Category: learning curve

That’s not a bird

Posted on

Each of the wines at the Constantia Uitsig (approximately pronounced “Ate-Suck”) (we were there recently) just down the road comes with an associated bird.
This goes for the wines made from their homegrown grapes, e.g.:

…and the ones made from grapes that are grown elsewhere and then blended and bottled at the vineyard e.g.:

Why? Well, it demonstrates their green credentials:

Everyone working on the farm embodies a strong ethos of taking good care of animals, and everyone understands the importance of the wildlife on the farm. Constantia Uitsig is home to a wide array of indigenous birds and animals. For this reason, we have chosen to use the birds found on the farm to represent our wines, with each wine having its own bird representing it.

Bit gimmicky, perhaps, but I have no problem with wine farmers looking after the environment as much as is possible (given that they are growing grapes). I mean, let’s face it: they could be doing all this without considering the environment at all. And that would be less good.

I do have a bit of an issue with their choice of bird for the Sémillon*, though. That’s because they’ve gone for the Orange-breasted Mousebird.

And that doesn’t exist.

But not only is it on the tasting notes:

It’s also on the website:

And then they’ve doubly doubled-down on the “Show Me The Bird**” click through:

Argh!

The bird in question is, of course, and Orange-breasted Sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea).

Here’s one having a bath in our back garden:

The plants in the background? No idea. I just do birds.

And that little “mouse”/”sun” difference might not seem like a big thing, but what this bird isn’t is an Orange-breasted Mousebird.

Look, they are clearly going to get away with it (and have been doing for the past n years), because their visitors mainly come from overseas, they don’t know about birds, and no-one is as nerdy as me. But this is just wrong. I could point it out to them, but they’d likely come back with something like:

“Well, yes, you’re right, but our visitors mainly come from overseas, they don’t know about birds, and no-one is as nerdy as you.”

Which are all fair points.

But it’s just wrong, and if they were to do a survey of their local bird population, then they’d find that their Orange-breasted Mousebird numbers were dramatically low. Like… zero.

Can something be described as extinct if it never even existed in the first place? I don’t think so.

As ever, I don’t expect anything to come of this blog post. But it does feel good to have got it off my chest.

Which is not orange.

* For the record, I have no issue with the wine, which is lovely.
** New York wineries must never use this approach.

ChatGPT: The Pros and Cons of AI-Assisted Communication

Posted on

Artificial intelligence has come a long way in recent years, and chatbots have become a popular solution for automating customer service. However, traditional chatbots often have limitations and can’t always provide the level of assistance that customers need. This is where ChatGPT comes in.

ChatGPT (short for “Conversational Generative Pre-training Transformer”) is a state-of-the-art language model developed by OpenAI. It’s a powerful tool that can understand and respond to natural language in a way that mimics human conversation. This makes it an excellent option for businesses looking to improve their customer service.

One of the biggest benefits of ChatGPT is its ability to understand context. Traditional chatbots often struggle with understanding the nuances of a conversation and can provide irrelevant or incorrect responses. ChatGPT, on the other hand, uses advanced machine learning techniques to understand the intent behind a message and provide a relevant response. This means that it can handle a wide variety of questions and requests, making it an extremely versatile tool.

Another advantage of ChatGPT is its ability to generate human-like text. This is important for businesses that need to communicate with customers in a way that feels natural and personalized. ChatGPT can be used to generate personalized responses to customer inquiries, making it an excellent option for automating customer service.

However, as powerful as ChatGPT is, it also has its limitations. One of the biggest drawbacks is that it can still make mistakes and produce inaccurate or nonsensical responses. This can be especially problematic for businesses that rely on accurate information to function. Another drawback is the cost of using ChatGPT, as it requires significant computational power and resources.

Another potential issue is the ethical considerations of using a tool like ChatGPT. It is important for businesses to consider the potential consequences of automating customer service, such as job loss or lack of human interaction.

In summary, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve their customer service by providing quick and accurate responses. With its ability to understand context and generate human-like text, it is a valuable tool for businesses. However, it is important to consider the potential drawbacks such as inaccuracies, cost, and ethical concerns.

It sounds almost too good to be true: that the future truly is here. I mean, it could even have written this blog post. And of course, it did:

But then, if it really is so perfect, then why is “personalized” spelled with a “z”? Where are the hilarious jokes and throwaway one liners? And why are there no speling erors?

