@DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org Whenever someone has the 'brilliant' idea of a customer service bot, I ask the room if they have ever had a positive experience with one, and if we have comprehensive documentation for humans or if a lot of the customer service today is done through tribal knowledge and training. It's been surprisingly effective at pulling people's head out of the clouds. But then again, I typically work in environments where quality is prioritized over costs.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 1w ago

Replying to

@foone@digipres.club I think this behavior is in the USB-C spec. They needed to preserve the user confusion from USB A's connector orientation, so they put it here.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@foone@digipres.club I had a great conversation with a colleague about this. Since I was five years old, I've been using tooling created by some of the smartest people in the world to do this stuff efficiently and precisely. Switching work patterns to take the form of "an unproductive conversation with a subordinate" isn't a good use of my time or skills. It's not like photographers bemoaning the advent of Photoshop, it's like handing a trained fine artist an old box of crayons and saying, "You'll love this, even kids can do it!"

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@foone@digipres.club I'm not even a coder. I just write integrations and scripts. So far my experience is that I can get it nice and good by-hand, or I can basically spend the same amount of time arguing with an LLM or fixing its output to match the real world needs, and WRITING THE SCRIPT isn't the part that takes the most time or creates the most risk anyways, it's the administrative overhead. I keep thinking that if we were a code-driven shop, we'd probably have more success, but I'm not even sure if that's true or if people are blowing smoke.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@ralfmaximus@mastodon.social @tezoatlipoca@mas.to @jcrabapple@dmv.community It's definitely an 'electronic' sound, but it definitely correlates with disk activity. Only one of the two SSDs makes it. I gather that I also hear a bunch of other electronics differently than a lot of people. CRTs, low-quality wall wart adapters, and sometimes a 90hz 'hum' that permeates the whole neighborhood (usually in winter). I have no idea what that's about, I'm not a kook who thinks ESD is hurting me or anything, I'm just often like "what the heck is that?!" and then I find it and unplug it, and nobody else in the room seems to be able to hear the difference I do.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@tezoatlipoca@mas.to @jcrabapple@dmv.community @ralfmaximus@mastodon.social weirdly, I can hear the SSD on my work computer. It's not a satisfying sound though, more like an ant dragging its fingernails on a chalkboard.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cR0w@infosec.exchange The same thing is happening in the non-code space, with documents at work. People are generating reams of text and throwing it at colleagues, and a lot of it is wrong, but it takes more time to mark it wrong than it did to conjure up. ...and a lot of people are having trouble seeing why it's a problem. It's allowing some people to pour champagne on themselves while externalizing the hard work to others.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social I installed Ubuntu Budgie for my dad... seven years ago, and it's been problem-free. I do think I need to go bump it to the latest LTS though.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@mcc@mastodon.social the 'Google' app on my android does it, and did it long before the rise of LLMs. Open it up, hit the microphone button in the search field, then hit 'search a song'. As far as I know, Google, Apple, my car's infotainment system, et al all use Gracenote's proprietary music identification system, which stood on the backs of thousands of volunteers contributing to CDDB (including myself) before it got monetized and paywalled in late-stage web 1.0 dotcom fuckery.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Sometimes I have terrible ideas that I wanna get out there mostly for fun, but also as a warning.

Today's Bad Idea:

Testosterone Gummy Supplements:
"Chews Violence"

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange Inconvenient in real life, but if they didn't let me 'takeout', then I would be forced to litigate... or trebuchet an RS/6000 into their headquarters.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social Also, it's not "some clueless investors". I just looked at the holdings in the funds my 401K owns, and they're full of AI and crypto exposure. These big IPOs are, in a way, the handing of the bag from the early investors to "all of us" so we bear the impact if the bubble bursts, and the cost of the AI war between tech titans if it doesn't.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@0x00string@infosec.exchange @skydotbit@sharkey.skydevs.me oh, agree. A lot of my own growth has come from realizing that many of my childhood and teenage heroes (authors, celebrities, businessfolk, politicians, family members, actors, musicians,etc.) are just flawed self-interested douchebags... and that sometimes I can be too. Like, most of the concerns people have about AI relate to environmental, social, or intellectual property stuff, and I don't ever recall Torvalds being a thought leader in any of those realms; why would anyone expect him not to be agnostic/or a pragmatic enthusiast about AI?

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

A group of rich old men was sitting at an outdoor table I was walking by this morning (I work in an affluent neighborhood). I overheard them teaming up on one who was like, "maybe the global warming thing is real, like it's the ozone or something?" I walked over and was like, "hey guys, just letting you know that the Ozone thing is fixed. We got together, changed what we put in refrigerators, and solved it." One guy was like, "I bought a TON of the old stuff and still use it! HAHA!" so I was like, "Well guys, I guess we know which one of you likes pissing in the pool." The guys got a laugh out of it. Then I pivoted. "You ever drive down the highway and see hawks?" "Yes" "I didn't see a hawk until I was fourteen years old. I spent six years in the woods every weekend and never saw a bird of prey. We got together and fixed the DDT thing too, just like the ozone. I get to see hawks because my parents generation decided to fix a problem. Global warming is real, and you're choosing whether or not to fix it for my kids. By all means, make fun of the bamboo toothbrushes and plastic bag bans, but don't pretend this isn't real and not all of our responsibility to fix."

