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Rotdhizon

1,205 karma · joined October 13, 2017

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Rotdhizon··on Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce
I spend a decent amount of time talking to newcomers and people on Reddit that are interested in cybersecurity/tech about the job market. There's no shortage of people who are frustrated because they can't find jobs. Fresh tech and cyber graduates are basically unemployable. People with 1-5 years experience find it extremely difficult to find work.

Layoffs like this are a huge reason for that. Talent pools are overlapping like never before. A person with 5 years of solid experience applying for tons of jobs and getting nowhere, only to realize they are competing with people with 10-15 years of experience freshly laid off from big companies. At that point, early career people are getting pushed almost completely out of the industry.

Rotdhizon··on 28% of job postings on company career sites have been open over 90 days
A small anecdote from the cleared space (security clearance jobs). If you look through websites like clearedjobs, you'll notice that you see the same sets of cyber jobs posted over and over and over. All from the same companies in the same locations. Come to find, it's simply because they can't find people desperate enough with good qualifications to work for low wages in HCOL areas like northern VA and DC. Companies that want unicorn analysts/engineers with 6-10 YOE, TS/SCI, degree, and extensive, specific experience to relocate to northern VA for 130k/yr - 5 days in office - standard crappy contractor benefits. Shocked pickachu face when practically no one will accept those terms who actually qualify.
Rotdhizon··on 'We hacked the FBI:' Hackers say they have data on all FBI employees
FBI in this past year has been desperate for hires. To the point they have ran campaigns to do 1 interview to hire. I've had a few recruitment calls to interview for positions but their pay is far below market rate for cybersecurity professionals. To the tune of like 30-50k/yr below what you could get elsewhere for analyst work. Add that in with the horrible reputation they have now, it's a grim situation.
Rotdhizon··on Pixel Watch 5
I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
Rotdhizon··on Jimothy the raccoon has a rare spinal condition. Here's what that means
Or you can just toss some food out and call it a day

This ideology that all stray animals need to be siphoned up and neutered on the spot is bizarre to me. Sure there is a balance to be struck as you can't have a hundred thousand cats in a small area, but this idea that stray cats and dogs are simply not allowed to exist and reproduce naturally is insane.

Rotdhizon··on DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
Anyone who has been in the military can vouch for this. That is the primary angle I'm speaking from. The offices and installations are filled with the kind of people I described.
Rotdhizon··on DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
I've seen both sides of it. It's an unpleasant discussion but the government did drastic overhiring and now there are thousands of people that do DoD/DA-civilian work that are sitting back collecting paychecks while doing almost nothing. A majority of them being retired military that got grandfathered into the positions so to speak but aren't at all qualified to do those jobs.

But how do you fix it? These thousands of people have these jobs that their families depend on for survival. It's not their fault that the government severely messed up their hiring pipelines. If you cut the fat and leave those people out to dry, they certainly are not going to find work anywhere else. It's a lose lose situation.

Rotdhizon··on A better way to tie gym shorts (or any drawstring) [video]
This is similar to how traditional Afghan pants are tied. For those who have seen then, the first time putting them on can be a shock. Because when fully extended out, the waist is like 75-100 inches around, you'd think there was a mistake but that's how they come. You tie the drawstring like this so you can pull that waist all the way in comfortably and it lets the pants be very airy, comfortable, and cool.
Rotdhizon··on Mexican government unveils a prototype for a new homegrown, ultra-affordable EV
I know absolutely nothing about Mexico in terms of geography or driving so I wonder how feasible an EV that you presumably constantly have to charge is going to fare. In the US, a range of 77 miles is a complete non starter. You'd have to charge it every single day. If not multiple times a day in some peoples cases.

It's interesting that info about the car is only half the article. The other half is a commentary on how US politicians are desperately trying to keep foreign EVs out of the country, lest it hurt corporate profits.

Rotdhizon··on Sixty percent of US consumers say 'AI' in brand messaging is a turnoff
Once a negative connotation takes over a word, there's almost no coming back from it. When practically every public implementation of AI is negative, people are going to permanently associate negative thoughts towards it. We saw the saw thing when the prospect of AI came to video game development. People had high hopes that it could really improve things but no, all that was scene was lazy, half baked, terrible implementations of AI in video game development and now the general view of AI in that sphere is automatically hated.
Rotdhizon··on New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker
This is the easiest niche to pick on but I am mid career for cybersecurity. I spend a decent amount of time trying to advise people away from this career field for college. So so so so so many people are going to college for cyber not realizing when they graduate, they are in totality unemployable. Really I'm not sure how new people to tech could even enter the industry, it seems like at the lower levels the entire industry is essentially closed.

