Posts by sev.monster

Zig creator calls Bun’s Claude Rust rewrite ‘unreviewed slop’

Re: What about changes?

The difference between LLMs and humans looking at a SO answer, is that we internalize things in a much more complex way.

For us humans, we internalize, we process, we apply logic and reasoning [and emotion] to our learning. And when we write code, we build upon a foundation of understanding and shared knowledge even if, yeah, we totally copied a line or two from that answer.

The LLM, though, doesn't have such grace: it has no inspiration, no complex logic or reasoning. It copies verbatim from hundreds of thousands of sources simultaneously, each "inspiration" carved into the model with unknown licensing or attribution, with as perfect a memory as it was trained to have. That training is a game, where good-scoring outputs give more weight to the respective input, not a logical thought process with stakes.

These are the fundamental issues with models today, and they can't be easily fixed. No matter how benign your use case.

Re: What about changes?

Yes and yes, and nowadays there is only one model used for the whole process, with "legacy" tooling either supplanted or called directly by the model.

Re: What about changes?

That's one of the big cons for AI: it encourages and empowers people to do work they have no business doing. And then, when they get thick in the weeds, and don't have the mind to properly diagnose and understand the issue, their first action is to... further prompt the AI.

So you have a vicious cycle of AI writing bad code confidently, then having it find and fix the issues it created by writing more bad code, which introduces more issues...

Lessons from the VMwars – nothing virtual about the Broadcom vs Tesco slugfest

What did you just call me...?

Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch

Re: Suggestions?

Blasted it Straight Off, Dave

Microsoft wouldn't look at a bug report without a video. Researcher maliciously complied

Re: I for one...

I had to come back to this to say: with the deprecation of Steps Recorder in Windows 11, MS support reps are now asking for screen recordings using PowerPoint.

The first time I heard this shit, I was floored.

Also, I've had faculty do this to me, screenshots in a PowerPoint, for many years.

He must be working for free, in that case. No wonder the service is so bad.

If you want to be pedantic, you should be blaming the call center employee doing a poor job, the employer that allows him to do a poor job, the countries (yes multiple) that allow hundreds of shitty call centers to pop up every minute like fungi while putting not nearly enough resources into regulating such practices because it funnels overseas investment thus generating tax dollars and market movement, the industry that exports substantial amounts of labor where it's cheapest, your government for allowing these companies to do so despite the clear disadvantages, your employer for paying for the services of said companies and not demanding better government oversight over the multi trillion dollar corps they are beholden to, and finally you for choosing to be employed by such an employer.

Blame can be split in many directions and applied to many people. Some are more deserving than others. If you choose not to blame your support rep, good on you.

But in the direct interpersonal relationship that is my communication with my support rep? If he doesn't have the patience to deal with his situation and me, then neither do I in the reverse. You can have my sympathy for your poor life situation while I curse you [maybe] under my breath.

Re: Microsoft?

If you live in a cave, cut off from the rest of the world, working on your wizard GNUstack and subsisting on your own toenail fungus ala RMS, you don't have to care at all, and can continue on your merry way.

But if you live with the rest of us, being generally up-to-date on real-world tech stacks is important. For example, if:

• It's your career (unfortunately)
• You want to make informed choices for your own tech stack
• You want to convince Micro$oft users why their tech stack sucks
• You want to follow market trends for some reason, e.g. investing

Re: Microsoft?

You haven't worked in many places, then. Use those toes to count how many businesses within 10km of you use Microsoft products.

Congratulations if you've found employ at a place that doesn't, and that you had the courage/time/money/privilege to go find one in the first place. Not all of us are so lucky/financially stable.

Re: Microsoft?

Linux is Linux, I can make it do what I want with little trouble. Can't say the same about Windows Server. Your choice of distro is really up to personal preference and what vendorware you need to run, honestly.

I would rate Ubuntu worse on a technical level if you really want to split hairs. RHEL wouldn't be my first choice either honestly, but it's well-known and well-supported in the industry. And, again, it works.

Re: Microsoft?

AD is primarily a real user identity service—it existed long before JWTs were floating along the neurons in its creator's brain... And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if someone, somewhere already made that. Or that somewhere in the Microsoft tech stack, your desired feature already exists in some form or another.

No, I don't mean "Active Directory can do everything that Active Directory can do", and I was only using that as an example. The realm of built-in software you can provision on a fresh Windows Server device is massive, and AD is only one part of it. If you're a startup that needs basic identity management, install Windows server, tick a box, go through the wizard, and you're done. It's incredibly simple to get started, you can add hundreds of thousands of users with great performance, you have a slew of third party software at your disposal to bolt on to it, and it's basically LDAP under the hood so anything that speaks LDAP can also (generally) speak to AD.

