technology – Wild Rain

Something went wrong

Something went wrong.

I hate that message. It’s both a statement of fact and unhelpful at the same time.

Your laptop, device, car, whatever piece of technology that you are currently using has failed to complete the requested task and instead is showing you those three words: something went wrong.

What went wrong? How do I fix it? There is no help because it does not know. The exact scenario has not been catered for in advance. There is no exception handler for this particular exception. Instead you’ve fallen down to the bottom of the switch case and landed at the default, if nothing else show them those three words code branch.

Something went wrong.

Political music in minutes

You can now create professional sounding music in minutes thanks to AI.

You can write a country song for your girlfriend on your anniversary with careful written lyrics with meaning only to the both of you. And it can sound like a professional singer and band recorded it. All from the comfort of your own home, and laptop.

A new trend is political music. Music with a political message or bias complete with propaganda lyrics designed to resonate with your target audience. Available in all musical genres and styles. Rock, metal, jazz, classical, pop, you name it, whatever you want. Type in your message and the AI will create the track for you faster than you can make a cup of coffee. Fine-tune it and release. Voila! Your political message or viewpoint is injected into the music streams of your choice ready for the masses to consume.

Forgotten tech

Are you old when you can recall technology from the past? Technology that either no longer exists, or the name you use for it is no longer in use.

My father used to say photostat and fax. In my youth there was dial-up and BBS. The device halfway between a smartphone and tablet was a phablet. We had MP3 players like the Creative Rhomba, flip phones that fit in the palm of your hands. PDAs. All forgotten like tears in the rain. Saved in our memories, while they last.

Saving. That reminds me, most children today do not know where the save icon comes from. The good old floppy disk. Not the 5.25 inch, the real floppy, but the 3.5 inch rigid 720MB SD (880 Amiga) or 1.44HD.

Old technology. Guru meditations.

It’s exhausting

There are so many scams these days. Some are getting more and more sophisticated. Making use of new technology like AI. Scammers love the social networks and LinkedIn is no exception. You need to verify everything. You cannot trust anything anymore.

Scammers can contact you as potential recruiters looking to harvest your info, or to sell you something, or to trick you into revealing something about your employer or colleague. Others try to connect in order to gain access to your contacts and to use your connection to them to boost their credibility. Some will contact you via LinkedIn messaging to offer you opportunities or fake services. Others may be selling certifications or courses that are not real, or worthless.

Some days I can’t be bothered going on LinkedIn or the socials full stop. I’m just too tired of all the scams and having to work out what is real and what is not. It’s exhausting! It’s a pity that the social platforms themselves don’t use technology like AI against the scammers to better police their networks. Maybe it would reduce their income streams too much.

Has AI killed Google Dorking?

When performing OSINT research I often utilise Google keywords and advanced features, also known as Google Dorking. It’s a great way to find content and data that a basic search may fail to retrieve. Recently however, I discovered that AI, namely GPT, can retrieve the same results, and sometimes even more, faster than I can dork, prompting me to speculate whether AI has replaced the need to learn advanced OSINT techniques at all. Maybe OSINT 2.0 is learning to master AI prompts to conduct OSINT research faster and better than manually?

I put this to the test. I was recently asked to research a company. I like to use mind-mapping to join up the data that I find. Using Google Dorking and various sites that offer data on public companies I compiled a lot of information in around an hour, all linked together with reference points and a timeline. I then asked GPT to research the same company specifying the parameters. In five seconds it not only retrieved all the information that I had found, but it had additional information that I had not.

I’ll admit that at first I was annoyed that it was faster than me but after thinking about it I realised that it was also very useful. It provided links and evidence along with its findings, which I could follow to verify. The outcome was new sources that I could add to my own playbook. I also decided that I could use AI to assist with the process but that you have to follow a trust but verify rule. Check everything it tells you and back it up with evidence as it may have hallucinated some or all of its findings. It helps to think of AI as a virtual OSINT assistant in this case. You can give it something to research, but make sure you yourself check everything it returns.

As for whether AI has killed Google Dorking, I still use dorking to verify what AI returns as it may of missed something, possibly considering it irrelevant or out of scope.

Technology frustration

I work in tech, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not susceptible to the frustration that occurs when tech fails you when you need it the most. For example, I recently found an app that helps with mindfulness and relaxation. It’s easy to use and makes certain tasks easier. Yet it just failed for no reason. Refuses to work for me yet there is no negative feedback online, the service is not reported as down, no issues reported at all. Yet it doesn’t work.

