“I wanted the blue checkmark on LinkedIn. The one that says “this person is real.” In a sea of fake recruiters, bot accounts, and AI-generated headshots, it seemed like a smart thing to do.

So I tapped “verify.” I scanned my passport. I took a selfie. Three minutes later — done. Badge acquired. I felt a tiny dopamine hit of legitimacy.

Then I did what apparently nobody does. I went and read the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not LinkedIn’s. The other company’s”

https://thelocalstack.eu/posts/linkedin-identity-verification-privacy/

AI agent "contributes" PR to matplotlib.
PR gets rejected.
AI agent *writes and publishes blog to shame the maintainer*.

What a time to be alive.

https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31132

"Goodhart’s Law is really a statement about the process of trying to make policy based on proxy measures of “internal states of complex systems” which are not themselves directly observable. "

Got to this piece from a link from Ben Recht and it finally nailed something that's always bothered me about the constant reference to Goodhart's law across software.

https://backofmind.substack.com/p/goodhart-as-epistemologist

My 101 of analog electronics, in the recommended order of reading:

What is electricity - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/but-good-sir-what-is-electricity

Setting up a workshop - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/setting-up-an-electronics-workshop

Core concepts in electronics - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/primer-core-concepts-in-electronic

Core concepts 2: complex impedance - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/impedance-part-2-why-do-lcr-meters

The physics of semiconductors - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/how-do-transistors-work-anyway

Signal amplification, from transistors to op-amps - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/the-basics-of-signal-amplification

RC circuits and analog signal filtering - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/the-101-of-analog-signal-filtering

Signal filtering 2: transfer functions, Sallen-Key - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/analog-filters-part-2-let-it-ring

Signal reflections - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/signal-reflections-in-electronic

The skinny on radio theory - https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/radios-how-do-they-work

Friend: "Can you hack into a bank?"

Me: Sweating profusely while trying to vertically align text in a div 🫠

Friend: Why do developers use mechanical keyboards?

Me: A mechanical keyboard could help developers type more quickly and more accurately.

Friend: No. Developers use mechanical keyboards to *strongly* type their code.

Me: Get out.