Rob
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multirob.bsky.social
Rob
@multirob.bsky.social
83 followers 640 following 170 posts
Freelance dev with a security buff, math and science-interested, lapsed book consumer, hobbyist nature photographer, experienced tracker (animal and human). He/him. Mostly try to be a good human. I physically cringe whenever I hear the word "cyber".
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multirob.bsky.social
I've been saying for almost a decade that most of the complexity in software engineering is caused by resume-driven development. Here's a screenshot of someone that proudly contributed to that. (Context is re: silly interview questions.)
Screenshot of a Reddit comment with the text, "Former interviewer and bar-raiser in Uber here"
September 18, 2025 at 5:51 PM
multirob.bsky.social
Welp, I guess that's it for archive.today for me:
Google's ReCaptcha popup on archive.today, but this time it doesn't let me click on buses, crosswalks, motorcycles, bicycles, or bridges: it's just flatly refusing me access at all, because "Your computer or network may be sending automated queries" (it's not).
August 11, 2025 at 5:27 AM
multirob.bsky.social
The number one reason I'm dragging my feet on anything AI-related is that all of the people shouting the loudest about it are the ones that have carved a wide swath of destruction through society over the last 15 years, or are unrepentant dev hype-chasers.
Piece of a screenshot from the bottom of news.ycombinator.com, where they've changed the name of their annual "Startup School" to "AI Startup School".
March 23, 2025 at 5:35 PM
multirob.bsky.social
A small cluster of desert bluebells (Phacelia campanularia) growing out of a crevice between hard granite boulders. The flowers are a brilliant blue color, the leaves are dark green, and the granite has a rough texture, dark grey in contrast to the flowers, with a couple of light quartz veins. This was taken in Joshua Tree National Park during a desert bloom in March of 2023. The photo has not been edited.
January 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM
multirob.bsky.social
It has been a long time since I had a more heartfelt "honestly, fuck you" reaction to an academic text.

(From "Computing and Technology Ethics" by Burton, Goldsmith, Mattej, Siler, and Swiatek).
The image is an excerpt of text: "As a professional who works with the design, implementation, and deployment of computing technologies, you will be able to do far more good in the world if you take the time to understand what other people value and why, instead of trying to make them conform to your own assumptions about what they should need or want."
January 15, 2025 at 1:42 AM
multirob.bsky.social
One of my favorite places. It's gotten a bit crowded the last several years, but there's still a quiet corner here and there.

Here's a pic from 2023's bloom.
A normally dry, plain "wash" (flat, sandy area) in Joshua Tree National Park, with a rugged hill in the near background. The wash is blooming with a large patch of brilliant yellow and purple (or blue? I'm colorblind) flowers. The flowers last for only a few weeks in this area, and some years, don't show up at all.
January 3, 2025 at 8:34 AM
multirob.bsky.social
Some brilliant graphic artist snuck Blaster into the background of an unrelated video and I don't know who they are but they deserve a cookie (and some righteous tunes).
A screenshot of a frame from https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/utilitarianism-crash-course-philosophy-36/, a video from the PBS "Crash Course Philosophy" series. The scene is drawn in a simple, colorful style, depicting a slovenly "not very nice guy" reclining on a couch, surrounded by a bit of a mess. A poster for "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" is on the wall. In the background, on the floor, there is "Blaster", a Transformer's robot toy from the 80s, in its handheld stereo form. This was a coveted Transformer from that time, and was a pretty cool character in the Transformers comic book series. A grey overlay has been added to the screenshot, with the area around Blaster lightened to make it easier to spot. The video is #36 in the series of 10-minute shorts covering the basics of Philosophy. This video focuses on Utilitarianism, and this specific scene is used in the discussion about a hypothetical moral dilemma where five terminal patients could be saved by organ transplants from a single, live, but "not very nice" person.
December 7, 2024 at 7:00 AM
multirob.bsky.social
Close-up of a wild lizard found in Steens Mountain Wilderness, in southeastern Oregon, August this year. It ducked under and behind some rocks so I had to wait patiently for it to come back out, where it regarded me warily with some serious side-eye.
Close-up photo of a lizard on rocks. The lizard is dull gray or green or brown (I am colorblind!), with bands of darker and lighter scales across its body and tail. There are two solid bands around its neck and shoulders (collars) of alternating dark and light colors. It is giving the photographer some side-eye, looking at me cautiously. The rocks are an old volcanic aggregate, light in color, worn but still with a lot of texture. The photo was taken in Steens Mountain Wilderness, southeastern Oregon, in August of 2024.
November 22, 2024 at 10:05 PM
multirob.bsky.social
There was a nesting pair with a juvenile in the trees, just off the side of a popular paved walk, at Yaquina Head in Oregon in 2020. I did not see them when I went back earlier this year, but I didn't linger long either.
Juvenile bald eagle, probably between 12 and 18 months old, perched in some coastal evergreens at Yaquina Head, in Oregon. The eagle is mostly brown, with a couple of mottled light patches on its back, and its head feathers are turning white but there are still a lot of darker feathers mixed in. The ocean is in the background. Mature bald eagle perched in a coastal evergreen, in profile, looking to the right of the photo. This bird was keeping a wary eye on people as they walked by, guarding its juvenile (not seen in this photo, but located several feet to the left).
November 21, 2024 at 11:12 PM
multirob.bsky.social
I snapped this at a wonderfully eclectic (and often precariously-balanced) book store earlier this year ... unfortunately, I don't recall which one it would've been. Or which town. ...orrr even which state.
Picture of a print-out, taped to the side of a bookcase, in a book store. The printed article is titled, "There's a Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read", by Katherine Brooks. (That word is "Tsundoku".)
November 20, 2024 at 7:17 AM
multirob.bsky.social
A photo of Three-Fingered Jack in Oregon as the sun was setting. I was racing around some back roads near the tail end of a gorgeous golden hour, trying and failing to get a picture of Mount Washington with the setting sun on it, when I turned around and this was there instead.
Snowy, craggy mountain with a smaller, tree-covered, snowy ridge in front of it, and a gray sky in the background, lit from the lower left by a setting sun.
November 19, 2024 at 6:14 AM
multirob.bsky.social
Another Cloudflare captcha while rooting around blogs for some technical documentation. (My home IP is squeaky clean. I shouldn't be getting these. Not a fan.)
A Cloudflare "verify you are human" page for "someblog.com", with the "No, I don't think I will" meme pasted below it.
November 18, 2024 at 10:54 PM
multirob.bsky.social
Does this count? I have a measure on my hand for tracking. It's a bit art-deficient, but useful! (Imperial measurements though, so sorry.)
Photograph of river otter tracks in dry sand, framed by a left hand with an inch ruler tattooed along the index finger and thumb.
November 17, 2024 at 7:21 PM
multirob.bsky.social
I figure this picture from a recent trip to Seaside, Oregon is a good inaugural post for my account on this site.
Picture from the boardwalk at Seaside, Oregon, on a pleasantly warm day, looking out across the beach, with a blue sky and fun cloud patterns overhead
November 15, 2024 at 2:20 AM