Radically Retired

Category: Technology

  • Back to Old School

    Back to Old School

    Every once in a while, I like to gift myself.

    Yesterday, I purchased something that’s been on my techy wish list for a very long time.

    My last printer gave up the ghost over three years ago, and because ink cartridges were more expensive than buying a new printer, I decided to do without for a bit.

    I entered the area of e-cards and when needed, I hired out document and photo printing.

    This decision removed a great deal of creativity from my life and I truly missed the “old school” way of doing things.

    When eco tank printers came out, I was intrigued, but not sure. Were they really as good as advertised?

    My sister purchased one a year ago, and recently reported to me that she loves it. She said that in the past year, she’s printed well over 1,000 pages and the ink that came with her printer still shows at just under half full. I prefer reviews from people I know, so I was “sold” and made my decision.

    My main concern was whether the print heads would dry up while we’re wintering in Texas. My sis came up with a simple, yet brilliant idea. Another of my sisters condo sits for us over the winter. She could easily have access to the printer and do some printing and maintenance. She’s a techy gal and wouldn’t mind one bit. She’d no doubt appreciate being able to print some of her own stuff while she’s here.

    The setup was incredibly easy, the few test documents I printed came out excellent, I love that I can turn on/off and operate the printer from my iPad or phone with ease, and I already have several ideas for print jobs.

    The first will be a Mother’s Day card for Mom.

  • Stress Free Lesson Prep

    Stress Free Lesson Prep

    In recent years, I’ve been offering a free smart phone photography class for seniors here in our park.

    The class has been popular and teaching it has been a fun and rewarding venture for me.

    The only issue I’ve had is that as technology evolves and advances, prep for this course has always been tedious and time consuming.

    The 3-4 hour session is for both android and iPhone users. I shoot with strictly iPhone, but because there are many android users, I have to teach myself those camera systems too, so I can hopefully offer assistance to everyone in attendance.

    This year’s course is at the end of February, and I was dreading the prep.

    Hmmm, I wondered if ChatGPT could help.

    I entered what I was looking for, and after a couple of minutes of refining via the question and answer format of the app, voila!! I not only had the course outline complete with practice exercises for participants, but handouts were also created. All of this was returned to me in a printable pdf version.

    What usually takes many hours out of several days in preparation, took less than 15 minutes total this year.

    Thank you, ChatGPT!

  • According to Richard

    According to Richard

    As promised in a previous post … in a few upcoming posts, I’ll document my experiences as a newbie to ChatGPT.

    Why the title of this post?

    In a phone conversation with my sister, who encouraged me to give the app a try, (and with very convincing reasons), I decided it would be fun to give my virtual assistant a name (more on that in a future post)

    My first mission was to choose paint colours, countertops, and backsplash for my kitchen and dining room.

    I noted in the ChatGPT app that I wanted to soften it, but not have too much of a feminine feel (because hubs lives here too), to have it go well with the new light oak LVP flooring we’ve had installed, and a compliment to the Tex Mex theme I have in our South Texas winter home.

    It asked me about budget and general location, so I said I didn’t want to break the bank and that we’re in the Rio Grande Valley.

    I was amazed at the quick and perfect response. Not only did it give me a mock-up of the end result, but it told me the paint brand and colour, the name of the backsplash tile, and the type and name of the countertops. It advised me which stores in the RGV carried all of the needed supplies, and it calculated the total cost of the project.

    This experience alone sold me on the app.

    My feature photo is before and after of a the big, outdated China cupboard in the dining area adjacent to the kitchen.

    Here’s the before and after of the kitchen.

    I can’t wait for the photo on the right to be our reality

    All I had to do was submit a photo, explain what I wanted, give my general (not exact) locale and my budget, and the rest was taken care of in minutes.

    Sold!