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

It's hard to do the math, but I'm pretty sure that a much more effective way to exert influence would be to forget about 'buy nothing days' and talk of 'general strikes'... and instead to organize a mass coordinated 'retirement savings pause'. Just pause the guaranteed stock buys that tens of millions of people do every month through their 401Ks and let the market try to cope without the automatic robo-purchasing of these stocks.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@skydotbit@sharkey.skydevs.me @0x00string@infosec.exchange I think he said something to the effect (and I am paraphrasing) of "The kernel isn't an anti-AI space, if the tools produce good code, then the code is welcome." ...but The Register posted it with a thumbnail from something else of Linus giving the middle finger at the camera and a nasty headline, and I guess that kind of inflammatory media move had expected effects.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

I don't know what to do about the volume of meetings. I'm supposed to be doing nuts-and-bolts work, but my calendar keeps getting crammed with meetings. Like, I'm down to one or two 'two hour blocks' a week sometimes. I haven't showered or eaten and it's the end of the day. I'm peopled-out from work and have an overflowing to-do list to end my week. Is this just How It Is? Are modern jobs just sort of an eternal daily ritual of meetings? I want to actually do work, not talk about work that needs doing.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@MrLee@aus.social I... never said it was. If we're going to argue on the Internet, we should probably stick to arguing with what each other are positing as opposed to creating tangents.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@astra_underscore@wetdry.world I caretake for a disabled person with intense BPD and alcoholism, and almost every sentence pivots from happy reminiscing to crying or anger. It's wild. I can't imagine having 1% of that level of emotional instability.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@Palace4Software@mastodon.online I have been around long enough to remember writing my own XFree86 modelines, and I eagerly switched to Wayland back in 2018. It's been great to see the experience steadily improve.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@davidgerard@circumstances.run @bloognoo@retro.pizza @thethunderwolf@tech.lgbt I just heard that the current Start Menu is a React program, presumably so they can easily plug-in all sorts of web crap. I won't believe that Windows is getting better until everyone who was involved with that is looking for a job. I know that's a shitty thing to say, but part of being a cog in the machine is defending what is Right and Good within that machine.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@year_progress oof.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@flamecat @nschultz @kamstrup # cat ~/table/coffee.cup "Are you sure you want to cat coffee.cup? [Y|n]" # N "Catted coffee.cup anyways. Meow."

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@kamstrup@fosstodon.org when I want to create something, 'touch' makes a lot of sense. I've seen the old painting.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@wendyhk@mastodon.green @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social Unfortunately, I think it will end up being a 'great win' at capitalism, where it defeats liberal democracy. We're on the Bad Timeline, after all.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

I spent most of my life learning how computers work, to the point where I can often intuitively feel out things that are sub-optimal. I spent uncountable Saturday nights alone with a screen, understanding the work of the greatest minds of the world. I dedicated my career to bringing my skill-set to the non-profit sector instead of exploiting it for raw dollars.

I know the LLMs can 'make code', but I do not want my work to take the form of "arguing with a junior over chat" so I can attend more meetings.

I'll gladly use AI. There are places the tools we have fit nicely, but I do not believe that "natural language" is the ultimate interface; it's a step down for a lot of us.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange unfortunately, I do. I'd say 80% of the meetings are need my full attention and contribution. I just wish we had other ways of letting people get to the right answer. Theoretically, templates, automation, governance, documentation, and standards would help, but peoples' eyes tend to roll at actually doing that stuff.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@W6KME@mastodon.radio Every You and Every Me got the Placebo.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Something I've had a lot of difficulty trying to understand and express in modern America is how I find the typical "upper middle class" norms pretty unfulfilling and gross.

Like, I don't want to 'yuck' anyone's 'yum', but I'm not terribly interested in having a big single family home with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, a perfect lawn, an SUV, and an army of wage slaves to tend to it all while I spend my time at restaurants and soft white-person leisure activities. I honestly prefer spending a fair portion of my time living inside 'the real world', doing 'real work', and witnessing all the joys and horrors I can in my short time on this earth.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@bloognoo@retro.pizza @davidgerard@circumstances.run In the last few years, they managed to make Calculator, Notepad, and the Taskbar feel unreliable and janky. I don't think they know what 'quality' is, so it's hard to imagine that they can achieve it. IMO, Windows is long overdue for a deep refactor. Keep the kernel, but break-up the various runtimes for different eras of the OS into immutable and separated blobs, and then run apps on those. I don't mind waiting a few seconds for legacy apps to fire-up a legacy runtime if it means my system won't consume 11GB RAM just to get to a desktop.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@bloognoo@retro.pizza @davidgerard@circumstances.run I like it. Maybe we can start with baby steps... Direct3D should just be part of Mesa, and the Windows kernel adopts KMS and DRM for the drivers. That makes Apple the weirdo on the block.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@ryanc@infosec.exchange YOU WILL REGRET THIS!

