Category: General

AI is everywhere today, but for people who want to create an application, where is it really helping?

As a person who codes, I can’t imagine any coder not using it, just as I can’t imagine typing a text without auto-complete. For a non-coder, AI can build a prototype for you if you carefully know how to ask it.

But will it replace coders today? No, but it will shift the way we think of them.

Currently, AI makes it easier to create basic code, the code that creates an application menu or a form to accept data. The list of what AI can code is long, and it’s getting longer every day.

The nuance of an application’s requirements has become much more important than the task of building it.

But if you think coding is simply a series of tasks to complete, you’re missing the difference between a mechanical engineer and a 3D printer. Humans envision the design and the interaction with an object, and the 3D printer just builds it. AI can be used as a tool for building applications, but it’s just that—a tool for building, not an architect.

Today’s AI lacks higher-level tasks such as architecture—the application’s overall design. The nuance of an application has become much more important than the task of building it. While AI will get better at this, its overall design today is to regurgitate patterns that humans have already used, not to think of a clever new way of doing things. For the moment, that’s the exclusive domain of humans.

In the near future, I see the market for a coder who can only “code” shrinking. But for application architects and designers, the market is already exploding. They are becoming the “Prompt Engineers” of our future. They’ll be good at coaxing AI to build what they envision.

So when you hear, “AI will eliminate coders!”, that’s a gross generalization. A better explanation is that it will alter how coders do their work, recasting them as deep thinkers of the problems presented to them. They will spend more time designing at the whiteboard and less time coding at the keyboard.

After all, what is an application but a representation of what it’s architected to do?

If you’re coding and need to find the local weather, there are a lot of places you can go to get it. Most are complex and require you to create an account, and generally don’t offer much.

If you’re looking for one that’s simple and based on GPS, try https://api.pulsewise.com/environment/weather/42.3388/-71.0726 , which is free for the first 1,000 calls per month and includes sunrise and sunset, too. Just swap the latitude & longitude coordinates for your own latitude & longitude, or if you leave them off, it will use your browser’s coordinates.

This is just part of a set of tools I wrote at https://pulsewise.com or see the documentation.

Its output is in standard JSON, and looks like this:

{
“success”: true,
“timestamp_utc”: “2023-10-16 20:25:30”,
“summary”: “Clouds”,
“description”: “Broken clouds”,
“temperature_current”: 56.68,
“temperature_min”: 53.22,
“temperature_max”: 59.11,
“feels_like”: 55.53,
“pressure”: 1003,
“humidity”: 74,
“wind_speed”: 5.75,
“wind_direction”: 120,
“wind_gust”: null,
“sunrise”: 1697453864,
“sunset”: 1697493703,
“lattitude”: “42.33880000”,
“longitude”: “-71.07260000”
}

Twice a year, many people in IT often get mixed up by time zones in the US. Understandably, as it is a little tricky to wrap your head around. Here are some tips when sorting it all out in the US.

1. Timezones in the US change twice a year, in the fall and spring, with an offset of 1 hour in either direction.
2. The exception to #1 are the States of Arizona (most of it) and Hawai’i – they never change their clocks like the rest of the US.
3. In the spring, around March, the US switches to Daylight Savings Time, so we set our clocks forward 1 hour, giving us more light in the early evening.
4. In the fall, around November, the US switches to Daylight Standard Time, so we set our clocks back 1 hour, giving us more light in the early morning.
5. Part of the confusion is Daylight Savings Time and Daylight Standard Time both have the initials of DST. When abbreviating, it’s better to include your time zone. As an example: EDT is Eastern Daylight Time which starts in the spring, and EST is Eastern Standard Time which starts in the fall.
6. These switches happen at 2:00am, so the clock becomes 1:00am in the fall or 3:00am in the spring.
7. Be careful of #6 above. The swing appears to be two hours, but it’s not. Since time is relative, the switch is only 1 hour in either direction.
8. Since the time switch is done by timezones, in the single hour that the East Coast sets is clocks backward in the fall by 1 hour, and Midwest hasn’t begun the change, clocks in New York will be set to the same time as Chicago; typically an hour apart. This hour-long cascade happens in each timezone as the local time changes around the US.
9. Most other countries, but not all, also shift their clocks, but not on the same dates as the US. This causes some crazy scheduling twice a year with people in different countries than the US.

If you want to get a bigger picture of all this, you can consult NIST which is the US standard for keeping time.

I’ve been in Tech since punchcards were a thing, and throughout that time, I’ve benefited from the knowledge of others in the industry. This site will house the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years, representing my attempt to give back.

Information on this site is correct to the best of my knowledge. I may help you, or it may be useless to you. Regardless, you may use it as you will, without holding me liable for its contents affecting your systems, business, or person.