It is very difficult, for me, to have a consistent reasoned position on ChatGTP and its ilk. This article, pushing back on the idea that ChatGTP makes essay writing in an educational situation a dead end, is broadly calming, for me. It points out the actual limits of the tool, and the reasons for learning "essay writing" skills (it isn't about the essay). But then this article about "AI Lobbyists" freaks me out. Shit is just changing really fast, is really complex and complicated, and staying on the ride, let alone having time to think about it, feels almost impossible. Trying to slow down ride is not always available as a solution, or maybe isn't the best one. I have to keep chipping away, thinking, reading, trying to come to some understanding about these tools and their roles in our, my, future...
Further on the exercise topic, i did my first Apple Fitness video workout today. They changed how it works so that non-apple watch owners could get the workouts as well, and i've been meaning to check it out for ages. I picked a 20 minute easy yoga workout, and it was good! I think they way over estimate the calories burned, but that's ok, i'm not a calorie counter (much). I'll try some of the other workouts (there are so many) too. Kind of exciting as i can easily fit them into my lunch breaks, which makes it more likely for me to do them.
Have been out climbing a couple times this week. First time in a while where my exercise level is reaching my desired goal. This is also, usually, the point at which i injure myself because i'm overdoing it. Keeping the "try-hard" levels reasonable is key. It is difficult as i really want to get on the wall, and give 120% to some interesting route. History has shown that i will regret it. History has also shown that i am not good at taking my own advice. I am hopeful that writing about it will make it stick.
Added markdown parsing to the titles for posts, so a title can have a link... That is not so good for the RSS feed, however, now that i think about it. I will modify the input format to make "link" style titles work for both HTML and RSS. Maybe the last "word" will be regexed to see if it is a valid URL, and if so, put into a specific postUrl value, which can be read by the template... This would mean that URLs could not be titles on their own? or would be linked to themselves? hurm....
% 2023-02-13T14:22:17 My Title http://the.url/that-would/be-regexed/
Oh, turns out, don't use regex for confirming URL-ness. C-Sharp has the nice Uri construct, where i can use:
if(System.Uri.TryCreate(inputText, UriKind.Absolute, out var uriResult))
{
if(uriResult.Scheme == "http" || uriResult.Scheme == "https")
{
// Yep, is a URI
return true;
}
}
Removes the need to markdown-ify the title text, keeps it more flexible, when running the data through the templates.
It occurs to me, with this setup, the RSS feed/view will miss the links in titles, when i have them. Not sure of a way to "fix" that, if it even needs fixing? Ah here is something... I am using the <guid isPermaLink="true"> so that it is the link back to the post, and the <link> item for posts which have a link in the title. Seems to work correctly in NetNewsWire, but with other feed-readers, who knows!! Probably an abuse of the <link> semantics/representation... I'll risk it.
Recursion considered harmful
Reading issue #331 of A Byte of Coding this morning, I ended up down a rabbit hole, starting on the Stack Machines and Where to Find Them article. Which lead me to how recursion got into programming. Next, On the Origin of Recursive Procedures and finally the Y combinator.
Whew. I love learning about the history of programming and computer development. So nerdy and fascinating to imagine a time when folks didn't even really understand the use and power of recursion, or even the definition of what it was.
I am sad that so much happened from the 60s to the 80s with programming theory and design, and then it just ... stopped. Got super boring. Still programming with text editors. Still cut and pasting code. Still dealing with dumb syntax errors. Why hasn't J. Edwards or The Future of Coding folks or Chris Granger gotten more support to "make things better"? I want the future now! But i also don't want to learn a bunch of new esoteric stuff to get there!