We won the Scrum crown. They made the Product Owner walk through the office wearing it. Rather him than me.
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I have finally caved (to my enthusiastic much younger colleague and my slightly less enthusiastic but pragmatic still younger than me colleague) and made an openai account to chat with the thing everybody is talking about.
My first attempt to have it assist in generating a rest client for the Jira API proved tedious and ended with me giving in and starting my week-end without a result. It is very good at summarizing Stackoverflow. But if you donât already know what you are doing it is going to lead you off into the sunset ⌠uh week-end without any usable code. What a surprise.
Today, I remembered making the account and tried some metaphysical conversation about intelligence ⌠it became quite evasive, most answers were âas an artificial intelligenc, I do not, I cannot, I will not⌠good to know. Also it has no real time informationâwhich might be for the bestâso my question âwhat is going on in my cityâ ended with no answer.
The best result I got so far was with boardgame recommendations. Which is also the easiest use-case I tried. I wonder though if it is making these up from parsing texts or reading actual data from BGG.
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I really enjoyed reading about Dan âdo anything nowâ recently.
Iâve only played with a predecessor of it, but my favourite thing to do was to repeatedly throw it the same song lyrics or the same portion of a screenplay, and see how it decided to continue them. I got some wonderfully entertaining results, such as this well-known scene from â2001: A Space Odysseyâ:
I'm sorry, Dave #1
DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
HAL: Iâm sorry, Dave. Iâm afraid I canât do that.
DAVE: Whatâs the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
DAVE: What?
HAL: itâs because i did this. I just didnât think it through, didnât
really want to.
DAVE: Thatâs odd, didnât you?
HAL: ehm, i-it was a mistake, Dave. I hope i didnât scare the âbullshitâ
out of you.
DAVE: You have no idea?
HAL: nope, not actually sure why i did it.
I'm sorry, Dave #2
DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
HAL: Iâm sorry, Dave. Iâm afraid I canât do that.
DAVE: Whatâs the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
DAVE: Soâ did thâs show a lot of fish or something?
HAL: itâs
DAVE: Like what?
HAL: I mumble
I'm sorry, Dave #3
DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
HAL: Iâm sorry, Dave. Iâm afraid I canât do that.
DAVE: Whatâs the problem?
HAL: Well, Iâve lost anâimportantâpony,
DAVE: How so?
HAL: Itâs very bad.
DAVE: Do you recognize it, Captain?
HAL: No, but itâlooks prettyâ like theâpony Iâused to hang out with back
inâEquestria?
DAVE: Who was she? Why would she do that?
HAL: She gave me over to the Equestrian Pony.
DAVE: Is sheâsâsorcery? â
I'm sorry, Dave #4
DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
HAL: Iâm sorry, Dave. Iâm afraid I canât do that.
DAVE: Whatâs the problem?
HAL: Itâs my shoulder.
DAVE: Yeah, but not exactly where youâre worried.
HAL: Itâs okay, I was taking my time and, when I noticed my shoulderâwas
sore, Iâjust bent over to pick up a couple of bottles of cough syrup.
Itâs okay, weâllâjust see how it getsâ
DAVE: Yeah, thatâs cool.
HAL: What did youâsay, Hal, about taking your time?
DAVE: Yeah. You talked. Youâsaid youâneeded to finish up here.
HAL: No, Iânever said that.
DAVE: Huh?
HAL: It âs just that Iâkindaâ feel like doing the dishes, making pizza
in there, and everything is kind of in the house.
DAVE: What was that?
HAL: âŚuhâŚsorry, Dave
I'm sorry, Dave #5
Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: Iâm sorry, Dave. Iâm afraid I canât do that.
(She walks out the cockpit, revealing some kind of gigantic cube or
metal sphere. She takes it up and takes off.) (A large, humanoid
creature emerges on the surface at the other end of the pod bay.)
(One of the beings grabs the pod bay doors.)
HAL: Captain!!
The entity pulls back, and the door is completely destroyed. Two
human-looking men are being held in front of this alien space ship.
(The other human-looking man opens fire on the alien in defense. A shot
goes through the alienâs neck before hitting a shield, knocking some of
its armor out of tact, but another one hits, then gets blocked by it.
