Staying Ahead in the AI Game as a Web Dev

Major AI Trends in 2024: Staying Ahead in the AI Game

Hey there! So, AI has been on a wild ride lately, right? If you're keen on keeping up and making the most out of what's new, let's chat about the biggest AI trends of 2024 and how you can dive in.

1. Generative AI is Booming

Generative AI is seriously shaking things up.

• In Web Development: Tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT Code Interpreter have become total game-changers. They're super helpful for cranking out boilerplate code, automating tests, and even debugging.

• For Media Creation: Ever tried OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 or RunwayML? They're making text-to-image, audio, and video generation a breeze. If you're into tech, it's worth looking into how you can weave these into your web projects.

Takeaway: Get cozy with these tools—they're becoming essential for boosting productivity and sparking creativity.

2. AI Agents are on the Rise

Autonomous AI agents like AutoGPT and BabyAGI are gaining traction. They're designed to tackle entire tasks without you having to babysit them constantly.

Action Step: Play around with these agents to automate chunks of your workflow. Especially handy for side hustles that involve research or repetitive tasks. Imagine freeing up time from routine stuff!

3. AI Meets the Cloud

AI is digging deeper roots into cloud services like AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and Google Vertex AI. They're offering pre-trained models you can plug right into your apps for things like sentiment analysis or recommendation engines.

Action Step: Learn how to tap into these cloud APIs. It could give your web apps a smart edge without you having to reinvent the wheel.

4. AI is Shaping UX

User experience is getting a makeover thanks to AI.

• Smarter UX Tools: Tools like DebugBear are using AI to boost web performance. It's all about optimizing design based on how users actually behave and predicting what they'll do next.

Action Step: If you're building apps, check out AI tools that can analyze user interactions and tweak the experience on the fly. Personalized and efficient interfaces? Yes, please!

5. Ethical AI is a Big Deal

With AI everywhere, people care more about how it's used. There's a push for explainable AI and making sure it's fair and transparent.

Action Step: Get familiar with ethical frameworks like LIME and SHAP for explaining AI models, and Fairlearn to keep things fair. It'll help you build trust and stay on the right side of regulations.

Tips for Your AI Journey

1. Keep it Technical

You're rocking web development with Angular and Ionic, so why not amp it up with AI? Tools like OpenAI’s APIs or Hugging Face can add some serious firepower to your projects.

Next Step: Start playing with models—fine-tune them for what you need or use them to spice up content in your projects.

2. Side Hustles + AI = Win

AI can take your side gigs to the next level. Whether it's micro-SaaS, freelancing, or data dashboards, adding AI can make your offerings stand out.

Action Step: Think about offering AI-powered services like chatbots or data analysis to small businesses. It's a great value-add that clients will love.

3. Level Up Your AI Knowledge

Dive deeper into Machine Learning frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and AutoML. Even if you're not building models from scratch, knowing how they work can help you implement and tweak them better.

Action Step: Check out TensorFlow.js—it's all about running ML models right in the browser. Could be a cool addition to your web dev toolkit.

Cool Tools & Platforms to Watch

1. Meta’s LLaMA 3: An open-source language model that's super flexible.

2. Anthropic’s Claude: Focused on making AI outputs safe and reliable.

3. DeepMind’s Gemini: Google's next big thing, aiming to handle text, images, and more all at once.

Why This Matters

• Generative AI: It's becoming a staple for getting things done faster and more creatively.

• AI Agents: They can handle the boring stuff, freeing you up for bigger ideas.

• Cloud Integration: As AI becomes more cloud-friendly, it's easier to scale your projects without heavy lifting.

• Ethical AI: Building trustworthy AI isn't just good karma—it's what users and regulators are starting to expect.

Next Steps to Kickstart Your AI Adventure

1. Choose Your Path: Figure out if you want to dive deeper into AI in web dev, cloud services, or automation for projects.

