ChatGPT.. Resistance is futile!

So, I gave in and started a chat with the ChatGPT..

And okay, it won't ever be "thinking" or "sentient" or anything like that but Holy Moly! It certainly is handy!

I think I just witnessed the beginning of the end of the Search Engine Era. How fun!

First we exchanged ideas about whether code can be poetry or art, and vice-versa. Output not bad for a big-data-algorithm; certainly better than anything you would get at the local after 11pm.

Then I asked about some ESP32-related stuff and was able to correct ChatGPT a couple of times as we went along. Fair enough. It had misunderstood the technical documentation but now got the lingo and assured me that future queries along these lines would be more accurate. Okay!

But what piqued my interest was when we started talking code. I asked if CG could find a way to improve on a function I wrote, and while it could not (though it did instantly recognised that I was using Arduino "Strings"), its response to my next question; "So, how would I do this using C-strings?", as well as its perfectly-formed answer (IT STYLES CODE LIKE ME! NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH FUCKERS!!!! See! That's where the curly braces go!), got me asking one simple question..

How long would it have taken me to find that on Google?

And the answer is; as I know from experience; in the 20m-infinity region. ChatGPT had already done all that "Googling" and just spat it out. Good code. And with proper comments.

So yup, for a great many search queries It's (in the Python style) ...

Goodbye Google

;o)

ESP32

So, the eldest says, "I want to build robots".

Like any half-decent parent I hit Google that night with a vengeance and came out with one overriding thought.. "Microcontrollers".

See, I'm old-school. When I want a tech thing done I build it from scratch. Well, you know, nothing is from scratch; as Carl Sagan said..


But scratch-ish. I've built amps, PSUs, effects pedals, loads of shit; designed and etched the PCBs, soldered on the components. I once gave a girl an effects pedal for her birthday, hand-made, and she said it was the best present she ever got. So..

Microcontrollers. They make all that shit obsolete.

The last time I etched a PCB was decades ago. Since then I've tended towards "just buying shit" because the whole building electronics things is way too time-consuming to run alongside adulting.

Don't get me wrong; I've had ideas for a dozen "gadgets"; things I'd like to experiment with or install around the house; thinking things that respond to me and what I'm up to. But then I think of the electronics involved and move on in life. *sigh*. I was somehow too busy to notice the advent of consumer-focused Microcontrollers. OMFG!

Microcontrollers existed in "industry" for years before some bright spark (Wiki:Arduino) thought about putting one on a PCB that instead had NO specific function! That stuff, is up to you. The importance of this gestalt shift cannot be overstated.

Everything is now happening in software.*

The board has connectors for all the chip's pins so you can attach *things* to it; myriad sensors, touch, data, whatever; INPUT, and same again on the OUTPUT; speakers, screens, LCD readouts, whatever you need.

I feel like I'm not entirely getting my point across here. I cracked a couple of ribs last night and the pain is interfering with my language skills. That and the pain-killers.

What I'm saying is that these days you can go straight from imagining a thing to having a thing in the time it takes to attach a few components to a breadboard, grab the code off the internet and upload the "sketch" to your board. Boom! Assuming the code exists. And if it doesn't, well, write it.

By board I mean most any ESP32 module. And by write it, I mean, I did..

ESP32 Signal Generator for Sine, Square and Triangle Waves.
With serial and web control, memory presets and more..

Why ESP32?

Imagine an Arduino board but WAY faster with WAY more memory as well as WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. And then imagine that you can buy it for around £2 on AliExpress (My Happy Place), which you can. Madness!

Want to build a wee robot that you can control from your tablet or phone?

Is why.

;o)