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Margaret Fero

@maggiefero.bsky.social
282 followers 342 following 384 posts

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.

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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Tonight at #otw26 I learned about an NFT I actually care about: Nutrient Film Technique! Thanks to Charlie and Adiella for a great farm tour, and to @impactjustice.org for an excellent event and all the work you do in our community.
Two impact justice employees wearing illegible name tags stand in front of an indoor hydroponic lettuce farm with five tiers of lettuce that look more mature as you go to the right. Several different varieties and growth stages of lettuce are represented. The person on the left is a tall, bald person with a beard in a beige polo shirt and black pants. The person on the right is average height with long brown hair and wearing a short-sleeved green plaid button-down with black pants. Two cubical black plastic containers with screw tops sit next to each other in separate square trays. Green tubes are coming out the back, and each has three stickers on the front face: an illegible blue rectangle with white writing at the top left, a US plastics code on the top right, and a piece of duct tape near the bottom says "NFT Part A Only" on the left cube and "NFT Part B Only" on the right cube.
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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 29/09/2026
A key component of the Cambridge Analytica outrage was your friends subjecting you to data theft without your consent or knowledge. Facebook is running the same playbook on your text messages. Even if you’re not on Meta properties, they’re ingesting your interactions.
Aten installed Muse on both his iPhone and a Mac mini that he uses to test out various Al agents and tech. It took Meta a single day to begin "helpfully" pitching article ideas based on texts he'd sent to a podcast co-host.
When he asked Muse how it got the information, it said that it read banners from incoming texts. But that's not true, either.
After doing a little digging, Aten says Muse synced 187,000 lines from his Messages database, despite Full Disk Access being Off.Unless Aten is the most popular person on the face of the planet, I sincerely doubt he'd gotten 187,000 lines of text in roughly 24 hours. What happened is that, without permission, Muse went into the app and downloaded the information.
He had not given Muse permission to access Messages, and full disk access was not enabled. It just went ahead and uploaded those texts anyway.
Muse can take "unexpected actions" indeed.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I'm so excited for this year's Oakland Tech Week Schedule! I like SF Tech Week, but it's very much technologists talking to technologists about technology. Oakland Tech Week has once again really leaned into the strengths of our community, making varied opportunities for EVERYONE to come together.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It is truly wild how many of these distinctive characters remind me of specific hazards to watch out for.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
@observ.ing Hi! I came across your GitHub while browsing GitHub orgs today and wanted to let you know that there's a typo in your domain name on the GitHub profile. The bsky handle is right, so people can figure it out from that, but should be a quick fix ✨
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
What's your favorite thing to do with half and half? A toogoodtogo bag this week included a quart and a half best by tomorrow, and I've still got about a quart 😅 So far, we made savory cream of wheat and put splashes of it into things. Up next is potato soup.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Bike question: anybody have a good solution for keeping cold wind out of your ears? None of my usual ear coverage strategies work well with a helmet.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
I'm safely home from #pyconUS and very excited to be joining @reconinfosec.com tomorrow at 10:30am PT to talk about making "glue work" work for your career! There will be some security-specific content, but the core ideas apply to any technical role. Hope to see some of you there!
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Patrick C Miller @patrickcmiller.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Cookie thieves caught stealing dev secrets via fake Claude Code installers www.theregister.com/security/202...
theregister.com
Cookie thieves caught stealing dev secrets via fake Claude Code installers
New IElevator2 COM interface? No problem
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PyCon US @pycon.us · 15/05/2026
📣📣 It's not too late to volunteer at #PyConUS 2026! We still have open shifts throughout the conference. Even a couple of hours makes a real difference! Sign up today ➡️ us.pycon.org/2026/volunte...
