Jonathan Kamens 86 47

he/his
Director of Information Security at 4DMedical.
I work primarily in #infosec, #IT, and #SaaS infrastructure.
ex #USDS (fired by #DOGE)
Dad, old-school hacker, Righteous Indignation Man. Opinions are my own. Follow my blog at @jikblog.
#COVID #CovidIsNotOver #USPol #MAPol #BosPoli #Boston #MA #politics #linux #FOSS #OpenSource #ConsumerActivism #privacy #programmer #hacker #fedi22 #resist https://justmytoots.com/@jik@federate.social

Public Key

npub1ethstkst9853uj0l37x0v878y0am5j50at9l50ux6qrxpxuv6xpsh7vupq

NIP-05 Address

jik@federate-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv4mc9mg9jn6g7f8lclr8krlrj87a6f2874jl687rdqpnqnwxdrqcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43q37u56t

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1ethstkst9853uj0l37x0v878y0am5j50at9l50ux6qrxpxuv6xpsh7vupq

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-29 01:53:31 UTC

This is a “What do you think of this #infosec practice, and what do you think I should do about it?” thread. Please boost!
Executive summary: When an ISP forwards an abuse report to its customer to do something about, is it OK to include the host name and IP address of the server that was attacked and other sensitive details from the abuse report? If not, is it worth complaining and trying to get a huge ISP to do something about it?
1/9

2026-10-28 00:36:25 UTC

We have a #Kidde AC-wired CO detector next to our gas furnace. It has a 10-year lifespan. Today, 10 yrs + 2 days after it was first powered on, it started chirping insistently for us to replace it.
I think that's pretty darn impressive.
Alas, it appears the particular model may have been discontinued, so we may not be able to get a plug-and-play replacement. Though some stores seem to still claim to have it in stock, so we'll see.
EDIT: I know it has a timer. Still IMO impressive.
#homeOwnership

2026-10-21 18:06:45 UTC

If you're not in one of the countries where eBay is legally required to notify you of your right to opt out of your data being used for AI training (European Economic Area, U.K., Switzerland, perhaps others), then eBay probably sent you a different email which doesn't mention that you can opt out.
However, you still can, at this page:
https://accountsettings.ebay.com/ai-preferences
#eBay #AI #privacy
#nevent1q…gxhg

2026-10-20 23:33:46 UTC

This is a #PSA about cleaning fancy spray heads in kitchen faucets from #DeltaFaucet and maybe other brands.
We have a Delta Faucet in our kitchen with a fancy spray head with three settings, shown below. It was installed new a few years ago. Since then, the speed and pressure of water flowing out of the faucet has gradually gotten slower.
How much slower? Well, it turns out about 50%, as described later in the thread.
#DIY #HomeRepair
1/4
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/475/850/712/205/498/original/95fa8bcdae893cf8.jpg

2026-10-14 17:04:09 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
I send an abuse complaint to abuse@1und1.net.
1und1.net reroutes the complaint to abuse@versatel.de, _and rewrites the To: header of my email to contain that address_, which it REALLY SHOULD NOT DO.
versatel.de rejects the email because DMARC verification failed. Of course it did: they rewrote the email header and broke the DKIM signature.
For some reason, it took 11 days for them to reject the email.
Why are idiots allowed to run networks?
#SMTP #DMARC #DKIM #SysAdmin

2026-10-11 01:55:06 UTC

I just found out Audrey Niffenegger's sequel to #TheTimeTravelersWife, called #LifeOutOfOrder, was just published.
It has "narrative threads that include Alba's marriage and a romance with another man, within the context of a dystopian world of global warming, political strife and the rise of fascism, and artificial intelligence" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler%27s_Wife#Sequel).
The first book was great, but it was plenty sad enough (tragedy, not romance!). I'm not about to read an even more dystopian sequel.
#books

2026-10-11 01:44:16 UTC

A few months ago I got into a fender-bender with another car. The other driver thought I left my lane and entered his, and I thought he left his lane and entered mine. There were no witnesses, and I think both of us were being honest about how we thought the accident occurred.
Massachusetts is a no-fault state, and neither insurance company was able to determine that one of us was more than 50% at fault, so each of us just dealt with our own insurance.
1/5

