@eswag@dju.social cover

I program #SpringBoot web services and have now managed to avoid managing people. I used to program dev tools & before that, program mobile phones.

Once ran the same early Windows 8 build instance on both a hypervisor and native boot.

Old enough to remember #Symbian #C++.

I really like painting miniature figures like those produced for #warhammer, but am not so keen on #GamesWorkshop.

#OnePageRules is my current #TableTop #Wargaming jam.

Involved in some kind of computer bullshit.

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

@eswag@dju.social avatar eswag , to random German

5:19. Might try to sleep again. G'night, I hope.

@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange avatar 0xabad1dea , to random

I am always seeing news stories about men getting caught not wearing pants (trousers) on webcam or seeing them openly fantasize about not having to wear pants. I have to conclude y’all find them extremely uncomfortable. May I suggest: skirts? Pants were invented to make it easier to ride horses. Most civilizations that didn’t do a lot of horse riding have traditionally garbed men in skirts. You can in fact just wear a skirt. You can call it a kilt if that helps

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@0xabad1dea

Due for revival:

solarbird Mod , to Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected

I really gotta point something out here

I really, really, really gotta point something out here.

This “ballroom” Trump Shitstain the First says he’s building is 90,000 square feet, and is going to cost THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.

Apparently. That’s what he says.

This is bullshit. He’s pocketing AT LEAST half of that money. Probably two-thirds, maybe 70%. I daresay probably 70%. Or who knows, all of it – but let’s say he’s actually going to build something and some part of the extorted “donations” will actually be spent doing so. It’s still bullshit, and he’s still pocketing most of the money.

How do I know this?

Because $300 million for 90,000 square feet is over $3330/square foot in construction cost. That’s absolutely batshit insane by any standard. The highest-end commercial construction in the US is under $1000/square foot. You’re telling me he’s going to spend over three times that?

I don’t fucking think so. It’s bullshit, and he’s keeping most of the money.

But if that’s not enough for you, consider this:

The most expensive commercial building EVER BUILT IN THE WORLD (according to Wikipedia’s list of most expensive buildings) is One Financial Centre in Hong Kong, which is, slightly ironically, two massive skyscrapers. It’s a combined two million square feet of floor space, mostly vertical, which adds assloads of cost. It is opulent as fuck and serves extremely high-end customers in an extremely wealthy city.

Excluding land costs (because shitstain has the land already), 1FC cost right around $3315/square foot to build.

Which is to say, slightly LESS than his fucking “ballroom.”

His ballroom will cost MORE per square foot than the most expensive luxury commercial construction project ever built.

Which is, again, bullshit.

He’s pocketing that money, and nobody should think for a moment otherwise.

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@JessTheUnstill @solarbird

I hear some crown jewels became recently available.

@babe@glitterkitten.co.uk avatar babe , to random

People of the internet, show me your favourite meme

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar
@briankrebs@infosec.exchange avatar briankrebs , (edited ) to random

I've joked about this before, but maybe it's time to think about bringing back the (really) old Democratic idea of "sortition," or choosing elected officials by some kind of lottery. The idea being that maybe the best candidate is someone who doesn't actually want the job. Considering how many people now in Congress who don't seem to have two brain cells to rub together, maybe it's not such a bad idea? <ducks>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@briankrebs

Probably not a worse idea than the current model. I do wonder how fast a lobbying industry would spring up to try to corrupt whichever rando was selected though.

Would it be worth it to offer $1m per candidate? I hear lobbying has insanely good returns on investment in the US.

@AnarchoNinaWrites@jorts.horse avatar AnarchoNinaWrites , to random

also, because apparently this is now a crime in front of God and everybody:

What kinda bitch call himself "pro life" and then just dies like that?

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@AnarchoNinaWrites

He should have just decided not to be a victim. It's a mindset, you know.

@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar blogdiva , to random

BUT BUT TECH AND UI/UX ARE APOLITICAL!!!

just came across a post with racist asshats complaining that Mastodon will finally turn into Blacktwitter with quoted posts and i want to burn all the things down.

fuck those people and fuck everybody catering to their racist, white supremacist asses by refusing to add features to the software lest the UI/UX becomes too Black and Proud to handle.

