Welcome To Your New Gardening Zone / / No Comments In November of last year the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) updated the US plant hardiness map based on the latest weather data (1991–2020). The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a tool which is designed to help gardeners determine which plants are most likely to thrive in their location. The USDA map is divided into 13 zones based on average coldest temperatures. Zone 1 is Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Gardening, Welcome, Zone
How to Retrieve WiFi Password on Windows / / No Comments Remembering the WiFi password when on a guest network is never easy. Even worse is when it’s no longer posted and someone else is asking you for it. Luckily there’s a built in Windows command to recover the password of a given WiFi network. The Shell Code Open cmd and execute the following command: netsh wlan show profile name="David Walsh's Network" key=clear The result of the command, assuming the network is found, is a long text output with a variety of information about the network. To get the see the password for the network, look under the “Security settings” heading which will look like this: Security settings ----------------- Authentication :... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Password, Retrieve, WiFi, Windows
Active Video / / No Comments Glen Chiacchier has devised an interactive mapped, timeline for the American civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize. His ‘active video’ of Eyes on the Prize turns what might otherwise be a passive viewing exercise into an active learning experience by providing viewers with the opportunity to browse the documentary by date and location. The civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: active, video
ColdFusion’s CFOAUTH Tag / / No Comments This will be my third ColdFusion post in the past year. I’m not saying I’m going to continue the trend, but as I find interesting use cases, I’m going to share. Today, that involves the <cfoauth> tag that I recently had a chance to play with. About two weeks ago, an old client of mine reached out asking for help adding an OAuth flow to their CF app. I’ve covered CF and OAuth in a few posts from ten-plus years ago (part one, covering Facebook, part two, covering LinkedIn, and part three, covering Google). That code demonstrated the basics of using OAuth, which entailed: Creating your application on the platform you’ll be authenticating again, which gives you... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: CFOAUTH, ColdFusion's
The Future of Street View / / No Comments In 2007 Google began adding 360 degree panoramic images to Google Maps. It is no exaggeration to say that the introduction of Street View revolutionized online mapping. Now users could not only zoom into their neighborhoods in satellite view but they could also virtually explore their area in Street View.It is almost impossible to predict the next major revolution in online mapping. For a Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: future, Street, View
Upcoming Generative AI Talk by… Me! / / No Comments I don’t normally blog about upcoming conference talks, but I’m really excited to announce my first talk on generative AI, specifically Google’s Gemini will be in a few weeks at the F/ND Tech Conference. This is a free, online conference covering a wide range of topics. My talk, "Adding Generative AI to your Workflow with Google Gemini", will absolutely be appropriate for beginners (as that’s what I am) and hopefully provide a gentle introduction to working with Gen AI. Now, one point of warning – this is a Europe-based event so my talk will be… 5:45 AM on a Saturday morning, but admit it, wouldn’t you love to wake up early on a Saturday to hear... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: by..., Generative, Talk, Upcoming
Building a Chat Integration with Google Gemini / / No Comments It’s been on my queue to investigate how to use Generative AI in a ‘chat’ interface versus "one prompt and answer" mode for some time and today I finally got a chance to check it out. I’ll share my thoughts below, but once again I want to thank Allen Firstenberg for his help while I worked through some issues. As always, take what I’m sharing as the opinion of a developer still very new to this space. Any mistakes are my fault! What is GenAI chat? # Specifically, what is chat when it comes to generative AI? Nothing. Seriously. All ‘chat’ is taking your initial prompt, getting the result, then taking your next prompt and appending it. So for... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: building, Chat, Gemini, Google, integration
540 Million Years of Planet Earth / / No Comments 540 million years ago the Earth’s climate was very different from how it is today. During the Cambrian period global temperatures were warmer than they are now. It is believed there were no polar icecaps and there was likely to have been high levels of precipitation and humidity over much of the planet. Of course our world hasn’t always been so warm. The last Ice Age was during the Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Earth, Million, Planet, Years