Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Why I’ve really started hating people. Let me count the ways!

Ok, social media is definitely not for me.

Picture it as a broken sewer main of shitty people with a very occasional super nice person.

LinkedIn – For fucks sake has turned into Facebook with a pseudo business bent. I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2019, when much to my dismay I was told I needed to have it so that HR people could reach out to me, as our company was laying us all off.

Since then it’s been completely useless as a vehicle for finding a job and NO, I repeat, NO HR person has reached out to me. For a while it looked like they were turning it into a dating, pro-Palestine, DEI, & god knows what else kind of site.  None of which I’m interested in.

X/Twitter – OMG! Talk about a broken sewer pipe! Perhaps it’s that I’m easily bored. But damn! My most recent mistake on that site is that I commented on someone I didn’t realize was a flat Earther about being unsurprised that satellites wouldn’t show up in photos of astronauts working outside the ISS. 

Satellites are relatively small, tend not to have running lights and are most likely wouldn’t be seen unless they happened to reflect sunlight.

I went on to say I always missed seeing stars in the NASA photos and it bugged me. I once asked NASA why that was. They told me that often photos of planets would have the backgrounds blacked out to enhance the photo of the planet or object that was the actual subject of the photo.

Okay, that makes sense.

Credit: Don Pettit @astro_PettitI mentioned that I’d like to see photos of our galaxy. 

Then what happened was hundreds of people describing the way cameras work and this, that, and the other thing, including that space wasn’t real, we didn’t have people orbiting the earth, it was all fake etc. In the miasma of following shitposting, one post caught my attention. 

This post was from the son of an actual astronaut and very nicely explained that the ISS when on the daylight side of Earth had the same problem as we do. The stars are simply too dim versus the brightness of the sun to see. Then he included some breathtakingly beautiful photos his Dad had taken from the ISS while on the dark side of Earth. When I say breathtaking I mean it. Seeing those photos brought tears to my eyes because of their beauty.

I thanked him for the concise explanation, (even though I felt like, “Duhhhh,” I should have figured that out myself,) and for sharing the beautiful photos has Dad took. We had a pleasant exchange and he directed me to his Father’s account, the NASA website, and a Flickr account that I’d never heard of, where the astronauts posted more personal pictures they’d taken.

Basically it was a super nice adult exchange and I genuinely appreciated the information. I told him so, and thanked he & his Father for sharing. Then, thinking that was the end of it I went to bed.

This morning, my X account was still blowing up. People were still reiterating what had already been discussed and piling on. Then more people, the flat earth folks were denying that the photos were real and just going on & on about that.

I don’t like controversy and really don’t like people piling on without reading the whole thread. Generally, I read all of a thread before opening my mouth and adding my 2 cents. Yes, sometimes I screw up and add something redundant to a thread by I really try to avoid doing that, as it’s a waste of my time and everyone else’s time who may be in the comment thread.

However, in this case, (which is only the most recent in a long line of similar events,) I found myself being very depressed by it all.

Reevaluating my interactions on X I came to the realization that the vast majority of people on the site are… well, terrible people.

I partially remembered a line from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where Marvin the robot had just witnessed another robot destroy itself in a fit of anger and said, something like, “What a depressingly stupid robot.”

That sentiment is what I felt this morning. These people couldn’t just go, “Oh, that’s a lovely respectful conversation. Wow, those photos are really beautiful.” Instead, they had to drag it through absolute shit. 

I have a very hard time seeing the good in people. Jerry would often remind me that not all people in the world are shitheads. Since he’s been gone, I’m having a harder time remembering there are some good people.

Between the network news, X, LinkedIn, and just dealing with people in the grocery store it’s easy to have the “shitty people” belief reenforced.

It’s not just this one instance. However, this one seems to have broken the camels back. 

Going through the list of things I can’t stand hearing about anymore, I’ve concluded that too much interaction with the world is very depressing.

I don’t care about Palestine, or Trans rights, or the LGBT community, or the Democrats, politics, Republicans, Trump, the failure that is Congress, our broken Judiciary, the price of eggs, people demanding that Trump voters regret their vote, who’s talking about running for President in 2028, the welfare state, DOGE, government employees being laid off, taxes, the next iPhone, Ukraine, or much of anything else.

