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Showing posts from July, 2025

Perplexity AI: The App, For The Everyday Person

   Perplexity AI, according to BuiltIn , is an AI-powered search engine - and it's now valued at 1 8$Billion dollars, with a B. I had it on my phone for research testing - something I do between contracts for money - and simply kept it all this time. With it making a resurgence, I can show you if it's viable for every day use cases.  I did not use it to generate "art" or writing.  Screen Reading and Photo Identification. I have used Perplexity to read Chinese characters on my screen, asking to point out the radicals, tone, and meaning of unfamiliar characters. There are minor differences between what Perplexity answers with and what Duolingo and DuChinese deal with, but I know enough Chinese* to figure out the difference - though a recent study calls the accuracy into question. For instance, below I've asked it what the radical is in  æ°´ (shui, water)      [alt: The character in your image is  æ°´ , which is the Chinese character for "wate...

LinkedIn Premium in 2025

  For a company that sells our data (If the product is free, the product is me...and you), LinkedIn offers Premium,.  One can send 5 messages for $40 USD with Premium...or use hunter.io , finding email addresses of people at companies for free. There are issues with that, but I have a free trial!  LinkedIn put forth effort to make the cost worthwhile, so let's see if the options are worth it.   How Much of LinkedIn's Revenue is Premium? I couldn't tell, but COO Daniel Shapero says in 2024, it was a 1.7$ Billion dollar business . He raves about how Premium users like the AI Writing Suggestions tool - but hold that thought.  (On the payment page, it says "Why do we need your card for a free trial? To provide a seamless subscription experience!" It's so you forget to cancel the trial. To be fair, they do say they'll warn you 3 days before it expires, but we know what it's really about)   LinkedIn Learning  One part of LinkedIn I genuinely enjoy are the ...