Technology

Research On Searching

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Over the previous years, online search engines have become overwhelmed with advertisements and results that may somewhat be relative to the original query you typed into the search field- it is maddening.

Even Boolean searches with tools such as “and” “or” “not”, plus signs, minus signs, quote, endnotes, etc are rendered useless. I’ve tried advanced library search strategies to no fruition that benefitted my search query.

I suggested awhile back that Apple should build their own search engine but they are content by taking Google’s $1 billion annual payout to make their search engine the default inside the Safari browser instead.

When I read that Apple Intelligence (brilliant marketing, by the way,) was going to be included in the next software update sometime later this year, I signed up for an OpenAI account to feel out how well it’s ChatGPT could help. I’ve been using it as a research assistant to answer the same questions I would ask a standard search engine.

The results are night and day. Instead of providing thousands of websites that may point the way to an eventual answer, ChatGPT provides an answer back to me in the form of a conversation. If I have a follow-up question, or ask for specifics, the reply is lightning quick. Of course, all information has to be verified. I won’t accept answers blindly without a second opinion. 99% of the information I checked and rechecked have been spot on. Nothing is 100% when it comes to research, especially from an LLM (Learned Language Model) such as ChatGPT. You cannot call it A.I. simply because it is not sentient. It is not intelligent on its own. It has retained and provides data based on human data. Everyone knows we are flawed and make mistakes.

ChatGPT will too, but for now, it does a damn better job of providing information better than all the other search engines do. Even though that is why they exist.

Useful
Maddening

Back In Time

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With the help of the Internet Archives and their Wayback Machine, I am slowly cutting/pasting/posting some of this website’s missing articles that somehow did not migrate and log.

The Machine only takes snapshots and not the full site, so I’m positive there are a lot of posts missing and maybe gone forever.

I was missing four years from 2013-2017 and I have regained a lot since my last post on this. I’ll finish porting over the rest tomorrow. For now, I am hopeful and in debt to the Internet Archive organization. Now my website’s Archive Page has listings for the previous twenty four consecutive years.

Offline

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It has been a full month since I told my phone carrier I want to remove the data package from my mobile plan. The monthly bill for just talk and text is $20 monthly.

To prepare myself for this, I ripped a lot of music from compact discs, then realized Apple Music has download features so I did that to all of my playlists. Next, I downloaded an offline version of maps so I can still navigate around this new area. The same goes for other media such as podcasts and e-books.

Truth time- the first week offline I was reaching for the phone to look something up but was unable to. Time to panic? I did, but got over it quickly. I cannot send or receive photos via Messages app, again, just text.

Sure, I am not able to use the Geocaching app to discover hidden caches, but eventually I’ll get another hand held GPS unit for that. No e-mails either, but wait, is that so bad? It isn’t.

I may be “off”, but I am content for now.

Three P’s

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For digital documents you want to keep for a long time, I suggest the Three P’s:

  • Plain text
  • PDFs
  • Printouts

While in college in the mid 1990’s, and prior to purchasing my first computer, I utilized a word processor. Think manual typewriter but with a 3.5″ floppy disk for storage. I wish I had known enough to preserve all of my writings. The floppy disks were formatted for the word processor but not the computer. It wiped everything off the disk to make room for the Windows formatting. The lesson here is to preserve your work and prepare by future-proofing formats. It was a hard learned lesson. All of my personal writing, studies and papers gone.

I was reminded of all of this when I read about how Hemingway’s early notes and the beginning of a novel disappeared. His wife had gathered his works and left Paris by train to Switzerland to meet him and a publisher and somehow, the suitcase went missing from the train platform and they were devastated.

My loss was due to ignorance and in no way as significant as Hemingway’s loss. But the pain was there.

My revamped workflow process is:

  • Write and edit drafts in Ulysses (saved to cloud, backed up onto my file server)
  • Publish from Ulysses to my website (saved to cloud)
  • Copy/Paste to my own database in plain text format (cloud, file server)
  • Migrate all of my work into the database in plain text, organize.
  • Print to .pdf by year (saved to cloud and file server)
  • Print to paper by year (saved to a dedicated yearly file folder or binder)

Interesting enough, while walking through the library’s “read and return” section, the word “Hemingway” ended up in my peripheral vision.

Rabbits and Frequency Illusion!

I usually don’t give them a glance but the paper spine was attractive. The fiction novel title is “The Hemingway Thief” and how the aforementioned luggage was lost. I haven’t read it yet, but it seems to be a good yarn with a few secrets and twists. Looking forward to reading it as soon as possible.

iOS 18

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The beta version of the newest iPhone operating system has been installed on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. There is a lot of new features to unpack but for now, the custom icon tinting is my favorite. I love a uniform screen.

USB ♣️

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Two weeks after receiving my specialized USB Stick, I am finally in the club. Now I can share files with others and pick/choose what files I would like. File formats include pdf, jpg, mov, etc. Here’s a look at the console below. Once I have inserted the USB and verified my secure credentials, I am in.

I have only had time to share one file, a .pdf of JPG photo magazine from 2007 (I miss that periodical), and have downloaded an image shared by another. So I look forward to becoming more involved in the ♣️.

Until next time,

Type Art

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There are many reasons as to why I was looking forward to utilizing my typewriter after I relocated. One, was to make art from it. I’ve been a long time fan of ASCii art but there are people out there that have taken it to the next level and then some.

After nerdscrolling and falling down a few internet rabbit holes, I’ve discovered so many type-art resources out there.

Such as a pamphlet from 1979 turned into a pdf from the Internet Archive entitled Typewriter Mystery Games.

Obviously this would utilize multiple ribbons, paper and practice but I’d love to explore this further.

Until next time,

HTML

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I am in a mood again. Thinking about keeping this website online as a private online archive while at the same time, writing to the journal inside my own offline database.

If I do take this private, it’ll be a stripped down HTML-only version.

Stay tuned.

Type Is Dead

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Well, just my typewriter, actually. The local repairman said no way, and it would be cheaper to get a different one. It now rests in the trash bin behind that shop. So now I am on the lookout for a different model and color.

In the meantime, the Hanx digital typewriter will have to do.

The Matrix Has You

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It is 2024 and the Matrix is real. Of this there can be zero doubt, if you consider your daily screen time. The digital avatar of you online versus your physical meat space in the real world. Are you intellectually honest with yourself?

Can you feel how disproportionate this balance is?

Retro Denbow

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As part of my mission this year to “de-bullshit” my life, I’ve been contemplating acquiring a dumb phone and with luck, my carrier has exactly one model. It’s features are the ability to talk, text and take crap-quality images and that’s it. The carrier representative must have thought I was mentally unstable for even thinking about it and maybe he’s right. I currently have the iPhone 15 Pro Max which, for only a few more months, is the best on the American market. So “why go backwards?”, he asked.

The 2024 TCL Flip looks like it came right out of the year 1999.

I love the iPhone, but apparently I love it too much and I want to reduce my dependency on it.

Then I got to thinking, why not remove all the apps off of the iPhone except for the phone, messages, the camera and photo apps? Why not have my carrier remove the data option from my plan and I pay less? Hmm.