I got a call from someone I don't know.
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@stefano All that because the office didn't want to invest in a rewire and more switches.
@onepict Many of the problems customers have are related to lack of (small) investment in hardware or proper planning. The most difficult part is making them understand that they'll pay it, sooner or later, with interest and a lot of wasted time.
Luckily, many understand it and plan accordingly.
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@stefano All that because the office didn't want to invest in a rewire and more switches.
@onepict @stefano I don't know if corporate law is same in mainland Europe as UK, but there's a lot of "serial entrepreneurs" around who will simply let their business burn and walk away from all the creditors (using limited liability as a way of avoiding personal consequences) rather than do things properly or hire the right people.
And its not just in tech but across the board, to the point I do full audits on any suppliers I deal with, checking Companies House and all sorts (including any personal info I can find out about the directors)
AI is going to unearth way more of these, albeit with quite a bit of collateral damage along the line..
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@onepict @stefano I don't know if corporate law is same in mainland Europe as UK, but there's a lot of "serial entrepreneurs" around who will simply let their business burn and walk away from all the creditors (using limited liability as a way of avoiding personal consequences) rather than do things properly or hire the right people.
And its not just in tech but across the board, to the point I do full audits on any suppliers I deal with, checking Companies House and all sorts (including any personal info I can find out about the directors)
AI is going to unearth way more of these, albeit with quite a bit of collateral damage along the line..
@vfrmedia @onepict One of the things I could never understand is running a business you really don't understand or don't care about.
I do the job I love, and I have a tiny company because I want to be the boss of myself and suggest my customers the solutions I believe in.
Running an IT company only for making money and for a short period of time sounds, to me, quite bad.
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@vfrmedia @onepict One of the things I could never understand is running a business you really don't understand or don't care about.
I do the job I love, and I have a tiny company because I want to be the boss of myself and suggest my customers the solutions I believe in.
Running an IT company only for making money and for a short period of time sounds, to me, quite bad.
@stefano @onepict in Britain a lot of them don't start off bad or dishonest, but are so focused on constant growth they take on more work than they can support.
I've seen it with online services (we've been through 4 different care planning systems at work in 20 years because the small companies making them burned out), same with SMEs selling VOIP hardware (I seem to need a new one each time), also see this with automotive stuff (the place I got my last car from enshittified itself chasing after larger sales volumes and it was already creaking at the seams when I bought the car), and places like Amazon end up winning more business as for all their faults they do deliver stuff on time on more occasions..
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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 "it didn't even make a backup" hahaha, Maybe taking some responsibility for letting a know-it-all 5 year-old at your infrastructure would be a good start!
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@bladecoder @stefano This particular image is AI generated.
The original was about graphic design, not code.
@BoydStephenSmithJr @bladecoder @stefano I know the original photo so I knew this was modified, but how do you see it is AI generated instead of photoshopped?
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When I worked on the ships, our Logistics office had a "Failure to plan ahead on your part, will not result in an emergency on mine" sign on the wall.
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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 call tomorrow: "Hi, I've already spent €1500 on tokens and it's still down and I need your help. Are you still available for €500?" "No, I'm sorry, now it'll cost €1500."
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@BoydStephenSmithJr @bladecoder @stefano I know the original photo so I knew this was modified, but how do you see it is AI generated instead of photoshopped?
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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 I say this all the time “you don’t know what you don’t know”. No LLM will proactively warn you about issues you don’t know about and no LLM will fill in the gaps of your knowledge for you.
It does what you ask it to do, so its context is your knowledge, not the other way around.
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@theorangetheme @mwl @stefano I honestly hate doing it, but it is the only work I've been finding lately. I've had to sign an NDA for every single gig I have had doing it, they always wanna haggle over the price, and they always complain that the fix takes too long.
The last part is what really drives me bonkers. They spent a month wasting money on an AI solution that made their issue worse, but they expect me to wave my magic wand and fix it in an hour.
And so, so many of them will try it again. I've gotten three callbacks this year that were basically, "We aimed AI at your fix and now it's broke, we need you to come back in (and do a better job this time)."
I have taken to stating in my contract terms that if you use AI on my work, it completely voids anything resembling a warranty or culpability on my part. I will not be held responsible because people are idiots. Doesn't stop them from trying though.
If AI is the future of IT, I don't want to work in IT anymore.
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@theorangetheme @mwl @stefano I honestly hate doing it, but it is the only work I've been finding lately. I've had to sign an NDA for every single gig I have had doing it, they always wanna haggle over the price, and they always complain that the fix takes too long.
The last part is what really drives me bonkers. They spent a month wasting money on an AI solution that made their issue worse, but they expect me to wave my magic wand and fix it in an hour.
And so, so many of them will try it again. I've gotten three callbacks this year that were basically, "We aimed AI at your fix and now it's broke, we need you to come back in (and do a better job this time)."
I have taken to stating in my contract terms that if you use AI on my work, it completely voids anything resembling a warranty or culpability on my part. I will not be held responsible because people are idiots. Doesn't stop them from trying though.
If AI is the future of IT, I don't want to work in IT anymore.
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@BoydStephenSmithJr @trebor @stefano One trend that amuses me significantly more than it should is that AI already figured out that we all hate AI, while management keeps not understanding this.
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@stefano 🤯 it's amazing (by which I mean worrying) how many people seem to think they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by using AI.
I don't understand why anyone would just let AI loose on a production system like that, and even blame AI for not taking backups. Although why was it not being backed up anyway?
I wonder how much more money they will waste in tokens rather than pay a professional to fix the mess.
@teapot_ben @stefano In my experience, they have always been around. It was just easier to limit the damage they do to an organization.
Once worked with a lady, sweet as can be, but dumb as rocks. She would believe any simplistic forecast the computer would throw at her. Trusted these algorithms like the one true God. So you trusted your engineering judgment over her numbers, did your own research, took a longer term view etc.
I think about her a lot with AI.
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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
I don't get this attitude for anything broken. Once I realize something will be a complicated fix, I immediately think that paying a professional is the cheapest solution. My computer, the plumbing, the roof, my taxes. If I know I could dig myself a deeper hole on my own, I give it to someone who won't.Some people were never taught "penny wise, pound foolish" when growing up.
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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 If he assumed AI is cheaper than sysadmins who actually know what they’re doing and he already spent €500 on tokens, then why is he surprised that you charge more than €500? Does not compute!
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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 What a dick
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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.
Agreed.
