Using chatGPT in my writing

I use chatGPT to improve my writing, especially for German and English texts.

Example 1: A month ago, I got a job offer from an Austrian company. While preparing for the interview, I used GPT to clarify some questions I had about typical German expressions. For example, I asked GPT to translate "could we continue in English" to German and it answered "Könnten wir auf Englisch weitermachen?" as I expected. I thought about using the word "fortfahren" instead of "weitermachen". I asked GPT "what is the difference between fortfahren and weitermachen". It provided a detailed answer but what surprised me was that it also said "...in your sentence "Könnten wir auf Englisch weitermachen?" the word "weitermachen" is more appropriate because it refers to continuing the conversation in English. If you were to use "fortfahren", it might sound a bit more formal or less natural, though it wouldn't be incorrect." GPT's ability to keep the context in mind is not something you can do with ordinary Google searches.

Example 2: I usually start a post with handwritten notes:

Then I convert my notes into a coherent whole. When I feel like there might be a better way to express an opinion but cannot remember the expression or when I am in doubt about an idiom or grammar I ask GPT:

• Question: Check for spelling errors: (paste text) Answer: Shows me spelling errors
• Question: "have enough sleep" or "get enough sleep" Answer: "get enough sleep" is more commonly used and idiomatic
• Question: May I use "they" for "someone". Answer: Yes, you can use "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to "someone"
• Question: check grammar: It is depressing to realize the difficulty of changing our own faulty ideas, let alone changing others. Answer: The grammar in the provided text is correct
• Question: make better: This increases the chance of meeting someone compatible a lot Answer: "This significantly enhances the likelihood of encountering a compatible individual."
• Question: Would it be better to use "adult" instead of "equal" here: To avoid being influenced by charming yet superficial rhetoric, don't be flattered by being treated like a princess and instead maintain an expectation of being treated as an equal. Answer: Considering the context of the sentence, where the emphasis is on avoiding superficial treatment and maintaining a balanced dynamic, "equal" seems more appropriate.
• Question: rate the English level of this text out of 10: (I paste the whole blog post) Answer: The text demonstrates a good command of the English language. Overall, I would rate it as a 9 out of 10.

I can confidently say that chatGPT improves my text from being 7/10 to 9/10. It makes writing much easier and fun, I feel like I am discussing it with a knowledgeable friend.

13.08.2023: DeepL write is also nice.

Music: Nina Hagen - Du hast den Farbfilm Vergessen

Solving Processing path problem

Today I downloaded Processing 3.3.7 and when I ran processing.exe, I got the error message "Problem while trying to get the sketchbook" and nothing happened, Processing did not open.

I guess it is due to the fact that my windows documents folder is not in it's default location.

After searching the internet for half an hour, I found a solution (inspired by this and this):

1. Locate preferences.txt. On windows 7, it is in c:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Roaming\Processing\
2. Add the following line to preferences.txt: sketchbook.path.three=.
3. Save preferences.txt and run processing.

Better WhatsApp Group Chat

Group chat is widely used in WhatsApp. As the size of the group gets bigger, communication is dominated by few people who usually generate a lot of noise. I had to leave groups because I was fed up with the endless nonesense of these few people. Arguing with them makes matters worse. Almost everyone I know has similar experiences.

I can silence a whole group in WhatsApp so that I do not get notifications. What I need is the ability to mark people in a group as important and unimportant. Messages from people that I mark important should be easy to spot when I scroll through the messages. They could have yellow background and bold font. Messages from people I mark as unimportant should be shown collapsed and become only visible in full when I click on the message. That would allow me to quickly see important messages.

The art of note taking

Over the years, my note taking has evolved and I developed a system which consists of

• Point of interest: Similar to ordinary bullet points, usually a dot or an asterix.
• Action item: Things that I have to do. I encircle a point of interest to mark it as an action item.
• Done: A check to the left of an action item means that I have completed it.
• Doodles: Help me concentrate and relax. For the concept of "relaxed concentration", see The Inner Game of Tennis.

At work I copy my handwritten notes to OneNote and throw away the physical paper. For personal stuff, I copy them to Google Drive. Below is an example:

Listening to:

• LP - Lost On You
• Enya - Wild Child
• Abhaz Kafe
• Xexes "Zenybzheguish"

WinDirStat

WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows. I used it to clean up my laptop.

