Published inGeezerViews·Aug 2In my day: 1993 The Internic Help Line to find your way to the Internet — Dial 1–800-…YouTube recommended this 30 year old Computer Chronicles episode (I remember watching this series on PBS back in the day) to me today and was transported back to the days of Gopher, anonymous FTP logins, Mosaic (the first web browser), and more. I was fortunate to have had Internet…Technology History2 min readTechnology History2 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Jun 30Google Pixel Tablet speaker dock loudness comparisons (in dBa)Most Pixel Tablet reviewers commented on the speaker/charger dock’s sound quality and loudness. Opinions vary, of course. My ears aren’t “golden” enough to, in my opinion, provide a good description of the Pixel Tablet’s charger/speaker dock’s sound quality. And, it is, IMO, useless to try to assess the speaker quality…2 min read2 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Apr 23Thinking aloud: Can Bing/Bard help keep mainframes running?Google is trying have its Bard LLM catch up with Microsoft Bing Copilot. On April 21, 2023, it announced Bard now helps you code. We’re launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript. And you can easily export Python code to…Mainframe3 min readMainframe3 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Apr 8Microsoft Designer (preview) initial impressions: A step above Bing Creator and DALL-E for the casual creatorMicrosoft Designer is a Large Language Model (LLM) image creation tool for, in my opinion, a casual creator — like me. …Microsoft2 min readMicrosoft2 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Mar 28Apple Music Classical app: Initial impressionsAt 1700 HST on March 27, 2023 I was surprised to be notified that the new Apple Music Classical app was ready to download since its launch date was announced earlier as March 28. My guess is that those of us who “pre-ordered” this free app got the early download.Apple2 min readApple2 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Mar 21What can AI LLM ChatGPT-like chatbots in 2023 learn from 1993 SS7 Intelligent Networks?Like many people, Jon Westfall, and some of our panelist-friends on the MobileViews podcast series have been discussing ChatGPT and other end-user accessible AI tools that have emerged since late 2022. As I read more and more opinion pieces about these Large Language Model/Generative AI-based tools, some of the predictions…ChatGPT3 min readChatGPT3 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Mar 11Microsoft Lists (preview) now available in consumer Office 365 accountsOne of the, perhaps, odd things I missed after retiring at the end of 2022 was access to Microsoft Lists in my work Microsoft 365 account. I oftened referred to it as sane “SharePoint Lists”. You could get tremendous value from it in a no-code scenario. …Microsoft Lists2 min readMicrosoft Lists2 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Mar 11Microsoft Edge as a Platform (MEP?)-The year 2000 MSN Companion’s descendantAfter updating the only PC I have that can run Windows 11 (which only has an 18% adoption level 18 months after its release), the Microsoft Edge browser’s so-called “multitasking” sidebar brought something to mind that I couldn’t quite put a handle on… until… I found my ancient Compaq iPaq…Microsoft Edge Browser3 min readMicrosoft Edge Browser3 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Feb 22Microsoft’s long, winding, and sometimes strange road from keyword to large language model (AI/GPT) chatbotsHaving dabbled with AI-ish problems decades ago as a graduate student with simple models and notions coded using (mostly) LISP or Prolog, I found the sudden explosion of end-user accessible AI powered tools in late 2022 fascinating and promising. Reference: Will Microsoft Barney meet ChatGPT? …AI3 min readAI3 min read
Published inGeezerViews·Feb 19How to turn on Scribble (handwriting recognition) in OneNote for iPadOS — for those without superhuman visionIf you have an iPad and Apple Pencil, you may want to try the the recent Scribble (handwriting recognition) support Microsoft added to its OneNote for iPad app. …Handwriting Recognition2 min readHandwriting Recognition2 min read
