BeamerBikes

As of 5pm Eastern today, a whole mess of them decided to say peace out Elon give me my 3 months of severance and good luck with your soon to be dead bird. The alternative was signing up to go "extreme hardcore", which sounds like you're going to get worked to death. Also, if you aren't cutting it, you might not get even the 3 months as a consolation prize for choosing "extreme hardcore". I agree. There's no shame in taking a spot on a lifeboat. Better to get in the lifeboat while you still have the energy/will to swim if need be. Rather than try to save a sinking ship you have no ownership stake left in.

An unexpectedly high number of the remaining 50% decided that 3 months of severance was better than whatever "extreme hardcore" meant for work life balance. Smart money is on Twitter experiencing major outages by this weekend when the World Cup piles on their infrastructure. Also reports of Twitter "leadership" locking everyone out of the office for fear of sabotage. Offices are closed until Nov 21. Also if you are an exceptional employee, you may be allowed to work remote. I'm assuming exceptional employee includes anyone left. Everything is fine over there.

I moved over my Twitter presence for cybersecurity stuff over to Mastodon because I've joined the club that Twitter will prolly implode badly in the coming months. 50% Layoff and the remaining have to sign a "hardcore" pledge by tomorrow. Outages are going to be inevitable at this point with that much brain drain.

"Many people are saying... Believe me" hahaha let's keep the politics out of this thread. It has its own forum. Its a finance forum and the topic is recession advice for those, who haven't gone through any significant downturn. Another identifier - when they suddenly cancel all company travel around specific dates. Meaning they don't want to potentially strand someone away from home if they are about to turn off the company credit card.

I was in my early 20s and spent more than half of 2002 unemployed. Then in 2007 - 2010, I waited it out doing caregiving by choice. My advice 1) Don't assume you're safe ever. 2) Build an Emergency fund AND evaluate all spending before you NEED to cut back. 3) if the office plants go missing, banker boxes show up in the hallways, budgets get hard frozen for even small things, those are signs somethings coming. 4) Getting laid off in the first wave has its perks. Sticking around to continue your job AND the folks who just got canned for the same pay is a bad deal. You don't have to go down with the ship either. 5) if the company doesn't pull out of it, the retention and severance packages likely will get worst! 6) Living through Termination Tuesday's and Fuck You Fridays is soul crushing. Yes, companies will gradually and regularly shed staff on the way down the drain. Watching Survivor is better than being a contestant.

Saw this in a tweet "Tech workers who didn't live through the dot com crash, you have no idea what's coming. Prepare yourselves." Opening up this up - what's some concrete advice you'd give your younger self to "prepare yourself"?

Colon Blow Skit referenced above Colon Blow on SNL

I got some good traffic. I have a younger neighborhood sandwiched between an elementary and middle school. Now I'm looking at too much leftover candy and thinking this isn't going to be good for any semblance of a diet.

I first read that as Colon Blow the SNL skit! Metamucil is a friend in my 40s and after a few GI surgeries.

So update the intradermal site on the 1st dose formed a dime size raised red skeeter bite. Isn't too bad. Still curious what a 2nd dose would likely look like. Would the reaction be more pronounced or less. Fun times.

Also there's a better chance the fixed rate may inch up from the current fixed 0% at the next rate adjustment. Finding the bright side for those a smidge late. You could have a higher fixed rate for longer. The variable rate tied to inflation adjusts every 6 months.

I mask up at airport lines, airplanes, healthcare facilities that mandate it. As it turns colder again in the Chicago area, I'm reminded how the mask actually feels better if I forgot my scarf outdoors. LOL. I also n95 masked up regularly indoors in the weeks ahead of my recent surgery. Didn't want to risk having to reschedule that. Mask or don't mask. For me - it's personal preference and local site rules. I vax'd up now covid 3x + 1x bivalent. 1 dose of Jynneos waiting 2nd one. Flu shot as well. Cause fuck it why not? How many times did I eat or drink to excess in my life? It's a little late to get self-righteous about me being healthier than others. Also, I trust vaccines when applicable so let it rip.

Got my 1st shot intradermal Jynneos today(Oct 18th) in Chgo burbs. Oddly, the public health nurse mentioned it will likely be just a single dose for me. Unless direct exposure or being immunocompromised, that agency is only doing single doses. I didn't read through the entire thread, but haven't heard of other places going single dose only. Also never been smallpox vaccinated, would it be more likely or less likely to have a local site reaction for the 1st dose? It's been 12 hours and so far just feel a little headache but no sign at injection site.

