Oliver Lowe @ otl @apubtest2.srcbeat.com

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1 yr. ago

Sadly that's true for all social media.

Some are worse than others. Every now and then I log on to Instagram because I can sometimes see fun dirtbike clips. I can comment on YouTube videos of conference talks.

I know people go to supposedly "adventurous" places on motorbikes just for clout, and I know that people at conferences often do talks that could just as easily be recorded themselves at home or even just as a text article. But at least I know, deep down, they want to share stuff with people who have a shared passion.

The stuff that gets shared around via LinkedIn feels so, so hollow in comparison. Not a lot, if anything, beneath the surface.

I’ve never gotten a job from LinkedIn but I feel like that’s also one where potential employers might view not having one as a red flag?

My hope is that any future employers may understand where I'm coming from by not having an account there. Not sure whether that really works out in the real world, though. Only one way to find out, I guess!

I got recruits to buy me coffee while I ranted at them about the tech industry.

Hold on... that's awesome. Shit maybe I deleted my account too soon...

I mean, I get physically sick of the idea of the worst mindless parts of the corporate world being spammed around the genuinely amazing project that is the Internet. But paying for coffee sucks, too ;)

Yeah there's something that feels so wrong about the site. One of my (fake) favourites by @SecureOwl@infosec.exchange when LinkedIn was down a couple weeks ago:

LinkedIn was down. A lot of people were panicking.

But rather than panic, I saw an #opportunity. Using all of my strength I ran to the nearest LinkedIn datacenter. I was able to gain access because I made a #personal #connection with the security guard. I actually invested in their ceramics business while I was talking to them.

Once I’d gained access to the servers I was able to deploy a fix I’d written using ChatGPT #AI #genAI.

I fixed LinkedIn, and walked out of the datacenter where everyone was applauding.

I say this not to brag or show off, but to share a story of how you have to show #leadership in the moment, and step up when you can. The CEO of LinkedIn called me that night to thank me. #influencer #hustle #horseownership

• https://infosec.exchange/@SecureOwl/112050772234578411

Apart from the absurd types of text being shared around there, most features of LinkedIn seemed redundant to me:

• list of "connections": contacts app (portable data format, too)
• job applications: many other job sites, or direct on company website
• messaging: email
• finding who works/worked where: I don't care

None that I know of. https://rsync.net seems to do a lot less data sharing than Backblaze, though, after having read both their privacy policies.

It's an interesting idea. I suppose you're thinking of something like what Mullvad VPN does with their physical pre-paid cards? You buy a card, that provides you an account number, and you're good to go?

I often like reading his older pieces. I forget how long he's been at it for. Here's one making fun of Apple almost 10 years ago: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Sorry to be a pain; I believe the correct term is "World Wide Wiki Wiki Wild Wild Web". But we usually just say "WWWWWWW" which is super short and easier to type.

The last two points, "Ask feedback from one person", and "Sleep on it" I think are great. Ironically the article ignores the rest of its own tips.

1. Less is more

Circular logic. Q: "how do I write more efficiently?" A: "with less words" This "tip" could be omitted entirely.

2. Start with the solution or the ask. [...] In ideal cases, the main message you want to convey is already in the title.

Better title: "8 Writing Efficiency Tips for Software Professionals", or maybe "8 Tips for Software Professionals to Communicate More Efficiently"?

3. Show the facts, with examples

No text extracts provided in the article. For example a rewritten paragraph, or comparison of some summaries.

4. Always quantify

Always! Except for this article which does not suggest a way to measure the efficiency of text e.g. number of words to convey the same message.

5. Include links and references

None provided.

6. Explain why it matters

Why would I want to write more efficiently? What real-world problems does efficient writing solve? Maybe I'm a software engineer new to the field and I don't know how pressed for time some managers are, or how people are drowning in verbose corporate junk words?

Maybe this article was LLM generated, like the cover graphic :(

Headline is a bit misleading. It's not about cadavers being ferried around the place, it's a policy change in how cadavers are distributed to schools.

Currently cadavers are donated to particular schools. The proposal is for some centralised gov. control over which schools they go to depending on shortages and demand. Seems fair enough...?

That Turkish Lira has always been crazy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_lira) Check out this graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_lira#/media/File:Euro_exchange_rate_to_TRY.svg

The issue here isn't so much Google. Just people being stupid and not taking the time to learn how to secure something

I'd argue there's poor design that could be patched here. From an article detailing the vulnerability (https://mrbruh.com/chattr/):

My hunch was that in the rush to push their new shiny product, someone would take a shortcut and forget to implement proper security rules.