I realized, I miss looking up at the stars, (which I can’t see anymore because everyone around me is afraid of the dark). I miss simplicity, and beauty. Both of which are easily seen and appreciated, if you turn off the constant bullshit.

That’s what I’m going to do. Turn off the constant bullshit. I want peace & quiet. 

I want a little job that brings in enough money but not 100K. I want to be off mailing lists and urgent notifications, and to turn off the firehose of “Information”.

To that end, I’m closing accounts. I’m removing myself from mailing lists and locking down the flow of senseless conflict and controversy. This mechanized abomination we call “modern life” has made me unhappy.

I’m not angry about it, (although It’s going to be a while before I’m not assuming people are all shitty).

I’m looking at this as a mistake and fortunately it’s one I can correct.

I’m trying a hiatus. I’ll let you know how it goes… or not.

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Apple has announced their WWDC dates

Apple WWDC25 Event Logo.I expect they’ll talk about IOS19.

Okay… 

I like a lot of the features in IOS18, I’d probably be a little more excited about IOS19 if Apple had finished implementing all the features promised in IOS18.

They’ve got until June I suppose, then the rumor mills and all the publications will switch to IOS19 stuff and we’ll see IOS18 finally completed in August or September.

Just in time to have IOS19 released in October. 

It’s not just Siri or Apple intelligence. It’s the entire ecosystem that I’m getting a little annoyed with.

There are some things about Apple’s move toward “Intelligence” that I’m not thrilled about.

Chief among these is Apple’s replacement of words while I’m texting or writing. I’d like to be able to tone down the replacement. I’d also like to have the ability in some cases for word replacement to go back to just underlining incorrect or questionable words.

The automatic replacement is annoying in some cases. If I’m writing something and moving fast I might stumble in spelling. In those instances Apple chooses what it thinks I meant, then doesn’t leave the highlight in place.

So if I’m writing stream of consciousness and glitch on a word I might not see it at all because I’m 6 paragraphs down the page. 

I only see the problem after I’ve pressed send or saved a document, by then I’ve forgotten what I meant to say and it makes proof reading much more difficult since if my spelling caused the selection of a completely different word, the next few words Apple replaces may be grammatically correct but not at all what I was saying. 

I’d like to select the old reliable red underscore and tell Apple intelligence to not replace a word or string of words. I’m going to notice the red underscore then correct spelling based on those highlights.

Dictation is a nightmare as well. This is one of the reasons that Siri & I don’t get along with each other. Sometimes, no matter how I pronounce something, Siri or the Apple dictation screws up so badly everything I said is completely lost or worse. Maybe its better to loose the thought than to have it butchered. 

For example, last night I was cuddling the dog and asked if he was ready to, “Go beddie by,” He knew exactly what that meant and went to the door for his last bathroom break of the evening. Siri on my phone across the room piped up and told me there was no Betty in my contact list and therefore it couldn’t complete my call. I don’t recall calling the dog by his name “Jesse,” which sometimes Siri mistakes for me asking for “Siri’s” assistance.

Thank God, I’d have been unknowingly calling someone at midnight on a Sunday!

AI input should be delayed so that the AI helps me, rather than overriding me or being so confident that it takes actions.

Recently, I used the AI in Microsoft Word and found it to be a more pleasant cooperative experience. In that case, the AI waited until it was called upon. When I asked for assistance, the AI evaluated the entire paragraph then did a fine job of cleaning up what I was saying.

I feel like I have to watch the Apple version like a hawk, this interrupts my train of thought and makes getting what I want on paper far more time consuming.

Perhaps, the next iterations of Apple operating systems will correct these issues but I’m not confident about it. Apple is renown for their arrogance when it comes to their software.

It looks like instead of correcting issues, Apple will be making IOS19 pretty. Yawn! I could be wrong, in fact I hope I am.

As disappointed as I was in Apple for not releasing an improved Apple Watch Ultra last year, (they changed the color not the inherent functionality,) I’m not excited to hear, and probably wont’ make time to watch, this years WWDC.

