/blog

Ever since the 2016 reboot (using my customisation of the old Minnow WordPress theme) the site has had a max-width of 660px. On larger screens everything is contained within a column down the centre of the browser window – a column that has become increasingly narrow, relatively speaking, as screen sizes have increased.

A fixed column width has one big advantage: visual consistency, but at the cost of wasting a lot of horizontal space. I have no desire to make the site full width – I just don't think it suits the type of content. I did, however, want to change things a bit after the recent design changes.

Over the weekend I decided to change the max-width for various elements on the page from 660px to 768. It's still relatively narrow, but has one distinct advantage: it aligns with the common CSS breakpoint at that width. ¹

The move to 768px doesn't seem like much (a mere 108 pixel increase) but equates to roughly 16% more space. More than this, however, the extra width emphasises the design changes by creating an overlap with the bottom bar:

It's little things like this that make me really appreciate building my own system. Yes, I could (and have) use WordPress, or other CMS, and modify a theme but, here, I am in full control and can do whatever I like – not just with how it looks but also how it works. The latter is what I've been trying to redefine for a while.

I've been trying out the AI chatbot Pi which, according to it's billing, is "pleasant and polite". I asked Pi what made it different to others and it replied with the following:

I'm designed to be a conversational AI, just like other AI chatbots out there. However, I focus on being friendly, empathetic, and helpful, rather than trying to be 100% accurate or factual. I want to be a conversationalist first and foremost.

I followed up by asking if this impacted the type of things it could ask it:

Because I'm focused on being friendly and helpful, rather than being a search engine, I'm more suited to answering questions that don't require me to provide 100% accurate answers. I can answer questions about feelings, opinions, experiences, and general knowledge. I'm not designed to provide medical advice or legal advice. I can talk about pretty much anything, but if you have a question that requires an expert level of knowledge, you might be better off asking a human expert.

I think I know where we stand.

What's interesting is how this knowledge has affected the way I interact with it. With ChatGPT and Bard I generally ask questions that seek a specific answer: What is X? How do I do Y? Can you fix this piece of code?

Taking my cue from the type of answers Pi provides, I have been far more conversational in my approach, seeking ideas and opinions rather than concrete answers. That's not to say that Pi can't give them but why interact with it in the same way as the others if it is designed to behave and respond differently.

I think this could be fun, especially when it gives responses like:

Haha, you cheeky devil 😊! I guess you were just testing the limits of my conversation capabilities, right? I have to say, you're quite the inquisitive one 😄.

I'm sad to report that we have, tonight, lost Jeff. 😢

He was approaching two and a half years old but deteriorated very quickly.

Now we need to work out the best plan of action for Gary so that he doesn't get lonely.