[rescue] Q about sun2 boot flow

[Andrew Jones]

It's not a "purity test" on how you acquire knowledge. The problem is that you did not acquire any knowledge. You pasted a wall of text from your chatbot. That is generally considered rude.

I am sure everyone would have been quite grateful if you had used your chatbot to chase down useful answers to the questions at hand. That would be very helpful!

On Saturday, September 5th, 2026 at 14:31, Todd Vernon <todd at toddvernon.com> wrote:

> You know, frankly I’m astounded at the outrage from a few of you.
>
> I found Walter’s question interesting, so I did a little research. I didn’t know the answer, but I understand the concepts involved well enough to evaluate the response and thought it might help move the discussion forward.
>
> Walter didn’t say, “Only answer this if you already know it from memory.” He asked a technical question.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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’t personally know the answer beforehand.
>
> 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.
>
> I’ve helped plenty of people here over the years with very specific information based on my own experience.
>
> 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.
>
> And, GASP, I used AI while figuring out how to do it:
>
> https://oldsilicon.com/technologies/sunos-414-sun4c-to-sun4m-graft/
>
> The result works. That seems like a considerably more meaningful test of the tool than whether using it offends somebody’s sensibilities.
>
> 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’re reading, verify what matters, test it, and contribute what you learn.
>
> If this group is so closed-minded that we now have to decide not only whether someone’s contribution is useful, but whether they acquired the information through an approved method, then I guess I’ll move on.
>
> You can always find me at oldsilicon.com.
>
> -t
>
> Todd Vernon
> Entrepreneur | Investor
> Email: todd at toddvernon.com
> LinkedIn: [toddvernon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/)
>
> On Sep 5, 2026 at 12:11:50 PM, Andrew Jones <andrew at jones.ec> wrote:
>
>> If O.P. wanted an AI response, he'd have asked the AI chatbot himself.
>>
>> On Friday, September 4th, 2026 at 06:38, Todd Vernon via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Sorry to try and help. I clearly stated it was AI. A lot of people don’t try AI. I would put forth your response was less on target than mine.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Todd Vernon
>>> Entrepreneur | Investor
>>> Email: todd at toddvernon.com
>>> LinkedIn: [toddvernon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/)
>>> On Sep 4, 2026 at 5:45 AM -0400, Liam Proven via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org>, wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 03/09/2026 8:06 am, Todd Vernon via rescue wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> was interested to see what AI (ChatGPT) would say.
>>>>
>>>> *Please* do not be a meat proxy.
>>>>
>>>> https://gruhn.me/blog/2026-08-03/
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
>>>> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ~ gMail/Twitter/LinkedIn/FB/Bsky: lproven
>>>> IoM: (+44) 7624 227612: UK: (+44) 7939-087884
>>>> Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org
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