July 16, 2023

🔤 Text Expansion for Windows

Simply put, text expansion on Windows makes me sad. Microsoft offers AutoComplete so I guess people think that’s good enough. AutoComplete, or AutoCorrect, are nowhere near as powerful or useful as text expansion. And that doesn’t help when you’re in someone else’s app. Text expansion on the Mac works out of the box. It’s part of the OS and is an integral part of getting work done efficiently. All you need to do is go into the Keyboard shortcuts of System Preference and set up what you need. If you need more options, bigger lists, prompts and date insertion – there are multiple apps to choose from like, TypeIt4Me, aText, Rocket, Rocket Typist, and Typinator. Once you’ve set up your expansion sets, they can be shared across machines. I have TypeIt4Me sets stored in iCloud, so as soon as it was installed on my 2013 Mac Pro, the expansions were ready to use. I have hundreds of TypeIt4Me trigger keywords, […]

July 13, 2023

🖼️ Having some fun with AI Image Generation

Since I’m messing around with the Language Model side of AI, I decided to have a look at the Image Generation aspect. Not going to lie, it’s pretty amazing. You type in a few keywords and a couple seconds later out pops a picture. That alone is impressive, but it’s not some copy/paste job, it’s a composed image. And there are some amazing renders out there, like Cloud cities, representations of “artificial intelligence,” and some surrealist paintings that have an incredible level of detail. And let’s be honest, there are a whole of lot of nudes out there. The machines are being taught some unusual body proportions. Not every image is a gem, but considering what’s going on in the background of taking different kinds of images and layering them together, it’s pretty impressive. Even the worst image is better than my best attempt. Of course, if you don’t like what you get, spin the wheel and try again. A […]

July 10, 2023

💵 Paying for computer cycles likes it’s 1969

It’s interesting to see all these AI servers popping up all over the web. Some are language models, while others are specifically for image generation. What’s also interesting is how these system harken back to the mainframe days where you need to pay to use the cycles. Want a more comprehensive answer? Pay for credits or buy a subscription. Want an image larger than a postage stamp? Want to use something other than the craptacular demo render model for an image? Want to move your request up in the queue? I can understand these. There is a fair bit of computing power at play for generating AI images. It’s just funny how this model is a mirror of the early days of computing. You may have stacks of CPUs, GPUs, and Ram, but no work is done on your machine. Regardless of your computer power, when you want to do something with AI, especially images, it’s nothing but a dumb […]

July 9, 2023

🔨 The Right Tool for the Right Job

It’s not just about having a tool; it’s about having the right tool for the right job. Just because you’ve paid for an app, doesn’t make it the right app for every project. Just because you have an awesome Thor-like hammer, doesn’t mean you should use it to screw in a lightbulb. I used to work with a guy who thought he was an expert with Excel. He knew a couple of functions, including the dreaded VLOOKUP, and thought Excel was the answer to all his projects. He would use it for everything like storing passwords, SQL statements, and any other text he could jam into it. Instead of using a database to find products, or using “grep” to find something in a text file, he would spend hours trying to load everything into Excel. He would also spend days formatting tables. Not use one of the built in ones to make it easier to see the lines, but custom […]

July 5, 2023

🎮 The Future of Legacy Mac Gaming

It wasn’t my original intent, but I installed Steam on the 2013 Mac Pro just so it could have some fun and play a few games. Don’t mock me, the Mac can play games… For recent games it works like a charm, not that I’ve got anything that really taxes it, although a mega-city in City Skylines could be a fun test. However, I’ve come across the “Not compatible with 10.15 Catalina or above” message when browsing through my Steam library. And I’m a bit surprised. I figured that devs coding for Mac would just go straight 64-bit. Poor Windows, still living in its 32-bit world. Interestingly, Sid Meier’s Railroads plays just fine on Monterey. But the original Hand of Fate isn’t compatible. When new games come out, there won’t be an issue, you kind of sort of have to make them 64-bit if you make them for the Mac. But what about the legacy games I’d like to keep […]

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