AI and Art 

I continue to play with AI tools and am having fun. I am playing around in Midjourney asking it to imagine various things in the future. I would say they are pretty interesting, but not sure how accurate these predictions are. For example I asked it to imagine how a library in a small liberal arts college will look in 2035 and this is what it came up with. This is because our Clapp library will be undergoing a renovation next year and it was in my mind. Looks pretty interesting but I can’t imagine Clapp looking anything like this in 2035, on the other hand, how can I be so sure?… I intend to explore it more.

Cellphone Signals

I am so frustrated about the unreliability of cellphone signals in the US. There are specific spots in Mass Pike between Natick and Rt 84 in CT that is frustrating. I just came back from a long drive with friends to attend a wedding in Cashiers, NC. So many areas in southwestern parts of North Carolina and Virginia simply did not have any signal or unreliable signals. I understand that providing signals in this country is a costly affair and given the sparse population density in such areas, the telecom companies do not want to invest there. But I feel like we need a drastic change here. It has been so long that we have had cell phones and it has become a way of life for many. We rely on it to drive and use Google Maps (yes, it has an offline mode, but how many turn it on?) and in case of emergency we should be able to reach others (911 is supposed to work, but in several locations we received warnings that even that was not acceptable). Maybe that we need a mandate from the federal government for this (I fully well know it won’t work!!!)

In comparison, when we travel in India, it is absolutely no problem. Every nook and corner has sufficient coverage. I always tell people that several years ago when my wife and I stayed in a desert in Rajasthan, we remained connected with very reliable signal strength! If such countries can get it done, why can’t we?

Workday Extend

Despite our attempt to be very careful with what are the most appropriate applications to customize using Workday Extend, we are reaching a point where our stakeholders are increasingly gravitating towards it. Primary reasons being the success of the apps that we have already rolled out (one of them going strong in its third year) and the unified interface with other administrivia in Workday. It is also very reliable and much easier to develop applications on. Their Appbuilder that allows you to do everything you need right on the browser has been a fantastic addition and no longer requires you to run a software on your laptop like IntelliJ. Our most recent app that we have begun to migrate is for the Study Abroad office and the first phase of it has gone remarkably well.

I will be talking to one of our implementation partners who are certified for Extend to be conversant with our apps enough to be able to troubleshoot the apps as a backup. We continue to use Extend in a hybrid mode where we rely on external end points for data exchange. This, as I have written before works for us because the back end can be supported by our web development group.

Now, I am off to get Midjourney to imagine some other stuff and ask ChatGPT4 some important questions 🙂