Apps Services

2023-12-02 ♾️

My First Genuine Ah Ah Moment With Generative AI

Here is a quick recount of my “Ah ah moment” this morning, involving generative AI in a simple workflow. I’m still in awe about it.

If I stumble on a long and chatty YouTube video that might be interesting, I’ll use this workflow to quickly get the gist out of it. First, I use Downie (a Mac utility) to download it on my M2 MacBook Air. Then, I use the Whisper Transcription Mac app to transcribe the spoken discussion into text that I export in a PDF¹. Next, I open ChatGPT, upload the PDF file and let ChatGPT ingest the content. Finally, I prompt ChatGPT with things like: what is the subject of this discussion? Are there any apps mentioned in the discussion? Who is talking? Is this a controversial subject? Generate a title for this discussion. Generate a summary in less than 300 words. Etc. It’s very effective. You can use the GPT I created for this². Oh, and I guess you can use the same workflow for a podcast episode!

This workflow was also documented in “My Micro-Workflows Explained” mini website.

Because I like the formatting used instead of plain text. ↩︎
ChatGPT paid subscription required. ↩︎

2023-12-01 ♾️

There is so much buzz around the Internet about the newly released Ubiquiti Unify Express router. To me, it seems to be a capable router at a reasonable price. Man, I wish Apple was still in this market¹.

I know Apple’s version wouldn’t be as features rich as Ubiquiti’s, but… ↩︎

2023-11-30 ♾️

Happy with Ulysses. 😊 #iawriter7

2023-11-27 ♾️

I finished watching this video today while waiting for my car at the garage. Andrej Karpathy gives a great talk explaining Gen AI and how the whole process works, and then some more explanations about the possible future around AI. It’s a must-see.

2023-11-24 ♾️

Today it’s time for an update to my creative and blogger workflow¹. You can get an overview in this diagram, and the changelog here on my metablog. Any questions? 😅

The previous version was published on 2023-04. ↩︎

2023-11-23 ♾️

I created my Backblaze account earlier this week to replace Dropshare Cloud. Today, I discovered that Cloudflare offers S3-compatible storage too, with a similar free tier (10 GB). Since CF is my domain name registrar, maybe I should have created my S3 bucket with them instead?¹ 🤔

But the Dropshare client probably doesn’t yet offer a connector to CF storage. 🤷🏻‍♂️ ↩︎

2023-11-21 ♾️

A follow-up to my previous post about Dropshare: Are any users of Backblaze over here? Thoughts? Which service do you use? S3-compatible storage or client (Mac) backup to the cloud?¹ 🤔

Users can get 10 GB of free storage, which should be enough for my needs. ↩︎

2023-11-21 ♾️

Dropshare Cloud is being… dropped¹. Too bad. I’ll need to redo my custom-made file share space.

Dropshare Cloud is being phased out in Feb, 2024. Too bad. I’ll have to rework that for me. ↩︎

2023-11-21 ♾️

I can’t stress enough how Apple’s Freeform is a joy to use. Is this a sleeper hit? If you don’t use it, do yourself a favour and try it. It’s the most intuitive, frictionless diagramming app out there on the Mac. And the iPad.

2023-11-16 ♾️

The more testing and experimenting I do with ChatGPT, the more I feel we are at an inflection point like Netscape or the iPhone was. We live in exciting and challenging times.

2023-11-15 ♾️

According to Grammarly, ChatGPT is really bad at English.¹

Or is it Grammarly that is really bad? 🤔 ↩︎

2023-11-15 ♾️

Raycast is cool. I’m cool. And because we’re cool, here is a rebate. One month free of the Raycast Pro. ¹

But the app icon is really ugly! 🤮 ↩︎

2023-11-15 ♾️

So, how is** iOS 17.2 beta3** going? Stable? I’m asking for a friend.🤭

2023-11-12 ♾️

I started subscribing to ChatGPT today so that I could experiment with Dall-E and GPT-4. I’ll probably cancel my MidJourney account if all goes well with ChatGPT. I like the idea of having one place to do many things.

2023-11-11 ♾️

What Happened to the Shortcuts Editor?

I’ve been working with Apple Shortcuts editor recently¹, on my iPhone and on my iPad, and boy, what a shocking experience! This editor is nearly unworkable, thanks to scrolling sluggishness, object ordering bugs, object variables becoming empty, constant freezes, keyboard masking input fields, changes not being saved and plain and simple editor crashes. 😤 What is happening with this, Apple?² I can’t believe Viticci is able to endure this for all his work around shortcuts.

