In short, for free, let's try it out -- the short take:
What it does do well, I threw programming prompts at it such as "Write me a function that takes a Golang struct, and convert it to Cobol (or Fotran, or X86 assembly), or "Call X86 assembly from Scala". Most of the time, the code was basically correct -- not great code, but we never expected that. I tell people it's like Stackoverflow, but they haven't implemented the yell-at-you feature yet. I'm told, though I've not tried it yet, it can spot things in code such as "This is old C++11, the new way is this..." In short, it's an assistant, not a code writer, and that's OK. No AI as yet, can write applications of real value.
What it doesn't yet do -- that for example, JetBrains AI seems to do is things like "Here's a C++ code base in a file, convert it to Golang" but it is free after all :-)
I do think we're going to need something like ai.txt in code repositories to tell AI what it can, and cannot index, much as we have with web pages. I know not to use the generated code in projects because of copyright concerns, just as I know not to copy code straight out of a book, but not everyone does. It's a guide, not a code writing machine.
Yes, this does remind me of the Carterphone case I believe it was called, or Napster in some ways. Apple, and its typical arrogance, is ignoring these cases. Yes, legally, I could make a good case the Beeper is committing theft of of service. But, there's a difference between being right and being effective.
Apple can *win* of sorts, but at the huge cost of reputation. Apple, you already have an integration for businesses -- it's called iMessage for Business, and you do it today. Just let Beeper use it and make money off of them. Or better yet, actually deliver on the Android and desktop clients.
There's also the question beyond green or blue -- is this a communications service or an Internet service. That has huge legal implications. If this is a communications service, say under Title II, Apple, make a deal before someone in the FCC makes one for you. You are not loved. Personally, I don't get this -- Beeper is small, Apple is cash rich. Just *buy* Beeper and its staff -- it's probably not even lunch money for Apple, declare this a new Apple product and everyone is happy.
Of course, and as I recall, it had Perl code in it. Classic SciFi in the sense that you take reality, break one and only one rule, and see what happens as you move through time.
Very cool -- shame I don't have a wall TV to just run it on. I was however, disappointed -- I saw it as a T-shirt brand "Particle Life" for physicists. The T-shirts would have slogans such as "After listening to you, I realize you're just an unfortunate jiggle in the quantum field, so I feel totally justified in ignoring everything you say"
Well, I don't know how advanced I am (except in age). But I have found the best advanced training is the same as it was in college. No book makes up for the late night hours. I find other projects and offer to help -- there's always a shortage of coding labor (especially if it's free). You learn what the book or course never discusses -- things like "What the heck was the person trying to do here?" and "Even God doesn't know how this code works!" You know you're in trouble when you see "Oh God! What an evil hack! But it works... don't touch anything!" or "Good luck future Matt! You KNEW this was a horrible job, but did you come back in time and stop me?"
I don't know if I qualify for a CTO though people call me one (people have called me names since I was a kid but Mom always said to ignore them...) But let's tuck at that first word -- "Chief". In many cultures Chief meant the one who held the final responsibility for whatever went bad. They were also the ones who had to negotiate with opposing forces.
With that in mind, learn your opposing forces and what can go wrong. Ask the dreaded Marketing tribe for their books and learn shamanic things like how long it takes to get something into the media or a retail store. Negotiate with someone in nursing to learn the mystical art of dealing with angry people you are actually trying to help. You will learn more from a nurse or a clothing buyer than you will learn from the best coding book.
BASIC itself can't be defined -- which basic? Altair 4K, Apple ][+, Microsoft QuickBasic? Some BASICs are quite advanced, others not so much. Honestly, later versions of QuickBasic were worlds ahead of what I did on the Apple.
A blast from the past, but you have no idea how jealous I was that the PC users had "Good Basic" but not the Apple. They could use "Real Pascal" -- I think that's what drove me to C. (Yes, I probably was one of three people who had the 6502 C Compiler.
Old kodger powers -- ACTIVATE!
*Form of,an 80s programmer! (My sidekick will form something liquid like a case of Jolt)
I miss those days, because anyone could learn to do whatever they wanted -- it was just work, not layers of corporate. Granted, it was mostly assembly language to get anything done, but it was all open
And just so you know-- I have other things I can change into like:
Form of - a paper tape reader/punch!
form of - a modem without an AT command set!
