Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Fast Start is sometimes fixed by a BIOS update.  I suspect MS changed the API 
used to talk to BIOS from Windows regarding hibernation and such at one point.

At least with windows it is possible to disable Telemetry.  Not possible with a 
cell phone unless it's a rooted Android phone and none of the carrier-sold 
phones seem to permit unlocking the bootloader.  Since most people buy their 
cell phones from the carrier, it pretty much means rooting is off the table

And for the iphone it's not even on the table at all no matter who you buy your 
phone from.  They are even a worse company than Google and Microsoft in this 
respect.

My Pixel6a has my Omrom BP software on it that talks to my BP cuff, my fitbit 
on it, my scale data.  If they want they can get every biological bit of data 
they want on me, where I am at, pretty much everything except for maybe how 
many times I have sex.   Oh wait:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/07/05/fitbit-moves-quickly-after-users-sex-stats-exposed/?sh=56583aba4327

LOL.   Seriously, I had the thing rooted within 6 hours after buying it.

Ted

-Original Message-
From: PLUG  On Behalf Of Ben Koenig
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 1:14 AM
To: Portland Linux/Unix Group 
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

The initial response included instructions for scanpst.exe. I didn't copy it in 
because it was HUGE. Took forever for it to print out in their interface. 

But the reason I tried that question was because a few weeks ago I actually got 
that from a user at the company I'm working at. He was having an ongoing 
problem with this error message and previous attempts by tech support to fix it 
had failed. This included running scanpst.exe, but the problem kept coming back 
no matter how many times he rebooted his PC.

Turns out He was on windows 10 and kept doing a "cold boot" by shutting 
down the laptop ("shutdown" from the start menu) and then booting it back up. I 
had him try "restart" instead of "shut down" and the problem magically went 
away. Also resolved a few other issues as well. So I disabled FAST START (the 
feature responsible for the behavior that he was experiencing) and the user was 
super stoked to finally have this fixed.

This leads me to wonder if any AI chat technology sponsored by a given company 
will have the ability to question the functionality of a product designed by 
said company. Will MS-sponsored AI be able to recognize that Windows is just a 
piece of shit and consider implementing workarounds that DISABLE functionality 
that MS wants to push on users? Seems like a conflict of interest.

-Ben


--- Original Message ---
On Thursday, March 30th, 2023 at 12:41 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt 
 wrote:


> What is COMPLETELY STUPID about that advice is the OST file is ONLY created 
> when Outlook is connected to an Exchange server and it is a duplicate of the 
> mailbox in the Exchange server database.
> 
> You also can't delete cached mode since the Exchange server sends out a GPO 
> that enforces whatever way it wants to setup.
> 
> So if it gets corrupted the fix is simple - delete the Outlook profile and 
> create a new one and login and the OST file will be recreated.
> 
> It is the PST file that you use repair tools and other such nonsense 
> on. And the Microsoft supplied tool is scanpst.exe
> 
> Incidentally the most common PST error I ever see is caused by corruption 
> from spams.
> 
> Ted
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: PLUG plug-boun...@pdxlinux.org On Behalf Of Ben Koenig
> 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 11:44 PM
> To: Portland Linux/Unix Group plug@pdxlinux.org
> 
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?
> 
> --- Original Message ---
> On Wednesday, March 29th, 2023 at 6:13 PM, Keith Lofstrom kei...@kl-ic.com 
> wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> > Career sys-admins, take note. You may want to retrain as a career 
> > re-trainer; many sys-admins may soon be looking for new careers.
> > ...
> 
> 
> On this particular note... I decided to give chatgpt a test and see how it 
> handles a basic tech support question. I'm abbreviating the responses due to 
> hardcore mansplaining.
> 
> Q: My Outlook is giving me an error saying that the OST file is corrupted. 
> How do I fix it?
> 
> The provided response was pretty large. Lots of instructions for a tool that 
> repairs the OST file which is common. Also includes a last resort step to 
> recreate the file entirely. So I issued a follow up question...
> 
> Q: I tried to re-create my ost file but that didn't work.
> 
> A: It recommended disabling cached mode. Recommended using a third party tool 
> to repair the OST file, and then dropped this beautiful piece of advice into 
> the chat.
> 
> "If none of these solutions work, you may need to contact your IT department 
> or an IT professional for further assistance."
> 
> I just love how it repeated the standard MS response. Every BSoD includes 

Re: [PLUG] a question for Google Bard

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

How is it that a 2nd vpn tunnel coming in is authenticating in?

