Google’s New Gemini is Quite Poor

I only use generative AI a few times a week. Whether it is Bard or ChatGPT depends on what I currently have open. Recently Google has released Gemini and is in the process of rolling it out as Bard’s replacement.

I am very disappointed in it. I have only done a few searches and two of them it has come back and refused to help me. One was to generate a photo and the other was how to catch a rooster. Not only that but their new gemini app is region locked and will not work on my phone. However, I can go to the site and that works. By works, I mean it generates answers even though they are a total waste of electricity and my time.

Gemini wouldn’t allow me to generate a photo of pennywise in a hammock. I tried a few ways but it said it couldn’t. when I changed it to a clown the generated photos were terrible. For the rooster question it refused on all grounds that it was inhumane. That has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. I could keep going on but I would like to enjoy my Saturday.

The bottom line is to tell Google to go back to the drawing board and continue to use ChatGPT.

Lenovo Duet 5 Stuck on 105

My Lenovo Duet 5 has been stuck on Chrome OS version 105 for close to a year. I did not even realize it because I know there was a boot loop issue that some people where having. However, it turns out that my version is much older than that. I found out when I went to the Chase Bank website and it said my device was no longer supported.

I tried a few things first. This included a factory reset and trying things like beta but nothing ever changed. It always said there was no new updates.

The day before going on holiday I wiped and reinstalled hoping that would fix it. All I did was make my life harder. I rely on a few play apps like Splashtop. Well, the play store wasn’t updating. It took a few reboots and then it started to work. Later, I would get random freezes with just a few tabs opened. I wasn’t doing anything to have it use up all the memory. The worst though was my wireguard connections. I have several setup for my managed routers. I forgot that part when I wiped and didn’t have backups. Needless to say I know have several routers that will be a challenge to access to setup the VPN again.

Just got back and decided I would try to install a new version using a recovery drive. This device only has USB-C and no USB-A drives. I knew I had one usb-c flash drive somewhere but I never found it! Thankfully I remembered that my windows computer came with a usb-c adapter. I plugged thee USB-A into that and then downloaded and installed the correct chromeos onto it.

The restore went great and now I am on version 120.x. Play store apps updated and downloaded correctly and it looks much nicer. I have more to add back but this is a great start.

I do not know if I learned any lesson from this but I am still happy having my Duet 5. I plan to continue to travel with it. It has a beautiful screen and if something does happen to it I am out a few hundred dollars but my data will be secure.

Unable to Preview files in Thunderbird

I had a call today from a client who was having difficulty previewing files in Thunderbird. When he clicked on the PDF it would open a blank screen in Thunderbird. If I changed the default to Firefox it just would not open. I also tried to delete the line in settings, which did not help. I also re-downloaded Firefox and installed a fresh copy. Still no luck!

What I learned today was that you can run a repair just on the specific folder that is having issues. In this case, it was the inbox. Right-clicking on the inbox and running a repair fixed the issue. After all these years I cannot believe that I did not know about this repair option.

Raspberry Pi 4 has been Performing Well

Ever since I replaced the memory card I think my Pi has been performing well. I did have to add a small USB fan to blow air on it. The internal temp was at 71C. It’s hot at this time of the year. My desktop has not even turned on for 2 months now. It is just too much heat and humidity for the poor thing—one of the tradeoffs for living in the Caribbean.

I have been going back on forth on whether I should migrate some sites to the Pi as is or if I should turn it into a multi-site WordPress and save the resources. I was dead set on multi-site WordPress but then thinking of how I would have to migrate it at some point I wasn’t sure I wanted things to get all mixed up. I’m not a fan of WordPress, yet I have several WordPress sites that I need to support.

WordPress Permissions

I use this post all the time and figured I should make another copy of it so that I can find it faster.

Use these commands to fix your permissions on your WordPress site.

chown www-data:www-data  -R * # Let Apache be owner
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;  # Change directory permissions rwxr-xr-x
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;  # Change file permissions rw-r--r--

SSL Issues

I have no idea how I ended up with SSL issues on the restore but I think I finally have it fixed. I use Cloudfront for the SSL. I used to use Let’s Encrypt but this is so much easier – usually. I use the flexible setting in Cloudflare and then downloaded a plugin called SSL Insecure Content Fixer and it fixed my issues.