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Join usssssssssssssss, Python friendssssssss 🐍
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
The closer we get to #pycon the more excited I am that I managed to figure out the logistics to make it happen ✨ Gonna see so many of you soooooon 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍
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Phildini, since young times @phildini.net · 06/05/2026
I did a sidequest this week, inspired by @dascho.bsky.social to mitigate some of the namespace risks presented by #llms, #agentic coding, and #mcp servers. The result was SquatGuard, planting plastic flowers to protect the hive. You can read about it here: phildini.dev/slopsquattin...
phildini.dev
Plastic Flowers to Protect the Hive - phildini.dev
Pre-register hallucinated package names. Fill them with guardrails. The devastating spell becomes homework.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
My #nbpy talk recording is available now! youtu.be/LL62AQ6dt1U Thanks to @aeracode.org for the speedy and delightful editing, to @skimbrel.bsky.social and their team on the program committee for the opportunity to give this talk, and the whole organizing team for a delightful conference!
youtu.be
Crisis (Technical) Communication: Teaching Survival Skills You Didn’t Know... - Margaret Fero - 2026
YouTube video by North Bay Python
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North Bay Python @northbaypython.org · 27/04/2026
For your viewing pleasure, our time lapse video of the community strike. One frame every 10 seconds. As always, thanks so much to everyone who could stick around and help! It means we as organizers get to go enjoy dinner with all you fabulous people rather than spend many hours on cleanup. #NBPy
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
WOW, having bridged my account over here at @dariaphoebe.com 's request for #nbpy means that I'm experiencing the hashtag feed from an account that isn't my posting account for the first time. It's REALLY driving home *exactly* how much I post when I'm live blogging a conference 😅
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North Bay Python @fedi.northbaypython.org · 27/04/2026
#NBPy 2026 ran at a loss this year. It's a public service and we'll be back in 2027, but we could use your help closing the budget gap. Donate at nbpy.link/donate
A photo of Chris on stage with a slide giving instructions for donations
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North Bay Python @fedi.northbaypython.org · 27/04/2026
That's another #NBPy in the books. We'll be back next year for the 8th edition and our 10th anniversary. From the bottom of our hearts: thanks for being the kind of community that speaks truth to power, instills hope for the future, and makes each […] [Original post on social.northbaypython.org]
A group photo of North Bay Python attendees who stuck around for our traditional community strike and clean up.A photo of the North Bay Python lectern front leaning up against a wine barrel on an otherwise empty stage. The lectern front features our familiar branding of the Python logo tweaked to be rolling green hills under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
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Barbara Shaurette @mechanicalgirl.com · 27/04/2026
Here’s Why You Should Go To North Bay Python Next Year mechanicalgirl.com/post/here-s-... #NBPy #NBPython
mechanicalgirl.com
Why You Should Go To North Bay Python Next Year
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Christopher Neugebauer @fedi.chrisjrn.fyi · 27/04/2026
(You too can donate at nbpy.link/donate)
psfmember.org
Donation for North Bay Python
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Our mission is to further the development of the Python language and its applications. Payments are processed by PayPal, but may be made either through your existing PayPal account or your credit card. You will choose your payment method after you are transferred to the PayPal server. **How the Donation Works** If you wish to use a credit card, once on the PayPal site click the link "Don't have a PayPal account?", which will take you to a credit card form. A PayPal account is **not** required. For your security, this website and the PSF do not acquire or retain any of your credit card data. It is all handled by PayPal. Following the transaction, you will receive both a PayPal receipt and/or our formal acknowledgement of your tax-deductible (USA) donation. Please whitelist psfmember.org and check your spam bins if you don't receive the acknowledgement from the PSF. Thank you for your donation!
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Christopher Neugebauer @fedi.chrisjrn.fyi · 27/04/2026
I encourage attendees of #NBPy to donate "if they got more value out of the conference than what they paid". Today, our post-conference donations total more than a Silver Sponsorship. We have a truly wonderful community who care about us continuing to do what we do. I'm so grateful.
