Matt Linton

A "How did the support agent do?" phone tree just asked me: "On a scale from zero to ten, how well did this representative help you?"

And now I don't know what happens if I try to enter 1-0. Is it going to take that as ten, or one?

I'm sorting through scholarship applications this evening and it is REALLY tiring, these days, to investigate who is actually interested in a particular career vs who just asked an AI tool to write them a good essay so they could spam every scholarship they could find.

This is why managers in cybersecurity need to know that the #1 most important thing is treating your folks well, even if it means they outgrow you and move on. Their gravity will still affect your orbit for years to come, one way or the other.

I need to learn more about the vampire law I guess.

I agree with what you're saying but I can't tell if you're being sarcastic in this particular post, because (18 U.S.C. § 924) and CA 12022.53 both are actual things.

"You have to notify us of all incidents and suspected incidents within 24 hours of discovery."

(6 months later)

"Why do you keep notifying us of things that turn out not to have been actual incidents? Can't you do a complete investigation first?"

My dog got all warm lying in the sun so I gave her a big hug and forgot I had fresh hair dye still in...

With all the things going on right now, I'm very very curious about whether #defcon will continue to have as close and cozy a relationship with DHS and the US Military as they have had in the last few years.

Like, I can DO this chord if I have my 3rd finger on low E and my 4th finger on high E but the way it's shown here, I don't think my hand can bend like that.

Sometimes I really question these guitar teaching apps. Is this honest to God really an actual finger position? Or is some AI playing a prank on me?

OMG Globe fire boots are like SO much more comfortable than anything I've worn before.

This is my happy wall, it is one of the four walls that make up my happy place.

It's the age-old economic problem: Quality doesn't scale, and scale typically sacrifices quality.

The new twist the cyber world has to deal with is that modern software has a quantum atomic bond to other software, so a quality issue anywhere can be a quality issue everywhere.

Proving Non-Impact How to make the most effective use of cybersecurity investigators, and when ineffectively using them is still worth it

This rant of mine only begins to scratch the surface of my thoughts :P

medium.com/@matt_97344/...

The term "Due Diligence" wouldn't bother me at all, if it actually referred to doing the meaningful work necessary to reduce risk.

But almost every time I hear that phrase, it actually refers to doing busywork someone thought up that'll make them feel like they're covering their liability bases.

I could rant for hours about the waste of person-hours that goes into:

* Sending each other questionnaires
* Emailing "Please confirm you patched this vulnerability" notices out to every vendor every week
* RESPONDING to every customer's "Please confirm..." emails.
* "Due diligence" busywork...

I just paid _more than_ $600 for a pair of work boots. Inflation, yo.

A certain popular dramatic TV show recently featured someone's blood being harvested in a moment intended to morally shock the audience, and I remembered that this is 100% a thing that humans already do to other creatures.

Fire and EMS Academy Scholarship This scholarship aims to honor and encourage people who dream of entering fire or EMS professions but need help paying for the schooling they need to get there.

Each year I open a scholarship for helping young Fire/EMS cadets afford school in areas where it's tough to get academy/school funded by the departments. If you're interested, you can contribute some last-minute EOY tax-deductible funds to it:

Hot damn, I'd buy that.

Exceptions to every rule exist but, broadly speaking, buying anyone younger than GenX a thing that is "hand wash only" or "dry clean only" is essentially a white elephant gift. ;)

So now Will thinks blocklists are good actually?

Seems like "Protected bike lanes that cars aren't allowed to park in" might just be THE "way to make it happen"

There's nothing quite as amusing as watching a loudmouth tough guy trying to start shit with a calm guy who has one ear larger than the other

Going into someone's house who were smokers and noticing that the ceiling was yellow...

Sounds like a big tech interview question from pre-2020.

"Imagine you are a car, about to smash into a tree. Describe each in-car safety system's interactions with the car computer in realtime."

The Susie Wiles thing sure seems like a "Finally tell the truth about a bunch of things everyone already knew you'd been openly lying about to establish cred then slip a BIG lie you care a lot about in the middle" type deal.

Notice the "Oh yeah also he didn't do anything bad with Epstein" bit?

Oh damnit. You got me. That was good.

Right, I might have trusted the existing programs even in this admin to some extent. But any wild crazy new idea this administration comes up with is bound to leave you in the lurch, and possibly without your old job to go back to anymore.

OPM launches Tech Force to recruit technologists to government An initial cohort of 1,000 people will serve in agency roles for two years. Roughly 25 companies — including Microsoft, Palantir and xAI — are partners on the initiative.

I loved my time in federal service, but this is a *horrible* deal on its face. Anyone want to take a giant pay cut for 2 years to work for political appointees who mostly hate you AND risk your original job being gone when you're done?