So updates - summer is starting to wind down. The provider has now gone silent but hopefully is in a treatment program. He went off the rails with full on delusions. The buddy who drank himself into some brain damage now is facing a possible eviction. He's also having cash flow problems because he's purposefully flowing cash to a P.o.S on/off again bad news ex-bf/hubby who's toxic af. With that, I have to walk away. Buddy won't come clean about that being where the money is going, won't accept help with his finances, doesn't want to face facts about the landlord situation. Best I could do was involve his family and let them know I'm out of options as his "in case of emergency"/poa. Power of attorneys only work if the person wants the help. Otherwise, I'd have to pursue declaring him incompetent. I don't have it in me to fight that hard even if they may not be fully in control of their cognitive functions. I have done a helluva more than others would have, and need to make peace with walking away. Lesson for all - the lies we tell ourselves are the worst of them all. Love yourself enough to cut out toxic exs and never let them back in your life. No matter how much you may be lonely. It's cheaper to get a pet. Sometimes the only thing left to do is set your own boundary not to get sucked into the eventual train wreck. Recognize when you have done all you could, and jump off before you get entangled in it any further.

Curious to see if anyone is heading out to Vegas for Blackhat or Defcon next week? Open for suggestions as this is my first Hacker Summercamp - BH/Defcon. Usually did more SANS/ midwest cons prior. I'm headed out that way as part of my day job. Not sure if there's others in the security space here. Debated if this should be in tech or travel section - admins move as appropriate.

Medallion stamps open the bank to additional liability. Notaries only attest that you are the person in front of the notary. Medallion stamps in my understanding attest that both the person is who they say they are AND the documents are in proper order - non-fraudalent. Hence Medallion stamps are so hard to get processed unless you are a customer of a brick/mortar branch. The bank wants a known way/contact information to put any liability back on the individual rather than eat it themselves as a cost of doing business.

Yeah by denomination $100s avg life is 20 years. The latest style came out in 2013 so that tracks. Link below includes other signs to check for validity by year. By feel is still my favorite quick check. https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100

Amazon has a shit ton of prop money for sale so beware! Some tips for spotting counterfeits Beware of old currency styles. Paper money lifetime is measured in years. Older style of 20s,50s, 100s are extremely hard to find in normal circulation. First feel - US money is printed in Cotton based paper it feels substantially different than paper. It should feel a bit like fabric This can be done discretely if you don't want to eyeball further Next - Visual clues - color changing ink lower right corner number - if you focus on the number printed on the bill, it should change colors from green to gold when tilted up and down. The pressure printing method adds this feature. -on new hundreds look for the hologram strip in the middle. It should move visually as you move the hill. These next two are harder to do discretely, and more advanced techniques where the goal should be to get change in return. - red and blue fibers in the paper bill itself. - there's also presidential face watermarks and security strips on the paper that should match the domination. This is an advanced technique to bleach out $1, $5 to print $20, $50, $100s. I'd doubt a client would pass these bills for services. Advanced fakes would be best to get real change from... Goal of a counterfeiters is to trade their fake money for real money with paying the least overhead hence you see so many fast food places saying nothing bigger than a $20. Buying a $1 drink with a $50/100 yields $49 or $99 in clean real money.

Hopefully, US Treasury continues this, I may never look at a Savings Acct again. Invest majority in index funds, squirrel away for a rainy day filled with booze and strippers in the future... LOL

It's possible that the drug isn't in your insurance formulary (basically pre-approved drugs they cover) or your Healthcare plan doesn't kick in for prescriptions until your deductible is met. Happened to me with welbutrin xr. I used GoodRX for the cheaper price until my deductible was met. Had a good experience using goodrx.

Sadly, it has the hallmarks of the later. Well-formed paranoid delusions... Law enforcement, various 3 letter federal agencies, radiation poisoning, internet hacking, phone redirection, been occuring/building on for a month based off Twitter. Not sure if he has any friends who can talk him down, and get him into a program.

I think we have an obligation to tell the tell to pass on the stakes on how things were in the before times. I'm 45 and my gay elders have started to pass on. Long term HIV treatment added decades to their life, but side effects plus drinking/smoking/eating started to catch up. I was lucky enough to hear some of the oral histories first hand. The youngest generation will fight to reverse these trends towards the hands maid tale. They likely are going to need mentors and support though. Just as I did in my early 20s... reminding the change takes time and not all their peers will be as civically committed. You can find a balance between staying out late at dance club, tricking/hooking up, doing the walk of shame on Sunday morning to clean yourself up and show up at workshop hungover as shit but still present. Coffee and don't try to speak much until after noon. Oh youth. I have turned into my elders who would do the Irish goodbye after dinner and a nightcap at the bar. Lol

Hiring can turn into an addiction with the right circumstances/personalities involved. Long term harm could be transactional view for all relationships and going broke/into debt.

I wonder if the new notes are go-go / stripper friendly.

Thanks @RyanDean and others. It was more general venting than something I'm struggling with. I've learned long ago you can't change folks; they have to commit to changing themselves. Change is hard. Staying stuck is easy. Nonetheless, we have an extraordinary window into others lives these days and sometimes you have to wonder what the hell happened here. There's no good answer in most cases. Just have to let it go.