Joined a local FaceBook political action group. Wanted to lurk for a while. Dang thing apparently auto posts "Welcome New Members... [long list of names]". Mentioned that might be bad idea to group admins. No clue. #OpSec

Hadn't hung with other geeks in a while. I need to do that more. It gets the brain juices flowing. #hacknight

Trying to install the Meshtastic Python CLI on a little ARM computer to use as a dedicated interface and controller to the router. Halfway through multi-step install process, seems I clicked on the Windows variant and was bouncing off the walls with issues. Started over on the Linux install. Except for needing to compile "pytap2" from source, all good. Silly Me. Gotta pay attention. #meshtastic

Also, under the current administration, going to protests with mobile devices may get you tracked with serious follow up repercutions. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying

Acquaintance: We've met and shared something together. A meeting, meal, interest. Friend: Would help each other move. Some mutual respect, interests and connections. Real Friend: Mutual life-in-jeapordy trust. Been "on rope" together, shared some crazy adventures. Dear Friend: Helps each other move/hide bodies. Quietly. Quickly. Questionless. #friend #definition

Visited my son in STL last weekend and poked around when I could on the way up and back. Found nodes. Not much chatter. I would like to find some intelligent chatter. May need to create an "oracle" auto-responder, just for fun. We had fun playing and I left him with 3 different units to experiment with. So I had to order more. Going to try the T-Deck plus with the fancy beta UI. #meshtastic

And while I'm looking at logs and reports.. Stretchoid.com's "white hat security scanning" is aggressive and constant enough, from enough IP addresses that they get treated as hostile.

Consistently probing (and abusing) VoIP infrastructure (and who knows what else) for years. So long and consistent that I kinda smile when they show up in my block lists because that means I know my stuff is working. Blown away that they blatently do what they do, often with working proper reverse DNS. #VoIP

Bought a couple of different Meshtastic radios to futz with and learn. Been 3 days of a side distraction. I've setup a shared open router from a high vantage point and seem to be able to reach a 100-120 mile range in 4 hops. That's impressive. Beautiful ecosystem of code and hardware so far. https://meshtastic.org #meshtastic

Trying to test and develop against an API where the upstream system does not update a record creation in real time (takes about 10 minutes), and the submission has to be reviewed by multiple parties (Mobile Network Operators) humans, with a response time of 3+ days. I can deal with 10 minutes, but the many days feedback is killing productivity and communications. #10DLC

Am having to write some complex code for an issue that is nearly impossible to not create and test, with real data, on a production system interfaced with multiple vendors systems. They get emails and notices from the various systems, so they know what is going on, even when I mess up. That the affected customers customers are understanding, supportive and along for the ride, is awesome and makes his better.

I finally got in the groove today with some good music and wrote some elegant, functional and maintainable code that should adapt to a fluid upstream provider API easily (automatic, or with minor edits). Having a few hours of no (actual or anticipated) interruptions was key. No one will probably ever see it, it'll probably "just work" for a few years+. But I'm proud of it AND it works well. That's what counts. #programming #api #php

Am hitting a remote API to retrieve data via JSON that needs a POST instead of a GET: -1 point. That it also needs: "CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'GET'" makes me want to thwack the other end programmers with a cluebat. #programming #code #api #curl #php

For the record, I use version 0.42 for things that worked once, on my machine. This is a great read, and I agree: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/some-esoteric-versioning-schemes-monotonic-moronity/ #programming #code

A smart but non-programmer friend is working on a business idea, and referenced using an AI for basic accounting logic and math. I had to share examples of "AI" failing basic math skills. You want accounting / money moving functions to be clear logical code that can be audited and explained, not black box magic. "AI" might be useful for trend analysis, fraud detection, etc.. but will need results closely checked. #AI #Accounting

If you have noticed a lot less spam SMS/Texts lately, awesome. You may also be missing a lot of normally useful texts. There is change in process and legit entities are scrambling. AT&T, T-Mobile, US Celluar, Verizon Wireless, ClearSky and Interop basicly dropped all non mobile phone traffic not 10DLC registered and not using "Campaigns" and are swamped vetting the processes they are enforcing. #VoIP #SMS #10DLC #Campaigns

Good short read: "We are destroying software" https://antirez.com/news/145 Well, I'm not much... because I agree with the above link and live in my own little worlds. No external frameworks, rarely use "cut/paste" code because it doesn't work in my worlds.

Good leadership: Understands its limits, supports the people and experts it "employs" and rarely makes decisions based on short term optics. Takes the blame and spreads praise. Bad leadership: Tosses it's experts out (fired and ignored) and makes decisions based on a random chaos generator while blaming others. #leadership #ethos

Just found and fixed a bug so stupid (of me), and so hard to reproduce that when I stared at it I swear it laughed at me maniacly. The sort order from an SQL query matters and may need additional fields when you aren't sorting the array created afterwards. The glitch only manifested when the data order was off, in just the right way. The tech support crew was deleting the whole set, letting the system recreate the rows in the right order. #SQL #bug

I dropped a heavy table today on my left ankle (cuz I tripped and fell in the process of getting it off my truck) because I (invoke macho voice) said "No... I can do it by myself".. I'm going to physically be ok.. it hurts but nothing broken. But I'm at that humble reminder point that I need to say "Yes, I'd appreciate a hand with that" more often. Maybe you do to. Use me as an excuse. Say after me: "Meuon F'd up.. I'm not going to...." Say it again.