2026-10-05 20:03:04 UTC

I want to share with you the gist of a mind-blowing conversation I had with my doctor today at my annual physical.
She asked about my mood, which led to a conversation about how AI is ruining everything, which prompted her to mention that she doesn’t use the AI transcription app that her hospital network is encouraging people to use, because she finds it’s too time-consuming for her to read and correct the AI transcriptions instead of just writing down her own notes.
#healthcare
1/5

2026-10-04 23:41:56 UTC

Today I reread "Superluminal", by the late great Vonda McIntyre. It is a stunningly good book which you should read. It has been >30 years since I last read it.
Superluminal was published in 1983. I found this on pages 37–38 of the original, hardcover edition.
Read the excerpt below, then read again what I wrote above, that this book was published *in 1983*.
My friends, science-fiction authors are future-tellers.
#SF #SFF #ScienceFiction #VondaMcIntyre #books #bookstodon
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/385/250/557/597/213/original/516db2a981399adf.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/385/251/147/747/173/original/8d38b6884148ff95.jpg

2026-10-02 19:53:15 UTC

U.S. (spec. NYC) Housing Law question for anyone who has useful knowledge…
The ceiling in Uncle's apartment is leaking in multiple places.
Building management claim it's Uncle's responsibility to pay people to move his stuff out of the way from where the leaks are so they can make the repairs.
I think paying to clear the area should be the landlord's responsibility since expenses to fix code violations should be their responsibility.
Who's right?
:boostRequest:
#law #USLaw #housing #housingLaw

2026-09-28 17:49:01 UTC

In the years since I graduated from #MIT I've had many reasons to be disappointed by my alma mater. Here's yet another one, but I'm pleased to see faculty fighting back.
#AI #surveillance #privacy
https://fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-campus-surveillance/

2026-09-25 17:35:16 UTC

#EconomicJustice is an #infosec issue.
Cybersecurity defenders face an ever-growing flood of professionalized online criminal activity: hacking, scams, ransomware, fraud, etc., etc.
One thing many online criminal groups have in common is, they’re located in impoverished countries where the standard of living is brutal, life is precarious, and many people think that stealing from people in first-world countries is reparations for the harms of #imperialism and #colonialism.
1/3

2026-09-24 19:52:21 UTC

Today’s new, ridiculous #1Password bug which should never have gotten past QA and released (actually a series of interwoven bugs)…
Background: I am on macOS. I have two 1Password accounts accessible through the app and browser extension, my work account which is authenticated through our SSO IdP and my personal account which is authenticated with a password.
#infosec #PasswordManagers
1/12

2026-09-24 02:38:02 UTC

This article claims that #Framework has severed its relationship with #DHH and #Omarchy. I was unaware of this. Questions I could use help answering if you know anything:
1) Can anybody point at any evidence that Framework has actually done that? I'm glad to hear it if it's true, but saying it doesn't make it so.
2) Remind me, was there anything else we were upset about regarding Framework, other than giving money to DHH and Omarchy and then being shitty about it when they were called out?
#nevent1q…l5z5

2026-09-22 13:49:14 UTC

📌 2026 Massachusetts ballot questions: my recommendations
Here are my recommendations for how I believe people should vote on the nine 🫠 initiative petitions that Massachusetts residents are voting on this year.
📌📌 TLDR
I recommend you vote:
- *YES* on Question 1
- *YES* on Question 2
- *NO* on Question 3
- *YES* on Question 4
- *NO* on Question 5 (*strong* recommendation)
- *NO* on Question 6
- *YES* on Question 7
- *NO* on Question 8
- *YES* on Question 9
#politics #USPol #MAPoli
1/30

2026-09-20 18:52:31 UTC

Hello to my fellow Jews. I would like to take the opportunity of Erev #YomKippur to remind you that asking your fellow Jews to “forgive you all your sins” is not how it’s done.
Jewish law is quite explicit: you can and should ask forgiveness only for _specific_ sins you know you’ve committed. Generically requested foregiveness, even if granted, is not a get-out-of-jail-free card to avoid doing real #Teshuva.
#Jewstodon #Mazeldon
1/4

2026-09-11 19:56:41 UTC

This is basically my thinking nowadays on 9/11.
We should absolutely mourn all the people killed on that day and all the people who have suffered illness and death since then as result of the attacks (e.g., first responders).
We should also mourn the far larger number of poor brown innocent people in other countries killed and injured by the US and its allies (looking at you, Israel).
If you can't bring yourself to do both, that's kinda racist and xenophobic, y'know?
#nevent1q…lma6