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@remaster@mastodon.social A note with a bunch of esoteric safety warning signs in different languages would be unifying. Every time I'm in the EU or UK, I am fascinated by the things in public they choose to warn me about.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Getting sleep is amazing. Why didn't anyone tell me about this?! (Everyone told me about this)

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3w ago

Why no headline for "Leaders of money-losingest industry of all time beg to lower R&D costs"?

Seems like that's what's going on.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@IngaLovinde@embracing.space @mcc@mastodon.social I believe the CDDB data was mostly track length and numbers, right? Like, that data would be somewhat unique per album. I think Gracenote ended up owning that data, but also supplemented it with data derived from the music itself to let tracks be identified through fragments played or recorded in various services. It all ended up under one roof.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3w ago

I don't know exactly how to describe this, we've all heard the bonkers stories about AI leaderboard gaming that happened. It's similar. There are a lot of orgs that have been blasting a lot of data at LLM, both via API and to racks of local GPUs, and leadership is happy to just "have a lot of AI happening" without measuring results. The benchmark so far has been "are you using AI" not "what is the [cost | value | benefit]" or even "how will maintaining this look in the long run?". Literally everyone I know across multiple industries has been pressured to "try this specific tool at... stuff" and not asked "do you think this is a problem this kind of tool could help with?" There's a guy (and it's almost always a guy) in your org chart whose greatest joy is to flip-flop models all day and jerk off to how different ones produce different results, and he's spent the last two years excitedly telling leadership that some great breakthrough is right around the corner, that "Blurst-3.9 is just AMAZING, and we'd have been able to do that thing we didn't do last year if we'd only had it at the time, but it just came out, and I heard Chudvom-5 is gonna blow it out of the water!"

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes… We spoke about the Save America Act, the latest strikes in Iran, and how FIFA is going. He told me it was imperative that 'Lindsey Graham go before he does, for reasons'.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@iamdavidobrien@mastodon.social I think you should look at the stats and update your understanding of this. https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/brown-university/student-life/diversity/ And yes, while incomes of parents (not in the stats) are almost surely higher than norms, and there are some students from stunningly wealthy backgrounds, I'd guess that most come from the fairly common 'upper middle class'. The ivy league uses a lot of those big endowments to make sure that if someone gets in, they get to attend; often without having to take loans.

collegefactual.com

Brown University Demographics: Complete Diversity Report

Learn about Brown University diversity statistics including racial demographics, ethnicity, gender ratio, undergraduate enrollment, average ages of students and other Brown student population stats.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

"We asked Billionaires what their plans are for the next decade..."

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Wild that Real Household Incomes are at record highs, and that I'm a high earner in technology with low housing costs, and I cannot afford to go out to dinner on the weekend or buy a new fucking laptop.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@jalefkowit@hachyderm.io Honestly, this would be enough for 90% of my household's transportation needs, and a compact five-seater hatchback with roof racks covers the rest. I yearn to live somewhere where families choose grocery-getters and station wagons instead of ego-stroking monstrosities.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@IngaLovinde@embracing.space @mcc@mastodon.social On a sidenote... Isn't it wild that audio CDs didn't include a few kilobytes of metadata, or album art? I know the format is old, but it seems like it would have been apparent even in the late 1980s that this digital medium had room for that sort of thing and that it might be handy to show album art or song names on the deck.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

A rising tide prolongs all grift.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

"The smoke in the air will meander through the sky on Friday, worsening conditions in some areas and improving them in others." - NYTimes

Has anyone else noticed more and more of NYTimes' writing makes no sense? Smoke never improves air quality. Bad sentence formation.

It feels like I spot spelling, logical, or grammatical errors almost every time I read the paper now, and it used to be a real 'gotcha!' moment.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

The success of the 2020 Toilet Paper Games has inspired the administration to host a new, higher-stakes contest: The 2026 Residential Heating Oil Championship will be hosted in New England.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2w ago

Replying to

@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org Basically, "learn some tricks before you start planning your magic show."

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@paul@tapbots.social By the end of the decade, I am gonna be paying for groceries with Raspberry Pis.

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GreenDotGuy @DarcMoughty@infosec.exchange

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@mattblaze@federate.social It could also cost you several thousand dollars to repair! Getting a pro to replace an entry door that's been rammed starts around $2K where I am.

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