However it happened, the absolute maniacal obsession with job experience has ruined the market. Yes the more involved jobs in information security do require widespread knowledge that can't necessarily be taught on site. A lot of the entry jobs in tech though are not complicated and can easily be taught on site but even then, companies have defaulted to requiring years of prior experience even for those positions.

Rotdhizon··on Can You Stop a Hypersonic Missile?
I imagine the realistic answer is "we don't know", because it's never been truly tested. They are constantly improving and iterating designs, speeds, anti-intercept tech, anti-tracking. As you said as well, this is only what from is available in OSINT reporting. There are surely classified weapons from all major countries lying in wait for the most serious scenarios.

A big part of hypersonic/ICBM warfare is anti-detection tech. When you have the two most military capable countries with 'hypersonic' ICBMs that can in theory reach across the planet is < 30 minutes, a massive part of that is stopping the other country from realizing you even fired a missile in the first place. That detection is usually done through satellites afaik. One of the next steps in global warfare is going to be satellite degradation and interference.

It's a whole different world when you detect a launch in the silo and know you have half an hour to react versus not realizing a missile is in the air until it's 5 minutes off the west coast.

Rotdhizon··on GitHub bans security researcher who posted zero-day Windows exploits
This often seems to be the case for the most expert researchers, all a bit quirky. Anyone remember SandboxEscaper? I think they are deceased now but they were dropping Windows 0 days left and right. That person was quite a character. It's hard to describe it without potentially incurring the wrath of someone here but those who know, know.
Rotdhizon··on NASA had to train Apollo 11's astronauts to not use profanity (2019)
Growing up I never cursed. As an older teen and young adult I started to around my friends but never in the home around my family. Then I entered the military and very quickly cursing became deeply ingrained in my speech. To the point it was difficult to speak a entire sentence without a curse word. Towards the end I embraced religion heavily and made it a point to cut out cursing entirely. Nowadays I do not curse at all nor do I even think about doing so, even the muscle memory is completely gone from my speech.

As someone now who does not curse whatsoever under any circumstance, hearing those around me curse, it literally hurts my ears. I can pick those words out of a crowd like they're being spoken into a speakerphone. Especially being around military people still who curse every few words and just about every single sentence has an F word throw in, it's very uncomfortable.

Rotdhizon··on US – Iran negotiations end with no deal reached
It is heavily speculated that the rescue op on the downed pilot was a cover for a failed op regarding HEU extraction in that area. The info available on it online makes no sense for it to have just been a rescue op.

What legitimate reports detail their military losses? Practically every single thing the US is pushing out is pure untrustworthy propaganda on the subject. Even if those specific elements are destroyed, it doesn't mean much. Planes and boats are for forward aggression. They have primarily been wrecking havoc with missiles and drones, which they supposedly have plenty more of.

Iran is China and Russia's pivot point into the West. China isn't going to let such a massive intelligence and military asset go to waste. I'd just about guarantee they were involved in strong arming Pakistan into pushing for peace talks last week to avoid the threatened total destruction. Short of a nuke being dropped or the entire country being bombed to shreds, Iran isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Rotdhizon··on US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire
The US is one thing but there is no possible way Israel will stop bombing. They will openly say they will, and continue to do so. It just gives them more breathing room to calculate bigger and more serious strikes. Israel has literally nothing to lose. The US is taking all the heat for any actions in Iran. Israel and Iran are mortal enemies, one can not continue to exist while the other lives, this is how they view it. Iran wants Israel erased, Israel wants Iran erased. This isn't going to stop until one of them suffers catastrophic damage.
Rotdhizon··on US forces locate and evacuate downed airman in Iran
An interesting perspective I see all over X and reddit is calling these people heroes, but only once the rescue happened. The more tame responses simply state that they are happy everyone was rescued and no military was harmed. Why? Those pilots were flying over Iran illegally, presumably to inflict fatal harm on whichever targets.
Rotdhizon··on F-15E jet shot down over Iran
They haven't rebuilt the manpower. They've lost no less than a few hundred thousand fighting age men over the course of the war. It will take them 20-30 years minimum just for those births to occur and those newborns to make it to military age.
Rotdhizon··on F-15E jet shot down over Iran
Absolutely. A big part of the western Ukrainian defense was solely to drain the Russian military apparatus and drain they have. It will take Russia decades to rebuild their fighting force. Now Russia and China are doing it right back to us and the intelligence gained from this conflict is extremely valuable. Come to find out the US has been sitting on ego in its military more than actual might. The previously untouchable machines of war in the sky are now very much touchable. All that's left is for them to sink a battle ship. If Iran can shoot them down, you can bet China can inflict exponentially more harm. Drain our intercept missiles, destroy radars, corrode relationships, etc. At this point, China has the world on a silver platter if they want it.
Rotdhizon··on Meow.camera
Was just wondering. I fed it some kibble but nothing came out
Rotdhizon··on Meow.camera
https://meow.camera/#4291269398483497042

