Chris

Gaslighting Prevention

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:19:08 GMT

I've changed my username from xtina to nonethefewer.

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Disencaffeinating

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 11:39:41 GMT

rosefox sent me a post the other whenever of someone who realized that after pregnancy, they had become caffeine intolerant, but didn't realize it. They stopped drinking coffee, and after the withdrawal symptoms had eased, they found they had less daily crushing fatigue.

Hey, I have daily crushing fatigue!

...oh. Oh no.

So I'm weaning myself off of coffee to see what happens, apart from me being sad as hell that I'm not drinking coffee. I've had coffee every day (barring acts of nature) since I was 16, apart from a 9-month stretch when I was pregnant*. Who even am I without coffee?

* I didn't drink coffee while pregnant because it tasted like ash in my mouth. A day or two after giving birth, I was all "Starbucks. STARBUCKS", like Joker wanting a mirror in Batman (1989).

But, on the other hand, I can't stress enough the crushing fatigue. I'll have a cup of coffee and my morning meds, which includes Adderall, and then it will be like someone hit me in the face with a cosh made of sleepions. I will be, literally, cryingly tired. It's ridiculous.

I'm currently on day 5 of The Great Experiment. I have two wolves in me:

🐺 "Stop drinking coffee immediately! Weaning off has never worked for you! Be strong!!"

🐶 "I'm the only one stopping me. I should drink that entire pot of coffee in one sitting."

send help

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I want things sometimes

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 04:38:01 GMT

I want a website that is dedicated to cybersecurity for adults with children in their lives.

I envision a crossover between Ars Technica and PCMag:

General journalism regarding digital safety and children (including at home, at school, at the library)

Periodic Helpful Reminder pieces (“Weekly Reminder: Phishing! It Sucks!“)

Product reviews that focus on security (such as baby monitors that don't leak to the general public)

Links (and descriptions/reviews of said) to useful material for teaching security to children (range of ages, range of material types)

Maybe a Q&A column, if the site-runner is masochistic enough

This want has been brought to you by: I want reviews of devices aimed for children that cover the security aspects of them, and it is annoyingly difficult to find this information in one place.

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Sun, 02 May 2021 20:05:53 GMT

( ''The Enemies'', by Pablo Neruda )

( ''Los Enemigos'', por Pablo Neruda )

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After-incident reviews: not just for non-fiction!

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 22:35:49 GMT

One great thing about reading science fiction/horror is that it makes planning for future security issues so much more thorough.

Today's lesson: If you have a field set up in the breach between your world and a parallel world's, and part of that field contains a special device set to exterminate live things without damaging them, put in a failsafe to also kill the unliving.

themoreyouknow.gif

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Repentance

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 17:49:49 GMT

Repentance

Haven’t the prayers of generations, then,
achieved some mercy from You, God?
Our devotion, ardor,
our lust for You—none of these considered?

God, You greatest mute!
You answer screams with riddles.
You’re no defender of the criminal,
You never say to hatred—“Out! Stop!”

Yet, sometimes rain drips like a tear.
It’s God’s confession in the world—
But I feel: God is sad-embarrassed,
for His sake, and for ours.

But our distress demands: Have mercy!
Instead of tears, give deeds;
Help, not remorse.
Let every hope be Your command,
and every shiver—an alarm.

We—God and man and dogs,
let’s repent together
or each one for the other.

And forgive us our sins
as we forgive You yours.

—Abraham Joshua Heschel (translated by Morton M. Liefman)

( Yiddish )

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It's the little things

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 11:14:52 GMT

Downside: At work, our Slack names are tied to our AD accounts, which means I get to see @Christina Lastname all damn day long. I'd change my name there, except I also send emails to external customers, and I'm not sure how far I want to push this.

Upside: Turns out my Zoom display name is not tied to AD, so now I get to see Xtina Lastname whenever I'm on Zoom meetings, which is constantly.

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There is no Honor Code of Hackers

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 02:55:25 GMT

There are so many larger targets! Surely hackers won't bother hacking into or stealing:

open source software

a bike-sharing platform

the police

a fast-food joint

doorbells

point-of-sale systems

small non-profits

my identity... or my child's identity

If it exists, someone will attempt to hack into it, and then profit from it.

