With the decision to push the boundaries of what was possible with a local first predictive scheduling, I realised that it will be necessary to abstract the various background tasks for keeping the AI Prediction in the Browser using Vector Embeddings up to date.
The first consideration is that these embeddings would need to be ready when the user started to plan their schedule. They don’t take a lot of time to build at the moment but I expect this to slow as the model gets more expansive.
There is a big movement going on in the Local First circles to give users greater control over their data, greater performance and resilience. They want to do this by building applications that need less access to external servers and even the network at times.
One of the major breakthroughs in recent years which is making this goal more accessible to a lot of applications is the ability to use the power of well established databases within the Browser. Wayback, we saw WebSQL appear in browsers but never gained traction because of licensing and compatibility across all browsers. This was a real shame.
I really struggle with this obsession within the digital and tech industry to lure everyone into a false expectation, that the more of their life they spend in a virtualised, surreal world the better things will become.
A Chance to be Satisfied
Some might see my approach to technology as an oxymoron, I recognise and promote the benefits, whilst at the same time I encourage us to design systems which do not engulf people in it. I have always been driven to keep people connected with the natural world. You remember? That world we can touch, see and feel. Hang on, we’ve digitised those senses as well! You might call these “tangible” things, although I recognise that the lines are becoming increasingly blurred these days.
One of the most common pain-points I hear from the Music Teachers (VMT) that I have spoken to over the last few years has been planning student lesson schedules for the next school term. I have had a few false-starts over the last few years on this, I keep uncovering yet another piece of foundational scheduling functionality that we need before this can start. Anyway, Soniq now has a solid scheduling foundation built into the core, and with Soniq in beta, this foundation is becoming pretty mature. Now’s my chance to try again.
Dave Taylor - Software Engineer