Ted

-Original Message-
From: PLUG  On Behalf Of American Citizen
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 4:45 PM
To: plug@pdxlinux.org
Subject: Re: [PLUG] a question for Google Bard

Paul:

I am acquainted with nmcli. What I have to track down is where a 2nd vpn tunnel 
is coming from. It's not visible in the cable/modem/router end, and it was only 
caught by using wireshark in raw mode.

I actually automated setting up the openvpn connections working from 
presupplied ones from a certain email company by cli scripts.

Sorry, I should have pointed this out in the question for Google's Bard.

Randall

Re: [PLUG] a question for Google Bard

[American Citizen]

Paul

I just ran this dns leak test on my Mozilla browser

DNS Leak Test

Your IP Address
IP Address
185.236.200.246
ISP    M247 Europe SRL
Location    United States, Los Angeles

Hide your IP addressDNS Leak Test

Test Results    Found 11 Servers, 2 ISP, 1 Location
Your DNS Servers
IP Address :    ISP :    Location :
185.236.200.243     M247 Europe SRL    United States, Los Angeles
185.236.200.244     M247 Europe SRL    United States, Los Angeles
185.236.200.245     M247 Europe SRL    United States, Los Angeles
185.236.200.246     M247 Europe SRL    United States, Los Angeles
204.194.237.29     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8::31     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8::36     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8::57     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8::72     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8::79     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles
2620:0:cc8:3::81     Cisco OpenDNS, LLC    United States, Los Angeles

We only want the M247 DNS addresses, NOT any of the Cisco OpenDNS 
connections. Oddly IPV6 addressing is being used.


nmcli shows

owner@localhost:~> nmcli
eth0: connected to eth0
    "Intel 82579LM"
    ethernet (e1000e), 40:A8:F0:4F:D2:2F, hw, mtu 1500
    ip4 default
    inet4 192.168.0.12/24
    route4 0.0.0.0/0
    route4 185.236.200.242/32
    route4 192.168.0.0/24

proton0: connected (externally) to proton0
    "proton0"
    tun, sw, mtu 1500
    inet4 10.18.0.18/16
    route4 10.18.0.0/16
    route4 0.0.0.0/1
    route4 128.0.0.0/1

This is part of the problem I am facing

Re: [PLUG] a question for Google Bard

[American Citizen]

Paul:

I am acquainted with nmcli. What I have to track down is where a 2nd vpn 
tunnel is coming from. It's not visible in the cable/modem/router end, 
and it was only caught by using wireshark in raw mode.


I actually automated setting up the openvpn connections working from 
presupplied ones from a certain email company by cli scripts.


Sorry, I should have pointed this out in the question for Google's Bard.

Randall

Re: [PLUG] a question for Google Bard

[Paul Heinlein]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2023, American Citizen wrote:

I would love to see Google Bard's answer on how to redo the openSuse 
Network Manager openvpn software in such a way as to permit easy 
debugging, so that the hidden vpn established by the NM can be 
uncovered and understood.


Randall,

You typically ask questions only after doing your own research, so 
it's with some fear of suggesting what you've already done to point to 
nmcli as a way to get to stuff:


# list NetworkManager connections
nmcli co
# note the NAME of the vpn connection, then export
# its configuration
nmcli co export $vpnName /path/to/vpn.conf

--
Paul Heinlein
heinl...@madboa.com
45°22'48" N, 122°35'36" W

[PLUG] a question for Google Bard

[American Citizen]

I would love to see Google Bard's answer on how to redo the openSuse 
Network Manager openvpn software in such a way as to permit easy 
debugging, so that the hidden vpn established by the NM can be uncovered 
and understood.


