I got a call from someone I don't know.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano
So they're happy to burn €500 and get the wrong answer, but they bulk at paying that much to get (an almost certainly) correct answer and fix?"Whatdaya mean it'll cost €3000 to fix my car? The €1600 sledgehammer the AI told me to use was much cheaper and it took the engine out in seconds, now you want to replace it and charge me more?! Why are you ripping me off? I just want my car to work!"
I just can't with people.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
Sounds like they paid 500 euros for a few valuable life lessons, if they actually paid attention:
1) have tested backups. This is important even if you aren't changing things, but especially if you are.
2) human experts aren't cheap, but they're often cheaper than the alternative.
3) the AI cannot take responsibility, and has no culpability, and is often wrong. Act accordingly. -
I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
Same scenario when people hire unskilled folks to do a kitchen remodel, based on their low quote. After it is finished and they are unhappy with products and teh sink leaks they call in a skilled tradesperson and cry when they are quoited another 50-60% to FIX the crappy work and installations!
"You can pay me now or you can pay me double later. "
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Ai Receptionist: Ciao, I'm your friendly AI voice receptionist. How can I help you?
Customer: Eh, ciao... Our LLM botched our FreeBSD server upgrade, didn't take backups, and we already spent a lot of tokens and it's still trying... Can you help?
AI Receptionist: You were absolutely right to reach out. I assure you I can help. You want me to support your AI Agent in further botching your upgrade and spend more tokens on the task. It's good there's no backup in the way, so we both won't be running out of disk space.
Hang on while I make contact with your bankaccount for more tokens, and access to your network to team up with your AI. Thanks for calling. -
I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
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@stefano I bet the LMM agent upgraded and rebooted FreeBSD without updating the boot code, something which is documented in both the FreeBSD upgrading instructions and in the FreeBSD handbook.
@subnetspider that's what I'm suspecting, too. They said "it doesn't boot anymore". Or the agent used dd to write the boot code but mistakenly overwrote something more than the boot code.
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@stefano Reminds me of this
@bladecoder totally!
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@stefano I think folks really have a lack of value for our profession because it's "computer skills".
It's the same attitude as "oh it's just plumbing" and before you know it you're knee deep in dirty water.
No matter how desperate we are for money, we must value our time. And like just get a plumber in.
We don't have to be good at everything. It's a chance to get to know folks and you never know the plumber might know a business that need your professional help.
@onepict True. Years ago, "it's an easy task! The 12 years old son of my friend could do it".
My reply was: "Let him do that, but don't call me when everything will be gone".At times, it happened. Sometimes, they just went out of business.
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I agree with the group here,@stefano. They did you a massive favor. You do not want this client. That nastiness at the end of the call is just their own unforeseen (by them ) consequences coming home to roost.
@bsdtv I agree. I mean: I'm a consultant, so I'm open to consulting. But if you're paying a lot of money to [BIGTECH] that messed up, find me because someone (or the Internet) told you I can fix it and you want to pay me just some spare change, you'd better continue with your useless and disruptive token-burning agent.
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@stefano I think this story then tells how good is FreeBSD documentation.
@kktk the documentation is good - but they need to read it first
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@bsdtv I agree. I mean: I'm a consultant, so I'm open to consulting. But if you're paying a lot of money to [BIGTECH] that messed up, find me because someone (or the Internet) told you I can fix it and you want to pay me just some spare change, you'd better continue with your useless and disruptive token-burning agent.
@stefano exactly. And we all know what doing * the exact same thing over and over * and expecting a different result is a sign of! Be well my friend!
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
-
I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
-
I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano you’re charging the same amount to rescue my truck that I spent getting it stuck? Outrageous!
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@stefano you’re charging the same amount to rescue my truck that I spent getting it stuck? Outrageous!
@theothersimo This is a good comparison
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@stefano Reminds me of this
@bladecoder @stefano This particular image is AI generated.
The original was about graphic design, not code.
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I got a call from someone I don't know.
"Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?"
"Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted."
"That much?"
Some silence.
"Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up.
Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will.
I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server.
@stefano the audacity 🤨
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@onepict True. Years ago, "it's an easy task! The 12 years old son of my friend could do it".
My reply was: "Let him do that, but don't call me when everything will be gone".At times, it happened. Sometimes, they just went out of business.
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@onepict True. Years ago, "it's an easy task! The 12 years old son of my friend could do it".
My reply was: "Let him do that, but don't call me when everything will be gone".At times, it happened. Sometimes, they just went out of business.
@stefano Years ago we had a packet storm in our office which was a nightmare of hubs hanging off hubs, hanging off hubs.
I literally had to get everyone off the network and find the offending printer someone plugged in. Then get each department to log back in on a staggered scale.
Couple of weeks later and an engineer went oh I run a network at home. "Yeah how big?" I ask him, "5".
With restraint I told him that this site alone had 150 pcs and we had other sites in the city.
He shut up.
