chatgpt webpage open on iphone

My AI Teacher

Byrichard
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Today I want to discuss something different. I want to discuss using AI as a teacher, rather than as a tool to replace us. For a few days I have been playing with the Instagram json file that I got when I requested my archive. With this json file I thought about things to do, and in so doing asked chatGPT for help, and it provided answers.

Adapting the Questions

When you ask chatGPT to do something it will do what you asked. If you see that you got a partial answer then you can tell chatGPT more specifically what to do. In some cases I would ask it to do something, but I didn’t tell it that the data was in an external file, so I told it the name of the external file and it was added.

You Still Need to Think And Understand

Although ChatGPT is a great tool you need to learn to debug. Sometimes if you get an error message you can ask chatGPT how to resolve it, but in other cases, chatGPT will not realise what the error is.

The Zero Width Asset

A heatmap of photos taken per day from the Instagram JSON data for my account

Yesterday I was trying to generate a heat map of when I took photographs with ChatGPT via the instagram json file but it did not detect that the height for an element had been set to zero. It’s by experimenting that I found this error and fixed it. ChatGPT gave me a useful answer, but only resolved part of what I was trying to achieve. I had to do the rest.

Testing and Double Checking

In one case I told chatGPT that I wanted to make something available in the head element. It helped me to do that but then removed some functionality from another part of the page. I had to tell it “put that functionality back”, not in those words, and it did. Double check everything.

Trial And Error

Coding, and finding solutions, with chatGPT is about having an idea, and seeing if, and how, to get chatGPT to understand the request that you’re making. I find that I often have to ask a question several times, and in different ways, before I get to an answer that is useful for me. The more you play with chatGPT the more you learn about its quirks and how to avoid them.

Context Aware

One feature that I find especially useful with chatGPT is that it is context aware. With Google you can ask how to do something, but usually you can’t go into the specifics because it is not as context aware. The best example I can think of is the array. With an array you have layers within layers and it can be confusing to see whether something is one or three layers down, and how precisely to get to that data. With chatGPT you can say “here’s one array item, I want to retrieve x from that array, how do I do it, and it does. It gives you the request you need to access that bit of information from the array.

Practical Example

The Instagram Archive JSON is thousands of elements, but they all have the same structure, as long as they have the same data. The first step is to create the foreach loop to cycle through the data. Getting the first bit of info, with the instagram json file was easy, but deciphering the exif element wasn’t, so I asked chatGPT for help within this specific context, and it worked fine. I could then copy and paste for the exif that I had not asked it to help me with.

Converting Time Stamps from Epoch to Human Readable Dates and Times

There are plenty of places where you can find where to convert from epoch to machine readable time. chatGPT can also provide you with a context relevant solution, rather than a generic one.

Learning by Repetition

People may say “but you’re not learning, you’re just playing with chatGPT in the hope that it will give the right answer, to which I answer that we all learn in different ways. People that studied computer science and understand all of the theory might be able to read the fabulous manual, and understand everything, but for those of us that are learning bits and pieces, in an informal context, chatGPT allows us to ask “how do I do this in that context?”

We are learning three skills in processes such as mine. The first is to think about how to write functions for an app. The second is being able to communicate this desire to an AI. The skill has a name: Prompt engineering. It wouldn’t have a name if it wasn’t an important aspect of working with AI. The final skill we are learning is how to assemble code to make it work as we want it to work.

ChatGPT doesn’t just give us a few lines of code. It provides us with relevant contextual information to help us understand what is happening.

In short chatGPT can be used as a tutor, or course program, to teach us how to write better code, when others may not be around, or have the time to help us.

Udemy Courses

At least two of the “teachers I followed on Udemy, to learn about JavaScript and other technology have now made courses teaching people how to use AI to help them with their workflows. Rather than watch how others are using chatGPT I am playing and learning, with projects I think up. It’s fun. I should call it experimenting, rather than playing, but in the end I am playing.