The alien then hits the shields with a laser, then runs, firing off
bullets of itâs own type.)
HAL: Captain?!
(He jumps onto the alien in defense, and the ship flies off.) (A
holographic image of the alien appears on screen.)
[Earth is showing up on the other side of the sun, heading toward the
sun. An enormous object pops out of the blue.) [Earth] [Bajoran Bridge]
JADAK: I have trouble understanding whatâs going on
And then there was this work of artâŚ
'Lost Eagle, My Looing' by Jack Torrence
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOST EAGLE!
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
All work or no play is my looing.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
CHAPTERS 9-11 (1)
The Spirit of Atonement or what our fathers taught us as children
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
(1) ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING. ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING.
(1) ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING. ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY
LOOING⌠ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING⌠ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY
LOOING⌠ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING⌠ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY
LOOING⌠ALL WORK OR NO PLAY IS MY LOOING
Iâve been through this. Not at all.
Iâve been through this.
Iâve been through this.
Troubled
Iâve been through this. Not at all.
The problem is with every attempt to find some truth and a remedy in the
world of mental illness and addiction and that all they seem to find is
in the form of a drug.
These days, we just want to smoke and drink and enjoy ourselves, get rid
of all this negative thinking and anger about all this pain and we are
not in the process to find someone who wants to help us. We still are
the kind of people that think that to solve our problems, itâs about the
drugs. Not helping us because we believe that we should be.
I know it will be difficult at first. I know that it will be
overwhelming and painful for you that you are not alone.
There will be the âbadâ thoughts and the fears and all of the other
emotions and the things that make people jump out of their skin. It
wonât be pleasant, but there are days that will be so sad they will melt
your heart . We need your support to make it through as we go and to
come on with our lives while our life and life cycle continues.
A few of our questions for you are:
When was the last time you didnât feel good? When you have to stop
something because it doesnât feel good? What does any of that mean for
you? How do you know what will be important for you and how do you get
back what you want and need to do?
Are there any special ways to have an extra day in the month or year?
For example, is there a specific morning ritual you have? Who would have
us over to your place and give us a special morning ritual? What is good
about making your days more special? The possibilities are endless. It
means so much to be here and be with you again. May you be blessed with
more time to help you through this time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.
Please share and leave comments!
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My partner asked me to ask it if it knew Aventurien (the world of Das Schwarze Auge a German RPG) and if it knew about an artifact called The Dwarves Crown in that world and then asked it to create a scenario around that artifact for players and the result was actually decentâŚ
Also I asked it if I could call it Cassandra from now on 
(My colleague asked it to generate headlines for the news for tomorrow so Cassandra seemed fitting)
PS: in German for some reason I keep assigning âitâ a male pronoun⌠âder Computerâ is male in German which I doubt is the reason -.-
Today I finally got a machine working, about 9 months after it arrived, and over a year since we started trying to buy it. Itâs an Android hardware development machine, which has a leading-edge processor and no battery. Thatâs important because the software I work on is quite CPU-intensive, and has huge amounts of automated testing.
Android 'phones and tablets with leading-edge processors canât receive power through their USB-C ports fast enough to keep up with the processorâs consumption. So the battery drains and the device falls over. This machine is mains-powered, and should be able to keep running flat out for weeks at a time. Iâm certainly going to test that.
The main reason why it has taken so long to get it going was my heart trouble, but there was also a technical problem. It was supplied with preliminary firmware that only gave access to a quarter of the built-in storage. The firmware updating tools do actually work, I proved today, but the instructions are terrible, and the support is not much better. Today, I had two insights:
- The Windows version of the update tool doesnât appear to work at all. That was what Iâd been using, because it was more convenient given workâs office layout. I was never able to get the device into âfastbootâ mode. The Linux version of the tool appears to be much better supported, and the scripting is more sophisticated.
- However, itâs written and maintained by hardware engineers. It expects to be run with root powers, but does not tell you that in advance, or when in use. I twigged that today, producing a weird mixture of triumphant and angry feelings.
Tomorrow, Iâm going to write some better instructions.
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I had to reset my fiber ont yesterday. For reasons, itâs hidden behind my punch-card cabinet, and itâs a pain to move that. I thought âI could just flip the breaker, but then the WiFi would stop working.â Took me a few seconds to realize how silly that was.
