#ScribesAndMakers Oct. 25:
What's something you accomplished this past week?
I completed five pages of my #GraphicNovel #WIP , including two album cover renditions [which have been getting a fairly positive response from my alpha readers so far]
The Sea of Purple
Our wondrous jacaranda tree is in full bloom and floor coverage. It's an annual two-week event. I used to take this photo and fit the whole tree in but as you can see, the top is not visible anymore and I can't back-up as I'm at the front door. It survived an arborist evaluation recently as it poses a threat to ours and neighbours' houses if it ever falls. I'm very happy it's still here. It was a huge factor in us buying the place many years ago.
Loblaw CEO apologizes to 2 million shoppers for personal data hack, offers free credit monitoring | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-data-breach-apology-9.7393626
Spotted sun orchid (Thelymitra ixioides) near the Genoa River, East Gippsland, VIC. Only a handful of plants still in flower on this visit as a drier conditions may have slightly curtailed the flowering season.
Most spotted suns at this location have fewer smaller flowers than this more typical plant (which is closer to coastal forms growing around Mallacoota to the east).
#Orchids #OzPlants #Biodiversity #Ecology #Botany #Photography #Spring #InTheField #Nature #BloomScrolling #EastGippsland #SunOrchids #Thelymitra
Greetings from the #Squirrel of the Day for October 24, 2026 #squirrels
RE: https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/117495892499185751
Re-upping a warning from yesterday: a non-insignificant number of vibe-coded "apps" use node under the hood and not all are in SasS places like Vercel. The true vibe-coders don't know a thing abt "version pinning" or how to even update Docker configs on their own and the agents won't even attempt "security" if you aren't very specific. So tons of internal and likely some external apps are very likely vulnerable in your org.
DM for free suggestions for finding them (no sales pitch).
“Really, for #Finland, there are no benefits, They are international companies serving international customers. Very little corporate taxes go to Finland. #Datacentres ultimately have very little benefit for others except the datacentre operator.” — Jussi Kangasharju, head of computer science at the University of Helsinki
The same applies in #Scotland, Mr Swinney.
‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/oct/22/finland-google-felling-trees-datacentre
QR codes are everywhere now and they have built-in error correction, which is a fancy way of saying they come with backup data. A scanner can still read the code even if about 30% of it is damaged, smudged or covered up. Now the scary part: Scammers love QR codes. They paste fake QR stickers over real ones on parking meters and signs. Before you scan, make sure it’s not some sticker slapped on. After you scan, read the web address before you tap or pay.
Unless you live under a stone, everybody will have heard about PHP today.
Now, please realize that the vast majority of Open Source Software, like PHP, and including PHP, is largely maintained by **unpaid volunteers**.
If you agree that this is inconceivably irresponsible: let this be your call to action and FUND THE OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS YOUR ORGANIZATION RELIES ON.
Saying "Thanks" once in a while is not enough and does not make open source sustainable.
The stunning moment when an osprey emerges from the ocean clawed onto its prey, a barracuda
[📹 Mark Smith]
So today some of the worst people on earth using the most environmentally destructive tools on earth brought down a huge part of the internet by exploiting a potential problem found many years ago in PHP which was previously not practical for anyone to exploit.
It only became "practical" to exploit this problem because "AI" came along to automate the boring and repetitive work required to do so. Absurd amounts of computing power were applied specifically to break into other peoples' websites.
Now the same people who are behind this are trying to pretend that they're heroes for finding an exploit.
"AI uncovers critical vulnerabilities", their headline reads. But the vulnerability was only made to be critical by the very same people as hide behind that headline.
Many thousands of websites are offline, many people are losing money, many thousands of people are working hard to try to patch or work around the problem, many small guys are finding it almost impossible to patch, and we're all supposed to be thankful to OpenAI and others involved ? Nah. Fuck off.
Everything about "AI" involves a lot of externalized costs, but I've still yet to see even a single positive thing that has been achieved by "AI". That has definitely not changed today.
#php2shell #php #fuckai #openai
IT’S WEEKEND BEIGE, BITCHES!!
The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind (French TV, 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnqxbdnzlhw&list=RDgSWInYFVksg&index=36
Forest glitter.
#Photography
PHP Foundation’s budget is about 700k a year. It’s used on something like 40 million websites. Almost no company who uses it contributes anything and many people work on it for free.
The latest trend is cybersecurity and AI vendors have realised they can vampire off its security for publicity (money).
Perhaps the world would be a better place if those orgs who rely on it just contributed sponsorship to the foundation, and vendors didn’t monetise vulnerabilities for themselves.
Some more rainbow magic. Photo taken yesterday in St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor. The little blobs are raindrops, it wasn't easy keeping the rain off my lens 😂Despite a coat I was absolutely drenched as the rain and wind were a bit intense.