@Throsby@infosec.exchange cover
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Throsby

@Throsby@infosec.exchange

Assorted smartarsery ~ Politics Science Menticulture SciFi Anime Gaming Ice cream. And those sheep.

I'm as old as ENIAC and about as functional.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I just disconnected my work laptop from my home office monitor and keyboard for the last time. It’s a little sad. But mostly a happy thing.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Maaate! Know how you feel. Even more so - I retired in 2016 and 7 years later so too did the entire television complex I worked at for 40 of its 60 year lifespan. This huge local industry is now a shopfront in a strip mall. The start of the end of terrestrial TV broadcasting. Double sad...

image/jpeg

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Hey, it’s Friday afternoon and you know what that means!

It’s almost time to push those changes to production as you leave for the weekend!

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

And, if in politics, to bury that unfavorable press release by dropping it at midnight.

DenisCOVIDinfoguy , to AusCOVID19 group
@DenisCOVIDinfoguy@aus.social avatar

We’ve Hit Peak Denial. Here’s Why We Can’t Turn Away From Reality | scientificamerican.com

"COVID is a good case study for illustrating the “Collective Denial Playbook” that underpins our new normal reality."

"Concerningly, though, “living with it” means tolerating greater suffering and instability than we used to, often without fully noticing or talking about it."

@auscovid19

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weve-hit-peak-denial-heres-why-we-cant-turn-away-from-reality/

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@DenisCOVIDinfoguy @auscovid19

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Apologies for the downtime on infosec.exchange. Hetzner performed some switch maintenance that was supposed to only cause "momentary packet loss", but in fact disconnected servers from the vlan until I manually refreshed the vlan.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Shh. Infosec is so reliable, we all thought it was us until you spilled the beans.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Cleaning out 18 years of work files is... cathartic

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Final day, I took home a drive containing collected folders - desktop, My Pics, Documents, etc. - saved from Windows 3 through Win10 PCs.😀

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

It’s a rather humbling thing to have the HR person that’s supported me for years ask where I want the box sent so I can return my company laptop and how many days of vacation I took so they can pay out the balance. A rather disappointing end to a 25 year run, first with Netrex that was bought in 1999 by Internet Security Systems, which was bought in 2006 by IBM.

Anyway, here we goooo

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

I was the 'go-to' PC deployer for our small corporate and I got a bit brazen towards the end. When someone retired after their 20 or 30 (and more!!) years, if they asked to keep their old PC, I'd write it off and they'd leave with its new replacement (capex shenanigans :)

That company was so effing stingy. I wasn't gonna be the 'Can I keep my old PC? Nah fuck off' guy.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Maintenance alert for infosec. and fedia. services**

On Monday, July 1, I will be performing some disruptive upgrades to the various infosec.*and fedia services.

Notably, I will be upgrading to postrgres 16, upgrading the memory in the database server, consolidating infosec.space onto the infosec.exchange server (this will not change how either instance operates), de-container-ifying pixel, consolidating fedia.social and infosec.town onto the container server, moving fedia.io to less expensive hardware, among others.

The intention is to reduce costs by consolidating, which should not pose a problem since the current hardware was intended to handle growth, and we're experiencing contraction.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry
Do a "Falling Down" (Michael Douglas) and just keep commuting to no actual job until you snap 😀 😱

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Happy Taco Tuesday 🌮 to those who celebrate!

video/mp4

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Yes yes, now, about those AI images...

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

Good people of the fediverse: I understand your deep disdain for all things AI/LLM/ML, particularly when it comes to art. That said, please stop reporting posts that contain AI generated images if there's no intent to deceive with that image.

Reporting a post with the complaint "suspected AI art" isn't going to result in a response, and just wastes everyone's time.

Note: If someone posts a clearly AI generated image and says "Look at this painting I made, please send money to support my art", I think we can take action there for deception.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

We might agree that is plagiarism, but should acknowledge that (almost) every artist since time immemorial has produced derivative works from their predecessors.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

What is going on over in the EU?

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Possible explanation I just read... "@luciedigitalni:
I suggest anyone planning to draw any conclusions from the European elections looks first at the turnout"

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I am so, so, so terribly sad that I will not be around for my employer’s migration to MS Teams 😢

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

One of my all-time Dilbert favs.

Few great artists, writers, actors, heroes, or statesmen were or are perfect humans. Plenty were proper arseholes.

I choose (for both sanity and enjoyment of life) to separate achievement from the person. Whatever Adams is, I'll still enjoy Dilbert.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

FYI, being offended by someone ordering Lockheed Martin socks or saying they would like them work at Lockheed Martin should be addressed by blocking the person, not with a report.

Thank you for attending my speech.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Maybe the next update could include a button between 'block' and 'report' labelled: "I'm terribly offended by most things and this is yet another post I need to complain publicly about, because that's the real reason I moved to Mastodon."

Or not.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I’m sitting here in my beach chair and down the way, the song “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” is playing. And I’m marveling at how the lyrics to that song have no bearing on many people in IT jobs.

