@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

zotnobot

@[email protected]

Ex- Google SRE, dog enthusiast, free mind.

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

@randahl@mastodon.social avatar randahl , to random

If everything goes right, by the end of 2026, Trump has lost America, Orbán has lost Hungary, and Putin has lost Ukraine.

Let's do this!

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl "If everything goes right" - god no, we don't need anything to go further to the right, they're already far-right enough to my taste.

@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar zotnobot , to random

@pluralistic Just listened to your chat with Ed Zitron, and your description of the reverse centaur reminded me the very real ads of one of my employers (Unisys, early 2000s).

A man in a suit with a computer screen as a head, with the words "We have a head for e-business".
ALT
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

Every generation thinks their decade had "real" culture and everything after is fake. The 90s kids say this about the 80s. The 2010s kids will say it about the 2000s. The pattern is so reliable it's boring. Culture isn't actually "worse" now. You just got older and stopped being the target demo.

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan Every decade there's pretty good stuff we'll remember, and a lot of pure commercial crap we'll forget. Older folks simply have a longer perspective than younger ones.

@randahl@mastodon.social avatar randahl , to random

For a content creator like me, living in a data driven world feels… weird.

When I wrote the last script, I expected to call my video "Ukraine takes the war to Russia". But YouTube has just released a new test tool, that allows me to test 3 different titles to see which one you, the viewers, are most interested in.

It turns out, way more people wanted a video called "Ukraine DESTROYS Russia". Apparently, this title generates 18 percent more views, so here we are: Now that is the title.

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl Clickbait titles attract clicks! Who would have thought.

@itsfoss@mastodon.social avatar itsfoss , to random

Take knowledge into your own hands! Self-host resources you can't live without:

https://itsfoss.com/self-host-web-archives-kiwix/

zotnobot , (edited )
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@itsfoss This sounds like it will add to the current load Wikipedia is facing wrt to bot scrapers.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/wikimedia_foundation_bemoans_bot_bandwidth/

Edit: Ah it looks like they provide their own copy and they seem to work with the Wikimedia foundation, so no. Cool project.

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

NodeOS is a free and opensource Lightweight operating system using Node.js as userspace. NodeOS is an operating system built entirely in Javascript and managed by npm. Any package in npm is a NodeOS package, that means a selection of more than 400000 packages https://github.com/NodeOS/NodeOS 🤣 I am glad it wasn’t updated in ages and it is a basically abandoned as devs gave up. I am sharing this for lulz.

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft "Lightweight" 🤣

@GrapheneOS@grapheneos.social avatar GrapheneOS , to random

Our community manager has provided a response to the recent LWN article on GrapheneOS with important corrections and context:

https://lwn.net/Articles/1031454/

The article had significant inaccuracies about the history of GrapheneOS, our organization and the details of what we provide.

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@GrapheneOS I've been using GrapheneOS for over 6 months here, and I really like it a lot.

I am usually cautious though, and from the outset, it was harder to trust a small set of folks eschewing public view over Google, with all their faults.

I found the article quite fair and positive, matching my own experience. Except for the governance section, which echoed some of my own questions and observations, I didn't thought it negative at all.

Thank you so much for GrapheneOS in any case!

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

We're rebooting the legendary 5 year uptime Linux server. The biggest fear isn't that it won't come back up, but that it will, and then start mocking us for bothering it after all these years 😏

zotnobot , (edited )
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft Good old times where we took pride of our servers uptimes!

These days though, I get nervous when my machines' uptime exceed 60 days, as they're usually a bunch of kernel updates behind at that stage. I've never bothered relying on live kernel patching as it used to not be reliable (and working in an environment with lots of redundancy makes it unnecessary).

How is that 5-year uptime server dealing with that?

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Back in my day, we bought things once and actually owned them. Imagine that! You'd get a CD, a movie, a game, or a piece of software, it was a tangible item with a set price that was all yours. No strings attached.

Now? Everything's a fucking subscription. It's like renting your life, but somehow it ends up being way more expensive in the long run. Go figure.

This is why open source matters a lot. It still gives you freedom and whenever possible please support your favourite FLOSS app 👍

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft Another very irksome thing with digital subscriptions is that you depend on a 3rd party service on the cloud, which allows them to track everything you do and profile you. And you have very little insight of what happens with that data or how securely it is kept (usually: not well at all).

@stux@mstdn.social avatar stux , to random

Personally I always had issues with the concept of a "country" and "borders"

Like who are you to tell me where I can and cannot go on this planet..

Everyone should be free to travel where ever they want on this planet

Just because a huuman claimed land centuries ago decides how we live, it's pretty messed up if you ask me

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@stux As arbitrary as borders and the concept of land, is the fact that nobody chose to be born where they were born. So just randomness decides whether you're born in a rich country under the rule of law, or in a war zone.

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Step 1. Installs new Linux distro.
Step 2. Spends 2 days customizing the rice.
Step3. Doesn't actually do any work but bossman thinks I’m doings something because terminal, git, vim, and multiple tabs are open.
Step 4. Gets bored.
Step 5. Installs a different distro.
Step 6. Repeats process.

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft "Doesn't actually do any work" -- how dare you. It's called assessing potential improvements in the execution and operating environment. Very valuable and obviously underappreciated work!

