Posts by nazgul@infosec.exchange
 (DIR) Post #ASIY6PJBc2AZttARyC by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       I'm overdue for an #introduction, especially with all you new followers…so here goes.I'm a software engineer with a degree in Anthropology. I highly recommend the combo.Most recently I was tech lead for Scaled Human Review at Meta. I worked in the Integrity Foundation (what other companies call "Trust and Safety") on Better Engineering initiatives and #Metaverse integration, with the teams that build human review software for the 30-40K external reviewers. I'd sworn I’d never work at Facebook, but I decided to see if I could make a difference. I couldn’t. And it wasn't a good fit for either of us. But I learned a lot about how the sausages are made and why they have such a hard time with #contentmoderation.I've been on #socialmedia for four decades (seriously, I saw someone catfished in chat in 1978—this stuff isn't new), and virtually everyone I know I met online somewhere—many I've still never met in person. Needless to say, that's made me pretty passionate about making online communities safe for everyone, and especially marginalized groups.I'm now a freelance #consultant, working on my own projects (I'll write more on that later), and with my wife's #consulting company (see below). I'm planning to do a lot more writing about #society and #technology (as well some #SFF), and to travel more.I tend to write long posts (like this one). They may get shorter once my blog is back up. I don't stick to one topic, but I'll try to tag them so you can filter. I post about tech stuff (recent, as well as old geeky #Unix stuff), #social issues, #LGBTQ issues (especially the T), pretty #photos, and random personal anecdotes. When I boost, it's because I think it's something that might be interesting to someone, or some group, that follows me. Those tend to include all the above topics, plus SF&F-related things, and cool science stuff.I'm #pan, #poly, #nonbinary (or #genderqueer, if you prefer). I prefer "they" for pronouns, but "he" is fine. I spent most of my life thinking I really was a straight cis man who just happened to be a bit quirky and a passionate and tearful ally, so I'm not too picky about how you refer to me. I'm also more than happy to answer any questions about all that, public or private.I grew up mostly in #Maine and then lived in Massachusetts for a long time, but I now live on sovereign #Swinomish land in #WashingtonState (US), on the edge of the San Juan islands. Despite my first name (that's a story) and current location, I'm not Native American, although I focus a lot on Native American rights. My parents were both active in that area, and that was my introduction to civil rights in general.I've been a #software engineer at various levels (from programmer to CTO to company founder) for 40+ years. I learned BASIC in high school, taught myself Pascal, FORTRAN and PL/1  in college, learned C as an intern at Bell Labs (Murray Hill, one floor up from the Unix crew), and went on from there. In college, I majored in #Anthropology with a concentration in #Psychology, and that's influenced the way I look at software ever since. Software is designed for people. Software systems build communities (whether intended or not). Anyone who does that damn well better understand how people and #communities work. I've worked for Bell Labs (psych stats), Sperry Research (window systems, UX design), Apollo/HP (programmable shell, windowing systems, Unix porting, UX design), Bright Ideas (cookbook, educational games), OSF (windowing standards), Alfalfa (multimedia email - SMTP *and* X.400 :)), Wildfire (phone-based voice assistant), Utopia/USWeb (web and security consulting), Saroca (small boats), Messagefire (anti- #spam software), MessageGate (corporate compliance software), Somewhere (software consulting), ZeeVee (web video aggregation, metadata scraping), TiVo (video content correlation, #metadata pipelines), and Meta. Plus a few others.I've been with my wife, Dr. Mollie Pepper, for over a decade. She's a #sociologist with a focus on #refugee migration, #gender, and violence; the kind of work that gives you PTSD. She did her dissertation on women's roles in the (now extremely defunct) peace process in #Myanmar (aka #Burma). A year ago she was at a military base frantically processing thousands of Afghan refugees and managing translators. She has a consulting company that specializes in evaluating and designing refugee service and placement programs. You can find her at https://carlsonpepper.com/. Everything I know about #feminism, #intersectionality, #queer theory, #CRT, and #racism I either learned from her, or she gave me the theoretical underpinnings to understand them properly.I have two grown daughters from my first marriage with Nassim Fotouhi; a kick-ass software engineer/engineering manager who came to the States just before the Iranian revolution.Shadi Fotouhi is an artist (see my profile background photo, go look up the drug codes and compare them to the mermaids' behavior) turned software engineer; building dynamic room installations will do that to you. She worked in QA at a gaming company, and then at Jibo; a robotics startup. Now she's a senior software engineer at Wayfair--Kubernetes, release configuration, and all that fun stuff.Shireen Hinckley is a documentarian, digital image technician, video editor, and co-founder of Somewhere Films (https://www.somewherefilms.com/shireen-hinckley); a womxn's filmmaking collective. She works for #Beyoncé at Parkwood Entertainment, where she's an editor and post-production supervisor for all of their video releases. She worked on "Black is King" and just about every video since then, whether it's for Instagram, Times Square, Tiffany's, the Oscars, or Chloe x Halle. No, I can't tell you when the Renaissance visual album will be out—but it will be amazing.I'm incredibly honored to have those wonderful women in my life. I wouldn't be who I am without them.A couple other things that may come up, especially in my photos. My mother is an artist who lives in Maine in a round house she designed, and the family built, when I was in high school. And I'm part owner of a #lighthouse on Cape Cod.--kee
       
