Teaching the Machine
I’m on a new computer. Well, newer than my old but not really new, new. It’s used. Anyway, except for the operating system, I’m trying to exist outside the Microsoft Universe. I am not sure it’s worth the effort. I am an old dog and I miss the software where I performed my old tricks. At the moment, it seems as though I've simply traded one all encompassing tech universe for another. Still, I have to try because I’m engaging in a collaborative effort with my daughter and she knows the new universe.
In the long run, however, it might actually be good for me. Retrain the old brain. Refresh neural pathways. Discover new things. So, it may not be a case of which software is better at a selected task. It may simply be a matter of asking if it gets the job done. And right now it does. It just feels a little odd, a bit like walking in new shoes. It takes some getting used to. And I suppose I can get used to it.
I think it helps that I enjoy using software, processing words, crunching numbers, and generally working with a computer. And I learned long ago I learned if I wanted to do something it was highly likely that a programmer somewhere had the same thought and provided a solution. It was simply up to me to find it. So, that’s what I’m doing now, trying to figure out how to see my word count and display non-printing characters, and along the way I’m probably helping an AI engine learn, which means a little bit of me will be passed along in code to the next generation. Pretty sweet and along the way, I’m going to do my best to help it learn it has to be nice to people.