This one immediately makes me want to whip out my credit card. Cute cat sitting at the food bowl waiting for someone to feed it. It's one of the ones listed under "feeders with hungry cats"

edit: credit card has been pulled out

Rotdhizon··on Bulletproof host Stark Industries evades EU sanctions
Imagine a rack of servers in some countries where global and even that country's law can't really touch them. "cyber gangs" and the like will use those servers as hosting for their malware and activities.
Rotdhizon··on My Dream Productivity Device Is Done – and It's Becoming a Kit [video]
There's definitely a separation between the definition and perception. When I watched the video, my first thought was "This device is very cool but I can't imagine myself ever using it". There's hundreds, if not thousands of infinitely more convenient scheduling/productivity tools compared to having what is basically a small raspberry pi in my pocket for manual task entry. There is definitely a market for this, albeit it a very small, niche one. To me this is akin to writing a paper in word compared to pulling out a mini typewriter.
Rotdhizon··on Infrastructure at Roblox
Roblox has a seemingly impossible to solve problem with child predators. Kids have the oddest talent of being able to stumble into the most unknown, niche games where these people lurk. Roblox now has voice chat as well and you have grown adults talking to teenagers in private, unsupervised and away from parental attention.

Roblox currently has a massive event going on that was hit with a huge controversy. They picked over 1000 games to be advertised and someone accidentally (or not) picked a child romance themed game to put on the list. Without explicitly having sex, people have figured out how to game the system by letting players use emotes to do normal things but really they are intended to role play sexual activities (pushup emote while over another player laying flat on a bed for example). There's a specific term for these games but I can't recall it at the moment. It was called something like "condo games", the genre that refers to these romance games. The people who make these games do it intentionally, some of them make literally dozens/hundreds of these games, all aimed at children. Some of the game developers absolutely need to be investigated by law enforcement. Look up the video on youtube called "How One Developer RUINED Roblox's Biggest Event Overnight" and skip to around 2 minutes and he explains this in detail. This developer made children themed romance games that gained a quarter BILLION plays.

As an adult that does occasionally enjoy some Roblox experiences, there's no problem for me. Stick to the front page, featured stuff and you're fine. The problem is solely with kids/teens going where adults don't realize and getting caught up with this predators.

Rotdhizon··on The hype around esports is fading as investors and sponsors dry up
This is a minor take from someone who used to play CoD at a very high level (cash tournaments, wager matches, GB/CMG/UMG front page teams). At least from the perspective of games like Call of Duty and Overwatch, I think at least some chunk of it is that the quality of games is rapidly decreasing and it's killing off the fanbase. I remember back when it seemed like everyone I knew was following the CoD pro scene, watching the streams, tournaments, championships, etc. Nowadays I don't know a single person who still engages with that content and the responses I get from them are that they don't enjoy watching the games anymore. The current CoD (MW2 remastered), there are pro players making commentary and tweeting about how much they hate the games design. The person who is probably the single best known pro CoD player Scump is retiring now and he's said in side comments that it definitely has to do with how bad the game is designed. People seem to be losing confidence in these companies that make the games with the biggest esports scenes. Overwatch 2 now has also received quite a bit of negative press. There's probably a good chunk of anecdotal experiences inside my view but this is my take on things.
Rotdhizon··on Playstation confirms chain of 5 vulnerabilities on PS4/PS5
This has always been a heated debate. IMO, the whole concept of "ethical hacking" doesn't exist. The whole concept of morals and ethics is nothing but smoke. It's something someone made up one day to get people to not do bad things and in the modern day companies use it to give out terrible bounty rewards.

