ChatGPT, OpenAI, Anthropic?

I wrote about Notion AI a couple months ago. Since then, a lot has happened in the world of AI. OpenAI took headlines with ChatGPT, Microsoft laid off thousands to invest millions into OpenAI, and Google followed suit with also laying off thousands to invest millions into Anthropic AI and announces Bard. Why hasn't such corporations used those millions to invest in their employees - is a question that simply repeats history. For my fellow techmates, beware of the corporate checkmates and steer your own career.

P.S. And then there's Poe, from Quora.

https://openai.com/

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

https://www.anthropic.com/

https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/

https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/06/quora-opens-its-new-ai-chatbot-app-poe-to-the-general-public/

Microsoft's VS Code now in the "Cloud"

I'm really excited about the progress Microsoft has made especially with adding VS Code into the "cloud" for development. There are lots of reasons why I am happy about VS Code, but the top reason is the need for local space for my personal media and content (which means less space for installing tools and IDEs). Plus, the ability to work anywhere (with a browser), anytime, makes "work remotely" even a bigger benefit. Of course, this comes with the strong assumption that one can access the Internet and the network has high bandwidth and speed.

https://vscode.dev (start playing now)

Read more about this @ code.visualstudio.com/blog

Game Developer Kit by Microsoft

It's been a while since I've posted but had to record this:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/blog/meet-the-microsoft-game-developer-kit-gdk/

This could possibly be a game changer in the Gaming industry. Let's see!

Hopefully I will get some time to at least test a demo of this kit.

Microsoft's Visual Studio uses GitHub user accounts now

 Once again, Microsoft is making good progress. In this post, it's regarding the sync'ing of user accounts across platforms. In this case, Visual Studio (development platform) and GitHub (code management platform).

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/github-accounts-are-now-integrated-into-visual-studio-2019/

Microsoft's Game Development with .NET (and Unity)

This is very attractive to me. I need to try this out and see what the offerings are. 

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/game-development-with-net/

This particularly caught my attention:

".NET does not just cover building your game. You can also use it to build your game’s website with ASP.NET, your mobile app using Xamarin, and even do remote rendering with Microsoft Azure. Your skills will transfer across the entire game development pipeline."

References

• https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/games
• https://dotnet.microsoft.com/learn/games/unity-tutorial/intro 

Microsoft Learning Portal for NASA

 Nice to see Microsoft partner with NASA in creating a learning portal for the next space frontier.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/python-programming-in-the-final-frontier-microsoft-and-nasa-release-student-learning-portal/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/topics/nasa

Microsoft's FAST framework

A useful article on why a web developer might want to try FAST framework:
https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/08/microsoft-fast-design-system/
https://www.fast.design/

Microsoft's Edge browser - 2nd Popular

I found this new insight interesting especially as a web developer and tester:
https://9to5google.com/2020/04/06/microsoft-edge-popular-desktop-browser-report/

GitHub Sponsors and The Future of Work

As I'm reading this blog post today from GitHub, I am so grateful and reminded of how the future of collaboration and innovation is closer than we think.
https://github.blog/2020-03-24-getting-started-with-github-sponsors/

Soon, people will be employed by contribution and we will no longer have the "packaged" salary or the hourly wage. Since online repositories like GitHub timestamps code committed, pushed, forked, etc., employers and potential employers can have more say over who to hire for certain parts of a project they will pay for. This sounds like a crazy idea considering how much effort goes into building a project with a team of individuals. How much crazier with an unaligned set of contributors where one might only be on the team for a few minutes and another for a few weeks? Well, if you consider how AI is on the rise, then this idea is not as crazy as some may think.

As I continue reading "The Future is Faster than You Think", I am growing my understanding of how to prepare myself for this future of work in a globally competitive society.

I wish you all the best as you continue to grow and prepare for our future, too.

Good Luck!

Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 v16.5 - now available

Visual Studio 2019 v16 has some new cool stuff!
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2019-version-16-5/

Why it's being released as "2019" in "2020", I have no idea and find it strange. I wonder if I should wait for a 2020 edition, lol?

Enjoy!

GitHub's mobile app - finally!

I'm so glad to finally see this. Downloaded and will be trying it out. I remember downloading a mobile GitHub app years ago (like 2016) and not being impressed. A few of the apps I tried were just frustrating because I didn't want to see everyone's feed but just my own updates for personal reasons.