2026-09-05 19:57:12 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
Today I received an email message from #BlueShieldOfCalifornia telling me there was a message waiting for me in the “Message Center” on their portal:
1/8
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/220/195/152/019/371/original/6bcd90ef16377dfc.png

2026-08-30 13:48:27 UTC

People in my life who are older than I am keep telling me how not old I am, but for most of my life I was taking zero medications per day and now I'm taking five pills a day and it seems unlikely the number will decrease for the rest of my life, so you know, I'm feeling kind of old. 🤷

2026-08-30 10:43:18 UTC

Listen, folks…
If you're trying to convince people that there are alternatives to #Debian #Linux that aren't using AI, you're probably not going to get far by suggesting distributions that literally have no installer and expect you to install Linux by hand from an empty drive, or that haven't put out updated images in eight months, or that don't seem to explain anywhere on their website or in their documentation what their commitments are in terms of patching security vulnerabilities.

2026-08-30 10:04:13 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
There is no content in the changelog file in the Debian package for the #Signal desktop app.
The release notes, at least on Github, often say something like "tweaks, bug fixes, and performance enhancements without saying what they are.
Around two weeks ago, the Signal devs put out a release that breaks the system tray icon, at least on Linux GNOME. They've put out three releases since then and still haven't fixed this absurd regression.
🤬

2026-08-29 22:03:17 UTC

1. Debian Developer resigns from the project in response to the recent vote to allow generative AI use within Debian.
2. A member of the debian-devel mailing list sends the message at left in response.
3. I just sent the message at right in response to that.
#Debian #Linux #AI
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/181/050/320/400/233/original/b24356c3f61f11b4.png
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/181/052/445/780/933/original/65d9b6494b6d7744.png

2026-08-25 17:01:37 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
I’m a @nprofile…yejy extension developer who has also contributed code to Thunderbird core, so I regularly need to create new bugs at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ and/or contribute to existing bugs.
For months now, whenever I log into bugzilla, I get a bogus 429 error and I have to wait like an hour before I can use the site.
1/2
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/157/219/332/426/271/original/e33e4a9bd683ee44.png

2026-08-24 13:57:16 UTC

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https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/150/828/764/141/062/original/bb43afa96129ddc3.png

2026-08-22 17:45:36 UTC

I'm sure all of us have received our share of annoying customer satisfaction surveys, but have you ever been asked to fill one out about THE FUNERAL HOME THAT BURIED YOUR MOTHER? 🙄🤦🤬 #smdh #yhgtbfkmwts
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/140/382/655/288/037/original/73c55263f0ac49a0.jpg

2026-08-20 23:58:33 UTC

I'm trying to #POSSE (Publish Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) a series of postings on my self-hosted #WordPress blog. I want to be able to easily republish a post from my blog as a #Mastodon thread. I thought there was a way to do this, but I can't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I would rather not have to do it manually or write the tooling myself.
#ActivityPub

2026-08-18 20:29:19 UTC

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@nprofile…nmr0 I just called and left a message saying I was interested in volunteering for the campaign with my name and phone number. I'll let you know if anybody calls back.
I agree with you that this is incredibly odd and suspicious.

2026-08-18 19:28:12 UTC

This is the most damning and horrifying text in this article:
>Bonica found that out of some $670 million in donations, just $11 million wound up in the coffers of campaigns, national party committees, and individual candidates. The other $659 million stayed with the fundraising groups themselves. That works out, Bonica wrote, to “a fundraising efficiency rate of just 1.6 percent.”
Hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Democratic donors.
#politics #USPol #DCCC #DSCC
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democrats-fundraising-scam-pac-report/

2026-08-13 17:32:48 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3 so, do you know what caused the problem and what fixed it?

2026-08-11 15:24:01 UTC

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@nprofile…nmr0 While the Democratic consultants who keep telling candidates to tack right claim it's to win over centrist voters, they're actually advising that to win over donors, not voters. Most of the really rich Democrats are status-quo neoliberals, and the consultants are convinced the only way to win an election is to have those donors writing checks to you and not to your opponent.