If I find a high tier vuln and the company isn't giving reasonable bounties, it's going straight onto Zerodium or similar platforms and I won't lose a second of sleep over it.

Rotdhizon··on A CIA hacker’s revenge
I enjoyed the beginning of the article because it was actually informative. Once you get to the part where it becomes a blatant smear and misdirection campaign, it loses its interest and credibility. Why does half the entire read just focus on destroying this guys character?

If he actually did get caught with what they say he did, then sure he deserves to go down but it's weird how hyper focused they are on painting this guy as the devil in his personal life. It seems like it's because their isn't any real evidence present to nail this guy. It's all circumstantial and worse, in ways that could very easily be planted/faked.

Rotdhizon··on Cyber Security; Beginner Roadmap
Haven't commented in an extremely long time but I'm popping into voice my opinion here on two specific certs in that list: eJPT and eCPPT

Those certs are for self study only, the applicable value for them in the hiring process is non existent. No one knows who they are or what they do. Used to be a huge advocate of those certs until I actually bought them, then I immediately regretted it. It's been a few years now but I had an awful time with the latter; buggy, filled with errors, typos, non working software. Back then at least, you had to spend hours fiddling with with the settings just to get it to work at a base level. The eJPT itself is extremely basic, it's just using like 5-10 basic techniques to retrieve a few flags worth of info. Really didn't like how the modules were set up. The main resources are powerpoint slides to cover all the text info, then you may have a few minute video occasionally that explains 1 topic barely. The labs would come with lab guides that were all but useless. The authors are Italian so typos and grammatical errors are rampant.

Curiously enough back when I bought them, they sold their courses individually and they were insanely expensive. Looking at them now, it seems they went away from that and now offer a one for all subscription of 2k/year. The eCPPT alone cost me almost that back much when :/

Since then it seems the company has kind of given up. They used to be pretty active on social media trying to advertise themselves, now they barely ever post. It's like they've given up and are just maintaining the content they have until the ship sinks.

If you can get your company to pay for the subscription, go for it. If for nothing else, just the collection of powerpoints and curated information. Other than that, I'd stay away.

Rotdhizon··on Twitter Hacking for Profit and the LoLs
Your question holds the answer. It's very possible that any stolen account may not be returned to the owner. 1 letter accounts are worth 5 figure dollar amounts to people who are obsessed with online clout. Same goes for any other major social platform. IG, snap, Xbox, playstation network, etc. Most of the 1-2 letter and short "OG" accounts on IG are all either bought, traded, or stolen. Very, very few original owners exist in the space.

There are also techniques people use to boost the chances that the original owners never get their account back. On Xbox for example, support looks at a few specific pieces of account info and their previous entries that only the real owner would know. So people just flood the account over and over and over with filler info until all those original entries are gone and the original owners suddenly have no ground to prove that they owned it. It's a vicious game and I'll never understand why some people are so extremely desperate for internet fame but there's a whole community based around it.

What another commenter said is also spot on. A majority of these accounts are not owned by famous people, just random joes who got lucky or bought the accounts on forums. Unless you are famous, these platforms do not care about you. If you can't get your account back through the standard support options, there's no special options(usually) for you to get help like famous people have.

Rotdhizon··on Kongregate closed to new games, shutting down forums and chat
This is upsetting to see but not surprising. As a daily Kong user, the website has been going downhill hard over the past decade. Especially over these last 3-5 years, it's been a wasteland of terrible quality games. In it's early days, Kong was a fantastic place to be. Friendly communities and amazing games. Especially the earlier RPGs and MMOs. I had such fun on the older MMOs that have all since been such down. From AA:TG, Odin Quest, Call of Gods, RotMG, and more. Kong was a huge part of my teenage years.

As Flash started to wane, the quality of games dropped sharply. Even then the devs who did take the plunge and learn Unity, the games from that released on Kong rarely lived up to the quality of Flash games. The chat rooms also become more niche and weird. As an example, there were one or two major teen dating public chat rooms that they could never get control of. No matter how many people they banned, they'd just keep making new accounts.

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