Thanks! Earlier in the project I tried to find a way to generate English but with Chinese grammar - something like “you need to grab your shoelaces and tie them well” - as a way to help memorize grammatical structures. But I didn’t get very far with that. For one reason, I couldn’t coax an LLM to output such unnatural English (!)
So in the end I decided that I can ask GPT-4 to explain alternative structures based on the translation I get
Ideally, I would like to find a reliable way to directly transform my first attempt at an expression into a native-level expression, without necessary routing via English. It didn’t seem doable with the LLMs I tried so far, but there are others I can try, and maybe some training would help too - as you say
I use GPT-4 for this kind of exposition too. If you haven’t come across Pleco [1] yet, I can highly recommend it. It’s a high quality Chinese-English dictionary with a lot of helpful features for reading Chinese
One feature I use a lot is the clipboard reader, which lets you step through Chinese text character by character and shows you the meaning of each character. It can be faster than using an LLM, but you don’t get the whole-sentence meaning or the ability to ask follow-up questions like you can with an LLM. But it’s a great app all round (some features are paid)
I also use GPT-4 for explaining the meaning of sentences in more detail (as in JimDabell’s comment). Often my questions are like “how would a native speaker say this colloquially” - I’ve found it really valuable to be able to have a back-and-forth on why something works the way it does
Just for fun, I’m trying to force it to misinterpret what I’m saying by changing “dei tie” to “di tie” (as in subway). It really doesn’t want to interpret it differently! I think “shoelaces” must be such a strong signal of context for the LLM
After working on this project, I’ve started using MS translate as my go-to app if I want to translate an existing sentence. Previously I tended to use Google Translate by default. But I’ve genuinely been surprised by the differences between the apps
I have seen some variation in the interpretation - although it does seem to be pretty consistent. When I enter “服了u” into unscrambler I get the interpretation “I give up” every time I try it
As lavrton said in a sibling comment - simpler integration.
I can't speak to Dropbox integration, but every time I've looked at integrating with Google Drive I have felt my development effort growing, not shrinking.
Puter also seems to place a high value on privacy, which I like.
I agree, this opens up really interesting possibilities.
Here's my understanding of how it works, based on the puter.js docs [1]:
If I'm developing a frontend app that could benefit from cloud storage, I can load in puter.js as my "backend". I don't need to worry about user auth because puter.js will automatically ask the user to create an account or log in. I also don't need to worry about managing & paying for cloud storage because puter.js will take care of that on a user-by-user basis - including asking the user for payment if they go over their free limits.
I haven't actually used puter.js yet. But if I understand correctly, this could be a really powerful model. As the developer of a niche app whose purpose is not to bring in revenue, puter.js seems like a very reasonable way to pass on cloud storage costs to end users, while also reducing development effort!
Your app is awesome, it's just so satisfying to use. Really fantastic job!
My two cents on block insertion: Personally, I would love if Cmd+Enter inserts a new block at the very top
For inserting a new block in sequence, I feel like Cmd+Shift+Enter (splitting the current block) might already be enough - but I obviously haven't used heynote for long enough to have a very informed opinion on this :)
Maybe there's some way to make the behavior configurable?
I love the idea of interoperability between homegrown task managers. Another shameless plug: https://frogtab.com, which I’ve been building, following similar ideas of minimalism. I’m definitely going to check out your app when I’m at my macbook - and would be super interested in exploring integration!
Does anyone use Kagi for Kids? The Starter level at $5/mo is enough for me so far, so $20/mo for Family is quite a jump. Would love to know whether Kagi for Kids is worth paying for
So in the end I decided that I can ask GPT-4 to explain alternative structures based on the translation I get
Ideally, I would like to find a reliable way to directly transform my first attempt at an expression into a native-level expression, without necessary routing via English. It didn’t seem doable with the LLMs I tried so far, but there are others I can try, and maybe some training would help too - as you say