AI Thoughts: Computer Vision, ChatGPT and Captain Kirk

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a compelling lecture on computer vision at The Royal Society in London. Professor Andrew Zisserman showcased an innovative approach to building models, much like how a child learns – by cross-referencing visual, audio, and text data. However that is an oversimplified summary, the actual process can broadly be summed up into 3 steps and really got me thinking deeply about AI and some of the issues the lecture uncovered.
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Framed in an interview!

Recently I have been interviewing and it is eye opening to be the other side of the interview table/Zoom chat! Having been an iOS developer for 14+ years, I think there are things you learn very early on in your career that you never question or need to revisit it again and it can catch you a little off-guard. One of those areas that I got asked about recently was about the relationship between the frame, bounds and transforms in a `UIView`.

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A guide to learning how to 3D Print

One of the latest trends that does not show any sign of fizzling out yet is 3D printing. The technology isn’t mainstream enough for everyone to have a 3D printer but I’ve had many interested people when talking about the things I’ve printed. Surprisingly squirting melted plastic through a hot-end and getting a good print is hard and is more of an art form. Here are some of my learnings and tips on 3D printing.
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Making a Psion Series 3a/c/mx USB power cable

After my previous success recovering data from my old Psion Series 3a palmtop, I decided I needed to bring some of the cables into the 21st century. While batteries usually last weeks with the Psion, using it on my desk was frustrating as it powered down after 5 minutes to save battery power. Therefore I decided the first cable to work on was the mains adapter and what better way to update it than make it a slim ultra-portable cable powered by USB – I could then use USB wall plugs, my MacBook Pro or even a humble USB power bank to power my Psion. Time to get out my wire snippers and wait for the soldering iron to warm up!
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