Years ago I was testing to see if some security software could detect data exfiltration over USB. I defeated it by using a firmware writer to commit a text file to an external multi touch device as a custom gesture. It was a text file that just said "blah blah blah" for 256 characters or so.

I ordered something from a manufacturer that is a 2.5 hour drive from here, in Canada. It would be here already except that with the de minimus exception gone, I get to wait an unknown extra time and pay extra tax for a clarinet mouthpiece no one in the US manufactures in the first place. So stupid.

return to office

In a meeting looking at all the data supporting RTO. It's just out of frame.

Hearing that Microsoft is announcing RTO. To mis-quote Last of the Mohicans: "[Microsoft], you are a [company] with a few admirable qualities, but taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you."

The current moment in AI is basically as if companies started cutting headcount when spellcheck was introduced because of the time saved in writing emails.

I loved this piece from @grimalkina.bsky.social about who is and isn't allowed to be technical. "I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but if my belonging in tech is fundamentally unacceptable yours is uncertain." www.fightforthehuman.com/why-i-cannot...

Just listening to the TOCTOU Twins. It’s weird, I thought I knew what songs were on this album but it keeps surprising me!

LLMs are good NLP like CNNs are good computer vision, which is to say, very cool for what they are, but marketing this stuff as actual "artificial intelligence" in the sense of there's a living thinking thing in there is irresponsibly deceptive and should honestly be considered fraud

I just had an online healthcare appointment. When I opened the app it was not using the right camera, so I clicked to change it, and instead of giving me a settings dialog to choose the camera it *brought up a chat box so I could try to describe the setting I needed to change* FFS

When I was on calls all day working from home my dog stayed in his bed at my side all day. Now that I am not, when I do go into my office he is *psyched*. I whistle for him to join me and he scrambles down the stairs as though I were offering a plate of bacon.

Scott once again demonstrates his ability to identify and succinctly message the core value proposition of an offering.

"What if told you in order to become God Emperor of Dune, you have to be a giant worm with a human face on it." Me: I'm in. Where do I sign "But in order to become this worm, you have to lay quietly somewhere for 3,500 years" I said I'm in. I already said I'm in

Quoting Douglas Adams in a group chat and crossing my fingers I have correctly judged the average age of the participants

Based on his experience, my dog probably thinks we are always going to the park, the lake, the groomer, or the vet when we leave the house, and sometimes he gets to come too.

Hey Seattle, I washed my car yesterday so that is why it's raining today

LinkedIn has a jobs category for "Jobs where you're more likely to hear back," which is a pretty low bar but one which so many companies still manage not to clear.

AI is making web search so much more stupid. I just looked up foods that are good for someone recovering from nausea and Google recommended "fried foods" If you expand the entry though:

I got 2 job rejections today, one from a role I interviewed for and one from an application. It's a step up, though, because the last 3 places I interviewed never closed the loop, they just stopped talking to me, and most applications go into a complete black hole.

I encourage every Microsoft employee to start using the meeting title "Business Update - Please Prioritize" for every meeting they schedule with management.

OMG that passive voice from Satya's message: "And yet, at the same time, we’ve undergone layoffs." blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/07...

Last night we went to see the Philip Glass Ensemble do a live soundtrack performance to a screening of Koyaanisqatsi. I had listened to the soundtrack in its entirety and watched clips of the film, but in combination it was relentless and deeply thought provoking.

I had a couple on-site interviews this morning, then came home and made eggs for lunch and when I cracked one of them it had a double yolk. Good fortune, right?

Today at the used book store I asked the clerk where I could find Michael Crichton books and she asked me what genre he writes and I felt myself crumble into dust and blow away

Hey friends! I did a TEDx talk and it's now up on the TED Conferences YouTube. It's possibly the best and most important talk I've ever done. I would ask that you watch it, and please SHARE it broadly and widely. Thank you! youtu.be/dVG8W-0p6vg #AI #Tech #TED

Found this imported post from 2023 while looking for something else and it made me chuckle

Today in "how's that layoff going?" - for folks impacted in May, our insurance was terminated this weekend, but Microsoft has not provided many of us the ability to do COBRA enrollment yet and for others that have gotten the link, the cost is incorrect when compared to the separation agreement.

I am in a customer service chat with Home Depot and it feels *very much" like I am chatting with an AI, which I don't mind so much but it does say I am talking to a live agent. So probably the agent is using AI to respond. Either way it feels kind of creepy.

Tech billionaires naming projects after cautionary tales has big "politician playing 'Born in the USA' and 'Fortunate Son' at a rally" energy.

I have spent a lot of my day at the cross section of open source, raspberry pi, home automation, and IoT, which is to say: I worked for 5 hours and trudged through the depths of Debian Bluetooth configuration and still can't change the color temperature of my smart lightbulb without a WAN call

Tech leaders think AI is smarter than it is because it sounds exactly like what they think is smart, while to everyone else, it sounds exactly like a tech leader trying to look smart.

Today is the end of the 60 day continuation period for Microsoft employees laid off in May. The majority of my stock awards, my consecutive tenure with the company, and my eligibility for the 55/15 retirement program all expire tonight.

I see a lot of breathless speculation on the reasons for tech layoffs. It's right here y'all. This is where the salary money is going. I am not saying it's good or bad, I am just saying it doesn't have to be a lot more complicated than "offsetting high capital expenses with workforce reduction"

Today kiddo and I took on a little project: we assembled a raspberry pi, added an SDR (software defined radio) tuner, set it up as an ADS-B flight tracker, and we are now a receiver feeding flight location data into FlightRadar24.

I have made a piece of visual art to commemorate my time at Microsoft. It is the first page of my separation agreement.

There are lots of LinkedIn posts with tips on resumes and interviewing, but anyone who thinks the biggest problem in finding a job right now is something other than companies ghosting candidates has clearly not been through the process lately.

If you are not intimately familiar with flash floods you may not realize you should mentally categorize them more closely to "tsunamis" than to standing water in roadways during a rainstorm.

Once upon a time I was a girl who went to Christian summer camp in Texas. At that age I still crawled in bed with my parents when there was a storm. That innocent yearning of a child to seek comfort in the darkness, and knowing what happened... it's too sad for words.

Heads of state who ride and wrangle Who look at your face from more than one angle Can cut you from their bloated budgets Like sharpened knives to chicken mcnuggets

It's hard to know how to answer while interviewing when they ask for product-related metrics. My default setting has been to treat this information as confidential externally and need-to-know internally unless explicitly part of a go to market plan, but it makes for a pretty unsatisfying answer.

The day of the RIF in May, @scott.hanselman.com recommended the game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to me. I want to pass that recommendation along to others. The tone and storytelling of the game has felt pitch perfect for my recent emotional experience in a way that I cannot quite explain.

“Our ̶e̶m̶p̶l̶o̶y̶e̶e̶s̶ ̶ GPUs are our most valuable asset” - Microsoft

Being laid off at Microsoft has been like finding out that someone you admire is rude to wait staff. There's really no walking back that callousness and disrespect. I know it's hard - I *know* - but those still there should reflect deeply on what you are associating yourself with.

News is that there are an additional 9,000 layoffs happening at Microsoft, in addition to the 6,000 in May and another round in June that got less press. The local papers report it as "the largest round since 10,000 were cut in 2023," instead of, you know, doing the math.

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

People who are saying that the recent RIFs make them feel like they're just a number to the company: that's oversimplifying. It's Microsoft, so we are clearly GUIDs.

Lack of curiosity is a learned behavior. Unlearn it

Public service announcement: If you were in the May 13 Microsoft layoffs your separation agreement paperwork is due today