I was once told, your gut reaction and first impulse is your upbringing and conditioning. It’s your reasoned, critical response that makes you who you are.

I have had similar questions about myself recently and this advice helped me to analyse my thinking without getting caught up in guilt.

I honestly thought it was The Onion at first glance

My company had a client who did those financed schemes where people buy furniture and TVs and stuff and pay in installments. The one bit of information that stuck with me was they expected 50% of customers to default. They went under.

I was about to say how can you run a business like that but it just clicked. The execs were running a scheme on the company itself. The company tricks financially illiterate customers (I sympathise, not denigrating) into debt and bankruptcy, ruining their lives, while the owners pay themselves handsomely and buy cars and mansions running the company into bankruptcy. But they walk away with all their toys paid for by the broken finances of their victims.

Fucking parasites.

I can say from experience being mixed white and Japanese I’ll always be a second class citizen there.

Can’t speak for Russia but I knew a woman who once said she envied her mother because she was “pure”, pale skin and blonde hair, while she had dark hair and more eastern (Mongolian heritage?) features. That was really painful to hear someone say about themselves and if it’s the prevalent attitude I wouldn’t assume I’m welcome just by a blood connection.

Shared MACs, you’re fucking kidding??

“Hey it’s fine no one would ever want more than one of our product, right?”

I wondered that myself, something must have been duplicating for all but one to get denied? I can’t believe even that manufacturer would reuse the same MAC but whatever it was I guessed they’re all sending but only one was getting a reply.

I assumed they had maybe a proxy set for their corporate network they’d forgotten to untick or something.

The MitreSmiter 9000. Puts all doubt to rest.