There's a balance to be struck between the most secure (server, cement, Mariana Trench) and the least secure (Martin Luther with his list of 95 personal passwords). A mindset of risk acceptance and proper planning is key. Rationalizing risky behavior with "oh but they'll never bother with [thing], it's too small!" is, as listed, factually incorrect at best.

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"Did you mean to go to hell?"

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 21:30:36 GMT

How to hide the "Did you mean to go to [site]" crap in Firefox:

https://support.mozilla.org/bm/questions/1129065

Update, 2021-01-02:

Set browser.urlbar.dnsResolveSingleWordsAfterSearch to 0.

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Tue, 10 Nov 2020 21:50:54 GMT

Note to self, that pretty font in the first Monument Valley game is Museo 300.

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MORE CLOCKS

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:07:17 GMT

* Fibonacci Clock, wherein which one does math to tell the time.

* Potato Clock

* Zero Gravity Wall Clock

* Golden Spiral Clock

* Binary Clock

[eta more clocks]

Tired: "this funky unique clock is embedded in a fake boot! :) "

Wired:

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My Sophie

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 20:25:21 GMT

( CN: death of a pet )

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CLOCKS

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 20:53:15 GMT

If these don't make noise then I have a new thing to collect. These are definitely not the usual "normal numbers on a funky background" clocks.

days of the week clock

redundant clock

RND Time Wall Clock

chain clock

rubber band clock ???

words only clock

ROBOT SPIDER LEG CLOCK

crossword puzzle wall clock

domino clock

eyes clock

gears clock, but not like you think

But then also this one, because it's pretty.

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Sun, 06 Sep 2020 12:40:25 GMT

Theories About the Universe

I am trying to see things in perspective.

My dog wants a bite of my peanut butter
chocolate chip bagel. I know she cannot have this,
because chocolate makes dogs very sick.
Madigan does not understand this.
She pouts and wraps herself around my leg
like a scarf, trying to convince me to give her
just a tiny bit. When I do not give in,
she eventually gives up and lays in the corner
under the piano, drooping and sad.
I hope the universe has my best interest in mind
like I have my dog’s. When I want something
with my whole being, and the universe withholds it
from me, I hope the universe thinks to herself,

Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants,
but she does not understand how it will hurt.

— Blythe Baird

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Firefox tips and tricks

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 03:04:12 GMT

If you also dislike the HUGE FUCKO URLBAR nonsense, following these steps appears to help.

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It's a good thing sometimes that Kit doesn't pay attention to us

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 11:00:55 GMT

Yesterday in Slack:

Josh: Kit is hanging out in my bed awake, refusing to leave
Josh: wont let me kick alex out either

Xtina: would you like me to find an adult?

Rose: 😄

Today out loud:

Xtina: [ranting about everything in AO3 being about fucking*]

Josh: What's wrong? I heard something about fucking and fanfic?

Rose: Oh, X was complaining about there being too many adult-themed stories in AO3.

Xtina: [squints]

Josh: Aw, my favorite prude!

Xtina: [glares]

J & R: [hilarity]

Xtina: ...little did I realize that when I made that "need an adult" joke yesterday, I was laying the kindling for my own burn today.

--
* One decent fic of Odo and Kira's conversation from S6E07 during Jadzia's pre-wedding party! That's all I ask for! Not everything has to be about love and sex!!**

(** If you come at me with "not ALL", I will come back at you with a bat made up of other, smaller bats.)

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Wed, 22 Jul 2020 10:33:54 GMT

( From the Point of View of a Cat )

( Z punktu widzenia kota )

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Kait Rokowski, "A Good Day"

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 10:20:42 GMT

( A spoken-word poem thing. TW: suicide mention. )

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Notes to myself

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 10:46:28 GMT

Twitter embeds don't work in Cracked articles because of the setting privacy.trackingprotection.enabled, in case future!me is wondering. It's not worth it to disable the setting, but at least now I know what those vast swaths of blank space are about.

