Joshua Zimmerman
@thejewberwocky.bsky.social
I don't even fucking know anymore. I guess I do tech when I'm employed, I'm Jewish and my body hates me.
We had even put this specific genie back into its bottle until Google affiliated researches said, "Hey, it turns out if we throw the entire corpus of the internet at an LLM it might actually be more useful."
And then when people asked if they had obtained that data ethically they kinda shrugged.
And then when people asked if they had obtained that data ethically they kinda shrugged.
I keep hearing "Well, you can't put the genie back in the bottle..." wrt AI from the same people who are promoting it so hard.
If it's so great, why would you *want* to? Isn't that an aphorism for something destructive, or at least negatively impactful?
Also, I just don't agree with the premise.
If it's so great, why would you *want* to? Isn't that an aphorism for something destructive, or at least negatively impactful?
Also, I just don't agree with the premise.
November 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We had even put this specific genie back into its bottle until Google affiliated researches said, "Hey, it turns out if we throw the entire corpus of the internet at an LLM it might actually be more useful."
And then when people asked if they had obtained that data ethically they kinda shrugged.
And then when people asked if they had obtained that data ethically they kinda shrugged.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
I wrote my most personal blog post to date.
It summarizes some of my personal feelings and experiences in the Ruby/Rails community.
afomera.dev/posts/2025-1...
It summarizes some of my personal feelings and experiences in the Ruby/Rails community.
afomera.dev/posts/2025-1...
Stop Giving Harm a Microphone
afomera.dev
October 26, 2025 at 4:38 AM
I wrote my most personal blog post to date.
It summarizes some of my personal feelings and experiences in the Ruby/Rails community.
afomera.dev/posts/2025-1...
It summarizes some of my personal feelings and experiences in the Ruby/Rails community.
afomera.dev/posts/2025-1...
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
Hey can y'all do me a favor? If you run across any post-incident write-ups from companies affected by the AWS outage, could you send those to me?Feel free to leave a link in the comments, or you can drop them here:
www.thevoid.community/submit-incid...
Thanks!
www.thevoid.community/submit-incid...
Thanks!
Submit an Incident Report
The VOID is a community-contributed collection of software-related incident reports.
www.thevoid.community
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Hey can y'all do me a favor? If you run across any post-incident write-ups from companies affected by the AWS outage, could you send those to me?Feel free to leave a link in the comments, or you can drop them here:
www.thevoid.community/submit-incid...
Thanks!
www.thevoid.community/submit-incid...
Thanks!
My house is going to be the it house for Halloween this year.
October 18, 2025 at 12:00 AM
My house is going to be the it house for Halloween this year.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
Any remote (US) volunteer/part-time paid opportunities in criminal justice reform/transformative justice? Particularly interested in counteracting the use of police surveillance tools. My background is in sociology, computer science, and public interest technology. #JobSearch #NonProfitJobs
October 16, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Any remote (US) volunteer/part-time paid opportunities in criminal justice reform/transformative justice? Particularly interested in counteracting the use of police surveillance tools. My background is in sociology, computer science, and public interest technology. #JobSearch #NonProfitJobs
Never have I ever seen people more in need of hearing the term
"sociotechnical system".
"sociotechnical system".
October 3, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Never have I ever seen people more in need of hearing the term
"sociotechnical system".
"sociotechnical system".
When a person has a history of harassment, their presence, or simply the threat of their presence is intended as and received as harassment by their victims. Abusers and harassers understand and weaponize this.
October 2, 2025 at 7:54 PM
When a person has a history of harassment, their presence, or simply the threat of their presence is intended as and received as harassment by their victims. Abusers and harassers understand and weaponize this.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
I shared this earlier because I think it is so funny but then I also thought to myself, what advice would I (a learning scientist by background, married to someone who teaches programming) actually give a developer who feels bad reading this? How can you avoid writing this?
A few tips:
A few tips:
"How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner" by Annie Mueller 😅 😂 😭
anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-...
anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-...
How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner - annie's blog
“Hello! I am a developer. Here is my relevant experience: I code in Hoobijag and sometimes jabbernocks and of course ABCDE++++ (but never ABCDE+/^+ are you kidding? ha!) and I like working with ...
anniemueller.com
September 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I shared this earlier because I think it is so funny but then I also thought to myself, what advice would I (a learning scientist by background, married to someone who teaches programming) actually give a developer who feels bad reading this? How can you avoid writing this?
A few tips:
A few tips:
It would be great if we could go a year without a tech conference being planned on a high holiday.
September 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
It would be great if we could go a year without a tech conference being planned on a high holiday.
On a similar note. Anyone else weirded out by the fact they decided this would happen on a high holiday?
I get the rapture jokes and I’m enjoying them as much as the next guy and also I hope everyone is keeping in the back of their minds the fact that these folks are literally praying that all the Jews in the entire world drop dead tonight so they can climb over our dead bodies to reach heaven
September 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
On a similar note. Anyone else weirded out by the fact they decided this would happen on a high holiday?
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
The people pointing out that "Antifa has no central structure or leadership, how are they going to target this order?" fails to understand how this administration works. Maximum ambiguity give the maximum room to maneuver.