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North Bay Python @northbaypython.org · 27/04/2026
Another #NBPy in the books. We'll be back next year! From the bottom of our hearts: thanks for being the kind of community that speaks truth to power, instills hope, and makes us all better practitioners. All our love 💖 ~ @chrisjrn.fyi @skimbrel.bsky.social @aeracode.org @riley.pub
A group photo of North Bay Python attendees who stuck around for our traditional community strike and clean up.A photo of the North Bay Python lectern front leaning up against a wine barrel on an otherwise empty stage. The lectern front features our familiar branding of the Python logo tweaked to be rolling green hills under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Kicking off today's posting at #nbpy shortly, and now there's (temporarily) a bridge! If you like it, thank @dariaphoebe.com
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Patrick C Miller @patrickcmiller.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Another npm supply chain worm hits dev environments www.theregister.com/2026/04/22/a...
theregister.com
Another npm supply chain worm hits dev environments
: Plus, the payload references 'TeamPCP/LiteLLM method'
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I'm at @northbaypython.org and once again leaving a pointer here to where I'll live post #nbpy content over on Mastodon rather than trying to post on two platforms in line. Feel free to reply to this if you have a question or follow-up but no account there, though! hachyderm.io/@MaggieFero/...
hachyderm.io
Margaret Fero (@MaggieFero@hachyderm.io)
Attached: 1 image The Aight Herons have spotted three bird species on our way to the morning kickoff! @chrisjrn@social.coop has now officially welcomed us to @NorthBayPython@social.northbaypython.org...
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
bird count bird count birrrrrrd counnnnnnnnt (can you tell I'm excited to spot the birds?)
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
This Saturday during @northbaypython.org I'm going to be counting the bird species I spot at #ReisRiverRanch as part of the Bay Birding Challenge, which raises money for the Golden Gate Bird Alliance in addition to generating some cool conservation data about the 9 bay area counties' birds!
charity.pledgeit.org
Support Margaret Fero - The Bay Birding Challenge 2026
I'm excited to join this initiative! Protecting wildlife and our shared natural environment is important to me, and I love a good excuse to spot some local creatures. Please support my efforts in co...
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Phildini, since young times @phildini.net · 21/04/2026
There's a key technical problem over at @civic.band. I have blogged about it, and would appreciate reads and shares. It's the most #CivicTech and #OpenData problem I've ever worked on. meta.civic.band/archive/the-...
meta.civic.band
CivicBand After Dark: The Extraction Problem
How do we get structured item and vote data out of the unstructured PDF text?
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Aalia Mauro @aaliamauro.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
To my non tech normies, PSA: when you share a link, everything after the ? is tracking. Those “query parameters” tell companies exactly how you arrived, what app you clicked, which ad or email sent you, sometimes a unique identifier tied to you. You can delete everything after the question mark.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
If anyone is still looking for a team for the Bay Birdathon, I think we have some extra room on my team, the Aight Herons! Today is the last day to sign up, but lmk if you'd like the link! Some of us will be birding from @northbaypython.org , which always has incredible birds to spot during breaks!
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North Bay Python @northbaypython.org · 06/04/2026
NEWS YOU CAN PROBABLY MAKE USE OF (can I phrase that any snappier?) Hotel Petaluma found some more rooms for #NBPy attendees over the weekend, so if you want to stay in Petaluma during #NBPy, now you can!
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Yay! Congratulations to everyone, especially my county librarian, Deb Sica, who I've been very fortunate to get to know through my work with our Library Advisory Commission. Her dedication to patron access, privacy, and inclusion ensure that our unincorporated areas are as supported as our cities.
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
This week in "the library is the real everything app": I just learned that they now also have pet adoption support??? waived adoption fees from Oakland Animal Services in March with your Oakland Public Library card and they'll be hosting bilingual "pup-ups" soon to help you find a new friend!
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Social Scott @social-scott.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
#books #reading #writingcommunity #wolves #funny #booksky
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Loved the #bsidessf opening keynote by Anna Westelius this morning! I was still too much in the process of waking up to post more, but hopefully I made up for it with this wall of alt text. Watch the video when it's out!
