Tag: whoops

The Future Is Now

On 2026-01-20

I made a [hopefully slight] mistake, Space Pilgrims. In the sheer metric tonnage of things to do prior to moving, I forgot at least one important step.

*from a photo by Haley Truong on Unsplash*

There’s a company, a tax company, that Kaz and I have worked with for years. As our finances have gotten more complicated, they have they have been great to us. I don’t want to precisely name and shame them—*cough* *cough* Z&5 tycTM *cough* *cough*—but let’s just say that you could come up with an almost-a-pun if you said, with a bit of a swollen mouth, sketch and draw block.

Like a lot of accounts, our account with them is deeply associated with an email address. And in this case, the email was deeply associated with my old job. I had notes to myself, “Doug needs to change this specific email address for {x, y, z, etc},” and in a lot of cases I did.

I think I started to change it there, but when I try to log in to start the annual Joy in Taxes Ritual, it wants my old work email to let me sign in. Despite insisting, in the out of date online help pages, that there should be a button I could button to use another way to verify who I am, said button does not even have the dignity to face me as a man.

So I call.

Pick up a phone and call.

Like an old person.

Only, now there is an AI assistant to help with the phone. Ah, the dream. The future. The slow erosion of all middle-class jobs to make sure there is an even bigger divide between the rich and the riff-raff.

*sips tea* Yes, yes.

At any rate, I smile because why not be nice to the unthinking digital monstrosity feasting on our good will and hopes for a brighter tomorrow, and I respond to the “How can I help you [fleshy creature]?” prompt and I say, in as clear of a voice as I can muster:

“I need help updating my email address on your website.”

This was followed by clicking and clacking sounds. To make me feel like it was thinking and typing out an answer. It went on for a while, so I had some hope that it was digging up some module to actually assist with my problem or at least give me follow-up sub-prompts.

….

………

….

……

“To update your computer, you need to make sure you have the right software…[detailed instructions on finding software as a concept online]…and then make sure your firewall is not blocking the upgrade and install…[some more advice, including contacting the company’s help line for all my tech support needs].”

It “heard” the word “update” and then gave me a response about updating my computer before then appending the standard “there is help available” by giving me the information I had already used to end up in this conversation. It was both an endless loop and a sidequest.

Now, the company does have product-specific software. At least, I assume it does. Wait, let me check….

[pretend clicking and clacking noises]

…yes. It does. It seems like they have it updated through 2025 and I’m sure more AI bots are vibe coding the 2026 version right as we speak. Well, right as I type. I’m not saying this out loud or anything. That would be….crazy, right?

At any rate, while utterly unhelpful, it makes at least some vague sense if their average customer base is calling to ask for tech help and its having to start very basic on a whole.

Still.

The future is now.

After that, I simply said, “Agent, please,” and it made some more clicking clacking, told me human agents were only available from 7am to some other time CST, and then hung up on me.

A Day in the Life #17671: Cool Snail, “How Dare you, Wordle!?,” and Website Whoopsie

By Doug Bolden

On 2025-10-15

In Coding, Dougiverse, Games, Photos

First off, while out fixing our doorbell this morning and cursing the curse of tiny screws, I saw this cool looking snail:

How Dare You, Wordle!?

Second, how dare you Wordle!? It is October for goodness, sake…

And yes, I partially posted that just to see if I can work out the mechanics of a “spoiler” type image. It should “enlarge” to the unspoilered image. If it doesn’t, I might just remove this whole section.

Just in case you don’t want to do that, here’s my explanation (click to expose spoiler): 2v Zo oj336s oS0o35, o3 2 J0o vEZ56Z5h vE0v W0szS vES J3RI J3pYI zS blxx4 05I h3v S9mZvSI 0z3pv Zv. n3JSkSR, V3RIYS jY0sSI WS YZ6S 0 M33Y!

EDIT: I’m going to leave it like th at for now, where instead of opening into a lightbox it opens another tab with the unspoilered version. I really don’t think it’s worth it, but I’ll give it a think about how to do it better without needing plugins.

Big Old Whoops on the Website Backend

I have been cleaning up a good bit of the backend of my old wyrmis.com website and today was chunking out a few hundred-ish tiny files from the file structure that were no longer used and at least potentially, therefore, a security risk [at worst] but just a hindrance to sort through, at best.

I ran what I took to be a basic rm -rf * type command but apparently the software does it a bit more complicated than that (and even has the option to move the files into a local recycle bin).

~~This was treated as me {moving | uploading | downloading} a lot of files and triggered an automatic kick. The software got booted from the server and I am at least on a temporary ban.~~ My assumption here was very wrong, see UPDATE below.

I can still log on to the server through other means, and the website seems completely unimpacted. Now I’m waiting an hour or two to see if it clears up on its own or I might have to contact someone for some technical support.

While I can still edit the website in a number of ways, I had a nice workflow going.

I’ll spend the time, instead, building up a tool that might help me to semi-automate some of the process of fixing hundreds of HTML files and then like, get back to house repairs, instead.

Now I am off to take some photos of damaged bookcases that the shipper broke and wants more photos to prove despite sending them a number of photos.

[2 hours later] Update to Website Woes

Turns out my previous assumption was just plain wrong. The [re]moving of a large number of files might have exacerbated the situation by making it harder to tell what was happening, but the actual culprit was that after I backed out of the directory that had the files, I thought it was sending me {Doug's Directory} while instead it was sending me {The Directory ABOVE Doug's Directory} and then, because the program I was using had the option to recall last directory, it entered into a loop where it kept trying to enter a forbidden zone.

I figured this out when at a whim I tried to enter directly into a sub-directory, which failed and then kicked me back out into the directory I was supposed to be in and I realized what was wrong.

The reason it wasn’t immediately obvious before was because when it kicked me out it essentially prevented me from even seeing what sort of directory I was in. It was the sort like finding a NO ENTRY sign in the middle of a very dark room and having to guess your location. Only every time you re-enter the room, a helpful guide runs up and escorts you to the same place you were just told you not to enter.