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Matt Cengia

@mattcen@aus.social

🏳️‍🌈🇦🇺   #Linux #SysAdmin, #FOSS advocate, #Scouts Victoria leader, #Bisexual, #Polyamorous, #Autistic, #ADHD geek. þey/þem/þeirs.  📻 VK3MCN Co-founder of https://remotequeer.co.  Currently Seeking Work! #GetFediHired #FediHired #JobSearch  More info at: @mattcen@aus.social No follows from near-blank accts. No unsolicited advice.  #nobot #nobots  Banner 📷 credit: @xrobau
@mattcen@aus.social@justmytoots.com

847 Followers

722 Following

29 Posts

Joined May 14, 2020

Location:

Wurundjeri land

Blog:

https://blog.mattcen.com

Matrix:

https://matrix.to/#/@mattcen:mattcen.com

Posts

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jul 26, 2026

RE: @mrmasterkeyboard@mastodon.social

It is easy to programmatically detect and filter a list of repos by their license. Heck, GitHub has a search filter for it.

These companies are just *choosing* not to do this and instead are expecting opt-out rather than opt-in (i.e. *actual consent*) because it's more "convenient" for them.

I need to think through the nuanced issues that might arise from me pulling my code from GitHub.

mastodon.social

NerdNextDoor :Blobhaj:: "HuggingFace scraped all of GitHub in 2025. Your …" - Mastodon

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jul 20, 2026

Replying to @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange

@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange omg please don't nerd snipe me like this!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jul 14, 2026

Replying to @rjbs@social.semiotic.systems

@rjbs@social.semiotic.systems install Trixie and apt dist-downgrade no wait

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jul 05, 2026

Replying to @captainvellalives@lgbtqia.space

@captainvellalives@lgbtqia.space can never pass up the opportunity to watch this again!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jun 04, 2026

Replying to @viennawriter@literatur.social

@viennawriter@literatur.social Searching Mastodon for '"this is fine" mastodon' shows me this as the oldest result, but I doubt it's the original, and the Reddit post it links to is gone: https://beige.party/@amiserabilist/114525601194445158 EDIT: No wait, this isn't the oldest result at all; they're not sorted by date. Nevermind me. The search query may help you though.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jun 04, 2026

Replying to on piaille.fr

@shtrom@piaille.fr I think about this occasionally, but haven't kept up with the news on it. Last I recall, I did my best to ensure I didn't have a MyHealthRecord (still not certain I succeeded), and resolved to avoid opening the site just in case it automatically created me one that I couldn't expunge. We've now got this MyMedicare thing https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/mymedicare/about which seems to me to be a similar thing that's less risky and privacy-invasive, but again, I'm out of the loop and haven't taken the time to dig into either of them properly of late.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · May 01, 2026

Replying to @Unixbigot@aus.social

@Unixbigot Lrrr, From The Planet Omicron Persei 8, is that you!? I'm a huge fan!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 21, 2026

Replying to @joannaholman@aus.social

Wormhole to 2002? Sounds like the opposite of a… https://pixelfed.au/p/mattcen/1000061200122016

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 12, 2026

Replying to @AncTreat5358@lgbtqia.space

@AncTreat5358@lgbtqia.space @inari@squeaky.social Amazon does the same thing and it is Very Annoying.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 10, 2026

Replying to @musevg@23.social

@musevg@23.social Except the "use a password" option still exists, it's just harder to find!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 10, 2026

Replying to @inari@squeaky.social

@inari@squeaky.social I would 100% pick Passkeys over this junk.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 10, 2026

Stop 👏🏻 emailing 👏🏻 OTP 👏🏻 codes 👏🏻 instead 👏🏻 of 👏🏻 prompting 👏🏻 for 👏🏻 passwords!
Latest culprit is Netflix. I have a password. It's in my password manager. Ask for it *before* sending me an unsolicited email and making me dig for the "just use a password" option! 🤬

103

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 09, 2026

Replying to @kauer@aus.social

@kauer@aus.social I *did* read the labels, but the only reason I have to look so closely is because of shifty UX. I'm a neurodivergent person who was shopping on the way home from work, so I was already not at my most attentive. I don't need the extra layer of inaccessibility, thanks. And this isn't even to mention the tiny subtle difference between the branding of "Down Down" ("this product's price is permanently reduced") and "Special" ("this product's price is reduced for a short period"). It's messed up. Also, the per-unit price is almost certainly only there because it's mandated by law: https://www.accc.gov.au/business/industry-codes/unit-pricing-code

