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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!!

https://youtu.be/F7IZZXQ89Oc

 

Replied to a post on werd.io :

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://www.katherineschafler.com/blog/the-one-thing-no-one-ever-says-about-grieving

Be well.

 

Citc Zero

Finally submitted a CL that's been pending for 9 years (some simple Guice memory/performance tweaks)

Cleaned up all my citc clients. Down to 8 from over 100.

 

TalkSpace

Oh look there's a free TalkSpace benefit. I would've been on that earlier if I'd known.

 

 

Worlds Collide

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://teafund.org

 

Circus Bella!

Circus Bella!

The Circus Bella preview show in West Oakland was a joyous fun time!  Many chances to see them, check https://www.circusbella.org/humorous for future shows.

 

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Did you know you can get into the https://museumca.org/ for free with your Google Badge?

Join me and 1 other Googler today (August 22nd 2021) and we'll tour https://museumca.org/exhibit/mothership-voyage-afrofuturism

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.

https://youtu.be/7DXF7YDBf-g

 

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://labs.bishopfox.com/tech-blog/youre-doing-iot-rng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuqw0-jZh9Y

 

0xide

Some perspective for this Perf season...

https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-values

My neighbor works for these guys.

 

Thinking I should schedule time in my calendar to close tabs...





 

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..

https://twitter.com/lindner/status/1426379023802724354

 

@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

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...

https://archive.org/details/cyberpunk_201410

 

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.

https://youtu.be/KLwdzLiJywI

Background
https://hackerone.com/twitter-algorithmic-bias?type=team
https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/10/22617972/twitter-photo-cropping-algorithm-ai-bias-bug-bounty-resu...
https://github.com/twitter-research/image-crop-analysis

 

a tweet

 

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://hackerone.com/twitter-algorithmic-bias

 

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://hackerone.com/twitter-algorithmic-bias?type=team





 

DEFCON

I'm going. Just to be there for this:

https://aivillage.org/events/2020/8/4/ai-village-def-con-28-safe-mode-w6wsl

A bunch of it will be online too. But I evaluated the covid risks vs rewards and decided to go.

 

Live with Purpose

Live with Purpose

I reconnected with my purpose yesterday at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. 

I paid my respects and formed bonds with the community so we can work towards common goals.  So uplifting because collective action starts with individual connections.

 

 

People of Hackers.Town, are you going to in-person DEFCON this year? [Yes] [No] [Maybe]

I'm worried about the Delta variant despite the measures taken by the conference. Vegas is known for high-risk behavior and there are reports of vaccinated people coming down with Covid.

Thoughts?

 

@RadioKPlaylist @slemanczyk Spinitron knows what happened on this historic day!

 

@jrbinks what were you looking for? It's likely that it's tucked away somewhere not readily apparent.

 

See you at IRL Cyberdelia in September.

https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2021/09-17.html

 

 

Archive.org turns 25

I did a video version of the blog post I did for them a while back about Love, Loss and Archives.

http://anniversary.archive.org/

Consider donating and signing up for the 25th anniversary webcast, they do so much with such a small budget. Funny thing is that Google started out as a Library project. In some ways I wish we could go back to that simpler time.

 

Disneyland

Disneyland

Saw the flying cars ride at Disneyland this week.  We sure go that whole future wrong....  https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

 

Scale

With Covid (hopefully continuing) to decline there are some once in a lifetime opportunities to attend events at smaller scale.

I was just at the 30% capacity Disneyland last weekend. 16 rides in one day and just.. relaxed despite 40k steps walked.

I bought DEF-CON tickets.

I might go to the renegade Burning Man this year.

Socially distanced outdoor events mean I can bring my dog and dance.

Looking into doing a set of federated Decentralized Web camps.

Regional events instead of global ones.

Rethinking how things work...

 

Grammatics

Going to take some time to parse this one...

http://ceptr.org/whitepapers/grammatics

 

@daviss A travesty. The community needs to reclaim.

I had a chance to hear Jeanelle Austin and Robin Worlobah speak about how the community managed the intersection. It was inspiring.

cc: @robin4mpls @jeanelleaustin

https://twitter.com/daviss/status/1400415066076364800

 

Great opportunity to hear Nathan Schneider talk about the intersection of cooperatives and technology at the Decentralized Web Meetup this Wednesday.

https://blog.archive.org/2021/05/27/distribute-commons-not-commodities/

cc @ntnsndr @internetarchive

 

It really feels like we're waking from the liminal dream state now. So much latent energy, ready to rush forth, ready for new possibilities.

https://twitter.com/NoraBateson/status/1244628138342125571

 

We might be exiting the liminal state soon, like waking from a dream...

 

 

Spring Spark Drive Thru

Spring Spark Drive Thru

Flames! Lights! Action!  Well worth the drive to the Sacramento Spark Drive Thru.  Loads of Burning Man art, music and spectacle! 

Read all about it at https://www.svspark.org/spring-spark-drive-thru-2021/

 

 

Until next time Phoenix!

Until next time Phoenix!

Thanks to Juan and Ryan at Dark Hall Coffee and the fine folks at The Coronado for welcoming me.  I'll be back!

@darkhallcoffee  @thecoronadophx

 

Remember when @amazon Delivered Dance and DJ

This email from 9-9-99 by @mikemcgonigal is nothing like what you'd see today. I remember @ezrakilty mentioning that he worked with @djkevincole in those early days!

https://1500wordmtu.com/pages/amazoncom-delivers-dance-and-dj


 

moot

That time I almost quit Google...

In retrospect it put me on a more thoughtful relationship with Google the company and where I put my efforts, both inside/outside the company.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/4chan-founder-chris-poole-moot-has-left-google.html

 

Don't let the relief of a guilty verdict stop the march towards systemic change.

 

 

Much thanks to the fine folks on /r/LongBeach

It's the internet doing what it does best.

https://www.reddit.com/r/longbeach/comments/mqme14/looking_for_help_identifying_the_building_near/