Mel Eaden

Oh, there's "coffee badging," where folks show up for core hours, usually 10-3, and try to make their communiting life easier to deal with. Then work five to eight more hours at home to cover pets, family, elder care, or to just live outside of the office.

🎨 《文會圖》宋徽宗

In the Song dynasty, tea became a ritual of grace among scholar-officials.
At gatherings, they perfected every detail: tea’s color, water’s source, the shape of cups, the stillness of the room. Tea was more than a drink; it was cultured silence, shared thought, and refined presence.
🎨 《文會圖》宋徽宗

This is actually a really common scam these days. A scammer will call and use AI to replicate a family member’s voice and the family member will sound distressed and having an emergency so you don’t have time to think. Best thing to do is hang up and call that family member “back” to confirm.

Tumblr post screen capture by nocryptographer about how to tell AI slop from a story that was created by a human being.

If the writer’s eyes light up when asked, “why did the character do that?” then it’s real.

Is anyone surprised?

Worth taking a look! These notes are wonderful!

It was great seeing everyone this week at #agiletestingdays. Thank you for being such a wonderful crowd of folks. After this week, I feel ready for the next chapter, whatever that may be.

The Cautionary Tale of Gen AI The research that inspired the talk given at ATD 2025

Posted on my substack all of the info I collected for my talk about the not-so-great side of LLMs/AI

melthetechie.substack.com/p/the-cautio...

I miss the days when searches would ask if it got the right thing, or if it was even close. The assumptions LLMs keep making are missing the mark that even a simple search would have - with high probability - brought back correctly.

Will AI be the BlueRay of tech? Will Quantum computing remove the need for AI? (One can hope)

www.msn.com/en-us/news/t...

BTW - was never in doubt that trades people aren't well educated. They most certainly are, and are undervalued, like teachers.

We can teach computers to print houses, but someone would still have to know how to make the materials, load the right amount, size, what have you-into them. That all comes from math and applied sciences.

Just in case you want another reason to support educating everyone and paying a fair wage.

We used to complain about having to know fractions and conversions between feet and inches. It's a clear indication that education models were initially set up for people to go into trades to at least recognize the difference between inches and centimeters.

Tech has less physical effort involved. But the brain power and artistry is very real. AND MATH. I've rarely had to do calculations unless dealing with I/O. Folks that work in and around construction have to utilize math on some level every day. It's wild.

ALSO - very real parallels to the tech world - Estimates are always p50s. Work sometimes runs into unexpected things. People scheduled to be out both expected and unexpected. Deciding whether to go through with fixing something or making/using new.

Doing a little bathroom remodel that was originally supposed to be a 1.5 week job, that is now dragging into its third week. (Mostly for scheduling and materials reasons) Please tell me some of your remodeling woes. Mostly so I know I'm not alone in this.

F Trump on a guitar with Tom morello

💀💀💀

Excited to discuss "Software Testing with Generative AI" this week at our DevOps, AI, & Beyond Book club.

This event will not be recorded and we're so grateful to author, Mark and @ministryoftesting.com community leader for coming live.

Join us: bookclubs.com/clubs/25352/...

legiscan showing US Congress Senate Bill 9 Status Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 36-0) Status: Introduced on January 7 2025 - 25% progression Action: 2025-01-08 - Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 2. Summary A bill to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth. title: Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025

hi, cis folks! meet S.9. it's the senate sports ban for trans athletes—a big step to something making trump’s executive order federal law, which is much harder to undo.

short call scripts for dem & GOP senators ⬇️.

if you said you'd stand with trans folks, it's time.🧵


legiscan.com/US/bill/SB9/...

a close up of a man 's face with a beard looking at the camera . Alt: Gary Oldman yelling "Everyone!"

Who's responsible for quality?

Abstracta QSC2024 - #QSConf - hybrid conference. Melissa Eaden - virtual speaker.

I'm a virtual speaker at #QSConf! Check out this conference and I'll be posting more about the date/time and the topic!

Prime example of picking a technical solution that isn't even viable yet over adaptive solutions/policies that could have an immediate impact.

I do :)

Roundel showing a cartoon version of Ada Lovelace by Sydney Padua, with the words 'Ada Lovelace Day Indie Event'.

Ada Lovelace Day is Tues 8 Oct and around the world people will organise events to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM. Join us! Hold your own event, register it on our official map and we'll share details in our newsletters and on socials. https://findingada.com/events/c/add/

Since humanitarian aid can't get into Gaza, I've decided that for me, donating to enable people to get out of Gaza is the best way to help right now.

I know it's hard to gauge if fundraisers are legit but I feel confident this one is. If you have some money to spare, consider checking it out.

I had a wonderful Pepe’s Bar featuring @melthetechie.bsky.social
Please don’t miss out and get to know this wonderful person!
@agiletdzone.bsky.social @trendigcomp.bsky.social

Save the Tears: White Woman's Guide How to make meaningful change

www.tatianamac.com/posts/save-t...

If you are working through the recent round of tech layoffs, and are an underrepresented folk, please reply to this post with your linkedin/website/github. If you are a tech person and happen across this post, please RT. Thanks! #jobsearch

We're still trying to close up the gap in digital subscriptions caused by Amazon shuttering their subscription program last year. If you are a former Amazon subscriber looking to sign back up or someone joining for the first time, your options can be found here:
clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

Israel guided 1.5 million Palestinians into Rafah. They moved the "safe zone" further and further south, until Rafah was all that was left. Now they're bombing Rafah, and people have nowhere to go, nowhere to flee. It's genocide.