We collectively can normalize being human in the tech space.
There was a time when I felt that I had to conform to a set of corporate norms for success. "Career limiting moves" were to be avoided at all costs. Hair was to be cut. Fake it till you make it reality distortions abounded.
Well, two burnouts later that seems messed up.
The current medicated generation has a better attitude and I've fully adopted it. Everyone is in therapy or going through a struggle of some kind. We can (at least among friends) be vulnerable.
I shared a lot about the cancer journey that my wife went through and the grief and loss associated with it. It was healthy and garnered respect and admiration. Some deep friendships that I cherish were built on that openness.
As entitled white dudes we can be more public in these things, and we should.
A very de Tocqueville analysis! Thanks for your outsider perspective on American society.
As noted even back then, the consequences of slavery would have long-lasting effects on this country. It still resonates in the generations as modern day jim crow, in the built-landscape through redlining, and still used as a tool to pit the working class against each other.
The enduring myth of the rugged individualist and endless frontier also lives to this day. Our movies condition us to expect superheros to save us, and our politics never demands collective sacrifice. Even simple mask mandates are seen as affronts to liberty.
I believe if you burrow a little deeper I think you'll find the community you seek. The further down the ladder the more interdependent people are on each other. The upper levels have the luxury of living an independent life, those less so, not so much.
In many ways we are two societies, one of Doordash deliverers and receivers. Those that control the system, and those that are controlled by it.
Can't wait 'til next year!
https://
@lejatorn it's really been reduced to a photo/video camera and bluetooth headset, but it still takes amazing shots. The high angle and wide FOV was perfect!
@jy Preordered!!! If you post it to a phlog there's a high chance I'll buy it just for that!
Thanks for writing this Ben.
I totally agree that "product but open" rarely meets user needs. Especially when the need is a cohesive global community. That said these products do fulfill some users needs so I am happy to see their use, experimentation and focus.
And if one wants social to be decentralized and open I think a better approach would be to make decentralized technology so easy it's the simple default choice. Right now it isn't. Then, when the next social product would emerges it will have those principles baked in.
@jasvir lol, yeah, it's certainly better for asking for "wrong answers only"
I'm loving all the answers! Perplexed Posse is a good literal one, but I was thinking along the lines of "Murder of Crows".. An Escalation perhaps...
Traveled to the dystopia cyberpunk future where I jacked in my Google Glass and was able to stay in the moment and in character. So many magical #throughglass moments.
https://
May I collect your Visual Bits?
I dusted off my Google Glass for Neotropolis. It was magical. But this was an environment where photo consent is the norm, and being augmented is, well, expected.
I'm yearning for an updated Glass with a Pixel camera sensor and portrait photo/video. But even without that I was able to stay in the moment and get some shots I would not have at all.
Want all the TikTok videos?
1. Go to profile. Scroll to bottom
2. Open web console.
3. Execute this Javascript, replacing USER
x=''; document.querySelectorAll("a[href^=https\\:\\/\\/www\\.tiktok\\.com\\/\\@USER").forEach( e=> {x = x+ e.getAttribute("href") + ' '}); copy(x)
4. Open a command shell
5. Enter yt-dlp on the command line and paste the URLs from step 3!
As someone that is using Known for all my POSSE/PESOS I'd love to see some modernization of Known especially if it can leverage useful parts of the ecosystem for best-in-class frontends.
Would love to see a clean extensible design and would support the effort! There's a small pot of money, so maybe it's been waiting for this moment?
Older and Wiser
![[image of a van mirror reflecting a vivid sunset with a palm tree lined highway]](https://1500wordmtu.com/file/0100c1b25970516a62816c49c141b46c/PXL_20220312_020631253.jpg)
This was a year of deep darkness and bright light; forsaken and welcoming journeys; rupture and attachment; pain and joy; reconnection and connection.
But here I am facing the uncertain future - wiser from that journey. More connected and self aware of my power.
So it's oddly appropriate that my birthday falls on Bandcamp Friday and right after Trans day of Visibility and as my OpenCollective/Patreon contributions kick in. Now, more than ever, we need to care for each other and support art and music that defines our collective humanity. Support these artists/causes and I will happily spread the Birthday love to them!
No official party, but if you'd like to see me and Gus I'll be at the Internet Archive friday lunch, and I'll be at Lake Merrit on Saturday skating and doing some lighting/visualization for the always fun trance DJ extravaganze ASOT 510. Oh and also prepping costumes and the CyberVan for Neotropolis Fest!
And with that I leave you with this lyric:
Don't act like there is no tomorrow
You should use the pain and sorrow
To fill you up with power
Life's both sweet and sour!
Time for strawberry cake!
Also read about the saga of creating the Keyboardio 01:
https://
They went through hell to get it manufactured. Shady companies, the whole nine yards!
@lindner and hi to everyone in Germany! Looking forward to the day when I can safely visit and attend @Amphi_Festival and @fusion_festival
@Chrissip81 no worries, I get misidentified all the time. Looks like the other Lindner @patricklindner_ is using his own platform too!
https://
I also had to use translate to understand #impfluencer Impfung, hahaha.
