AI Chatbots

AI chatbots are big news. People ask me what they should be doing with them. Here are my ideas to get started:

  • Search: Instead of searching Google for websites, consider using an AI chatbot.
  • Proofreading: Chatbots can offer suggestions and make changes based on grammar and content.
  • Shopping: If you have a specific need, for example for an appliance that fits in a particular set of dimensions and has particular needs, Chatbots can shortcut your research.

Keep in mind that these chatbots do “hallucinate” so always verify important information.

The key is to interact with the AI Chatbots. Don’t just ask it to write you an email. Tell it what you are trying to do and ask it to ask you questions so that it can do a better job. Then provide it feedback and tell it what kind of changes you would like.

I think of these chatbots as smart and very literal minded assistants. The more information that you can provide, the better that the assistant will be able to do what you want.

I personally like using Claude, but I also use ChatGPT. Deepmind (the new chatbot from China) is also highly regarded. Give them a try and see how they fit into your life.

Fastmail

People often ask me what the best and cheapest way is to set up a custom domain email, not just your standard free google.com email. You can of course pay Google, but I’m not a big fan of their interface or snooping on your email to better advertise to you.

I personally use Fastmail. It’s professional, fast, reliable, and has a nice web interface. If you’re interested, my referral code for 10% off your first year is here:

https://ref.fm/u28299296

There used to be a few decent free options, but as Google has started charging, so have the others.

VisualPing.io

Do you ever need to check if a website changes? I use an automated site checker for this such as visualping.io. What’s this useful for?:

  • If you’re watching a product’s availability on a site, for example to buy a hard-to-find item such as a popular game console.
  • If you need to see if data or text changes on sites for your job, for whatever information is contained on those pages; this could be for data analysis or competitive research.
  • If you have your own website and want to see if it goes down for any reason.

There are probably many more reasons to check websites. Visualping and other sites make money by having you pay if you need checks more frequently than every day. There used to be many PC-installed software tools for this purpose, but this has largely moved to the cloud, which I think makes sense for simplicity and ease of use.

COVID Resources

There are lots of great resources on the state of COVID in general and for your community. Here are some that I frequent:

Cheap Comcast for the Poor and Veterans

Comcast has cheap internet for people who get government housing or food assistance, and now also offers this for Veterans. For $10/month you get 15Mbps/sec download and 2Mbps/sec upload. This is 10x faster than the old DSL speeds and more than fast enough for streaming HD video. There are no charges for setup or equipment (modem/wifi router). If you qualify, it’s a great deal.

Go to:
https://internetessentials.com

Or call 855-846-8376

To qualify, you can’t have had Internet through Comcast in the last 3 months and you can’t have another Internet service.

I only wish this was promoted more, as there are lots of qualified people who have big $100/month bundle deals because they don’t know other options exist.

Through the Internet Essentials website from Comcast, customers can also order $150 computers. These are slower desktops and laptops (currently with Core 2 Duos and i3 CPUs) but they come with Windows 10, Office, and Norton Antivirus preinstalled. This is also a great deal if you qualify. Each household has up to 2 years to purchase the computers and can purchase up to 3 computers. CDI is the partner that runs the computer sales and they can be reached at 888-234-4272.