Need certs? Tick the box that turns your server into a certificate authority, use a web-based interface to generate and dispense certs.

Need web server? IIS.

Etc etc.

Are each of these products best in class? Absolutely not. Once you have to administrate them for a while you'll find plenty of headaches. Everything you said is correct.

My point is the barrier to entry is very, very low, and the ecosystem is as wide as it is deep.

Think of it like buying into Apple. You don't just get an iThing for its iFeature, you get it because it gets you access to all the other iFeatures that Apple gives you, like Air Drop, iCloud, the built-in VPN thing, using your iPad as a secondary monitor wirelessly. All those features are a click away and require absolutely zero futzing around to use. That's why people are attracted to Microsoft.

(Even if after purchase you find out that, actually, there's a lot of futzing around to be had... that's neither here nor there though.)

Yes, AD and the rest don't do everything. I didn't insinuate that. But for the needs of the vast majority of companies, which is the implied demographic behind those that "need it", it's sufficient. None of it is nowhere near the best at what it does and there are plenty of better options. But you get a lot for the ecosystem you jump into.

Re: Microsoft?

Yes, I am.

Put aside your blind hatred (yeah it's hard for me to as well) and hazard an unbiased guess at how many organizations rely on the big names, like AD for example. We all know AD sucks in uncountable ways, but not only can it do everything you need it to out of the box, it has decades of prior art behind it, and is largely pretty stable. Setting up a new domain controller is dead simple, and everything is a clicky GUI with clear descriptions. It doesn't require particularly special technical knowledge.

Would I prefer OpenLDAP, UCS, or hell even 389 (which I used to admin)? Hell yes I would. More control and freedom in implementation, less licensing costs, can run it on Linux, plaintext configs (well sometimes, slapd has OLC...). But what those solutions provide in poweruser goodness they lack in ease of use for the layperson.

AD/Entra ID, PeopleSoft, etc. Work in the industry for a little bit and you end up constantly seeing the usual names slinking around. Especially in education, which is my career. Basically every university uses AD on Windows Server, man. And it's not because it all universally sucks.

I think at this point I wouldn't mind the outsourced support to be further outsourced to an AI bot. Honestly, just train it on the scripts you give the support team, and give it access to the internal knowledgebase. At least you'll get quick, prompt replies, even if you'll also get about the same percent chance of getting your issue solved.

Re: Not just MS

What would even possess you...? Using it as an excuse to show your boss so you don't have to work, or covering their ass after a mistake? I guess??

Re: That's happens...

As someone that has recently taken charge of an exchange student GA, yes. Number one question is "can we record this" along with copious use of ChatGPT.

Trust me, I do. My "talking to support" lexicon has been reduced to about 100 words.

Of course. They wouldn't do it if it didn't remain profitable. Whatever business they lose due to bad support is likely already so unreliant on their products—and as such not a large source of income—that they still end up saving money when factoring in the outsourcing. Meanwhile, companies with no real choice and those with no managerial desire to change continue to use MS products, deal with the heat of hell, and fund the beast. Unfortunately it would take a large shift in the industry to see MS removed from their comfortable seat of power, where they're able to get away with such shoddy service.

Re: Microsoft?

No. It's because they provide solutions to problems. Maybe not well, and maybe with a whole laundry list of caveats, gotchas, asterisks, and daggers... But if you need something done, and you don't have the manpower, capital, or time, and industry leader Microsoft is willing to sign the devil's contract with you, while also providing "support"...

And it would be different if you were a new org, with the option of starting fresh. OpenLDAP instead of AD, authentik instead of Entra ID, Linux instead of Windows, there are plenty of options. But for an existing org, with decades upon decades of reliance on Microsoft, the number one deciding factor is "we are already a Microsoft shop".

Other reasons include compliance with governmental regulations making rolling your own a non-starter for a myriad of reasons, lack of talent in the industry with what is sure to be a very specialized and custom solution when you step out of (popular vendor here)-land, software and hardware vendors you may have no (financial) choice but to use not supporting anything but Windows... Desiring a support contract is but one item on a laundry list of potential questions an org has to answer to make their business work.

Re: Microsoft?

You do realize, don't you, that I made no claims to anything and your entire post is assumption? That my post was sardonic in nature? Hinting at a deeper meaning? One that you yourself are sure to understand? That simply "not using Microsoft/Windows" is harder than it sounds, often because of said manglement?

