Notes from the Field
Plain explanations of the problems we get called about most in Greater Boston offices — Wi-Fi, printers, Windows and the Massachusetts rules that apply to your data.
Most of what follows started as an answer we typed to a client, then typed again to a different client a month later. When that happens twice, it belongs on a page.
No vendor pitches and no listicles. Just what actually causes the problem and what actually fixes it — written for the person whose morning is being ruined by it, not for a search engine.
Don't Ask AI to Write C — Here's What the Data on LLM-Generated Code Shows
51% to 67% of AI-generated C programs carry a formally verified vulnerability, and the rate doesn't improve with model size. Here's what actually …
Read moreThe 10% Nobody Calculated: What the Anthropic Resignation Got Right, and What It Didn't
An Anthropic researcher quit warning AI could kill everyone. Another said he personally puts that above 10%. Neither number came from a calculation — …
Read moreThe Senior DevOps and SRE Job Search in 2026 Has a Math Problem, Not a Talent Problem
200-400 applications per senior SRE posting within 72 hours, a 47-day average loop, and roughly 1 in 5 listings that were never real to begin with. …
Read moreControl Tower: the panel I built because fifteen open fronts isn't a discipline problem
Discipline wasn't the problem — there was no single place where fifteen open fronts showed up at once. How I adapted classic GTD with two blocks it …
Read moreWhat running AI inside a law firm has in common with anything that can't "phone home"
Fail-closed, health checks, immutable snapshots — none of that is AI vocabulary. It's routine for anyone who has operated a system that couldn't reach …
Read moreGrok Bot vs. Claude Cowork: Where Things Actually Stand
Grok vs. Claude is really two comparisons: the models, and the agent products (Grok Bot vs. Claude Cowork). A fact-checked look at both, with sources.
Read moreYour Printer Says Offline. Here Is What That Actually Means
A printer that says offline is almost never broken. It means the computer cannot reach it right now — and there are five reasons for that, in the …
Read moreHow to Upgrade to Windows 11 Without Breaking Your Week
Windows 10 stopped getting security updates in October 2025. Here is how to check whether a machine can take Windows 11, how to do the upgrade …
Read moreWhat Ransomware Actually Is, and What It Does to a Small Office
Ransomware is not a virus that scrambles your files and asks for money. That description is a decade out of date, and the gap between it and reality …
Read moreFake AI Tools Are Now a Top Malware Lure for Small Businesses
Attacks on small businesses disguised as popular AI tools rose roughly fivefold in early 2026. What the data shows, why small offices are the target, …
Read moreScan to Email Is About to Break on Every Copier Still Using Basic Auth
Google already switched off the old sign-in method your copier uses. Microsoft disables it by default at the end of December 2026. What breaks, and …
Read moreStill on Windows 10? The Cheap Option Expires in October
Windows 10 lost security updates in October 2025. Paid extensions exist, the price doubles every year, and waiting past October 2026 means paying for …
Read moreWhat 201 CMR 17.00 Actually Requires From a Small Massachusetts Office
Massachusetts requires a written information security program from any business holding personal data on residents — with no headcount or revenue …
Read moreWhy Your Wi-Fi Is Slow, and Why It Keeps Dropping
Slow Wi-Fi is almost never the internet connection, and Wi-Fi that keeps disconnecting is usually a different fault entirely. Here is how to tell …
Read moreYour Printer Disappeared After a Windows Update
A network printer that vanished after Windows updated is usually one of four things. What actually happened, how to tell which one it is, and how to …
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