HenryBemis

From Deezer to Spotify many years ago From Opera to Firefox many many years ago From Winzip to WinRar many many years ago From Gemini to ChatGPT a couple of years ago

I wish there was an alternative to Carbonite (unlimited storage, my encryption) that doesn't hide the VAT until the checkout so they don't trick on the pricing (for us Europeans)

  *caught me

if you can't speak or write well, that's probably a good reason. I have rejected multiple CVs lately because the got so much generic/meaningless word salad, that I genuinely don't know what the hell these people are doing on their current job.

Perhaps make the CVs more human(?!), stick to 4-5 bullet-points per job and try to describe in simple non-BS language.

> even a remote one

I would say "especially a remote one". I think those days are gone. I see the 60 office-40 home being prevalent, and the 40% is more like a favor to you/us rather than 'work life balance'.

This comment will not contribute anything, and/but it is a thought that I had a few days ago, and I cannot 'shake' it. We keep 'discovering', recognising, mapping, etc. And I feel that every 'breakthrough' is "one step closer" (let's say 100 steps total), on a journey that is a thousand miles long. So, for the past 4000 years (or whichever century we can call the 'birth of astronomy'), we have accumulated 'this much' knowledge, and still we know a speck of sand in a vast desert, and perhaps now we have accelerated the rate of knowledge gathering, but still we are SO FAR.. ufff..

It's not hubris (for the engineer) in this case though. It is the fact that company X knows that its dept Y can thrive with 10 engineers, and stay afloat with 5 engineers, so the magic number is 5. And then it is down to the individual to convince their manager (or resign) that problem_A is bad, but problem_B is worse, but not in my P&D objectives.

  The hubris comes from the fact that the CEO doesn't hear the problems that Directors don't disclose.
  The hubris comes from the fact that the Directors don't hear the problems that Senior Managers don't disclose.
  The hubris comes from the fact that the Senior Managers don't hear the problems that Managers don't disclose.
  And Managers simply don't care to hear the problems that Engineers face because "shuddup and close that Jira ticket within 48 hour or else".

I am ~50, I have worked (now..) 20? 20+ years in Audit/Compliance, and I laugh-cry inside.... and I am NOT surprised when I read about cases like this, it's another day in the office/life..

(definitions)

The terms hubris, ate, nemesis, and tisis originated in ancient Greece and had specific meanings and roles in everyday life.

  Hubris
  “Hubris” was a fundamental concept in the lives of the ancient Greeks and was used to describe someone who overestimated their abilities and behaved in an arrogant and offensive manner toward others, toward the laws of the state, but above all toward the gods.
  According to ancient beliefs, such acts of hubris offended and enraged the gods.

  Ate
  “Hubris” consequently provoked the intervention of the gods, and especially Zeus, who sent “ate”—that is, a clouding or blinding of the mind—upon the hubristic person.

  Nemesis
  “Ate” led the hubristic person to commit further acts of hubris, until they committed a grave folly or fell into a very serious error, which provoked “nemesis”—that is, the wrath and vengeance of the gods.

  Tisis
  Next comes “tisis,” that is, the punishment and ruin or destruction of the person who committed hubris.

I see the segregation of duties falling apart. "My company" would hire that politician, set him on a nice office, air condition, unfiltered internet, an assistant, 4 SBUX coffees and pizza every day. And once the 2 months are out, let the favors begin!

Your comment brought the song lyrics from Murder - Sepultura:

  ...
  Same hand that builds, destroys
  Same hand that relieves, betrays
  Same hand that seeds, burns
  Same peace that exists, here lies
  ...
  Same religion that saves, damns you!

I got no comment on the essence of your comment, but (in your implied meaning), the very last of the song was matching what you wrote.

If you have noticed, every independent candidate almost never gets elected. Vast majority of those who say they will "change the country to the better" either never get elected or are ousted early on. And those who stay change their tune.

I fear that only blackmail-able people with the potential to win elections, get the support, so that they are beholden to someone who ultimately gives them the job (e.g. funding their campaign) and has to return the favor x10 when elected, so promises go out the window and new reality sets in.

That is a great point. Machine consumes energy of adding goblins in every response. The machine consumes energy on removing goblins from every response. That is a great attack vector. If (wild imagination ensues) an adversary can do that x100 (goblins, potatoes, dragons, Lightning McQueen, etc.) they can render the machine useless/uneconomical from the standpoint of energy consumption.

hi, cool use-case! Question: do they have to type it, or one can upload an audio (old people such as me may talk for 5mins about a mini-story vs typing for 20mins, especially if they use a phone vs windows telegram application (typing on a keyboard vs the smartphone). in which case, do you got a STT 'module' that will pick up the audio, transcribe it, and then 'process' it?

We can't. If someone tries, then they get arrested for doxing, harassing, "causing discomfort", etc. Have you tried to follow a politician around? Do you want to try and track their phone?

I read the first 4-5. They either 'provide services' to govs/law enforcement, and/or are ran by govs.

