At Google's scale, you need infrastructure 👍

OK Internet, I'm looking for a Bluetooth wristband that vibrates and replaces your phone ringer/alarm - NOT an alarm clock / timer. I want the "IAmResponding" app to wake ME but not my wife 😉 Any suggestions?

Why I am still happy in Infosec after 25+ years: My personal motto is " I'd rather be an optimist proven wrong than a pessimist proven right. " Your mileage may vary, but it helps me.

What bugs me about the "voice" of AI-assisted writing: I think LLMs are like autotune. If someone's already skilled, the AI is fixing an occasional pitch but otherwise invisible. When folks let the AI do *all* the lifting, it's unpleasantly machine-like to take in.

I'm starting to suspect that anyone who says "Older teenagers aren't really 'Children' in the traditional sense" has never been a parent of (or spent significant amounts of time around) one.

90's / 2000's: If an attacker gets access to my OS it's game over, better protect it. 2010's: If an attacker gets access to my browser it's game over, better sandbox it well. 2020's: I'm going to install this attacker's cool AI agent and give it access to both.

A "How did the support agent do?" phone tree just asked me: "On a scale from zero to ten, how well did this representative help you?" And now I don't know what happens if I try to enter 1-0. Is it going to take that as ten, or one?

I'm sorting through scholarship applications this evening and it is REALLY tiring, these days, to investigate who is actually interested in a particular career vs who just asked an AI tool to write them a good essay so they could spam every scholarship they could find.

My dog got all warm lying in the sun so I gave her a big hug and forgot I had fresh hair dye still in...

With all the things going on right now, I'm very very curious about whether #defcon will continue to have as close and cozy a relationship with DHS and the US Military as they have had in the last few years.

Sometimes I really question these guitar teaching apps. Is this honest to God really an actual finger position? Or is some AI playing a prank on me?

OMG Globe fire boots are like SO much more comfortable than anything I've worn before.

This is my happy wall, it is one of the four walls that make up my happy place.

I just paid _more than_ $600 for a pair of work boots. Inflation, yo.

A certain popular dramatic TV show recently featured someone's blood being harvested in a moment intended to morally shock the audience, and I remembered that this is 100% a thing that humans already do to other creatures.

Each year I open a scholarship for helping young Fire/EMS cadets afford school in areas where it's tough to get academy/school funded by the departments. If you're interested, you can contribute some last-minute EOY tax-deductible funds to it:

Exceptions to every rule exist but, broadly speaking, buying anyone younger than GenX a thing that is "hand wash only" or "dry clean only" is essentially a white elephant gift. ;)

The Susie Wiles thing sure seems like a "Finally tell the truth about a bunch of things everyone already knew you'd been openly lying about to establish cred then slip a BIG lie you care a lot about in the middle" type deal. Notice the "Oh yeah also he didn't do anything bad with Epstein" bit?

I loved my time in federal service, but this is a *horrible* deal on its face. Anyone want to take a giant pay cut for 2 years to work for political appointees who mostly hate you AND risk your original job being gone when you're done?

As with most things there's truth on both sides of this debate. Are many H1Bs brought here b/c the company needs to find a certain skill & can't? Yes. Are many brought here b/c they're cheaper & easier to abuse than Citizens? Also absolutely yes, that's well-documented. H1B is a complicated thing.

I'm super out of touch, why do so many Instagram reels have a very quiet audio track underneath the main audio, which drones on and on about the thing you're watching at almost subvocal levels? Is this a secret hypnotism thing or something?

The US legal system is really really weird.

It's getting much tougher to find chill background music on YouTube Music among the vast wastelands of AI-generated junk (which I wish would come with a label I can filter out). What's your favorite go-to background sounds for trying to focus on work while tuning out the world?

