the gift of late spring
as the flowers start to fade
under the blue skies
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
Today’s Podcast
One of my favorite things is listening to podcasts on my walks. During today’s walk (you can check that out on Strava, if you care) I listened to Saturday’s (June 8) Geekwire podcast: “How This Professor teaches AI and thinks about human creativity“. Featuring Léonard Boussioux, I appreciated his positive outlook on the potential that AI offers. I agree with those folks who think AI is in a hype-cycle. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no gains or innovations that will be coming out of this. I deeply believe this technology will be significantly transformative. However, I doubt it will be as destructive as some predict, nor as positive as others are thinking.
I also appreciate that they touched on the sustainability issues surrounding AI. Huge amounts of energy and water are part of this equation. These will be key elements for the efficacy of this technology.
I have a few ideas that I want to explore with AI tools. These tools will be critical ones to learn and master. I’m confident many jobs that will be replaced by AI, will create new roles on the other side of this equation.
They had a side discussion looking at the ethics of using AI to enhance photography, and what should be disclosed. Todd Bishop, one of Geekwire’s founders, used an AI tool to enhance (de-noise is the phrase they used) an image. When I first heard the situation, I thought that disclosing was unnecessary. Mainly, I don’t see any difference between “de-noising” and color-correcting, or cropping. As they went on and explored the issue, I shifted to thinking disclosure is the wisest course. As I respect the distrust many feel towards AI, so it makes sense to just be conscientious.
There’s so much that AI is challenging in our lives. I really appreciated this unique dive into it.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Thinking About Code
My fellow blogger and online friend Bernie Michalik posted today “On futzing around with code“. A key thing for me was the reminder about how much I enjoy coding. To be clear, coding is most enjoyable when it WORKS. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of fun building programs, tweaking things, and exploring how it all works.
Currently, though, I struggle with coding. It is deeply frustrating when it doesn’t work. As I step back and look, I see it’s challenging some of my deepest insecurities. Computer programming is for “smart” people, and I have some deep insecurities around this. More things to work out, I see.
So, when the code doesn’t work, it rattles those old fears, those old pains. Then I get angry and frustrated quickly, driving me to quit my project. My stubborn streak often brings me back, and I never regret coming back and getting it to work (I guess two negatives do make a positive). Figuring out these bugs makes me feel like a wizard. It’s amazing! But the downs are awful.
I think when I decided to study web application development, with the goal of launching the next part of my career there, I put a huge amount of pressure on myself. That robbed much of the fun. If every time I’m building something, I’m focused on how this will help build a programming career. When I’m in a beginners mind, curious, having fun and not concerned about the end product, coding is still fun.
Reflecting on Bernie’s post, I think I need to dive back into code, but focus on having fun. Just enjoy the work, the journey.
A summer haiku
a breeze in sunlight
summer slowly approaches
these dancing petals
This evening’s haiku
with hints of summer
watching the vigor of bees
as the springtime fades
This photo was taken in my front yard. The bees were quite taken with these flowers. This was shot with my Samsung S22.
I’m quite pleased with the results I get with this phone. It’s been amazing.
It’s feeling like summer here, just north of Seattle. It’s wonderful. But I’m right at the point of shifting from complaining about the cold to complaining about the heat. The comfortable temperature range for Seattle’s is between 65 & 75.
I hope you’re enjoying your weekend! May it exceed your expectations.
Today’s haiku
between the rain squalls
gently caressing petals
spring slowly fading
Elements of style
Perhaps I should call this “elements of MY style”. But, anyway, Pinterest served this photo up to me today:
Oh, how I adore this photo! First, years ago, I had a fixation with scooters and, specifically, Vespas. Then you add in the fact I am fond of weathered, aged things. Oh, and I am fond of his satchel. Lastly, I love tweed! Mix that with a flat-cap and *chef’s kiss*.
I’ve had many flat caps over the years. My current arsenal holds two from Ireland (though I expect the fellow above is Scottish). And I don’t wear tweed that much any more. Perhaps I should fix that. Anyway, my closest alignment with this fellow comes with the only scooter I’ve ever owned. No, not a Vespa, but I had a Honda Elite 150 back in the late 80s (before I went to Oregon and Job Corps).
I enjoyed it greatly, but didn’t take it with me when I went to Oregon. It would’ve been handy after I got out of the Navy and lived in Downtown Seattle. But, well, I would’ve had to port this thing around the country. Which wasn’t in the cards.
Anyway, some fond memories here.
Ah, spam, glorious spam!
One of the things I do for a number of orgs is manage social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok). For the most part it’s pretty fun. However, there’s a group of folk I’m seeing more and more: spammers. This crew is bolder and more annoying. They’ll post their spam comment about being a YouTube expert, then keep replying (“did you read my note?”). Initially, I took them at face value and replied saying “thanks, no thanks”. Then I had the guy ping us how we could increase our YouTube engagement, for a client who has NO YouTube presence. I mean, come on, at least TRY with your time-wasting spam.
I have been taking modest delight in deleting these requests. Micro-empowerment, I guess. It is a Sisyphean process, so I take what wins I can.
Reflecting on The Half-Life of Magic
I make it a point to read Seth Godin blog posts every day (well, I try my best). Today, he wrote “The half-life of magic“.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke
In this post, Mr. Godin points out how quickly magic wears off. And, by magic, I ascribe the appreciation and wonder. The rate of change has increased so dramatically that one of our challenges is to find wonder in life.
It is hard when we externalize this. When we’re waiting to find wonder, delight, joy, it becomes so much harder to find. Let me propose another alternative: to actively seek it. Take a moment and consider how amazing our lives our. With my cellphone I can look up almost anything humanity has ever learned. Almost all knowledge is, literally, at our fingertips. but these technological marvels are only a small piece. Look out the window, watch the rain, see the hummingbirds drift amongst the blossoms, or the juncos dark amongst the tree branches. Or the eagle drifting overhead, over this suburban human habitat.
Life is full of wonder if you choose to look for it. And that’s the pathway to a joy-filled life: searching for wonder.
Another Step Forward
Today I finished Google’s Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User certificate. I have two more to complete in order to finish the Google IT Support course. Initially, it was nice to refresh on a lot of the material that I studied completing my Associates in Information Systems. We’re pushing through that now, which is pretty cool. In particular, diving deeper into Linux is something I’ve really wanted to do. This wasn’t terribly deep, but I enjoyed the Linux focused labs, which took me a bit.
I’m still exploring what I want to do after this cert. There are so many options within the world of tech. I could dive deeper into systems administration, or I could move into data analysis. I really enjoyed my studies into data systems and structures. And I enjoy my current IT role.
More soon!