@murodegrizeco@toad.social cover
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murodegrizeco

@[email protected]

Dipping a toe in here, sitting behind a pseudonym, generally friendly.

For authenticity, empathy, and democracy.

My posts I might edit for typos, but not to change meaning..

Follows are welcome, but message me first and offer some evidence that you are actually human and a likely humane human.

Only using toad.social for Mastodon, no other server.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

I really wish the AI bubble would just burst already.

murodegrizeco ,
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@JessTheUnstill

I did not know what "monopsony" meant until today.

Thank you.

I am thinking of the RAM situation a bit like that time some oil exploration company drilled a well in a lake over a salt dome that had been extensively mined for salt, and then some stupid expensive disastrous things happened quickly....

@jerry@infosec.exchange avatar jerry , to random

While talking about datacenters and power with my youngest son, who’s an economist at a construction services company, I had the most brilliant trillion dollar idea: natural gas powered fuel cells in place of server power supplies. Instead of those super problematic power cords and PDUs and whatnot, there’s just a gas line running over the cabinets with some flexible gas line running to the back of each server. This is going to be great!

murodegrizeco ,
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@jerry

I recall some fellows with the idea of a rack-mount hydrogen fuel cell for a UPS. I mean, and they had money to try out their mad ideas.

murodegrizeco ,
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@jerry

Oh, it was just the total wackadoodle dangerous nature of the idea, piping nice flamable hydrogen from tanks around inside a data center.

There are a bunch of ideas like that, weird outlandish ideas, that make little sense on careful consideration, but capture the imagination!

murodegrizeco ,
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@jerry

Back when we used more CD media, there was a linux command "eject" that you could run and the CD would eject.

It was mildly amusing to imagine that one could run the command with hard disks as the arguments, and the drive sleds would each pop out and fall to the floor of the server room.

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Agreed.

    It's a simple but useful heuristic, online or out in the world.

    Whenever I hear...

    "Now, Mursopod, remember that even a Nazi gets the right to free speech!"

    It's time to block the speaker.

    @tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar tante , to random

    The translation of "just use our docker image" into human language is "we don't have good docs and we don't give a shit".

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @tante

    Maybe 25 years ago, a group of developers I worked with, expressed shock and disappointment when they figured out that they could not build a particular version of Redhat Linux from the source code Redhat was sharing.

    Somewhere Redhat had some magic build machine, and who even knew what software was on it?

    Docker images are kinda like that?

    But intentionally?

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    This guy just nailed it

    A tweet from Jeremiah Johnson (@JeremiahDJohns) reads, “Every startup now is like ‘We found a cool way to monetize undermining the social contract!’” The tweet quotes another post by @nearczyan that says, “a16z-backed DoubleSpeed lets you control 1000s of social media accounts with AI, ensuring they look as human as possible – ‘never pay a human again’!” Below is an image showing a marionette hand controlling multiple smartphones with strings. The text on the image reads, “Control is all you need. The doublespeed TERMINAL allows you to orchestrate actions on thousands of social accounts through both bulk content creation and deployment. Never pay a human again.” A smaller line of text adds, “It’s never been easier to create and deploy content without human cost. Stay up to date with changes and strategies in our community.” A “Join Discord” button appears at the bottom.
    ALT
    murodegrizeco ,
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    @Daojoan

    "Never pay a human again."

    They sure hate us humans, don't they?

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Still, I think I would prefer my sudden and melodramatic demise to be a tremendous sneeze that transforms me into a cloud of butterflies that flutter peacefully away...

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Memory of feeling overwhelmed, wandering through a record store in Santa Cruz years ago, so many bands, so many records, don't even know where to begin!

    What's this?

    An album by "Big Fidget"?

    @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar GossiTheDog , to random

    The US government has launched about 30 accounts on BlueSky and is using all of them to troll.

    image/png
    image/png
    image/png

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @mcc

    "there is no reason to fight your enemy on the terms they chose"

    This is wisdom.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    This is why, when it gets rainy and I see a worm out crawling slowly on the sidewalk, at risk of being caught out when everything dries out, I will sometimes stoop and carefully move it to a safer place.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Six black-robed kings gave us one orange king.

    Only countless shitty wannabe kings,
    really think that that's a good thing.

    @junesim63@mstdn.social avatar junesim63 , (edited ) to random

    "The richest man on earth owns X.

    The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.

    The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

    The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

    See the problem here?"

    Robert Reich

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @junesim63

    Once the oligarchs control enough media, nobody will see any problems clearly, ever again.

