled employee selling sensitive data, an unintentional mistake by a well-meaning user, or a third-party contractor with too much access—insiders pose a significant security risk. In this episode, will break down the differe...

Some programming mistakes refuse to go away, no matter how many times they are debunked. In this episode, we explore some of the outdated, inefficient, or outright dangerous coding practices that still persist—and how to avoid them. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe if you...

Blindly poking holes in your firewall in order to get access to all of your services is just asking for a one-way trip to pwned-ville. In this episode, we take a look at some ways that you can harden your infrastructure, as well as how you can reduce your attack surface in the process. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,...

Businesses, teams, and homelabbers constantly face the decision of whether to roll their own solution or use an off-the-shelf one when setting up infrastructure, workflows, and tooling. In this week's episode, we look into that eternal debate in software engineering of “building or buying” and break down key factors, real-world examples, pros and cons, and decision-making strategies. We are co...

Homelabs provide us with lots of things from entertainment, education, and quality of life enhancements. Often, though, we don’t fully understand the magnitude to which they impact our everyday lives until they’re shut down. In this episode, we look at how to cope with a temporary shutdown of your homelab as well as another win for paranoid cybersecurity individuals that never connect IoT devices...

Hotel security is like drywall; it looks solid, but you can easily punch right through it. What’s a lot more solid is a homelabber’s stance on what their priorities are, as weird and strange as they might seem to someone without one. We’ll discuss these topics, as well as what the Supreme Court's upholding of the supposed “TikTok Ban” really means. We are covering all of this and more on this...

Everyone makes mistakes, but when those mistakes still work, they often go unfixed, because, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In software development, though, these “mistakes” are known as anti-patterns, and if they aren’t addressed, they can lead to overly complex, unreadable, and unmaintainable code, increasing the overall technical debt of a project. In this episode, we look at the top five m...

What happens when you mix a computer nerd with books that deal with various kinds of computing and cybersecurity concepts? Answer: a boatload of unsolicited commentary nobody asked for diving into just how wild, crazy, and downright incredible those things described in the book(s) are. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,...

The third, and final part, of our Core Modules mini-series is here, where we continue our look back at some of the best, funniest, and most informative moments from the history of the Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Also, share it with a friend or family member who you think would enjoy it or benefit from i...

Part two of our Core Modules mini-series is here, where we continue our look back at some of the best, funniest, and most informative moments from the history of the Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscribe if you haven’t already. Also, share it with a friend or family member who you think would enjoy it or benefit from it. Do you have a q...

Every musician has their greatest hits. Every homelab has one, or more, cornerstone servers that powers it. Every codebase has functions that are the fundamental building blocks which the project relies on. In this episode, we look at some of the best, funniest, and most informative moments from the history of the Dark Assassins Podcast. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The...

You know the cyberattacks are getting serious when threat actors are going after the donuts. Have you ever thought about saying, “To heck with bounds checking,” and just throwing everything in a try-catch, and if you did, how would that affect performance? Finally, a new report suggests that Apple is working on a new server CPU. Does this mean the Xserve may be revived? We are covering all of this...

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, government organizations want their citizens using encryption for communications in response to the various cyberattacks on telecom companies. Also, a new article suggests that AI is actually making you a worse programmer. We look into if that is true as well as the evolution of ransomware. Including its techniques, motivations, and ways to defend against i...

Have you ever wondered what your favorite Thanksgiving dish would be if it were part of a homelab? In this Thanksgiving special, we take a look at some of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes and break down what homelab services they would be. We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a rating, review, and subscr...

What do you get when you give a nerd a brand-new technology toy to play with? Their entire free time consumed with playing with that thing. In this episode, we get into all of the nerdy things that have been going on this November and why ‘No Shave November’ should step aside for the new king: ‘Nerdy Things November.’ We are covering all of this and more on this episode of The Dark Assassins Podca...

With the rollout of iOS 18 and 18.1, a strange new phenomenon has been occurring with iPhones where they will restart without any user interaction. What is this, and why is this actually good for your privacy and security? We are covering that, along with a depressing new study that demonstrates how we have not learned to make strong passwords. Finally, we discuss some tips and tricks to help you...

Debugging is both an art and a science that every software developer must master. In this episode, we’ll dive into effective debugging techniques, from basic strategies to advanced tools and methods. With real-world examples and practical advice, to help you gain insights into how to approach bugs systematically, save time, and reduce frustration when they inevitably pop up. We are covering all of...