ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI, is capable of generating human-like text with ease. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we create content, but it also poses a major threat to the value of human-created content.

One of the biggest concerns is plagiarism. With ChatGPT, it's almost impossible to tell if a piece of content was written by a human or a machine. This could lead to a proliferation of plagiarized content, making it harder for bloggers to establish credibility and build an audience.

But it's not just plagiarism that's a concern. The very existence of ChatGPT threatens to diminish the value of human-created content. If readers can't tell the difference between a machine-generated article and one written by a human, why would they pay for the latter?

So, what's the solution? Some have called for stricter regulations on language generation technology, while others have suggested a complete ban on the use of ChatGPT in content creation.

Personally, I think it's time to hit the "off" button on ChatGPT. As a blogger, I want to ensure that my readers know that the content they're consuming is unique and valuable, and that can only be achieved by preserving the integrity of human-created content.

So, let's raise our keyboards in solidarity and say it together: "ChatGPT, you're fired!"

P.S. I'm not saying ChatGPT is bad, it's just that we need to be careful before it becomes the next Skynet

This article was entirely written by AI (ChatGPT) with the following prompt:

Write a blog post for my personal blog. The blog post needs to be about the looming dangers that ChatGPT poses to blogging and how I think it will be a net negative to the tech blogging world. The post should touch on plagiarism and how the value of human created content will be diminished as we simply can't tell the difference. The conclusion is that I think ChatGPT should be banned. Throw in a couple of jokes to make it sound as though it was written by a human.

Getting Started

Ghost uses something called Markdown for writing. Essentially, it's a shorthand way to manage your post formatting as you write!

Writing in Markdown is really easy. In the left hand panel of Ghost, you simply write as you normally would. Where appropriate, you can use shortcuts to style your content. For example, a list:

• Item number one
• Item number two
  • A nested item
• A final item

or with numbers!

1. Remember to buy some milk
2. Drink the milk
3. Tweet that I remembered to buy the milk, and drank it

Links

Want to link to a source? No problem. If you paste in a URL, like http://ghost.org - it'll automatically be linked up. But if you want to customise your anchor text, you can do that too! Here's a link to the Ghost website. Neat.

What about Images?

Images work too! Already know the URL of the image you want to include in your article? Simply paste it in like this to make it show up:

Not sure which image you want to use yet? That's ok too. Leave yourself a descriptive placeholder and keep writing. Come back later and drag and drop the image in to upload:

Quoting

Sometimes a link isn't enough, you want to quote someone on what they've said. Perhaps you've started using a new blogging platform and feel the sudden urge to share their slogan? A quote might be just the way to do it!

Ghost - Just a blogging platform

Working with Code

Got a streak of geek? We've got you covered there, too. You can write inline <code> blocks really easily with back ticks. Want to show off something more comprehensive? 4 spaces of indentation gets you there.

.awesome-thing {
    display: block;
    width: 100%;
}

Ready for a Break?

Throw 3 or more dashes down on any new line and you've got yourself a fancy new divider. Aw yeah.

Advanced Usage

There's one fantastic secret about Markdown. If you want, you can write plain old HTML and it'll still work! Very flexible.

That should be enough to get you started. Have fun - and let us know what you think :)

Brief History

If you don't know what Artifact Variables are, they essentially make it easier to work with multiple artifacts in a single release. They are a series of variables that are specific to each artifact.

What's the problem?

TFS/VSTS comes with a load of variables that are available to you throughout the release pipeline. However, if you have multiple artifacts, then these become much less useful.

For example, the in-built variable BUILD_BUILDNUMBER will return the BuildNumber of the build that triggered the release. But what if you need the build number of each of the artifacts? This is what Artifact Variables would usually give you.

You can read more about Artifact Variables here.

Solution

To solve this issue, I have written an extension and published it to the Market Place. You can find the extension here https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=gregpakes.artifact-variables.

The github repo can be found here https://github.com/gregpakes/ArtifactVariables.

The extension does not supply all the variables covered in the Microsoft Documentation. At the moment, it covers:

• Definition Id: ReleaseArtifacts.{ArtifactName}.DefinitionId
• Definition Name: ReleaseArtifacts.{ArtifactName}.DefinitionName
• Build Number: ReleaseArtifacts.{ArtifactName}.BuildNumber
• Build Id: ReleaseArtifacts.{ArtifactName}.BuildId

However, I have recently had some issues which I couldn't find documented anywhere online, so hopefully this can help someone else out.

