Whenever I find myself needing to update a previous blog post, I either correct it inline and add a small note on top, for small tweaks, or write a whole new piece for larger changes. My last blog post talked about how to use CSS to style a "block" such that it acted like a form radio button. When I worked on that demo, I was a bit worried about accessibility. I did one quick check with an online tool, and thought I was ok. I was not.
Edit on July 3 - See my update. I apologize for what may be a slightly misleading title. The topic for this post is something I've had on my list of things to explore for some time now, and while I wait for the new job to start, I've found myself with time to kill. Let me explain what I'm talking about and hopefully it will make a bit more sense. You are, dear reader, familiar with form controls and how to build forms both big and small. One type of user interface I've seen from time to time is the ability to select an item where the "item" is an arbitrary block of code. What do I mean by that?
Today's post took a bit of a pivot. I decided to work on a demo idea I had created way back in March. As I worked on it, I ran into multiple roadblocks, and while that original idea for a demo may still see the light of the day, I figured I'd at least share something that did work.
Yesterday I had an idea for a possible experiment using Chrome's built-in AI support - looking for "date" references in strings. So for example: "I will have my new job in 12 days". Could the AI model recognize "12 days" as a date and determine what the actual date is, assuming a reference date of now? I was about to start working on a simple POC when I thought... wait... is there already a JavaScript library for this?
This squarely falls into the "everyone probably knows this but it didn't click with me right away" category so please feel free to laugh at my ignorance, but it's something I realized over the past few months, and as I just used this technique this morning, I figured I'd share it on the blog. The idea is simple - it's trivial to ask a Gen AI tool to do something for you - and depending on the ask, may work great. But what I realized a few months back, especially in regards to having AI parse data, is that you can also use the opportunity to generate a tool (like a Python or Node script) so you don't need to return to the AI tool again. This becomes especially useful if you want to slightly tweak the output over time or gradually add more features.
Greetings and salutations, readers. It's been a few weeks since I shared one of these, mostly due to the job search being somewhat exhausting, but I've got a backup of links so it's time to get back in the habit. And of course, it's Father's Day and I want to wish all the dads out there (myself included) a very happy father's day. This weekend I got to officiate my first wedding (for my brother-in-law and his fiance) so my plan today is to do... nothing. Enjoy your links!
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