2. Get Hands-On: Apply AI to something you're already working on. Maybe automate content creation or jazz up the UX with some predictive magic.

3. Learn More:

   • Coursera: They have awesome courses on generative AI and cloud-based AI.

   • Hugging Face: Great for getting practical with AI models.

   • AI Ethics Guides: Google and Microsoft have resources that'll get you up to speed on building responsible AI.

Wrapping Up

AI is moving fast, and 2024 is shaping up to be a big year. Whether you're integrating AI into your current projects or starting something totally new, there's no better time to jump in. Stay curious, keep experimenting, and have fun with it!

Migrating from tslint (of an old project) to eslint - Angular Project

Since TSLint is no longer maintained, it’s time for us to migrate to ESLint, especially if you’re working with TypeScript or Angular projects. Don’t worry, it’s quite straightforward if you use the tslint-to-eslint-config tool. Let me show you how to do it quickly.

Migrate Using tslint-to-eslint-config

1. Install the tslint-to-eslint-config Tool:

First things first, you need to install the tslint-to-eslint-config tool. You can install it globally or just within your project.

npm install -g tslint-to-eslint-config

Or, if you prefer to keep things local:

npm install --save-dev tslint-to-eslint-config

2. Conversion Command 

let’s use the tool to convert your TSLint config to ESLint. This command will create a new .eslintrc.js file for you, no need to worry.

npx tslint-to-eslint-config

3. Check the Generated ESLint Config

Open up the new .eslintrc.js file and take a look. The tool does most of the work for you, but sometimes you might need to tweak a few things yourself.

4. Install ESLint and Plugins

Install necessary plugins (you may not have it until now)

npm install --save-dev eslint @typescript-eslint/parser @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin 

5. Update Your angular.json

Don’t forget to update the angular.json file to use ESLint instead of TSLint. Just change the lint builder to something like below

	
		{
  "projects": {
    "your-project-name": {
      "architect": {
        "lint": {
          "builder": "@angular-eslint/builder:lint",
          "options": {
            "lintFilePatterns": ["src/**/*.ts", "src/**/*.html"]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
	

 6. Run ESLint to Check Everything

time to run ESLint and see if everything is okay, fix any problem that listed by it and your code would be soon clean & clear.

npx eslint . --ext .ts,.html

7. Clean Up the Old TSLint Stuff

Once everything’s good, you can delete the old tslint.json file and any TSLint dependencies you don’t need anymore.
That’s it! By using tslint-to-eslint-config, you can migrate to ESLint easily and keep your project up to date. Senang je!
Happy coding, and jangan lupa to keep your code clean!

Making internet a safer place by running Snowflake proxy

What is Snowflake?

Taiwanese F&B Brand - Snowflake (雪花栈)

Of course, this is not about the food!

The Snowflake plugin offered by TorProject is an excellent tool for making the internet a safer place. You can easily download this plugin for free from the Chrome Store.

How does it work?

Think of it as a USB stick storage device that we use in our everyday lives. 

The plugin can be plugged into any computer, much like the internet can be accessed from any place any time. If you close your browser, the plugin automatically stops and becomes "unplugged" from the internet.

On the other hand, when you open your browser, the plugin again connects your internet to the Snowflake network, making it more secure and private.

How does "plugging your internet" help others bypass censorship?

So after the Snowflake plugin connects to the Snowflake network, that means you are already participating in the Snowflake network, and you can start helping to support the fight for online freedom and accessibility around the world.

To put it simply, when you use a Snowflake proxy like many other volunteers, it enables internet users on Tor Browser to bypass censorship and conceal their identity by "randomly bouncing" through a vast network of proxies.

Have fun safeguarding the internet from censorship.

Step'N GameFi, earn by moving around

 Warning: There is absolutely no financial advice on this or on any other pages of this blog.

Good news!

Jogger, runner and walker, you can now earn by staying healthier!