I’ll wait for the pundits and wags to breathlessly extoll the amazing WWDC25 announcements.

In other words, I’ll read about it over the following week.

I wonder if this is a sign of me being bored, or Apple being boring.

I guess we’ll see in June.

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Ya know…

I’ve been on “X” (The application formerly known as Twitter,) for about two years, this time.

I’ve made plenty of comments. Some snarky, some funny, some very serious. But I’ve not made comments wherein I called someone I’d never interacted with, dumb shit or motherfucker.

The left on the other hand often tends to end their comments on something I might have said with epithets like that. 

I responded to Senator Markwayne Mullin the other day.

Senator Mullin was calling out the hypocrisy of the Democrat members of Congress over the admittedly careless conversation Pete Hegseth and others had on the Signal app.

The Senator correctly pointed out that the Signal App was approved for communications by the Government. He also pointed out that none of the material was necessarily classified and that while “Yes,” the discussion should have perhaps been handled over other channels. The issue was not as “Devastating, or a threat to National Security,” as the media and Democrats have been trying to paint it as.

I took a different position. I directly asked Senator Mullin this;

My question was based in what I remembered from the days when I had a security clearance.

I vaguely remember something about identifying myself if I was included on an email or other communication that was above my clearance level.

At the time it made perfect sense to me. I thought it was based not only in operational security but common decency and politeness, so my compliance was one of those things that came completely naturally.

Perhaps its because of my experience with clearances, my recognition that some classifications were so far beyond me that my knowing anything about certain subjects could get me imprisoned, or just that I was raised right, that the question popped into my head.

The one and only time I was included in something that I was not cleared for and brought it to the attention of the meeting organizer, I was complimented and several weeks later rewarded with a higher clearance.

I’d established that I could be trusted. Even though the higher clearance meant more responsibility, and more training in dealing with the different classification. It was worth it.

So it’s from this perspective that I viewed the situation.

Senator Mullin does almost daily posts where he explains the inner workings of Congress and topics that may be occupying the news cycle. I’ll rarely miss one of his posts because they’re informative and he speaks plainly.

There were a number of comments directed at my question that were about 50/50 positive/negative. But one comment was a one sentence very angry defense of Goldberg that ended with the writer calling me a dumbshit.

I don’t really care, but then I thought about it and wondered why the person was so angry.

I looked at their profile and on many issues, I agreed with their positions. What I didn’t agree with was this person’s frequently calling people that they didn’t agree with, dumbshit, motherfucker, cocksucker, etc…

I’ve got a foul mouth, but I try not to say, “Hey you! Yes you! Yeah, dumbshit! You! You’re a load your mother wishes she’d swallowed.“

I might think it. But I’d no more say that, than the man in the moon.

Then I thought about it and decided I’m implementing a new rule.

I’m going to block anyone that speaks to me in a way that I wouldn’t tolerate in a bar. From this perspective, if I’d not speak to you in a bar, or hang out with you in person, there is no incentive whatsoever to put up with you on X.

So, my blocked list grows, not out of fear, or being thin skinned. I simply refuse to be a punching bag for abusive people whether I may agree with them or not.

I value myself too highly to waste time arguing online or to take anyone’s shit.

Treat yourself well, and have a great day.

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Well that goofy email turned out to be a real job inquiry.

It was a legitimate job.

When I responded they sent me a little 15 question quiz, which to answer properly would have been at least a 15 page response. 

That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the further I went into the answers the more I realized they didn’t want just a person to do a job. What they really wanted was a manager or a lead role.

The more I thought about that, the more I remembered why I’d stepped away from management roles. Then I thought about managing people in today’s workforce and everyone’s feelings and pronouns and gender identity and racial identity, how much politics has permeated the business world, and how easily offended people are…

Still further into the quiz, my stomach knotted, the pounding in my ears grew, and after wondering why I was in such a foul mood, it dawned on me the mere thought of being in management again was triggering me.

It’s not that I can’t do lead roles or management. It’s that when I’d stepped away, people were already more interested in all the bullshit distractions than actually doing the job.