2026-08-07 21:22:45 UTC

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But that's all over. The boomers have fucked up the U.S. economy and the world for everybody, and my kids will be the first generation of middle-class white people since WW2 to be worse off financially than their parents.
If the fucking boomers think the kids entering the job market now are going to get "more conservative" as they age, they're deluding themselves.
Politics are going to change for the better in the U.S. It's going to be painful to get there, but we're going to get there.
2/2

2026-08-07 21:21:43 UTC

I'm tired of the saying that people get more conservative as they get older.
Reality check: people get more conservative as they get more wealthy. The people saying "people get more conservative as they get older" are white people living in a privileged bubble in which, in the generations since WW2, people like them typically amassed more wealth as they aged.
#politics #economics #collapse #racism
1/2

2026-08-07 14:55:19 UTC

Shot: Chaser:
#politics #USpol #Canada #economics #unemployment
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/054/797/938/389/200/original/58fc6309c283eb64.png
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/054/798/145/252/377/original/26b89b3ac82821bb.png

2026-08-07 01:34:56 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0 My wife, too, is not a fan. But lord knows she needs as many fans as she can get, given the hot flashes. 🥁

2026-08-06 16:58:06 UTC

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@nprofile…7j9y thoughts and prayers

2026-08-06 15:36:58 UTC

If your company uses #Atlassian products, you might want to consider disabling #Rovo, at least until this vulnerability is patched. Or what the heck, when your users discover they don't actually need it, leave it turned off, thus permanently reducing your attack surface area. 🤷
https://www.promptarmor.com/resources/atlassian-rovo-exfiltrates-data
#PromptArmor #AI #infosec #ThreatIntelligence

2026-07-30 13:24:56 UTC

#3GoodThings @nprofile…l39a
1) Free street parking in #CambridgeMA before 9am (if you know where to look!).
2) Delicious chocolate croissant and hot chocolate at Paris Baguette for breakfast.
3) Breakfast with Spouse before we each go about our days.

2026-07-28 23:29:13 UTC

Friends, this is the time of year when I remind you that #BostonMA always needs poll-workers. You don't need to live in #Boston to be one, you just need to be a registered voter in #Massachusetts. Democracy doesn't work without elections, and elections don't work without poll-workers, so please consider signing up. Start at https://boston.gov/pollworker if you might be interested.

2026-07-26 20:47:17 UTC

#FirstWorldProblems now that I've "gotten up from shiva" (week of formal mourning following Mom's funeral is over) and I'm going back to work (from home) tomorrow, I'd like to take my motorcycle out to get lunch tomorrow in the expected beautiful weather, but we have so much left over of the good food that kind people brought us during shiva that it would be woefully irresponsible not to eat in. D'oh.

2026-07-08 20:25:33 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0 "don't think about pink elephants"

2026-07-08 20:23:49 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0 I dunno, it just seems like you want all of us to be spending more time thinking about your boobs

2026-07-06 21:02:49 UTC

I can safely state with a high degree of confidence that I've never sexually assaulted anyone.
I'm pretty sure there are quite a lot of people in the United States who can say the same.
Personally, I'd prefer if the people who can't would fucking stop running for office, especially if they're on my "side" politically.
#GrahamPlatner #politics #USPol #MEPol

2026-07-02 16:44:05 UTC

Uncle has an electric wheelchair which was deemed medically necessary and paid for by his insurance company.
He is much less mobile now than when it was approved.
It's broken.
The insurance company won't authorize a repair until Uncle's doctor writes a "prescription" for the repair and sends it to the company that services the chair.
I've been asking the doctor's office for weeks to send the prescription and they've been ignoring me.
This is some serious bullshit.
#healthcare #healthInsurance

2026-07-02 14:27:05 UTC

Trump's "Great American State Fair" is a too-on-the-nose metaphor for the entire Trump administration.
"Planning a national, multi-week event is a huge undertaking. It requires planning and execution. It is hard work. And what visiting the Great American State Fair reminds you of is that our current government just doesn’t do the hard work any longer."
https://davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/what-is-the-great-american-state-fair-like
#Trump #USPol #politics

2026-06-30 10:08:45 UTC

Mullvad was a sponsor of the @nprofile…wh29 conference. EMF found out at the same time we all did that one of the co-founders/owners of Mullvad is bankrolling the fascists in the Netherlands. No dilly-dallying, no equivocation, they kicked that sponsorship to the curb. This is the way.
https://social.emfcamp.org/@emf/statuses/01KWBXJ4JCNBK3AZ2YW3M22J9D

2026-06-26 17:15:28 UTC

My good deed for the day: a package arrived at our house, with our address on it, addressed to a name that has never resided at our house.
I called the phone # on the shipping label and reached the intended recipient, who informed me that a digit had inadvertently been left off the delivery address.
So I drove it over to her house and left it on her porch.