 (DIR) Post #AjdO9LNfr30nYV5dZY by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       Just FYI, as I’ve picked up a bunch of new followers over my Threads and AI-related posts.1. I post my whole self here (for the first time since USENET days). Feel free (if your client supports it—I recommend @MonaApp on iOS) to filter out by keywords. I *do* put content warnings on the more risqué stuff.2. I reshare things that I think are important, voices I believe need to be heard, and things that I think some set of people who follow me will enjoy (“Oh look! Ants, fiber crafts, bicycles, security issues…so and so will like that”). Mona supports filtering out reshares from an account, so that could be useful if there’s a topic you aren’t interested in.3. I “like” posts for multiple reasons; appreciation (even if it’s not my thing, I enjoy enthusiasm), sympathy, or just something I enjoyed. Not resharing isn’t a negative, it just means I’m not sure my followers will like it as well as I do.4. I try to follow people who interact with me, unless I think I’ll be overwhelmed. (I wish Mona would make it more prominent whether a post or reply is not from someone I follow, maybe color coding of the message and the names in the reply?)5. I’m passionate. I sometimes respond stronger than I should. But I try not to hesitate to admit I’m wrong or apologize.6. I’ll stop learning when I’m dead.7. It’s very difficult to get me to stop talking about how amazing I think my kids and wife are. Apologies in advance.
       
 (DIR) Post #Alvg9SJrekCKCMndnk by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       @eff @icymi_law @htsuka @CALMatters "Unintended"?
       
 (DIR) Post #ArtXPOnsMTYNuFDG64 by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       I really didn't need to feel this seen.
       
 (DIR) Post #AsjDXPPs4WutGBRWzY by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       @MicroSFF I'm pretty sure that by now we'd be at the point where I'd have to unzip my pants.
       
 (DIR) Post #AsnyPLI504fIcrIHJY by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       When old Soviet Union jokes are applicable to the US, you know something has gone terribly wrong.
       
 (DIR) Post #AsnzXtqiUnKG4v8hZA by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       Now there's a protest sign you don't see often.
       
 (DIR) Post #Awm7SWcIpMGHzT8p04 by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       @MichaelWhelan Ah. That probably explains why I'd never realized that was a Michael Whelan cover.And mind you, I used to buy books because it was Whelan cover. I knew if I liked the painting, I'd like the book. They captured the stories that well.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwtjZDzrbwPSdKVFFw by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       @davidrevoy Throwing their trash back at them totally makes that work best of the options.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2IXwRNDXiLkMegWGm by nazgul@infosec.exchange
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       @MicroSFF I hope it's burrito-shaped.