I want you to know that I see you. I regret that we don’t live anywhere near each other.

In my youth, I sewed my historical recreation garb (poorly). While I can’t program, or do UX, I have worked with folks that did that while I managed the server side of things. And I have some experience in visual art.

I am also a decent listener. I’d be happy to listen to whatever you want to talk about. DM me?

New construction work is also much easier than repairs. Commercial is better than residential.

HVAC is a bit of both.

I feel seen.

It already works like this. Audits perform this function. Failing a mandatory audit generally goes very poorly for financial companies. The unintended result is falsified audits - something my former company did (still does?) every year. The banks and the Fed never found out.

Many SQL servers use scripts that run as domain administrator. With the password hard coded in.

Several of the various servers are very old. W2K, 2003, 2008. SQL server, too.

Several of the users run reports via rdp to the SQL server - logging in as domain admin.

Codebase is a mashup of various dev tools: .net, asp, Java, etc.

Fax server software vendor has been out of business for a decade. Server hardware is 20 years old. Telecom for fax is a channelized PRI carrying POTS - and multiport modem cards. Fax is used for processing checks.

About a 3rd of the ethernet runs in the office have failed.

Office pcs are static IP. Boss says that’s more secure.

They were hacked about a year ago. They changed the domain admin password and restored the backups. That’s it.

They processed money to/from the Fed.

…in the 80s.

I think you misunderstood my intent. The modern world has a lot of Neuromancer aspects.

The AI programmers don’t know how to manage servers. The sysadmins don’t know how the liquid cooling works.

Every company has silos. And AI itself is kind of a black box. Non-deterministic software is by definition unknowable.

Plus the whole centering of the novel on AI.

I am onboard with the Canon lasers. I got a color mfp/scanner. Off brand toner is less than half the price, and even the Canon toner is less than other brands.

Good pens and good paper.

I’m in IT and do prefer to write for many tasks. When all I need is “Room, Rack, and U” to work on a system, a small scrap of paper is better than putting the laptop on the floor. I expect the role matters more than the industry.

My company poached a bunch of people from a competitor. And I’m hoping to parlay my US job into a transfer to the EU to get citizenship. Meanwhile my company is building arguably the most complex system ever made by humans. No one employee knows enough about it to say how it works. All we know is that big corporations pay big money for it. And if a system is capable of becoming self aware, it will happen in one of our facilities as no one else has systems as big and fast as ours.

Yes, I work in AI.

For some, it’s anything north of the Bronx.

Thank you for reading and responding. It has become an important part of how I view myself.

It looks like a NYS police trooper.

Even the word itself.

The original Fasci Siciliani were poor peasants protesting for basic human, labor, and civil rights. Mussolini co-opted the word in order to ride into power on a populist wave.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasci_Siciliani

My Great Great Grandfather was one of the 18 killed in the Marineo massacre of Jan 3 1894. He didn’t want to be a martyr for the cause. His widow managed to escape further persecution with their children to the tenements of lower Manhattan.

My Grandfather was named after him, and I was named after my grandfather.

…and the defendant is charged with failure to appear. Fines are added, penalties are upped. A warrant is issued. Rinse. Repeat. Eventually, the heat gets too hot and the defendant slips up. They end up spending a lot of time in jail instead of a small fine. This method has the potential to radically reduce the number of SovCits.

And no mention of Italy?

That was a given when he kept boxes of top secret material in his bathroom.

My son has ARFID. He’s 15. It’s really hard. He’s seeing a therapist. But he’s still seriously underweight. I don’t have any food recommendations, but I do wish you the best with your progress.