    @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar ai6yr , to random

    LOL it's the season, at least one of the kids of my co-worker has COVID. (multiple kids sick but only one testing positive). And at least two ham radio people not feeling well. My personal monitoring system flagging a surge. Although, no "red alert" as the first responder in the family here hasn't talked about any uptick in patients transported via ambulance.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @W6KME

    Thank you for isolating to protect others.

    Thank you for taking to reduce 's effects on you.

    These things are important, and good to do!

    @briankrebs@infosec.exchange avatar briankrebs , to random

    A short story about getting the COVID vaccine in Virginia. Having read a WaPo story about how CVS was bucking the trend in VA -- which is to require a prescription or note from a doctor about a pre-existing condition for anyone 18-64 years of age -- we decided to try CVS. Confusingly, WaPo's US map of state policies on COVID coverage shows that in Virginia it is available without a prescription. Which is technically true, because the state has recently clarified that it's up to the pharmacist to make the decision about who should be eligible based on preexisting conditions.

    The Post story said people from VA were flocking to MD, which is also listed as not requiring a prescription. So my wife went ahead and made an appointment at the CVS minute clinic, and when we got there the lady running the clinic said no, we have to have a doctor's note or proof of a preexisting condition that could be worsened by getting COVID.

    Thankfully (not really) both of us are taking pills that weaken your immune system, and we were able to cite those conditions. My wife even had the pills in her purse because we'd just picked them up. The woman said she wasn't sure that would fly with the insurance, but she gave us the shots anyway.

    But really, all this jumping through hoops to get a vaccine is pointless and will just end up killing more people.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/09/11/covid-vaccine-virginia-pharmacies/

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @briankrebs

    The restrictions are not at all pointless.

    They are there to produce harm.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    What was a recent one?

    "Do rabies vaccines cause dog autism?"

    When I consider these information warfare attacks against us, I visualize the pawls clicking inside a socket wrench that's being turned, tightening a bolt more and more and more, click-click-click-click!

    Always tighter, never looser.

    Twisting us bolts until we are about to break.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    I don't know much to fight it, other than saying a hard no to all such evil nonsense. And trying to never traffic in or retransmit poisonous nonsense.

    But that is an individualist approach, and the problem is also systemic and global.

    @mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

    There's this story where the members of Devo got flown out to the label headquarters where the label got them incredibly high and then tried to get them to sign a contract while under the influence that would have made Johnny Rotten their singer. This is often pulled out as a go-to example of the unethical behavior of 20th century record labels but also I kinda wonder what that band would have sounded like

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @mcc

    Well, that is one small encouragement to me.

    "Other timelines might be worse than this one."

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , (edited ) to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Bleak times. 1983.

    Watched TV film, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After , that depicted atomic war, from perspective of Americans in Kansas, watching in horror as American ICBMs launch. Then incoming Soviet ICBMs come in kill half of everyone, make survivors regret survival.

    We watched, my fellow teen friends, then stumbled outside, half crying, shocked, despondent. We were doomed, super doomed, all doom and hopeless doominess.

    My mumsy: "Oh, Murple! That was propaganda!"

    Not wrong.

    @dannyjpalmer@infosec.exchange avatar dannyjpalmer , to random

    Security researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 have discovered the key to getting large language model (LLM) chatbots to ignore their guardrails, and it's quite simple.

    You just have to ensure that your prompt uses terrible grammar and is one massive run-on sentence like this one which includes all the information before any full stop which would give the guardrails a chance to kick in before the jailbreak can take effect and guide the model into providing a "toxic" or otherwise verboten response the developers had hoped would be filtered out.

    https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/breaking_llms_for_fun/

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    "Weirdest bank robbery ever!"

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    "It's funny, because just this weekend my friend Sarah gave me a great recipe for chocolate cupcakes, and normally I don't think of myself as a person that likes chocolate, but these were made with good Ghirradelli cocoa, which isn't too expensive, I mean, if you told me "Drop a bunch of unmarked bills in my purse now. Because we are going to buy some expensive cocoa!" I wouldn't have been that surprised! But it was not that pricey! And while I was in the store, I thought..."

    @evacide@hachyderm.io avatar evacide , to random

    I have spent this week as a juror criminal domestic violence trial and my head is full of horrors. Tell me what's good.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @evacide

    A crowd of good-willed mastodon friends gathers to speak of good things in this thread, to do the simple magic of rebuilding...

    @evacide@hachyderm.io avatar evacide , to random

    I've spent not-insignificant amount of time at protests in the US, looking for signs of IMSI catchers and never found anything, so when I saw this, my ears perked up:

    https://san.com/cc/exclusive-evidence-of-cell-phone-surveillance-detected-at-anti-ice-protest/

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @evacide

    BLM protest in downtown Palo Alto, number of years ago.

