mastodon 4.6.8Techie, queer, neurodivergent, and feminist. Likely to be declared mentally incompetent soon due to USA federal policy towards trans folk. Working as a network engineer for a major source of internet traffic. Opinions are my own.
Expect me to toot about #Feminism, #TransRights, #RakuLang, #ComputerNetworks, #ShapeShifting, #EndingSexism, #InternetRouting, #Autism, and #EndingAblism -- among other things.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
The personal is political.
Passkeys. Fingerprint. Github. FaceID. FIDO. Okta. Yubikey. OTP. Duo. Google. RSA SecurID.
I have no fucking idea where my login credentials are stored. I used to work in *INFORMATION SECURITY*. We really need to fucking pick one way of authenticating.
If I have to prove I'm not a computer by identifying traffic lights and busses, perhaps we're not quite ready for self-driving cars.
Downtowns are like "Why are we dying?"
Downtowns are also like "You can't be here more than a couple hours because we basically don't allow anyone to use any bathrooms, unless you're in a bar."
Here's an AuDHD hack I found:
For stuff I don't want to lose in a pile of crap, get it in a bright color -- orange, hot pink, neon green, etc. Don't do this for everything you own, just the stuff you really don't want to lose (I.E. for me, things like my phone).
Reminder: I maintain a list of trans peoples' airport security experiences. If you've been through security at an airport, either good or bad experiences, I'd love you to add data here! The form also has a link (you don't need to provide data) to results.
Are you trans? Do you have a good or bad airport security experience? Are you just curious about the experiences others have had?
Check out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12IHWmQgBww2rW7Smi-wQxYTpE0FacE2A7KRvJzL1x4M/edit?usp=sharing
There's a link at the top if you want to submit anonymous experiences. You can also DM me here if you don't want to fill out the form, but want to add one.
Good experiences are important to record! So are bad ones! Without much data, it's hard to find patterns, so it is super helpful for you to fill this out if you flew recently!
I *LOVE* this. Expecting a room full of people who will have a harder time getting employed because of the AI crap to like AI is bizarre.
But I'm glad college graduates can recognize that, no, AI is *not* the next industrial revolution. The school did that part of their job well (or at least the students did).
OpenAI: "Our AI is so brilliant it got away from us! It found a hole!"
Also OpenAI: "You should trust us with private data, we're the best at keeping things from leaking."
My resistance: Not moving out of the way of a robot. The fucking robot can move around me, so *I* can walk in a straight line, rather than it rolling in a straight line.
I am worth more than a robot. So are you.
It's basically what DL chasers do.
As long as we're their little secret, they are fine. When they'll be embarrassed in front of their friends, we need to run. :(
How is AI going? Today I saw an AI “summary” which was longer than the thing it summarized supposedly. And it had a TL;DR! That is the summary generated by AI had a summary of the summary, also generated by AI. And ya, the TL;DR was longer than the original thing too. AI is burying us in verbosity.
I wrote 6,000 words on trans bathrooms. Trans folk don't need to read this, you know (and this is a painful topic). But cis people, particularly people with concerns, should. If you believe trans bathroom segregation is needed, you should at least read this.
https://gender-thoughts.com/2026/03/19/the-law-and-the-trans-urinary-leash/
Have you handled a computer tape (that stored data)?
If I was the CIA or NSA and wanted to spy on someone on the internet, what would I do? Palantir? Sure. Google? Yep. But one of the biggest wins might be Cloudflare, which has access to the unencrypted web I'm browsing. Imagine what a government could do with the right secret court order (or black ops deal) with a major CDN.
Room 641A was childplay.
(I have no idea if this is happening, but it seems like the obvious thing to do to me)
I like waking up to good news.
I'm thinking of the time when my wife, working at a national lab, was listening to an arrogant visiting researcher giving a lecture. In the Q&A, she raised a hand, and said, "You said you work at . Is that a community college?"
Knocked him down a step or two.
Ah yes, I see programming is going great.
I’ve made a few fixes to go-router-colorizer (mostly around IP addresses embedded in already-colorized lines — it no longer uncolors them). I also recently added colorblindness support.
So if you want nicer network router CLI views, check it out!
As an #ActuallyAutistic person, I use pre-written phrases on cards I can flip between when speech is difficult/impossible. But I realized I have a magic crystal with me all the time, so I implemented them on iPhone! It's free, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
This is designed to replace a set of cards you flip through, letting you use text on your phone instead. :)
My feminist reading list I mentioned in my #nbpy talk: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mkZKXfVeqncWA31bRopbT87HCHBsvlh5aiBS4iZVZgU/edit?usp=drivesdk
I got it, buy oil futures every time there's a "leak" of a cease fire.
Trans travel guide has been updated. I'm still interested in personal experience and things I missed legally, so feel free to send me updates where I'm wrong!
University architecture is so freaking weird.
I forgot that I had a whole git repo for conference talks I've given (oops). I need to add a few talks I've done since I created it. But in the meantime, I've added my #nbpy talk and the reading list to it, as well as a link to the recording. See the readme here:
https://github.com/jmaslak/Conference-Talks
I've been getting a bit back into photography again, after many years of not touching my camera, and I'm definitely a bit technically rusty, but I'm also remembering how much I enjoy doing this.
This is from a car cruise day in my town a few days ago.
Illegal in North Korea when Biden was President: Saying the North Korean leader should be replaced.
Illegal in the USA when Trump is President: Saying that Trump should be replaced.
Phillip James at #nbpy notes that sometimes activism is a Google Form.
I agree! Want to share experiences of airport security as a trans person (I want your good & bad experiences!)? Use my form!
Fill out the Google form!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7QpHpS_RGF7KFzW1eGQ0Y7IfhLsvwq8M5WEmdUeV-Uf-Pqw/viewform
What is your favorite 80s nostalgia? (please boost!)