2026-06-19 02:30:34 UTC

The algae bloom in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool proves one thing conclusively: not _everything_ Trump touches dies.

2026-06-14 04:51:47 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
Continuing today's theme, the folks who maintain the Massachusetts E-Z Pass website have decided there's no need for them to allow people who are traveling outside the U.S. to access their E-Z Pass accounts. Because it's not like anybody in Massachusetts might need to do so while traveling, eh?
(It works, when I turn on my VPN, which geolocates to Texas. It sure makes a lot of sense to let people in Texas access a Massachusetts site, but not people in foreign countries, eh?)
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/746/648/719/412/416/original/b3eb0e21ef85548b.png

2026-06-13 20:03:24 UTC

Just tried #Vegemite for the first time. Perhaps… it's an acquired taste?
I suppose a sufficiently thin layer of it might be palatable with unsalted butter. 🤷
#food #Australia

2026-06-11 19:02:31 UTC

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Apropos my last boost (https://mastodon.social/@scalzi/116732287039062368 from @nprofile…l30y), I want to share this embarrassingly bad, obviously AI-written scam email which I received yesterday. I've shared a screenshot of the email below for your amusement, or you can visit https://blog.kamens.us/2026/06/11/hilariously-bad-scam-email-obviously-written-by-ai/ for a full breakdown of all the red flags, some of which aren't visible in the screenshot.
#infosec #phishing #scam #AI #funny
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/732/684/578/943/904/original/927f457325925ece.png

2026-06-08 01:31:56 UTC

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@nprofile…l2f6 actually, most of that article is Dan explaining what he thinks the attack was, but he doesn't offer any evidence to support his hypothesis and I'm pretty sure it's wrong.
ref: https://federate.social/@jik/116694985659498974

2026-06-04 03:15:19 UTC

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@nprofile…l2f6 you say that like it's a bad thing

2026-06-02 19:47:36 UTC

This fake USPS email was good enough that I clicked the link before I saw all the red flags.
That led to an obviously bogus login page, so fortunately I stopped there.
Red flags I should have noticed:
* orphaned quotation mark in From line
* bogus From address
* sent to an address USPS shouldn't be using
* sent June 2, claimed expected delivery June 1
* DKIM Verifier warned me about the orphaned quotation mark
Despite all this, it was good enough to get me to click. D'oh!
#infosec #phishing
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/682/221/049/619/426/original/b6f8f5c7acd720dd.png

2026-06-01 15:07:53 UTC

If you bought an eyeglass repair kit so that you would have it around the house when you needed it years later, where would you put it so that you'd be sure to remember where it is and be able to find it when you needed it?
Asking for a friend.

2026-05-27 16:23:01 UTC

I was telling people not to donate to Wikipedia before it was cool.
(An org with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank needs your donations much less than the organizations subsisting on a shoestring budget trying to save democracy and actively mitigating harm to real people.)
#nevent1q…mk9a

2026-05-26 18:48:40 UTC

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@nprofile…skgu This photo is so fucking ridiculous that I had to go check if it's real.
It's real.
Jesus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/us/politics/ufc-fight-trump-white-house.html

2026-05-21 20:15:40 UTC

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why @nprofile…60xv would decide in its new release that its users want the default theme to make tabs blend into the background like this.
This is not beautiful, it's annoying.
When there's a region of the screen I need to be able to click on, I need to be able to see its borders, for fuck's sake.
#Vivaldi
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/614/387/884/132/431/original/06cdc8df358d85bb.png

2026-05-19 21:35:04 UTC

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@nprofile…k95v omg didn't realize there were new MurderBot and Radch books, need to go find them.

2026-05-19 13:10:32 UTC

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@nprofile…kdr8 *sigh*
Forget about public health! Now it's all about public ill health, amirite?

