Cail Young
@cail.bsky.social
Still trying to collect all the blue pages.
meirl
I'm not egotistical enough to think I've done anything of special interest, but I've ended up in the border control room of doom a couple of times before, and to say it's no fun is an understatement, so for a work event to be worth risking it just now, it would need to be *excellent*
January 25, 2026 at 9:37 AM
meirl
Reposted by Cail Young
"This is how so many will start feeling the climate crisis. Not in abstract charts but in rising insurance renewal notices, with higher excesses and more exclusions. Families will begin agonising over whether they can afford to protect their largest asset."
Cities aren’t safe from the next firestorm
As we face these fires in Victoria, there is deep apprehension among my colleagues in emergency services. We are not just worried about today. Victoria’s most savage fire weather often arrives later i...
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
January 19, 2026 at 1:21 AM
"This is how so many will start feeling the climate crisis. Not in abstract charts but in rising insurance renewal notices, with higher excesses and more exclusions. Families will begin agonising over whether they can afford to protect their largest asset."
Seeing Like A Supermarket
Coles has just hired US defence contractor Palantir - the company that was cofounded by JD Vance’s friend Peter Thiel.
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02...
www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02...
Known for their work with the CIA, tech company Palantir is coming to Coles
Coles plans to deploy data company Palantir's tools across more than 840 supermarkets to cut costs and "redefine how we think about our workforce". At a time of increased food insecurity, Australians ...
www.abc.net.au
January 11, 2026 at 10:26 AM
Seeing Like A Supermarket
IRQ conflicts when setting up a new sound card
Without revealing your actual age,what's something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn't understand?
January 10, 2026 at 8:40 AM
IRQ conflicts when setting up a new sound card
Reposted by Cail Young
Here are the Walwa and Longwood line scans (as of 3:30pm 10 Jan) to give you an idea of the scale of the fires when overlaid on the base Melbourne map.
Yikes!
#VicFires
Yikes!
#VicFires
January 10, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Here are the Walwa and Longwood line scans (as of 3:30pm 10 Jan) to give you an idea of the scale of the fires when overlaid on the base Melbourne map.
Yikes!
#VicFires
Yikes!
#VicFires
Reposted by Cail Young
“In a few words, please tell us the issue you’re calling about?”
“Bees”
“Bees”
January 7, 2026 at 7:49 AM
“In a few words, please tell us the issue you’re calling about?”
“Bees”
“Bees”
2025. Glad it’s over, to be honest.
How it started (kinda) / How it finished (kinda)
Not shown: cytoreductive surgery and heaps of rehab and recovery.
How it started (kinda) / How it finished (kinda)
Not shown: cytoreductive surgery and heaps of rehab and recovery.
December 31, 2025 at 11:28 AM
2025. Glad it’s over, to be honest.
How it started (kinda) / How it finished (kinda)
Not shown: cytoreductive surgery and heaps of rehab and recovery.
How it started (kinda) / How it finished (kinda)
Not shown: cytoreductive surgery and heaps of rehab and recovery.
Still happening, and I suspect it’s their WAF blocking the iCloud Private Relay exit addresses. Now, how to contact a public service IT team over the new years break? Hmmmmmm
December 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Still happening, and I suspect it’s their WAF blocking the iCloud Private Relay exit addresses. Now, how to contact a public service IT team over the new years break? Hmmmmmm
vic.gov.au looking great, love this new minimal design
December 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
vic.gov.au looking great, love this new minimal design
Reposted by Cail Young
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 29, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
Reposted by Cail Young
Incredibly cool series of photographs showing how infrared tech enables surveillance systems
PHOTO ESSAY: Invisible infrared surveillance technology and those caught in its digital cage
When you unlock a phone, step into view of a security camera or drive past a license plate reader at night, beams of infrared light - invisible to the naked eye — shine onto the unique contours of you...
apnews.com
December 28, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Incredibly cool series of photographs showing how infrared tech enables surveillance systems
I come back to you now, at the turn of the FUCKING tide…
The Lord of The Rings movies were rated PG-13. By current rules that means that each film could contain one use of the word "Fuck". Which line are you altering to insert the most useful swear word?
"I can't carry it for you, but I can Fucking carry you"
"I can't carry it for you, but I can Fucking carry you"
December 26, 2025 at 6:26 AM
I come back to you now, at the turn of the FUCKING tide…
Reposted by Cail Young
This is, by far, my favorite Terry Pratchett quote.
Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather
December 25, 2025 at 6:08 PM
This is, by far, my favorite Terry Pratchett quote.
Reposted by Cail Young
I find it incredibly difficult to write about my Jewishness. I didn't want to write this, but I did.
We need to re-embrace complexity and nuance in thinking about and discussing the Jewish future.
We need to re-embrace complexity and nuance in thinking about and discussing the Jewish future.
Holding complexity amidst catastrophe
I didn't want to write this.
I don't want to write this.
I feel like I need to write something.
I am writing this.
I am not good at writing about my Jewish experience.
I am still writing this, ei...
in-between-days.ghost.io
December 23, 2025 at 7:08 AM
I find it incredibly difficult to write about my Jewishness. I didn't want to write this, but I did.
We need to re-embrace complexity and nuance in thinking about and discussing the Jewish future.
We need to re-embrace complexity and nuance in thinking about and discussing the Jewish future.
Reposted by Cail Young
I only went and bloody did it. Made a little spot to write about it, too: hetconned.substack.com
“Hetconning (n.) — the deliberate retroactive straight-washing of history to frame queerness as a modern intrusion. A pretext for justifying attacks as a “return” to a world that never existed”
“Hetconning (n.) — the deliberate retroactive straight-washing of history to frame queerness as a modern intrusion. A pretext for justifying attacks as a “return” to a world that never existed”
December 15, 2025 at 3:48 AM
I only went and bloody did it. Made a little spot to write about it, too: hetconned.substack.com
“Hetconning (n.) — the deliberate retroactive straight-washing of history to frame queerness as a modern intrusion. A pretext for justifying attacks as a “return” to a world that never existed”
“Hetconning (n.) — the deliberate retroactive straight-washing of history to frame queerness as a modern intrusion. A pretext for justifying attacks as a “return” to a world that never existed”
Reposted by Cail Young
December 13, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Oh, like this old documentary about the show business!
December 11, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Oh, like this old documentary about the show business!
Adding this to the Slideshow Karaoke list
December 10, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Adding this to the Slideshow Karaoke list
Reposted by Cail Young
#BREAKING: The Commonwealth Ombudsman has published their investigation into the Targeted Compliance Framework & Mutual Obligations system
Their findings on the Department's administration of many parts of the system are incredibly damning 👇
Their findings on the Department's administration of many parts of the system are incredibly damning 👇
December 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
#BREAKING: The Commonwealth Ombudsman has published their investigation into the Targeted Compliance Framework & Mutual Obligations system
Their findings on the Department's administration of many parts of the system are incredibly damning 👇
Their findings on the Department's administration of many parts of the system are incredibly damning 👇
Post your fave @boontavista.com title, I’ll go first
December 6, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Post your fave @boontavista.com title, I’ll go first
Reposted by Cail Young
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
I am slowly realising that my software career has mostly been about moderating the level of “pissed” in my epistemology.
So hard to not get angry when confronted with folks just assuming things will work perfectly. Or that “users will never do that”.
Where does this blinkered optimism come from?
So hard to not get angry when confronted with folks just assuming things will work perfectly. Or that “users will never do that”.
Where does this blinkered optimism come from?
November 28, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I am slowly realising that my software career has mostly been about moderating the level of “pissed” in my epistemology.
So hard to not get angry when confronted with folks just assuming things will work perfectly. Or that “users will never do that”.
Where does this blinkered optimism come from?
So hard to not get angry when confronted with folks just assuming things will work perfectly. Or that “users will never do that”.
Where does this blinkered optimism come from?
Reposted by Cail Young
I finally got around to writing up my thoughts about the recent Cloudflare outage.
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/11/26/b...
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/11/26/b...
Brief thoughts on the recent Cloudflare outage
I was at QCon SF during the recent Cloudflare outage (I was hosting the Stories Behind the Incidents track), so I hadn’t had a real chance to sit down and do a proper read-through of their pu…
surfingcomplexity.blog
November 27, 2025 at 5:43 AM
I finally got around to writing up my thoughts about the recent Cloudflare outage.
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/11/26/b...
surfingcomplexity.blog/2025/11/26/b...
Reposted by Cail Young
we have automated endless september with chatgpt and now we are in endless hacktober
November 24, 2025 at 9:07 PM
we have automated endless september with chatgpt and now we are in endless hacktober