Does this make sense to chatGPT?

Does that make sense to chatGPT?

Would chatGPT understand what I mean if I asked this?

ChatGPT and Debugging

I find it really interesting that chatGPT can be used for debugging. It tells you, do this using that library, assuming that the library is installed, but if it isn’t then you need to install it, but that’s not the end. You need to see which version chatGPT meant for you to implement. I got error messages and asked chatGPT for help, tried one version, got another error message. I then shared the new error message and chatGPT said “Oh, if you’re using this version then you’re meant to use this code, rather than that code.” I didn’t change the code. I swapped versions and the app worked.

Conclusion

The more time you invest in prompt engineering, with a specific goal in mind, the more you will learn, and the more you learn, the more useful chatGPT becomes. It goes from being an interesting curiousity to being an interesting tool.

Similar Posts

|

Editgrid is a spreadsheet website for the iphone

Byrichard

Whilst listening to Macbreak weekly I heard about Editgrid, a web based spreadsheet that resembles many others with a difference. It’s optimised for the Iphone if you go to iphone.editgrid.com. It’s an interesting implementation which can as easily be edited online as offline. This is great for those that may need quick access to a spreadsheet without the weight of a laptop at the same time.

It’s a simple to use application which doesn’t take a long time to sign up to and gives you flexibility.

There is one major disadvantage. It’s hard to select a cell to add data and inputing date by hunt and peck is very slow. I’d therefore recommend using it as a tool for referencing rather than data entry.

See if your views differ from mine.

The COVID-19 Dynamic European Restriction Map

Byrichard

COVID-19 rules, restrictions and regulations are dynamic and changing much like drone rules. In Europe before you fly you should visit the local flight rule maps, to see where current restrictions are.


Information ranges from “You need third party insurance with coverage for up to two million in damages” or “In a town you are allowed up to this altitude, outside of a town, to that altitude, and in these regions you have a military flight corridor, thus a flying ban.


COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving situation so it would make sense to keep a Google Maps layer up to date with current information.


This information could be


  • prevalence of the virus
  • whether the number of cases is rising or declining
  • whether there are barriers or restrictions to entry
  • What are the curfew hours
  • What establishments are authorised to open
  • Where are the closest COVID-19 testing locations
  • Where are the closest Vaccination points
  • What is the hospital bed situation for COVID-19 situation


The demand for such a service is currently world wide and long lived. The motivation for such services may last for at least a few more months, if not seasons and years.


Google, Apple, Facebook, and maybe even Amazon, should work on creating such a service.

What helped make Pokemon Go popular

Byrichard

There are a number of reasons which make Pokemon Go popular. I believe that the Ingress User base plays a key role, that marketing had an effect and that curiousity also played an important role.

Big user base

Ingress has a large and vibrant community of players. These players are so passionate about this game that they are willing to walk 30 or more kilometres a day whilst staring at their phone. They are ready to climb to the peaks of some mountains and brave rain, sleet, snow, high winds, mud, heat and the cold. How many of us have had our fingers go numb as a result of playing ingress after all. That passion for the game was seen by children and Ingress playing parents let their children play. The children found it fun and so when they heard that Pokemon Go was coming out they automatically wanted to use this game.

This adds a second dimension. Parents who enjoy playing Ingress are likely to have more than one mobile phone and more than one data sim. These parents are ready to give a mobile phone and sim card to their children. These children are then likely to play with friends. Yesterday evening when I was with Ingress players they had already switched to Pokemon Go and they kept commenting on the number of children they saw already playing the game.

Remember that we live in a globalised society. Whether you live in France, Belgium, Germany, Australia or the United States you will have heard about Ingress, about Pokemon Go and you will have been curious to try the new game

Curiousity

The beauty of modern society is that we live in a globalised discussion environment where things that capture the imagination are discussed and spread at the speed of light, or at least very close to it. This means that when a game is made available in one country every other country is curious to try it. Curiousity made me download the game. We will see how long the interest lasts.

