Mastodawn

ebmbat🌻

@rootshell@infosec.exchange

40 Followers

351 Following

183 Posts

A human EBM-Industrial geek hacking the planet in cyberspace 🎶💻⚔️🤖🗡️  previously at x.com/ebmbat

ebmbat🌻Jun 24

Ludic 🧛Jun 24

I just finished getting a one hour demo of the current meta in agentic programming from an actually-technical CTO.

100% stand by my statements in the latest blog post. It was very slightly better than I expected, but the CTO said many times "I would never trust this in production", and their main use was knocking out POCs that were being handled by an offshore (read: cheap and not very good) dev team.

Anyone laying off their Real Software Engineers on the grounds of AI productivity are nuts.

ebmbat🌻Jun 24

Chris John Riley

Attending #FIRSTCON25?
Hiring for remote security roles that are unique, flexible, and interesting?
Hit me up… I'll be here all week 👋

ebmbat🌻Jun 17

Dan Gillmor Jun 17

Seen on Bluesky:

Guy explains to CEO of Signal (messaging) that it's going to add "AI" to the service. She says no. He insists, not knowing or caring who he's talking down to.

ebmbat🌻Jun 17

Meredith Whittaker Jun 16

Use Signal. We promise, no AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does. <3

ebmbat🌻Jun 13

CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch)

I found the real Fediverse chick!

ebmbat🌻Jun 13

packet storm Jun 13

270K Websites Injected With JSF-ck Obfuscated Code https://packetstorm.news/news/view/37925 #news

270K websites injected with ‘JSF-ck’ obfuscated code

The JavaScript obfuscation method produces working code using only six ASCII characters.

SC Media

ebmbat🌻Jun 13

Michael Ross Tech news Jun 13

This self-hosted tool replaces all of your team communication and project management, and does it better, too

https://www.xda-developers.com/self-hosted-tool-replaces-communication-project-management/

This self-hosted tool replaces all of your team communication and project management, and does it better, too

Huly is a private, fast team workspace that lets you self-host chat, docs, tasks and calls.

XDA

ebmbat🌻Jun 10

The Evil Chocolate Cookie Jun 9

@JenMsft that is one screen reader I only use as a last resort. Compared with NVDA and jaws, or even voiceover and talk back on mobile, it’s severely lacking in the navigation department. It’s better than it used to be I grant you, but I say it still needs a lot of work. also, Microsoft made a big boo-boo by not making those natural voices both SAPI compliant and downloadable. Do you know how much I would give to be able to use one of those with jaws? Locking us into one particular screen reader just to get the voice we want is not cool people. I literally do not know of any other system that does that, unless it’s developed by Apple. Google doesn’t do it. Roku doesn’t do it. Even Amazon, as all-around shitty as their screen reader is, doesn’t do it if you know where to look. They’re so-called exclusive voices are available for purchase elsewhere

ebmbat🌻Jun 10

Ars Technica Jun 9

Apple details the end of Intel Mac support and a phaseout for Rosetta 2
Rosetta app translation features for Intel apps won't stay around indefinitely.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/apple-details-the-end-of-intel-mac-support-and-a-phaseout-for-rosetta-2/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

ebmbat🌻Jun 10

Ian Campbell Jun 10

Casual evening thought: dust yourself with talcum powder before a protest, tell the “riot” cops it's fentanyl, watch them faint straightaway.

×

Darwin Woodka Jun 17

@dangillmor then doubled down too

Jeremy Kahn Jun 17

...wow

Asta [AMP]Jun 17

@trochee @darwinwoodka @dangillmor does he think "non-profit" means people aren't paid? because it seems like he thinks developers aren't paid in non-profits. is this part of his "better insight" than the president of the company?

Asta [AMP]Jun 17

@trochee @darwinwoodka @dangillmor "well, we're a non profit, and because capitalism is just a synonym for commerce, that means we steal to get by because we're all broke because they can't pay us" ???

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka Call me a dumbass, but I actually thought they volunteer to work without getting paid.

Asta [AMP]Jun 18

@bloodynine @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka (I mean, that does happen! People do volunteer. But a lot of non profits do have paid staff).

@bloodynine well, now you know. So, itsa TIL day orrrrr yeah, dumbass. Should be an easy choice.

Jeremy Kahn Jun 17

this guy is basically a poster child of what Zitron calls the Business Idiot

@dangillmor @darwinwoodka

Asta [AMP]Jun 17

@trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka I was debating whether he was just trying to be a troll for attention or whether he's really convinced he knows better than Meredith Whittaker (because of his gender, I assume). The idea that it can't be a non-profit because... developers have to get paid? really sealed the deal.

Irenes (many)Jun 17

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka right, like, speaking as an executive of a much smaller non-profit, sure, non-profits exist within capitalism and at the pleasure of the state, but the transparency rules are still a meaningful protection. Signal seeks grassroots funding (we couldn't immediately find a report on how much of their funding is individual small donors), which is also important.

Asta [AMP]Jun 18

@ireneista @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka it's a well known FACT that NO ONE WAS PAID ANY MONEY EVER before Adam Smith wrote "The Wealth Of Nations"

and of course, no one did anything at all before currency was invented. history started in 1770. I have a keen insight.

Asta [AMP]Jun 18

@ireneista @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka OKAY BUT

what asinine thing did he say that led him to his, "so yes, I do think I have a better insight than the president of the company"

the people, they yearn for the truth

FoolishOwl Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista I'm guessing it was something along the lines of LLMs being progress and you can't stop progress.

Asta [AMP]Jun 18

@foolishowl @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista lmao that would be hilarious, "computers that are wrong are the future of chat!!!!!" ?

FoolishOwl Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista It would be funnier if I didn't keep seeing people say it.

