Margaret Fero
maggiefero.bsky.social
Margaret Fero
@maggiefero.bsky.social
Margaret is the founder of Neat Systems (neatsystems.dev), a presenter, and an interdisciplinary hacker. They love opensource projects, playing other people's videogames, reading, and nerding out about privacy and information disclosure models.
Anybody have an app you like for bike directions in Oakland?

Google Maps really desperately wants to send me up or down Broadway (which does not have protected lanes and is full of pot holes) instead of adjacent roads with bike infra, and I'm sick of just not trusting the directions
November 14, 2025 at 10:41 PM
One of my favorite standby tabletop themes just got spicier, because I hadn't previously realized that a chunk of AWS having an outage that likely takes out your primary and backup comms could also get Signal... and do your employees still keep each other's actual phone numbers offline? #hugops
October 20, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Didn't go outside much yesterday so I decided it'd be cute to take a call on one of Oakland's beautiful public waterfront benches.

Ten mins in, somebody came up behind me and started feeding a HUGE flock of pigeons.

Guess who got buzzed by 30+ pigeons 3-5 times during a single business meeting?
October 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Margaret Fero
If you like yelling about misuse of the passive voice, THIS IS IT.
October 4, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Margaret Fero
Repost to showe thyne appreciacioun for the social media folks at Merriam Webster, the best arounde!
October 3, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Now that I've officially left Portland, I suppose I'll begrudgingly accept that this year's #monktoberfest is over. It was such a delight seeing you all and I'm excited to take what I've learned and reinforced back home.

Thank you, once again, to everyone who makes this happen. See you next year!
October 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I posted a bit about my experience using Bsky to livepost for the first time on Mastodon: hachyderm.io/@MaggieFero/...

Key takeaways:
- handle discovery is hard
- I could've used bigger photos while alt texting them, but liked them on handles
- pasting in hashtags gets weird
Margaret Fero (@MaggieFero@hachyderm.io)
Content warning: Very long post comparing my experience live blogging conference talks on here vs Bsky vs old Twitter
hachyderm.io
October 4, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by Margaret Fero
"just upload a scanned image of your drivers license no big deal"
October 4, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Margaret Fero
"the issue isn't AI assisted cheating, it's the failure of universities to cultivate Intrinsic motivation and sustain attention in students.".

Sarah K Maguire. #monktoberfest
October 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
There's one more #monktoberfest talk but I stepped out for a work call and missed the beginning, so no live posting this time! Excited to catch up using other people's posts though, because I came in at a very strong part.
October 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Next at #monktoberfest is "Working in Dance Mode" from @rstephens.me about what we can learn as employees, employers, colleagues, etc. from Bluey!
October 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Our second talk of the second #monktoberfest day will be @analog-ashley.bsky.social 's "Developing Your Neurobullshit Detector" , giving us tools to suss out the places neuroscience is creeping into daily life and the places what sounds like neuroscience is just bullshit!
October 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
First up for day 2 of #Monktoberfest is Sarah K. McGuire with "I trust this email finds you well..." , about the current state of AI use in educational environments! Students and faculty both need clearer guidelines on how AI ought to be (and must not be) used.
October 3, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Next at #monktoberfest is Ronald McCollam on Prometheus for Pets!

Ruggles, the eponymous pet, does not like the slide where he's wearing glasses.
October 2, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Super frustrating how bad the bsky user search is at turning up people who use custom domains? I'm noticing a definite trend there as I attempt to tag the #monktoberfest speakers.
October 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Next up at #monktoberfest is a talk about building for deploys that let you go to happy from Sarah , whose last name/handle I didn't catch (anybody have it for me in the comments?)
October 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Our post-break talk will be Sovereignty by John "maddog" Hall. We'll be covering concepts of freedom, control, and sovereignty as they intersect with #monktoberfest attendees' interactions with and impact on software.
October 2, 2025 at 7:35 PM
forgot the #monktoberfest tag on this post from Chris and JT's talk on caregiving and memory
Remember to prioritize caring for yourself, because this is HARD.
October 2, 2025 at 6:43 PM
JT Perry and Chris Petrilli are here with another heavier talk, on navigating memory and dementia while caring for loved ones.

This whole thread has a CW for frank discussion of death and dying in the US.
October 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Margaret Fero
An unconscious fork limits us and keeps us from being able to expand into other spaces and reclaim our agency, even if we choose to keep carrying the fork.

What forks do we choose? Do we accept the weight of them? Do we plan them and budget for them?
October 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Next up at #monktoberfest is @grimalkina.bsky.social 's "On Nightmare Projects", about a moment of losing agency that will be relatable to many of us: being assigned responsibility for a nightmare project.
October 2, 2025 at 5:57 PM
We're back from lunch at #monktoberfest with "the forks we carry" by @juliaferraioli.com !
October 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Our 3rd talk of Day 1 at #monktoberfest is "Your Feelings Do Not Scale" by Joe [whose surname I've forgotten; I hope to edit this when I remember]. This was announced to be the inverse of the previous talk, focusing on how a person more confident in technical than soft skills can thrive at Director+
October 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Next up at #Monktoberfest we have Gaby Berkman with "An English Major Walks Into A Tech Company." She leads Analyst relations at @dynatrace.com and has been in tech for over 13 years! She'll be sharing what soft skills are, how to sharpen them, and how they pair with technical skills.
October 2, 2025 at 2:44 PM
First up at #monktoberfest, Kate Ambush is presenting on roller Derby! 🛼 We started with a brief overview of the game, and WHAT a wild history!

Roller Derby has its origin in depression-era marathon skating, where competitors skated until they physically passed out and the last standing wins
October 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM