https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/optimal-amount-of-fraud/

Really want to read this a few times and think very hard about zero-trust network initiatives.

@ajroach42 @dpflug @MountainTownToys thanks! Checking it out now.

@ajroach42 @dpflug I mean I’m in Virginia but this sounds awesome. You willing to share the path to machine shops and toys? Also, where can I buy your stuff?

not gonna lie - the Working Family Party's #WeAintBuyingIt boycott of Target and Amazon will make christmas shopping harder, but its worthwhile. Convenience comes at a cost, and I should be willing to get off my butt if it, you know, fights idiocy in corporate America.

I was glad to see WFP is now active in Virginia. I've liked them for a while, but didn't know they were local.

Well now.

The last 24 hours worth of headlines here in the US have been a pleasant surprise.

@SecurityWriter

In this house we celebrate today by ordering pizza and giving the wrong address.

No we don’t, that would be horrible and rude to the delivery driver. Donate to indigenous peoples’ legal defense funds, the folk in Gaza facing their own colonizers, and by being kind to workers everywhere. And don’t just do that cuz is a holiday in the US, do that cuz it’s the right thing to do.

May still order pizza for dinner, though. Pizza sounds good.

Most days it feels like the value I bring to a team is that I read a lot, I connect concepts and events, and I’ve been doing it long enough to remember the last time we (or someone else) tried XYZ.

I don’t know that orgs want that anymore, to be honest.

Really want to run a laundromat. Clean clothes help everyone; I’m tired of arguing with people that something is important for the weeks before the event resolves and then watching them write AARs asserting that no one could have know this was a problem. If I was a better communicator, maybe they would have listened? I don’t know.

But laundromats! No one likes dirty laundry; everyone benefits when we all are clean.

so I've never actually been a SOC analyst. Been doing cyber-related stuff since the mid 80s; being doing threat intel for a decade in various technical topics for government type employers. But since I lead a bunch of CTI folk now I figured I should get smarter on how those folk got trained up.

I'm taking @Antisy_Training 's SOC Core Skills and its great (as I expected). But this line just now stuck out to me because I've been arguing it at work for, well, months, and its so very heartening to hear a pro say it in a class: if all you do is wait for the automated tools to tell you what to do or what is important or what to action or whatever else, you are *this close* to being replaced by an automated system yourself.

I'm a traditional intel analyst who happens to have a lot of cyber experience, so I approach things in a very different way than the experienced sysadmin who happens to have gotten into threat intel analysis. I'm glad to confirm the folk on that path should still be getting that lesson, though.

@mcc specialization is for insects, after all.

Not many choose to see these posts, but that’s ok - I’ll say it anyway:

The idea that @hacks4pancakes is gate keeping infosec is preposterous. If any of you are looking for information on how to do well in the industry, follow them. If you want mentorship, sign up for a time slot with them. Happen to be in Australia, or someplace near there? Go to a conference they’re at - Lesley is the best of us.

@sen oh no! The magic blue smoke escaped!

@brooke one of the end time seals.

To those who write post cards before elections: thank you, you make me smile and remember to be more engaged in every election.

To those who work phone banks: thank you, you remind me I can do a little more.

To those protesting injustice: thank you, you inspire me.

To those running for local office: thank you, you’re pushing back the creeping darkness.

To those suffering under the weight of all this hatred - the women being blamed, the LGBTQIA+ folk being erased, the people of color being denied, the disabled folk being pushed into corners, the folk overseas who once thought of Americans as people who brought food and aid and medicine when nightmares come to daytime but now see our violence and greed: I am so very sorry we have failed you. Please give me and all the others a little more time to try to set things right. It’s not a debt that can be repaid, but we’ll try.

@jack_daniel “Don’t Look Like Presbyterians To Me” Records is a label I can support.

Not gonna lie, this makes me want to vote for him more.
#loudoun

@Daojoan I think its from one of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books, but regardless of the source, it often makes sense to go with the impossible option rather than the improbable one. Impossible options have an integrity about them, while improbable options are fully rational except for the fact that the person simply would not do that.

I'm going to ask everyone who reads this to keep providing money to folk in Gaza. I know you're tired of seeing that ask.

I imagine many folk in the west are tired of hearing about problems in Gaza. I won't lie - there is a voice in my head that complains "you've already chipped in", or "you have problems too"... stuff like that.

But that voice is the voice of privilege. I have the luxury of simply walking away, of deciding this just isn't something I want to help with any more. My troubles are first world problems - I didn't get all the laundry done today, lunch was more than I wanted to pay when I took the family out to an uncomfortably hot day at a pumpkin patch - and they are the dreams of people in war zones.

Those people are tired. They're tired of scraping food together for their children. They're tired of nights interrupted by rocket fire. They're tired of moving this way and that way, trying to follow evacuation rules that shift like the wind.

And since the various involved governments and militaries aren't going to stop fighting, there is a bottomless need for money to keep those in the crossfire alive. Its easy to make a generous donation to a gofundme or chuffed page, feel good about helping, and then feel annoyed when that person asks for money again. But that generous donation? that bought bread for a day, and tomorrow is another day...

I am not a rich man. But I have enough to share. And my belt? It can be tightened. I was a soldier and know a little of what these folk are experiencing (no - I don't claim to have experienced it as my patrols ended at stocked chow halls on bases with running water. But I saw it, every day), and I can make this lift to help them get to a moment's peace.

And if we all keep working together, maybe we can stretch that moment into something longer.

https://gaza-verified.org/

There is a watermelon growing in my garden.

It’s not a very big watermelon. And the squirrels may go after it soon. But it’s there, and it’s growing. I have hope.

I have only recently learned the significance of watermelons. There are connotations here in the US, yes, but the world is a vast place with so many other peoples and traditions. I am glad to learn more about the world I live in and the cultures that exist around me.

I hope this watermelon grows. I hope it thrives; I hope it brings smiles to all who see it. “A watermelon - wonderful!” Is what I hope friends and neighbors say when they see it.

I want it to stay safe. I want it to be nourished and free to grow in the sunshine, rooted in a container all its own. I will gladly accept any fruit this plant or others share with me, but that’s not why I grow them - the tomatoes and peppers and this watermelon are there because they make my world a better place merely by being there. I appreciate the happy leaves and the beautiful colors they all add to what I see.

This post really isn’t about the watermelon growing on my porch.

#gaza

@tinker I still believe in the hogfather.