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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • OMG, I’m dealing with a developer right now that is dealing with patient collected samples in several timezones, allowing the patients to either enter the time they collected, or use current time, and storing it in UTC time.

    We do not receive any timezone data, patient collection data is showing different days than the patient could write on their samples depending on the time of day, and the developer said ‘just subtract X hours’ (our timezone)… for which not all patients would live in.

    I suppose I could, if they’d provide the patient’s timezone, but they don’t even collect that. Can you just admit your solution is bad? It’s fine to store a timestamp in UTC, but not user provided data… don’t expect average users to calculate their time (and date) in UTC please.






  • … I had an IT tech from our old MSP tell me her knowledge/recommendation of ABP is what got her the job.

    I knew her boss, and doubt that was the reason (probably more because she was cheap entry level labor), but that some people have that take in a professional setting shocked me. I don’t think your ad-blocker recommendation will ever be what lands you a job, but I do think it’s possible for it to be the reason you don’t get a job.


  • My typical recommendation would be:

    Normie: uBlock Origin

    Techie: uBlock Origin + uMatrix

    Security Critical/Paranoia/Just Hate Yourself: uBlock Origin + uMatrix + NoScript

    I use the last option at work, and the middle option at home, and the first option for my wife’s computer.

    For me, a lot of it isn’t about ads, it’s more about the security risk of cross site scripting. Typically, if I’m visiting a site, I probably trust it, but I have no trust for people they sell ads to. I don’t mind sites I trust having a few non-intrusive ads, but of course that’s not the reason I use blockers; if a site has so many ads it is unusable, I just don’t ever visit it again (plenty of 'don’t show articles from ’ flags in my google news feed for this very reason. I’ll never know if you redeem yourself, because I will just never visit your site again.).




  • I saw your post that you downloaded Voyager.

    I love Voyager, but if you already haven’t noticed, Voyager stopped supporting the version of Lemmy that beehaw uses. If you intend to stay on Lemmy, and/or use Voyager, then beehaw probably isn’t the best choice, since beehaw will not be updating Lemmy versions, and plans to eventually leave Lemmy.

    That said, beehaw is a great community, just bear the above in mind before making such a switch. I will probably join another instance when beehaw’s lemmy instance closes down, but until then, I have great respect for beehaw’s team, the community they have built, and generally making this a safe place for it’s users, so I will likely stay until that switch happens.



  • My first reaction is yeah, you don’t just plug into random Ethernet.

    The wi-fi is likely a visitor network setup for guests to the library. That ethernet port could provide access to their private intranet, and be a security risk to the library. Worst case scenario, it could result in malware, ransomware, and/or millions of dollars in expenses to recover (on a library budget, that could mean permanently shutting down the library even).

    After reading your post, I would say, no harm intended, just don’t do it again.

    After reading your comments about intentionally being vague about ‘plugging in’ to lead the librarian to think you were asking to plug in a power cord, and not specifically meaning ethernet connection… yeah, you’re clearly in the wrong. Just be up front; if they say no, so be it. They may be able to direct you to a visitor ethernet plug-in, or maybe not. If this were an AITA thread, i’d say yes, YTA in this case.

    Asking in an security community… I would assume some level of technical awareness, and you are likely well aware of network segmentation, and that no IT department would be happy about a guest plugging their laptop into random rj-45 jacks around the building. Maybe it’s not well designed, and that actually has access to firewall administration?


  • I keep hearing ‘sanctions arent working’.

    And every now and then I see things about them working; it’s almost like sanctions are a long game that don’t immediately show all the results in want within 3 months, and you need to keep them up long term. That said, of course when some don’t comply with those sanctions, it will permanently alter the landscape as the sanctioned try to work around them. Russia’s movement toward the Yuan, and reliance on China and N. Korea are not going to be undone anytime soon, if ever.

    Pre-Ukrainian invasion, 1 USD was ~78 Russian Rubles. Now, that 1 USD is valued at 92 Rubles. After the start of the war, the Ruble lost a lot of value immediately, but appears to had gained value for a few months, and has steadily decreased in value as the sanctions drag on, and seem to have semi-stablized at a much lower value than going into the war. As a generalization, it appears looking back to 2003 (max on the chart i’m looking at), as Putin’s leadership drags on, the Ruble has steadily decreased in value (in 2003, it only took about 30 Ruble to value 1 USD). Looking at other major economic powers in the world is like looking at an inverse chart, where their currencies have increased in value against the USD consistently.



  • I do use passphrases, but I combine with randomness.

    I memorize one random 8 character string to use with something more memorable.

    Then when I need more security, or I feel that random 8 character string is no longer safe (password leak/hacked), I memorize a new 8 character string.

    Then I combine them.

    Then I memorize a new 8 character string and mix it in.

    It’s a process built up over years that ingrains into memory. Sometimes I forget the order, or if i added spaces, or did no spaces. Luckily, as long as I am sure of the discrete segments, I can remix them to recreate until it works (in a reasonable time).

    My last addition was when I made the move from Lastpass to another password manager, after their endless bad news.


  • You said you are ‘in the EU’, as in currently living in the US for said job?

    Are you considered an independent contractor? Or an actual employee of the company?

    As a US citizen… I would just advise EU citizens to ‘in general’ avoid working for US companies, we have bad employment policies, and our companies think they can just do the same things in other countries. Obviously everyone should choose for themselves; if you think the extra income is worth it, that is your call, but our work culture is awful.

    At the very least, if you do decide to work for a US company… keep it remote. Cost of living in the US is really high, work culture is awful, it’s dangerous, and healthcare costs are crazy. Unless your household is making at least $150k USD/year, you’ll be considered poor to middle-class.