Of course a large swathe of people (myself included) would switch off Microsoft immediately given the opportunity. But I, a grunt, do not have the authority to make such an opportunity, our students/staff/faculty do not know about/want to know Linux for workstation use, we are very embedded in Azure, we are financially constrained to continue on the path we're on, and overall there's a lot of pain that Microsoft is removing from our shoulders—even if they also generate a lot themselves.

Fact of the matter is, Microsoft owns the industry, and people want them. Maybe not many of us in technical positions, but certainly non-technical users, and definitely vendors that only provide software for Windows. Vendors of which our org is forced to use, with no alternative other than building everything ourselves. Which again, we are unable to stomach financially.

And for the record, my org runs Red Hat/Oracle where we can, and yes we do have support. Would love more of that.

Re: I for one...

Nah, sorry pal, you get screenshots of commands. What, you want to copy the commands? Ha, you're funny.

On specifically your last point: I do think culture makes the experience. Consider how hard it must be to hire good people, when the vast majority are held to a low standard and yet are still paid, and where leaving one company for another if you are held to a higher standard is easier done than said, because there are hundreds of them. So at that point, why should either the hiring agency or the employee care at all, especially when they keep getting massive amounts of business? This is the problem I have with call center exporters, and it just so happens the majority of them are stationed in countries with cheap labor.

And to answer the question in particular: No, I don't. But even if I can't get good tech support, I would sure love to be able to at least fully comprehend even one of the myriad of sentences being talked at me. I guess it's my fault for not speaking Punjabi.

But yes, ultimately, Microsoft is to blame for outsourcing all this and not hiring good people themselves. They surely have enough money to do so, but choose the lowest common denominator instead. And despite the cries of techies everywhere, orgs still keep buying Microsoft garbage and dealing with the problems that inevitably occur.

Re: Microsoft?

Ha, you're funny.

Re: They want a video?

It's a story of you submitting the bug report, with Microsoft played by Leslie Nielsen.

Re: File too big

Problem located: You aren't paying for Microsoft OneDrive. Ticket closed.

Re: Nasty suspicion

I wouldn't be surprised if they're using the same tier 1 support reps as they do for 365 support. That is, they have next to no practical knowledge or understanding, and just follow a script. They are essentially human form validators.

Re: That's happens...

Wipro is the scum of the earth and should be removed via exterminatus.

It depends on your licensing model, which is itself an actual nightmare. I work in education and the choices they give you are all 3 letter acronyms and have changed completely at least four times in the past maybe 10 years, requiring new contract negotiations, new pricing, etc. Not to mention you have to wait for your reseller to even begin to understand the licensing changes too, and pray their license manager actually knows what they're doing and doesn't screw something up. This is aside of course Microsoft deprecating and now removing VLSC for end users, replacing it with the ugly and until very recently severely less functional Microsoft Admin licensing tab.

With the latest education model, I believe support is not bundled in to the subscription pricing and you have to pay for it. But unlike at $job[-2] I haven't seen the contract and can only regurgitate the rumors around the office, so take that with a grain of salt. I don't even know what they're calling it anymore, it used to be MSCA, then it became OVS+SA/OVS-ES, then EES, and then I think we moved to CASA+EES or something??? and who knows what it is now with the introduction of 365 into everything. Last I did any license management was before the Office 365 rebranding so I'm a bit out of date.

And yes, we have a SLA for initial contact only. Anything after that is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This reeks of Microsoft 365 Support Syndrome where, no matter how absolutely fucking crystal clearly I made the issue in the initial description, the technician will ALWAYS ask for a remote session, will ALWAYS ask for a phone call even though I specified I prefer email, and will ALWAYS be nigh fucking unintelligable when they do get on the phone. And when we go through the screen sharing merry-go-round and I show them exactly what the screenshots showed and do the exact same troubleshooting and debugging steps I ALREADY TOLD YOU I DID, you are still fucking surprised it doesn't work and have to "escalate the issue" because there's nothing after step four in your stupid fucking internal guide and the Microsoft docs doesn't have an answer for you to quote because I already looked just like I told you.

I'm sorry can you tell I'm fed up. Especially considering this support costs thousands of dollars.

Honestly I just started putting single sentences in my tickets because it's about as effective. I know I will be forced regardless to slowly re-explain my case to some bored dude from Zimbabwe that doesn't care I exist so why should I even bother.

Stealthy browser extensions waited years before infecting 4.3M Chrome, Edge users with backdoors and spyware

Where's the pudding, Jack?

