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  • Josh Bressersjoshbressers@infosec.exchange
    Oct 25, 2026, 2:28 PM

    I'm not sure claiming "everything is on fire" is the correct takeaway here

    There is a pile of flammable materials we've been ignoring for decades. It catches on fire sometimes. It caught on fire a lot this week

    And the people who put out the fires, for free, put the fire out again

    The current plan is to just keep throwing more oily rags on the pile. We could try to help the volunteers, but that costs more than adding oily rags to the pile

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Replies

  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Oct 25, 2026, 2:57 PM

    @joshbressers what if we split the pile into multiple piles separated by nonflammable areas, and then preventatively burned down each pile every so often?

    How would that work in software?

    How does fire spread from piece of software A to B?
    I guess
    - B depends on A (or vendors it)
    - B is built using A
    - A happens to be installed on B's developer's workstation / CI server / source repo server

    So we'd need completely separate self-hosted software ecosystems...

    ok maybe not a good idea after all

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  • Ian McDowallimcdowall@mastodon.social
    Oct 25, 2026, 5:20 PM

    @wolf480pl @joshbressers
    Maybe the separation could be really well-defined and secure interfaces? But then would burning down separate piles take the form of aggressive testing in isolation? Or replacing with alternatives with the same interfaces?

    Back in the day, I liked the idea of really well defined interfaces and replaceable components but sloppier interfaces and more fuzzy dependencies are cheaper 😔 in most cases.

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  • Wolf480plwolf480pl@mstdn.io
    Oct 25, 2026, 5:22 PM

    @imcdowall @joshbressers
    well, by burning it all down I meant like, having it be totally pwned by a malicious actor, discarding that whole software stack, treating all machines that ran it as compromised, and starting a new one

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  • Thomas DepierreDi4na@hachyderm.io
    Oct 25, 2026, 3:34 PM

    @joshbressers Well and helping volunteers would need to start wondering why all rags are oily.... and why they have to use rags, instead of building with other materials

    And then we would have to build an industry. That is so much work.

    Easier to tell them they are bad devs.

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  • Daniel Schildtautiomaa@mementomori.social
    Oct 26, 2026, 9:16 AM

    @joshbressers @Di4na That is the irony:

    If OSS maintainers would be so "bad devs", why would companies build their business on top of it? And expect that the "bad devs" would do "bad fixes" when the stack of software piled on top of it catches fire. 🤔😓

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  • David Megginsondavid_megginson@mstdn.ca
    Oct 25, 2026, 4:31 PM

    @joshbressers Or else maybe the system is working exactly as it always has, and we should have listened to all the people who've been trying to warn us about that for the past 100+ years.

    The only recent development is that middle-class, white, cishet, neurotypical, able-bodied people in rich countries are starting to experience a little of the harm that we though we were insulated from, so "OMG! Everything is on fire!"

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  • AmoshiasAmoshias@esq.social
    Oct 25, 2026, 4:39 PM

    @joshbressers the great thing here is I have no clue what you're talking about, but it doesn't matter, there are at least a dozen things this applies equally to

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  • George Bgbargoud@masto.nyc
    Oct 25, 2026, 4:43 PM

    @joshbressers

    Costs more *in the immediate short term* it's way cheaper if you take a long or even medium term view of costs.

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  • Tom Walkertomw@mastodon.social
    Oct 25, 2026, 6:50 PM

    @joshbressers We built everything we have out of flammable materials that catch on fire sometimes.

    This was not ideal but we made do.

    Now a huge shop has opened next door that only sells flamethrowers.

    And they are being encouraged to help us "improve our fire resilience" by using our flammable materials as target practice.

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  • Brian Gordonelasticsoul@mastodon.social
    Oct 25, 2026, 7:52 PM

    @joshbressers

    I think it's about who pays the costs. #Capitalism is all about externalizing costs so others pay for their profits. In addition, while humans figured out eons ago how to prevent a tragedy of the commons, causing that tragedy is basically the business model of many corporations

    "The current plan is to just keep throwing more oily rags on the pile. We could try to help the volunteers, but that costs more than adding oily rags to the pile"

    #corporatism #fascism #collapse

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  • LinzaLinza@kamu.social
    Oct 25, 2026, 8:08 PM

    @joshbressers I hate that I can't tell if this is about technology, human rights, the climate, or the war.

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  • Ziege Lightbockslightbocks@union.place
    Oct 26, 2026, 12:54 PM

    @Linza

    So. War is messing up all those other things, mostly to turn resources into vices for c-suite and mercenaries.

    Hint: It doesn't have to be labled and videoed as a war to be killing people systematically for decades or centuries.

    @joshbressers

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  • shoninshonin@c.im
    Oct 26, 2026, 1:19 AM

    @joshbressers Oily rags sank the Normandie. My dad was almost killed fighting that fire. So take heed what this man's sayin'.

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  • Resunaresuna@ohai.social
    Oct 26, 2026, 9:32 AM

    @joshbressers I don't like how you're trying to cancel fire here. What did fire ever do to you? Cooked your food, for one! Lighted your cave at night! Kept the beasts away!

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  • Dirkjan Ochtmandjc@hachyderm.io
    Oct 26, 2026, 11:11 AM

    @joshbressers it's actually likely that helping the volunteers would cost less, but the cost would be paid upfront and the benefits of doing so aren't as legible.

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  • Wee bullweebull@mastodon.social
    Oct 26, 2026, 1:44 PM

    @joshbressers Trouble is we don't root cause the problems. Just take the root cert issues.

    A company has shown it was not worthy of trust.
    Are we asking "How did they obtain a position of trust?"? No, because we know the answer is "they paid some money" .
    Are we evaluating who else is not worthy of trust? No, because the answer is they all paid money to be there and we don't want to stop people paying money.
    We just kick out the company that got caught.

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