Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Vicky Harp

@vickyharp.com

1.5K followers 420 following 9.6K posts

Product person, recently ex-Microsoft. Dev experiences, Al, data. Helper of experts. She/Her. Black Lives Matter. This meeting could have been a riot.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Jul 9

I have made a piece of visual art to commemorate my time at Microsoft. It is the first page of my separation agreement.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 2d

I wish companies would just build commodities markets like they used to instead of relying on consumer oriented bubbles all the time.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 4d

You should know that if you go over to the base of that rock you will probably see sea otters in the water and it is thrilling.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

So of course I was mortified and deleted the message and tried to explain the backstory, and I am sure it sounded pretty sus.

But with the benefit of a few additional years I can also say: while it was accidental, it was also the correct response to what they were telling me :)

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

As it happened I was still using the same multitouch device after all that time, and I was reaching across or something, I don't know exactly how, but I managed to trigger that gibberish gesture and replied to them with 256 characters of 'blah blah blah"

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

About 12 years later I was having a tense chat conversation with my new boss over Teams. We were not really getting along well and they were telling me they thought that if we were both in a meeting I should refrain from speaking because it made them look bad if I had more context than they did.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

I saved the data as the output for a custom gesture that was basically gibberish - but at least reproducible enough I could demonstrate the result. I filed the bug and never went back and cleared the gesture because I just never got around to it.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

Something like this: "Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah Blah blah blah" - maybe a bit longer

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 13d

Years ago I was testing to see if some security software could detect data exfiltration over USB. I defeated it by using a firmware writer to commit a text file to an external multi touch device as a custom gesture. It was a text file that just said "blah blah blah" for 256 characters or so.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 20d

I go anytime I am holding a garage sale or similar, to get ones :)

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 25d

I ordered something from a manufacturer that is a 2.5 hour drive from here, in Canada. It would be here already except that with the de minimus exception gone, I get to wait an unknown extra time and pay extra tax for a clarinet mouthpiece no one in the US manufactures in the first place. So stupid.

Reposted by Vicky Harp

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 27d

A recycling box marked "bottles" but it has a thin, wide opening.

The distressed woman from the "block goes in the round hole" meme video.

Reposted by Vicky Harp

Rob Tougher @robtougher.com · 29d

return to office

[PANEL 1 - Threddy and Freddy chatting in a conference room]

Freddy: I'm requiring all employees to return to the office.

Threddy: Do you have space for everyone?

Freddy: No. But the data clearly shows that employees will be happier.

Threddy: Can we see the data?

Freddy: Also no.

Threddy: I feel really good about this.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 29d

bsky.app/profile/vick...

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 29d

In a meeting looking at all the data supporting RTO. It's just out of frame.

Comedian Nathan Fielder smiles alone in a picture, from the "friends just out of frame" meme.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 29d

I am not going to associate myself with my alma mater anymore on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn message box:

Delete education

Are you sure you want to delete your Texas A&M University education?

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 29d

In a meeting looking at all the data supporting RTO. It's just out of frame.

Comedian Nathan Fielder smiles alone in a picture, from the "friends just out of frame" meme.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · 29d

Hearing that Microsoft is announcing RTO.

To mis-quote Last of the Mohicans: "[Microsoft], you are a [company] with a few admirable qualities, but taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you."

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Sep 8

I shipped laundry home exactly once, and I had what felt like a pretty good reason (finishing the part of a trip where I needed suits and heels, moving to leisure) but it was absurdly expensive. For the money I should have bought a suitcase and used a luggage storage service until my flight home.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Sep 8

The current moment in AI is basically as if companies started cutting headcount when spellcheck was introduced because of the time saved in writing emails.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Sep 5

We use Skylight without the subscription. It's nice.

Reposted by Vicky Harp

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · Sep 4

I loved this piece from @grimalkina.bsky.social about who is and isn't allowed to be technical.

"I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but if my belonging in tech is fundamentally unacceptable yours is uncertain."

www.fightforthehuman.com/why-i-cannot...

Why I Cannot Be Technical

With some regularity, kind-hearted Technical people tell me that I Can Be Technical, Too. This usually happens when I’m asking us to define what we’re calling technical in a software environment. I un...

www.fightforthehuman.com

Reposted by Vicky Harp

Dustin L. Howett @dhowett.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · Aug 30

Just listening to the TOCTOU Twins. It’s weird, I thought I knew what songs were on this album but it keeps surprising me!

Reposted by Vicky Harp

Sadie Twiglatch @digitalwatches.blackskycomra.de · Aug 24

LLMs are good NLP like CNNs are good computer vision, which is to say, very cool for what they are, but marketing this stuff as actual "artificial intelligence" in the sense of there's a living thinking thing in there is irresponsibly deceptive and should honestly be considered fraud

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Aug 19

I just had an online healthcare appointment. When I opened the app it was not using the right camera, so I clicked to change it, and instead of giving me a settings dialog to choose the camera it *brought up a chat box so I could try to describe the setting I needed to change* FFS

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Aug 19

When I was on calls all day working from home my dog stayed in his bed at my side all day. Now that I am not, when I do go into my office he is *psyched*. I whistle for him to join me and he scrambles down the stairs as though I were offering a plate of bacon.

Vicky Harp @vickyharp.com · Aug 14

Brains are amazing. I felt like I was walking around in a fishbowl for a week and then all of a sudden my brain started correcting for it and it's been fine ever since.