laren

@laren@infosec.exchange

Bad jokes, poor fashion sense. Dabbler in many things infosec because of shiny thing syndrome. Twitch streamer occasionally.

SOC puppet, meat popsicle, HAM radio newb.

Transfemme, queer, polyam, kind of a thing.

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laren, to lotr

Today's joke, coming out of the question 'Do orcs just think Bilbo's sword always glows?'

"Gorthak, is your spyglass working?"
"It is, and I see the halfling! I recognize the sword, but-"
"But what?"
"But it's not glowing."
"Bullshit. The sword always glows."
"Not this time it doesn't."
"No, no, it can't be the halfling, then. The halfling's sword glows. We've established this. We know this. The sword glows, it's the halfling."
"Well, I'm telling you, the sword is not glowing."
"Listen, Throgar, I am not here for your bullshit today. If the sword is not glowing, it's a different halfling."
"And I'm telling you it is the halfling, and his sword is not glowing."
"Why wouldn't his sword be glowing, then, Throgar? Tell me that."
"I don't know. Maybe he turns it off. The glow keeps him up at night."
"Keeps him up at night? How would he stop it from glowing?"
"Maybe he turns it off."
"HOW WOULD HE TURN IT OFF!?"
"Elf magic."
"Elf. Magic. Throgar, do you even listen to yourself sometimes? Pfft. 'Turns it off.' Next thing you're going to tell me is that Bombadil asshole put on Sauron's ring, thought it was neat, and handed it back..."

#lotr #jokes

laren, to random

Pro tip: A UPS on your main desktop is nice.

A secondary UPS on your network infra might be something to do as well.

laren, to scifi

I'm a big fan of sci-fi, and a huge (and underappreciated) element thereof is sound design - especially the background noise.

The ship humming. Radio chatter. Etc.

Found a guy on YouTube with a pile of such. It's kinda fantastic, NGL.

https://youtu.be/hxuNPfnMpSM

#scifi #backgroundnoise

laren, to random

Things I did not expect to say today:

"Head trauma is not something you microdose so you build up an immunity."

jerry, to random

Oof. Somehow, I expected more out of a bank’s security program.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/12/cloud_engineer_bank_prison/

laren,

@jerry Having seen some bank security programs?

I expect less.

laren, to random

Sometimes, I'm smarter than I think I am.

My pihole server has been throwing errors and just generally sucking. Full disk errors, LVM generally being a shit.

But I realized something: When I finished setting up the server around this time last year, I made a hyper-v checkpoint for it.

...Rather than screwing with it? Roll that sucker back, update everything back to current.

laren,

@jerry Smart would be assuming the server has about an 11 month lifecycle and setting up a scheduled snap-back with automations to update all relevant systems to standard.

Given this a once-a-year problem, though..... it might just be a google calendar reminder.

laren, to random

Why do you want a turtle on your red team?

Because it's virtually guaranteed they'll get a shell on the system.

laren, to random

Did my monthly bowling thing, and our bowling thing turned out to be scheduled alongside the local furry community's regularly scheduled bowling thing.

And, folks, you cannot impress me with your bowling skills anymore unless you're knocking out strikes in a full fursuit.

laren,

@jerry It really is.

And with bowling shoes in play! 😮

laren, to random

One more from my walk last night. This parking thingy was beeping SOS and in the midst of existential screaming.

The world is bad enough that even the parking meters are screaming.

#existentialscreaming

hacks4pancakes, to random

I just turned on AirPod noise cancellation for the first time at the airport holy shit I don’t know how I feel about this

laren,

@hacks4pancakes Noise cancellation is one of my must-have features nowadays - it's unreal if you aren't used to it. Surrounded by fans and computers and just turning off the sound from all of it is a special kind of weird.

Kinda hellish if you have tinnitus, though, because there's nothing to override the noise with that, though.

catsalad, (edited ) to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    laren,

    @catsalad "He was misbehaving, so I shoved my Intern in the kennel for a while. ...why are you looking at me like that? He likes it."

    laren, to amateurradio

    There's no secret to the statement that I tend to get "shiny thing" syndrome something fierce. Cool shit catches my eye. Go figure.