The BsidesSF keynote on a movie screen. The screen is divided into four unequal parts. The top left has the title "Let's do the timewarp again! a look back to move forward" and presenter name Anna Westelius. At the top right, you can see Anna, a white woman with straight Auburn hair wearing a crisp white blouse. Below Anna's video is this year's BsidesSF logo. Across the entire bottom is a partial caption fragment that wasn't super accurate but ended up in the photo visibly-accidentally. At the bottom left is Anna's slide, with her name and the talk title again as a header. The slide title is "A call to actions!" and the slide has four actions in white text with red numbers on a black background. The actions are:
"1. Pick one thing you can do, in your sphere of influence, that nudges us towards that next, better state - and start that work here, this weekend. 
2. Don't just go to the talks that confirm what you already know; pick at least one that stretches how you think. 
3. Connect with others. All what inspires them - but also what they are worried about, or what's surprised them this far. Ask blunt questions. Take notes. Let people see you. 
4. Write down one concrete thing you're going to take back with you."
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Hello from #BsidesSF ! I'll be around through #RSAC2026 too, but today I'm wearing a Day of Shecurity T-shirt, a jacket with many pins, and a ponytail held by a Clippy scrunchie. Please say hi if you see me!
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/03/2026
Black cat for @monkchips #monkigras
A black cat peeking out of his carrier
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North Bay Python @northbaypython.org · 11/03/2026
hello friends have you considered coming to our conference? It'll be good I promise. pretix.northbaypython.org/nbpy/nbpy-20... p.s. how do you make people pay attention on bsky? usually it's just enough to be mildly weird on mastodon but this place is just incomprehensible
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
This week my students had a special career presentation on imposter syndrome as a software engineer, and instructors were asked to give an example of a time we experienced imposter syndrome but now I'm noticing it EVERYWHERE.
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🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Sam Kimbrel @skimbrel.northsky.social · 21/07/2025
was just discussing “AI” with a coworker and realized this: if i had wanted to use english to program complex systems that run nondeterministically, i would’ve gone into law
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Robin Riley @riley.pub · 09/03/2026
I remain so chuffed to have joined the Sonoma County Library Commission. Libraries are the best example of why we have a society in the first place, and why it's worth putting our backs into the work of building a better world. Let's commit to one another.
A photo of Robin, a new library commissioner, and Lisa, the commission assistant, signing the oath of office. The photo is overlaid with this quotation from Robin:

"Libraries represent so much of what is right in the world at a time when it's hard not to be scared or overwhelmed by all that's wrong. They are a material commitment we make to each other, to inform, connect, inspire, and help us grow into our best selves – at every stage of life."
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Ugh, Sutter Health has apparently now launched an AI phone bot with no opt out and it literally doesn't know what to do if you say "I'm running late".
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
@alex.bsky.team Great chatting today! Love the banner image; if you have time to swing back by the booth tomorrow, I have some related stickers and would happily share one
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Very excited to announce that I'll be joining @northbaypython.org as a speaker again this year! This time we're going to talk about Crisis (Technical) Communication, and the lifesaving skills that you, Pythonista, may not even realize you have 💖
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Dan S. (He/Him) @brass75.brassnet.biz · 20/02/2026
This thread inspired me to get off my ass and actually write this. brassnet.biz/blog/picking...
brassnet.biz
Picking talks for PyCon US 2026
In which I talk about how talks for PyCon US 2026 were picked.
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BART @bart.gov · 19/02/2026
Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!
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Isaac Chotiner @ichotiner.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
My CFP experience has gotten much better since I started thinking of the talks I propose as "offerings" rather than "proposals" or "submissions".
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krat @kwholesaler.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
No son, they are not "magically delicious." The workers made them delicious. This is a slogan meant to mystify the social conditions of labor
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Margaret Fero @maggiefero.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
The @cityofoakland.bsky.social Public Library stays winning! I kinda broke my bike's phone mount and could tell how to fix it, but don't have the hand strength to do that myself. I thought there might be a tool to help me, so I went to the tool library and a helpful librarian and I got it fixed!
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