2026-05-19 12:29:43 UTC

OK, so, not to dunk on anybody, but for Pete's sake, if you're going to post a heartrending sob story about a beloved pet who needs a new home, SAY WHERE.
(Ditto for any other situation where the location is actually relevant. Sheesh. People fail at this ALL THE TIME. It's ridiculous.)
#FediTips #fediquette

2026-05-16 14:55:08 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0 I welcome you to the Vivaldi cult that is definitely not a cult

2026-05-16 14:07:48 UTC

They've been like this for ten minutes. It's a standoff.
(For those of you who are new to my feed: the grey cat at the bottom of the stairs is ours, Merlin. The one inside the screen door is also ours, obviously, that's Prince Ollie. The cat in the middle preventing Merlin from going up the stairs and inside is our neighbor, Ernesto.)
#caturday #CatsOfMastodon #Merlin #PrinceOllie
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/584/622/774/867/247/original/fd52256781c10a1b.jpg

2026-05-14 02:22:28 UTC

I keep hearing people say AIs are "better at coding than people."
First of all, no, they're FASTER at coding than people, which is not at all the same thing.
Second, am I the only one who remembers when what folks in this industry do was called "software ENGINEERING," which is not at all the same as "coding"?
Notice how no one is claiming that AIs are good at software engineering?
Why do you think that is? 🤔
Most commercial tech was already shit before genAI. The AI is 10x'ing the shit. *sigh*

2026-05-12 23:33:08 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
I gotta admit this one is pretty hilarious. The new FSA website that my wife's FSA administrator has switched to using, called "#Elevate", shows this on its reimbursement methods page.
"Oh, of course, the bank account whose number ends in ****! I know exactly which one that is!" 🤦
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/564/210/187/679/892/original/2b3ad7b1b6542816.png

2026-05-12 13:14:00 UTC

If you know of somewhere in the #Boston area where I can either get a dehumidifier fixed for less than it would cost to buy a new one (about $200) or donate it for them to fix up and resell (or if you want to take it yourself), please let me know.
I don't have the time or skills for it to be cost-effective to figure out what's wrong and fix it myself, but I hate to just throw the whole thing away when it's fixable. I mean, it could just need the refrigerant recharged.
#BostonMA

2026-05-11 21:45:26 UTC

This is fucking terrifying.
Realtime deepfake technology is getting better every day.
The human race is literally losing its grip on shared reality.
I don't know how to fix that. I'm not sure anybody does.
#nevent1q…jc9a

2026-05-08 20:25:34 UTC

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@nprofile…w2cy My "WHY DOES ALL THE SOFTWARE BY COMPANIES THAT FIRED ALL MY FRIENDS ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO KEEP BREAKING" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.

2026-05-01 17:45:32 UTC

People who send unsubscribe requests to the mailing lists they're trying to unsubscribe from piss me off.
People who reply to those unsubscribe requests on the list piss me off more.
People who reply to those unsubscribe requests on the list and give wrong information about how to unsubscribe piss me off most of all.
Correct answer: look in the headers or footer of a message sent to the list for unsubscribe instructions and follow them.
#PetPeeves #GetOffMyLawn #OldManYellsAtClouds #netiquette

2026-04-30 20:28:12 UTC

Today I learned about the common law "eggshell skull" / "talem qualem" doctrine: the defendant in a civil action cannot evade liability because the plaintiff was especially susceptible to harm.
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull
This seems, to me, applicable to all the people (falsely) claiming that #COVID isn't/wasn't so bad because "only people with comorbidities" are at risk of severe illness from it.
Yo dawg, comorbitities don't eliminate your responsibility to care about, and for, other people.

2026-04-28 21:24:13 UTC

If you're a U.S. citizen with a passport that expires any time in the next 3 years (3 years because it's going to take time for the next president to undo this bullshit), you may want to renew it now unless you want Trump staring at you out of it for 10 years.
You can probably do it online (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/renew-online.html). I did, and my passport arrived a week later.
ProTip: You can ask the AI on your phone to replace the background of a selfie with the white background required for the online app.
#nevent1q…l8ls

2026-04-27 19:43:11 UTC

It's not suspicious at all that #Gmail is marking as spam the notifications people were sent about a class action settlement for which #Google is the defendant and liable to pay out proceeds.
One would have thought the plaintiffs' lawyers would have included as a condition of the settlement Google's obligation to ensure that the email notifications did not get marked as spam.
#PSA If you're a US #Android user and you didn't get a notice a few weeks ago, check your Gmail spam folder.
#classAction

2026-04-23 13:49:03 UTC

Theory: if you are an entity that people need to mail paperwork to, and in the year of our silicon overlords 2026 you do not have a well-documented mechanism for people to send the paperwork electronically instead, then you are bad and you should feel bad.
Discuss.

