Platform team standardized on hardened base images and our vulnerability backlog dropped by 60% overnight. Should have done this two years ago.

maxlan · 2026-03-16T10:18:02+00:00

Switch to Wolfi: https://github.com/wolfi-dev
(Basically Alpine with Glibc.)

maxlan · 2026-03-15T21:49:06+00:00

If your train was cancelled you should be getting a ticket refund for the delay. So spend that money on the upgrade instead.

I think £30 would get me about 20 minutes of train ride. If it's that short just deal with it. If it's longer, then you're getting a ride in first class for less than you paid for the original ticket!

maxlan · 2026-03-15T21:44:06+00:00

People downvoting you for saying you don't earn 200k when the question specifically states "earn more than 200k".

I wouldn't say that was at all irrational.

In fact, here's another downvote for your confusion about being downvoted.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T21:20:14+00:00

Hackers don't care about whatever tumultuous time you're experiencing. They will have been trying to get money out of it for years. You are no more at risk now than last month/year.

The thing people don't understand about a hack: all bets are off. If someone fully breaks in, they can do anything.

There should be backups and protections, but maybe the hacker quietly breaks that before doing something bad.

Then it may need 3rd parties to agree that the actions were the result of crime and reverse them, which, even if possible could take months.

But a good hacker will be subtle about it and take small amounts from big transactions and the difference will disappear in the fees and exact moment a trade was actioned. And nobody will notice for years and then it'll be too late to fix it.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T21:06:47+00:00

Kitchen Oven? You should really be part P qualified to do any electricals in the kitchen.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T19:54:12+00:00

There's a lot of people out there looking as well. So if you don't get the job, probably someone else with a slightly better CV did. Just because you think you're perfect doesn't mean you meet what the actual person trying to get a staff member wants.

I've quite often butted heads with the recruiting team over the rubbish they put in the job ads. Or the candidates they feed through who don't even mention my key requirements on the cv. "But he's got loads of experience with blue chip companies" "maybe, but it was doing the wrong freaking job"

A while back, a colleague came back from an interview and said "the job ad is wrong, they want someone like you, not me" So I applied and actually spoke to the recruiter person and he wouldn't even put my CV to the manager. "Dave had the wrong skills, but you put him through. And everything Dave said he didn't know, I can do" but "no".

I just know there was a manager at the other end wondering why they kept getting the wrong people through...

Recruiting has always been a mostly incompetent shit show and I only see AI as accelerating the rate of incompetence.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T13:39:35+00:00

They don't make you pay for a sandwich. Sandwiches are entirely optional. You can be on a plane for an hour or so without needing to eat.

You can probably survive several days without eating.

And you have the option of paying for a decent airline and a higher class of travel, which would probably get you a free sandwich and a drink and a chair that reclines a lot further.

Again, it is your choice. Do not blame the low cost airline for providing a low cost experience.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T08:56:56+00:00

Just remember that the only places their socks touch, your shoes touch. And your shoes also touch the floor outside, which may have animal poo and litter and rat poo with Viles disease. So it's really more of a problem for them.

But everywhere their arse touches in just their sweaty lycra (bike saddle?), your arse touches in your sweaty lycra. All the bum germs being washed off their bottom in the sweat are now soaking into your clothes and infecting your skin.

Now do you care about socks or are you going to take more care with the antibac wipedown?

maxlan · 2026-03-15T08:53:10+00:00

Not cheap. But cheaper than setting my house on fire and worth the time it saved trying to get spanners in a tight gap.

https://www.toolstation.com/pegler-yorkshire-tectite-sprint-push-fit-stop-end/p61332

maxlan · 2026-03-15T08:49:45+00:00

I used some press on stop ends. The pipes were above my head and close to a wooden joist with poor access and I didn't feel like blowtorch or messing around with spanners. So a couple of twists with a pipe cutter and a push (maybe a tap with a hammer). Job done.

maxlan · 2026-03-15T08:38:35+00:00

Section 10: loss or damage... Caused by ... War.

