Tech

My Dad and I drove to Ohio to pick up the Tesla Model 3, which I had traded for my beloved BMW Z4MC. At the time, buying a Tesla in Michigan was illegal due to the franchise rules. It was bittersweet as we took the road trip to, sight unseen, pick up the vehicle I had purchased online. Alicia and I knew with the impending arrival of our child, the 2 seater would only get a little use in our household. We had batted around getting another BMW, Audi, or Volvo. Still, in the end, I did the math and figured an electric car would be suitable. My transition from aerospace & defence to renewable energy sealed the deal. I already took the risk of changing career fields, so why not take another and switch to an EV in rural Michigan? ...

During interviews for podcasts or panels, I’m often asked what I’d do if I weren’t in tech. While I playfully consider taking up farming, the true answer is writing. This passion for writing has been a constant in my life, deeply rooted and contrasting with my professional journey in technology. My fascination with technology began as a child with a Commodore 64 and GEOS, gifted by my supportive parents. This early exposure to tech didn’t overshadow my growing interest in writing, partly fueled by my voracious reading habits. Discovering my old attempts at journalism and editing, tucked away in basement boxes, brought back vivid memories of those formative years. ...

The 1990s was when small computers began their march towards becoming the sleek tech companions we know today. Picture this: A young military brat Eyes wide with wonder Flipping through the colossal pages of Computer Shopper magazine Amidst the bulky desktops, the little palmtops sparkled like gems of possibility. Imagine taking your computer wherever you go! Enter my first tech flirtation: the Casio JD-5000. A business organiser in the hands of a kid who had, let’s be honest, absolutely no business to organise. It’s like a penguin at a salsa dance – charmingly out of its element, yet undeniably cool. ...

For most of my adult life, I have been on the road travelling. Some years, it was mostly CONUS; other times, it was extensively OCONUS, but I found my old Slingbox while cleaning the basement. What is a Slingbox, you might be asking? Sit down, children and let me talk about a time you will soon see again… Slingbox (Early 2000s) Slingbox, introduced in the early 2000s, was a pioneering device that allowed users to remotely view their home television programming from anywhere with an internet connection. The device connected to my cable box and streamed the content over the internet to a computer, tablet, or smartphone. This groundbreaking technology allowed me to access their live TV and recorded shows without being physically present at home. When I was travelling in countries without English TV, it was a godsend. ...

I will do a little experiment and let ChatGPT also write this blog post. I have made minor edits to ensure it aligns with the screenshots, but this is not me! A few essential items before we dive in: I am using GPT4 with Data Analysis through a paid account I work in the energy space, so I knew basically what I was trying to do with the prompts The Consumers website could have done this analysis in precisely 3 clicks through their portal, so I saved little time Yes, we use a ton of electricity! We have a large geothermal system, 22kw solar array, and 26kw of batteries in the basement. We also have 2 Electric Vehicles and a manufacutring shop on the land. ChatGPT Shortcomings: There is no confidence rating here. You ask the model; it gives answers. Are those answers correct? Sometimes. There is a fallacy that you upload and ask away. In another exercise, I needed to go back and validate the PDF breakout, and the table read needed to be corrected. Verify everything. For a site-by-site analysis, this works great, but scaling this would require API integration. Back to my first point here, you would trust that automation wholeheartedly. As technology advances, the ability to quickly ingest and distil complex tariff documents will be a net positive to the energy industry. We are close, but not there just yet. Steps I used to complete this exercise: I went to GreenButton Connect for Consumers and downloaded my interval and billing data. I tried using some lower-level interval data from my parallel metering, but it was too small of an interval to process correctly. Downloaded the latest tariff book for all Consumers Energy rates. Logged into ChatGPT, selected my GPT4 analysis mode and provided the prompt - How does my utility bill compare to other people in Michigan? before starting to have it evaluate the usage against the tariff specifically. Reviewed the Python code and processing You can see the entire chat minus the actual code here: ChatGPT Chat Prompts ...