"Feds move to eliminate petrochemical watchdog, putting Texans and others at risk

Amid increasingly intense weather, the Chemical Safety Board is the lone independent agency watching over the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical corridor."

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/29/texas-chemical-safety-board-trump-eliminate-industrial-accident-invest/

This is one of my most #FirstWorldProblems complaint in a while, but it’s infuriating.

The company issued computer I have to use is running windows 11. “Hide cursor while typing” doesn’t work in any capacity. It’s been broken since Win 11 was released.

There are third party utilities you can install to address this.

I’ve got admin permissions to create or destroy any of the thousands of servers in my purview, but I don’t have permissions to install a third party utility to allow me to just hide the damned cursor when I’m typing - and Corporate IT won’t approve it for me.

My job is almost entirely writing IaC/CaC in VS Code at this point. The “Hide cursor while typing” feature that Microsoft wrote for its operating system doesn’t work in the tool most people use to do development within their operating system.

Conway’s Law:

«[O]rganizations which design systems (in the broad sense used here) are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.»

— Melvin E. Conway, How Do Committees Invent?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_law

This is my second migration on Mastodon, so I think an Introduction might be in order. I'm moving in to this account (that had lived independently, to test some of Mathstodon features) after astrodon.social is being sunset. Hope that Astrodon as a concept still lives!

I currently work in Systems Engineering for radio telescopes (in particular, the ALMA radio interferometer). I’ve also worked in software development and management for the SKAO observatory, and for the archive department at ESO. Of course, I'm also very interested in math (specially that having to do with system theory), so I'll try to get a bit stronger there.

Glad to see you all around!

#Fedihired

I'm still looking. I'm still at the #VA but I've lost: 2 data engineers, 1 system engineer, 1 cybersecurity engineer, my contracting manager (last friday, no notice) and our director just announced retirement.

I've been applying everywhere for relevant roles. Even in 2021, I had a reply response of around 20:1 . Now, ive put in probably 200. I've got nothing. (well, thats not true. weapons manufacture keeps pinging. no way no how)

Im looking for #cloud #systemsengineering #sitereliabilityengineering #cybersecurity #systemarchitect

DM and I'd be happy to send my resume or apply at a role you suggest.

Aside: stuff like this is why I think I'm in this situation. Basically, fake/AI resumes are drowning the market. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/fake-job-seekers-use-ai-to-interview-for-remote-jobs-tech-ceos-say.html

I saw this on HN this morning. And it seems terrible for everyone affected, well, except for the fake/AI users with batch apply scripts. Also explains LinkedIN jobs "submitted 1h ago, over 100 applied". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43631384

Anyone looking for a native english speaking #RemoteWorker with 20 years experience in #SysAdmin #SystemsEngineering #Infrastructure #Hardware #Technology #DigitalMedia #VideoEditing?

#GetFediHired

#systemsthinking
#systemsdynamics
#systemsengineering
#emergence
#complexity

@systemsthinking

#systemsthinking
@systemsthinking #systemsengineering

Hi #Fediverse! It's time for #introduction.

I am Rusty, a proud European made in Czechoslovakia.
I'm interested in all the topics around #SystemsEngineering.

I've been in tech && IT for more than 0x14 years, from circuit boards to arguing about story points.
A brave survivor of Y2K, Zombie Scrum and other global apocalypses.

Talk to me in English, German, or BPMN. Bonus points for tech-related dark sarcasm and humor.

so i am going to post a thread of some graphs about the human situation on the planet. some show data, some show concepts. all of them are going to be pretty depressing, so buckle up.

#systems folks also failed humanity.

#systemsdynamics is everywhere. #management, #computerscience, #systemsengineering

only place where it is nowhere to be found is main street, where #complexity is actually killing ppl while depriving them of any understanding of what is even happening to them.

they will not visit elitist-ass webinars or read expensive-ass papers, they will benefit in no way from ivory-tower-ass intellectual sophistry about how everything is just someone else's concept.

In his #eurorust24 recorded talk, @ciura_victor, seasoned engineer at Microsoft , shares the journey of integrating Rust into major projects, from rewriting legacy components to meeting strict safety and performance goals. Discover how Rust is transforming systems, why interoperability with C++ remains key, and what Microsoft’s approach reveals about Rust’s role in shaping secure and efficient software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiG5-LzIQ54

Today, ideally among intrigues, I'll be reverting a system running FreeBSD 14.1R-p3 Latest (host was setup to use pkg binaries from the "Latest" repo) back to Quarterly ...

Should be enjoyable and ideally not "yeah sure, fun". Surprises may ensue... Wish me luck!

Contentious statement, maybe, but this comes up so often that it makes me wonder how the same problems persist over decades...

FreeBSD's pkg system is superior in every way to Debian's apt package system. How often does apt crap-out from dependency failures? every day it seems. FreeBSD pkg... never had those issues with binaries or ports in >20 years.

makes me wonder, do people just never branch out to see alternate solutions and methods for implementation - instead just assuming that their reinvented wheel is always the best? that's some fanboy scheiß if so

and to the fanboys ahead of time, I've run many a private apt repo for large orgs, and build perhaps too many debs for sanity sake; I know how the systems work, it's just not a good implementation compared to others (even in linux world there's dnf and portage to show this is not a flame on linux specifically, just apt. apt sucks.

by the way, you can go to the https://sebokwiki.org and learn the systems engineering basics for free, complete with references. no one can stop you!

the latest INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook hardcopy can be obtained for US$90 (from Wiley) and the softcopy is free for INCOSE members, which you can just join if you want to. The Handbook is synchronized with the ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2023 International Standard - Systems and software engineering--System life cycle processes and you can even get certified by studying it and taking an affordable MOOC.

of course, there's the SWEBOK but it's not been updated since 2013 and I have not met a single software engineer that even mentioned it.

Unlocking the power of #UserStories and #Akzeptanzkriterien in #SystemDevelopment! In the realm of #MBSE, where #Model-based #SystemsEngineering reigns supreme, we transcend traditional boundaries, weaving agility into every aspect of our engineering processes. With #AgileCheese, we embrace automation to streamline workflows and enhance #agile collaboration. Let #cheese-powered #Models pave the way to system excellence!

The Boeing 737 MAX incidents are a stark reminder: even industry giants with a legacy of excellence can stumble. What went wrong? Was it a failure of engineering principles or something more profound?

In my latest blog post on Resilience Engineering, I explore concepts like FMEA, Chaos Engineering, and how organizations can build systems resilient to failure.

#resilience #sre #chaosengineering #fmea #systemsengineering #softwareengineering

https://nicolas.brousse.info/blog/resilience-engineering/

Okay time to stir the pot... what is your definition of a #DigitalTwin and why are the other definitions wrong?

Can you have a digital twin before there's a production system built?

Can you have a digital twin of a purely software system?

What exactly makes something a digital twin versus #MBSE or #PHM or one of the several other data and model-driven methods we have had for 30+ years?