Ryan Fukunaga

Blog

  • An (Un)Informed Opinion on AI

    My last post was two sentences about subscriptions. Seems I was somewhat right: SaaS is the norm and AI / large language models are everywhere.

    My opinion on these developments? Technology is a tool, not a solution. You use it to help with your work. It’s still up to you to solve your problem. Nothing can replace critical thinking and problem-solving. Tech is a tool, and if you let it replace too much, you’ll have more problems than you started with.

    Do I use AI? Yes, but in very specific ways. For example, I had years of financial data that I knew the contents of, but hadn’t sat down to pull all the analysis I could from it. With a paid subscription, I used the tool to review the data, requesting specific pieces. I also asked for a report detailing how those conclusions were reached. What would have taken me a week only took days.

    Days? Yes, days as I had to review everything and see how much of it I could replicate. I needed to understand the conclusions and clearly communicate the information. If I hadn’t spent the time understanding it, the conclusions would be useless.

    I also use Grammarly to help write emails. I write way too fast and often miss things like “the,” “to,” and “of.” I avoid using the rephrase tool too often and will re-read a sentence when it highlights something (the number of times I’ve realized the sentence doesn’t actually say what I wanted it to… embarrassing).

    Am I using it properly? Who knows, but after using it, I feel like I have a better footing to have an opinion. That opinion is this:

    People are treating AI like it’s everything when it’s simply a tool that should be used for certain tasks and not for others. It can’t be creative – it can only do what it’s been told, as much as people would like it to be otherwise. I see it more like when computers were introduced to the workplace. Things will change, missteps will happen, and new norms will be developed.

    What will change things the most is when the actual compute time costs are passed on to the consumer. How will that affect AI usage?

    Finally, we need to consider whether this is worth all the environmental issues. This is a big one. Right now, I don’t think we need all the infrastructure that’s in the works. We should be more considerate when planning a data centre, and not push it through just because it’s an AI-related project.

  • Subscription

    Is this the future of everything tech-related? Probably, but hopefully not.

  • New look

    This site was down for a couple of months because I switched web hosting providers. Basically, cut my costs significantly and support a Canadian provider! Very happy with the change as this site now loads properly.

    What was lost was the previously uploaded media. Not sure what I’ll do about that since some of the images were Creative Commons pieces and I don’t want to track them down again.

    Still getting used to the new WordPress design. Change always takes a moment to make right. So hopefully I’ll start posting again.

  • Small Victories

    Things I have been getting better at over the last 6 months. Most of these things are small, but it’s important to keep track of the small victories as they add up over time.

    • Finishing Online Courses: So far, I’ve completed 3 short courses on LinkedIn Learning. These courses are a mix of professional and personal development. While 3 courses aren’t a huge amount, I finished what I started. Continuous learning is important to me, and it also means that I don’t lose my ability to learn.
    • Maintained my professional certification: This was just another course I had to take, but I did it, and that’s what’s important.
    • Fixed my laptop (twice): after accidentally spilling water on the keyboard, I replaced it. This was about 3 months after the SSD died, and I replaced that. Again, neither of these things is HUGE, but the key is that in both cases, I had working laptops within a week, and because of data back-ups, I didn’t lose anything important.

    What’s Next?

    I write about my small victories as a reminder that I actually did something beyond just getting by. Yes, there’s always more to do

  • Recent Recordings (Video)

    I’ve done a couple of local talks via video conferencing software and participated in session with CBC Marketplace. While this is a personal passion for me, most of this work is related to my current position. It might be obvious, but I’m always talk about tech adoption, training/education, and (recently) equity related to tech. I don’t know if these clips capture that aspect of what I do but, right now, they’re all I’ve got. I’m really glad these groups/organizations took the time to reach out to me.

  • 2021 – Looking back at 2020

    What have I learned?

    I know my posts are few and at random intervals. I was busier than ever in 2020, without the challenge of moving to remote work. There’s a delicate balance between keeping people safe while also ensuring that the organization/business survives to continue doing the good work it does. Not sure I did everything properly, but so far, everyone is still safe, and the organization has survived. Government support made a big difference, but our long-time funders continued to support us even when their donations were dramatically cut.

    So what does 2021 have in store? Not sure, but until there’s wide-scale changes, I think we’re in for another tough year.

    The question I’m still looking to answer for myself is, “How do I do more without causing myself to burn out?” I’m in the middle of a much-needed 2-week break, and this is the question I’m wrestling with. Not sure I’ve found an answer, but I’m working on it.

    It’s about finding a balance

  • Refurbishment Skill Building

    Recently I have been to build my hardware testing skills using only a Linux/GNU live boot USB of popular distributions like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. While I know there are specialized tools I could purchase or download, I’m trying to see how much can be done without having to buy anything or have a huge amount of technical knowledge. I’ve had some success doing the easy things like SMART tests, memory testing, checking temperatures, and battery capacity BUT there are 2 areas where I’m still building my skills – flashing the BIOS and GPU testing.

    Am I making things more difficult for myself by trying to use open-source tools primarily? Probably but I am learning a lot so for me it’s a win.

  • Markdown

    The last time I spent a decent amount of time learning code was in a high school computer studies class. I learned HTML, and it was the 90’s. In the twenty years since, I’ve basically learned enough to update a WordPress site, but that’s about it. It didn’t seem like my professional career would allow time to learn any more “code”.

    Then I found out about Markdown. Why Markdown? Because it does what HTML does, but the same syntax is used in GitHub and Slack, 2 programs I’ve started using.

    Learning the basics of Markdown is now my 2019 project. So I’ve created a HackMD account and started testing things out by building simple documents. I’ll let you know how it goes in 2020.

  • Learning Circles

    Going to try a new approach to teaching – learning circles with an online course. Going to take a while to organize, but it’s a start!

  • Public Speaking

    To get over my fear of public speaking, I joined my high school debate team. I wasn’t a great debater but joining that club allowed me to get comfortable speaking in front of crowds. Still not great at smaller social gathering (that’s a work in progress), in front of an audience I’m okay.

    3 things that work for me:

    1. Know what you’re going to talk about but not exactly how you’re going to talk about it.
    2. Have a “map” of your speech to know where the important points and how they connect.
    3. Practice before, even if it’s just in your head. Aloud is best, but a quiet moment also okay.

    These points have worked for me but I have also typed out entire talks when I had a time limit or was speaking on behalf of a group where the specifics of my speech were more important than the style.

    I have bombed. I have been stiff and robotic.
    BUT I have also done well and gotten better over time. I won’t ever be a GREAT public speaker but I’ll get by.