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@blogdiva

IDK why quoted posts would/could make Mastodon into Blacktwitter. IDK what Blacktwitter is either, however.

If Blacktwitter is a social platform more welcoming to people hurt by racism, that doesn't sound like a bad fate for Mastodon. Unless Blacktwitter is so much like Twitter that it gets taken over by Elmo and becomes a fascist masturbation pit with a hitlerbot. You don't strike me as someone trying to make Mastodon into a Nazi circle jerk.

@killyourfm@layer8.space avatar killyourfm , to random

There's a really disturbing scam happening right now. Obviously this reads like a typical phishing attempt (bad grammar, a malformed phone number to call, etc), but the official Paypal email wasn't spoofed. It came from PayPal's email infrastructure.

Examining the headers shows that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all pass. If you have a Paypal account, please exercise caution. Don't click links in these emails. Forward them to [email protected].

Please boost for visibility.

ALT
eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@killyourfm

Looks like it's sending you an invite to access a dev API. The message looks to be inserted in the username field. I wonder if this a real (i.e. using legit PP infrastructure for its intended purpose) email sent by an attacker who entered the message as a user handle & invited you as a developer to some sort of PP enterprise API project they control.

@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar lowqualityfacts , to random

That blows my mind.

ALT
eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@lowqualityfacts

That's Cleopatra the ectoconus, not Cleopatra the human.

What, early mammals can't have names?

@hosford42@techhub.social avatar hosford42 , to ActuallyAutistic group

Curious to get my fellow autistic folks' thoughts on this research article:

Four hidden types of autism revealed — and each tells a different genetic story | ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250724040455.htm


actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@hosford42 actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group

It's useful in that it's things we know that we didn't know before. I echo the others' comments that the disease model of autism taints the language used, despite the focus on providing "better support".

If the "support" is interventions intended to create neurotypical behavior, then the knowledge published in this paper will have translated to oppression of a minority.

If the support is better ways to avoid disabling environments for autistic ppl, great.

@mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

Instead of lore wikis, games should have an internal version of Twitter where all the NPCs are yelling absolutely rancid discourse at each other and you have to reverse engineer the game world's macro-politics from overly online folks' bad-faith arguments on side issues

"Everybody's angry about something and I don't know what"

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@mcc

That's very Paul Verhoeven of you. I want to know more.

foxhkron , to random
eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@ainmosni @JessTheUnstill @foxhkron

They tell me the 6 month trial period is more costly to the company if they accept the wrong candidate (to which I somewhat invoke the power of Skepticism), and that relocating people internationally, then letting them go within 6 months is a really crappy thing to do to a candidate (with which I agree).

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@JessTheUnstill @ainmosni @foxhkron

Yep. I think the only "cost" thing I somewhat agree with is the opportunity cost of closing the position, wasting time with a bad hire & reopening the position again.

If there's a point to it (i.e. a signal you can use to predict employee performance), I say do the interview. What I object to is successive interviews of increasing difficulty. If you're hiring a staff/principal/architect dev, why are you asking them to write fizzbuzz?

@Viss@mastodon.social avatar Viss , to random
eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@Viss

"If you don't want to write it, I don't want to read it," should become a more popularly shared attitude.

@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar dangillmor , to random

Despicable and illegal invasion of medical privacy, brought to you by the state of California and LinkedIn.

https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2025/04/28/how-california-sent-residents-personal-health-data-to-linkedin

h/t @twrling

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@dangillmor @twrling

Wow. The EU would have fined that organization out of existence, and kept on fining the smoking crater if the org were caught doing something like that here. I'm so glad I live in the EU.

Current fines: https://www.enforcementtracker.com/

@hosford42@techhub.social avatar hosford42 , to ActuallyAutistic group

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferpalumbo/2025/05/06/autism-speaks-from-criticism-to-inclusion-and-a-future-of-listening/

I'm curious to get my fellow autistics' take on this article. What do you think? Can Autism Speaks be redeemed? Is their change in direction legitimate? Is it enough?

actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group


eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@hosford42 actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group

They don't appear to have reckoned with their support of ABA, and the infantilizing of autistic people.

If they'd apologized for their misdeeds, halted their approval of ABA until more research into the potential for trauma had been done, then I'd be more inclined to think they'd actually learned something. I worry that this is more of a glossing over of their past now that they recognize their previous pronouncements are publicly recognized as wrong.