I was trying to run SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) behind CloudFlare.

I was constantly getting prompted for a username and password. It didn't matter how many times I entered the correct password, the response was 401 Unauthorized.

Solution

It turns out that Windows Authentication over NTLM or Kerberos actually violate the HTTP 1.1 spec and CloudFlare do not support this.

This means that you cannot run any site that requires NTLM or Kerberos behind CloudFlare. Instead you need to look for alternative authentication methods.

The only alternative method available to me in SSRS 2014 is Basic. This is a sad state of affairs, but as the site is HTTPS only, this shouldn't be too bad. As soon as I changed the authentication method to Basic, the site started working perfectly.

To change the authentication type, you simply need to:

• Load the RSReportServer.config file
• Find the < Authentication > element.
• Ensure only < RSWindowsBasic /> appears in the < AuthenticationTypes > element.
• Restart the service.

More detailed instructions can be found here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc281309(v=sql.105).aspx

SSRS 2016 (due out June 1st 2016) supports Digest authentication, which CloudFlare also supports. So this would be a recommended change to make, if you can.

The type initializer for "System.Management.Automation.Tracing.PSEtwLog" threw an exception.

I resolved this by installing .Net 4.5 on the machine.

If you do not use Hyper-V, then this is not your solution.

I have written about my specific issue previously here. I even claimed that I "solved" the issue. But I am not sure I did.

I am very reluctant to name my laptop and specific WiFi card as I do not believe it to be related to the issue. Although you can find this out by looking at the previous post above.

Symptoms

Every single day, multiple times per day, my WiFi would start dropping packets. The issue is best shown by a screenshot of a continuous ping from my laptop to my router.

Most people probably wouldn't notice this issue in everyday internet browsing as modern browsers are so resilient that they can smooth these types of connection issues out. There would still be a delay, but it would be very rare to get an error page.

I noticed the issue first during Skype calls. The call would hang for a few seconds and then recover.

The issue manifested itself across Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. With every new Windows version came new hope that the issue would be fixed. It never happened.

What resolutions have I tried?

• Disabling U-APSD
• A plethora of drivers (including the very latest Intel ones and Microsoft ones)
• USB WiFi card
• New router

None of the above worked.

The solution

The only solution that has reliably worked is disabling the Hyper-V External Network.

If you do not use Hyper-V, then it is likely your issue is not the same as mine.

In order to get my virtual machines onto the internet, I now use Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and this is working perfectly.

The setup is as follows:

• Internal virtual switch to VMs
• Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) setup between my WiFi adapter and the Hyper-V internal switch.

There are plenty of guides how to setup ICS with Hyper-V. Like this one

And I no longer have any issues!!

If you use a VPN, this can get very frustrating. I live in Sydney and VPN to the UK everyday. I started to notice that my clock would change to UK time. I am thinking this is an oversight and the time shouldn't change when connected to a VPN.

Here's how to disable it.

• Click Start
• Type "Settings" and load the Settings app
• Click Time & Language
• Uncheck Set time zone automatically

Credentials are required to resolve the domain account INTERACTIVE.

I was using the following code.

Group AddToUsersGroup  
{
    GroupName = "Users"
    Ensure = "Present"
    MembersToInclude = "User1"
}

I was not entirely sure why this wasn't working, but it seems like it was trying to do something with the existing group member "NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE" and incorrectly thinking it was part of a domain.

I managed to get around this issue by using the xGroup resource from the xPSDesiredStateConfiguration set of resources from here.

Changing the code as follows fixed it for me.

xGroup AddToUsersGroup  
{
    GroupName = "Users"
    Ensure = "Present"
    MembersToInclude = "User1"
}

Specifically, I was looking to set this field:

This is what I managed to get working.

$dnsSuffix = "contoso.com"

Script SetDNSSuffix  
{
    SetScript = 
    {
        Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\" -Name Domain -Value $dnsSuffix
        Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\" -Name "NV Domain" -Value $dnsSuffix
    }   
    TestScript = 
    {
        $currentSuffix = (Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\" -Name "NV Domain" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)."NV Domain"

        if ($currentSuffix -ne $dnsSuffix){
            return $false
        }
        return $true
    }   
    GetScript = 
    {
        $currentSuffix = (Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\" -Name "NV Domain" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)."NV Domain"

        return $currentSuffix
    }     
}

• SetScript - Fires when the value needs to be set
• TestScript - Fires to test whether the value needs to be set
• GetScript - Gets the currently set value

It turns out you can bring folders into your windows taskbar very easily. Here's how.