So to answer to your question, Nothing. You can write 100 letters to your senator, MP, mayor, etc. The "system" will serve its purposes. Best case you will get a response that "national security, paedophiles, terrorists, bad actors", etc.

In some regions you can file a GDPR nightmare letter, which will be shut down because of EU DPR ("national security, paedophiles, terrorists, bad actors", etc.)(yes I copied and pasted from above.. there is a pattern here).

Historically (and Harari describes this far better in "Nexus") documentation and bureaucracy was created to exert control. Any information 'must' be captured, stored, processed, assessed, flagged. Before we only had letters and radio. Now we have more letters (bits and bytes/packets). The mechanism is the same. Collect, store, process.

Cross-referencing this with 1984, everything we do/say/send/etc. will never be forgotten, can and will be used against us. Politicians though can 'rewrite' history ('Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.').

IMHO1: Notion is a Confluence+SharePoint+Jira with useless "AI" to quickly create templates.

Anyone who uses it for your made-up use-case is silly, and has no sense of 'segregation of duties' (access).

IMHO2: this is a process/procedure problem, not a technical problem (to quote GDPR's phrase) "..technical and organisational measures necessary to ensure.." this is an organisational problem that you are trying to solve as technical.

I have very recently tried to work with Notion staff in applying basic "compliance" controls, and their input/response was next-to-garbage, with a big "we didn't build it for/like this mate" attitude. E.g. complete lack of "canned reports showing inactive users", "canned reports showing failed login attempts", and so on. One will have to drill though the audit logs, extract the lot, and go excel magic. Other 'within-Notion' solutions are (politely) 'inaccurate'.

Overall it is a GRC/Privacy nightmare and I am happy to not be a user of this any more :)

Why oh why do you not have a "pricing" page up front and center?

Why oh why do we have to 'pay $1' to see the different (?) subscriptions?

Why oh why do you force me to type in some random characters on your email box to find out your pricing?

  basic $99/mo
  full $350/mo

I asked Gemini and it gave me 8 and then I asked again and it gave me 9.

Whoah.. -4..

Fun fact, I was internal auditor in a bank (I will not specify the year(s) for safety/privacy). We did the due diligence and ended up buying a Ukrainian bank. Part of the 'collections' was really to smash people's faces. Believe it or not. But sure.. you know best.

It's Ukraine. Are you aware of the "banks' debt collectors"? They had thugs knocking on your door (and your face) for an overdue loan payment; they would _of course_ use violence/torture to extract information.

I remember Steve Gibson saying some years back that the only reason USA doesn't (cyber-)'attack' Russia's train infra is the inability to 'hide the traces' of the attack, and it would be 'easily' attributed/mapped back to the USA causing (political) issues. Well, Ukraine doesn't have 'that' challenge.

On the other hand (and I'm not defending a drone company), anyone that has a business should know by now that ransomware (with our without deletion) is a real thing, and it's not an 'if' question, it's a 'when' question.

I have never worked with/for a Russian company, so it would be interesting to hear/read from someone who has, how 'well organized' are they? GRC-wise. Assuming that someone would run the COBIT framework on them (Russian companies), would the 'average' be 'ok' or it's a big mess (kinda like working for an EU company in early 00's)?

I was reading a couple of days ago the Frank Miller's Robocop comic series. I laughed so hard at the comment/response of "Dr. Love" when asked "have you sold out?" and the response was "I'm reposisioned Lilac to where I can more efficaciously relate values of cooperation and participation to our children. Where I can infuse a spirit of caring and sharing to marketing and media."

Then she (Dr. Love) continues to say... "I welcome this change to dialogue. To relate to you OCP's commitment...."

So when I read the FF's post, Dr. Love and the beginning of a big spin came to mind!

I don't care about the anecdote and its origin (but I did read this and thank you for setting the record straight). I don't care about Bono either :) He's a singer in a band that once made great music, and got lots of money, and does some good things about it. It's the parallelism of the statements 'stop clapping' x 'stop setting off bombs' that cracked me up.

The ads (and it's been debated) is (imho as well) a way to 'buy out those who can keep then in check'. Media/journalists are supposed to be doing that. But when your chief editor tells you "hey, 70% of our network's revenue comes from XYZ" even if you don't want to, you self-censor.

Anyway I have commented many times on the 'legalized bribing' called 'lobbying'. The dishonest ones always week because those with $$$ know very well who can they buy and who can they threaten.

Having worked as IA in plenty of banks, I can only say "no good deed goes unpunished". My friendly suggestion is that when you involve cunts in the dialogue (regulators, legal depts, lawyers) you JUST started a fire and those assholes ONLY care to have a fall-guy. And the #1 is (you guessed it) You!!

You cannot expect an honest response from (ffs!) a bank! They are the most dishonest people on planet earth.

If there is a bounty, go through the hoops and do get paid. If not, then feel free to go for a lunch with someone-who-knows/trusts-someone and solve it in the d-l.. with all the plausible deniability you can get "I saw the photo of the guy/gal on LI and wanted to meet him/her for the sex.. I dunno what hacking-vuln you are talking about!"