For all that ChatGPT is far, far better than “traditional” chatbots, the content above still sounds stilted and… well… artificial. And for those reasons, I really hope that none of my regular reader was fooled.

We braai’d

Posted on

I don’t know why I always remove the E. Maybe four consecutive vowels just seems over the top.

Anyway, remember this from yesterday?

Of course you do.

Well, at that point, all of the above was true. But then we went to do a quick recce on the pub before we made a booking and… well… let’s just say that the braai option suddenly leapt into a massive lead.
And won. Immediately.
I’m not going to name the establishment in question, but wow… it made a lot of really rough places on the Wynberg Main Road seem positively clean and inviting. A dive bar, in a West End Coast Town, you could say. I did. I couldn’t help myself.

The only downside with the braai option was the wind, gusting to just below storm force and turning the braai into something like a blacksmith’s furnace. But we prevailed with ribs, boerie and porkies, and a bit of chicken for a vegetarian option.

Back in Cape Town now and missing the beach lifestyle of the West Coast, if not the icy cold waters of the Atlantic there. I’ll sort some photos at some point.
And that will reawaken the “Do I continue with Flickr?” debate. And then I won’t sleep for another month.

El Niño Is Coming – and the World Isn’t Prepared

Posted on

That’s the title of this Wired article, and it makes scary reading.

I have no doubt that climate change is a very real thing, but I have often commented that I am regularly unimpressed by the hyperbole and drama with which the news stories around it are presented.

This one seems a little different.

Current forecasts suggest that La Niña will continue into early 2023, making it – fortuitously for us – one of the longest on record (it began in Spring 2020). Then, the equatorial Pacific will begin to warm again. Whether or not it becomes hot enough for a fully fledged El Niño to develop, 2023 has a very good chance – without the cooling influence of La Niña – of being the hottest year on record.

Sure, there are predictions of hurricanes and crop failure, of food shortages and economic impacts, of power outages and ever increasing temperatures, but there’s no embellishment: just facts and indications of what we might expect.

It still doesn’t sound good.

I was less sure about climate change 15 years ago. I was put off by the constantly incorrect predictions and yes, probably swayed by peer pressure when it came to believing (or not believing) what was going on. But if I hadn’t changed my mind about climate change before 2020 (I had, but…) then Covid sealed the deal for me. Not because I believe that the latter was due to the former, but because I watched experts being experts and sharing their expert knowledge, and it being shot down because of poor reporting or just sheer bloody ignorance.

Now I know how those climatologists felt.

The worst bit about knowing that this is happening is not being able to do anything about it. Because it really doesn’t matter how much good stuff like recycling and switching off our geysers that you or I do, when (e.g.) China is building another 15GW-worth of coal-fired power stations in the first six months of 2023 and (e.g.) India is reopening more than 100 coal mines to make more electricity. While collective effort at a local level probably assisted with some degree of relief during our awful drought in Cape Town, it’s absolutely laughable to try to get consumers to behave more responsibly when it comes to climate change when Jinping and Modi are chucking out more CO2 than ever before.

We don’t even have enough electricity to go around, but we’re being told (and paid) by Europe to shut down our 18 coal-fired plants, which at full capacity (ha!) amount to about 45GW of generation capacity. Meanwhile, China is operating over 1,100 coal-fired stations for 1,110GW. And all the emissions that come with them.

Until that sort of dichotomy is rectified, (and I understand how depressing and pessimistic this sounds) it feels utterly pointless to try and “do our bit” on a personal level.

More motivation

Posted on

A while ago, I did a post on the folly of (some) motivational quotes. But since then, I’ve found a couple of motivational things that I actually rather agree with. Or at least some that I appreciate.

Because they are aimed at the right sort of place.

Firstly, this Norwegian response:

“Things could definitely be going better, but actually, I’m just about coping” seems to be a vaguely positive but also realistic way of trying to be optimistic, but equally not pretending that you’re in some sort of utopia.

In fact, given the way the world is at the moment, the only minor addition I’d make is a “yet” at the end of it.

But then, if all you want to do is achieve then there’s this approach:

For me, this is like doing a job, then adding it to your to-do list, just so that you can retrospectively cross it off. The list remains just as long as it was. Or maybe it’s more like just crossing off one of the existing list items without doing it. Either way, the sense of achievement stands proud.

I’m off to put both these ideas into practice.