As today is Labor Day here in America, I decided to ask GPT for a quick write up for our foreign readers:
Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday of September in the United States, is much more than a mere day off work. It commemorates the American labor movement’s achievements in improving workers’ conditions and serves as a tribute to their contributions to the country’s economy and society. Originating in the late 19th century, Labor Day emerged against a backdrop of industrialization, where labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable work hours, and safer working conditions. Over time, the day has evolved to also serve as a cultural marker, symbolizing the end of summer and the onset of autumn.
While the holiday is often associated with barbecues, picnics, and retail sales events, its historical and social significance should not be overshadowed. Labor Day serves as a reminder of the struggles that workers have faced and the milestones achieved in labor rights. It’s a day to acknowledge the invaluable role of labor in building and sustaining the nation, while also advocating for the continual betterment of workers’ rights.
Pretty good summary overall. Some signal it as the unofficial end of summer, others say it’s the end of white pant acceptability as a fashion trend until the spring. I disagree with the former and tend to agree with the latter. Regardless, I’ve decided to make today’s project a patriotic effort.
After reading some inspiration on a HackerNews post, I asked GPT to create a simple webpage that displayed the American flag. When a user clicks on the American flag the flag would then change colors. Here is how it went:
The first issue I ran into was GPT was treating the request as an example and not a completed project. Rather than providing fully functional code, it was half complete and would not output anything on the screen. Instead of finishing the program, GPT decided to save time (and likely tokens) by simply filling in comments where corners could be cut. I needed to then separately request that the code be completed in the next response:
The next (and final) issue we ran into was the shape of each star. Instead of providing stars in the desired shape, they were simple squares. I needed to specifically ask GPT to address this issue to have it fixed:
Easy enough, and now for a before-clicked image and post-clicked:
Webpage can be found here: https://thebostonlooper.github.io/flag/
mike murphy 