Yep! LLMs are an excellent tool for getting over a hump, maybe finding a new pathway to solve a problem. I scan the output and pick the bits I want to try. ChatGPT may spit 40 lines of broken code, but I only need that one thing I hadn’t thought of or didn’t know.

It’s no replacement for knowing what you’re doing. Almost all IT work is knowing enough to recognize good and bad ideas, knowing where to look for solutions. LLMs can’t replace experience.

Y’all never get tired of preaching to the choir, do ya?

Anyone with technical chops has likely tried Linux, or is running it now. 99.954% of the Windows users will either upgrade or roll without updates. Converts are going to be exceedingly rare.

Only way I’ve got people using Linux was when I fixed “little old lady” computers as a charity thing. I’d throw whatever spare parts I had in there, swap in an SSD, load Linux Lite. I never told them it was Linux. Show them how to get FaceBook and email, done. And I never got a call back!

I was learning BASIC on a VIC-20 around that age.

more programming than coding

What’s the distinction?

I got a Sensi thermostat 5 years ago. Very happy. Only trick is it doesn’t work cut off from the internet, not even on the LAN. But you can still walk up and punch buttons. (Tested this last week. Might be a way around this.)

I started with a VIC-20 at twice that age. In the 80s computers were viewed as somewhat magical, a bit scary. Took a 2-week summer camp on programming BASIC and two things they told us made me feel way better.

You can’t physically destroy the computer typing at the keyboard. I took that to mean no matter how badly I screwed up, the problem could be unscrewed.

It’s a dumb machine, no brains, period. That means you are in control of it. Some people could use that lesson today. 🫤

IBM in 1979 was the polar opposite of hippie or liberal. You’re thinking of later, younger outfits, Pirates of Silicon Valley types. IBM was white shirt, black tie, solidly stuck in their ways.

How’s Linux Lite these days? That was always my go-to for old machines.

Had a manager who would shoot the bullshit with me for our one-on-one time. I open about my life, he never pushed, but he genuinely wanted to make sure his people were doing OK. Guy that replaced him went straight to business and was hella uncomfortable talking about anything else. Not that his personality sucked, but he believed in working every second of the day. Talk about whiplash.

I could make a living just buying and reselling junk, plus picking stuff off the road. Just don’t have the discipline to hit it like a real job.

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

I counted the boxes 3 times. :(

Exactly what I’ve been saying. LLMs are solid if you know the subject matter enough to discern valid results from bullshit.

Been out the IT game for a little over a year. Aren’t AI using companies betting on a realizable return? My take is that the vendors are betting big time, with no return I can see.

VCs aren’t idiots. They’re obviously wanting to come out on top, I get that. But how does AI make the investment back? Can’t see how the survivors make out with a profit. They can only charge so much, and the product isn’t near ready. 🤷🏻

One afternoon I was standing in a man’s attic, wiring his satellite dish, we talked stock market.

“Google’s about to IPO. I’d suggest you go all in.”

“Yeah, they’re the best search engine out there, and their speed is impressive, but I don’t see how they ever make any money.”

Wonder if he remembers that conversation, thinks on it 2o-years later. That sort of conversation is what investors are afraid of losing out on.

Sysadmin here. Much of the attitude is baked into old guys like me who remember PCs getting blown out by the next gen, which came 6-months later.

At my last job, it wasn’t so much the aging tech as people beating the shit out of their laptops. Users treated them as disposable at that place. We made fat money as a small software dev, no one questioned buying new gear every 2-3 years. I was fucking appalled.

My daily driver is an old crappy Intel NUC i5. Fired up Left 4 Dead, runs tight.

7 years ago I was buying PCs from eBay vendors who recycled off-lease business computers. Cheap as hell, worked fine for office tasks.

Last company was still in the mode of, “3 years old!”. As the sysadmin I as totally confused as to what to buy. Everything was either too old or too pricey. FFS, we’re writing software, it doesn’t have to be a top-line gaming computer!

LOL, got shot down on a purchase because the ad had the word “gaming” in it. “That doesn’t matter! The specs vs. price are bangin’!” Nope.

I collect stories like this for when I need to make a case for purchasing new gear or services.

The version on my Android is so simple it’s hard to believe it’s still out there. It’s not even listed in my App store, no idea how I’ll ever get it again.

My Windows libraries are mapped to my G Drive. Save it in Desktop, Downloads, Pictures, whatever? Backed up on a local (shitty) RAID and automatically uploaded to my Google account. Burn my house down, I got it all for $100 bucks a year insurance.

17/21. Would have been 18 but the first example of spaces screwed me.