WEEKLY WHEATIES #2345
Coding, Microsoft, Electric Trucks, Do Not Disturb
In this newsletter:
Post: Should Everyone Learn to Code?
ICYMI: Microsoft Ignite Updates
ICYMI: Ram and Tesla Electric Trucks
POTW: Do Not Disturb Signs
Should Everyone Learn to Code?
Over the past few years, there’s been a push for all ages to learn to code. As technology embeds itself in all forms of manufacturing, service jobs, and powering the online space, coding (or computer science) is arguably one of the most widely-spread job types available. Just about every area of business has coding in some form. Those computer engineers who code these softwares everything runs on can be one of hundreds of coding languages. And there are pros and cons of each one.
Learning to code a specific language isn’t as important as understanding coding in general. Understanding the idea of libraries, specific languages used, how brackets, tabs, and colons work, among many other specific quirks in the general coding world, is important for everyone to learn for one very specific reason. It helps with general problem-solving skills and helps understand ‘robotic’ reasoning. I always like to joke that the great thing about computers is they do exactly what you tell them to do. However, the bad thing about computers is they do exactly as you tell them to. You can’t win for losing.
If you want to see the premise of exact instruction writing in practice, check out this video on YouTube about How to make a PB&J. Back when I taught high school, I did something very similar with drawing a random shape, comparing size, color, and more. It was always eye-opening and cool to see how quickly someone was able to catch on with the basics once they understood how specific you need to be. And in reality, that’s all that’s needed. In just a few classes, students were able to code at least one page of a website. Many of them used code from across the web and were doing things we hadn’t talked about yet, too. But that’s part of it, taking what you have learned and searching out more.
With the AI space, we’ve seen how the power of prompting can make AI that much more powerful. From an outside perspective, an AI prompt is the code version of a software language. Learning basic coding skills can help you master AI prompts. It makes sense people are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to help build apps. It is a tool to help streamline your job. But understanding the ‘language’ of AI is important. Sure, AI bots are designed to use natural language, but language can be used to do good or bad. The pen is mightier than the sword, right?
Learning basic coding can also allow a user to understand basic troubleshooting. By listening to the feedback the software is giving, coders can see what’s happening. If trying to build a link for a website, and it doesn’t work, you know exactly where to look for troubleshooting. Or do you? The CEO of Shopify and the CEO of OpenAI even talk about executives they work with becoming much better at reasoning once they learn to code. You can bet your salary they aren’t doing any coding themselves, only getting an idea of how to process works.
So if you want to learn to code, where to start? As mentioned, there are literally hundreds of coding languages. Some of the older languages still in use may even garner jobs paying a healthy salary (Fortran, Cobal, punch cards). Although some of these jobs are on contract based in part because the job’s role is to update the older code to not be needed anymore. You’re essentially putting yourself out of a job.
One of the most popular languages that has generally stood the test of time, well at least the last 30 years or so, is HTML. This language essentially runs the front end of all websites. There are other languages that run alongside or on top of HTML, but in general, this is the best place to start. There are tons of tutorials available, also. One of my favorites include the W3Schools tutorials. Two other of the most popular web-based languages include CSS and JavaScript. Parts of Java are being phased out, but it still has some level of importance on the web and with desktop apps. Then there are very niche programming languages that coders can find great jobs in due to the lack of availability. This may include: Ruby, Rails, and many more. Although HTML is a bit dated, it is still frequently updated and arguably still important.
You may say learning to code is more useful for someone that works on or with a computer on a normal basis. While mostly true, technology - and by way of AI - is more and more engrained in our everyday life, meaning understanding some basics would be helpful. And although many of you may never want to become any sort of programmer, I’d bet in the next few years (if not already) you’ll find yourself using AI more and more. This will help when providing prompts to AI, or even as your smart assistant (Siri, Alexa, etc.) becomes updated. One of my favorite sites to suggest is CodeCademy. They have tons of free training, and many can be completed in just a few minutes. Lastly, they implement a built-in editor, so you don’t have to install any crazy software.
Happy coding!
ICYMI: Microsoft Ignite Updates
Following Apple’s push of their M series of chips, Microsoft announced Cobalt, their first in-house custom CPU designed for cloud computing. It’s already powering Microsoft Teams and parts of the Azure server, too. Microsoft is also manufacturing an AI-specific CPU - Azure Maia. Both chips are designed to optimize performance, power, and cost. Azure AI will help power OpenAI’ services, including GPT-4 Turbo and DALL-E 3.
Bing Chat is now known as Copilot - the AI tool embedded in Windows 11 and across Microsoft’s various web services. They even acknowledged it works on Safari, which is interesting considering it was recently released that Google is paying Apple 36% of their advertising share on the Safari browser - known to be worth billions of dollars. When all the court visits are complete, maybe Microsoft will put in another bid to have Copilot (or Bing) as the default search.
It was also announced that Microsoft Loop is now live for commercial customers. This web app provides a seamless collaboration across organizations competing against a popular competitor - Notion. It is still missing some features offered on other platforms (a major example being a database system of sorts) but has potentially better sharing and team-type features. Loop works well across the Microsoft ecosystem of tools, especially Teams and Outlook.
Watch the full Microsoft Ignite Keynote on YouTube.
ICYMI: Ram and Tesla Electric Trucks
Ram Trucks announced a 1500 Ramcharger plug-in ‘hybrid’ with over 650 miles of range due in 2025. It provides the benefits of an EV for short range, with the torque and range to haul a heavy payload over long range. While it has an electric motor and a battery, it also comes with a 26-gallon gas tank to power the onboard generator. Essentially, the battery alone can provide around 150 miles of range, with a V6 motor acting as a generator to charge the battery. To be clear, the electric motor is always providing the power, giving the benefit of efficiency to the battery, and the gasoline motor.
In a now retracted statement, Tesla announced Cybertruck owners could not resell their new trucks for 1 year after delivery is accepted. As you can imagine, the internet went crazy over this, causing Tesla to remove the verbiage from their Terms and Conditions. However you feel about that, keep in mind, the precedent has already been set. John Cena lost a lawsuit to Ford for something similar recently. Not to mention, Ferrari has been doing this for years. Part of the law allows manufactures to do this for models with low production, as well as if they are purchased directly, and through a third-party or dealership.
While most manufacturers don’t allow direct to consumer sells, Amazon worked out a deal with Hyundai to sell their cars on the site beginning in 2024. And as a kicker, all vehicles will include the Alexa voice assistant starting in 2025.
POTW: Do Not Disturb Signs
When’s the last time you stayed overnight at a hotel? Did you use the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign? Did you leave it in the room upon checking out? A collector from Italy named Edoardo Flores started collecting these signs over 20 years ago and uploads them to his Flickr account. There appear to be over 20,000 pictures uploaded - each with their hotel name and location attached. If you don’t want to scroll through every page of pictures, visit a blog post on the Messy Nessy for a good overview of signs included.