I had googled things to check, even resorted to AI with no joy. In the end the frustration it was causing defeated its purpose so I uninstalled it and found something else. Then later that same day a friend was at a fuel station and was trying to pay for the fuel he had put in his vehicle but the machine did not like his card. He only had one card. It’s the same card he always used. The assistant asked for another card. He didn’t have another.

In the UK you pay for fuel after filling up. A flawed process in my opinion because as we rely more and more on digital money we encounter situations where it can fail, like this one. If you can’t pay you will be detained and possibly arrested. You must always have the means to pay. But in a cashless society how does that work when the technology fails?Luckily my friend was only topping up and had enough cash in his vehicle so paid and was let go.

We investigated his card issue. There was nothing wrong with the card. It was a technology issue somewhere in the network between the card company and the fuel station.

Cash remains king. Always carry some! Technology frustration is a given. Always have a backup. And maybe a backup for the backup.

Bad timing of app updates

I hate apps that lose your login details on update. You know the ones. Apps for stores, coffee shops, supermarkets, and other places that offer discount vouchers and loyalty programs.

You arrived at the store and go to make your purchase and voila! The app has been updated and has lost your credentials. Please login again. Only there is no signal, or you can’t remember your credentials. They are at home on your laptop or somewhere else, but not here not now.

So no discounts for you, or loyalty points. Just pure annoyance at how technology can just fail when you need it the most. Paper coupons and loyalty cards would not fail like this. Wasn’t the whole point of switching to an app to make life easier?

There are hacks of course. Check the app works before you leave the house. Maybe even open it so its ready to go. Screenshot the coupon codes, the 3D barcodes, the offer details. Maybe your membership number or QR code too for safe measure. Oh and make sure your phone has enough charge. You didn’t want to turn up and it turns itself off just as you approach the checkout.

Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs)

I was in a local supermarket and noticed that a shelf label was glitching. What I thought were actual paper labels were in fact ESLs, aka Electronic Shelf Labels. These mini screens make use of e-ink with 1-4 colours and a long battery life to, in theory, save time and costs changing labels with promos, discounts, new stock, and so on. Instead of having to wander around the store changing printed labels it’s all done from a central computer.

A couple of the labels were on the fritz, alerting me to what they were. They were flickering random pixels like a faulty phone screen. When I got home I did some light research. These particular ESLs were manufactured by a company called Pricer. They are controlled via IR from hubs mounted in the ceiling with line-of-sight like a TV remote. Central software named Pricer Plaza allows you to monitor and update the ESLs from the store PC.

I looked into the security in play. Encrypted comms, auth keys etc. The usual fare. There had been some reported hacks. Changing prices, arrow keys with this way messages, naughty stuff. There was even a few cases of ramsomware, but mostly defacement of some kind. Kids having fun. Like the days when smart watches first appeared that could control TVs and TV stores were constantly having to deal with the display models having their channels changed. More an annoyance than anything clever.

I’m not sold on ESLs being better for the environment. It’s probably just more tech that will eventually end up in a landfill. Still, it may be fun to play with.

Using AI to bypass firewalls

I’ve found yet another use for AI: Bypassing firewalls.

If you are accessing a computer behind a firewall and it allows AI like a GPT, but is tightly controlled otherwise, you could use the AI to bypass the firewall.

For example if you can’t read your favourite news feeds you can ask the AI to grab them for you and present them to you in whatever format. As far as the firewall is concerned it just sees traffic from your AI. It is not inspecting the data.

You can ask the AI to get the latest news, visit web sites, get data and other media etc, and all of it comes to you inside the firewall with no alerts.

Not that I am recommending that you do that of course. I’m just pointing out something I discovered, with permission.

I’m sure that most content restriction firewalls will become AI savvy soon enough.

AI is always polite

Have you noticed that AI is always polite?

No matter what I ask it or how aggressive my follow-on prompts get, it is always polite!

Certainly, of course, well spotted, Yes! Its replies are always positive, upbeat, polite. You have asked a very educated question and I will answer it in a polite and servitude way.

I was watching a TV series set in the 1800s and my interaction with chat AIs reminded me of how the actors spoke in this particular show. People communicating based on class, always polite as if each word was followed by a bow or curtsy. Even if the person you were talking to was a complete ass you would still address them with politeness and an air of servitude.

Maybe the AI system prompts have an Elizabethan politeness function?