I was engaged as a contractor to help a major bank convert its servers from physical to virtual. It was 2010, when virtual was starting to eclipse physical. The consulting firm the bank hired to oversee the project had already decided that the conversions would be performed by a piece of software made by another company with whom the consulting firm was in bed.

I was brought in as a Linux expert, and told to, "make it work." The selected software, I found out without a lot of effort or exposure, eats shit. With whip cream. Part of the plan was to, "right-size" filesystems down to new desired sizes, and we found out that was one of the many things it could not do. Also, it required root SSH access to the server being converted. Just garbage.

I was very frustrated by the imposition of this terrible software, and started to butt heads with the consulting firm's project manager assigned to our team. Finally, during project planning meetings, I put together a P2V solution made with a customized Linux Rescue CD, perl, rsync, and LVM.

The selected software took about 45 minutes to do an initial conversion to the VM, and about 25 minutes to do a subsequent sync, which was part of the plan, for the final sync before cutover.

The tool I built took about 5 minutes to do the initial conversion, and about 30-45 seconds to do the final sync, and was able to satisfy every business requirement the selected software was unable to meet, and about which the consultants just shrugged.

The project manager got wind of this, and tried to get them to release my contract. He told management what I had built, against his instructions. They did not release my contract. They hired more people and assigned them to me to help build this tool.

They traveled to me and we refined it down to a simple portable ISO that remained in use as the default method for Linux for years after I left.

Fast forward to 2015. I'm interviewing for the position I have now, and one of the guys on the tech screen call says he worked for the same bank later and used that tool I wrote, and loved it. I think it was his endorsement that pushed me over and got me an offer for $15K more than I asked for.

The ultimate endorsement!

LinkedIn endorsement be like...

Has anybody else gotten to the point where people who need to mansplain how language models aren't truly sentient/conscious/intelligent are now more annoying than people who think language models are sentient/conscious/intelligent?*

While it has been a tight race but I think I have just about hit the inflection point.

The amount of time I've wasted because of someone condescendingly barging into a conversation with a iamverysmart 'actually you see they are just automata trying to predict the next text tokens'. When in actuality, everybody in the discussion is aware and that is not the point.

And to further exacerbate it, with a good number of them it is really difficult to get this through their thick little skulls. They just keep parroting the same thing over and over. Ironically, in their singleminded ego driven desire to be the Daniel Dennett of the chat they actually come across as less sentient/conscious/intelligent than a language model.

(*this should not be taken as endorsement for or against that idea - it is actually mostly orthogonal to this rant)

RECOVER YOUR STOLEN BTC/USDT WITH THE HELP OF SOLACE CYBER WORKSTATIONS

When I first encountered a fitness-focused crypto token supposedly endorsed by NFL quarterback Jake Thompson, I was filled with excitement and optimism. As a long-time fan of Thompson's remarkable performances on the field, his endorsement would lend credibility to the project. Eager to seize what I thought was a golden opportunity, I invested $12,000, convinced that this token would yield significant returns. My enthusiasm quickly turned to despair. Just days after my investment, Thompson deleted all his posts related to the token, leading to a catastrophic collapse in its value. To my utter disbelief, I later learned that the account promoting the token was a fraudulent impersonation of someone who had been posing as Thompson to mislead investors like me. This shocking revelation made it clear that the endorsement was nothing more than a ploy by a scam artist, raising serious ethical concerns about the integrity of celebrity endorsements in the cryptocurrency realm. Desperate to recover my losses, I sought assistance from Solace Cyber Workstations, a firm renowned for its expertise in tracing and recovering funds from fraudulent schemes. Solace Cyber Workstations conducted a thorough investigation and uncovered a disturbing connection between the token's development team for orchestrating celebrity scams. This agency had a long history of leveraging high-profile endorsements, including impersonations, to ensnare unsuspecting investors in dubious ventures. With the support of Solace Cyber Workstations, I felt a renewed sense of hope. They took decisive action, threatening to expose the agency's clients to compel them to take responsibility. Thanks to Solace Cyber Workstations' strategic approach, I was able to recover an impressive 90% of my investment, totaling $10,800. While I still faced a loss, it was a tremendous relief to see such a significant portion of my money returned, all thanks to Solace Cyber Workstations' diligent efforts. This has served as a harsh lesson about the inherent risks of investing in celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrencies, particularly when impersonation is involved. I now recognize the critical importance of conducting thorough research and exercising caution before committing my funds to any project, especially those backed by famous figures. I hope my story serves as a warning to others to remain vigilant in the ever-evolving landscape of digital assets, and I cannot stress enough how instrumental Solace Cyber Workstations was in helping me navigate this challenging situation. Don't be left out, reach out to them now
Website: h t t p s : / / s o l a c e c y b e r w o r k s t a t i o n s . c o m
Email: S o l a c e . c y b e r . w o r k s t a t i o n s @ m a i l . c o m
WhatsApp: ‪‪+ 1 2 4 0 7 4 3 7 6 8 9