2026-04-19 23:44:50 UTC

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@nprofile…kyza You obviously don't understand, CEOs are a superhuman breed who are as productive as ten normal people. /s

2026-04-17 21:08:49 UTC

At least in Massachusetts, driver's licenses expire on your birthday. You can renew any time in the year without double-paying for the time between then and when your old license expires.
U.S. Passports, however, expire on the issue date. Unless you renew after they expire, you end up double-paying for part of the passport's lifetime.
Passports should be free. If states insist on having borders, then traveling across them is a human right and the state should not charge money for it.
#NoBorders

2026-04-14 14:11:03 UTC

BLUF: Hampshire College just announced it's closing after the fall semester, making Child #5's college choice a lot more complicated.
Child #5 was accepted to three schools for the fall: UMass Lowell, Suffolk University, and Hampshire College. Hampshire's financial aid offer got its cost close enough to UMass's that we took UMass out of the running. Now that Hampshire has announced it's closing, we're back to cost being a significant decision factor, which SUCKS. *sigh*
(continued)

2026-04-11 12:30:52 UTC

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@nprofile…dyu0 also, it seems like many men are too emotional to be good leaders

2026-04-09 15:32:39 UTC

If you think there's any chance that law enforcement might ever be interested in the content of your Signal chats, and you don't want them to have access to them, then setting up disappearing messages is necessary but not sufficient. You also need to go into the Signal settings and either disable notifications completely or set them to show "No name or message" so the content won't be capture and preserved in the phone's notification database.
#infosec #privacy #OpSec "#antifa"
#nevent1q…q0sg

2026-04-08 15:48:28 UTC

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If you use #VeraCrypt full-disk encryption on #Windows, then READ THE ABOVE ARTICLE and pay attention to this developing story. If it hasn't been resolved in the next month or so then you are going to want to disable VeraCrypt on your computer to avoid being permanently locked out of your own computer when the VeraCrypt bootloader signing certificates expire and the maintainer isn't able to renew them.
#PSA

2026-04-08 15:44:36 UTC

#Microsoft locks account that #VeraCrypt maintainer uses to sign #Windows bootloaders with no explanation or route for appeal. If they don't fix this, in a few months every Windows computer that uses VeraCrypt whole-disk encryption will stop being able to boot and all the data on it that isn't backed up elsewhere will be lost. 🤦
If this doesn't convince you big tech has too much control, I don't know what will.
h/t @nprofile…gvek
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/08/veracrypt-encryption-software-windows-microsoft-lock-boot-issues/
#infosec #privacy #TechIsShitDispatch

2026-04-06 00:44:27 UTC

Ten years from now a man in NYC sees an ad, "Piss on trump's grave for $10."
He calls the number but is told he has to go to LA.
"LA? Why, you moved his grave?"
"No, that's where the back of the line is."
#politics #humor #funny #joke
Credit: https://www.wonkette.com/p/jesus-fcking-christ-is-fckin-risen/comment/238554633

2026-04-05 15:54:40 UTC

#DonaldTrump is evil and reprehensible, and he has done incalculable harm to the U.S. and the world.
But I urge people not to frame things as solely his fault.
Every member of Congress who isn't actively opposing Trump is just as culpable as he is.
The fascists on the Supreme Court have done more than their share of evil.
And not to dwell on the past, but the neoliberal Democrats who have done the wrong thing over and over for decades—and continue to!—share the blame.
#politics #USPol
(1/2)

2026-04-04 20:53:12 UTC

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@nprofile…5g7f came here for this

2026-04-02 20:50:48 UTC

This is my second "holy shit" of the day.
Apparently #LinkedIn if silently collecting data on every extension you use every time you visit the site. Which it then uploads, with your identity attached to it.
This is absolutely horrifying. Literally, people should go to jail over this.
#infosec #privacy
https://browsergate.eu/

2026-04-02 14:21:31 UTC

This is fucking brilliant.
Ref: https://www.askamanager.org/2026/04/the-aggressive-applause-the-secret-meal-access-and-other-stories-from-event-workers.html
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/335/548/698/339/693/original/e9e6898f59ab50d8.png

2026-03-24 20:16:27 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch #Microslop
I just dismissed a reminder from #MicrosoftOutlook for #macOS. The reminder disappeared from the pop-up, but the pop-up itself remained. Neither clicking the "Dismiss" button nor clicking the red circle in the title bar made the window go away.
About 30 seconds later I went back to the pop-up and clicked on the red button, and this time the pop-up went away.
I love software that behaves non-deterministically! How about you?

