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The scariest "user support" email I've received

devas.life

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Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#211

Post by account42 »

somenameforme wrote: post #198
DocTomoe wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid who was raised editing and tinkering memory blocks out of CONFIG.SYS, I've been watching this for a while when the GenZ-Mobile-Generation showed up and was not able to do the darnest things. I see with terror in my heart that the downward ride isn't yet over.

And it's little brother, autoexec.bat! The thing I found most bemusing through all of this is people insisting that people growing up with tech would somehow have this deep intuitive understanding of it. It made no sense. Using tech doesn't somehow make you aware of how it works. If anything, the refined final product can end up hiding it from people. We all use elevators but know basically nothing about them -- henc…

People growing up with personal computers did get that intuitive understanding for the most part. The problem is that zoomers and gen alpha are now growing up with idiot proofed appliances that hide all the details from them instead.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#212

Post by account42 »

bofadeez wrote: post #175
jb1991 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the world we live in now where, as time passes, fewer and fewer people will know how to do anything on their own and more and more will only accomplish things by using AI.

Yeah it's interesting. What's the incentive to spend 10 years learning tedious stuff anymore? In another 1-2 generations all non AI knowledge will be gone.

The incentive is the desire to improve yourself. What the world around you does shouldn't affect that incentive.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#213

Post by mort96 »

prasadjoglekar wrote: post #204
mort96 wrote: post #157

Why would you ask ChatGPT to tell you what a base64-encoded string is? Just base64 decode it! This blog post's "investigation" is worthless when it's just copy/pasting what a chat bot said. There is no reason to rely on a chat bot for this.

Easy, quick sandbox.

What attack vector does it protect against that pasting the string into an online base64 decoder web app doesn't also protect against?

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#214

Post by mort96 »

Freak_NL wrote: post #201
mort96 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah this is more like, "Why do you consult the vibes oracle to compute 7 * 5? Just use a calculator!" .. which is, to be honest, a criticism I would make if I saw someone try to ask ChatGPT to do math .. and, FWIW, that is exactly what's happening here; base64 decode is just math

For 7 × 5 using a calculator should not even be a thing for most people. Sure, some people just can't do the basic tables, but most people should be able to tell how much seven €5 items cost in a supermarket. If you could do this as a teenager, but lost that skill afterwards, you are just sacrificing your brain.

Yes I thought about that after writing it and should've used an example with bigger numbers. But I didn't want to ninja edit too much. I think the point came across.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#215

Post by account42 »

foxrider wrote: post #161
duskwuff wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the personal website that would be casually hosted whenever your PC is on I don't think that was ever really a thing. Which isn't to say that no one did it, but it was never a common practice. And free web site hosting came earlier than you're implying - sites like Tripod and Angelfire launched in the mid-1990s, at a time when most users were still on dialup.

Must be a regional thing, because where I live, mass internet adoption pretty much started in the 90s with the dedicated Ethernet connections. As such, every PC had its own IP address, it was a time before home routers. Later, the dreaded NAT was introduced, but the ISPs kept their "LAN" networks free. People hosted all sorts of things. It was a common practice for people to host an FTP server, a game server, an IRC…

That sounds like a very specific setup like a university dorm or perhaps managed apartment complex. But I doubt that was the norm for home internet connectivity anywhere, ever.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#216

Post by account42 »

swiftcoder wrote: post #209
seb1204 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me guidance is more than a simple reply asking for more information. This immediately stood out to me, flag.

IMO it's a fairly common ESL-phrasing for something like "thanks for your help"

If your idea of common ESL-phrasing is Indian scam center idioms perhaps.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#217

Post by alt187 »

radu_floricica wrote: post #176
mort96 wrote: post #157

Why would you ask ChatGPT to tell you what a base64-encoded string is? Just base64 decode it! This blog post's "investigation" is worthless when it's just copy/pasting what a chat bot said. There is no reason to rely on a chat bot for this.

"Why use a calculator all the time? Just use pen and paper!" ChatGPT is the right tool here, because it does the job, and it's more versatile. And underneath the hood it most likely called a decoder anyways.

> "Why use a calculator all the time? Just use pen and paper!"

"Why use a calculator all the time? Just use ChatGPT!"

Maybe you want to be an helpless baby who can't do anything and needs to chug a bajillion liters of water and depend on OpenAI to decode base64, but the thought of this becoming the norm understandably upsets reasonable people.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#218

Post by account42 »

bombcar wrote: post #64
devilsdata wrote: post #32

> ChatGPT confirmed Why are you relying on fancy autocorrect to "confirm" anything? If anything, ask it how to confirm it yourself.

It’s less they did it and more they admitted to doing it heh

It is interesting how many people will just go "I asked ChatGPT and here is what it said". Like do they not realized that either they wasted my time or just managed to replace themselves entirely. What value do you bring if you're just a crappy interface to a crappy tool that I could just use myself if I wanted.

Re: The scariest "user support" email I've received

#219

Post by account42 »

epaga wrote: post #148

I’ve always wondered why spam and scam emails have been so…dumb and obvious… 99.9% of the time. It does seem like AI may change this and if even the tech savvier ones among us are able to be duped, then I’m getting worried for people like my parents or less tech savvy friends… we may be in for a scammy next few years.

Maybe it will finally get us to actually go after the scammers and those protecting them instead of trying to paper over the issue with technological solutions. There is a reason we don't all wear kevlar when going outside.
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