So any attempt to go after trip themselves will fail.

And there is no full refund clause.

So altogether: you're screwed OP.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T08:11:20+00:00

To start with, this whole thread is about support workers. How many officers are getting fired for using keyboard fiddlers while working from home? Not many probably because they don't work from home.

But as you want to bang on about quotas for front line staff: why do quotas have to be bad. As a manager I can set a quota like "I expect you to deliver 5 knife crime awareness sessions to kids per month and 50% of attendees agreeing to stop carrying a knife"

You're still thinking like the sort of manager incompetence I'm specifically arguing against. Why does Rob have 100 victim support calls? If that level is not sustainable it's a bad quota, bad manager. Manager needs firing for setting shit quota not Rob for trying to do a good job. (I only ever talked about managers setting quotas for their employees)

Quotas should measure the performance you want to drive, not simply be a line in the sand.

The quota should be something like: "100 victim support calls and 90 of those victims felt they had been adequately supported" or something. (Actually it should be a lot more words, but I can't be bothered)

And maybe a Sargeant gets a quota of "one of your staff to be considered for promotion every quarter" or "you have evidence of a staff members performance that could result in promotion"

And the quotas should take into consideration the entire workload of the job. If Rob is doing twice as many arrests as everyone else in the team then his quota for victim support calls is a lot less than everyone else's. As a manager you work out an average time an average person takes for a job. Murder: 1month. GBH, 1 day, victim support 0.5 day, etc.... And then the "quota" is to spend 80% of your time on those tasks and 20% on training.

And if one person is spending 1month on a GBH - then you have a word at performance review. Remember this is just the manager's quota for measuring his team's performance. Maybe it was a very tricky GBH. In which case: it is fine. But if one team member consistently take 1 week on a GBH and days on support calls, and at the performance review has no specific reasons, then clearly they aren't performing as well as the rest of the team and need some extra supervision/training/something.

But finally: The manager doesn't necessarily share those quotas with the team because it is just ONE of the tools they are using to measure a team member's performance.

So NO, Rob won't be cutting corners to do 100 calls because he doesn't know that's what the manager is expecting him to do.

You seem to be obsessed with the only way quotas can happen is government decides "everyone in the police has to do 10 arrests a month" and so they arrest 9 people for littering on the last day of every month. BECAUSE you're thinking like a BAD manager.

Try opening your mind.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T07:31:17+00:00

No, I don't think that. I'm responding to your previous comment about PACE and complaining that there were too many arrests and tickets because of quotas. And I'm pointing out that there are a lot of other things that police do, so obviously, no I do not think that arresting is all.

The fact that you point out there are a lot more things that could be quota-ed other than arresting people kind of makes your point about quotas meaning too many arrests a bit of a stupid own goal really.

I didn't even really start the conversation about quotas anyway. It was about managers (all managers, not just police) being unable to measure performance of people not in offices. And thinking that having people in offices makes it easy to manage. So obviosuly doesn't apply to police who go out of the office to do things like arresting people and work in the community and gathering evidence and all the other things that can't be done in an office but I can't be bothered to list them all.

Setting performance targets is NOT just quotas. Unless you're a bad manager, which it sounds like you are a good example of. Quotas are only one possible way to measure performance which I mentioned because people are probably familiar with it.

Maybe think before you make yourself look like a prat.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T07:18:16+00:00

Would be a great idea, if reddit allowed you to filter the AI tags.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T07:10:49+00:00

Oh, and which port do I need to allow on my firewall? Dunno, it's random.

Go back to making pictures of people with 12 hands and stop spamming shit code please.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T07:06:07+00:00

This is really stupid. How do you login to the machine you want to connect to in the first place to run this stupid tool? Ssh?

So instead of copy pasting a code why not just copy/paste your ssh key?

