I can’t remember if the first web-based search engine I used was Lycos, Excite, or AltaVista. Prior to web-based search engines I remember using things like Gopher (which wasn’t really a search utility, per se) and Archie. But that was back in the day when one was looking for text and text-based files. Ads were still on television and billboard. The good ol’ days.
I know that of the three (Lycos, Excite, AltaVista), AltaVista was my favorite and I hoped it would continue to give search engine goodness for a long, long time. Yahoo! was dancing around with the concept back then but then Google came along and became a verb. This was before the company that pledged to “Do No Evil” started getting greedy and crazy with monetary goals.
These days I don’t really trust Google’s search results. If I search for anything, the top result is likely to hit our bank account. Even if I’m looking for a recipe for baked beans or something, the top result in a Google search is going to either be an ad for pre-made baked beans, take me to a link that is splattered with a tedious number of ads touting botox or something, or a dissertation on why I should talk about baked beans in a YouTube video.
I don’t like Google’s ad based model.
I’ve been running with DuckDuckGo but it doesn’t feel like it’s giving me the results it could be giving me. Granted, DuckDuckGo is respecting my privacy and not trying to monetize the fact that I enjoy baked beans, but I still get strange results like photos of baked beans and links to videos on people making baked beans, eeking out each step in between ads for things like soap on a rope.
I’m a Gen-Xer, I want a list that I can read and a step-by-step guide I can follow.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been giving ChatGPT a whirl. It’s nowhere near “intelligent”, artificially or otherwise, but it does give me lists to follow and, after a month of focusing on the service, the conversational interface feels much more natural than typing keywords in a search box. It’s a shame it isn’t powered by Majel Barrett-Roddensberry’s voice.
My husband has been messing around with ChatGPT as well and he is enjoying the experience. He knows to double check the facts, but he really likes the other parts such as the aforementioned conversational style, the ability to discuss submitted, photos, etc.
There’s a running joke in our family that my name is Cole Slaw. Usually, when folks of the gay community are looking through photos or approaching us out in public, they’re all about the rest of the family and their beards and beefy appearances and the what not. Occasionally I get a “and who’s this?” with a finger waggled in my direction. I tell the waggler that I’m the cole slaw and that I’m included with the main dish whether you like it or not.
I watched Apple’s event (after the fact) when they announced “their best iPad lineup yet”. I long for the day when Apple decides to take a left turn and NOT announce their best iPad lineup yet but instead just say, “here’s a bunch of iPads we thought of” just so everyone in the tech press can clutch their pearls, gasp, and then go on and on about how Apple is failing again.
So there’s new iPad Airs and iPad Pros that have all sorts of spec bumps and size bumps and new accessories and more importantly, thickness reductions that will allow you to bend the iPad like the Six Million Dollar Man or The Bionic Woman (depending on how you identify).
And while I’m talking about bending iPads, what was with the commercial at the beginning of the Apple Event where they crushed everything like so much garbage in a landfill, complete with something’s eyes bulging out as it gasped for its last breath. I mean, they were crushing guitars and televisions and all sorts of things and, perhaps it’s because of my brain chemistry, but I found the intro to be really off-putting and so unlike Apple.
Anywho, we have the new iPad Air and the new iPad Pro lineup. I was really hoping for something, anything, to be upgraded on the iPad Mini, but Tim barely mentioned its existence like so much cole slaw next to the main dish.
I can relate. And it looks like I’ll continue to use my rapidly aging iPad Mini for flying until something, anything happens to that particular model.
I really enjoy Jeff Geerling‘s YouTube channel. His geek related content is awesome, he seems like a nice guy, and his videography skills are top notch.
Like many others in North America, Jeff had a stunning view of the recent the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse, and shares his experience through his latest video.
There’s one line at the beginning of his video that particularly captured my attention, “make the videos you love”.
I’m writing this blog entry while my work laptop goes through its fourth update since the beginning of the week. This is not unusual, though the frequency of updates has increased since the “Windows Desktop Specialists” upgraded this underpowered laptop to Windows 11 a few weeks ago. I guess productivity isn’t particularly important when it comes to work computers, at least where I work.
Speaking of updates, I made some changes to the underlying infrastructure for ye ol’ ancient bloggy thing I have going on here. If you see something amiss, please advise via email or something so I can fix it. I know there’s a bit going on with pictures sometimes facing the wrong direction. The hosting company has to install a new PHP extension to the shared server to get everything kicked back upright. Hopefully that will be fixed within 24 hours of me posting this entry.