I have looked into the openvpn module for NM and it's not simple.

This question would be a good one for uncovering Bard's true capabilities.

Randall

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2023, Galen Seitz wrote:

I was going to put this on the plug-talk list for John to chew on, but since 
the subject came up here...

You Are Not a Parrot



galen,

That's a great article. Thank you.

I think it confirms that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is
necessary because there's a dearth of terrestrial intelligence.

Regards,

Rich

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Galen Seitz]

I was going to put this on the plug-talk list for John to chew on, but 
since the subject came up here...


You Are Not a Parrot


galen
--
Galen Seitz
gal...@seitzassoc.com

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Ben Koenig]

The initial response included instructions for scanpst.exe. I didn't copy it in 
because it was HUGE. Took forever for it to print out in their interface. 

But the reason I tried that question was because a few weeks ago I actually got 
that from a user at the company I'm working at. He was having an ongoing 
problem with this error message and previous attempts by tech support to fix it 
had failed. This included running scanpst.exe, but the problem kept coming back 
no matter how many times he rebooted his PC.

Turns out He was on windows 10 and kept doing a "cold boot" by shutting 
down the laptop ("shutdown" from the start menu) and then booting it back up. I 
had him try "restart" instead of "shut down" and the problem magically went 
away. Also resolved a few other issues as well. So I disabled FAST START (the 
feature responsible for the behavior that he was experiencing) and the user was 
super stoked to finally have this fixed.

This leads me to wonder if any AI chat technology sponsored by a given company 
will have the ability to question the functionality of a product designed by 
said company. Will MS-sponsored AI be able to recognize that Windows is just a 
piece of shit and consider implementing workarounds that DISABLE functionality 
that MS wants to push on users? Seems like a conflict of interest.

-Ben


--- Original Message ---
On Thursday, March 30th, 2023 at 12:41 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt 
 wrote:


> What is COMPLETELY STUPID about that advice is the OST file is ONLY created 
> when Outlook is connected to an Exchange server and it is a duplicate of the 
> mailbox in the Exchange server database.
> 
> You also can't delete cached mode since the Exchange server sends out a GPO 
> that enforces whatever way it wants to setup.
> 
> So if it gets corrupted the fix is simple - delete the Outlook profile and 
> create a new one and login and the OST file will be recreated.
> 
> It is the PST file that you use repair tools and other such nonsense on. And 
> the Microsoft supplied tool is scanpst.exe
> 
> Incidentally the most common PST error I ever see is caused by corruption 
> from spams.
> 
> Ted
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: PLUG plug-boun...@pdxlinux.org On Behalf Of Ben Koenig
> 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 11:44 PM
> To: Portland Linux/Unix Group plug@pdxlinux.org
> 
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?
> 
> --- Original Message ---
> On Wednesday, March 29th, 2023 at 6:13 PM, Keith Lofstrom kei...@kl-ic.com 
> wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> > Career sys-admins, take note. You may want to retrain as a career
> > re-trainer; many sys-admins may soon be looking for new careers.
> > ...
> 
> 
> On this particular note... I decided to give chatgpt a test and see how it 
> handles a basic tech support question. I'm abbreviating the responses due to 
> hardcore mansplaining.
> 
> Q: My Outlook is giving me an error saying that the OST file is corrupted. 
> How do I fix it?
> 
> The provided response was pretty large. Lots of instructions for a tool that 
> repairs the OST file which is common. Also includes a last resort step to 
> recreate the file entirely. So I issued a follow up question...
> 
> Q: I tried to re-create my ost file but that didn't work.
> 
> A: It recommended disabling cached mode. Recommended using a third party tool 
> to repair the OST file, and then dropped this beautiful piece of advice into 
> the chat.
> 
> "If none of these solutions work, you may need to contact your IT department 
> or an IT professional for further assistance."
> 
> I just love how it repeated the standard MS response. Every BSoD includes 
> that message and being the LLM that it is, regurgitated what is probably one 
> of the most common error messages to ever exist. Do we have any reason to 
> believe that Bard is any better?
> 
> -Ben

