Ian Kenway @iankenway@social.cleverlibre.org

Well, a bit late to the whole #introduction party but here goes:
I'm Amit, a long time security researcher and a birdsite refugee. Prior to covid I used to speak at a lot of conferences about my various research projects (I need to get back to it). I'm a US immigrant, I relocated from Israel about 6.5 years ago and today I'm based out of Massachusetts where I live with my wife, our 1 year old daughter and our two cats. During my career I've done everything from malware analysis and reverse engineering and DFIR to vulnerability research and exploit development. I was one of the first employees over at Cybereason where I worked for 6 years, then moved to Guardicore (which was acquired by Akamai) and then another few months at Akamai until I joined my current employer, a small start-up called Sternum where I work as the director of security research. Nowadays I'm focusing a lot on IoT security (mostly Linux) and I do a lot of vulnerability research and detection engineering and leadership for our IoT security product.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge with, and learning from others in the community and I'm looking forward to some great discussions over on this platform. Outside of security research I'm a musician (I play several instruments and I was very active musically up until recently when I decided to leave my band) and I'm obsessed with US politics as well. I'm trying to fully immigrate to Mastodon now from twitter and most of my toots are being X-posted to the birdsite.

So... Hi everybody! :)
#noxp <--- is a hashtag I use to keep the automating crossposting to post this toot over to my account on Twitter (@0xamit)

#introductions

Hi, Ian here, of the Leafe variety. 😀

Lived in #Caerleon from the age of 4; 67, until leaving the teacher training college for QEBS in Barnet to teach Physics and Science; 85.

Tories catalyst for leaving after 3 years and going into IT; 6 years at ESAB WX.

Spent several decades contracting, retiring in 2019.

Trying to come to terms with #Retirement, pastimes too few #audiobooks; #scifi, #history, #mystery and Web.

Will try to learn Welsh, rather slowly methinks! 👴

There was once a dream of a decentralised web.

As recently as a decade ago we had a still very active blogosphere, connected via blogrolls and RSS. Specialised web forums were still mainstream and messenger apps could largely interoperate.

Centralised social media slowly ate that dream. It had plenty of positives, but it pulled more and more people away from the open web and into corporate walled gardens.

Some people kept the dream of decentralisation alive. And now you are here.

I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I'm Alex from Canada, and I'm on this server because dw i'n dysgu siarad Cymraeg. I've also been working on Irish and Klingon.

I write stuff over on Medium. My two most recent pieces are about how Elon screwed up Twitter, and about the Pentagon's psychic spy program.

I'm linking them below, mostly so I can try out some of Mastodon's features.

#introduction post. I spent the last 25 years working in the disability rights field, still dabble. I'm now taking some time to decide what's next. I'm a photographer, my work features in an exhibition opening in London next week! I'll post more below. Here's the confession: I'm married to a Scot he's from Fife and I love Scotland. I'm not really from anywhere; we moved around so much growing up, Dad in RAF. So I've adopted Scotland and it's welcomed me. Currently living in Bedfordshre though.

Tories are handing over our private medical records to Palantir & We have no say. Trump backer’s firm ‘lined up’ for £360m NHS England data contract https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/13/controversial-360m-nhs-england-data-platform-lined-up-for-trump-backers-firm

FYI to all my Electronics people out there.

Did you know you can represent capacitance and inductance with a complex number and by doing so you would incorporate ESR (equivalent series resistance) into your equations. Essentially you dont have to model with idealized components and add in the parasitics manually, you can add the parasitics directly into the capacitance or inductance of your components!