I’m working on something new, involving Plausible APIs, Charty for iPhone, and Apple Shortcuts. Stay tuned for that one. ↩︎
I don’t expect a response from Apple, of course. ↩︎

2023-11-08 ♾️

These Are My Entry Points to AI Usage

I’m working on something related to using AI in my creative work. I came up with this. AI is used through these front-end clients within my creative workflows:

- ChatGPT website
- Raycast AI Chat
- MidJourney
- Whisper
- Micro.blog podcast episode transcription
- Audio Hijack Transcription block
- Kagi Summarize Results, Summary Document, Ask Questions
- Craft Assistant
- Grammarly

And I expect this list to grow in the coming months.

2023-11-06 ♾️

NSUserDefaults defaults = [NSUserDefaults NumericCitizenDefaults];

Following the episode (#097) of Hemispheric Views, it’s my turn, I guess, with a little twist for the post title. 😜

✉️ Mail Client: HEY mail
📨 Mail Server: HEY mail + iCloud Custom Email Domain
📝 Notes: Craft + Apple Notes
✅ To-Do: Things 3
📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app + Halide.app (for travel)
📚 Photo Management: Photos.app + Adobe Cloud
🗓️ Calendar: Calendar.app (Personal Life) + Fantastical.app (Work Life)
🗄️ Cloud file storage: iCloud
📰 RSS: Reeder connected to Inoreader
📇 Contacts: Contacts
🕸️ Browser: Safari (more and more using Kagi for searching)
💬 Chat: iMessage (WhatsApp when abroad)
🔖 Bookmarks: AnyBox
👓 Read It Later: Omnivore
📜 Word Processing: Ulysses
📊 Spreadsheets: Numbers
🛝 Presentations: Keynote
🛒 Shopping Lists: Reminders
🧑‍🍳 Meal Planning: None
💰 Budgeting & Personal Finance: Numbers
🗞️ News: La Presse (Apple News for English news)
🎶 Music: Apple Music
🎧 Podcasts: PocketCast
🔐 Password Management: iCloud Keychain (also 1Password, I should merge with default)

2023-11-05 ♾️

Ok, I may be late to the Mac automation party, but Keyboard Maestro is really nice and powerful. And approachable. It’s an almost instant buy me! ¹ It’s super handy to automate portions of my newsletter creation and many tasks in Craft, too!

And it’s a one-time purchase! No subscription! ↩︎

2023-11-05 ♾️

For those who are curious, I just updated “my Micro-Workflows Explained” page to list all my ChatGPT and AI use cases. I’m not shy to expose when I’m using AI in my creative work¹. The list of use cases is growing and reflects the relative invasion of AI in our digital landscape.

Who’s shy of telling people about using Spell Checkers or Lightroom filters? 🤔 ↩︎

2023-11-04 ♾️

👉🏻 I’m thinking about parking my “numericcitizen” name on Threads. Just in case¹. 😳 But, then, after doing a quick research, I was reminded pretty quickly that I need an Instagram account. It was at this exact moment that I thought that I should move on to something else².

Yes, I know; I repeatedly said that I hate Meta. ↩︎
Or maybe just create a dummy account on Instagram with my name and then create that Thread account? ↩︎

2023-11-04 ♾️

💡 Thought of the moment: owning my own Pixelfed instance would be cool¹. But how much work does this imply? 🤔

Imagining: photos.numericcitizen.me! Can we use a sub-domain with Pixelfed? Would I be able to migrate from my current instance? ↩︎

2023-11-03 ♾️

In Search of Augmented Capabilities Using AI

I want to augment my creative capabilities¹. I’m considering the best way to pay for Augmented Intelligence (AI) services². I’m currently subscribing to MidJourney for imagery. ChatGPT with GPT-4 is not cheap at 20 $US a month, but I get Dall.E 3. Raycast enables GPT-4 for 8 $US on top of my 8 $US, totalling 16 $US monthly, but I don’t get Dall.E 3. I prefer MidJourney over Dall.E 3 as it seems to allow more diversity in requests. And there is the ChatGPT client to consider. Raycast is one of them. MacGPT is another one. Even Grammarly and Craft are ChatGPT clients³. I need to continue my analysis. Ideas? Suggestions?

Go faster, go further, explore better creative ways. ↩︎
Yes, I’m okay with taking advantage of modern tools like AI, just like I was okay with using a spell checker in Microsoft Word 1.0. ↩︎
But you cannot configure Grammarly to use the GPT-4 model. ↩︎

2023-11-02 ♾️

I wish Inoreader offered some form of article summarization via AI for some of my feeds…

2023-10-30 ♾️

Looking for a Useful and Secure Search Engine

I’m fed up of Google’s search capabilities and business model. Search results quality has gone downhill in recent years. I don’t like the visual design of Google’s online products in general, especially Google Search results formatting. What search engine are you using? Are you willing to pay for using one, if yes, which one? 🤔

2023-10-29 ♾️

👉🏻 I just finished updating my complete content creator toolset with recent changes in my workflows. Enjoy the ride!