Using GPT-2 as a continuous writing prompt generator via AI Dungeon

AI Dungeon Welcome Screen

OpenAI has released an API for accessing GPT-3, an AI text generator that’s capable of generating much longer responses than GPT-2. The API is currently in closed beta, and while I’ve requested access, I haven’t gotten it (yet?) But, I learned from Mario Dian’s blog about AI Dungeon, a text-based dungeon game powered by GPT-2 and/or GPT-3. Imagine a text-based adventure game, like Zork–that’s the feel of AI Dungeon, but instead of being programmed behind the scenes by something like ChoiceScript, it’s using GPT-2 (free version) or GPT-3 (paid version) to generate text.

I’m interested in exploring GPT-2 and GPT-3 for fiction generation, so I gave the free version of AI Dungeon a try as I was working on a short piece of flash fiction. I didn’t want AI Dungeon to write a story for me, or even to write parts of a story. I wanted to use it as a tool to spur my own creativity. Read more

Scraping web data

I wanted to get some data off an agent listing website and into a spreadsheet. I’d been meaning to play around with python for web scraping and this was the perfect excuse: There were just enough results that it would take longer to manually copy and paste them than to write a little python program. (I never want to automate something that will take less time to do than to automate, as long as I’m only going to do it once or twice…)
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Jami (Gnu Ring) review

An unavoidable fact of database support life is webconferences with clients or users. Most of the time, we’re more interested in what’s going on onscreen than in each others’ faces. But every now and then we need to have a face-to-face. Skype is popular, but I recently had the chance to try out a FOSS alternative with better security: Jami.
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Migrating Blackberry Curve to iPhone SE (iOS 9)

Just got an iPhone SE (“Small Edition”?) running iOS 9. I’m a late adopter… very late, I’ve been using my hardy Blackberry Curve for 5+ years. I still love its battery life, one-thumb navigation button, easy single-hand operation, excellent purseability, and hardiness. It’s amazing for texting and email. But I can’t open about half the webpages I try to load, and nobody’s making – or updating – apps for BlackBerry OS 6. I looked at all the new BlackBerries, but nothing’s as usable as the Curve hardware-wise and the app ecosystem just isn’t there. So, here are my adventures in migrating from very old tech (in cell phone terms) to the current iPhone.
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