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

What is COMPLETELY STUPID about that advice is the OST file is ONLY created 
when Outlook is connected to an Exchange server and it is a duplicate of the 
mailbox in the Exchange server database.

You also can't delete cached mode since the Exchange server sends out a GPO 
that enforces whatever way it wants to setup.

So if it gets corrupted the fix is simple - delete the Outlook profile and 
create a new one and login and the OST file will be recreated.

It is the _PST_ file that you use repair tools and other such nonsense on.  And 
the Microsoft supplied tool is scanpst.exe

Incidentally the most common PST error I ever see is caused by corruption from 
spams.

Ted

-Original Message-
From: PLUG  On Behalf Of Ben Koenig
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 11:44 PM
To: Portland Linux/Unix Group 
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

--- Original Message ---
On Wednesday, March 29th, 2023 at 6:13 PM, Keith Lofstrom  
wrote:
...
> Career sys-admins, take note. You may want to retrain as a career 
> re-trainer; many sys-admins may soon be looking for new careers.
> ...

On this particular note... I decided to give chatgpt a test and see how it 
handles a basic tech support question. I'm abbreviating the responses due to 
hardcore mansplaining. 

Q: My Outlook is giving me an error saying that the OST file is corrupted. How 
do I fix it?

The provided response was pretty large. Lots of instructions for a tool that 
repairs the OST file which is common. Also includes a last resort step to 
recreate the file entirely.  So I issued a follow up question...

Q: I tried to re-create my ost file but that didn't work.

A: It recommended disabling cached mode. Recommended using a third party tool 
to repair the OST file, and then dropped this beautiful piece of advice into 
the chat.

"If none of these solutions work, you may need to contact your IT department or 
an IT professional for further assistance."

I just love how it repeated the standard MS response. Every BSoD includes that 
message and being the LLM that it is, regurgitated what is probably one of the 
most common error messages to ever exist. Do we have any reason to believe that 
Bard is any better?
-Ben

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Ben Koenig]

--- Original Message ---
On Wednesday, March 29th, 2023 at 6:13 PM, Keith Lofstrom  
wrote:
...
> Career sys-admins, take note. You may want to retrain as
> a career re-trainer; many sys-admins may soon be looking
> for new careers.
> ...

On this particular note... I decided to give chatgpt a test and see how it 
handles a basic tech support question. I'm abbreviating the responses due to 
hardcore mansplaining. 

Q: My Outlook is giving me an error saying that the OST file is corrupted. How 
do I fix it?

The provided response was pretty large. Lots of instructions for a tool that 
repairs the OST file which is common. Also includes a last resort step to 
recreate the file entirely.  So I issued a follow up question...

Q: I tried to re-create my ost file but that didn't work.

A: It recommended disabling cached mode. Recommended using a third party tool 
to repair the OST file, and then dropped this beautiful piece of advice into 
the chat.

"If none of these solutions work, you may need to contact your IT department or 
an IT professional for further assistance."

I just love how it repeated the standard MS response. Every BSoD includes that 
message and being the LLM that it is, regurgitated what is probably one of the 
most common error messages to ever exist. Do we have any reason to believe that 
Bard is any better?
-Ben

Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

I read through that and my rule of thumb on those is anyone offering investment 
advice better have 100M in net worth if I'm going to pay any attention to what 
they have to say.  If his AI isn't working to get him 100M it's definitely not 
going to help me.

The fundamental problem with AI though isn't whether you can make it work or 
not.  The fundamental problem is liability.
 
