Making AI Suck Less
My attempts at making AI produce less slop and technical debt when helping with code generation.
Mark Loveless
<a rel="me" href="https://rigor-mortis.nmrc.org/@simplenomad">Mastodon</a>
Latest posts
AI and Technical Debt
AI - especially agentic AI - is inadvertently creating more technical debt. But there are a few steps one can take to help mitigate the situation.
Quantum-Safe OpenSSH and OpenSSL
It’s one thing to simply say “patch” to address a future quantum computing danger. It’s another when configuring services. Examples are included.
Deeper Thoughts On Microsoft
Microsoft’s blog post last month seemed horrid for the research community. But is it the full story?
Lost in Transition, Revisited
History seemed to repeat itself. Before, I had become unemployed and started this blog. And now seven years later, here I am ready to start a new chapter with yet another round of unemployment.
Quantum Readiness
Yes, Q-Day is coming. Granted, that day when quantum computers can crack older cryptography is a few years off, but it is in fact coming. Better to start preparing now rather than later, and there is plenty you can do that is fairly easy right now. Plus I released a simple script for checking your systems.
The Tale of Handjob Alley
You have a running joke with friends and you’re a nerd, so you buy a domain involving the joke. Hilarious. But what if you decide to actually use it for something halfway useful?
Green Update
The pursuit of green energy solutions is fun for me, but it never ends. That’s fine, I’m still enjoying myself.
The Uncomfortable Effects of AI
Is AI good or bad? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is up to the infosec community to fix it, whether we want to or not.
Monitoring My Solar Panels' Health
Since I now am using one brand of inverters instead of two for my solar panels, I can now monitor things down to the individual panel. With limits…
Swift Strangeness
This wasn’t an encounter with Taylor Swift. It was more of an encounter with her limo and police escort, while she was inside it. Strange that it happened more than once.
APT and Sendmail Monitoring
Instead of simply discarding incoming phishing emails from APT actors, I decided to make sure it was loud and clear in mail logs that I discarded them - with attribution.
Network Updates
Everything on the network is finally done. Oh who am I kidding? Things change constantly between software and hardware updates and upgrades. This just documents a small part of it.
The Latest Solar Project Part 3
A seemingly small project turned into an 11 month journey with so many weird turns and gotchas that it was at times maddening. But new panels are in place and functioning.
The Home Assistant Migration
It was a backup, drive wipe, reload, and restore the backup. I expected the worse, but what happened surprised me.
Bash Themes
In early 2025 I started fiddling around with minor bash prompt tweaks, then slowly developed themes, until it got out of hand….
Ultimate Encryption Solution
I wrote the ultimate encryption implementation, wow it is so good! However as far as usability for the average person (or even ultra nerd) leaves a lot to be desired. A WHOLE lot.
Using AI Responsibly
I wanted to use AI but in a way that was responsible, didn’t dig into my privacy, and helped me to get what I want. One might say I am “hacking” AI. Maybe I am. I’m trying to get it to do what I want it to do on my own terms - the essence of hacking. But first, I had to devise a test. Granted, this test is for my needs, but maybe you might find it interesting as well.
Tracking Advanced Port Scanning
I’ve noticed ports scans. A lot of them. However these are different, these are all scans from a seemingly distributed scanning network spread out over multiple IP addresses.
The Latest Solar Project Part 2
Wow, when things go sideways, they go sideways. Back to square one with my solar panel expansion plans.