Sean Novak – Page 2 – build in public

Vosk on-device Speech-to-text

Since I’ve started using GrapheneOS, a deGoogled Android build, I’ve missed several services you typically get from Apple or Google on my device, one of those core services is Speech-to-Text. It helps a lot to speed up note taking, writing text messages, etc.

I’ve been using a very crude Vosk keyboard on Android to fill the gap. I’d love to try to improve upon this project, but for today I’m interested in getting this functionality in Gnome, my Desktop of choice on Ubuntu Linux. This is not meant to be a tutorial, but more of a journal entry.

ChatGPT for Homeschool Planning.

I’ve been absolutely blown away by ChatGPT. I’m still reeling by the implications of it’s abilities. I’m hoping it only improves from here, as I suspect it will be dumbed down as it starts to impact some high-level professional job positions.

There are quite a few ways that we might use ChatGPT to plan for homeschool. It’s GREAT at generating lists. Now, our primary task is simply to ask good questions.

Lessons Learned, First Year of Homeschool in Review

Ahh Summer! We are currently on our Summer migration North to Maine, from Florida. Now is a good time to revisit the past year in review. Spoiler alert, it was a huge success. In this short article I’ll cover where we started, what worked, and how we adapted through our first year of homeschooling our daughter, Eva.

One small bet, Learnalot.net

My wife and I have started homeschooling our daughters since the last year. Personally, I’ve been pushing for it long before COVID. But, since that’s become such a concern, we decided to give it a shot and see how it goes. One year in, we’ve all fallen in love with it. I can’t imagine that we’ll ever go back to public or private school for a NUMBER of reasons, most of which I won’t get into in this post.

Goal Number ONE of home schooling is to help my daughter find a “Love for Learning”. That in mind, we’ve taken an Eclectic approach to Homeschool. Initially, we started schooling the way we were all used to. Several classes, in well accepted common areas of study, consecutively spaced throughout the day. But what we’ve found is what I think everyone already knows. That’s a super tedious slog for ANYONE. Why is it most kids dislike school? Disinterest in the content, probably in large part. “Eclectic Homeschooling”, as well as “Unschooling” are good remedies to keep the attention of even the most over stimulated ADHD children.

Building a Conversational AI Chatbot + 3D Avatar

The goal for this project is to build a voice-to-voice CAI (Conversational AI) integration with an interactive 3D Avatar. Initially, it will integrate with SAP Conversational AI, which despite it’s name, is a text-to-text service. So, round trip looks like voice-to-text => CAI => text-to-voice, out to the user. Hopefully the performance isn’t terrible.

Here’s where I am so far on this project…

Starting again

I’m rebooting this old site into a WordPress blog, as well as this ancient Twitter account, to keep track of my entrepreneurial endeavors. I recently joined an interesting group, run by dvassallo around making small bets. Building small products, SaaS, Educational, physical, and otherwise. Little products, that when you sufficiently define and execute them, they add up. Hopefully, they add up to a steady income stream, which might someday turn into a living wage and ultimately financial freedom. That’s where I’m going. Hopefully, I get there before I retire from my day job.