@Chrissip81 I see that you're popular! Sadly @c_lindner didn't get the flood of notifications! I did :-D
I'd love to know what you said in your video. My Translate App can't do it.
And thank you for encouraging vaccination and safety.
Loose ends
- Archiving social media
- Deleting old accounts. (Bye-bye AWS Glacier 85 cent/month backup images from 2012.)
- Lots of thinking...
Hacker News Ingested
Here's some q&d scripting to pull your comments into a bunch of shpub commands. You'll need to edit some of the quoting, but it works well!
curl https://
cat hackernews-plindner-threads.json | jq -r '.items[]| "shpub note --html --syndication=" + .url + " --published=" + .date_published + " --name=\"" + .title + "\" - <<EOF\n" + .content_html + "\nEOF\n\n"'
This job goes to 11
Not sure how I feel. Google is now my longest running gig, overtaking public school. I have a ton of gratitude for the kindness and support that the people in this company offer and the opportunities it has provided. Oh and...
- This job finally got me out of financial precarity. With total comp it was 6x what I was earning a few years earlier. I had so undervalued myself. And this was in the midst of the great recession.
- It took a while, but I eventually found my groove, and have had so many chances to reinvent myself.
- When calamity struck 6 years ago people where there for me and I had the time to attend to family. And now as I'm going through another rough patch I've found compassion and understanding.
Much, much gratitude.
That said as the company has changed I've less-and-less identified myself as a Googler. I often feel reluctant admitting it in the alternative public spaces I inhabit.
I guess I recognize that the sociotechnical systems we build can reinforce the inequity of our society and extract or destroy the rich "variety" of the world.. I often yearn for a future where we can focus on "stuff that doesn't scale": the human, the physical and local connections.
With that I believe that my contribution, overall, is a net positive to the good in the world. It's hard to quantify and I grapple with it.
So yes, this job does indeed go to 11! Here's to the embracing the present moment and the scary unknown future!!
Ben, thanks for allowing yourself to be vulnerable and share you story of grief. You're not only mourning the loss of your mother, but also all of the other sacrifices you've made along the way. It's difficult and as they say not a linear process.
I found this article covers a lot of what I'd say about the journey and perspective.
https://
Be well.
Worlds Collide
That time the LinkedIn SF Office and the How Weird festival intersected...
September 2021 reminder that I'm not a German Politician!
If I was I'd be way more in line with @dielinke
cc: @Lance78W @Glossa_Austria @ThomasSigmund @chris_breu @loves_Nina @FrauMeyer1 @wegeheld @DavidSittler @HartmutVoigt @LostinEU @tantepiep
If you want to do something about the situation in Texas, folks on the ground seem to be suggesting donating to @TEAFund http://
Circus Bella!
The Circus Bella preview show in West Oakland was a joyous fun time! Many chances to see them, check https://
Sunday Sunday Sunday
Did you know you can get into the https://
Join me and 1 other Googler today (August 22nd 2021) and we'll tour https://
text me at 415 425 1601 if you want to join in on this group!
Real Life Story of the 1st Mainframe Container Breakout
It's like a kubes/mainframe buddy movie. :-D Enjoy this talk from some fun folks from Minnesota.
You're Doing IOT RNG
Saw this talk live. Well done! TLDR badly seeded pseudo-random number generators can be used to find the next random number in sequence.
https://
https://
0xide
Some perspective for this Perf season...
https://
My neighbor works for these guys.
Afrofuturism Exhibit
Anyone want to go to Oakland Museum a week from Sunday? With me and some other interesting folks? Pop into this twitter thread..
@setlinger ah, not a problem. Next Sunday it is. I'll gather interested folks and we can coordinate a time. Maybe @aarcher510 can get their badge by then too!
@setlinger Sunday is perfect. Since you have a group already just name your time and I'll be there! And who knows maybe an impromptu fairness discussion will emerge? Lots to talk about post-DEFCON!
@alexhanna also really looking forward to seeing this exhibit! Would @aarcher510 @setlinger or anyone else be up for a group outing? I'd love to get fresh perspectives.
Eyes to the sky
Found the darkness, the shooting stars, and peace in the wee hours.
Cyberpunk
Your period reminder of what we thought technology was going to give us...
AI Fairness Exploits
Here's the video of the winners of the Twitter bug bounty/CTF for algorithmic fairness. It's a judo trick to get AI failures recognized in the same way as insecure code.
Background
https://
https://
https://
Recasting Algorithmic bias as security vulnerabilities with specific harms and a bug bounty is brilliant! Now I want a "Project Zero" team to go out and find these.
https://
I love this. Google should offer similar bounties. And can we please spin up a Project Zero for AI Bias while we're at it?!
https://
DEFCON
I'm going. Just to be there for this:
https://
A bunch of it will be online too. But I evaluated the covid risks vs rewards and decided to go.