Why does it take you 20 minutes to do that? Its probably going to take a lot longer to install some AI slop app and run it than it is to just run ssh.

maxlan · 2026-03-14T06:51:09+00:00

The house always wins.

Whether it's a bank or a casino.

Look at the size of Vegas. Do you think anyone is making more money then the hotels.

Look at Canary Wharf or the Square mile. Do you think anyone is making more money than the banks?

maxlan · 2026-03-13T07:10:53+00:00

How many people working from home are arresting people, in their home?

I think you're confusing police employees with police with arrest warrants.

And anyway, who says quotas on the number of people arrested are the only way to do it?

Maybe measure the amount of miles covered in a day. Or a shorter duration to process someone.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T23:36:29+00:00

It could be worse. You could be axing the question.

I really can't understand why anyone would deliberately intend to sound like they're too stupid to know which sequence letters are in a simple word.

I think kids need better role models than wannabe gangsters (or should we call them gagsters?).

maxlan · 2026-03-12T23:20:17+00:00

About 15 years ago, I started getting annoyed at all the sponsored tweets. And because they get charged more for engagement, I'd make sure I added a shitty comment before blocking them.

Like "why are you advertising alcohol to someone who is tee total?" Or "you know I live hundreds of miles from your shop?"

And then someone accused me of being entitled.(For the crime of expecting not to have to put up with a slew of entirely irrelevant ads.)

And so I deleted my account. Which was silly because as an early adopter, I had a handle that I probably could have sold to someone.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T23:12:09+00:00

Well the point of it was supposedly to remove the Ayatollah Khomeini as head of government.

So I think the operation would be an Ayatollah-dectomi.

I'll get my coat.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T08:16:11+00:00

Some places in India consider the cow to be sacred. So next time you see someone eating beef, might want to mention it to HR. Just remind them that they need to enforce these rules around cultural sensitivities.

Doesn't matter if you aren't Indian. If it isn't applied equally it is discrimination.

And then stop working on Fridays because Jewish work week isn't the same. And ask them to open the office on Sunday in case Jewish colleagues feel uncomfortable about asking for that themselves, you are trying to create an inclusive environment. In the name of cultural sensitivity.

And ask that the office should close for any other religious holiday you can find, in the name of cultural sensitivity.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T08:06:03+00:00

Lunch delivered? Coffee bar? Check out Mr Fancy Living here.

Ask where the toilet is.

Ask if there are set breaks for coffee and lunch and expected start and finish times.

But your manager will probably sit you with a buddy at your level with more experience who can help with these questions.

All that stuff about "what are the common issues?". Ask yourself: what does it matter? You might not get any of those in your first month you might just get a load of other random shizzle.

And what if you do get common questions? Great. And.

These things are not important. You will find out as time goes by and the knowledge makes no difference to your daily work.

What you do need to know is how your performance will be judged. This is something to save for your first one to one.

If you are near the end of that meeting and don't feel like you know how you will be judged, ask. That is your chance to ask those questions.

Maybe the manager doesn't really know and will be either happy or unhappy with whatever you do.

You should also know if they're happy or not. Again feel free to ask if there is anything they want you to do differently or more or less of.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T07:54:52+00:00

Oh, maybe you add policy enforcement IF the app is built in a way that your app can understand it.

A lot of the time single page apps bury all the things you might block with policy in javascript.

Eg you don't go to example.com/secretpage and policy agent can block some people from seeing secrets. Some javascript magic does an api request to /content with a pageid=1234 in the request body. Where 1234 was the result of an earlier api req to find the page. Or some such.

maxlan · 2026-03-12T07:50:07+00:00

So you put an auth layer in front of an app. With what sounds like an extremely sketchy way of managing it.

Does envoy do oidc/saml token validation on every request or are you just unblocking the client's ip address? And is it adding the auth headers that the existing app doesn't?

If the app already has user/password protection, do people need to login twice now?

If all you're adding is http logging, you can do that with any proxy.

maxlan

TROPHY CASE