I vastly admire the wildly talented folks that script, light, record, and produce video on the channels I enjoy. I admire even more the folks that use Linux-based tools to do all the editing and post-production work. Either I’m not geeky enough to figure out how to make cinematic magic using Linux tools or my tricked out PC running Linux isn’t tricked out enough. Perhaps I’ve grown accustomed to the sheer speed of Apple’s series of Apple Silicon chips.
All of my videos in recent weeks have been edited on my Apple M2 MacBook Air. This computer will continue to pull its weight in this arena, as I’ll be editing video while on the road during next month’s storm chasing trip. I was telling my husband Earl that if I get as much footage as I hope to grab while chasing storms, I might need something with a little more oomph when I get back and start building “recap” videos.
Years ago, when I worked for a radio station owned by an advertising agency, the video editors used a powerful Mac of the era running Avid software and they did some amazing things with editing videotape. I was thoroughly impressed with what they could achieve with a Mac back then. Here it is 30 years later and I still find my Mac based tools the best way to edit video quickly, accurately, and to my production standards. This is nothing against Linux-based tools, Veronica at “Veronica Explains” does an AMAZING job with kdenlive on her Linux rig. Jay at LearnLinux.TV produces equally amazing results.
I just don’t think I’m wired to sit down and learn the ins and outs of Linux based editing tools right now. I’m too antsy to pop in and pop out and show clouds and waterfalls and mountains and small towns and the like.
The best tool for any computer user is the tool that gets the job done. And I’m sticking to that philosophy.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a wireless lavalier mic set from Ulanzi from Amazon. After the abundance of wind noise on my recent hiking video, I figured it was time to figure out how to connect them to the GoPro Hero 9 for future endeavors out in the field. I also now have my spare battery ready to go.
Because I’m a ham in my own way, here’s the mic test video, complete with harsh lighting from an LED lighting kit from GoPro. Obviously I still need to play around with the light balancing of my video skills. I’m not really that red in the face.
I am not a housewife. I have never been a housewife. Truth be told, the sight and smell of a dirty diaper would probably make me faint and that’d be long before I ever made it to the actual baby. Who knows what chaos would ensue if that ever happened.
No, I am not a housewife but I have always enjoyed the writings of humorist and columnist Erma Bombeck. Grandma Country had a collection of her books on a bookshelf and one day I started reading “The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank” and voila, I found a writing style I could enjoy.
Erma was on television and in newspapers and wrote books and her name was one you could throw around at a party back in the day. I was sad when I saw she had passed. It was April 1996.
I’ve been playing around with ChatGPT today. That sentence is not some weird pivot, there’s a point to all this. Hang on tight.
Work has embraced an internal version of ChatGPT. I suspect the work version is powered by the actual ChatGPT with just a bunch of work hooks dumped onto the whole affair. After attending a meeting this morning where the meeting leader (otherwise known as “Head of Frivolity”) quickly dispersed a thorough recap of the entire meeting, I asked how she generated this dialog so quickly.
“I took the transcript of the meeting and put it in (work)GPT”. It recapped it and I sent it out as an email.
Clever! So, I’ve been messing around a bit with ChatGPT and decided to put it to the test.
As I mentioned, Erma Bombeck passed away in April 1996. I asked ChatGPT to write a story about a visit to Starbucks, in the style of Erma Bombeck. This is what I got back.
In the great tapestry of life’s little rituals, going to Starbucks is akin to threading a needle in the dark—exhilarating, slightly confusing, and always ending with a sense of accomplishment disproportionate to the task at hand. My journey into the aromatic embrace of the famed coffee chain began on a Tuesday, which, as far as days go, has all the charm of a wet sock. I was in dire need of a caffeine fix, the kind that whispers sweet nothings to your synapses and promises productivity.
Upon entering, the warm gust of coffee-scented air hit me like a hug from an old friend, albeit an old friend who’s a tad too enthusiastic at 7:30 AM. The atmosphere inside was a curious blend of tranquility and chaos. Baristas danced behind the counter with the grace of swans, if swans were particularly stressed and had to remember whether the next order was a venti or a grande.
The menu loomed above me like a challenge from the universe. Deciphering it required the skill of a cryptologist and the imagination of a fiction writer. Words like “Macchiato,” “Frappuccino,” and “Nitro Cold Brew” swirled around, a testament to Starbucks’ ability to make ordering coffee feel like an exercise in exotic linguistics.