Form of - 64KB of RAM -- or less!
Form of - the GOOD Byte Magazine -- but if I had to, I'd settle for an Interface Age or Creative Computing
Form of - that snooty guy at the Byte Shop who wouldn't talk to this kid because he had no money
Maybe I should have called them Blue-Smoke powers -- I certainly made enough of that.
Also, look at iVentoy. It's not free but it's not expensive, and it is "Ventoy over PXE boot". It takes a bit to set up, but I have it running on a Linux box and I can boot any machine from any image.
I miss pxe. Feels like all of our tools got more complicated for managing servers but for very little gain. Pxe is one of those good simple tools that we need to get back to.
Despite all the talk, believe it or not, there are still open positions -- I work for a large telecom in the Bay Area, and I'm told we have 8,000 unfilled positions. But let's drill down a bit -- what is gone is the insanity -- we no longer pay $200,000 a year for dev-ops, you can no longer bring your dog to work. And, yes, we still have management that INSISTS if they can't see you in the chair, you must be scheming with a competitor. The jobs are there, but folks, we call it work, for a reason. If it were fun, we'd call it play. Mind you, I would completely understand anyone who said "I don't want that lifestyle anymore -- it was killing me!" But when you say that, you also say I don't want the paycheck. Decide what you will put up and what you won't put up with. I need medical coverage from a company that will be there, so I make my peace with the choices. I'm well paid, and well covered, but there is a price. Also, when you do shop around, remember, you know what you're worth -- both on the high and low end. Everyone talks about not selling out for a low salary -- but be careful. If someone is willing to pay you substantially more than you're used to, either you'd had a problem for years you didn't know about, or, why is everyone else refusing this job... And, as a final note, it's always easier to get a new job when you have one, so don't turn away what I call the "temporary job". I knew someone who was unemployed at the time -- and we had an open position that paid about $130K. He informed me "I will not work for people who do not value me and pay me at least $147K!" Now why it was $147K, as opposed to $150K, I have no idea, and at the moment, he was making nothing. So I don't understand. When I joined this company, I took a 30% cut. I wasn't happy about it, but a 30% cut is better than a 100% cut. (See I did pay attention in math class!) However, getting back into the workforce let me meet people again, and by blessed circumstances, meet people who moved me up over 20 years such that I've made back far more than I lost.
Temp jobs are necessary at times but also can be a trap that covers you like a warm blanket blinding you from what your value is in the marketplace. Taking the first offer because the interview process is horrible is the easy route many of us take. Passing up lower valued offers probably means you are misreading the market or applying in the wrong market.
Oh, agreed -- I am not suggesting one take the first job. I went through six months of interviews before taking this particular job. I am only saying, don't discard all jobs because they are not the job. Be open to new avenues. I didn't take the job at a bank for example, because, first or not, it wasn't a fit at all.
Also, Jetbrains does not indicate if I can build my own "private AI" with just my materials -- companies are concerned about what the AI knows and doesn't know, and where it gets it -- can Jetbrains AI be constrained to just a defined corpus?
What it does do well, I threw programming prompts at it such as "Write me a function that takes a Golang struct, and convert it to Cobol (or Fotran, or X86 assembly), or "Call X86 assembly from Scala". Most of the time, the code was basically correct -- not great code, but we never expected that. I tell people it's like Stackoverflow, but they haven't implemented the yell-at-you feature yet. I'm told, though I've not tried it yet, it can spot things in code such as "This is old C++11, the new way is this..." In short, it's an assistant, not a code writer, and that's OK. No AI as yet, can write applications of real value.
What it doesn't yet do -- that for example, JetBrains AI seems to do is things like "Here's a C++ code base in a file, convert it to Golang" but it is free after all :-)
I do think we're going to need something like ai.txt in code repositories to tell AI what it can, and cannot index, much as we have with web pages. I know not to use the generated code in projects because of copyright concerns, just as I know not to copy code straight out of a book, but not everyone does. It's a guide, not a code writing machine.