Being labeled a manager or lead had become only a title and the manager was nothing more than a fall guy when something didn’t work. But that person had no real authority to control the outcome. 

The role was a placeholder to insulate upper management whose poor decisions could potentially lead to project failure.

I can’t begin to imagine how horrifically screwed up being in one of those roles would be today.

What became crystal clear was that I not only wanted no part of that, but that physically it wouldn’t be healthy.

I made a decision. 

Much as I want and need a job. It is still as true today, as when I exited from management, I choose to be happy, healthy, and want to be able to put the day behind me without worry.

I spent too many years worrying about my job, doing the job well, dealing with problems, (project and personnel related,) missing out on vacations, time with Jerry, and in the end I did all this for very little reward or even recognition.

I sent a polite but direct “Thanks, but no thanks” email. 

I’m breathing easier, and the stress is leaving.

It might not have been the wisest decision, but it was the correct one.

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Ahhh, Is it a SCAM or isn’t it a SCAM? That is the question.

I got an email yesterday. It appears to be a response to a job application.

The English is good. 

Had it showed up in my normal inbox, I’d have been giddy. But for some reason it was in my junk mail folder.

Hmmm. Why would that be?

It’s possible that the reason was that all CAPS subject line. That might have tripped the junk filter.

I’d have ignored it except that the rest of the message looks like a standard business email.

Hmmm.

Then, because I’m desperate for a job, and I have nothing better to do, I looked at the routing and header information.

That’s not exactly true, I have better things to do it’s just that those things aren’t things I actually want to do. In other words, I’m procrastinating and engaging in a bit of sophistry with myself as to the importance of determining if this is a real response.

So I looked up the originating domain. It was registered the same day as the email was sent. Well, that’s suspicious but the originating domain could just be a way for the company in question to separate recruiting email from the main corporate email.

The company is a global enterprise, as such, I could see the logic in keeping the two separate. The newness of the domain registration could have tripped the junk mail filter. It’s possible that said domain’s registration had not propagated to whitelists yet.

Inconclusive.

I looked at the originating email server’s IP address. It’s in Helsinki Finland. Weird!

Also associated with that IP are a number of complaints claiming that a lot of spam / scam email was coming from that particular email server. The most recent  complaint email was 3 years old. It’s possible that the junk mail filter was tripped by this older data and associated black list information.

Still inconclusive. 

Things happen fast in the IT world and 3 years is an eternity. 

The IP address could have been cleaned up, or reallocated, the owner might simply have misconfigured the email server and corrected the problem that was allowing SPAM mail to pass through it.

The Domain is registered in Germany. It could be that they’re using an email server in Finland. Although why not an email server in Berlin or Munich?

Still inconclusive.

This email has an X-Spam score of 12.5. Anything above a 5 is considered spam, that’s probably why the junk mail filter reacted.

However the X-Spam scoring system is based on previous behaviors, complaints, & reliability data. This is why it’s vitally important that email servers be configured properly such that unauthorized users cannot use them to send spam. It’s a pain in the behind to regain your reputation after a billion spam email have been sent through your server.

More conclusive.

The X-Spam system isn’t bad, but it can make mistakes.

Oddly, I can’t find any evidence that I’ve applied to this company. That being said, if they were using a recruiting firm I wouldn’t necessarily have a direct link. The position description in the message looks very much like something I would have applied to.

So, after all of this, it comes down to faith. Not faith in the email itself but faith that my defenses are strong enough to repel an onslaught of spam from some nefarious person or persons, attempting to rip me off.

There is one thing that caught my attention. There is IPv6 data in the email header. That makes me think the email may be legitimate. IPv6 is not something I’d expect to see coming from a spammer. Not that it’s impossible. I just wouldn’t expect to see it coming from a teenager in their mom’s basement.

Well, Hell.

I guess I’ll check my defenses, run another header analysis and respond.

I hate that I’ve been kicked enough that I’m so suspicious. But after a 5 year job search where so many scammers have wasted my time and had me jumping through hoops trying to get my personal data it just makes sense.