Boosted by @MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
Replying to
@MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
"Are you or are you not competent in a great many fields but a true master of none?"
"Sir, that is a Jack of All Trades"
Remote
Third spruce tree on the left
@tezoatlipoca@mas.to
mastodon 4.7.2#Canadian (sorry). Being kind, empathetic and supportive to others, #vaccines, #vegans and #LGBT+ are cool; convoys and racists and *phobes are not. Computer Engineer, #software #developer, #technical #writer, #translation manager, reformed project manager and #SCRUMmaster, dad and boyfriend.
I like video games, programming, baking and cooking. While Im not #vegan, LawyerGF is, so I'm vegan-ISH.
Born at 330.19 ppm - I make old person sounds.
1340 Followers
2347 Following
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Joined November 07, 2022
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BTN-LIVWCO
In honour of the world going to shit, I will now post a _The Hunt For Red October_ quote of the day, starting with
`This business will get out of control, and we will be lucky to live through it.`
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
Replying to
Replying to
@Lana@beige.party
This was a good analogy.
Also now I am hungry.
Replying to
@ldcd@social.treehouse.systems
At work we make half-million dollar fancy schmancy laser doohickeys used to make super top secret stuff.
The most critical component in these devices is calibrated by an off-shelf metrology device controlled by mid 00s Windows XP machine that has seen nearly every one of its components replaced at least once. The Wintel of Theseus.
We can't upgrade it because the magic piece of software that does magic things to calibrate the critical component was written long ago by a person who no longer works here and we are missing 15% of the codebase and the binary we have breaks in Windows 7 or beyond. And it uses a parallel port. o_0
We have a developer re-writing it as we speak - finally. But its been a tense decade hoping and praying the magic box continues to work (its image is the FIRST one IT checks when we do backup testing.)
Replying to
@earthshine@masto.hackers.town
Well....
THATS
FUCKING
NEFARIOUS
HORSESHIT
Replying to
@jcrabapple@dmv.community @ralfmaximus@mastodon.social
I miss the days when drive platters spun up like jet turbines and read-write heads made pleasing chirps or thunka sounds as they moved - I mean how else do you know shits going on vs. everything is frozen? my laptop has a single LED and its for power, no of knowing disk activity. With these you didn't need the activity LED, you _heard_ the activity.
(yeah, I know there are apps that will recreate classic platter drive sounds on disk activity but they're not the same.)
_As the world is going to shit,_ your Hunt For Red October quote of the day:
`When I was twelve, I helped my daddy build a bomb shelter in our basement because some fool parked a dozen warheads 90 miles off the coast of Florida. This thing could park a couple of hundred warheads off Washington and New York and noone would know anything about it until it was all over.`
Replying to
@401matthall@mastodon.xyz @jalefkowit@hachyderm.io
I have become THAT guy at work.
"Ok, so we'll take these data files and rinse them through CoPilot and-"
You mean like this? "Uh, but that's not repeatable or sus-"
Sure it is. Here I copy and pasted it into our wiki under "How to do in Powershell", with a paragraph that explains what each command and regex does and how you can tailor it. Now anyone in the dept. can do it anytime they like.
And zero tokens to do it.
Repeat after me: y'all don't need AI. Y'all need a 101 level programming course and the fucking O'Reilly books with the animal woodcuts on em.
There's a huge AI evangelism at work. My concern that we are uploading vast swaths of our core/key business processes into someone else's cloud or agentic platform has bounced right off.
When it implodes because we run out of tokens.. noone likes an I toldyaso.
Replying to
@stephantho@mastodon.social so this is the infamous dog who unstuck that container ship from the Suez a few years back? I'd be a happy pupper too!
Replying to
@jalefkowit@hachyderm.io
I love it.
What happens if the incoming PM is allergic to cats, does that trigger a byelection? "Sorry, you can't be PM if you're allergic to cats".