Google'dan bedava navigasyon

Google cep telefonları için geliştirdiği Android işletim sistemi üzerinden bedava navigasyon hizmeti sunacağını duyurmuş, Garmin'in hisseleri %16 düşmüş. Tüm arabalarda navigasyonun standart olarak gelmesi yakındır.

Arabalarda standart demişken canımızı sıkan mp3 çalar konusu aklıma geldi. 2007'de aldığımız Honda Jazz'da mp3 çalar yoktu. Mp3 çaları arabaya bağlamanı sağlayan Aux girişinin elite modelinde olması sport yerine elite tercih etmemizin nedenlerinden biri idi. Bu devirde kim CD'den müzik dinliyor, neden son derece ucuz mp3 çalarlar hala arabaya entegre değil? İşin kötüsü tüm markalarda durum böyleydi. Sadece pahallı modellerde mp3 çalar vardı. Zannedersin mp3 çalar sadece kraliyet ailelerinin karşılayabileceği bir lüks. İlk bakışta çok gerizekalı gibi görünen mp3 yerine CD çalar koyma tercihinde otomobil firmalarının neden ısrar ettiğini bilen varsa beri gelsin.

İlk Açık Kaynak Denemem: Nota Okuma Çalıştırıcısı

Açık kaynak (open source) geliştirme ilgimi çekiyordu nicedir. Audacity, Subversion ve Paint.Net gibi ürünleri sıkça kullanıyorum.Wikipedia'yı zaten en başa koymak lazım.

Ben de zaman zaman aklıma gelen fikirleri Application Ideas isimli bloğumda not ediyorum. Çoğu fantazi ama bazılarını gerçeğe dönüştürmek mümkün. Bu fikirlerden biri geçen hafta müzik bilgisini geliştirmek için neler yapılabiliri düşünürken ortaya çıktı: Nota Okuma Çalıştırıcısı:

Why I switched to Paint.Net

I am a man of simple needs, that's why for a long time my favorite image editing software has been... mspaint. I use it mainly for resizing images, adding text and highlighting a section. It has minimum clutter and is simple to use. But on my vista laptop mspaint started to refuse to open images prepared by mspaint itself! I searched the web and even asked for help on superuser. People told me to switch to Paint.Net. So I did.

Subversion - VSS karşılaştırması

Bir süredir source control için Subversion mı daha iyi yoksa emektar Visual Source Safe (VSS) ile mi devam etmeli sorusu üzerine düşünüyordum. Karar: Subversion daha iyi, VSS tez zamanda terk edilmeli.

Browser Comparison

I use both Google Chrome and IE8. Here is a short comparison about features that I use most:

* Chrome's menu bars take less screen space. IE8 uses one row more:


* Each new tab in google chrome starts with the most used sites list while IE8 can only be configured to show your home page:


* In blogger when I use the "insert link" button, Chrome displays the window without the "http//" being selected. You have to delete it before you paste your copied link. IE8 first asks that annoying "...click here to allow scripted windows", then you have click again but it diplays the link window with the "http://" part selected (Update April 23: I downloaded Chrome 2 beta, problem solved):


* If you have multiple tabs open and accidentally close the browser window, Chrome does not warn you while IE8 asks you if you are sure (which is a good thing). I hope the Chrome guys will add this feature. But you can tell Chrome to open the last session automatically the next time you launch Chrome. Go to Options / Basics and select "Restore the pages that were open last". This should come as default.

Result: I like Chrome better.

For tips see The Power User's Guide to Google Chrome

Total Commander Tips

Previously, I showed how to change folder icons in Total Commander. Today I will explain a few more tricks.

Use directory hotlist (ctrl+D) to save and access frequently used directories:

You can go up one level by hitting backspace key.

Try out the multi rename tool in files menu. It helps a lot when you have to rename a lot of files at once.

If you would like to assign a hotkey to file renaming instead of mouse clicking, go to menu configuration->misc and redefine hotkeys:


Thanks go to Koray. From what I can see he adds a post a year to his blog :P

How to get file names in nested subdirectories:
* In a dos window type: dir *.txt *.exe /s /b > myFileList.txt. This gives you all the files with their directory names inside myFileList.txt
* Alternatively in total commander
** Go to commands/branch view (ctrl+b) lists all files files.
** Select all files
** Files/multi rename tool/edit names gives you all file names inside notepad (unfortunately the dir names of files are not listed):