@briankrebs@infosec.exchange avatar briankrebs , to random

Enjoyed this post from Malwarebytes about how AI is getting creepy good at guessing the geo-location of photos/videos by analyzing the tiniest of clues.

When analyzing videos with audio, e.g., apparently just having a few birds chirping in the background can be enough to make a strong guess about where the video was recorded.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/04/ai-is-getting-creepy-good-at-geo-guessing?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=b2c_pro_oth_20250505_mayweeklynewsletter_v1_174617365504&utm_content=AI

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@briankrebs

I wonder if it's using bird dialects.

https://birdfact.com/bird-behavior/communication/dialects-in-bird-songs

I don't like that LLMs are being used to geo-guess. Very unsurprising, in hindsight.

However, I love that Cockney pigeons are theoretically a thing. "Are you using that chewing gum and puke, guvnah?"

@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar arstechnica , to random
eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@arstechnica

I don't share the author's sentiment that this is good.

LLMs are an incredibly inefficient way to poorly mimic some aspects of cognition. The market seems to agree, in that there aren't any important use-cases for the technology to date.

Nonetheless, investors are extremely excited about making large numbers of people redundant via AI, so anything that might indicate progress in that direction is guaranteed funding.

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Former Google CEO Tells Congress That 99 Percent of All Electricity Will Be Used to Power Superintelligent AI

https://futurism.com/google-ceo-congress-electricity-ai-superintelligence

^^^ These people are psychopaths ^^^

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@aral

Sounds like a late stage tech project in the computer game, Stellaris.

Can you maybe do that 99% electricity thing in another solar system?

@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

Step 1. Put on a black hoodie.
Step 2. Go to the cafe.
Step 3. Take out your laptop.
Step 4. Open a terminal window.
Step 5. Run the htop command and yell from the bottom of your stomach, "I'M IN!"

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@nixCraft

Stop telling everyone exactly how to be 1337 haxx0rz!

You're as bad as those irresponsible terrorists wanting due process of law!

@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

Intelligence is not a prerequisite for fascism. https://sfba.social/@sysop408/110639435788921057

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@aral

Made me snort. Thanks for that!

@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random

ICE says it’s just doing what it’s told. The president of El Salvador says he’s powerless. Trump officials are acting like they’re not responsible. But the monster’s already been unleashed. And when a modern-day Gestapo like this is allowed to thrive, where will it all end? https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/trump-ice-gestapo-abrego-garcia

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@georgetakei

Word has it that "I was following orders" isn't a defense with a great success record.

@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

If your rights depend on who wins the next election, you don’t have rights.

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@Daojoan

Sorry to be a downer, but what's this "next election" you're referring to? I'd dearly love to be wrong, but I fully expect the US midterms to be a sham that overwhelmingly favours Trump-accomplices.

Please, anyone who is very knowledgeable about the USA, tell me why Trump won't be bold enough by next year to already be disappearing members of the legislature that displease him?

Please tell me that you haven't lost the republic already. I think you have.

@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

Replacing Federal Workers with Chatbots Would Be a Dystopian Nightmare

The Trump administration sees an AI-driven federal workforce as more efficient. Instead, with chatbots unable to carry out critical tasks, it would be a diabolical mess

"This is terrifying. There is no “one weird trick” that removes experts and creates miracle machines that can do everything that humans can do, but better."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/replacing-federal-workers-with-chatbots-would-be-a-dystopian-nightmare/

eswag ,
@eswag@dju.social avatar

@gerrymcgovern

Chatbots are a story that sounds different than "shutting down the agency". It's the same goal and result. The difference is obfuscation.

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange avatar JessTheUnstill , to random

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  • eswag ,
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    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    “‘The president made it very clear: When the United States is punched, he will punch back harder,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters”

    (Irish Independent, today)

    ALT
    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @aral

    Until those he tries to punch start a bond sell-off, at which point, he stops that shit immediately like the posturing little bitch he is.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    So that well-regulated militia seems very effective against innocent school kids but not so much against fascism then.

    🤷‍♂️

    eswag ,
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    @aral

    I suspect that if there were regulations, being a fascist would be one of the regulations.