Replying to
so that's me in the basement
that's me in the spot... light... using MS Windoze
trying to keep from rage quitting
and I don't know if I can do it
oh no I might go touch grass
and never work again... 
Replying to
@sloanlance@mastodon.social @BenRiceM@mastodon.social
And I think that's the appropriate stance. Its ok to admit you _used_ to like something before you became aware of the creator's opinions or behaviors. Just don't give them any more money.
Strange, I was _just_ thinking of the mastodon.lol implosion what, 3 yrs ago? 4? when the stupid wizard game came out... that ended.. poorly. In any case, yeah, promoting or talking openly about the bad things on socials counts as giving the bad thing air which is giving it - and thus the creator - more money. (not to excuse that admin for handling everything badly)
Replying to
@nuwagaba2@mastodon.social @bielsubob@infosec.exchange
Agrivoltaics, hell yah. I mean, I'd rather put solar panels and green on every roof, over every parking lot and across every expressway, but no shade (heh) on solar panels over alfalfa or grazing fields.
Replying to
@tante@tldr.nettime.org I make no claim to know how the man thinks, but I suspect no small part of this is a bit of FOSS realpolitik.
Let's say Linus were to stand firm against use of AI use in the kernel. Commendable.
But then the rate of commits remains stagnant. meanwhile some big institutional downstream kernel (say a consortium of Ubuntu and other for-profit distros) user goes and forks the kernel. Now there's the Linux Foundation kernel (kernel0) and several "AI friendly" kernels (kernelPrime) that get features added in more rapidly, customizable branches (kernel Lite, kernel Plus etc.) all enabled by rapid AI development. Complete with Ai induced sec vulns and just... bloat and shit.
I'm not entirely sure that landscape is better.
Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way excusing it. But I can sortof understand it. The "Adapt or die" mentality.
Replying to
@TofuTheSquirrel@piaille.fr @Lana@beige.party
Zoidberg: once again, the sandwich heavy portfolio has paid off for the hungry investor!
Oh no! Im ruined!
Replying to
@ralfmaximus@mastodon.social @jcrabapple@dmv.community those winchesters back then were mighty heavy.
Replying to
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social
beautiful
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@simagick@freeradical.zone @nowster @benjancewicz@mastodon.social yeah it says Tape In... its hard to see behind this brilliant kludge going on here.
Replying to
@USBTypeSteve@infosec.exchange
Yup. Its been.. two years since the API extortion and moderator lockout scandal? Now the official apps are the ONLY apps and they're hot garbage. The "new" reddit IF is hot garbage. Every 5th post in your feed is an ad and every 5-6th top level post in a thread is an ad. There are no good AMAs only PR flack pre-canned bot questions.
AND, I've been noticing of late, once you scroll five or six pages down your feed, its the same shit you saw yesterday, which was the same shit you saw three days ago and everything has a 3d or 5d age.... it used to be once you scroll down far enough in the Hot feed it cycles into weird New territory and you could go hours before you ran into something you've already seen.
Replying to
@ello@void.ello.tech huh. good to know.
Yep, had 3 bogus users w/ spam posts/blogs there :(
Replying to
@wendythedruid@thistlenfern.org
Maybe they're searching for a lookalike like in Dave (1993).
Or they just need the preservative to finish curing him for a Weekend At Bernies.
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
Replying to
@cinebox@masto.hackers.town @notthatdelta@furry.engineer well it kinda depends on whether a golden egg is viable or not.
Ooo, what if a golden goose comes from a golden egg? but dissapointedly - but rebalancing - it can only lay regular goose eggs.
Replying to
@TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world
It is.. extremely.
I got called up one day from someone in corporate IT.
"You're using your dev credentials... hundreds of times per day. What are you doing?"
Installing... things?
"You should only be installing sw that is vetted by corporate and is available through the company sw portal" (basically their own internal "approved only" version of the MS Store for sw deployment).
