Todd Sizemore

Granted, this is like the 4th or 5th post I have ever done on this blog so it is a bit early to expound on AI but here we are….

I’ve been experimenting with AI (Gemini and Claude) for awhile, trying to do little things with it that mostly revolve around helping me reduce the amount of searching I might do to find the right product for me. For that it’s been pretty decent, I can give it a set of requirements and it pops out some pretty good options.

Another thing I tried was with Claude specifically. I installed the Filesystem connector and let it loose on my car service folder asking on what dates I got my snow tires installed and removed. For that it did really well and even made a nice table so I could see the history of my tire changes. To date, I haven’t asked it to make any changes to the files as I am still a bit concerned about what might happen.

In both cases I am essentially using these AI tools like I saw Commander Data do on Star Trek TNG, asking AI to search and collate data for me. This is a useful thing for my life. What I am having trouble with is finding other things to do with it. I don’t code, I don’t have a hyper busy schedule that needs organization, hell I don’t go any many vacations. So what am I missing that AI could help with? Am I that unimaginative?

Right now the return on investment isn’t there. The things I do with AI right now are shortcuts to work I can do myself. It’s all donkey work as MacSparky would say. That’s great and all but it’s not enough for me to spend any serious money. I’m certainly not going to spending $24 CAD for Claude or $27 CAD for Gemini a month for the limited use cases I’ve found so far. If the free tiers go away or become really constrained then I will go back to the old ways rather than plunge into paying unless I can find something truly game changing for a regular user like me.

Last Friday I went to the garage and found the side door open, not unusual since that latch sometimes doesn’t catch but when I walked to the car I noticed something looked off. It only took a second to realize my commuter bike and my gravel bike were gone. I could talk about my feelings about the violation of my space and the heartbreak of losing that commute bike which I had for 19 years but I won’t. Its life, it happens, it sucks.

After that I did all the things that one would expect. I called the cops to submit a report and fixed the door (even added a padlock!). I then bought some security cameras. Kate and I were also talking about building a fence and that idea went from a possibility to a definite. It won’t happen again as long as I keep up my security posture, not because I am making some sort of fortress but because the opportunity costs won’t be there. Cameras, fence, and locks mean more chances to get caught and there are easier targets around.

I am trying not judge everyone by this incident. I live close to a poorer neighbourhood and I don’t want to start thinking of the people I see trying to live their lives as wanton criminals and drug addicts. It’s easy to do after an incident like this but I am trying not to make my hurt turn into hate.

Climate change is a wild one. Living by Lake Superior I already knew that the weather could get erratic but this year has taken it up a notch. We are exiting the largest snowfall on record for my town and a winter that just did not want to quit. Now the temperature has risen dramatically and we are hitting a stretch of sunny weather causing massive flooding. Our house is ok since we are on the hill but others aren’t so lucky. The summer is predicted to be warmer than normal, just like last year.

The extremes will soon become the normal and then new extremes will come. I wonder what that will look like for us? This picture is from 2 days ago and that snow hill is now half that size…

So I have read about (and experienced) the slowness that Windows 11 can have while doing basic UI operations such as opening file explorer or the right click menu. On my little Ryzen 5 mini pc it’s pretty noticeable but on my work laptop it’s horrendous. Based on specs alone my work laptop with its 32Gb of RAM and the Intel Core-i7 12700H should fly through the UI but something else is happening. When plugged in its ok, while on battery its a mess, with janky slow window resizing and lag all through out.

Now my work laptop has all of the standard IT management and security software on it that one would expect from a large business (they even disable the fingerprint reader!). I couldn’t name all of the little program icons in the system tray related to security or the dozens upon dozens of group policies deployed to it. Not to mention it has Bitlocker enabled of course. Its my conjecture that this is the difference between the two computers.

I wonder if anyone in my IT organization has ran a performance profile on a standard software load out to see how much they are sapping from the computer? I suppose it doesn’t factor into their decisions and that’s probably the correct path. But considering a work provided computer is one of the primary ways the general public experiences Windows it has to behoove Microsoft to try and reduce this effect. They have made some big promises about fixing Windows performance this year. I hope they can also improve in the IT management software ecosystem along with it.

This article from Matt Birchler brought up a point I meant to relay when I bought a 4k monitor for my Mac Mini. I kept hearing the usual pundits say that the only real solution for the Mac was something “Retina” i.e. a 27" 5K Display. Looking at the prices of those I couldn’t justify spending more than my Mac Mini for a monitor. So I went with a Dell S2725qs and guess what? Its good! Is the 5k clearer? Probably but I have not seen one in person. Would it be double the cost clearer? Hell no.

As I move back into the Mac ecosystem after years away, I have been content to buy Apple’s lower end products despite the FOMO that you’ll hear from a very vocal subset of the Apple community. In each case so far I have been content with my choices, in fact when I purchase an iPad later this year its going to be the base model, it will suite might needs without fail.

Head’s I Win, Tails You Lose

The Claude Mac app is not a good app. It practically demands that you keep it open and will refuse to close when I shutdown my Mac. I understand they want you to be able to access Claude at a moments notice but that is very user hostile.