Anyhow, let's see how smooth this operates over mobile. Thanks, GitHub team!
https://github.blog/2019-11-13-universe-day-one/#mobile

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android

Microsoft's PowerShell 7.0

An insightful read for the new PowerShell.
"Open-source, cross-platform and people seem to like it: PowerShell 7 has landed" - The Register
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/04/powershell_7_generally_available/

Microsoft's Road Map - Visual Studio

I think this is phenomenal that Microsoft is being so transparent with developers, customers, and even competitors on their roadmap. Amazing! This is a tech company driven on faith and relationship - not just their product or "secret sauce".

Yeah, I should have worked for Microsoft. #teamculture

Road Map - Visual Studio
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs-roadmap

Microsoft's Blazor - Development Toolkit to build once for everything

This is an interesting read to see how Microsoft is contributing to toolkit options for building web apps that function on all devices.

Article
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ios-and-android-developers-microsofts-blazor-for-building-mobile-apps-gains-traction/

GitHub
I'm not sure if this is the official online repo for this toolkit, but seems like it.
https://github.com/Daddoon/BlazorMobile

More references
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/aspnet/web-apps/blazor
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/aspnet/mobile-blazor-bindings-experiment/

Microsoft for Startups

Another good insight to see how Microsoft is contributing to the push for future tech in practical living.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/02/13/microsoft-for-startups-unlocks-1-billion-in-sales-opportunities-for-b2b-startups-adds-github-and-microsoft-power-platform/

Microsoft's Project Tokyo

First let me say that I'm in awe of how Microsoft is on the up and up with having so many software (and overall system) projects in progress. Usually I rarely hear about Microsoft and often hear more about Google or Facebook projects. Maybe even Amazon, but those are usually more hardware related.

Anyhow, I'm super happy to hear about this Project Tokyo! Another great project in the suite of wonder from Microsoft.

Read more from Venture Beat:
https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/28/microsofts-project-tokyo-helps-visually-impaired-users-see-with-ai-and-ar/

Reference
https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-tokyo/

Microsoft's Project Verona - New Programming Language Research

I haven't had much time to blog, but had to highlight this.

Microsoft's New Programming Language - Project Verona

• https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-opens-up-rust-inspired-project-verona-programming-language-on-github/
• https://github.com/microsoft/verona/blob/master/docs/faq.md

This is very interesting to see Microsoft "claim" continuing contribution to the development of Rust but research and develop its own new programming language comparatively to Rust.

Thanks to CodeProject for this update.

Review: Cloud Info Model vs Open Data Initiative

Like every big wave of advancing technology, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the two different options of data centralization and accessibility (i.e. how I see this 'data' game construct being played in the market). Linux initiated the Cloud Information Model (CIM) and has partners signed onto their team. Microsoft initiated the Open Data Initiative (ODI) and has partners signed onto their team. I guess one of the differences is that CIM focuses on storing data in the cloud whereas ODI allows more flexibility as to where to store the data yet enforcing a common metadata structure.

Quick look at ODI

Quick look at CIM

I need to do more research. I'm curious to know where the data developers stand on this like those who worked on MongoDB, Oracle, MS-SQL, and the MySQL community.

References
https://www.zdnet.com/article/whats-next-for-the-open-data-initiative/
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/2019/11/amazon-web-services-genesys-salesforce-form-new-open-data-model/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/open-data-initiative
https://www.cloudinformationmodel.org/

Review: Azure Dedicated Host

Microsoft now has dedicated hosting with Azure. I'm looking forward to trying this out soon!
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-dedicated-host/

Meanwhile Azure is stepping up with their hosting services, they are also stepping up in the security realm.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-invites-researchers-to-hack-their-azure-security-lab/

Tech Giants getting Smarter with Public Testing

Google has already been using the public to test their products and services - which is such a smart approach before and after releasing software to the...um, world! Of course, if you're storing private data like Facebook or GMail, then you probably want to actually invite experts like Microsoft is doing to test your software and be sure to label your software in "Beta" version.

See Azure Dedicated Host webpage

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/virtual-machines/dedicated-host/

Reminder: Security is actually implemented, or not, by Developers

This is a good article from a Security Engineer at Microsoft. I agree with this author that any security in an application should be the responsibility of the development team and not the security team. The security team is to *help* and *guide* network implementation, application development, and programming of operating systems. Now, if we can only get users to be aware of this.

https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/07/16/a-proactive-approach-to-more-secure-code/