You may think that the above is risky/dangerous/wrong; good! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE)

> If your team always wins, why do you care?

Betting/gambling. Also talking shit to your friends in the pub which support the 'other' team (in a (friendly) banter).

I remember when I was betting (a lot) with Ladbrokes 15-20 years ago, I _loved_ statistics. But win/lose/draw was never my cup of tea. I would study the numbers and find teams who score/receive a lot and would bet on Over/Under. It didn't even have to be the 'premier' leagues. There were teams in Finland and Netherlands that would have an aggregate of 6-8 goals in most games. This was as certain as it could be. Low yield but steady yield. It just took time. I assume now with LLMs, one could write a prompt that would get an LLM to scour the interweb and give it "the games with over/under of x1.5 or more and teams that do so-and-so.. but.. who has time for that!

Books: Siddartha: to think about myself and my changes/voyage through life.

  Half-time: to think what-the-hell-comes-next (only if you are 40+)(it won't resonate with a 20yo)

  Systemantics, Nexus: if you work in mega-big-corpos this will save your life

  Hold on to your kids, The anxious generation: if you got kids

  Strong Fathers Strong Daughters: (and mothers/sons) if you got kids (too Christian-y for my taste but an amazing 'manual' to manage the relationship with your kid(s))

  1984, Animal Farm, Gulag Archipelago: ...

  Light on Yoga: (also do practice yoga, it's good for most-if-not-all)

You asked for "one book"... but.. life.. is not 'one' thing. Systemantics (and Dilbert) have helped me stay afloat at work. Siddartha gave me a perspective in live about myself, the different 'people' I have been throughout my life.

All the listed ones are books I read and read again every few years. They shaped me the first time I read them, keep me 'grounded'/taking stock/thinking the 'change' in me and my life. I see them as a 'check-diff' and how I have changed/evolved/devolved since the last time I read it/them.

The politicians are getting funded/paid (lobbying/donations) by the very same people/companies that pay the ad revenue to those media. Why on earth would politicians legislate against their actual bosses? (As a real life reminder - a dog that bites the hand that feed him is put down). Courts btw don't make up shit.. they 'judge' (verb) with the criteria of 'what does the law define'. So if politicians legislate wisely, courts will enforce any 'parliamentary' and/or executive order to ban the advertisements of medicine.

But they won't. Not until push-comes-to-shove, and the true bosses will reposition to 'the next thing' (smoking, sugary-foods, medicine) and then they will allow the politicians to finally block meds ads. In which case the 'next wave' will begin. Story as old as time...

When I read 'news' like that, I 'compare' myself to the thing. And then I think how this 'thing' can swallow me, everyone around me, everything as far as the eye can see (thank you light pollution, we can only see the moon and perhaps 5-6 more 'things' out there (ffs!)) and then we will be 'no more'.

But then I use the voice of Djimon Hounsou and the quote from the Gladiator "but not just yet".

On a sad follow-up, (because it happened 'near me'), once the 'collector' dies, his/her kids will never play those games. Today's 15yo boys will never try to play Zaxxon, Wizball, Saboteur 2. So someone who is 30+ buying (e.g.) 100 games, should know that their kids will safely ignore 99 of them. As game-tech progresses, I think that it's only me (the dinosaur) or few of us that play on a PC and all youngsters play on them fancy consoles. 'Any day now' games will require a VR set (10-15 years?), so no more.

Yes. I get it that people also want to try and play various games. I think that 'eventually' everyone has their go-to game, just like everyone has their 'go-to' takeout/takeaway. I want pizza or burger. I will try a different joint, but it will be one or the other. The same for gaming. Defender of the Crown, AoE II, Fortnite. I stopped buying games a long time ago. I am sure that there are many great games.. but... I like pizza, I like burger. You can tempt me with sushi once per quarter, but DotC, AoE, FN.. and that's that. I got 'no time' to learn/master a new game. Or rather I got time, but I will not 'invest' it to start another open-world game that will require 5 years!

Any (mega-big) bank, insurance, logistics, food, is good to work in my book/imho.

They know what they want. They don't jump from tech-fad to tech-fad every year. What works, works, and we/they keep it until it stops working.

Have you worked in a place where you are not the 'top dog'? Boss says jump, you say 'how high'. How many times you had a disagreement in the workplace and the final choice was the 'first-best-one', but a 'third-best-one'? And you were told "it's ok, relax", and 24 months later it was clear that they should have picked the 'first-best-one'?

(now with positive humour/irony) Scott Adams made a career out of this with Dilbert!! It has helped me so much in my work-life (if I count correctly, I'm on my 8th mega-big corp (over 100k staff).

I think Twitter/X uses 'democracy' in pushing opinions. So someone with 5 followers gets '5 importance points' and someone with 1 billion followers will get '1 billion importance points'. From what I've heard Musk is the '#1 account'. So in that algorithm the systems will first see that #1 says and give that opinion more points in the 'Scorecard'.