<html><body><div dir="ltr"><p class="p1">You know, frankly I\u2019m astounded at the outrage from a few of you.</p><p class="p1">I found Walter\u2019s question interesting, so I did a little research. I didn\u2019t know the answer, but I understand the concepts involved well enough to evaluate the response and thought it might help move the discussion forward.</p><p class="p1">Walter didn\u2019t say, \u201cOnly answer this if you already know it from memory.\u201d He asked a technical question.</p><p class="p1">Twenty-five years ago I might have searched Usenet archives. Ten years ago I would have Googled it, searched mailing lists, Stack Overflow, or dug through old Sun documentation. I might have asked somebody who knew more about it than I did. Today, one of the tools I can also use is AI.</p><p class="p1">Does information somehow become invalid because Google helped you find it? Because grep found it in a manual? Because somebody on a mailing list pointed you toward it? Of course not. You evaluate the information and follow the references.</p><p class="p1">The AI response was actually pretty good based on the available general knowledge. More importantly, it contained a number of specific clues about where the answer might lie and referenced specific Sun documentation that could be checked. That seems considerably more useful to me than simply not responding because I didn\u2019t personally know the answer beforehand.</p><p class="p1">Andrew and Liam seem to want to impose some sort of purity test on how someone is allowed to acquire knowledge before helping another person in this group. I was unaware of any such rule.</p><p class="p1">I\u2019ve helped plenty of people here over the years with very specific information based on my own experience.</p><p class="p1">In fact, a few weeks ago I posted about converting a SunOS 4.1.4 disk image from sun4c to sun4m and got a lot of great feedback. I eventually wrote the process up.</p><p class="p1">And, GASP, I used AI while figuring out how to do it:</p><p class="p1"><a href="https://oldsilicon.com/technologies/sunos-414-sun4c-to-sun4m-graft/">https://oldsilicon.com/technologies/sunos-414-sun4c-to-sun4m-graft/</a></p><p class="p1">The result works. That seems like a considerably more meaningful test of the tool than whether using it offends somebody\u2019s sensibilities.</p><p class="p1">AI can be wrong. So can Google results. So can documentation. So can Stack Overflow. So can people on technical mailing lists. The answer has always been the same: understand what you\u2019re reading, verify what matters, test it, and contribute what you learn.</p><p class="p1">If this group is so closed-minded that we now have to decide not only whether someone\u2019s contribution is useful, but whether they acquired the information through an approved method, then I guess I\u2019ll move on.</p><p class="p1">You can always find me at <a href="http://oldsilicon.com">oldsilicon.com</a>.</p><p class="p2">-t</p></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">
<br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:medium;margin-top:0px"><div style="margin-top:0px;font-weight:bold"><div style="margin-top:0px"><div style="margin-top:0px"><div style="margin-top:0px"><font style="font-size:14px">Todd Vernon</font></div><div style="font-weight:normal;margin-top:0px"><font style="font-size:13px">Entrepreneur | Investor</font></div><div style="font-weight:400;font-size:13px;margin-top:0px;color:rgb(80,0,80)">Email: <a href="mailto:todd@toddvernon.com" target="_blank">todd@toddvernon.com</a></div><div style="font-weight:400;font-size:13px;margin-top:0px;color:rgb(80,0,80)">LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/" target="_blank">toddvernon</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sep 5, 2026 at 12:11:50\u202fPM, Andrew Jones <<a href="mailto:andrew@jones.ec">andrew@jones.ec</a>> wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" type="cite">
<div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">If O.P. wanted an AI response, he'd have asked the AI chatbot himself.</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px" class="protonmail_signature_block protonmail_signature_block-empty">
<div class="protonmail_signature_block-user protonmail_signature_block-empty">
</div>
<div class="protonmail_signature_block-proton protonmail_signature_block-empty">
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div class="protonmail_quote">
On Friday, September 4th, 2026 at 06:38, Todd Vernon via rescue <<a href="mailto:rescue@sunhelp.org">rescue@sunhelp.org</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="protonmail_quote" type="cite">
<div name="messageBodySection">
<div>Sorry to try and help. I clearly stated it was AI. A lot of people don\u2019t try AI. I would put forth your response was less on target than mine.</div>
</div>
<div name="messageSignatureSection"><br>
<div style="color:rgb(32,33,36);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;margin-top:7px"><font style="font-size:14px">---</font></div>
<div style="color:rgb(32,33,36);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;margin-top:7px;font-weight:bold"><font style="font-size:16px">Todd Vernon</font></div>
<div style="color:rgb(32,33,36);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;margin-top:7px"><font style="font-size:14px;font-weight:normal">Entrepreneur | Investor</font></div>
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-size:14px;margin-top:7px;color:rgb(80,0,80)">Email: <a href="mailto:todd@toddvernon.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener"><font style="font-size:14px">todd@toddvernon.com</font></a></div>
<div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-size:14px;margin-top:7px;color:rgb(80,0,80)">LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener"><font style="font-size:14px">toddvernon</font></a></div>
</div>
<div name="messageReplySection">
<div>On Sep 4, 2026 at 5:45\u202fAM -0400, Liam Proven via rescue <<a href="mailto:rescue@sunhelp.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">rescue@sunhelp.org</a>>, wrote:<br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote style="margin:5px 5px;padding-left:10px;border-left-width:thin;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:#1abc9c">
<div>On 03/09/2026 8:06 am, Todd Vernon via rescue wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote style="border-left-color:#e67e22;border-left-style:solid;border-left-width:thin;margin:5px;padding-left:10px">
<div>was interested to see what AI (ChatGPT) would say.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
*Please* do not be a meat proxy.<br>
<br>
<a href="https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/" style="word-break:break-word" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/</a><br>
<br>
--<br>
Liam Proven ~ Profile: <a href="https://about.me/liamproven" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">https://about.me/liamproven</a><br>
Email: <a href="mailto:lproven@cix.co.uk" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">lproven@cix.co.uk</a> ~ gMail/Twitter/LinkedIn/FB/Bsky: lproven<br>
IoM: (+44) 7624 227612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884<br>
Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
rescue list - <a href="http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org">http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org</a><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div></body></html>