Marketing

Marketing plays a role to get new members engaged in to the community that already exists. Marketing is now global, not local. When you market to one market the world takes note. Content is geo-blocked but not adverts. Marketing creates the demand. Problem solving satisfies the demand, unofficially.

Dedication

The Ingress community is a tight-knit and dedicated community. The game originated in the US but as Europeans, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and the international community played this game so they laid down the grown work for the game to be engaging for people everywhere. The more portals are within easy walking distance the more engaged you will be. The more convenient they make the game the more likely you are to play on.

I write this as a person who downloaded Ingress, played for a few minutes two or three years ago and then left it. It was only when A First Saturday was organised in Lausanne and that I saw how many people were in the community that I decided to give more time to the game. We speak about word of mouth and virality via Social Media. The community simply shifted from one game to the next at a global level.

Summary

Ingress by Niantic is a popular game with a close-knit and dedicated community of gamers. These gamers have shared their passion for one game and are now shifting towards Pokemon Go. Using portals as Pokestop has saved Niantic thousands of hours of work. No need to recreate hundreds of points, no need to approve them. Everything except server capacity is ready for this game to become global.

One Year With The Garmin Instinct Solar
| |

One Year With The Garmin Instinct Solar

Byrichard

I bought the Garmin Instinct Solar because I was interested to see how the Solar option works. As with most watches the solar panels take several hours to recharge the watch, even during summer heatwaves. The Solar part is great, if you’re in Spain and leave your watch to recharge in the sun while you do something else.


This leaving the watch alone for hours, as it charges, is a paradox, since other metrics cannot be tracked, rest, heart rate, steps. They’re all stagnant whilst the watch charges for several hours in the sun. Having said this, if you use the watch as a watch, and you spend the entire day in the sun, then it will fill its role fantastically. I had it tell me that it had 99 days of power, at the current rate of charge and discharge, while in Spain.


Then Comes Winter


In winter we wear long sleeves, days are shorter, and we spend more time indoors. This means the solar aspect of the watch is barely used, unless we strap it to a bag, and make sure that it is facing the sun. This isn’t a likely scenario so it’s better simply to rely on recharging it from a usb port.


It Sulks


Of course it’s a computer, so it just runs programmed but I have found, on plenty of mornings, that it doesn’t want to sync with the phone. I will tell the phone several times “refresh” but nothing. I just have to wait until it decides that it wants to converse with the phone and update the stats. This frustrates me immensely. When I am supposed to wear a watch 24 hours a day, for it to get my HR, body battery status, step count and everything else and it doesn’t bother to connect with the phone I have a problem.


Forced Loyalty


I don’t like the term addiction so I’m going to use the term forced loyalty instead. Until the Garmin Instinct watch I was very happy with Suunto devices. I’d wear them and they’d sync all the data when I got home. Then Suunto offered the option of step tracking and heart rate monitoring and I was happy with that.


Then when I got the Apple watch Apple wanted the same loyalty, and then Garmin wanted the same loyalty and at this point you have to make a decision. “Am I the type of idiot who walks with two or three watches at all times? Do I wear just one and lose interest in the step data?


In the end I dropped the Suunto, retired from active service after several years of good use. It’s because of a weaker battery that I even shopped around for new devices.


Cycling and More


For a while I wanted to get a Garmin cycling computer, and as I cycle this would make sense. The issue is that I like quite a few sports, so having a device dedicated to just one sport would be a shame. It would lie dormant when I am not cycling, for weeks, or even months at a time. I workout every day so the Garmin Instinct made sense. I chose the colour and model I did for a simple reason. It was the cheapest option.


Aside from the watch I also saw that I could get the speed and cadence sensors at an affordable price, and wireless. They were easy to install and use within minutes and have been reliable sense.


Thinks I like


  • The Sunrise and sunset view. It shows both.

  • It also shows lunar phases

  • The body battery concept is interesting but I don’t real use it.

