Moved the virtual servers

Finally, I got around to the virtual server migration, rather last-minute. At least, I got the more critical parts, DNS and e-mail, working sufficiently the day before the deadline. I will get around to the other parts over time. It was fun to get back into that kind of work, and interesting to be reminded of how I had set things up previously. Thank you to those who offered suggestions: in the end, Mythic Beasts looked very much to be the right kind of provider and, so far, I am happy with the move to them.

Apart from other services, even my initial ones still need a bit of work: get my zones offered by the provider's DNS too, review the SSL certificates for SMTP/IMAP, sort out DMARC, etc. Still, things are already working well enough that I'll continue at my convenience.

Considering modern AI (LLMs)

With using LLMs in two of my three latest jobs, I have been trying to embrace them a little more than I was inclined to initially, to try to see what uses I may have for them. There are some applications that don't need reliable perfection, after all. I can see, for instance, that, for image editing, one can probably readily see if the prompting and model achieved the desired effect.

It also occurred to me that, when I ask friends for their opinion or thoughts on something, I don't expect perfection from them either, and that with an LLM I don't have to consider if I might try its patience. Sometimes, I can appreciate a good guess.

As an experiment, I tried asking an OpenAI model about something I still don't understand: how the hidden variables theory was disproved (i.e., why we are sure that God plays dice) and it span me an interesting explanation of how hidden variables would violate locality. I should have tried probing that a little more but I instead wondered if quantum entanglement doesn't also violate locality and OpenAI seemed to think it does, so I shrugged and got back to my actual work. I can see the appeal of taking a bit more time to interrogate it and, with that kind of question, it has probably been trained on enough material to become fairly trustworthy. It's not as if anything relies on my being correct about such matters anyway.

Official documents going electronic

I think it silly of His Majesty's Government to have switched from issuing physical visas to virtual "eVisas" that one checks by typing an alphanumeric code into a government website. It assumes far too much of mobile data connectivity when one is in some random place where one's documents are being checked. Further, what actually happens is absurd: people get you to show them your visa details in the web browser on your own mobile telephone, something easily faked.

Presumably thrilled with this success, apparently the Government is now moving on to introducing digital driving licences. For the moment, these are to be an optional add-on beyond the physical photocard, presumably most welcomed by those non-immigrants who would also like an easy way to fake their details. I suppose that I can imagine a version that shows a QR code bearing cryptographically signed data that can be verified by some reader, even printed out as insurance against device failure, but, given the eVisa implementation, I am not holding my breath for such.