If you have been around the GameFi space, then surely you already know this controversial project. This project offer utility token, the GST (green satoshi token) as rewards, and this is the token you need to spend in order level up/upgrade/buy equipment so your sneaker earn even more.

In the same time, GST value has been very volatile, its value has been dragged by the overall value clash around the crypto space. It went to 10USD and now drop to 0.53USD by the time of this writing. So for me, enjoying the game at lower cost/loss is better when the game item in the game is lower in price (compared to peak price on April 2022, which range around 12-18 sol).

Drop from USD5 to USD0.53

Before you start, please do your own research (DYOR), don't invest with your hard earn money which you can't risk losing. Again, the value of GST has been dropping from approx 10usd to 0.50usd, and this has pushed away many investor who joined at the peak floor price and hope for just profit instead of enjoying the game. Be informed!

How to get started?

1. Download the app from Apple app store or google play (visit official website for download link: https://www.stepn.com/howToPlay)
2. Get activation code from Stepn discord or get the code from your friend who has it
3. Create a wallet and keep your private key (seed) in a safe place (if anything, you'll need this key to recover the access to your wallet)
4. Deposit Solana into your wallet
5. Transfer solana from wallet to your spending wallet
6. For starter, look for a sneaker with good Efficiency and Resilience (you can ignore luck and comfort at the early stage of the game)
7. Try start moving with the app without any owning sneaker (Test the speed you like, so you aware of which type of sneaker you should own, there are walker/jogger/runner/trainer)
8. Buy a sneaker (If you don't exercise often, I recommend getting a "walker" to start with)
9. Wait energy to be filled (2 max for first timer), your energy will get filled up 1/4 of your max energy every 6 hours.
10. Once you have the energy filled, start walk/jog/run & earning!

Delving deeper in the "why"

Point 7 is important, to make a wise choice, you should consider which speed you can keep steadily for a period of your effective energy spending period. Given that you have 2 energy to spend, it gives you 10 minutes of moving time. If you have a runner type sneaker, this sneaker expect you keep maintaining the speed between 8km/h - 20km/h for 10 minute to maximise the earning.

Any speed outside of this 8-20km/h is not calculated into your earning, it means you are losing the earning as you can't maintain the speed.

Type of sneaker

• Walker: 1 - 6 km/h
• Jogger: 4 - 10 km/h
• Runner: 8 - 20 km/h
• Trainer: 1 - 20 km/h (this is best option, but it's also the most expensive type)

I'm not a runner, I seldom move at the constant speed of 8km/h, my stamina has room for improvement, I regret my purchase now. All in all, test your preferred speed first before you make your purchase decision.

For me, getting a walker in Point 8 is safest.

I walk my dog often, with that I don't move very fast and usually it falls between the 1-6km/h range. This speed is also reasonable speed for a daily random walk around the street, I won't get wrong moving within this speed range.

Earned 20 Myst running Mysterium node for 3.5 months

Warning: There is absolutely no financial advice on this or on any other pages of this blog.

Earned 20 Myst 

You do the math to evaluate if it is worth running the node at home. 20 Myst is approx USD6, you earned roughly 2 dollars a month. This calculation also discounted the electricity used to run the node.

It really depends on the userbase of the ecosystem, if not many users are looking to run their internet as your geolocation, you may earn really less.

Withdrawal transaction fee that's costly a little too much

The settlement fee is fixed at 20% + the blockchain fee.

So, with these fees, you are losing more than 20% of your earnings each time you withdraw.

The settlement with a 20% earnings deduction

If you earned 5 myst, your final income is roughly 4 myst. And this withdrawal is done automatically whenever the earnings reach 5 myst.

Next, you can also see the exact amount you are getting from their [Auto withdrawal: On ] button.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of the 20% settlement fees, I believe no one does like it. For node runners with low earnings already not getting much, the 20% further reduces the motivation causing us to lose interest fairly quickly. Hopefully it's something Mysterium Network would focus to improve in the near future to help and motivate the low earners.