I enjoy ChatGPT so much

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic for decades, with endless possibilities for improving various fields, including healthcare, education, and entertainment. One of the most impressive AI developments of recent years is the ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI based on the GPT-3.5 architecture. ChatGPT is a chatbot that has revolutionized the way we interact with machines, making communication more natural and intuitive. I've used other AI bots that are now available and have come back to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Truly a great advancement.

ChatGPT is capable of generating human-like text responses to a variety of prompts and queries. With access to vast amounts of data, ChatGPT can provide accurate and informative responses to a wide range of questions, from general knowledge to specific queries. The system's ability to understand natural language and respond in a contextually appropriate way is its most significant advantage over other chatbots on the market.

The features available on ChatGPT are diverse, from language translation to personality-based responses. ChatGPT's personality model allows users to engage with the chatbot in a way that feels like a conversation with a real person. It can simulate emotions, inject humor, and adapt to the user's communication style. ChatGPT's translation capabilities allow users to communicate with people who speak different languages, making cross-cultural communication more accessible.

Despite the many benefits of AI, some people remain wary of the technology, concerned that it will take over jobs and replace human interaction. However, it's important to remember that AI is just a tool and not a science fiction monster that will suddenly turn on us. The goal of AI is to augment and improve human capabilities, not replace them. ChatGPT and other AI systems are designed to make our lives easier, not to take them over.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is an impressive example of how AI has advanced over the years. It has made communication with machines more natural and intuitive, and its features are diverse and useful. It's important to remember that AI is just a tool and not a scary monster, and that its goal is to augment and improve human capabilities, not replace them. ChatGPT is just one of the many ways in which AI is improving our lives, and we can expect even more exciting advancements in the future.

The Gilded Cage of our own make.

As I've been instructing people over the years I find  that there has been an evolution of "play" for children that may be cause for concern. From early history play for children often mimicked what their fathers and mothers did for their respective jobs. From early faming,

 to the building blocks of the assembly line.

 

I recall the trucker CB radio craze,

 the Radio Shack walkie talkies,

And all the action figures from My Little Pony to Gi Joe. 

The one characteristic all these things had in common was the world of imagination and make-believe.  As a teacher I've noticed that today's student has little point of reference in the space of creative thinking. Today, we have many imaginative worlds that are available to us on our cell phones. Some would argue that we have more reference material than ever on our devices. I've enjoyed playing many computer games where it seemed like the sky was the limit, but when you examine in greater detail how the software was made in almost all cases the same scenario appears. You play a character that has a limited number of objects or opportunities to choose from.

Depending on your choices your character does well or not. Random number generation helps, but still you have only few options that can be picked. 

Its like always playing a multiple choice test vs free writing. There is also little or no collaborative opportunities in these mini games on our phones. In the past children would play together and bounce ideas off each other and see how to act under imaginative experiences. Children would explore the concepts of gender roles playing "house." Boys would have unlimited outside play thinking of strategy as army men doing battle. Today's children often have a favorite hero with a set of abilities and some kind of limit is place on them, however, when you turn off the screen the world that hero lives in goes away. 

In my line of work children grown to adulthood are asked to do troubleshooting and work together in teams.  This is almost a new concept for many of them. They lack some of the basic abilities to imagine the solution. There is no point of reference to something that can be tried even if information is given to them. The logical steps and seeing how the objects work together is often troublesome. This is alarming because that is exactly what cell phone games do, give people some foundation to make the choices on. 

In discussions on this topic with my fellow coaches, I find that I'm looking for answers to how we can help people break out of the pre-defined world and think outside a framework. The issue with coming up with a solution is that I'm so fixed on the "fun" I'm having in those predefined worlds. To say, Just put down the phone, is so easy to say, but how quickly do those same people grab for their phone after they put it down. That is when an idea came to mind. Rather than always diving into a world on the phone, can we have the phone join us in our world? Many know that there are augmented reality type games that have variables that are hard to predict because of the interaction in the real world. You may recall the use of GPS in a treasure hunt game called Geocaching? Well, What if that same concept was applied to phones, We saw it work with "Ingress" a game that was developed to play on your phone in the real world, it got people out and moving. Later, with Pokémon Go it was a similar concept. However, the only issue I saw there was that the real world was still just a backdrop for the game that was again limited to what was done on your phone. However, an interesting thing happened to me as I went for my daily walk. I found that the places where I had played popped back into my mind as I passed those locations again. So that there was some mental imagination that was sparked. That is when I knew there is something to this. I hope that in the future we get augmented reality games that allow us to "play" outside again with our technology giving us more to think about vs choices to be made. How would it be to have a spark of thought and then ask your virtual assistant a question that unlocks other options in a game. I recall a similar situation when playing an old computer game "Where in the World is Carmon Sandiego?" You could go to an Atlas book or a dictionary and get real world info to help you play the game and the fun thing was it worked. 

I think the future of leaning is very bright with augmented reality. VR has a place, but again, that is not quite the direction I'm thinking will be the best benefit. We need to get into the real world again, and spark imagination to inspire invention, innovation and our ability to problem solve. I have no illusion that we will not take our phones with us. They shosuld be a tool to assist us not a limit we place on ourselves. 

