At 6 I finished mowing and at 7 I was holding a pho noodle bowl and browsing the web when I bumped into a nifty subReddit called r/sideproject and discovered that Marko Andlar built a website and app that’s called Satellite Tracker 3D.
Meanwhile I caught Zack Efron streaming on TV when he said, “I never thought about it, but just as human beings share the Earth we also share the night sky.” Sky?! What’s going on up there? Some of us look at NASA galactic photos and try to comprehend the incomprehensible while most of us might as well be Kent Luddites imagining the Rocky Mountains. Some of us are stargazing; treehugger lists six tools to make it easier but the pros are worried about seeing through urban light pollution. Even satellites look like stars when artists are rendering posters for magazines or textbooks, and lately a handful are buried in their spreadsheets hoping to win big when every phone is a sat phone.
Marko’s /sideproject deserves kudos.
Satellite Tracker 3D v0.21 is easy and and easily brought the swamp of 24000 satellites to my lap as if I was kid reading cereal boxes during breakfast.
Elon’s Skywalker sats look like rows of cattle across the sky. That’s fitting too, because he’s colonizing orbits as 1880s and the West is empty. But our taxes paid for colonizing us, even though much is beneficial. For example, few of these ‘orbit holdings’ are adequately managed on the public’s behalf. But silly humanity would probably gift us another Kremlin. Our best bet is buggering despots and assuring smart teams. We have the rules for that. Immerse thyself. History says, “Let’s revolt. After all, California’s Prop 13 is a tax revolt that stopped paying for schools and roads. Why not stop buying space for billionaires?
And then I clicked Marko’s About and it’s ALL CAPS. Oh gosh, why? A tremendous new tool oughtn’t be dusty or delivered in a lunch bag.The About should be marvellous and give itself high praise and be at least as great as the software. What could I do? I don’t want to troll like Putin’s Puppets For Trump.
Quora’s POE is free. Why not ask AI to see what a LLM Large Language Model can offer? Below is the transcript I copied from Poe and sent to Marko… [here’s the direct link… Imagine a Victorian gent writing with a quill…My Dearest Marko, I hope the day finds you well.
In the 1980s I met a coder Chuck with years on the dev deals of the first IBM PC. One sunny afternoon at his apartment I blurted out, “I’m absolutely impressed with you. How on earth can you be so talented?” and he grumpily said it’s not intelligence, it’s the willingness to slog through the details. I thought of that memory when I was reading your About. Salute! You’ve built a wonderful tool and I bet nobody realizes your dedicated patience. But your About is average and it’s ALL CAPS, nobody does ALL CAPS anymore, people will says engineers can’t sell, so said to myself why not ask a LLM to assist, and then I saw the © and realized I want to fence the interaction to you retain all your property.
I prompted Quora’s Poe only three times. [my bold]: Certainly, I can try to help you improve the description at the I answered, “Yes, a broad goal is combining clear understanding and alluring marketing.” [my bold. That’s the trick, I said to myself.] Great, I understand. Here are some suggestions for improving the I thought, Oh, Oh, blah blah blah, bots are scraping promo brochures, phooey on that. LLM models can sure dump the jargon. I hoped I could get some ‘actual work’ from this machine. Prompt #3 is, “Can you rewrite and provide a sample improvement?” … and the robot replied by saying “Here’s the rewritten version of the Are you an amateur satellite enthusiast or a professional astronomer? Our satellite tracking service is designed for anyone who wants to track satellites in real-time with ease. Our user-friendly interface and powerful features make it easy to track satellites and gather data for research, educational or personal purposes. Using our service, you can: Gather valuable data: Enjoy a seamless user experience: Join our community of satellite enthusiasts and start tracking satellites like a pro today! Sign up for a free trial and experience the power of our platform for yourself. I ended tonight’s side project here. I dunno what Madison Ave AdCouncil folks will say, but after 5-10 minutes this is provocative stuff huh, I told Marko I’m 75 and retired and had fun bumping into hit site today, Best of luck cuz Marko! You oughta be piling up lots of rewards!
“I want to help. Language is important and there’s impressive artistry and skill when communicating to each other, such as the description typed at
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