    @niamhgarvey@mastodon.ie avatar niamhgarvey , to ActuallyAutistic group

    When I heard I was being interviewed on a national station today, I NEVER expected the radio host to ask me about my opinion on Suzanne O'Sullivan's book and opinions of of . Had to be honest about my disapproval of her opinions, but also had tame down my true emotion- years of masking kicked in during that moment of feeling flumoxed.
    actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group

    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @LauraleeDukeshire @niamhgarvey actuallyautistic@a.gup.pe icon ActuallyAutistic group

    How can scientific/government bodies decide where to allocate resources if incident rates are unknown? Understanding stuff is better than not understanding stuff, but our capacity is limited. Choosing the right thing to study is crucial.

    Autism looks to be very common, and there's way more that can be done w.r.t. support. My kid's teachers are well meaning, but my wife & I need to educate them bcs they haven't resources to do it themselves.

    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    Quote from man sued: "What are you gonna do, sue me?"

    Kevin O'Leary has sued crypto personality Ben Armstrong (aka "BitBoy Crypto") for repeatedly claiming O'Leary murdered two people

    (O'Leary and his wife were indeed involved in a boating collision that killed two people in 2019; O'Leary states in the lawsuit that it was his wife driving the boat, and she was acquitted of any charges)

    Complaint: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69798755/1/oleary-v-armstrong/

    ALT
    eswag ,
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    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    I feel we don’t talk enough about the capitalism to fascism pipeline.

    eswag ,
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    @aral

    I assume you're aware of Gary Stevenson's work on how exactly the mechanism functions, and his idea of what to do about it?

    https://www.wealtheconomics.org/

    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @aral

    The main thrust is that forcing owners to liquidate wealth is the proposed way to deal with inequality.

    I think the 150 year ownership thing is a very UK-specific solution. Example - the sale of the Duchies of Cornwall & Lancaster (that are waaay older than 150 years), nets more than £1.5bn together.

    You don't wait 150 years, you sell the wealth at inheritance time if it's older than 150. There are many old wealth trusts like this. Depending how old & crusty your country is, ymmv.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    Reddit is piss weak

    ALT
    eswag ,
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    @Daojoan

    Yep, Reddit was wasting too much of my time anyway. Account deleted now.

    eswag ,
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    @Daojoan

    The main thing I went there for was the NAFO stuff. I'd prefer not to support Reddit with my attention & data.

    eswag ,
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    @Daojoan

    Have not. I'm (admittedly spending very little effort RN) looking for a fediverse instance to host for myself. I'll add it to the list.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    I won't keep pretending I believe in tech as a force for good.

    That ship has sailed, that horse has bolted, and that gutless CEO has already embraced fascism.

    Instead, I'll call it like I see it, and I see a world in forced decay.

    If I sound like a luddite, that's a mantle I'm happy to take on. I see no shame in it.

    We'd all be better off if we learned to question tech as a gift and see it for its grift.
    https://www.joanwestenberg.com/im-tired-of-pretending-tech-is-making-the-world-better/

    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @Daojoan

    Also the Luddites are maligned by their depiction in history. They weren't just anti-technology, though some used the movement for that. In their letters, they wanted former guilds to be involved in setting the standards of production because they were domain experts. They wanted their expertise to be remunerated, transition plans for workers in obsolete jobs, labour standards for new jobs.

    Popular recollection has painted the Luddites as mindless greedy technology haters.

    @maxleibman@beige.party avatar maxleibman , to random

    Too late, he realized he possessed a terrible power: he had wished time away, and time had obeyed.

    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @maxleibman

    You're describing low executive function driven time loss so accurately it hurts. I don't want to think about how much of my life I don't remember because I wasn't paying attention, but I do, and I'm guessing nearer decades than months.

    @coffeegeek@flipboard.social avatar coffeegeek , to random

    Sigh.

    The MastoDDos effect is only getting worse.

    At this point, we may have to block all links to CG from Mastodon. Five times today our site's gone down because of urls posted by popular fediverse accounts.

    This is possibly the worst thing about Mastodon and the fediverse.

    eswag ,
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    @coffeegeek @imrehg

    IDK activity pub, so excuse if this is naive. You'd want the Fediverse server to cache & serve up the card content?

