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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • No? I left out the detailed info here as I thought it’s of no concern. I provided it with pretty much the same info I’d write to the Linux Kernel Mailing List. With computer bugs that’s usually steps to reproduce the issue, exact versions of everything, exact error messages and my findings from googling and looking at the code…

    That was one of the issues I had that only gave me one or two search results and it’s unlikely that someone comes up with a solution since the hardware is outdated and not many people have that specific board lying around and also the expertise to understand the low level hardware coding involved.

    I mean it kind of fits the rest of the picture I have from using ChatGPT and similar stuff. It can do easy stuff. And write boilerplate code pretty alright. With the Arduino code I’m tinkering around as a hobby… not so much. I once asked it to do the inverse kinematics for a small robotics project. And the AI can tell me about what I just read on the Wikipedia article about that topic. But that’s it. Not an idea how to apply that info. And that the complicated part is to come up with the specific Jacobian matrix. And not just tell me that using one is one of the few approaches to that problem. That’s obvious from reading the Wikipedia article or reading any textbook. And it did silly things like write code like equation.solve(parameter1, parameter2, parameter3) … Sure. I mean if I already had a framework that did that and was available on an embedded platform, I wouldn’t have had that problem in the first place…

    So my attempts at using AI for the issues I have with computers regularly fail. I can see how that’s not the experience everyone has, but still… It doesn’t really help me with specific problems or rare issues.

    And I still have a few I can try to question some AI about… An slow Wireguard VPN tunnel inside if another tunnel that I already fixed the MTU and it’s still unbearably slow… A few obscure webframeworks that don’t tie into things… But I’m pretty sure I’ll get the same results.

    Have you ever been lucky with AI and issues that didn’t get you any search results because no one ever did it before? I mean I’d be happy to learn how to use AI properly as a tool. It’s just I’ve tried and I don’t think I’m too stupid to prompt it. It’s just that I’ve given up since it doesn’t seem nowhere near intelligent enough to tackle the real issues I have. I’m not opposed to AI. I use it and it helps me get small stuff done easier/faster.


  • I’ve tried. And usually the questions I ask are too specific. I mean I can answer the basic questions myself and often I get several result when it’s just that. The AI just mumbles general advice and is always wrong if it’s too specific. Like for example: Why does the graphics driver crap out on any OpenGL ES instruction on the old single board computer I have lying around, despite the SoC being supported?




  • Free Software, proprietary, open-weight models, source-available, FLOSS, copyleft, permissive license.

    I think “open source” should mean what the OSI wants it to say, since they coined that term. But not all people agree and since they use it for different things and marketing, it’s lost some of its intended meaning. I don’t want to confuse people. And I also don’t like to use terms that can be (mis)used by the source-available people or people who add the commons clause, so I always try to include “free” as in freedom or “libre”.




  • Do these private computers run a properly licensed version of Windows? What’s the cost for a license? Same as in other countries?

    And another thing I wodered: Is there more Linux expertise available than in other countries? I guess the average person from India isn’t in IT. But there’s lots of IT, lots of companies from my country have outsourced parts of their IT. I occasionally watch tutorial videos or university lectures on Youtube either in english with a heavy accent or for domestic use and not in english. Some of them discuss some crazy niche Linux topics or software development, which is also oftentimes deployed on Linux infrastructure. Or is it just because India is a big country and it’s just a matter of scale that I get to see some videos from over there?






  • Hmm, I mean there is also publication bias. You’re more likely to edit a Wiki page if you found a solution… But you’re also likely to rant and ask for questions if it’s really bad… There is a bit in the middle where it doesn’t work that well. What I find super annoying if I find my question already posted 2 years ago and there isn’t a solution posted underneath. That means someone either got it working and didn’t update their post… or they moved on and it’s impossible. But you’re right, this really mostly happens to obscure and niche problems. Not if it’s a ThinkPad or Dell laptop midel that has already sold millions of times. But somewhat likely if it’s a newer high-end gaming mainboard or niche server that isn’t common amongst the Linux-folks.