Avoiding Vendors Lock-in

The notion of “avoiding vendors lock-in” in information technology is interesting. I would argue that it’s impossible to completely be without some sort of vendor lock-in1. At some point, there is always a required commitment level. You commit to open-source software. You commit to a cloud vendor. You commit to a platform. I often give the example of a company building an application internally with a team of developers. In that scenario, the company is committing to something: the application, the data tied to it and its operational model. Applications are hard to replace in many environments. When you decide to invest in software development, you commit to the end product for many years, if not decades, until the organization decides it’s time to transform the application into something else2. There is this concept of “security by design” and of “portable by design,” which should apply to any technical or application architecture. The rest is marketing nonsense.

  1. I do understand data portability concepts and loose coupling principles, though. ↩︎

  2. When it’s time to adopt new architecture paradigms like the cloud is imposing. ↩︎

This morning, at work, I had the idea of creating a GPT that would act as a virtual resume for me. Colleagues would prompt this GPT about my professional journey with usual questions about my past experience, projects, certifications, abilities, etc. I uploaded a few files, including my resume and some other professional stuff, to try it out. It took me 15 minutes to create this virtual representation of myself. Tested many prompts against it. I’m blown away. The future is here, ladies and gentlemen.

Is GenAI a Product or a Feature?

Just like Steve Jobs once said that Dropbox is not a product but a feature, I wonder if the way we consume GenAI today makes it look like a product, but it’s actually a feature. Don’t get me wrong, GenAI is utterly important and a game changer, but I feel that in the future, there will be something bigger that will encompass GenAI that will actually be THE product.

Thought of the day: 500 years from now, when someone discovers a piece of plastic with a QRCode on it, intact and readable, I wonder what they will think of it and if they’ll try to “decode” the thing.

Just two hours in the work day and I have already used ChatGPT three times to better understand two different concepts in IT1. Last year, these prompts would have required many Google searches and much more reading. I’m curious to see how ChatGPT and Gen AI are influencing Google’s market share.

  1. CCaaS, TLC, QLC. ↩︎

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.

  1. Because I like the formatting used instead of plain text. ↩︎

  2. ChatGPT paid subscription required. ↩︎

I’m generally unfazed by black Friday sales… I buy things when I need them, not because of any deals. But, this morning, I bought a Kodak slides scanner because I have hundreds of old family slides sitting in boxes. I feel sad not to spend the time to put a new life in those memories. So there you go, a new slide scanner. I’ll probably write an extensive review of it.

Which story is worse or more shattering? Steve Jobs fired in 1985, or OpenAI fired one of its founders? I think the latter creates more uncertainty. The former is easier to dismiss because we know what happened to Apple after Jobs left the company. 🤔 1

  1. What a shitty series of events. And we aren’t done with it yet. ↩︎