Mark Andrew Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista He wants to be the guy that "told you so" (his own words).

If you look at his history he has some pretty strong convictions, among them: LLMs are overhyped, and Trump is bad (so far so good).

But recently he's been involved in protests and stuff and seems to have been led into some cognitive dissonance about Signal. Organizers are using it, and he can't square that with it being a mistake to use it for national security.

Mark Andrew Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista So instead if asking questions and maybe learning something, he made a wild prediction thinking it was a chance to be a hero.

Irenes (many)Jun 18

@spraoi @aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka ah. that's helpful background.

OvertonDoors Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka @ireneista 👨‍🍳🥫👌❤️

Irenes (many)Jun 17

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka also, like, frankly Meredith is awesome and understands what's at stake with all this stuff and isn't someone who would go back on her word

Jeremy Kahn Jun 18

this part, yes.

@aud @dangillmor @darwinwoodka

Asta [AMP]Jun 18

@ireneista @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka I'm always Cautious Kittens when it comes to people at the head of stuff (positions of authority can be corrupting! It's a whole thing), but Signal w/ Meredith in charge is so much better than what it would have been with Moxie. I was just linking her awesome article on the intertwinted history of computing and slave labour to some "no politics in tech!!!111" doofus earlier. I wish I could meet her but yes, she definitely seems awesome and if she isn't the real deal, then she has certainly spent a lot of personal time and money on doing the kind of work "the real deal" would do, which would be a confusing thing to do if she weren't.

Koos Pol 🇺🇦Jun 18

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka
*Koos looks up his recurring donations...Signal: Check!*

@aud @trochee @dangillmor @darwinwoodka I don't think he thinks that: I read it as making the argument that while Signal may be a non-profit, they do pay their engineers, so they do have to care about cashflow.

While that's of course true, the reasoning is full of holes, and in any case the whole exchange is still 🤦

Transbian_Arsonists (Seraphine)Jun 18

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor thank god this guy is making AI even less likely in signal

- posted by Seraphine

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor Well that's new to me that non profits don't have paid employees. I have no words for the idiocy.

Tanguy ⧓ Herrmann Jun 18

@nomdeb @darwinwoodka @dangillmor *irony on*
Well if they make 0 profit, they have no money to pay employees.
Check mate!
*irony off*

C. Scott Ananian (he/him)Jun 18

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor how do we feed ourselves, @bvibber @legoktm, it's a mystery for sure.

maelstrom Jun 18

"How do developers feed them selves" Of course, by wasting their time and company money building, training, and integrating AI into the app. Genius!

Andrew Orr Jun 18

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor “wHy aRe mEn?” That’s part of the reason why young men are shifted to the right.

Darwin Woodka Jun 18

@andrewornot @dangillmor

ok, sure

Men absolutely have challenges. We can be lonely. We can lack for good models when growing up, we can have difficulty expressing ourselves in a healthy way because of social pressures (with the mental health impacts that result), the list goes on. This really doesn’t make that list.

If you’re otherwise squared away? This doesn’t even register, because you know it doesn’t apply to you, and you’re well aware of the justified frustrations at the root of the statement.

Andrew Orr Jun 18

@Serenus How are young men getting squared away in current times?

@andrewornot Not, I’d suggest, through the proliferation of right wing speakers who promote a version of masculinity that’s both unhealthy and unrealistic.

We had some of the same pressures in our day (assuming you’ve got a few decades under your belt here, as do I). What we didn’t have was an environment saturated with alpha male garbage that exacerbates the lack of connection to others, the walling off of emotion, that all arguably prevents a healthy relationship with oneself and others.

@andrewornot So more directly answering your question - same way we did back then, if they’re lucky enough to avoid the traps we had an easier time avoiding because they were less prevalent.

Not listening to the people who say that there’s one true way to be a man. Not listening to the people who’d make them think that the world’s out to get them. Ignoring that noise, and spending time learning about themselves and how to connect to others in a healthy way.

@andrewornot @Serenus by fucking paying attention to (and joining women in adapting to) the world. It’s contrary to the movement you’re possibly invested in to some degree, so that link needs burned away. But if half of the world has worked it out, seems doable.

sidereal Jun 18

@andrewornot @darwinwoodka @dangillmor Nah, actually, pointing out when men are being sexist is a good thing and is not somehow counterintuitively sexist. You should focus on the adult men being sexist, because that’s who the young men are imitating. Think about this, dogg

culpaplex Jun 18

@andrewornot The fascism is practically self-defense!

Miss Brainslug Jun 18

@andrewornot @darwinwoodka @dangillmor
Bro.

OvertonDoors Jun 18

@missbrainslug @andrewornot @darwinwoodka @dangillmor

Calling them a pearl clutching alpha typically gets you sweared at in under 2 replies.

𝕰𝖗𝖎𝖈 𝖛𝖔𝖓 𝕱𝖔𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 Jun 18

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor full on wrong and strong! 🤣

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor This is so stupid on so many levels. How would AI integration even help developers get paid?

Ghostbreaker SMASH!!Jun 18

@darwinwoodka @dangillmor

Yup, this is going in the Louvre

Darwin Woodka Jun 18

@icil @dangillmor

Our family discord has a channel for these we've dubbed "commemorated deeds"

Pretty much what I was on about lol. There's an account on there called "The Louvre of Bluesky" that compiles the cringiest bits of moth app drama. Turns out this was already gracing its gilded halls by the time I said that, too: https://bsky.app/profile/thelouvreof.bsky.social/post/3lrtfdugzdc2i

The Louvre of Bluesky (@thelouvreof.bsky.social)

Bluesky Social

Darwin Woodka Jun 18

@icil @dangillmor

Nice, I'll have to follow that one