Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/17
Een paar quotes van Laurens Verhagen’s column [Wayback/Archive] ChatGPT is een soort waarzegger, die net iets vaker de waarheid vertelt | de Volkskrant:
‘Mensen vrezen dat computers te slim worden en de wereld zullen overnemen, maar het echte probleem is dat ze te dom zijn en de wereld al hebben overgenomen.’ Deze vaak aangehaalde uitspraak van computerwetenschapper Pedro Domingos is al zo’n tien jaar oud, maar heeft nog niets aan actualiteit ingeboet.
…
ChatGPT in de basis is: een slimme woordvoorspeller.
…
Nog erger is misschien wel dat er bij Harper’s Bazaar blijkbaar niemand meer is die nog een boek leest. Ze zijn daar te druk met lijstjes maken aan de hand van chatbots, maar vooral met zichzelf in rap tempo overbodig te maken.
Dat laatste geldt natuurlijk voor iedereen die zwaar leunt op generative AI zonder veel moeite te steken in te verifiëren dat wat de woord- en beeldvoorspellers produceren klopt. Die moeite wordt steeds groter juist door de vervuiling van trainingsdata doordat AI trainingsmodellen niet kunnen onderscheiden of hun bron nu door mensen of door AI wordt gemaakt.
De trainingspool van menselijke data (feit of fictie – waaronder uiteraard satire, dat kunnen de modellen ook niet onderscheiden) – al dan niet uit materiaal dat zonder toestemming is opgenomen – is overigens inmiddels doodgebloed:
“Het had waar kunnen zijn” had van ChatGPT kunnen komen. Als die term faschineert, lees dan vooral [Wayback/Archive] Van Aarsvink tot Zeebreker – O.C. Hooymeijer.
Links uit de quotes van de column:
--jeroen
Posted in AI and ML; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, ChatGPT, Development, Generative AI, GPT-3, LLM, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/17
Having had to use Mimikatz a few times in the past, I was not aware of the history.
So I was glad to find this elaborate article [Wayback/Archive] Mimikatz and password dumps | Ivan’s IT learning blog and the video (embedded after the signature). [Wayback/Archive] How to fix mimikatz null password in Windows 10 | WORKING 2019!!! – YouTube
Besides the history, it also explains why sometimes you only get hashes and other times you do get plain text passwords.
Recommended reading.
--jeroen
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Posted in Power User, Red team, Security, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/15
I wonder, 40 years later, what happened after the USSR dismantled: especially with the developments over the last 10 years and the culmination in the last 2, are these bands – banned in January 1985 – still banned in Russia? [Wayback/Archive] They were banned in the USSR – The Scotsman
The above article was published in 2014, and a full translated list in the 2015 article [Wayback/Archive] The Soviet Union Creates a List of 38 Dangerous Rock Bands: Kiss, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, Village People & More (1985) | Open Culture.
A picture of the original list in Russian was published in the 2017 article [Wayback/Archive] A list of 38 “dangerous” Western bands banned in the USSR
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Posted in LifeHacker, Music, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/15
I have a lot of old Power Point slide decks that I want to reuse in current presentations. By now however, I learned prepare all my presentation stuff in either Markdown or reStructuredText: far easier to publish and put under version control.
After searching, I could only find one tool that is still maintained doing a decent job doing a PowerPoint to Markdown conversion: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – ssine/pptx2md: a pptx to markdown converter. The tools which works great, in big part of PowerPoint content being highly structured with styles like title, subtitle and various heading levels and content types.
The thing it does not document is the prerequisites, which are these:
- a
venv (which, despite having used Python quite often, but not proficient in it, still makes me nervous: one forgotten step and you pip everything in your global environment).This links helps me every time [Wayback/Archive] Install packages in a virtual environment using pip and venv – Python Packaging User Guide. From it, I created this little table:
Steps for setting up and using a Python virtual environment
| Step |
*n*x/MacOS |
Windows |
Comment |
| 1. |
python3 -m venv .venv |
py -m venv .venv |
Only needed once |
| 2. |
source .venv/bin/activate |
.venv\Scripts\activate |
Switch to virtual environment |
| 3. |
which python |
where python |
Check if python is used from the virtual environment (should result in
.venv/bin/python on *n*x/MacOS or
.venv\Scripts\python on Windows) |
| 4. |
which pip |
where pip |
Check if pip is used from the virtual environment (should result in
.venv/bin/pip on *n*x/MacOS or
.venv\Scripts\pip on Windows) |
| 5. |
./.venv/bin/pptx2md</precode
|
.venv\bin\pptx2md |
Force a module which didn’t add itself to the path when installed via pip |
| 6. |
deactivate |
deactivate |
Leave the virtual environment |
- missed during
pip install pptx2md (in order I discovered them):
Future enhancements
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Posted in Development, Lightweight markup language, MarkDown, Office, Power Point, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, venv | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/15
Wow, so many valuable lessons learned in [Wayback/Archive] Security through transparency: RP2350 Hacking Challenge results are in – Raspberry Pi
Plus another challenge that they will start in a week:
As a component of the broader RP2350 security architecture, we’ve been working to develop an implementation of AES which is hardened against side-channel attacks (notably differential power analysis), and we’ll be challenging you to defeat it. Check back next week for more details.
Plus of course the very important last sentence:
All vendors have security vulnerabilities in their chips. We are unusual because we talk about them, and aim to fix them, rather than brushing them under the carpet. Security through transparency is here to stay.
Via: [WaybackSave/Archive] RPi Spy on X: “Security through transparency: RP2350 Hacking Challenge results are in … #RaspberryPi”
--jeroen
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: RaspberryPi | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 