 

Hadoop and Big Data

Update! At LDS BC, we cover the basics of storage from early devices to Object based Storage on large Arrays of Disks. As an exercise in the class I have the students setup Hadoop standalone, then as a cluster in their team. This way they can see Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) in action.

The design of HDFS is to break the large file in to many parts and "distribute" Those part across multiple nodes. This way storage is spread across many nodes, Such that even if you lost a node the data is had elsewhere. If Each node is made up of 1 PC with server level computing power and Raid hardware it will be extremely unlikely that any data will ever be lost. This way they each can be processed in parallel in order to gather information from those files very quickly. This means that 1 HUGE file Tera bytes or even Peta bytes can be spread across many nodes and processed as quickly as 1000 smaller files all at once. Hadoop was developed by Search engine companies to help them process the large quantity of data that is available on the INTERNET. The Design of the cluster has rolls that each node can play. There are a set of basic nodes including Name nodes, and data nodes. EMC has a cluster based Array that can provide data node services. EMC's Isilon's cluster system can act as a Hadoop data node.

You have heard of Data Mining... Hadoop takes it to Big Data levels. With Objects in HDFS they can each be parsed for useful information and not even be in the same format. Originally this was done with mapreduce. However, this was a JAVA based method. Since then there have been many interfaces developed that will translate into mapreduce jobs. "PIG" is one of them, that allows you to use simple language to build jobs to extract data from files on a HDFS. This means that a business can get business intelligence data by using dissimilar unstructured data files: sales, customer visit / loyalty card data, credit card data, supply chain purchasing, truck delivery schedules, and customer satisfaction surveys etc. Often new insights are found from seemingly unrelated data sets. It is for that reason "Big Data" can be of such great benefit to all levels and sizes of business. Interestingly enough, the setup of a system does not take much and a regular IT team should be able to set one up for testing. Once the Cluster is in place tools for building methods to search and analyzing the data are becoming simpler and simpler. No longer do you have to be a Java Programmer. There are now other gui options.

My next class will dive deeper into the Hadoop system.
As I learn more I'll post.

-Calvin

Teaching

It has been busy for me at EMC, As a VNX File Coach I assist and Teach Engineers to better resolve Technical issues that End Customers see in their Environments. Recently I've been doing more classroom Teaching. I've always found great Joy in passing along understanding and application of Knowledge. When I heard that EMC has put together a program called EMC gives back Where I was able to volunteer at a local Elementary school in their reading program. I was very excited to volunteer! I was able to see the spark in the eyes of young children as they picked up the concepts I taught. The Feeling was marvelous to make a difference for a child. This experience has inspired me to seek opportunities where I can share what I know with others. There is a cooperate education collaboration effort that has been made with universities and colleges in Utah.One of the coaches on my team, who was previously an Teacher in Colorado, was contacted to teach the EMC ISM (Information Storage management) course at LDS Business College in Salt Lake City. I had mentored her in our file coach position, so we often talked. She asked me if I would substitute for her for a time. I took the opportunity. Later, She was hurt in a Ski Accident and didn't want to take on the next semester. I asked more about taking over the position for her. I visited with LDS BC's management and was able to take the position. I now am an Adjunct Professor at LDS BC! As I enjoy the position, and learn more, I'll share!

-Calvin

Consulting Update

Some people wanted to see the evolution of Storage. I now work for EMC and don't consult the same as I have in the past.

I was recently asked if I could provide some incite with out bias into Storage companies. This would be hard to do as I work for EMC, yet, I previously enjoined some of the advances that NetApp gave us. So here is a simple reason why EMC is the Storage Company to use and to watch in the future.

Storage continues its roll forward, Moving to Cloud versatility. EMC continues to position itself and adapt. Purchases of VMware was huge, as EMC now has the most stable Virtual Machine system made. This means that the ability to move to a Cloud based "Virtual" system is made easier for existing technology as EMC has gained the know how of the previous PC / Server platform. EMC's Fedoration of Pivotal, RCA, VMware, and Cisco or (VCE) also gives EMC the ability to harness new emerging Cloud technology and Security. There is No other Company that has so many options and abilities.

The Storage Products from EMC are also Very Stable Architecture. And More Speed then any other technology.

EMC is the company to watch as we continue down the road to the Cloud and use of Big DATA.

http://www.emc.com/index.htm?fromGlobalSelector

SEO simple ways to improve your companies visibility

Ever wonder why they call it the web? In SEO "Web" comes to mean more. I have found a simple way to improve search results by giving Google and others search engines ways to "Find" your page. This ability to find and raise your position in the search results.

1. Develop a Public "Brand" and Share it, Twitter, Facebook, Personal interest sites.
2. Share publicly similar information on each site, and reference the other site.
3. The linking of sites, is what makes your information more interesting to Web Search Engines.
4. Focus on what makes you, you, We are complex people so, you should have Interests that reflect.
5. Remember once you start a brand, you Control where it goes and what is seen. Make sure you have clear goals in mind.

seo-optimization-techniques
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So much of my energy has been utilized in my new Job in Storage. 

For those in Technology it has been hard these few years. Keep up the kindness can care for each other!

I plan to post again as time allows.

-Calvin