The hunch was right, and it was worse than I could’ve ever guessed.

then later:

if you use Firebase’s registration feature to create a new user (you cannot register on their site), you get full privileges (read/write) to the Firebase DB.

That it's somehow faster or easier to (mis)configure a system such that you have full read/write is poor design. Secure by default, principles of least privilege; stuff that you want the implementers of the system to stick to so that when you're a user (restaurants), you don't need to think about this sort of thing.

Of course the restaurants are also at fault for putting people's personal info into yet another charlatan AI SaaS.

Ever wanted to feel what it was like to be on the inside of a microwave? Well, now you can!

Logs highlight a problems in decision making process and let you analyze a problems in your team.

Yeah good point.

In that process-heavy project I joined, I could quickly see the problems; about 2 or 3 days. That meant when I was submitting code or reviewing the backlog I knew what kind of challenges I could make, and what would just be a waste of time. In others, it could take way longer - months! - to learn how the team actually deals with challenges and design.

Getting stuff down in writing is a good step; crucial for sure. But the process/ritual of decision logs doesn't necessarily get you great analysis or effective outcomes. Two stories:

... or if your team uses arguments such as "let's use X because Microsoft uses it too", "let's do X because everyone else does", or "I used it in my previous project and it worked well, so let's use it here too" then your decisions are likely suboptimal in the long term.

I've read decision logs and design docs that have included this kind of reasoning. Many meetings, everyone gets their say, it's all written down. One time, I arrived a year or two into a project and I could indeed see how exactly they came to the decision that they did. The problem was that the reasoning was super weak. Over-emphasis on process, little on problem solving skills.

Other teams I've been on were fantastic problem solvers but super sloppy. If the right people were around, in the same room, they could solve things more cleanly in a fraction of the time of some company 10x the size. But for new staff, or if those key people were not around: chaos!

I guess my conclusion is that effective decision-making comes down to balancing a whole bunch of different behaviour.

In short: software is tricky.

When I drop off my electronics at "recycling" facilities, I always wonder if they don't just end up at a place like this. It's hard to tell if sending them to a local landfill wouldn't be less impactful on the environment.

Same. I'm in Australia so there is a lot of space. At the supermarket near me they have a dedicated battery recyclin g bin, so I guess I trust this a little more than those general recycling bins. That trust is even involved is not ideal though.

For now I just try hard to keep old stuff going for my friends and family. Software-wise they all use native apps for personal and work, so I see about 7-8 years of life for each laptop/desktop.

$100 says his response boils down to "just don't write unsafe code"

Edit: It did. He also said C++ is working to implement optional safety features, but tl;dr:

Of the billions of lines of C++, few completely follow modern guidelines

Pretty sure this is a No true Scotsman moment. (I've always wanted to bring this fallacy up but I never knew when lol)

Ah that's an easy one - what would you like to do?

My first uh... "language" was bourne shell. Not because I thought it was a cool language, but because that's what let me do things I wanted to do at the time: automate heaps of Linux, BSD stuff.

There are heaps of libraries and applications where C++ is the choice e.g. video games. My friend is great at Javascript because he loves web browser tech.

Don't stress - have fun! :)

Well... everyone back to memcached?

Closer look at human story: Ghana: A Week in a Toxic Waste Dump

One of the problems with using older devices for a long time, even if they are repaired, is that common ways people use their computers (I'm including smartphones, tablets, laptops etc. here) gets slower over time. See How web bloat impacts users with slow connections by danluu@mastodon.social

Over the past approx. 100 days, dw_innovation@mastodon.social has made 2 or 3 public replies. The idea of using any of these social networks over RSS/Atom feeds and plain old websites is that they're social, not a place you upload text.

As a freedom loving hippie, I'd rather see broadcasters posting to the fediverse instead of whatever awful mish mash of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter et al. it is right now! That would be fantastic!

But as a technical purist, the way DW is using their account right now, they're arguably no worse off getting links/content from their RSS feeds available to the fediverse somehow (e.g. RSS Parrot). Sometimes I feel like we've had walled gardens for so long that we've forgotten about interoperability. Lots of platform thinking! Broadcasters don't need to be on the fediverse, just a way that their stuff can be shared to the fediverse.

I'm excited to see things changing that makes thinking like this even possible!