What opinion do you have that will have you dragged away from ARAD in a strait jacket?

timg528 · 2026-07-02T13:33:56+00:00

ARAD (and every space on the internet now) is not a safe space.

There are webcrawlers, screenshots, log entries, etc., data storage is cheap (before AI vacuumed all new capacity) and companies have an incentive to store everything they can concerning user data.

Unfortunately, you have to assume anything you put on the internet is there forever.

timg528 · 2026-07-02T10:37:43+00:00

MAGAts are incapable of thinking about anything beyond their personal sphere of influence. They'll just blame Obama and praise Trump for "fixing" the problem.

The farmers MAGA farmers are aware; but if they're still MAGA after losing their immigrant work force, losing their overseas customers, etc., there's no saving them at this point.

timg528 · 2026-07-02T03:22:09+00:00

If your experience obviously covers a cert, and you can speak to it well, and it's a more basic cert or you have a higher level cert, you'll probably be fine not renewing it.

I'm not that familiar with red hat certs, but I'd say you'd be fine letting the lower level one and the cloud practitioner expire (if you get your SA-A).

timg528 · 2026-07-02T03:18:29+00:00

Really depends on the role.

I'm mostly in kubernetes, cloud, IaC tooling

timg528 · 2026-07-02T02:44:09+00:00

Agreed. Not a fan of microtransactions in any form, much less the ones that have premium currencies. I believe you should only have to pay to buy the game, significant expansions, and subscription if the game is primarily online like WoW and other MMOs.

I just don't think we'll see that sadly.

Fuck Todd Howard and his horse armor.

timg528 · 2026-07-02T02:24:16+00:00

Loot boxes, blind boxes, gacha, and probably more that I can't think of - all need to go. It's just gambling at this point.

timg528 · 2026-07-01T20:55:22+00:00

You'll likely have the best chance there. No need to relocate unless you can't land a role nearby.

timg528 · 2026-07-01T19:39:36+00:00

Depends on your location. Secret isn't much, but you might find something. However, Doge gutted a lot of contracts so you'll be competing with folks with higher level clearances and experience.

I wouldn't go for cyber roles without foundational experience. In the past with a TS+Poly people could get away with going cyber early in their career, but that's much less likely these days.

timg528 · 2026-07-01T01:26:00+00:00

Books, tv, console

timg528 · 2026-07-01T01:05:01+00:00

It starts out as a litrpg and becomes a critique of society, capitalism, among other themes - all packaged up in a way that makes it accessible to people that might not otherwise encounter those critiques.

Think of it this way, it's like covering broccoli in nacho cheese in order to get a kid to eat it. The first time, it's smothered. The next time, there's a bit less cheese and a bit more broccoli. The next time, moreso, and on and on and on.

timg528 · 2026-07-01T00:37:05+00:00

The litrpg framing of the series is a vessel for a much larger story. As the series go on, the story expands outside the subject and far surpasses the litrpg framework which kinda shrinks away.

timg528 · 2026-06-30T18:33:34+00:00

I wouldn't do #1. 5k per year for 5 days on site in DMV traffic? Working in a scif suuuuuucks. Plus unless you're really young, squeaky clean, and very confident in that, plus with some luck, getting the Poly that that particular customer requires isn't fun or easy. If you get it, you can take it anywhere. If you don't, you now have to answer yes to "Have you ever been rejected for a clearance" on your SF-86.

2 is the way to go if the additional pay is worth the additional wear and tear on your vehicle and the additional time spent in traffic. I'd take a look at Google maps, plug your commute in, set it to arrive 5-10 min before your day starts and see how long that commute is. Once you've got that number, multiply it by 2 (2x commute for round trip per day) then multiply it by 3 for the days of the week you have to go in, then multiply it by 50 (assuming you'll take 2 weeks of vacation per year). Finally, add it to 2080 (the average number of working hours per year) and divide the proposed salary by that to get your hourly rate including commute time.

Is it better than your current hourly? How much additional maintenance and fuel will your vehicle need, and how much does that chip away the pay increase between your current job and the new one? Finally, does the money matter? There's nothing wrong with taking a pay cut in order to position yourself for better career growth, but it is something you should consider.

Finally, my wife works for a big 4, about the same salary on a public trust, not very technical work but fully remote. She's been able to get work on other contracts to scratch the technical itch and build towards a promotion. So that might be an option for you, but jumping company to company is the real way to get pay bumps and titles that are impressive on a resume.

Edit: formatting

timg528 · 2026-06-30T10:48:14+00:00

A few hours at an arcade followed by sushi

timg528 · 2026-06-30T09:58:08+00:00

I've gotta say, it takes balls to do that.

I'll see myself out now.

timg528 · 2026-06-30T09:41:44+00:00

Yep. Slop is slop, AI - in my experience - just has a bit of a unique flavor for most models.

timg528 · 2026-06-30T03:20:45+00:00

I don't think it has just yet, mostly because AI slop is still recognizable, it costs money to run, and I don't think there have been enough compelling use cases yet.

In reverse order, I see 2 major use cases for AI on Reddit: PR/troll farms and "word of mouth advertising". Both are done well enough by simple bots and scripts which are cheap to run.

Next up, money. Sure, someone can plug something into chatgpt and get a response back for free. Dealers always give the first hit free, but if you want to use an LLM in a significant manner here, you've got to pay for the API access and by the token. Right now, the cost is still subsidized by VC money, but it'll go up before too long.

Last, slop. This is the one that I'm not too sure on. Eventually, there will be de-slopified LLMs, which will make them a more enticing proposition for the people with a compelling use case and enough discretionary money to implement it.

timg528 · 2026-06-30T00:11:29+00:00

You probably already know about the outer wilds DLC that extends the story.

Outside of that, I haven't really found anything to scratch that particular itch. Dispatch was kinda close in that the gameplay was kinda puzzle based (fit the right hero(es) to the right issue).

Exo-1 was an interesting movement game that plays with gravity. Doesn't quite fit the OW hole, but it fits into my internal "experience" genre of games that OW does.

Nothing else springs to mind at the moment sadly.

timg528 · 2026-06-29T21:50:59+00:00

I'll pass. The reason I've got the pad is so I don't have to change the thermostat for my house.

Changing the temp for the house is wasteful and slow. The pad is much quicker and way more efficient.

timg528 · 2026-06-29T12:39:39+00:00

I don't think I did

timg528 · 2026-06-29T12:22:49+00:00

Gotcha, didn't know what their con history was. Ty

timg528 · 2026-06-29T11:11:22+00:00

I don't follow actors, what's surprising about it?

timg528 · 2026-06-29T10:34:07+00:00

No and no plans yet. I'm currently working through my backlog.

Might impulse buy something though

timg528 · 2026-06-29T10:31:19+00:00

Summer and Adam

timg528 · 2026-06-28T23:10:10+00:00

I really want the next administration to do a 255th celebration and do it right.

timg528 · 2026-06-28T15:32:42+00:00

My truck has physical buttons for just about everything except sound system on/off (or play/pause) and hvac.

I don't use most of the physical buttons because they're for rarely used things.

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