See the following equation in my blog and the subsequent explanation if you want some further details and examples: http://jeffreyfreeman.me/an-indepth-look-at-duals-and-their-circuits/#mjx-eqn-realcap

#electronics #electricalengineering #EE #HamRadio #AmaetureRadio #Physics #Science #QotoJournal

#Brexit a major cause of #UK’s return to #austerity, says senior economist | Brexit | The Guardian

Well nobody saw that coming, said nobody.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/14/brexit-a-major-cause-of-uks-return-to-austerity-says-senior-economist

#Politics #EU

I got an email, which appears legit, from Disney+:
---
Disney+ now requires additional information from the primary account holder, including your birthdate and what best describes your gender. To avoid any interruption to your streaming, please update your account with this information before December 8, 2022.
---
I can understand the birthdate, what with all the new NC-17-rated Star Wars content coming out, but why would they need a gender?

Qoto != Goto
Yet, when first I glanced at Qoto, I saw Goto, that infamous #Fortran statement responsible for mountains of spaghetti code. I then saw what it really stood for and immediately signed up.

Qoto, to me, means #reading to learn or teach ourselves. How else really? Watching or hearing do not quite measure up to reading, especially physical books that you hold. In bed, paperbacks are preferred; hardcovers can be dangerous if you’re drowsy.😩

The best way I found to see if I’ve learned something from reading is to write down a synopsis. Not so easy. How about writing something original? I have great admiration for all writers of: #novels, #short stories, #history, cook books, text books, technical specifications, how-to books, etc. etc. I’d go out on a limb and say, the art of writing is significantly more difficult than either creating a painting or composing a piece of music. Please note that I said art, not science.

In this internet age, much of our reading is in snippets. TL;DR
So, here’s a poll for the longest time you’ve spent reading in one sitting recently. (excepting this toot)

#Brexit is the ultimate reason why the UK now faces a fresh round of austerity, and has permanently damaged the economy, according to a former interest rate-setter at the Bank of England.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/14/brexit-a-major-cause-of-uks-return-to-austerity-says-senior-economist

Devolve the same powers to #Cymru as #Scotland

Please consider signing.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627934

#RuportMurdoch tells #DonaldTrump he will not back fresh #WhiteHouse bid – report | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Oh dear, the two dears are having a fall out. Seriously, though, it’s obscene that Murdoch has this much power.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/15/murdoch-press-turns-on-donald-trump-in-favour-of-defuture-ron-desantis

#US #Politics

I'm writing a short article on getting started with Mastodon for Computers in Libraries and have found @nikodemus guide invaluable. You might too. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D9gfeKg_-hlsU66R-dLEvUeyMsqEfyIx2pnfUeX0t_E/edit?usp=sharing

Boost this toot if you're planning on sticking around Mastodon whether or not it becomes more popular than the birdsite.

Introduction? Hmmm. OK, here goes.

Firstly, who am I? #Cymraeg. Solicitor. Farmer. One husband, one daughter (7), literally hundreds of #dogs, #cats and #sheep (not the same amount of each). Pleidiwr, #Annibyniaeth

Hobbies? Erm, this is starting to feel like a dating profile.... #Knitting #baking #painting and #kickboxing (not all at the same time - it makes a mess).

Other interests include: #archeology #fungi #natur and spying on #alpacas and #goats (don't ask). #TerryPratchett = legend.

Doing my #introduction again but with hashtags (learning!) Hello. I live in South East #Wales, paying the bills by keeping some tv channels on air. My interests are nerdy and occasionally nostalgic. I travel by #publictransport and #ebike as much as I can and get tetchy when it isn’t possible. I’m #Quaker -curious and believe there’s ‘that of God’ in everyone. Oh, and I #volunteer at https://careradio.org

Revealed: the £30bn cost of #LizTruss’s disastrous mini-budget | Liz Truss | The Guardian

Right-wing #libertarians are a blight on the plolitical landscape and create a black hole for the economy.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/12/revealed-the-30bn-cost-of-liz-trusss-disastrous-mini-budget

#UK #Politics #Tories

Very disappointed to read that #Aberystwyth fair won't have any market stalls this year. This is a historic fair, and a big part of the Aberystwyth calendar. Last year, the excuse was Covid - fine. That's not an excuse this year though.