A blast from the past. The dell was our second "family" computer after a Packard Bell 286. At $68 per MHz, the Dell today would cost $3,236,800 (Intel Core i5 3.4GHz)

I don't know what to say about this article. The sole reason Western Nations started outsourcing manufacturing to China is the cost savings explicitly provided by having no labor or environmental standards. This is WAI; It's always been global.

Thanksgiving is for finding truly cursed music: bootiemashup.com/bestofbootie...

I cannot express enough how careful people need to be near the ocean. Just because a point isn't currently at the waveline doesn't mean a big wave won't come take you off it. Buddy system, Don't turn your back, respect the dang waters.

To find out where you stand on whether military members should be allowed to disobey illegal orders from superiors: An army Private shoots a baby in the head to punish the mother for some crime. Their Sergeant told them to do it. Should either of them be punished? If so, why?

Dear Nextdoor folks: Please go to a shooting range and acclimatize yourself to what actual gunshots sound like. It's fireworks. Thx.

A small reflection on security controls and policies: Much of the time when someone complains that a security control is "Just Security Theater!!" I find that they actually just haven't thought the threat all the way through.

This was a very interesting research paper. www.usenix.org/syste...

I never imagined learning about diesel engine mechanics would be so fun.

This is a really tricky issue. I'm all for respiratory protection everywhere possible, but wildfire work is hot, heavy, and HARD. I tried it with an N95 mask and it felt suffocating after just 5 minutes.

If anybody in my network wants a quick side gig for some cash and knows how to get Google OAUTH2 + OTRS6 working properly, hit me up. I'm too busy to do this for a non-profit I love, and they need some help.

The "Chanting 'Fuck Joe Biden' at a Nascar race is actually hilarious and Joe deserved it" crowd sure have a lot of strong feelings about respect for the office of the president, now that Trump got booed at a sports event.

September 2025: "Well, I've cancelled Disney+ and Hulu because they went conserva-woke and started cancelling comedians - but do I really want to get rid of YouTube TV entirely b/c I can't choose which channels are in my plan?" Disney, in October: "Don't worry, we got you fam."

I used to think that I worked with a lot of really brilliant and capable people through my career so far, but lately seeing where their careers have taken them, I KNOW I've worked with a lot of really brilliant and capable people.

You know that thing where if the headline is written as a question then the answer is definitely "No"

Man, even the candy is under pressure around here

Something more junior people need to be taught about promotions in tech is that promotions to "Senior" and beyond are just as much about your ability to function in an organization as they are about your technical skills. Just being great at the technical work isn't enough.

LOL my Mother In Law sent me a "happy anniversary" message 2 days early and made me panic for about 5 minutes thinking I'd gotten the date wrong and missed it. Well played.

When my kid was 1yo, I got IMMENSE amounts of grief from other parents and family members because I didn't want to wash my hands between handling/eating peanuts and touching my own child. No one in my family has any history of severe allergies. Fast forward a decade and....

Old school tip that sometimes comes in handy still....

Sometimes I respond to cold-call outreach from tech platform vendors.

Another one of the problems with increasing use of unmarked cars & unmarked cops: You swerve to get around some random white car you think is driving like a jerk and get into a tiny fender bender - but surprise! It's four fully armed angry men who now claim you've committed a felony assault on them

Granted I'm not a military expert like Pete Hegseth but from afar it kind of seems to me like logistics, cyber security and drone operators are essentially carrying the weight of most modern warfare. That said, if they're getting rid of mandatory phishing "exercises" I'm game.

Opinions wanted: If you regularly eat lunch with coworkers & they talk about work for the majority of the lunch - do you mentally bucket that as work time or as a break? Let's say the discussion isn't all gossip or blowing off steam; at least 50% is work talk.

This is referred to as a Kavanaugh stop, right?

I don't know if y'all know this amazing fact, but -- both Cockatoos and Conures are capable of squawking loud enough in one's office to actually overwhelm the noise canceling on a good pair of headphones and cause audio clipping. It's amazing.

I dunno, it doesn't quite have the same snap that the others do.