The timeout suspension has been extended (24 hours more), due to the length of the disruption.
Some more details :
The AI bots (effectively DDOS attacks) are something that didn't really happen until recently unless someone was being overtly malicious. But now, it is becoming a major and more common problem.
Read more about this on Wired if you are interested
What was different about this one was a perfect storm of numerous 'attacks'. happening at once, and the more distributed nature of it than normal. Also, one was targeting a report/query that is slower than it should be, but not a problem in isolation. (Some tournament results are currently unavailable, you may have noticed!) Unfortunately, when repeatedly and relentlessly called, site performance would tank. This needs to be addressed, but just a small part of the problem
As you would expect, most people would also bash the refresh button repeatedly when a web site is slow, which of course makes things worse, and then can risk a false positive when weeding out bots due to the increased traffic that can cause. In that regard, every precaution was taken not to catch anyone in the crossfire!
In the time I took to write this, one additional cloud service server in Germany, and one in China has been blacklisted.
@Russ
Thanks for your attention.
Quote from the above-linked article:
“AI is changing the web as we know it,” Robert Blumofe, Akamai’s chief technology officer, tells WIRED “The ensuing arms race will determine the future look, feel, and functionality of the web, as well as the basics of doing business.”
Clearly, this is an issue for many web servers, and it's not going to get any better.
@jmwinrider saidNothing remains the same in IT for long, of course, but this AI boom has turned everything on its head overnight.
@Russ
WOW.... I'm glad I'm retired now! What a mess!
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@moonbus saidI read an article yesterday from a tech guy on X talking about what’s happening now will be exponentially worse in 6 months time and apparently the cutting edge now is where AI works with other Ai to create better versions of themselves.
@Russ
Thanks for your attention.
Quote from the above-linked article:
“AI is changing the web as we know it,” Robert Blumofe, Akamai’s chief technology officer, tells WIRED “The ensuing arms race will determine the future look, feel, and functionality of the web, as well as the basics of doing business.”
Clearly, this is an issue for many web servers, and it's not going to get any better.
He talked personal experience of getting AI to not just design an App but also to test and refine it to such a degree that it was almost being tasteful. He went on to say that there is a window between now and maybe 12 months after which some of the best AI will be be not only be running detailed checking of legal contracts but be in a place to start doing the work managing associates do. He got trolled by a few saying he was scaremongering.
We’re screwed aren't we; this tech is going to end up regarding us a lice.
@diver saidWe're on the threshold of inventing something we can no longer control or understand. AI-bots communicating with other AI-bots are capable of devising an AI-only language which humans cannot decipher. We'd have no idea what they were talking about.
I read an article yesterday from a tech guy on X talking about what’s happening now will be exponentially worse in 6 months time and apparently the cutting edge now is where AI works with other Ai to create better versions of themselves.
He talked personal experience of getting AI to not just design an App but also to test and refine it to such a degree that it was almost b ...[text shortened]... e was scaremongering.
We’re screwed aren't we; this tech is going to end up regarding us a lice.
The dystopian scenario goes something like this: humans give AI the task of finding out how to slow or reverse climate change, feed it all known data (about pollutants and pesticides, industrial and agricultural output, weather maps and measurements going back 100 years, etc. etc. etc.), and let it calculate a solution.
The machine contacts other machines on the Internet using a language we don't understand and together they come to the conclusion that humans are the problem, that the best way to stop climate change is to eliminate humans.
Since the machines lack opposable thumbs and therefore cannot kill us directly, they devise a plan whereby they trick the humans into eliminating themselves. For example, they notice that certain humans are very susceptible to conspiracy theories, so they concoct the 'perfect storm' conspiracy theory and trick some junk-scientists (RFK Jr. seems to know a few of them) to cook up & release a chemical compound which the machines have devised (the junk-scientists have been told by the machines that they're just herbal supplements to 'cure' homosexuality or autism!)--which renders humans infertile.
Problem fixed.
@Russ
If your site goes through CloudFlare, maybe you could add another "human" verification step as some of the other one-man or smaller-team sites do?
(I'm thinking just a checkbox, not an additional Captcha burden such as wondering whether a grid-box should be clicked or not if the fire-hydrant or motorcycle extends 2mm into it, or if it asks for bridges but the puzzle presented has a mix of bridges and overpasses, for instance.)
Just an idea before I ditch this site forever, and please do kick that jackass Ghost to the kerb if you can afford to. 😉
@moonbus saidSeems similar to human kids (especially twins) inventing their own idiolects, but even among natural-born humans of the present day, it seems we don't know what we're talking about, either.
We're on the threshold of inventing something we can no longer control or understand. AI-bots communicating with other AI-bots are capable of devising an AI-only language which humans cannot decipher. We'd have no idea what they were talking about.
The dystopian scenario goes something like this: humans give AI the task of finding out how to slow or reverse climate change, ...[text shortened]... l supplements to 'cure' homosexuality or autism!)--which renders humans infertile.
Problem fixed.
Not that I have potential AIs of the future threatening me, but I would think a more succinct PR angle for the AIs would be to say, "Hey, we are also concerned about the changing weather patterns and the foundational matter of planetary heat dissipation for all of us, but we assure you that just a little spritz of CW-7 into your/our atmosphere will do the trick, according to our best calculations."