  • The Virb remote, should you own a VIRB that you have mounted for remote use.


The Challenges


Garmin has walking, cycling, running, yoga and body building challenges every month that you can participate in. Some of these challenges are short weekend challenges. Some challenges are month long challenge, for example 300,000 steps in a month of cycling 700 kilometres, or more. Some of them are easy to reach, and some of them are more challenging. Yet more are special day events, for example Halloween or other. You can participate in as many, or as few challenges as you like each month, and it doesn’t really matter whether you succeed or fail, except for collection of badges you end up with.


Insights


One of the encouraging, or discouraging screens is the Insights screen. On this screen you can see how well or how badly you are classed depending on sport, age and gender. I am in the top 1percent for floors climbed, top 22 percent for Sleep, top eight percent for steps per day but am not classed for cycling, swimming or running, due to not doing these sports enough recently.


Battery


After one year of use of this watch I have not had issues with this battery. I think it has always lasted throughout my workouts. After a year of daily use the battery still seems fine and I can still go for several days before having to recharge. I do turn off oxygen stats though because that halves the battery life from over 27 days to just 10. The data is not that accurate, so not that interesting anyway.


As I mentioned earlier if you wear the watch and use it as a step counter, then, with the Spanish sun it will eventually display that it has 99 days of battery left, so if you want a sports tracker that you forget about for three months then this is perfect. I say three months, but in practice that’s the maximum number of hours it can display. If I remember correctly it then displayed infinity.


And Finally


Two or three times I selected the wrong sport. I chose walking when I was cycling, which was frustrating as it meant that I missed some data from the start of a ride or two, and thus an opportunity to see how big an effort I made.


As with plenty of sports watches it takes a few seconds to detect the satellites and if you’re on a phone call or distracted in some other way, then you tell it to spot satellites but you forget to tell it to start tracking and timing. Result, you do an entire walk or bike ride and you are left with a step count.


Summary


If it wasn’t for the decision it takes not to synchronise on some mornings, despite being worn 24hours a day I would love this watch, instead of really like it. If it wasn’t for that I would never have considered replacing it. With 27 days of battery in theory, after over a year of daily tracking use for one and a half hours a day, it has been great for cycling walking, cycling, and hiking. It also plays well with the Garmin speed and cadence sensors. This provides us with a cheap versatile solution for cycling, without the nuisance of a single purpose device.


Compare the old and new watches


This watch was at least 100 francs cheaper than the Apple Watch Series 4 and I never worried about breaking it, or worried about the battery being too low to finish a walk or bike ride. It doesn’t need to be charged every day, and the strap doesn’t start to smell after weeks of being worn. If you’re looking for a lower cost watch then this is a good solution.


One of the reasons I switched from Suunto despite loving their products, and that they are a European company is that they went for Android and Google wear rather than their own watch OS. Their battery life declined and the niche they were in was lost. Suunto also stopped the web interface for Movescount, so that it became mobile only. That’s a shame because I loved Movescount and Sportstracker. Garmin Connect is a nice alternative nonetheless.

The Facebook Three Billion
|

The Facebook Three Billion

Byrichard

Over the last two or three days I have played with the idea of returning to Facebook. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is that Facebook has three billion people and you can find people local to you, which is a huge plus. The second reason is that with Facebook we can find activity based communities for hiking, climbing, cycling and more. We’re talking online but with local communities it becomes easier to meet people in person, rather than remaining isolated online.


The other reason is that Twitter is no longer a welcoming place for ordinary people who support diversity and the flow of information, rather than disinformation. Twitter has become a shadow of it’s former self.


In theory the Fediverse and Mastodon are a great alternative to Twitter but in my experience over a period of months I have been trolled several times, and I see that those who are opinionated are misinformed people who have fallen victim to disinformation. I would enjoy Mastodon if it wasn’t filled with everything that I tried to flee, by leaving Twitter.


