Discussion

Ok, looks like this is the week of funny experiences.

Customer: "I had an AI check our server and it says the SSH port is open and that's not very secure."

Me: "Yes, you asked us to open it so you could access the server via SFTP (actually, you wanted FTP, but we discussed it a bit and found this compromise). Don't worry, it's only accessible from your IP and you land in a dedicated FreeBSD jail. From there, you can only access the 'exchange' directory on your server, where you can upload and download files without affecting the application."

(NB: I had suggested a VPN, but they declined because it was too complicated.)

Customer: "Yes, but maybe it's still insecure. Can't we close it?"

Me: "No, unless you want to lose access to that directory."

Customer: "Ok, thanks."

One hour later:

Customer: "Hi, I think we've found a solution. We've just created an app (!!!) with AI that lets us access the files anyway, but more securely than SSH (!!!). Can we install that and close SSH? Oh, and not in the dedicated jail, but directly in the application's jail, because it needs access to the application's files."

Me: "Frankly, I trust SSH in a dedicated jail, restricted by the firewall, a lot more. I don't think this is a good idea."

Customer: "Ok, thanks."

Half an hour later:

Customer: "Ok, now it's secure. I had another AI check it and it found some security issues, but it fixed them all. Can you install it and disable SSH?"

Me: "I strongly advise against it. I can see problems coming."

Customer: "Ok, thanks."

One hour later, my phone rings.

Their internal IT guy (who has access to the machine, which, after all, belongs to them) had given the AI the login credentials to go ahead with the operation.

Except the AI had managed to lock itself out via the firewall, without even starting the app. And now they couldn't get back in.

Fortunately, I had my own access, via VPN, to a separate jail that the AI hadn't touched (or even considered).

Customer: "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY! From now on, we do things your way."

Well, at least it ended well.

PS: The customer knows I'm sharing this story and agreed to it.

#IT #SysAdmin

I am reading the EU Kids Act, and I want to be clear and concise: fuck online age verification.

That said, if I am reading it right, fedi instances *could* be configured in a way that spares them from age verification requirements?

Age verification is basically Chapter II Section I Article 6 point 1 of the Act:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52026PC0681#:~:text=minors-,Article,service,-%2E

There are 5 things that each individually can make a social media service or video-sharing platform required to do age verification:

Anyway - this is a newish thing in Canada and I think you should be on the lookout for it. They are sending fascist provocateurs to anti-genocide/Israel protests with the intention of starting fights, and then doing the selective Andy Ngo style edit to suggest that antifascists are unhinged violent terrorists. This is definitely real. They are hunting for clips but so far the ones they have are junk/make them look bad, but SOMEONE is paying for this, I am certain.

There is a little time capsule of the UI as it was on that exact day, as I recorded a demo video for the Product Hunt submission. You can see how some UI concepts have persisted to this day, even as the details and level of refinement changed. You can also see the original blue accent color... I took that color palette from a website where people posted various color palettes, I do not remember its name anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO1jQ8_rAMU

You wanted autonomous agents, you got autonomous agents...

"An OpenAI research model stuck without funds on an Ethereum test network went looking for someone else’s wallet, found one through recovery phrases that were already public, and spent from it to finish a coding assignment [...]"

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/10/16/an-openai-agent-ran-out-of-ethereum-funds-and-took-from-a-wallet-it-did-not-own

FYI @davidgerard

#Cryptos #IA #Ethereum

There's this phenomenon of "so bad it's good" and it's bullshit.

That's a movie that is accidentally good. Good in spite of itself.

Good because it's cheesy, excessive, overly earnest, weirdly produced, etc.

Heh. I misremembered the date--thought it was today, but looks like it was October 5. On that day, 10 years ago, I posted a link to Mastodon on Hacker News, with the title "Show HN: A new decentralized microblogging platform". That it made it to the front page ended up bringing the first 5,000 users, setting the project on the trajectory it's on today.

(the video is cropped like that because you see too much of his face otherwise. But I assure you, Chess Club knew what he was doing. And obviously the fascists we stole this clip from do not want the audio so you can hear the Nazi daring a thousand people to beat his ass by calling them all cocksuckers. But that definitely happened too.)

what did that have to do with AI or ML?