@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar arstechnica , to random

FAA to retire floppy disks and Windows 95 amid air traffic control overhaul
Agency seeks contractors to modernize decades-old systems within four years.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/06/faa-to-retire-floppy-disks-and-windows-95-amid-air-traffic-control-overhaul/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@arstechnica And by the time they're ready to actually upgrade to Windows 11, it will probably be EOL'd.

Windows 95. That's only 30 years...

[ Edit: though I'm not convinced the solution lies with sticking with Windows. As they noted in the article, recent versions of Windows have their share of issues, e.g. Crowdstrike. ]

@briankrebs@infosec.exchange avatar briankrebs , to random

On May 15, the DOJ indicted a dozen people in a racketeering (RICO) investigation into a cybercrime conspiracy that used social engineering to steal more than $263 million from victims.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/additional-12-defendants-charged-rico-conspiracy-over-263-million-cryptocurrency-thefts

Today, I confirmed that "Victim #2" in the govt's case is "Tony," a victim I wrote about in January who was scammed out of nearly $5 million. Tony was scammed after being targeted in a social engineering attack over the phone that spoofed Google by calling him from the default number for Google Assistant and sending account security warnings via a Google.com email address.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/01/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-prolific-voice-phishing-crew/

I'm super psyched because this time last year Tony was seriously contemplating suicide after being robbed of his life's savings and his kids' college money. Now, it seems likely he might see some of those funds remunerated thanks to the government's seizure of crypto assets controlled by the defendants.

As for the defendants, I wrote about several of them last year in a scoop about how a $230M cyberheist prompted a botched kidnapping and carjacking of the accused thief's parents, who were out house-hunting in their brand new Lamborghini.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/10/lamborghini-carjackers-lured-by-243m-cyberheist/

An image from a video by ABC7NY in August 2024 showing police vehicles in Danbury, CT surrounding the site where a van holding kidnapping victims crashed and was abandoned.
ALT
zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@stux @briankrebs @crichardson I always wondered, especially for the telecom companies and banks, if they used (spoofable) caller ID for this, or they had a more definitive way of identifying their customers. I know some banks here that will happily send a bank card's PIN number when requested from the customer's number.

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Job Interviewer: Why are you interested in this role?

Me: I heard you have legacy code. I consider myself a digital archaeologist. I love digging through ancient ruins and wondering 'What were they even thinking?' In the current economic climate it's job security!

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft I was thinking picking up COBOL again for that same reason (did some last century). It's true for code, I don't think it holds as well for operating systems. HP-UX ain't coming back and that's a good thing.

@mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

Do you ever write a fiendishly complicated implementation of a piece of code, stare at it for ten seconds, git reset --hard HEAD to undo the entire thing, and then write a compact, clear 4-line implementation that does the same goddamn thing

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@mcc That has happened! Also, after accidentally losing a change. Maybe this should occur more often :).

@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random

Wait until Musk learns about the rigorous standards for defamation of public figures under New York Times v. Sullivan.

A screenshot of a post on X by evan loves worf (@esjesjesj ): "He might actually be the most anti free speech person in history." Below, a post by Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern , 1d ago) reads: "Jamaal Bowman just called Elon Musk an 'incompetent thief' and 'Nazi' on CNN. A lawsuit waiting to happen." The post includes a CNN broadcast image showing two men in suits, with a chyron that reads: "UNDER FIRE: ANGER INTENSIFIES AT TOWN HALLS ACROSS NATION OVER CUTS," and a ticker below stating: "JAMAAL BOWMAN (D) FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN, NEW YORK." The CNN logo is in the bottom right corner. Below that, a reply by Elon Musk (@elonmusk , 9m ago) says: "I’ve had enough. Lawsuit inbound."
ALT
zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@georgetakei Relevant to NY Times vs Sullivan, David Enrich's book "Murder the Truth". It's about how billionaires are trying to chip away at the ruling.

There's an interesting NPR Fresh Air episode about it:

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/1237470065/murder-the-truth-enrich

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Seriously, do people actually play video games on YouTube and Netflix? What's driving streaming apps to become gaming platforms as well?

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft I don't, and I won't. The more they try to shove shit like that down my throat, the more I'll resist.

Games, which I have never ever ever ever played on Netflix, take the whole screen when I start the app now, and of course I can't hide it.

The same crap made me cancel my Spotify subscription when they did that with Podcasts.

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Explain “vibe coding” to me like I'm five

zotnobot , (edited )
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@nixCraft Ask an AI what you'd like to do, and it will attempt to write some script that does it for you. The resulting code often looks like a patchwork of the worst examples you can find on stack overflow. The script then throws some random error (which is hellish to debug since you haven't written the code). You paste the error back to the AI, which generates more crap code to "fix" the first script. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam until you maxed out your AI token budget.

@dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

I had to put my dog down two days ago suddenly, and I'm still kinda broken.

He got me though the darkest times of my life, he would sit and watch me code for hours every night, building @pixelfed

We had so many amazing times together, but I can't help feel guilty and blame myself for not getting him help sooner.

I'd trade everything, including the kickstarter and grants just to have him back. He was my everything.

Give your puppers a big hug for me, they love us so much ❤️

zotnobot ,
@zotnobot@mastodon.social avatar

@dansup @pixelfed So sorry for your loss. Take the time to grieve and to be broken, it's normal. When my 14-y/o pup passed, I was surprised at the depth of the pain I felt. Folks who went through that understand. Big hug to you.