I wonder what an IT version might be…. “It’s someone else’s on call rotation somewhere”

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

I'm retired 8 years now and phone calls still make be curse and sweat, worse if asleep. Talk about traumatised.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Everything on the cell gets blackholed unless it's in the very short whitelist.

The landline is never answered and has a manufacturer's default message that says (kid you not): "Hello. Your call cannot be taken at the moment and you cannot leave a message. So please call later. Thank you for calling."

Suck on that scammers 😀

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

It’s been interesting watching the exodus from the fediverse to bsky. Sort of like October 22 in reverse.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry ~

Not going anywhere soon, either. InfosecExch is the first instance I've not been hassled on those counts that Blake cites. Pretty cool place.

Except last Easter, when a moderator here CW'd my crude Easter bunny cartoons. But fair cop I guess.

jerry , to random
@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar

I get 1password from from work... now that I am being kicked out, I need to figure out if I want to stay with 1Password... (and pay for it) 🤔

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@jerry

Hi Jerry, I'm sure you're reading all our suggestions, downloading, signing-up, and trying all of them 😀

Ntl, I'll vouch for KeePass. Been using it for decades and now my entire life is recorded in there. It even served as a product key database on our small corp network. Interface is a bit pokey but works fine!!

My *.kbdx file is now so precious, there's even a copy on a USB key buried in the back yard along with my gold bars.

Throsby , to random
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

sorting old pix

"Global warming protest"

DropBear , (edited ) to random
@DropBear@theblower.au avatar

🤣


Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@DropBear

This is still newsletter-only, unfortunately. So here's the always excellent Rachel Withers take, if you've time.

To borrow a phrase from Justice Michael Lee, Senator Linda Reynolds is going back for her hat. The outgoing Liberal senator has made it clear that she will be continuing her defamation case against rape victim Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz over social media posts, while also suggesting she has been vindicated by Bruce Lehrmann’s failed one. Justice Lee found that – on the balance of probabilities – Lehrmann had raped Higgins in Reynolds’ office, but he dismissed the idea (not strictly relevant to Lehrmann’s case) of a political cover-up, singling out Reynolds’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown as someone who been hard done by. Reynolds, who has long viewed herself as the true victim, is seemingly hellbent on having her honour restored, demanding Higgins pay for her “destroyed” reputation and “lost” career. But is suing a rape victim, whom Reynolds famously labelled a “lying cow”, really the best way to restore her reputation, or that of the Liberal Party?

Has Reynolds really been “vindicated” here, as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has triumphantly claimed? Journalist Samantha Maiden, who first broke the Higgins story, notes that Reynolds did not give evidence in the recent trial, unlike Brown, who was expressly praised by the judge. If Reynolds had, there might have been some questions over inconsistencies in her accounts, having told the 2022 criminal trial that she hadn’t been told of a potential rape ahead of a meeting in her office, but later telling Seven’s Spotlight that she had (her lawyers put this down to “a recall of further information”, when Maiden first picked up on it). Brown is actually praised in Lee’s judgement for having later resisted pressure to report the rape without Higgins’ consent, believing Reynolds and others were “intent on protecting their own interests”, as Maiden points out. But all Reynolds sees is vindication, as she pushes ahead with plans to punish Higgins for making her look bad.

Here’s the thing: If Reynolds truly believes she has been vindicated, why go ahead with defamation proceedings? Why continue to drag out this horrific saga (as News Corp also seems hellbent on doing), and not for a minute pause to reflect on what has been done in this collective bid to discredit and destroy a young women who alleged she was raped (and has been credibly found to have been)? Reynolds claims to be “pleased” with Lee’s findings, noting that they are not binding on her own case. “I therefore remain committed to fully vindicating my reputation,” she added. But if this was truly about her reputation, why continue down a path that makes her look nasty and spiteful, dragging Higgins through the courts yet again? Why go back for the hat?

Reynolds is clearly incensed at the way this has played out, having become a key fall person for the Liberal Party’s very real woman problem. But the senator’s obsession with seeking redress, at the expense of a traumatised woman we have just heard was (on the balance of probabilities) raped at work, makes her claims to have been concerned with Higgins’ welfare appear utterly ludicrous. Reynolds’ single-minded focus has seen her lose sight of what is actually most harmful to her reputation, and that of the Liberal Party, with neither appearing to have spared a thought for the victim in recent days. Much like with her decision to do an exclusive sit-down with Higgins’ chief doubter Janet Albrechtsen, making insinuations about Higgins having stolen her coat, the senator’s bid to seek damages is only doing further damage to her public standing.

It has been joked in recent days that Bruce Lehrmann should sue Bruce Lehrmann for defamation, having done irreparable damage to his own reputation. Perhaps Reynolds might like to take note. No hat or coat is worth the trouble when your reputation is on the line.

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to Technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

@technology

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

The same thing that's happened with numerous print newspapers around the world. When they downsize, sack the backroom staff, and move to shopfronts they dump - literally - those priceless collections of photographs, negatives, and, yes, glass plate negatives, as though they were old office furniture.

Throsby ,
@Throsby@infosec.exchange avatar

@kneworldodor @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

We do have that. The libraries scrupulously keep copies, but not necessarily physical media.

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