Part of my job is to find and evaluate new sw tools for myself and my department. I probably "install" over a dozen things - apps, tools, scripts - every day. If it makes my job easier or saves me/my team time, its fair game.
"You should get us to vet these things."
I don't even know which ones I want you to vet/approve Im going to throw six hundred things your way each month and wait days/weeks for you to vet each one? Insanity.
Replying to
@matt@writing.exchange
Out of curiosity Matt (and love WF btw), what's the breakdown of that $$ between bandwidth, database and disk storage?
Replying to
@dbattistella@mstdn.ca
Oooo... this headline goes in the history textbooks.
Replying to
@dbattistella@mstdn.ca
I had thought I had seen what there was to see from the NFB, but I am mistaken.
This was a delight.
(and yes, I had to look up to see that there is in fact a town called Entrance along the CN line near Selkirk Manitoba)
Replying to
@dtl@8bitorbust.info you should rent space in one of those telescope farms in the desert :)
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
Replying to
@cinebox@masto.hackers.town @notthatdelta@furry.engineer and the best part is that until a goose hatches from the egg, you never know if you're gonna get a goose or something that is goose-adjacent.
Replying to
@zotho@mastodon.social @chatcontrol@mastodon.social
Wait, how did this not pass despite a majority? Do EU votes like this require a 2/3 majority or something?
(asking in Canadian)
Replying to
@angusm@mastodon.social
This is the best characterization of this I've read. Lovely.
Replying to
@SecureOwl@infosec.exchange @StompyRobot@mastodon.gamedev.place
"I got the last of the regular sausage at the store, but only 12 and we need 16, so I got these plant-based ones as a backup."
"Not on MY watch."
Replying to
@violenteastcoastcity@mastodon.social
This.. and the other one where that guy mansplains AI use by Signal.. to Signal's CEO (the very awesome Meredith Whittaker who is on here but I won't at-mention here, Im sure they're busy)
https://bsky.app/profile/meredithmeredith.bsky.social/post/3lrsry6wjis2m
Replying to
@USBTypeSteve@infosec.exchange For the last year two years since mod/api-Gate, Mastodon has been my go to news and endorphin scroll source, but a few months ago, I started back on Reddit. But recently Reddit has been so.. blegh, Im back to Masto nearly full time.
Know what? Because (assuming I have a client like Phanpy or Elk which categorizes boosts of toots I've already seen) _everything on my timeline is FUCKING NEW TO ME_.
Replying to
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai @sundogplanets@mastodon.social and to be fair to that old guy in Yellowstone getting tossed by that bison - he and his grandson weren't anywhere NEAR the bison, they were just walking back to their campsite and the bison was just THERE. But it being rutting season and all.. wrong time, wrong place. And they chose to avoid the bison poorly, thinking a few saplings would be shelter. Not quite a majestic Murder Cow (moose), bisons can still plow through quite a bit of shrubbery w/o flinching.
Replying to
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
one day, when he grows up, he wants to toss seniors around Yellowstone too.
Replying to
So I just started using my own laptop. Which is linux.
Then they started restricting access to all the services - Sharepoint, outlook, onedrive - to only "authorized browsers" i.e. Chrome or Edge.. which come on the corporate IT controlled W11 images. No problem - vivaldi on linux works just fine thanks to a user-agent switcher which happily reports that yes, I AM using outlook from Chrome on a Windows PC. :)
Well, yesterday was the last straw. Now everything is locked down so it can only be accessed from authorized machines... i.e. Azure/Active Directory - I guess they call it Microsoft Entra ID participants.
Anyone know how to spoof Entra ID credentials from linux? (Im assuming no because otherwise that wouldn't be very good on Microsoft's part, but you never know)
2/2
Replying to
@pinhman@humanwords.party @datum@zeroes.ca @thetyee@mstdn.ca
Limited profit housing entities do exist, the problem is even while suitably funded, they can't complete for real estate against for-profit developers.