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 09, 2026

Replying to @voltagex@aus.social

@voltagex@aus.social Yes, except that I was looking in-store rather than online (and would've taken a photo of the display if I'd thought to, but the website screenshot was the next best thing), and each of the two were separated by some other item, so I had to pay extra close attention.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Apr 09, 2026

This is such a shitty dark pattern (unsurprising, from a major supermarket). If you're not paying attention, you could easily thing these "I'm Perfect" onions are more expensive because they're "higher quality", rather than because they're twice the quantity, by weight, than the other option. Doubly challenging when they're stacked so you can't identify how big an individual bag is.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Mar 06, 2026

Replying to @growlph@greywolf.social

Exactly! It's why I'm so surprised by this! Not labelling your ports _only_ works if they're all the same!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Mar 06, 2026

Replying to @mattcen@aus.social

If you think of it as iPhone 16 Pro hardware with keyboard/trackpad etc, it makes sense that it might only have a single USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 port on-board, but having 2 identical unlabelled adjacent ports isn't great UX.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Mar 06, 2026

Reading specs of the new MacBook Neo (https://www.apple.com/au/macbook-neo/specs/ ). With an A18 Pro CPU (same as iPhone 16 Pro), it seems a great entry-level Mac if you don't need a lot of grunt, but want the flexibility of macOS over iOS/iPadOS. My main surprise is the USB 2.0 USB-C port. Recipe for confusion!

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Mar 04, 2026

In related "ew", having just created an account and made a donation, I'm surprised to see the payment confirmation address me using the name on my credit card/supplied by Apple Pay, as opposed to the name I gave the platform on signup! If I give you a name explicitly … use it?

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Mar 04, 2026

TFW you find and squash a 14-year old bug: https://www.gaia-gis.it/fossil/libspatialite/tktview/05a0499f22c12b177c8a8aca0a52d906d7bed8ca

www.gaia-gis.it

SpatiaLite: View Ticket

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Feb 04, 2026

Replying to @qdot@buttplug.engineer

@qdot Until now I hadn't considered that, while README/CHANGELOG are designed to sort to the top and be easy for humans to notice, CLAUDE has no such requirement. 😕

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jan 25, 2026

Replying to @gigabecquerel@chaos.social

@gigabecquerel@chaos.social @stdlogicvector@chaos.social #ALT4you A hand holding what appears to be a small blåhaj face down on a photocopier. Adjacent on the photocopier is a strip of paper, also face down. I wonder what's on it?

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jan 25, 2026

Boosted by

Dread Pirate (Tom) Roberts @troberts@theblower.au

Clothing too comfortable? Maybe you should try shopping at …

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jan 19, 2026

Replying to @firstyear@infosec.exchange

@firstyear@infosec.exchange just read this excellent write-up! Some of the consent-related discussion reminded me of https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/279/?time=888 in which Apple describes transparent Passkey upgrades. I see what they're trying to do, and think it *could* be done well to encourage low-friction Passkey adoption, but it's also easy to mess up and opt users into a platform without informed consent.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Dec 15, 2025

Replying to @tychotithonus@infosec.exchange

@tychotithonus@infosec.exchange ideally https://fidoalliance.org/specifications-credential-exchange-specifications/ will improve this situation; Apple have already implemented the export functionality. It's not a complete solution (which is one of the reasons I self-host Vaultwarden/Bitwarden), but it's a start.

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · May 08, 2025

Replying to @xssfox@cloudisland.nz

@xssfox@cloudisland.nz I resent this implication of normality! (lol jks; i have at least 4)

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Nov 10, 2024

Replying to @girlgerms@infosec.exchange

@girlgerms@infosec.exchange @itgrrl@infosec.exchange Like, intentionally, or…?

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Oct 03, 2024

Replying to @libbyberrie@aus.social

@libbyberrie oh no! 😢

Matt Cengia @mattcen@aus.social · Jul 06, 2020

Replying to @arcalinea@mastodon.social

@arcalinea@mastodon.social oh nice! I'll have to catch the recording (I'd be there in person if it weren't 3am local time)! I wrote a blog post on decentralised and federated apps last week and almost cited your medium post on the subject!

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NerdNextDoor :Blobhaj:: "HuggingFace scraped all of GitHub in 2025. Your …" - Mastodon

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