Armed with the audacity of ignorance, I approached the counter, where a barista with a name tag reading “Jess” awaited. Jess had the kind of patience saints aspire to, a necessary trait when dealing with customers who believe “caramel drizzle” is a life-or-death decision.
“I’ll have a medium coffee,” I declared, clinging to simplicity like a life raft.
“Grande Pike Place? Any room for milk?” Jess inquired, her voice a calming balm on my indecision-scarred soul.
“Uh, yes, room. Room to think, room to grow,” I mumbled, attempting humor to mask my confusion.
Money exchanged hands—a transaction that felt more like a ceremonial offering to the gods of caffeine. I sidestepped to the designated waiting area, where others like me stood in liminal space, betwixt order and fulfillment. We were a motley crew of sleepy-eyed dreamers, united in our quest for liquid awakeness.
Then came the moment of truth. “Grande Pike for…um,” Jess hesitated, squinting at the scribble on the cup, an ancient rune that purportedly represented my name.
“That’s me,” I announced, claiming my prize with the triumph of a knight returning from a quest. The first sip was a revelation, a warm embrace that whispered, “You can do this.” And maybe, just maybe, I believed it.
As I exited Starbucks, cup in hand, I couldn’t help but marvel at the adventure I’d just experienced. It was a testament to human ingenuity that we’d managed to turn the act of getting a cup of coffee into a journey fraught with choices, challenges, and triumphs. And in that moment, I felt a kinship with every soul brave enough to utter “I’ll have a coffee” into the great unknown. Starbucks, you bewitching siren, until next time.
ChatGPT
This could have easily been written by Erma Bombeck. The sentence structure, the selected adjectives, the whole vibe of the story? Easily influenced by Erma’s style. I am fully impressed.
And here I thought ChatGPT output was going to resemble a dirty diaper.
I am super picky about keyboards. I think it’s because I have been an accomplished touch typist since my 10th birthday. We had a borrowed electric typewriter in the house back then and my mother said, “if you’re going to play with the typewriter, you’re going to use the proper fingering”. So I learned how to type when I was in elementary school and to this day I can still type well over 120 words per minute.
So I’m picky about my keyboard. Blame my mother.
Apple does a decent job with their keyboards these days. The keyboard on my iPad Pro Magic Keyboard is one of the best I’ve ever used and the keyboard on my M2 MacBook Air (one year old today!) is quite enjoyable. I even liked the butterfly style keys on Earl’s MacBook Pro back in the day.
But when it comes to PCs I struggle. Being an old guy I like the clicky, mechanical keyboards the resemble something out a 1985 room housing a mainframe. When I worked for Digital (DEC), I found their LK201 and later LK401 keyboards to be absolutely awesome. But the clicky, mechanical keyboards don’t make for good background citizens when it comes to the Zoom work calls.
As a tenkeyless keyboard it doesn’t have a number pad on the right end of the keyboard, so I don’t have to reach far for the mouse or touchpad. The feel is firm, like a mechanical keyboard, but without the click. The key travel is decent. I can comfortable reach my peak typing velocity on these keyboards. And right now they’re priced right at $25 or so on Amazon (see link above).
Earl doesn’t understand why I have a stack of keyboards in the closet as a result of my quest for the Goldilocks of keyboards.
I just know that I can rapidly type silently about the subject. And it’s an enjoyable experience for me.
A video of my hike up to Ernie’s Falls in Saguaro National Park East. We had some impressive rains this week so the water coming over the falls was equally impressing.
I’ve been thinking about stepping away from social media, yes, again. I’ve been somewhat active on Mastodon for the past couple of weeks and I’m realizing that while it is a much friendlier experience than anything else out there (X, Bluesky, etc), there’s still a little undercurrent of something I can’t quite put my finger on that’s requiring more energy than I’m willing to sink into the experience.
When I start writing less on my blog, it’s usually because my energy is being sapped (or zapped!) by something else. And this week I’ve seen my social media participation go up, peak in a little bit of frustration, and subsequently, I’m struggling to write blog entries. This entry will probably sit in the hopper for a few days until I figure it out that’s it’s going to say what I want it to say.
Ironically, I don’t see Facebook as a social media tool anymore; it’s more like a family and friends communication tool. When I post my videos and my pictures there for folks back east to see, I’m basically offering a 1970s style slide show at a family gathering. I’m cool with that.
But coming up with witty remarks and interesting nuggets to engage with others inside a maximum of 500 characters? It’s not working for me as well.
I’m not deleting accounts at this point. I’m going to take a break, probably starting this weekend.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
