Using JSON Schema with Google Gemini / / No Comments Back about a month ago, I wrote up a post on how to generate JSON results using Google Gemini, "JSON Results with Google Gemini Generative AI API Calls". While you should read that post first, the process basically boiled down to: Setting the response type of the result to JSON. Without this, Gemini will return JSON but encoded in Markdown. Using a System Instruction to give directions on the "shape" of the JSON, i.e., use this key and that key. While these techniques work well, recently yet another feature was added that makes this even better, JSON schema support. JSON Schema is an abstract way to define the shape of JSON and can be really useful in validation. The website... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Gemini, Google, JSON, Schema, using
The Lost Pathfinder Game / / No Comments The Lost Pathfinder is a new online game which requires players to connect a path from one side of map to the other.At the beginning of each round of The Lost Pathfinder you are presented with an isometric grid on which all the road tiles have been mixed up. All you have to do is to rearrange the road tiles in order to complete a path from one side of the map to the other. To help you restore Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Game, Lost, Pathfinder
Every Ship Sunk in WWII / / No Comments Over the course of the Second World War more than 20,000 ships were sunk around the world. Esri’s Paul Heersink has spent the last ten years scouring historical records to create and map the ‘most comprehensive dataset’ of ships sunk in WWII.Resurfacing the Past is a fascinating story map which not only visualizes where Allied and Axis ships were lost in WWII, it also explores the WWII sunken Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: every, ship, Sunk, WWII
Game Dev Diary – Cat Herder – Part 2 / / No Comments Welcome to my second game diary for [Cat Herder, which I’m subtitling – "Rise of the Machines". This update is all about the ‘machine’ aspect of the game. Let me explain. Right now each cat (well, you can only have one unless you cheat) has three needs you must manually take care by clicking the right button to match the mood. The idea of the machine feature is that they will automatically handle this for you, providing you have enough of them and the right type. The first thing I needed to figure out was how to enable this feature. I decided on a one time check to see if you have 75 or more purrs (the currency of the game). This is a one-time check because as... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Diary, Game, Herder, part
Indian Election Maps / / No Comments Counting is now underway of the votes in the world’s largest election. Over 642 million people are expected to have voted in the 2024 Indian General Election, the result of which will be declared today (June 4th). Based on the earliest results it appears that current prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to keep his job, but that his party, the BJP, will win less seats than in 2019.The Times Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: election, Indian, maps
Game Dev Diary – Cat Herder – Part 1 / / No Comments Over a year ago, I released my first "idle clicker" game, IdleFleet. IdleFleet is a simple "space merchant" game built with Alpine.js. I’ve worked on it off and on since the initial release (which was in Vue.js by the way) and still have updates I want to add, but a few weeks ago I started work on a new game I’d like to share with you, Cat Herder. The Game # Cat Herder is very much in its early stages so while I’ll (eventually) link to it, you can’t do much with it now. The basic idea is that you have one cat… to start with that is – and have to keep it happy. Cats have three basic moods: Wanting to be left alone Wanting to be fed Wanting... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Diary, Game, Herder, part
Earth Nose Game Champion 2024 / / No Comments Welcome to the 2024 Earth Nose Game World Championship! This year’s event promises to be the most exciting and innovative yet, as players from around the globe gather to showcase their unique skills and compete for the coveted title of World Earth Nose Champion. Players in this year’s competition will have to be at the very top of their nasal game as the 2024 Nose Game World Championship Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: 2024, Champion, Earth, Game, Nose
Tracking Gemini Models with Pipedream / / No Comments APIs, tools, consumer features, and heck, pretty much every aspect, of generative AI is changing at an incredibly rapid pace. I mostly focus on just Google Gemini and even that is pretty difficult to keep up with. Recently, Linda Lawton shared that she actually uses an automation script to keep track of the models currently available in Gemini. I thought that was a great idea and decided to see if I could build something similar using Pipedream. Here’s what I came up with. Getting Available Models via API # Normally, if I wanted to know what models I had available, I’d go to AI Studio and just look, or check the docs. While that’s fine usually, there’s actually an API... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Gemini, Models, Pipedream, Tracking