Suppose I can build an AI program that has a 99.9% success rate at driving a 
vehicle.   It has crashes/accidents at the rate of .01% which is far better 
than 99% of humans out there who drive cars.

Note that the very paper you quoted talks about safety protocols in AI to 
REDUCE the chance of problems.  Not eliminate them.  So already, that paper is 
assuming that any AI system is going to have an error rate.

You can argue that more lives would be saved if the government passed laws that 
required every driver to stop driving and substitute my AI.  And it would 
absolutely reduce accidents and save lives.  That can be proven.

But what you CANNOT do is find a car company that would build a car with that 
AI under that kind of legal system because if drivers are required by law to 
give control over to an AI then liability for the .01 accidents that DO happen 
is going to fall on the car company.  And with the number of cars out there and 
mileage driven by them .01 would be billions of dollars in payouts a year to 
cover AI errors.

Uber got it's hands burned by the Elaine Herzberg accident and sold off it's AI 
vehicle control division.  They learned what I had been posting on car forums 
for years before anyone started testing AI controlled vehicles - there WILL be 
accidents.

You are also NEVER going to find a car buyer who will buy a car that requires 
them to give up control over the vehicle - yet makes them personally liable for 
any accidents (errors) that the AI has with that vehicle.

So AI for vehicle control is dead.

And by extension if you think about it, because of that same problem, AI 
control of anything else having to do with health and human safety is also 
dead.   Forget an AI controlled surgeon for example.  Or an AI controlled 
electrical grid, or nuclear reactor or anything else.

This is why we don't have AI controlled jet planes.  Even though they have 
autopilots they still require a human's butt to warm a chair in the cockpit.  
Because of liability.

You may be able to sell an AI controlled weapon since weapons by definition 
have no liability.  For now.  There is a huge movement to make gun makers 
liable, though.

But the more you think about this the more you realize the inherent problems in 
AI.   You put an AI in charge of customer service for let's say a cellular 
phone company and you WILL see a rise in complaints, tarnished reputation of 
that company, and decreased sales as a result.  The business owner is 
eventually going to see the AI as a liability and jettison it.

I've been involved in high tech for years now and every few years there is 
ALWAYS some new technology that everyone in high tech thinks is going to 
fundamentally change things.   AI is just the latest one in a long list of 
these.

The ONLY new tech I've ever seen in my life that did fundamentally change 
things is communications tech advancements like the Internet, cell phone 
texting, and so on.   The new tech that lasts and becomes dominant is ALWAYS 
tech that facilitates human-to-human communication.  Bet on that and you will 
never lose.  This very mailing list is proof of that.

Ted

-Original Message-
From: PLUG  On Behalf Of John Sechrest
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 10:23 PM
To: Portland Linux/Unix Group 
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Google Bard - entry level sys-admin, learning fast?

Let me suggest that much of our understanding of reasoning is not in the boxes 
that we think it is in.

Let me point you to this paper:
https://yoheinakajima.com/task-driven-autonomous-agent-utilizing-gpt-4-pinecone-and-langchain-for-diverse-applications/

and let me suggest that you look at what he is doing with http://yohei.me

and his twitter address http://twitter.com/yoheinakajima

A bit shift has happened. We are still in the process of understanding what it 
means.



On Wed, Mar 29, 2023 at 10:05 PM MC_Sequoia 
wrote:

> "Career sys-admins, take note.  You may want to retrain as a career 
> re-trainer; many sys-admins may soon be looking for new careers."
>
> Color me very skeptical. One large blind spot of AI is context and/or 
> situational understanding.
>
> A few examples.
>
> The AI that made a digital stick person fall on it's face then stand 
> up on its head and fall over again then repeat as the fastest way for 
> the person to get from point A to Point B.
>
> The AI security camera that was defeated by a group of Marines who 
> snuck up on it by posing as a cardboard box, bush, trashcan or just by 
> doing somersaults and not moving like a normal human being would.
>
> If I had a nickel for every time some