    But, I'm trying to keep my eyes on what I want to do - which is, learn CW.

    To wit, a third competitor in the "next equipment purchase" category has appeared:

    • XPA125B amp for my X6100. 100 watts with the existing radio

    • FT-891 Radio, plus digirig and the power pole mod. Probably fans, too; apparently the 891 gets a little toasty in digital work.

    • TR-35 CW QRP radio - because I'm working on CW, and while the X6100 does do CW, I suspect encouraging myself to use it by way of a radio that does only it wouldn't be a bad idea.

    The first two are largely in my pursuit of digital modes with a side order of phone and cw. The last is CW only, and maybe me using my own shiny thing syndrome against myself to actually use it. I'd probably get myself a sparkplug EFHW to run it from, too; combine with a 3aH bioenno and take my rather sizable load out for mobile ops and boil it down to something popped into a small box.

    #amateurradio #hamradio #morsecode

    laren,

    @jerry It definitely seems like another level of practice, but at the same time, you get a lot for a little w/ CW, transmit power and battery-wise.

    Make no mistake, I actually rather like the data modes and want to play with them more... But CW seems like the "This will always work" of the amateur radio world.

    laren, to hamradio

    Serious question: What is up with otherwise feature-rich, highly expensive radios not having ATUs?

    Looking at you, IC-705.

    #hamradio #amateurradio

    laren,

    @davealvarado The 705 is egregious in my book because it's a small QRP radio. The point is to be portable. Adding on more crap to carry is not portable.

    laren, to random

    One of my biggest annoyances with Morse code trainers is that they expect consistency, and I just don't remember some letters yet.

    Relax, please.

    pixelnull, to random

    wtf is going on? i'm not complaining

    https://mastodon.social/@mastodonusercount/110556612550780424

    laren,

    @pixelnull I'm going to guess the ongoing dissolution of reddit under the weight of its own greed.

    laren, to random

    One of my favorite 3.5 books was the Manual of the Planes. The way they handled planar stuff really kinda caught my eye, and I loved the concepts behind spells like Planar Area Shift - and you'd better believe shenanigans were had.

    One of my biggest complaints about is that it doesn't really do stuff like that anymore - to say nothing of the fact that so many settings get a book. Compare that with, say, the 3.5 forgotten realms series, or more contemporarily, the Lost Omens setting. Large of a company as Wizards is, we know they can do it. I mean, hell, Wizards published all that back in the early 2000s.

    Yes, there's backporting, but the fact that it doesn't get quite the detailed coverage it used to kinda disappoints me.

    laren,

    @Em0nM4stodon I'll admit, I come dangerously close to "3.5 was the best D&D edition" sometimes. So many great books, fantastic art, character customization, etc.

    Yes, 5e is easier to play, I'll grant. But there's a fair bit that was lost in that simplification that didn't have to be.

    Every now and then I find myself thinking "Maybe in OneD&D..." But I know better than to get my hopes up.

    laren, to random

    Designer: Paddleboat.
    Programmer: Boat as paddle.
    QA: "What the fuck?"

    #TOTK #LegendOfZelda #NotHowIEnvisionedThatGoing

    video/mp4

    laren,

    I've laughed myself to tears over this. What the actual fuck.

    laren, to hamradio

    Using ARRL's exposure report calculator.

    Per them, my minimum safe distance on my QRP rig is... 9 inches.

    The only ones in danger are the Grindr guys self-declaring their sizes trying to get spicy on my erected Buddipole. Shrug (Of course, if they're telling the truth no one is in danger. 😉)

    laren, to hamradio

    Been trying to figure out why radio is appealing to me. The serotonin bump is nice, yeah, but there has to be more to it.

    Ultimately, I can't help but feel that it's a different sort of challenge. No routers to contend with, not nearly as much software to futz with, just throw some metal in the air and go. Probably why QRP operations, particularly mobile, interests me too. Somehow, declaring "Maximum firepower!" Just feels like cheating to me.

    Besides, it also circles back to electronics, another interest I'm pushing myself back to.

    laren,

    @shuttersparks Once I become better at CW, a small transmitter like that is definitely on my wishlist. A kit that I can toss in my purse? Why, yes, yes please. 😁

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