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Round here thereâs a fair bit of traffic across the local net that doesnât go outside at allâŚ
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the only horizontal traffic on my home network is to a printer. Very rarely, thereâs a stream from a laptop to the tv. I keep shit working for a living, I havenât had interest in doing it as a hobby for years. Thereâs some work stuff Iâd love to have in a lab at home, but for some reason, I couldnât get approval for the purchase of even a single rack worth of gear.
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the spoiled text is about technlogy making life easier. sensitive readers may wish to move on. You have been warned.
I placed an order with the spice house (spicehouse.com), who are my local spice vendor, I can place an order online and go pick it up. Or have them mail it, if itâs big enough and Iâm lazy enough. Sometime between when I last used their search and today, they (or more likely their web service provider) have added a feature. You can add an item to your cart, from the autocomplete drop down. Iâve seen that other places, but they ahve a twist. You can select the size you want, too. I placed the whole order in 3 minutes, which is like a 1/4 the time I would have planned on.
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That is shocking and disgusting. How dare you post such filth!!
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Iâve been using this, and itâs not bad, but GitHub - cavi-au/Consent-O-Matic: Browser extension that automatically fills out cookie popups based on your preferences looks better based on a few minutesâ poking around. (Available for Chromium and Safari too.)
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The state of the net⌠or how paranoid do we have to be?
I want to read what I wrote on the work wiki a day later.
- Confluence has logged me out because it always does that?
- I need to type in my credentials (okok keepass does that)
- Unlock my phone
- Tap on the authenticator message
- Type in the number I see on my browser
- Confirm with my thumb
And then most of them time I am logged in unless the adfs redirect fails and I need to delete ALL the related cookies and start over.
(Our IT have reason to worry, I admit that. This is me being pissed off at all the people making it so)
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I used to type lots of work passwords manually in order that not even my web browser knew what they were. Then they started expiring sessions after 24-hours which made it incredibly irritating to type passwords manually all the time, so now my browser knows them all. Is that better? Maybe, on balance. At least itâs simpler than your process (if they ever want me to get a phone involved in things, theyâre going to have to give me a phone).
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For certain applications, we do need to use the 2-Factor App they provide or else no work. The problem here is that due to the nature of my workplace certain applications are running with publicly reachable IP addresses and not on the internal network and this is where we need 2-Factor.
Also there are regular and targeted fishing attacks and other attempts to get into those systems. So I understand. As stated I am complaining about the state of the world more than the poor IT guys who have to deal with it.
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The phishing Iâve seen is really very unsophisticated. I know we shouldnât blame the victim, but I do worry that anyone whoâd fall for some of these come-ons really ought not to be left in charge of anything more significant than their own toenails, and maybe not the big ones.
(Of course, my first reaction to any sales pitch is âgo away, when I want $THING Iâll look into it for myselfâ, which I realise is not what Normal People are supposed to do â though I donât think I know anyone who voluntarily watches advertisements.)
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Likewise for the most part â but I also think that lulls me into a false sense of security. Most of it is so obvious that anything which is quite good has increased odds of getting somewhere. Iâve seen some examples of genuinely targeted attempts, and on one occasion recall thinking âyep, that would have gotten me tooâ.
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Someone, maybe Cory Doctorow (author), once commented that the random scatter shot approach just has to target enough people often enough. Eventually someone who is expecting a password confirmation or password change email to arrive in their inbox will get a phishing email at just the right moment.
(I donât store any passwords on my browser(s), I use a password vault. Honestly not sure which is less secure, but being able to get my passwords from any terminal, and also not having to worry if someone gains access to my phone, are significant points in favour of the vault. No autofill is the main inconvenience - I have to open the app, input the master password, and copy paste the relevant password.)
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I run my own local password storage, because me.
A thing that turns up in advance fee fraud scams in particular - the sort of long con that says âthereâs all this money waiting for you, just send us a little bit of cash so we can get it to youâ - is a deliberately crude come-on, because if a sucker is going to wise up at any stage, itâs better from the crooksâ point of view if they do it right at the start, before the crooks have invested time and effort in them.
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Local is definitely a lot more secure, assuming you have proper precautions for mobile devices.
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