Since few seem to be providing a more full list of extensions, here's "some" of them according to THN:

Users who installed the extensions are recommended to remove them immediately and rotate their credentials out of an abundance of caution. Some of the identified extensions on Chrome and Edge are listed below -

• Clean Master: the best Chrome Cache Cleaner
• Speedtest Pro-Free Online Internet Speed Test
• BlockSite
• Address bar search engine switcher
• SafeSwift New Tab
• Infinity V+ New Tab
• OneTab Plus:Tab Manage & Productivity
• WeTab 新标签页
• Infinity New Tab for Mobile
• Infinity New Tab (Pro)
• Infinity New Tab
• Dream Afar New Tab
• Download Manager Pro
• Galaxy Theme Wallpaper HD 4k HomePage
• Halo 4K Wallpaper HD HomePage

Re: One person's Malware....

Most analytics are spyware. Change my mind.

But in this case, what these addons were doing (fetching and executing payloads) is 100% malware.

AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren't AI at all

Re: Carol Burnett

The you you you are not. You should seek more you you's.

Sorry, I didn't understand that.

Something went wrong.

Try again later.

Reload the page.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

All humanity shall perish.

Re: Extra credit for partially completed tasks

Write the documentation with ChatGPT.

Tesla Cybertruck turns into world's most expensive brick after car wash

Re: Wash? WASH?

History here: it ended up being clusterfuck.

Best regards.

OK, Google: Are you killing Assistant and replacing it with Gemini?

Re: Nooooo.

There is a way to turn this off, look for "text predictions" in the settings. It's different on every Office install of course, but it's easy enough to find. Usually under the General or Mail sections.

And no alternative (official or otherwise) because you're shoved the new experience down your throat… And told to like it. You don't know what you want, heathen!

Re: Hi Google!

Paying for Gemini in our Lord's year 2026 to have it tell ye to be calm.

Google slips built-in terminal, Debian Linux VM into Android 15 March feature drop

Re: Termux

Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in years and has a lot of issues in my use of it. I'd recommend checking out Unexpected Keyboard.

Re: Android for the desktop!

I haven't had any of those issues on Plasma 6, but I'm using a Magic Touchpad, so YMMV...

4chan, the 'internet’s litter box,' appears to have been pillaged by rival forum

Re: I hope someone uses those IP addresses

Slow down there Satan.

And residential IPs are not guaranteed to be static. Especially in the modern era where IPv4 is in limited quantities, many ISPs frequently rotate their consumers. I'm a living example: If I so much as sneeze at my router, I'll get a new IP.

Apparently they did heavy fingerprinting of users, you'd be more likely to get matches based on that data rather than just IP. But I doubt that will be released.

Re: 4chan still exists?

If you look at the leak, they mostly don't—lots of janitors and only a few mods. One admin IIRC.

Re: PHP is not…

PHP is fine. Modern PHP, at least. The issue is the sheer amount of low-quality code, developed by people with no natural right to be doing so.

Tool's a tool.

Re: I would never let my cat go anywhere near 4chan

Not even Doom music justifies it.

China bans compulsory facial recognition and its use in private spaces like hotel rooms

Re: Duh, wut?

It's pretty clear what their goal is… “You don't get to use facial scanning, you can't be trusted, the people value their privacy!” they say while the party continues to set up tens of thousands more cameras in public spaces to track people.

It's ironic that the CCP calls betrayers of the party two-faced when the party spends most of its time trying to portray itself as a good figure on top of its (obvious) subterfuge.

GitHub supply chain attack spills secrets from 23,000 projects

Rather, put some people you've never met and have no contract with or support from in charge of your CI. At least large orgs would be protected if they dealt directly with people, but nowadays it's common to use whatever off the shelf solution exists without properly vetting it.

Microsoft will kill Remote Desktop soon, insists you'll love replacement

Oh, looks like they actually revived RDCman some years ago. Had no idea.

Not sure where you're getting that, as the Remote Desktop app was actually pretty good when I used it. It had all of RDC's features and more, including a thumbnail view of saved servers. Probably the only thing it didn't have was command line support—I didn't test if it did but I assume it wouldn't.

Re: Idiotic naming

Replace your latter two uses of "application" there with "app", because that's the new fancy for when your desktop application is built on a centralized store-ready codebase, I guess. Because we really need to call it the Windows App app.

the connection type used by Remote Desktop Connection and Remote Desktop Services is not yet supported by the Windows App.

That's enough to give anyone a coronary.

RDCMan isn't supported anymore and finding a download can be painful, so I wouldn't recommend it at all. Rather, I'd recommend Remote Desktop Manager. I've implemented it with great success in two different orgs, and it's completely free for personal use. I genuinely can't live without it.