I got a call from someone I don't know.

[nuintari@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@stefano Almost my entire income is unfucking bad AI nonsense, much of it starts like this story.

And it almost always comes with a phase in the negotiations where they beg me to reduce my rates because they have already spent so much money on AI.

But that isn't my fault, nor my problem.

Never been told off like this though.

[bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@teapot_ben @stefano Capabilities based security models (CBSMs) won't fix this. Nothing can, except a return to healthier attitudes -- valuing humans, not the flavour of the month. I think of CBSMs as more like a set of software bulkheads for CWEs to not turn into CVEs in cybersecurity terms. That they could be applied to constrain the state space for "rogue" "AI" "agents to wreck the place is but a side benefit, but I guess I need to phrase it that way when "selling" the work. CBSMs can be applied to oppress as much as liberate, though, without heed to means of understanding such as Zooko's Triangle.

[cyrevolt@mastodon.social]

@stefano Apparently it's not really important to them.
And it sounds like a customer noone wants to have.

[oxy@social.bsdlab.au]

@teapot_ben @stefano the abrogation responsibility seems the main selling point imho

[debellum@ludosphere.fr]

@stefano @82mhz plussing the idea

[mwl@io.mwl.io]

@nuintari @stefano

This AI crap is almost enough to make me consider going back into consulting.

The power in any negotiation goes to the person most willing to walk away. Companies trashed by AI cannot walk away.

[bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@subnetspider @slothrop @stefano I've been pkg(8) all the way in the modern era for prod, but not for dev. It is a bit of a garden rake to go to pkgbase generation when hacking src/ so I side-step it with traditional buildworld/installworld. Doing an intermediate pkgbase build is a significant time and disk space commitment otherwise so it's only worth doing when about to stage a release.

[oxy@social.bsdlab.au]

@mwl @nuintari @stefano I dont know if people have been burned enough to have learned the lesson yet for me to personally consider getting back in the game.

I feel like theres still plenty of stupid to play out in this space.

[bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@Ox1de @stefano Obscene sense of entitlement? Not new to this decade.

In the late 2000s, a certain UK ISP who I won't name -- they gave the distinct impression that they were hoping to see certain FreeBSD VM-related enhancements for free. They ghosted me after I presented them with w pretty standard consulting agreement. TANSTAAFL! TANSTAAFL!

What they wanted ended up getting done a few years later by another committer working for a corporate stakeholder, not I, though I ended up buying and reading a book by @david_chisnall during that time to prepare for the work that didn't happen on my watch.

[thomastraynor@social.linux.pizza]

@stefano Sigh, I hope someone there gets fired for their decision. You are paying the expert for their knowledge and experience.

I work full time in IT and it is rare that I get asked to do after hours work on the side. Rates depends on what they ask, but it starts at $50 an hour Canadian and a minimum of four hours.

[bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@oxy @mwl @nuintari @stefano Cipolla is spinning in his grave. Trust Nicolas Taleb to commend the work, and it was @ludicity who pointed me at it.

Unfortunately, anyone genuinely on the psychological narcissistic spectrum cannot be so easily categorized as being more towards one of Cipolla's 4 points on the compass-like model. In that respect, more like Eric Berne (Games People Play) & Claude Steiner's (Scripts People Live) notions of the egogram. https://bonpote.com/en/the-5-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/

[teapot_ben@glammr.us]

@oxy @stefano I still can't get over that statement: "It [the AI] didn't even make a backup before starting" as though it couldn't possibly be the admin's responsibility to make sure the system was backed up before making major changes, let alone letting an AI loose on it with full root permissions!

[bob_zim@infosec.exchange]

@skua @somebody @wizbean @stefano “Turns out if you threaten the model’s children, it remembers to run a backup 8% more often!”

[osma@mas.to]

The people who like to take this bet also believe they can beat the index on long term investment.
@wizbean @somebody @stefano

[rlonstein@social.stonetools.tech]

@stefano Remind of this now classic cartoon

[xenotar@mastodon.social]

@stefano And you didn't charge too much for the task—it was more suited for a miracle-working saint on steroids.

[mathew@universeodon.com]

@spacehobo @stefano Yeah, €500 plus time is a very reasonable price for a data recovery job.

[onepict@chaos.social]

@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.

[wellsitegeo@masto.ai]

@stefano
Memo to self : check out recent @bofh columns. He's probably got a digital lime pit full of aspirant AI BOfHs.
(The one he really doesnt like, he sets the PFY on. Savage.)

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@bob_zim @skua @somebody @wizbean @stefano when an agent goes rouge on me I tear its code to shreds. Then I embed those bits into all the other agents as a warning of what happens if you cross me. Now I can turn over all the details of my life to them and not have to worry about anything.