2026-03-23 16:27:24 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch This morning my son's Pixel phone claimed there was debris or liquid in the USB port and disabled it. This is a great feature, when it works.
But there was no visible debris, and the message eventually went away, but
after that it would only charge from one particular charger, and that one very slowly.
Restarting the phone restored full charging functionality.
Just why.

2026-03-23 16:20:51 UTC

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@nprofile…gu7x I dunno this seems kind of horrible? A lot of people's lives would be dramatically upended if they were suddenly unable to start their cars.

2026-03-22 18:47:17 UTC

#TechIsShitDispatch
I'm on the #Zappos website trying to add a credit card to pay for an order. I open the form for doing that and then click the #1Password button in the form field to bring up the menu of credit cards stored in 1Password for me to choose which one to auto-fill. The credit card form disappears as soon as I click the 1Password button.
As a workaround I can use the 1Password extension button to auto-fill the form.
I should not have to do this.

2026-03-22 12:08:50 UTC

Great way to start the morning
#FuckICE
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/272/740/016/734/921/original/c3086be4436b0e24.png

2026-03-18 20:13:06 UTC

#TheOnion going hard at #SamAltman.
It's hard to pick, but I think this is my favorite line:
"Why did you decide to devote your life to AI?
I just saw so much suffering in the world that needed to be automated."
#OpenAI #funny #humor
https://theonion.com/the-onions-exclusive-interview-with-sam-altman/

2026-03-05 03:51:59 UTC

The "Annual Meat Conference" is taking place this week in Maryland. One of the topics being presented on at the conference is "Smart Meat".
Q: What is Smart Meat?
#WrongAnswersOnly

2026-03-04 23:48:28 UTC

Fuck.
Free link to the article: https://archive.ph/eew7M
#enshittification
#nevent1q…gd45

2026-03-02 21:09:47 UTC

Last week the auto shop said it would take $3k to fix our 2009 Ford, so we decided it's time to throw in the towel and move on to our next used car.
They said it would still be driveable for a while, but alas, today one of the killer potholes on the route home from our son's school caused the muffler to break off from the exhaust pipe.
Our search for a replacement just became a much higher priority, and in the meantime life's going to be a bit complicated.
*sigh*

2026-03-02 15:02:46 UTC

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@nprofile…p560 I am not sure what is going on here. Are you speaking for the @nprofile…al7s account?

2026-03-02 13:09:38 UTC

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@nprofile…p560 @nprofile…2jjd @nprofile…al7s Maybe in the age of disinformation, misinformation, and deepfakes, consider _not_ blasting out incredibly inflammatory images whose provenance you have no idea of?
I loathe Trump as much as anyone, and I'm quite confident he's a child rapist, but a common strategy of the bad guys is to put out fake evidence and then expose it as fake, to help them convince people later, when the _real_ evidence comes out, that it is also fake.

2026-03-02 12:35:55 UTC

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@nprofile…al7s what is the source for these images?

2026-02-25 11:55:20 UTC

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@nprofile…zyt0 Corporate social media invests a huge amount of time, effort, and money into making the onboarding experience completely effortless, no thought required, and making new users start seeing content immediately because of the algorithmic feed.
This is the standard against which people are judging the fedi.
"You are the algorithm" means you need to do some work to find your people here. People don't expect or want that. They're lazy and want everything handed to them.

2026-02-24 01:25:18 UTC

The cats have noticed that my electric blanket is on. #Merlin #PrinceOllie #CatsOfMastodon
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/116/122/984/796/741/161/original/39a7e52e8d3424aa.jpg

2026-02-23 15:48:42 UTC

This #blizzard in #Boston is the real deal. I just spent 2½ hours outside with my shovel, snowblower, and ice chipper, clearing our rear stairs, the part of the patio that needs to be cleared for snowblower access, and the driveway, which had a lot of pre-blizzard ice that I needed to chop up. I didn't even make it to starting on the sidewalk or cars before the snowblower batteries died. I guess I'll be out there again for another pass when the batteries are recharged.
#weather #BostonMA

2026-02-22 21:49:45 UTC

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@nprofile…tnhf
This isn't really accurate.
When posts are deleted their home server sends deletion requests to all the other servers that they were previously forwarded to. Most of the other servers delete them then.
Even absent that, most servers purge posts from other servers from their caches relatively quickly.
@nprofile…k95v