And any real estate holding entitity that itself has shareholders has a fiduciary responsibility - so when selling an apartment building, and BigDevCo offers 20% more than AffHomeCo.. .
GF does legally things for developers and non-profits's; her corporate clients all say they'd _love_ to build affordable housing _at-cost_ but they have a board to answer to. The only developers who can do the at-cost builds are the small/medium ones that are privately owned and they're not the ones who can build the things we need.
The only way to allow N/LPEs to build and develop the affordable housing we need is government intervention. Either give non profits a fist chance of refusal, or outlaw or tax/penalize REITs or something. Something that lets the non profit entity get a first chance.
$0.02
Replying to
@cdarwin@c.im @aburtch@shakedown.social
Oh geez. And the financial ramification of that - permanent market share loss, billions in revenue and impending US corporate buy-back at yardsale prices. I'd hate to be an E-Mart exec.
Dunno how y'all feel about LinkedIn, but article doesn't seem to be paywalled (or LinkedIn-login-walled), but here's a static for ya.
https://static.awadwatt.com/From%20National%20Gift%20to%20National%20Insult%EF%BC%9A%20How%20Starbucks%20Korea%20Destroyed%20a%20Legacy%20in%20a%20Single%20Day%20(30_06_2026%2013%EF%BC%9A09%EF%BC%9A09).html
Replying to
@hewer_of_code@mstdn.ca And yet Canadian GDP/cap grew (albeit slowly) during the same time.
Its almost as if... I know.. we're better off _together_.
Replying to
@ret@furry.engineer
And both involve Valve(s).
Replying to
@julescelt01@universeodon.com @DenOfEarth@mas.to @markarayner@mas.to was she karving her initials on the side of the swan with a dental interspace toothbrush?
Replying to
@xgranade@wandering.shop
blah blah blah. All you millennials do is complain.were just as screwed as you guys are AND we're older
-genx
Replying to
@dbattistella@mstdn.ca No, Entrance Manitoba. Shortly after this you see him pulling to Regina if Im not mistaken.
Replying to
@deFractal@infosec.exchange @ocratato@discuss.systems I would love to see this.
Replying to
@deFractal@infosec.exchange @ocratato@discuss.systems haha, we all know how a Chips Canada would go, despite how much I'd love to see it.
Huge government outlay, community/industry feedback periods, prolonged equipement procurement. Creation of a crown corporation, massive federal subsidy for 15-20 years and then it'll be privatized for pennies/dollar by a Conservative government looking to make a buck in time for an election cycle.
"Folks, goverment has no business in running a chip fab. What do elected politicians know about wafer construction? That's why the All Dressed Act will put responsibility for Canada's globe leading chip construction where it belongs, in the hands of the Lays/Weston/Stronarch/Dumpty LWSD Megacorp Inc-LLC."
"Prime Minsiter Ford, will the CCP or public labour funds like OTP take ownership stakes of Lay Waste Shitty Disposal Inc?"
"Haha no, by allowing large deep pocketed institutional investors to corner this investment opportunity that precludes the little guy like Scotia or Vanguard."
Replying to
@MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
In France, their truckers and farmers make roads impassable _FOR DAYS_. Vehicular obstructive protest is a national pastime there. Sometimes they light shit on fire too.
Just sayin.
Replying to
@stux@mstdn.social @eldersea@expressional.social
I was just thinking of that. THIS would make sense IF you could use your mobile device as a PC. We were SO close.
Sigh. My last project at Blackberry we were doing exactly this. A dock so you could drive your Blackberry with a 16:9 landscape screen, keyboard, mouse, external storage.
Worked great too. Used my Z10 as a daily drive laptop for _work_ (all I needed were the PIM apps, browser and office suite.. rarely). Only problem half the apps didn't have a widescreen layout. You dock your phone and your desktop is this narrow portrait band down the middle of your monitor.
And then we were all laid off.
:(