Texting Email Summaries using Google PaLM AI and Twilio / / No Comments Yesterday I shared my initial impressions of working with Google’s PaLM 2 AI API. If you didn’t read that article, the tldr is that it’s incredibly easy to work with and I was able to get some Node.js code running in minutes. Exactly the kind of experience you want new developers to have with your product. Based on how easy it was to do that, I thought about building a real prototype of how the service could be used. What It Does # My simple prototype is based on the idea of handling an influx of emails. Imagine a support address or other important email address used for a company. If there is a lot of email coming in, or if the emails that do come in are critically important,... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: email, Google, palm, Summaries, Texting, Twilio, using
Intelligent Directions / / No Comments Fuzzy Maps is a new interactive map which uses AI to provide intelligent walking, cycling or driving directions. Unlike directions in Google Maps you can ask Fuzzy Maps to provide you with directions which include custom conditions or requirements.Fuzzy Maps provides a number of example searches that you might want to use, such as: Bike directions to a nearby history museum, avoid going over Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: directions, Intelligent
Automating Mastodon Postings with ColdFusion / / No Comments I’ve had a lot of fun building Mastodon bots (see my list of super-important business critical bots as an example), typically using the Pipedream platform, and more recently, Cloudflare Workers. The Mastodon API is kinda stupid easy and with "The Other Network" going to hell in a handbasket, I don’t see myself building bots anywhere else. Just yesterday I came home from the Adobe ColdFusion Summit and I thought it would be fun to see how easy it would be to build a Mastodon bot in ColdFusion. Here’s what I was able to do in roughly ten minutes. First, don’t forget that to add automation to a Mastodon account, you need to go into your preferences, select the "Development"... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Automating, ColdFusion, Mastodon, Postings
The Ring of Rain / / No Comments X-Rain is an interactive map which visualizes the average amount of rainfall around the globe. The precipitation data used on the map is derived from historical satellite observations. This remote sensed data is not as accurate as data recorded by rain gauges but it is able to provide a more global view of precipitation levels as it is not limited to only those locations with rain gauges.The Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: rain, Ring
Sum an Array of Numbers with JavaScript / / No Comments It’s rare that I’m disappointed by the JavaScript language not having a function that I need. One such case was summing an array of numbers — I was expecting Math.sum or a likewise, baked in API. Fear not — summing an array of numbers is easy using Array.prototype.reduce! const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4]; const sum = numbers.reduce((a, b) =a + b, 0); The 0 represents the starting value while with a and b, one represents the running total with the other representing the value to be added. You’ll also note that using reduce prevents side effects! I’d still prefer something like Math.sum(...numbers) but a simple reduce will do! The post Sum an Array of Numbers... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Array, JavaScript, numbers
Shilling for Putin / / No Comments The Insider (‘fully committed to investigative journalism and to debunking fake news’) has created a new interactive map which exposes the ‘fake experts’ around the world that are spreading pro-Kremlin fake narratives and Russian propaganda. The Insider claims that what “unites the individuals featured on this map is their attempt to portray Putin’s policies positively while disseminating Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Putin, Shilling
How to Detect Failed Requests via Web Extensions / / No Comments One of the best things that ever happened to t he user experience of the web has been web extensions. Browsers are powerful but extensions bring a new level of functionality. Whether it’s crypto wallets, media players, or other popular plugins, web extensions have become essential to every day tasks. Working on MetaMask, I am thrust into a world of making everything Ethereum-centric work. One of those functionalities is ensuring that .eth domains resolve to ENS when input to the address bar. Requests to https://vitalik.ethnaturally fail, since .eth isn’t a natively supported top level domain, so we need to intercept this errant request. // Add an onErrorOccurred event via the... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Detect, Extensions, Failed, Requests
Guess the (Marvel) Decade / / No Comments Many years ago, I first wrote up my experience working with the Marvel API. I find myself returning to it again and again, and this weekend I built a fun little game I think you may enjoy. It’s called "Guess the Decade". Marvel’s art style has changed drastically over its long history. Back in 2018, I shared a demo that demonstrates just how much variety you can get just by looking at covers. So for example, Spider-Man in 1962: Versus 1988: And then 2018: Given that there’s such a variety of styles, I thought it would be fun to build a demo. If you want, you can just right to the game, but here’s how I built it. The Backend # For the backend, I built a serverless... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: Decade, Guess, Marvel