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Some poems

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:54:48 GMT

( ''A Song on the End of the World'' by Czesław Miłosz )

( (original Polish) )

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An amusing anecdote

Mon, 25 May 2020 11:05:32 GMT

Months ago, pre-CV, my bosses helped me phrase a thing about myself: that I'm good at finding edge cases, which makes me great at testing and security, and crap at work relations sometimes. (This is not doom; I freely own this.)

At some point pre-CV, we at work were supposed to sign a new version of the handbook. In it was a phrase like: "$company does not condone retaliation based on reports made in good faith."

Me: "...what if they're made in bad faith?"

So I asked our HR folk. I went through three different HR folk and ended up on a call with one of them because they had no idea what I was asking about.

In retrospect, I'm more concerned that there are at least three different HR folk who aren't used to autistic testers... 👀

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Van Gogh's paintins in that one Doctor Who episode

Sun, 03 May 2020 11:14:58 GMT

Can't find this anywhere else, so I write it here.

( List of van Gogh works in that one Doctor Who episode )

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Wed, 05 Feb 2020 18:55:04 GMT

My coworker in sysops has a nephew who just graduated high school and is interested in cybersecurity, and he asked me what I'd recommend. I write it down here so that I don't forget for later.

Note: This is my take. Others have their takes.

There are many different aspects to cybersecurity. Some of them: risk and compliance, security operations, application security, ethical hacking/bug bounty hunting, pentesting (code, networks, social situations)... probably more that I'm forgetting. Start by exploring those aspects to see which one appeals the most. Or ones; no one said you have to pick only one forever.

Whichever path you choose, definitely learn the surrounding environment as well. For example, we at work might be called on to help engineering stand up a set of load balancers. We'll be way more effective at securing that if we know anything about load balancers and how they work. For another example, application security means knowing about OOP principles would be super useful. You don't have to be a full-blown expert, but the more you know about what you're securing, the better you'll be.

If the path is computer-focused, try taking a security-focused certification path for a specific system, such as the security training path laid out in Cloud Guru for AWS. Most security-path system-specific trainings will involve the basics of how the system itself works, which is useful.

Having soft skills is essential. The weakest link in every system is the human involved. Learning how to communicate effectively so that the layfolk understand what the problem is and how to not perpetuate it is a very important skill to have.

Another useful skill is to develop a security mindset. What are ways that something could be compromised? Go through the steps to secure your own devices: where did you draw your own lines between security and availability? What are some things you do today for security, even basic things, and how could they be subverted? Or improved upon?

Reassurance time: If you go whole hog on one path, then change your mind at any point, it's all fine. I know one person who became an actual lawyer, who then gave that up to become a developer. I know another person who was halfway through their psychology degree, who then switched it up to be a film music major. It's all good.

In conclusion, cybersecurity will only be more important as time goes by, until there's a nuclear winter, at which point we'll all have different priorities anyhow. Hooray!

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Cleaning out your physical mailbox

Sun, 22 Dec 2019 15:16:11 GMT

I've been slowly reducing the amount of physical junk mail we receive. Saves trees, saves us having to fill our recycling bin to overflowing before it's recycling day, &c.

For generics, there's this list of links:

* https://dmachoice.thedma.org/
* https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
* https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/seven-tips-for-reducing-unwanted-mail-and-phone-appeals
* https://www.directmail.com/mail_preference/
* https://www.usa.gov/telemarketing#item-35222
* https://www.uspsinfo.com/stop-junk-mail/
* https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email

For specifics, I'll track down the customer support email related to the mailing, or I'll just email support@[their domain], and ask them to take us off their physical mailing list. Targeted mailings frequently have codes on them; I'll usually refer to those.

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Security cleanup time: Old accounts

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 16:24:47 GMT

For the new year, spend some time going through your known online accounts and password manager¹ and close out accounts you don't need or use anymore.

If you can't find easy instructions for closing or canceling your account, try checking out AccountKiller. If they don't know the service, you can submit some basic details and they'll look into it.

1: Surely you're using a password manager, yes?

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