September 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
The people pointing out that "Antifa has no central structure or leadership, how are they going to target this order?" fails to understand how this administration works. Maximum ambiguity give the maximum room to maneuver.
"It hasn't been that long since I cleaned my office" he says as he proceeds to find a Windows XP installer disc and a @quinnypig.com business card from before The Duckbill Group existed.
September 1, 2025 at 11:55 PM
"It hasn't been that long since I cleaned my office" he says as he proceeds to find a Windows XP installer disc and a @quinnypig.com business card from before The Duckbill Group existed.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
If you consider yourself a #PublicInterestTech technologist, what is your current job title and what has your job history looked like? Reposts welcome 💕
August 17, 2025 at 11:03 PM
If you consider yourself a #PublicInterestTech technologist, what is your current job title and what has your job history looked like? Reposts welcome 💕
When people said we wanted the Democratic party to fight more, we meant we want them to fight the Republicans, not people in their own party who are further left.
August 15, 2025 at 5:07 PM
When people said we wanted the Democratic party to fight more, we meant we want them to fight the Republicans, not people in their own party who are further left.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
There is no universe in which this is defensible.
BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.
August 10, 2025 at 11:45 PM
There is no universe in which this is defensible.
Why does it feel like every 4 year old is in a secret competition to determine who can be the most dramatic 4 year old?
August 10, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Why does it feel like every 4 year old is in a secret competition to determine who can be the most dramatic 4 year old?
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
I hear both transphobes and normal folk talking about Testosterone as a performance enhancing drug and Estrogen as performance decreasing drug, and that's dude centric and not true. T and E are both performance enhancing drugs for sports. They just enhance different aspects.
Let's talk powerlifting
Let's talk powerlifting
August 8, 2025 at 2:43 PM
I hear both transphobes and normal folk talking about Testosterone as a performance enhancing drug and Estrogen as performance decreasing drug, and that's dude centric and not true. T and E are both performance enhancing drugs for sports. They just enhance different aspects.
Let's talk powerlifting
Let's talk powerlifting
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
“AI is coming to take our jobs” no it isn’t. It’s a CEO named Gary taking some shitty advice from a VC who has never had a real job in their life, trying to maximise their quarterly earnings by firing as many people as they can get away with to make number go up, and it isn’t sustainable
June 13, 2025 at 8:16 AM
“AI is coming to take our jobs” no it isn’t. It’s a CEO named Gary taking some shitty advice from a VC who has never had a real job in their life, trying to maximise their quarterly earnings by firing as many people as they can get away with to make number go up, and it isn’t sustainable
My child has received "goat socks" as a gift and my new fear is that he'll be talking about them, misspeak, and anyone in earshot who was internet aware in the aughts will call CPS on us.
August 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
My child has received "goat socks" as a gift and my new fear is that he'll be talking about them, misspeak, and anyone in earshot who was internet aware in the aughts will call CPS on us.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
Welp. I've joined the ranks of people who've been laid off. Would love to hear if anyone is hiring managers in the platform/sre/telemetry/incidents/etc. space.
July 23, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Welp. I've joined the ranks of people who've been laid off. Would love to hear if anyone is hiring managers in the platform/sre/telemetry/incidents/etc. space.
This news has absolutely gutted me today.
Jeff was the kind of person who became friends with everyone and made lifelong memories for people right after meeting him. There are so many places where his presence will be sorely missed.
His memory will be a blessing.
Jeff was the kind of person who became friends with everyone and made lifelong memories for people right after meeting him. There are so many places where his presence will be sorely missed.
His memory will be a blessing.
My heart is so heavy today. One of the finest people in the Chicago tech community passed away yesterday.
@allthingsdork.com was a brilliant, caring, and empathetic man. A great father, and one of the smartest people I ever met.
@allthingsdork.com was a brilliant, caring, and empathetic man. A great father, and one of the smartest people I ever met.
July 16, 2025 at 7:05 PM
This news has absolutely gutted me today.
Jeff was the kind of person who became friends with everyone and made lifelong memories for people right after meeting him. There are so many places where his presence will be sorely missed.
His memory will be a blessing.
Jeff was the kind of person who became friends with everyone and made lifelong memories for people right after meeting him. There are so many places where his presence will be sorely missed.
His memory will be a blessing.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
A good 70% of the fighting over AI would have been avoided if VC hucksters (and gullible access journalists) hadn't conflated incrementally useful automation with computational sentience to make money
July 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
A good 70% of the fighting over AI would have been avoided if VC hucksters (and gullible access journalists) hadn't conflated incrementally useful automation with computational sentience to make money
You know, a company with an incident analysis program is a little bit like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it.
July 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
You know, a company with an incident analysis program is a little bit like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it, and danged if he knows how to use it.
Reposted by Joshua Zimmerman
Are you (or someone you know) interested in helping organize @chicago.devopsdays.org ?
forms.gle/29DdJBcMGGew...
forms.gle/29DdJBcMGGew...
DevOpsDays Chicago - Interested in Being an Organizer
Send us your info and tell us why you'd like to get more involved with DevOpsDays Chicago!
forms.gle
June 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Are you (or someone you know) interested in helping organize @chicago.devopsdays.org ?
forms.gle/29DdJBcMGGew...
forms.gle/29DdJBcMGGew...