Tech

AI AI Oh

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Tech

Exactly. Everyone on both sides of the debate is so solipsistic that no one talks about what’s actually happening. And what’s actually occurring is (as usual) all I care about.

The question, “Does AI act and think exactly like a human?” is idiotic. Clown-level thinking. “Does a submarine swim like a fish?” Who gives a fuck? The doofshit left is so concerned with calling AI a “plagiarism machine”and retrenching corporate copyright power in an extremely poorly-considered rearguard action against AI that they never even consider what’s really in store for the future or even what’s happening right under their always-upturned noses.

The real question is, “To what extent will AI replace human labor?” And, “What are the consequences of AI use, in the politico-economic sense and socioculturally?” (Etc.)

AI and all the implications and complications thereof is not going away. The Bluesky clowns can screech all they like about their poorly-conceptualized understanding of plagiarism and how AI works but the incontestable fact is that AI is here and MBAs are going to use it even where it makes zero sense. That is now inevitable (absent Buterlian Jihad).

Time to deal with it like adults, not like whiny petulant children.

Ransom, Walked Some

Chill Clowns, Tech

Data Encrypted & Veeam Backups Deleted – Any Hope for Recovery?

Probably not. Pay the ransom and hope for the best.

A recovery tool might get you some back. Always iffy, though. Ideally you’d pursue both paths simultaneously. I’m not sure why people don’t have immutable offsite backups as a matter of course, but hey, some people like the drama I guess.

Me, I like the easy life so I do have those in spades. And aces.

LLMinate

Chill Gutter Philosophy, Tech

For once I agree with Yglesias. And yes, I read the whole paper.

This is a big nothing. The highest-quality LLMs are now smarter than most humans. But so what? Progress is not made by the lumpen masses and neither it will be by LLMs who are near that level of mundanity. The gap between someone like Bill Atkinson or Nancy Cartwright and some regular clown is nearly as vast as the gulf between a slime mold and Goofus Tardbiscuit III (i.e., most people).

All most people have — probably 99.999% of humanity — is the illusion of thinking, the same as LLMs. The thoughtuful few are those who make any progress, who lift the rest of everyone up out of the muck.

LLMs are still in the muck. I don’t know their future but that’s where they are now. And so is nearly every human.

Copy This, Copy That

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Tech

I’ve now written two different extensions for Firefox (both signed, but none of them publicly released as I just don’t need that kind of drama). One copies text and converts it to title case. The other takes text from a page copied into the clipboard and turns it into a plain-text anchor link with the copied-from page as the link target and the text properly formatted with punctuation.

Neither one is really that sophisticated but both do exactly what I want them to do. And it was so much more of a hassle than it should’ve been for a browser running locally on my computer and in my control. Or, rather, should be in my control. I have nearly no power to alter what the browser UI can do so adding an icon for an extension to the non-existent status bar is now impossible. And all the fake security means I cannot substantially change the UI to do anything useful.

Even worse, to even run any extension permanently on my own goddamn machine I have to get Mozilla to sign it so it’ll persist beyond a Firefox restart (in regular editions of FF). It is fucking insane anyone puts up with this. I cannot understand it.

To use what the kids do these days, you are all cucks. Miserable, simpering ones.

No Comp

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Tech

It’s insane. But we’ve done it and are doing it.

I’m not worried about my job because there is zero competition behind me. No one can do the things I do and no one is learning them. The younger generations just have not had the opportunities, and in every aspect this decline is accelerating.

Search Inside

Chill Tech

Nearly no users can Google effectively yet still get upset when you in IT Google for an answer — even though they spent hours looking for something that I can do a successful ten-second search for and fix in less than a minute. As this comment mentions, the difference is that I know how to use the information found and that they do not. Nor do they even know what to search for in the first damn place.

But as another comment points out, you’ve achieved enlightenment when you’re able to solve things that cannot be Googled, that no AI can answer.

And I do that every day.

User Antics

Chill Annoying, Tech

End Users out in the World.

Working help desk or anything near help desk leads to general misanthropy. It did for me.

One time I had a user who angrily declared, “I don’t want to have to turn on my laptop. It’s stupid I have to do that.”

I asked him what he thought about having to turn on his lights or his position on being required to start his car if he wanted it to go anywhere. He reported my comments to my manager. Fortunately, my manager just laughed and told me it was better to say nothing when the users were being dumbasses.

That was way back in 2002 or so and I generally followed her counsel after that.

Drop Ship Has Sailed

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Tech

What are your IT pet peeves?

When I go to work conferences and people try to hand me their old laptops randomly.

First of all, Karen, I’m not the laptop recycling depot. We have an MSP for that.

Second of all, I flew here just like you did. What the fuck do you think I am going to do with your and half a dozen other people’s machines? I don’t have room in my carry-on for eight laptops (I already carry two myself).

Third, I’d never presume to just walk up to someone and just hand them random junk. What the hell is wrong with people? I know too many see us overpaid computer janitors but that doesn’t mean I am gonna act like one.