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    “Microsoft to install facial-recognition technology in stores, which could be used to identify individual customers: When a shopper approaches the shelf, she would see a price calibrated specifically for her. The next shopper might pay a different amount based on their profile. Retailers could use shopper data to charge higher prices to those who can afford to pay more.”

    https://www.thenation.com/article/society/retail-grocery-automation-esl-kroger/

    It’s OK, if you don’t like it, you can just simply not buy food.

    Via @ErickaSimone & @broadwaybabyto

    eswag ,
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    @aral @ErickaSimone @broadwaybabyto

    Who among us doesn't have a subsistence farm in the backyard of the house they definitely can afford?

    Personally, I tire of consuming the food industry's products and services. Now, you'll excuse me while I start the daily grind. By lunchtime I might have enough grains pulverised for some wood splinter and grit-infused flatbreads. If I start grinding now, that is. Good day to you, sir.

    @w7voa@journa.host avatar w7voa , to random

    Time - "Trump, of course, is himself an unpredictable force for change. Whatever one thinks of him, he has altered America in ways unimaginable a decade ago." https://time.com/7207806/trump-second-inauguration-oath-of-office/

    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @w7voa

    If people are making statements that are equally true if you substitute "typhoid" for your name, you may have gone wrong somewhere.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , (edited ) to random

    WTF? Fuck the corporate democrats / neoliberals, yes. Doesn’t mean you need to fawn over literal fucking fascists. Y’all think Peter Thiel and Elon Musk and the cadre of billionaires they have lined up for their administration are going to “tackle Big Tech abuses?”

    What the fucking fuck, man?

    Update: Proton deleted their post. Here’s a screenshot of it I took at the time because this ain’t my first rodeo.

    https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/113833074076075466

    eswag ,
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    @aral

    I don't understand the reluctance to publicly say, "a plague on both their houses". Corporate Dems don't deserve support. Self-confessed sex offending fascists deserve even less support.

    The only benefit to not condemning both is that you can support one of the two, so you get to funnel money to a politician with the expectation of preferential treatment. Nevermind, I figured it out.

    @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

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  • eswag ,
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    @bytebro @KimSJ @gerrymcgovern

    I think this ignores the role of independent courts. If the government were permitted to lock anyone up based only on their say-so, I'd completely agree with you that this would be de-facto abolition of freedom of speech.

    If it's a crime to deliberately spread false info, I could only be locked up if a fair trial, not a government had found me guilty. A trial is not a government. For this reason, I think your objection doesn't apply.

    eswag ,
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    @bytebro @KimSJ @gerrymcgovern

    I think that's a problem with the law, not the trial or the government's separation of power.

    It shouldn't be illegal to plan a peaceful protest. If you ask me, that problem has more to do with the UK's lack of a constitution than the separation of gov. powers and the idea that some speech can be reasonably criminal.

    eswag ,
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    @bytebro @KimSJ @gerrymcgovern

    No. I spoke about how a law against disinformation doesn't involve a government's power to decide what it will accept as true.

    A law specifying what the government thinks is true, what you're discussing, is not a law against disinformation.

    With a law against disinformation, a court judges what is true, just as it does for any other case before it.

    eswag ,
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    @bytebro @KimSJ @gerrymcgovern

    I don't think it's a matter of agreement but of definition. If the law doesn't address the truth of speech, but a government's opinion of the convenience of the speech, it's not a disinformation law, so isn't the topic.

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    Last day to sign a European Citizen’s Initiative to tax the rich.

    Not looking good.

    sigh

    Thank fuck the French Revolution didn’t require people to sign an online form or it might have all been just too much effort for some folks.

    https://eci.ec.europa.eu/038/public/#/screen/home

    eswag ,
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    @aral I wonder if this result correlates with English speaking/reading social network users by country.

    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random
    eswag ,
    @eswag@dju.social avatar

    @georgetakei

    She certainly can't be taken seriously.

    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar nixCraft , to random

    You’re in a technical job interview. Your task is to fail it as quickly as possible. How do you do it?

    eswag ,
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    @nixCraft What's a hashmap? I'll get my coat.

    @georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random
    eswag ,
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    @georgetakei

    I think it was a very effective profile raising exercise given that I, a man who'd struggle to recognize a Kardashian if one punched me in the face, am spending my Sunday afternoon tooting about a member of the Kardashian dynasty.