Lesley Carhart Mar 8

This is anecdotal, but every time I say I have a bad feeling about something

(See: Elon and companies, alleged grassy knoll ear shots, LLMs, cryptocurrency, Gamergate, project 2025)

And I get tech people yelling at me in the comments,

Within two years I’m proven extremely right.

Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
I’m kinda just over people yelling at me. The more people get super angry about me saying something is fishy as hell, the more south it’s going.
Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
I think that is because they’re all attached to really hype, addictive, subversive things, and We Computer People think we’re immune to that. To the point of getting aggressive when someone says they’re bad.
Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
Yes, even the collapse of American free speech and democratic government because deep American exceptionalism and trust in stability is 💯💯💯 lifelong brainwashing too.
Show threadLesley Carhart 
You’re mad because you’re so deeply invested and wired into something that me yelling that the emperor is naked makes you want to fight.
Mar 8 at 11:50amWeb
Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
The one I haven’t won out on because thankfully the other shoe hasn’t dropped is insecure child tracking apps but omg
Show threadJohn MaxwellMar 8
@hacks4pancakes Yeah. Somebody bad is gonna... yeah.
Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
@jmax hate this so much
Show threadBill HookerMar 8
@jmax @hacks4pancakes Oh. Oh no. Fuck.
Show threadViraptorMar 8
@hacks4pancakes
Was the prediction more specific than this? Or different timeframe? https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/07/catwatchful-child-monitoring-app-exposes-victims-data
Catwatchful "child monitoring" app exposes victims' data

Stalkerware app Catwatchful has been leaking customer and victim information. It is one in a long line of such apps to do this.

Malwarebytes
Show threadWoozle HypertwinMar 8
@hacks4pancakes The other shoe was actually under the bed the whole time, no need to wait. >.<
Show threadJenny FxMar 8
@hacks4pancakes I don't think even parents should be able to track their children. If they're young, keep an actual eye on them, if older, let them go free. How are they supposed to learn independence if they never get to be anywhere without being supervised?
Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8

@hacks4pancakes Decades ago, this company was claiming to have invented the operating system that would work across all computer platforms, Micro, Mini, and Mainframe. They hyped it, and it was called OS-2 (of all things, unrelated to MS OS/2). A friend who was an investor asked me to look at it. I explained in detail why it was not a good investment, and he didn't invest $50K. I was laughed at and told I was wrong.

Where is OS-2? A money pit that vanished a year later.

Show threadLesley Carhart Mar 8
@RegGuy oh noooo
Show threadJohn MaxwellMar 8
@RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Great idea, if you don't know enough to see the problems.
Show threadIsocatMar 8

The Dunning-Kruger effect, monetized.

@jmax @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes

Show threadElias MårtensonMar 8
@RegGuy @hacks4pancakes now I want to hear more about this operating system. Do you remember the company name? The term os 2 isn't very easy to search.
Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8
@loke @hacks4pancakes They were a Princeton, New Jersey-based company. I have looked, and never found anything. It was so pre-Internet that I'm pretty sure it's lost in the folds of time and worn-out pages of the paper prospectus.
Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8
@loke @hacks4pancakes More info I just thought of, it predated OS/2, probably 1984 (also ironic).
Show threadderptronMar 8

@loke @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Imagine how the inventor of the original go programming language feels. You can't even find any hint that happened anymore.

If you don't know.... There was an existing programming language called `go` that existed before google made theirs. Guy said, "Hey, I already use this name." Google didn't give a shit and nobody else did either. He tried switching to "golang" but they unofficially just took that too.

Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8
@crazyeddie @loke @hacks4pancakes I think it interesting I was not familiar with the Google version of go, but did know of the original go from the old days in computing. I did a lot of searching and can find nothing about it at all. Amazing.
Show threadderptronMar 8

@RegGuy @loke @hacks4pancakes Yep. Fucking deleted.

I never knew the language. Only heard about it after google made theirs. I'm 50...

Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8
@crazyeddie @loke @hacks4pancakes I'm 70, got into the business in the late 1970s. Heady times. I'm pretty sure I downloaded source from a BB way back when.
Show threadLesley LaiMar 8
@RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Last night, my uncle (investor/manager, zero computing background) called me saying he wants to install OpenClaw on his machine (and "to automate my company") with a lot of FOMO energy. He asked me because he didn't have the skill to figure out how to install that (and yet still thinks it is fine to let it "automate" his company, unmaintained?) I honestly don't know how to dissuade him.
Show threadGrumpyDad 🇺🇦🇵🇸Mar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Don't. He'll find out eventually.
Show threadJohn MaxwellMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes
"I am uncomfortable helping you do something that's a very bad idea. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to find someone else for that."
Show threadLesley LaiMar 8
@jmax @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes I basically said that if he want to let his computer and his company's data hacker, I will help him
Show threadJohn MaxwellMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Well, yeah, there's always the "Just give me all your private data and I'll sell it. We can cut out the middleman." approach.
Show threadCraig AskingsMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes the best I can suggest is to frame it as “Would you let a naïve intern run your company?”
Show threadCassandrichMar 8
@haakon @lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes A naive intern who's also working for your competitors. 🙃
Show threadMatt PalmerMar 8

@dalias the naive intern who is the favourite child of your biggest, nastiest, least trustworthy competitor.

@haakon @lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes

Show threadrtificialMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes just show em the tweet from meta’s AI security team head, who had openclaw just going nuclear on their email box.
Show threadCM ThiedeMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes isn't that what it comes down to? All that work making money sucks, wouldn't it be nice to just make money without the work part? Or pay a little extra to make the work part go away. That seems to be the general consensus, work is for suckers. Let the suckers do the work, just give me money.
Show threadSteven HeywoodMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes
"Are you happy to hand the unsupervised day to day running of your business over to somebody who is also working for your competitors and would you also be okay with not knowing what they're doing, how they're doing it, why they're doing it, and what they're doing with your customers assets, resources and customers or who they're sharing them with?"
Show threadGuillaume RossoliniMar 8

@Stevenheywood ^ that sounds like a good start

@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes

Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8
@lesley @hacks4pancakes Have him watch "Colossus: The Forbin Project."
Show threadJoe (TBA)Mar 8

@lesley @hacks4pancakes

As an aside on the movie, one of the funniest parts for us technically saavy users, the program was apparently in BASIC, he typed RUN to start it.

Show threadCybarbieMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Tell him what it is - a scam. If it is too good to be true it probably is right? Remind him that there is no such thing as a free lunch. You don't need ELI5 here - the problem is social not technical.
Show threadderptronMar 8
@lesley @RegGuy @hacks4pancakes Tell him to have Claude do it.
Show threadMatt PalmerMar 8

@lesley sometimes you just gotta let FOMO become FAFO.

@RegGuy @hacks4pancakes

Show threadkauerMar 8
@hacks4pancakes Fear too. Fear that you are right. That makes them want very badly for you to be wrong.
Show threadNils BallmannMar 8

@kauer But why do they attack the person that's telling the fear they have instead of addressing the fear itself? Why shoot the messenger? This will change nothing.

🙈 🙉 🙊 (western interpretation)

@hacks4pancakes

Three wise monkeys - Wikipedia

Show threadJZPMar 8
@hacks4pancakes so much this. It is like people are too weak to admit sunk cost fallacy outside of business contexts. I want to grab them by the shoulders DEAR DERP - IT IS IS YOU NOW
Show threadGuy on the runMar 8

@hacks4pancakes

I have no problem with someone who is willing to fight for what they believe in. It only becomes a problem when confronted/presented with the rest of the facts, that they do not have the courage to reevaluate their beliefs.

Show threadRia PriceMar 8
@hacks4pancakes at this point I wonder if the emperor *ever* had cloths... :/
Show threadWoozle HypertwinMar 8
@hacks4pancakes (...but what about all that Emperor stock I just bought, are you saying it's worthless now?? Clearly this is all your fault, for setting off the big sell-off before I had a chance to cash in on the bubble. 🤡)
Show threadmhoyeMar 8
@hacks4pancakes As the line goes, when they really are out to get you it's not being paranoid, it's being sensible.