I could have sworn I was using Full Encryption last time. When I went to the Cloudfront settings I was sure that is what was selected. Using Flexible it worked for visitors but I couldn’t post. It said there was insecure items. If I show the insecure items i can’t publish. I had to set my site settings to HTTP instead of HTTPS. That is also something that I could have sworn was HTTPS before the crash.

Who knows but it is all working again. My next thing to fix is the multi-site. I found instructions to use regular domains instead of subdomains. I’d like to try to reduce my EC2 usage and this is one of the ways I thought I could do that.

PC-Prime.com has been Migrated to a Raspberry Pi 4

One of my EC2 instance reserves was going to be up on January 29th. I took the opportunity to move it to a new raspberry Pi 4 B with 8 GB of Ram. It is running Ubuntu 23.04 server and is on a 32GB SD card. I also have the daily backup going to Cloudflare R2. I was already using Cloudflare for the DNS and the CDN.

The wordpress setup and install took longer than I wanted. I just have not done it in a long time. Now with the bugs fixed I should be good to go.

The site gets less than a 10,000 hits a month and is more about having it as a requirement for things like taking credit cards. The cost for the Pi is close to my 3 yr reserved t3a price. I figured now that I have the speed and experience then why not self-host. I’ve been waiting years for a Pi 4. I have several 2’s and 3’s but wanted the extra ram in the latest version. I may also put another site or two on the PI. Why not right?

Unable to Add Windows Computer to Intune

I had the hardest time trying to get this one computer added. It kept telling me it was already added.

First, the post that helped:

@RandSol , For our issue, we can try to delete all GUIDs under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Enrollments to see if it can be enrolled.
Note: Make sure to NOT delete Context, Ownership, Status and ValidNodePaths.

The following link for the reference:
https://jocha.se/blog/tech/azure-ad-mdm-intune-error-8018000a
Note: Non-Microsoft link, just for the reference.

Here was the error code that started it: Error 8018000a: The device is already enrolled.

Some of the registry entries would not delete but it did fix the issue.

I had to use a VPN to get in on the Bard Beta

I had to use a VPN to get in on the Bard Beta and that is a bunch of garbage. Google doesn’t consider USVI as past of the United States. The Bard beta is limited to US and apparently Great Britian. It’s stupid. It’s so stupid that I asked Bard to write an article for me on how stupid it is. On a side note the stuff I can do with ChatAPI and with Bard is amazing. On the other side of the coin I’ve caught Bard saying flat out lies a few times today. This could be amazing or scary.

The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is an unincorporated territory of the United States. The USVI consists of the main islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix, as well as several smaller islands. The USVI has a population of over 105,000 people and is a major tourist destination.

Google is a multinational technology company that provides a variety of online services, including search, email, and maps. Google does not consider the USVI to be part of the United States, and as a result, USVI residents do not have access to all of the same services that are available to residents of the 50 states.

This is unfair for a number of reasons. First, the USVI is a part of the United States. The USVI has been a US territory since 1917, and its residents are US citizens. Second, the USVI is a major tourist destination. Many US citizens travel to the USVI each year, and they should be able to access the same services that are available to them when they are in the 50 states. Third, the USVI is a major economic partner of the United States. The USVI imports goods and services from the US, and it exports goods and services to the US. The US should not discriminate against the USVI by denying its residents access to important online services.

Written by Bard

Google should reconsider its policy and treat the USVI as part of the United States. This would be the fair thing to do, and it would also be good for business.

How to Manually Force Sync Azure AD with Active Directory

Imagine you’re the captain of a ship sailing the high seas. Your ship is like your Azure AD environment, and just as you need to keep your ship’s course up-to-date with the latest navigational information, you need to keep your Azure AD environment synced with the latest user and group information.

To manually force sync Azure AD Connect using PowerShell, you’ll need to give the command to “hoist the sails” and get the ship moving forward. In other words, you’ll need to open PowerShell and type “Import-Module AAD” and hit enter. Then enter the following command:

Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta

This command tells Azure AD Connect to start a delta sync cycle, which will update your Azure AD environment with any changes made to your on-premises Active Directory since the last sync.

Once you’ve given the command to start the sync cycle, you’ll need to keep a sharp eye on the horizon (or PowerShell window) for any errors or warnings that might appear. If you spot any issues, you’ll need to take corrective action to keep your ship sailing smoothly.

But with this clever little trick up your sleeve, you’ll be able to manually force sync Azure AD Connect using PowerShell like a seasoned sea captain navigating the treacherous waters of the high seas!