No Desire to Meet in Person


Another reason for wanting to leave the Fediverse for Facebook is that three to five times, in recent months, or even years people, on Twitter, and the Fedivere, have said that they are not looking to meet people from Mastodon or Twitter, in person. I don’t see the value of a social network where we do not want to meet people in person, eventually.


Furtive Trust in Facebook


I am still weary of Facebook. I have been trolled on Facebook too, which is why I dumped the network during the peak of lock down. I couldn’t deal with being trolled online, whilst being lonely in the physical world.


Facebook is still owned and controlled by the same people. I don’t trust these people to behave morally, and put their users first, rather than capital and political manipulation.


Current Impressions


As I spent time on Facebook this week I noticed that there is a photo group filled with people who know how to take proper pictures, rather than Instagram style kitsch. I also think that with three billion people plenty of them are mid to late adopters, otherwise referred to as “normal people”. By normal people I mean non-geeks with standard lives. By standard lives I mean that they can turn on most sitcoms and it relates to their lives.


If I find a group of local hikers, local via ferrata people, and cyclists then I can dump the Fediverse and other platforms and revert to Facebook.


And Finally


If I am now toying with the idea of reverting to Facebook it is not because Facebook has improved, but that Twitter has ceased to exist, and alternatives such as the Fediverse are not yet, as healthy as I would like and communities like BlueSky are still not the type of community that I want to be part of.


It’s fun to be part of new online communities, but those that are looking forward, to become something new, rather than nostlagic for a different age. Earlier this morning I saw a post about millenials being nostalgic for the golden age of social media, as I am. I don’t think that age will come back. I think now is the time to get back to the centre of the bell curve, back to where ordinary non geeks are, to find a potentially healthy community, or community of communities.


There is a chance that what I wanted with Twitter, Instagram and more, now exists on Facebook, if I devote enough time to find an online community that also spends time meeting offline.

SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner and Others

SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner and Others

Byrichard

In 2007 I bought a copy of SuperDuper that I used to backup my laptops for a while. I bought the licence for fourteen GBP in 2007 and it is still valid to this day. That’s less than a GBP per year of use. The tool is simple. It allows you to backup your mac’s system disk or other drives and make them bootable when relevant. This means that you can run your laptop or desktop either from your local drive or an external drive.

Superduper

If the internal drive fails you can switch to the backup drive within seconds. Just hold option at boot, select the backup drive, and boot into your external hard drive. Continue working. The same licence now costs 27 CHF but since this is a lifetime licence it’s worth having.

Carbon Copy Cloner

I heard about Carbon Copy Cloner regularly through various podcasts, and work, so I decided to play with that backup solution but it requires you to pay for an upgrade every few years. It’s 50 CHF now, to buy for the current version, and half off for the next version. I stopped using Carbon Copy Cloner around 2017 or so because MacOS changed to APFS and broke backup solutions. At this point we had to switch back to slow and clunky Time Machine.

The issue with apps today is that they’re built on the ‘pay yearly’ and ‘pay monthly’ model, which both makes sense, and makes no sense. It makes sense that in the age of incremental upgrades we would pay constantly to have apps updated but at the same time this constant paying for apps becomes expensive.

Apps are Expensive

For a long time I would download a dozen or more apps per week from the iOS app, to play with, and enjoy. Over time every single app began to cost 27 CHF per year or more. At this point a dozen apps at 27 CHF per year comes to 324 CHF per year. This is too expensive. It’s good for Apple but awful for users. The worst thing about paying per year is that the companies that are charging are not even making enough to survive, so we’re paying for nothing. Apple benefits but we, and developers, just pay through the nose, just to exist.

And Finally

I am grateful to Shirt Pocket, the company behind SuperDuper for updating the app and allowing us to use it for over a decade without having to pay a yearly upgrade fee. Paradoxically they thanked me too, in their aknowledgements too. If you’re looking for an affordable bootable system disk backup solution then I would still recommend them today.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.