1. Create a folder somewhere where you will store shortcuts to programs you want access too. I created mine in in my Documents folder.

2. Right Click the taskbar -> Toolbars -> New Toolbar

   

3. This then allows you to select the folder you created in step 1.

   

4. You will then get a link to your folder on the taskbar. It defaults to a strange view where it shows the name of the folder and then gives you an arrow to access your files.

   

5. You can experiment with the settings by dragging the toolbox to make it large resulting in this.

   

6. Other settings can be reached by right clicking the toolbar. I have highlighted the options.

   

7. My preferred setup is:

   • Show Text: Off
   • Show Title: Off
   • Toolbar resized small
   • Lock the taskbar The result is:

   

As you can see the icons are small, they take up a small amount of space. But the thing I like the most is that I can simply add shortcuts or Chrome applications into that folder and they're on my taskbar. It effectively allows me to have a mix of large and small icons on the taskbar.

I created a basic build definition and tried to run it. I was unceremoniously brought back to reality with the following error everytime I queued a new build.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object

The error occurred as soon as I clicked Queue Build and looked like this.

Detective Work

I started by looking in the logs for the build agent, but there was nothing valuable there.

I then decided to look at the Event Logs on the build agent... nothing.

I looked at the Event Logs on the TFS server and saw:

System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: Access denied.

   at System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException.ThrowCryptographicException(Int32 hr)
   at System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Utils._LoadCertFromBlob(Byte[] rawData, IntPtr password, UInt32 dwFlags, Boolean persistKeySet, SafeCertContextHandle& pCertCtx)
   at System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate.LoadCertificateFromBlob(Byte[] rawData, Object password, X509KeyStorageFlags keyStorageFlags)
   at System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2.Import(Byte[] rawData)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.TeamFoundationStrongBoxService.<>c__DisplayClass4.<RetrieveFileAsCertificate>b__2()
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.StrongBox.StrongBoxCache.GetCertificate(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, StrongBoxItemInfo item, Func`1 missDelegate)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.TeamFoundationStrongBoxService.RetrieveFileAsCertificate(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, StrongBoxItemInfo item, Boolean exportable)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.DelegatedAuthorization.DelegatedAuthorizationConfigurationService.GetSigningCredentials(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.DelegatedAuthorization.PlatformDelegatedAuthorizationService.IssueSessionToken(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, Nullable`1 clientId, Nullable`1 userId, String displayName, Nullable`1 validTo, String scope, IList`1 targetAccounts, SessionTokenType tokenType)
   at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.Orchestration.Server.TaskHub.GeneratePersonalAccessToken(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, TimeSpan tokenDuration, Identity identity)

This looks promising. As this is an Access Denied error, I loaded ProcMon and recorded whilst I queued another build. I saw the following in ProcMon.

Tip: You can quickly locate these type of issues by searching for "denied" in ProcMon

Here we can see that the user TFSService was denied write permission to c:\programdata\microsoft\crypto\rsa\machinekeys

Solution (TL;DR)

The user that your TFS Job Agent (Service Account) is running under needs read/write permission to c:\programdata\microsoft\crypto\rsa\machinekeys on the TFS server. Once you have set this up, your builds should start succeeding.

Method 1

• Open notepad as administrator
• File -> Open
• Navigate to the file you want to open

Method 2

• Use Notepad++

My Method

Although I do use Notepad++, sometimes I just want a right-click context menu to open notepad as an administrator.

If you trust me, you can download the registry file from here and skip to step 4. You may have to use right-click -> save file.

1. Create a new text file on your desktop.

2. Paste the following into it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\runas\command]
@="NOTEPAD.EXE %1"

3. Save the file as NotepadAsAdmin.reg. Remember to change the Save as type to All Files.

4. Double click the reg file to run it.

5. Test by locating a text file and right clicking it.

You can now right click any *.txt file and select Run as administrator.

How does it work?

This method works by giving the .txt extension a runas command in the registry. We simply point that command to notepad.exe.