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AI in IT
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- Written by: Hartigan
- Category: Tech
- Hits: 10
Many people have told me I've told this story too many times, but... When I hosted a superbowl grid a few years ago, I asked AI to "generate the programming for a ten by ten grid to allow users to select up to four squares and accept a name and email address". The first attempts weren't as good as what could be downloaded from https://github.com/stchiang/sbsquares. But more recently, the programming has improved (not workable for me, but close), and it also responded with technical notes (e.g. register a website, secure a web provider, ensure certain packages were installed) and user documentation (e.g. Select some squares, enter a name, send money to the gridmaster). It was much more of a response than what I expected. I didn't end up using much, but it sparked some ideas to make building the pages and getting them completed much easier.
Recently, I had a need to pull a bunch of information from a website and reformat it into an MS-Excel spreadsheet. Getting the information involved a series (hundreds?) of API calls which returned .json files. The files had some mandatory and some optional fields. Some files had one entity; others had multiple entities per file. I needed to parse the results into a one-line-per-entity format for Excel. I'm ok when using the Linux 'jq' command, but don't know all its features and options. A back and forth conversation with an AI provided me with the commands I needed. Additionally, when I forgot a column or header, I prompted, "just like that, but now I need column headers" (or an additional field). Voila. The correct command string was provided.
All the models are getting better at a faster and faster rate. I'm not going to recommend my preferences. I do recommend if you're in the thinking business, you should become adept at using AI in your worklife.
Berlin Marathon -- September, 2025
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- Written by: FDD10
- Category: Social
- Hits: 457
A friend is running in the Berlin Marathon next month. He's run New York, Chicago, and has plans on running all the big ones (e.g. Toyko, Boston). It's a blessing to accompany his wife and son on the trip. There are six or seven of us going to help support. After the marathon, we'll re-visit places we haven't been to in decades. My wife and I really enjoyed Germany in 1995 -- except for the surprise Liver and Onions meal I was served. It is a beautiful country with very hospitable people. We won't make it to the Octoberfest in Munich this time -- that's a young man's game. We've gained some wisdom and will stick to the smaller celebrations. We\'re hoping to see our daughter who lives in Ireland and friends in Amsterdam. Praying the weather is as we remember in late September.
KofC at the 2017 Strawberry Faire
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- Written by: FDD10
- Category: Social
- Hits: 448
The Ashland Strawberry Faire (a street festival with food and craft vendors and entertainment throughout the day) was held on Saturday June 3. The council helped on Friday June 2 for a few hours with set up. The council picked up trash from the trashcans that are set up on the streets in around Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. And, with the cleanup and storage duties.
Thank you to all brother Knights who helped make the Ashland Strawberry Faire trash pickup such a great success. It was a beautifully warm and sunny day, and the crowds had a wonderful time. We raised over $1,000 for the council, and made a great visible demonstration of our community service. It was great to have time to walk and talk about something other than election slates and budgets. ;-)
Joe Letteri and Brother Wayne Cocke brought Gators which made the work much smoother than in year's past.
Thanks to:
Joe Letteri
John Curtis
Zach Curtis
Gregg Palmer
Todd Stephenson
Ed McPherson
Clem Gross
Jim Hartigan
Maggie Hartigan
Myron Kostyk
Wayne Cocke
Steve Mohring and family
Bernie Kurtzwiel for putting together the SignupGenius page.
Here's some lessons learned for for next year:
* Bring one more pickup truck to the storage facility. It'd be good to make one trip rather than two.
* Keep Carts running on back streets. Don't try to navigate through the crowd. Bring trash to the end of the streets and have gators constantly looping?
* Don't drive on non-Faire city streets.
* Don't be too aggressive swapping out bags. Let things get to 80% full before using a new bag. We had to buy more.
* Remember to check the Randolph-Macon trash bags in the Faire area. Keep them from overflowing.
* Figure out if we need to take vendor trash or not.
There were three dumpsters this year. We should confirm which are available for use.