Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 3h

Oooh, yeah you're probably right. Welcome back btw, nice to hear from ya.

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 6h

"Academic disingenuity and inertia continue feeding tasteless post-post-muffins to poor tormented students, but there is a genuine revolt among the victims. We move in the House of Ecriture among the debris of theory, but that's not where the party is."

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 6h

Long ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrei Codrescu and I asked him about literary theory. The interview is long lost to bitrot but I preserved this:

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 8h

Pretty sure this is bear poop on the sidewalk near my house. Not a big bear. Key fob for scale. I live about 2 miles from the center of Santa Fe NM

A pile of ostensibly bear shit full of berries and stuff

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 9h

In another timeline I easily could have been part of this scene. As it was, I decided that TCP/IP and the World Wide Web looked like a better future. Much much later I worked on locating stuff on the globe for a company whose clients were US Military Intelligence. Locating stuff is interesting work.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 10h

Boring tech is best tech.

Joyce Park @troutgirl.bsky.social · 10h

Love to wake up and immediately have to update my whole stack.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 10h

25 years ago I was quite conversant with locating wireless devices in the SS7 network stack (implemented on Sun Solaris no less). International law enforcement has always had "lawful intercept" access to this information. The real story isn't the tech, it is how vulnerable these networks are.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 12h

1/Stop everything and read/watch/bookmark this massive investigation between @motherjones.com @lighthousereports.com Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Paper Trail Media a vast global surveillance empire used to target politicians, journalists, tech CEOs, and... Jared Leto.
ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

We uncovered a massive data trove. It revealed the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

ow.ly

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 1d

In Vienna Austria in the 1970s you could call a number to get a concert 'A' pitch to tune your violin or whatever.

Roberto Baldwin @strngwys.bsky.social · 1d

we knew these numbers: Home, best friends', pizza place, the number to check the time, and Jenny's

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 1d

fretless 5-string banjo for sale in Albuquerque. I've never seen one of these. @weirdguitars.day

photo of a custom built fretless banjo ganked from craigslist

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 1d

mostly www.reddit.com/r/popular/ and news.google.com/foryou (been reading Google News 'For You' since the start and I have the algorithm pretty well trained after all these years)

www.reddit.com

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 2d

The site is down

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 2d

Superchunk has a show in town tonight and it's probably a character flaw but the only thing I know about Superchunk is this Bruce Cockburn tune www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjXt...

Bruce Cockburn - Last Night of The World

YouTube video by TrueNorthRecords

www.youtube.com

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

3 years ago beehiiv shipped great features at an insane rate, in no small part because I am very very good at regression testing. we also have a world class dev staff and have grown Support along with the customer base.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

a lot of QA people are assholes LOL. my experience is that orgs that need QA really really really appreciate good QA. bad QA is just noise, and there has historically been a lot of bad QA in the world.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

yeah the founders of beehiiv were all under 30 at the time but brought on QA fast (I was employee #12 or so, and I found a staging env already in place) and they always saw world-class customer support as a critical investment, and it has paid off. we have 100+ employees now, mostly very young

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

my 4yo company is printing money because we invested heavily in all of those things early on.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

the last time I ate at @hellsbackbonegrill.bsky.social was 2018. The FIRST time I ate there they had just planted their garden out front and we watched them picking garnishes for meals as we ate.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah me too. I was going to drop in at Etta Place in Torrey also, knowing those good folks from back in the day on Twitter and never seen IRL.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 4d

Well crap. My partner tested positive for COVID *right* before our vacation. Just canceled reservations at
@hellsbackbonegrill.bsky.social
where I was a customer early on and haven't been in years. So disappointed.

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 6d

acequia

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 6d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 6d

I've said it before but this is such a great record. TNK is a standout.

Brian Eno News @dark-shark.bsky.social · 6d

801's album Live was released on October 8, 1976 #BrianEno #PhilManzanera

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 7d

(I think he's singing some raunchier lyrics)

Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 7d

"I smoke one in the morning, one at night/One in the evening when I turn out the light/Chesterfields these days sure are hard to find." www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtIB... (I learned this song from my mentor Sammy Blue back in the 80s. I miss cigarettes sometimes.)

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Chris McMahon @chrismcmahon.bsky.social · 7d

As the person who founded the testing/QA practice for Wikipedia software, thanks! WMF has issues like any Foundation, but they are good people, and most of their support is small donations.

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Reposted by Chris McMahon

Julia Goldberg @votergirl.bsky.social · 7d

Hey, we're hiring @sourcenm.com spread the word. statesnewsroom.com/staff-openin...

Senior Reporter, Source New Mexico • States Newsroom

statesnewsroom.com

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