Post by @stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe

2026-10-12 10:18 UTC

I got a call from someone I don't know. "Hi. We have a FreeBSD server. It's been working perfectly for years, but it hasn't been updated since then. We asked AI to update it, but now it won't boot anymore. It didn't even make a backup before starting. The AI keeps trying things, everything is down, and we've already spent over €500 in tokens. Can you help us?" "Sure. €500, plus the time it'll take me to try to fix it. Assuming it can still be fixed and nothing important has been deleted." "That much?" Some silence. "Well, I hope AI takes your job away!" And he hung up. Believing that autopilot automatically makes you an invulnerable professional pilot will ruin far more people than job losses will. I don't know if AI will take my job away, but it's already cost them €500 and, probably, their server. #IT #SysAdmin

Replies (7)

@duncan_bayne@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-10-12 11:29

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Remember it's €5,000 when they call back in a week 😜

Open ##5003622
@jaap@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-10-12 11:59

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Unbelievable how many crazy IT stories you’ve got. At this point you could probably write a couple of volumes. I imagine they’d sell good too

Open ##5003624
@wizbean@tech.lgbt 2026-10-12 10:29

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe "it didn't even make backups!" skill issue lmao

Open ##5003633
@bms@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-10-12 14:28

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Meh, just meh, this reminds me of all the thanks I didn't get when I saved the City of London prop trading desk I was contracting for by doing a live ext4 Linux filesystem recovery on an HP MSA based SAN.

Open ##5003635
@nuintari@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-10-12 14:31

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Almost my entire income is unfucking bad AI nonsense, much of it starts like this story. And it almost always comes with a phase in the negotiations where they beg me to reduce my rates because they have already spent so much money on AI. But that isn't my fault, nor my problem. Never been told off like this though.

Open ##5003636
@teapot_ben@glammr.us 2026-10-12 10:44

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe 🤯 it's amazing (by which I mean worrying) how many people seem to think they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by using AI. I don't understand why anyone would just let AI loose on a production system like that, and even blame AI for not taking backups. Although why was it not being backed up anyway? I wonder how much more money they will waste in tokens rather than pay a professional to fix the mess.

Open ##5003638
@rlonstein@social.stonetools.tech 2026-10-12 15:06

@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Remind of this now classic cartoon

Open ##5005078