Punkie

Started with online BBS’s in the 1980s where you could get kicked off for being a dick (and your phone number banned) but Larry Wall’s “rn” for Usenet used to say before every post:

This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars to send everywhere. Please be sure you know what you are doing.

You got me. I think it was because our group was under one contract set of hires (I was an employee, but some of these people were still part of a contract), which is why we weren’t let go immediately. But sometimes you get some manager who doesn’t want the OLD people, but a FRESH NEW set of people. For example, when the entire QA department was let go an outsourcer, all the documentation we made was thrown out the window because “that was the old way!” And the next major software release was a disaster. And we were going from a 16 bit client (Windows 3.1x based) version to the new 32 bit (Windows 95/98-native) version, and the QA/testing was not really part of the process. “Who are these product testers, and why are they so negative about the product? LOSE 'EM! They only see mistakes, there’s no room for that kind of attitude, and it slows the whole release cycle down.”

Corporate stupidity.

This is comedy gold. MANY years ago, late 1990s, my department was getting laid off, but due to some contract line items, they gave us 90 days to find a new job within the company and then blacklisted us, which was another bullshit thing. Then someone found in a job hiring seminar in a nearby convention center where our company had a booth. The seminar was free, so a bunch of us went.

At the booth, we found out that they were interviewing for our jobs (QA testing engineers). Not a surprise, but they got excited when the first few of us were uniquely qualified (duh). But after the third person, that guy didn’t hide we still worked for our company. Someone from the HR team panicked when they realized the group of us were CURRENT employees. What made it even funnier was that not only was it the same QA testing jobs they needed to hire for, but the pay was about 20% greater than we were making.

HR called corporate asking “what do we do???” Corporate said “SHUT THE BOOTH DOWN!!” A very weird reaction. Then we applied to other jobs at the fair, and when we left, the booth was still closed. The next day, those that interviewed got taken into a meeting room and cursed out by management for “that stupid stunt!” We asked, “so why are we being blacklisted?” “You’re not being blacklisted!” “Uh… nobody internally will return our calls, and we have found out that they were told not to return our calls due to a leaked email.”

Oof. Oddly enough, i got a new job a few weeks later in the same company. So it kind of worked.

This platform became “mature” with less downtime around the Reddit API disaster, and I wanted to support it. I still use Reddit, but I go here first.

All over the map: Barracuda, SkyHawk, Ironwolf, Constellation, Cheetah, etc…

Three companies, kept track, but not after I left. It was always funny to me that they bought out Atlas and Maxtor. “Of course they did. Why not dominate the market on shitty drives? lol” I am surprised they hadn’t bought Deskstar.

Yeah, but it’s Seagate. I have worked in data centers, and Seagate drives had the most failures of all my drives and somehow is still in business. I’d say I was doing an RMA of 5-6 drives a month that were Seagate, and only 4-5 a year Western Digital.

It’s the “not handling” part that gets us as kids. We knew better. Adults didn’t. In my case, I was in high school, but it was on a “Teacher workday, student holiday” we had each semester. I watched it live on NASA TV, which we had on channel UHF 55 in the DC area. Even the voice of mission control delayed about a minute or two. I remember thinking, “THAT didn’t look good…” but then they said nothing but normal speed and temp readings, so I thought it was just the angle of the chase plane. Only when the famous “forked cloud” appeared that the announcer said, “we have an apparent major malfunction,” or something.

I’d compare LLMs to a junior executive. Probably gets the basic stuff right, but check and verify for anything important or complicated. Break tasks down into easier steps.

No. I have known a lot of attractive people get bullied by jealous bullies. Imagine you’re attractive, guys checking you out, and girls who work HARD to get noticed see you get noticed without much effort. You may even be, “no thank you,” like you have a choice. And they will seethe because they think it’s unfair you “have it so easy.” Logic and reason do not apply to bullies, they only know how to “preemptively retaliate” to keep the status quo in their head,

I was in a discussion the other day about this, and someone brought up the “freedom vs. security” as the kind of “trade” someone assumes if they would, with complete freedom, fuck up someone else because they had no restrictions. We were discussing how the reason most laws exist is because somebody fucked it up for someone else.

I read somewhere that stainless steel (like common household items, which also has some chromium in it) would outlive plastics, and could even survive in geological strata like fossils, escept they will last indefinitely. Recently, I saw some “premium toy site” sold “high quality stainless steel” butt plugs. Assuming it’s not being superfluous (one reviewer said “it’s nice and heavy,” and I don’t use butt plugs, but that’s a quality one wants?), this could confuse a lot of fossil hunters, especially 304 and 316 stainless, which has been known to last hundreds of years under the sea. 316 stainless steel, for example, is widely used in marine applications like boat hardware, underwater structures, and offshore platforms.

A friend of mine started the anime meme “Is this a butterfly?” She’s actually employed as a translator for anime, so it made sense.

Also does anyone still port knock these days?

If they did, would we know?

Basic setup for me is scripted on a new system. In regards to ssh, I make sure:

• Root account is disabled, sudo only
• ssh only by keys
• sshd blocks all users but a few, via AllowUsers
• All ‘default usernames’ are removed, like ec2-user or ubuntu for AWS ec2 systems
• The default ssh port moved if ssh has to be exposed to the Internet. No, this doesn’t make it “more secure” but damn, it reduces the script denials in my system logs, fight me.
• Services are only allowed connections by an allow list of IPs or subnets. Internal, when possible.

My systems are not “unhackable” but not low-hanging fruit, either. I assume everything I have out there can be hacked by someone SUPER determined, and have a vector of protection to mitigate backwash in case they gain full access.

About 4 days. multiple times. I was really poor once. I used to take Tylenol and Tums to keep away the hunger pains, and I am surprised I still have a liver and kidneys.

Kept women with Instagram influencer vibes selling Lulu Roe or whatever. Usually has a job listed as a “realtor” but don’t actually sell houses. Houses are always McMansions with gray floors, white walls, and vaulted ceilings. They have kids are named Jaydenn, Ashleigh, Brittany, Colt, and Madison. Their skin is tanned, taught, and they always smell of product.

Electrical power? I mean, not including camping, I think 4-5 days after a major storm.

The record is my maternal grandmother who lived to either 86 or 89, depending on what birth record you use.

I have a kaleidoscope for the blind.

One of only 150 or 250 made (I forget which). The artist (Reinhold Marxhausen) got Alzheimer’s in his final years, and is probably dead now. It looks like a metal blob, but the inside is hollow and it has are springs that vibrate and make tones to the slightest touch and heat change. Just shake it and hold it to your ear. It makes different and unique sounds depending on who is holding it, the weather, the air temperature, and so on.

I got it from a kaleidoscope collector, who sold it to me because the small handmade box it came in was damaged in shipping, and it wasn’t worth as much without the box. I keep it in a handmade suede bag.

Edit: I made an Imgur post about it: https://imgur.com/gallery/kaleidoscope-blind-Ab8Xz