[rescue] Q about sun2 boot flow

Sat Sep 5 19:45:44 UTC 2026

Hey Todd if you're the guy behind old silicon, glad I ran into you. This
article somehow came up for me:
https://oldsilicon.com/technologies/sunos-414-older-sun-boxes/

I found it to be an awesome read, and learned a lot from it. Also got me
intrigued enough that I bought the books :)

On Sat, Sep 5, 2026, 12:01 Todd Vernon via rescue <rescue at sunhelp.org>
wrote:

> Andrew, your email, is what’s rude.  You’re just picking a fight for some
> reason that eludes me.  Your position is one of emotion not genuine
> information sharing and help. Disappointing. I love tech forums because
> they typically they arise above this kind of stuff.
>
> Walter I hope you get things worked out with your machine.
>
> T
>
> ---
> Todd Vernon
> Entrepreneur | Investor
> Email: todd at toddvernon.com
> LinkedIn: toddvernon <https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvernon/>
> On Sep 5, 2026 at 2:39 PM -0400, Andrew Jones <andrew at jones.ec>, wrote:
>
> 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
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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