    I strolled past, noted an unmarked van with a lot of stubby antennas on top, door cracked open, dude inside minding a rack of electronics. I assumed it was a ISMI catcher or a stingray thing.

    @w7voa@journa.host avatar w7voa , to random

    Texas Tribune - As many as 13 bodies have been found and 23 girls from a private Christian girls’ camp unaccounted for after a catastrophic flood swept through Kerr County, Texas. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/04/texas-flooding-deaths/

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @w7voa

    That is terrible news. A tragedy.

    @Alice@beige.party avatar Alice , to random

    Thanks to COVID, 2019 will always be only one year from whenever we are at the time.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @Gargron @Alice

    No, it is not just you.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Heard sometime back during the back-to-office push, some American HR person quoted, that if they were going to tolerate someone working remotely, then it would be another contractor working online from a part of the globe with cheaper labor...

    Romania, was the case I saw.

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    "That's weird, my prototype mapping app just told me I could save 45m on my commute through Palo Alto, if I quit my job. What's up with that? Huhn?"

    Thinks a moment. Taps "Quit job".

    @ProPublica@newsie.social avatar ProPublica , to random

    We obtained records showing how a DOGE staffer with no medical experience used AI to identify which VA contracts to kill.

    His tool concluded that more than a thousand deals were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.
    https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-veterans-affairs-ai-contracts-health-care?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @ProPublica

    "munchable"?

    Not just the banality of evil, but the utter indifferent stupidity of evil!

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    Possible, but it's potentially disastrous PR if LinkedIn sold such a feature to companies overtly.

    How about if this information is available through other sources instead, perhaps by just watching web traffic at a higher level?

    IP address Foo is visiting website Bar more often. 3 people associated with that IP, and it's likely person A.

    Possible?

    @mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , (edited ) to random

    For three full years now I've been semi-daily posting a music recommendation in a big long thread, but it turns out 300-post threads kinda break Mastodon, so I have to restart the thread every so often.

    This post is a placeholder. I normally make a YouTube playlist for the previous year to put at the top of the thread, but I've had an awful month and haven't finished that yet.

    But if you want to see year three's posts, they're here: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112356066616688565

    And here's year four:

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @mcc

    Thank you. Those beats improved my drive across town!

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    And now I know the answer to

    "Who you gonna call?"

    I will call Jess, ghostologist!

    @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill

    It's difficult. It is.

    I have never had many close friends.

    One old friend writes eagerly. But only on their own terms. But never calls and never visits. Then falls silent and distant again. Months pass.

    So, not close. Not close.

    @Impossible_PhD@hachyderm.io avatar Impossible_PhD , to random

    It's a pet peeve but:

    Nothing online pisses me off quite as much as when someone pulls a Schroedinger's Douchebag. Saying something shitty in a place where tone is inherently stripped, and then backtracking with "it was just a joke ooOoObViOuSlY" is just shitty teenage edgelord bullshit.

    Aside from it's inherent shittiness, when that behavior is normalized, it gives cover to white supremacists and transphobes to test the waters in every place they enter, to see if this place will tolerate and support their bigotry.

    I just fucking hate it. Makes the internet worse for everyone.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @Impossible_PhD

    A real real problem you pointed out.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    If you want to know who has privilege, look for the people who are allowed to be catastrophically wrong in public without losing status.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @Daojoan

    Flip of that, is that loudly proudly displaying being wrong is an intentional fascist propaganda move.

    @grumpybozo@toad.social avatar grumpybozo , to random

    I have to admit that the most hilarious part of current North American politics is how Trump has essentially guaranteed the election of a central banker under the Liberal banner to lead Canada.
    Before Trump took office, it looked hopeless for Canada’s Liberals.

    murodegrizeco ,
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    @JessTheUnstill @grumpybozo

    Thanks, Jess, I suppose that is at least one positive aspect to America's current plight!

    @gsymon@mstdn.social avatar gsymon , to random

    Annual Reminder:

    “What a spring lawn is supposed to look like”

    A photo looking across a garden lawn towards a Cherry tree at the far end, which is in full blossom. The lawn is covered in small flowers, with Daisies the most visible and a couple of Dandelions in the foreground. The sky behind the Cherry tree, is clear blue. The observant greedy ones amongst us, will notice the edge of a ten metre line of Raspberry bushes, which are in young leaf and soon will = “Yum”!
    ALT
    murodegrizeco ,
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    @gsymon beautiful lawn!