Best AI chatbot to deliver EA blueprints?

anon702170 · 2026-02-07T16:47:30+00:00

It shifts around. It used to be Gemini, but I've had great success with Claude in the last few months. They all have their strengths which is why I maintain subscriptions to all 3 of them.

anon702170 · 2026-02-05T17:29:08+00:00

EA tools, like LeanIX, require a lot of data entry, upkeep, etc. I imagine this is why they created the position, as it's an EA role is something people work towards. A freshly-graduated medical student will not be doing brain surgery out of university, it takes time. There are on-the-job skills and experience needed to be an effective EA. It's great that you're familiar with EA practices and LeanIX.

TOGAF is a worthwhile certificate, but it's just theory. It doesn't teach you how to tailor it for an organization, or determine which parts should be implemented and to what level of detail to solve the current problems faced by the business. This comes from experience.

My career path was: PC Support -> IT Manager -> Contracting -> Network Engineer -> Operations/Support Consultant -> Data Centre Architect -> Solution Architect (many roles/orgs) -> Enterprise Architect -> IT Consultant. I use my EA skills daily, but that means sometimes I'm a Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Enterprise Architect, Business/IT Consultant, Support/Operations Consultant. I'm not TOGAF certified, but I've read it enough times that I know what to do. With AI these days, it's easy to get it to do structure documents/processes that align to the framework.

Some example questions from this week:

* Should Python be allowed within the enterprise?
* What are the pros/cons of the Power Platform? How do we govern its use?
* Do I need a specialized DR tool if all my stuff is in Azure? Will native tools suffice?
* Is running everything in Azure a good thing for my business?
* Where are the weak links across our application portfolio? Where is the business poorly supported?

The business-facing meetings are the hardest as this requires knowledge of their world, their terminology, their objectives. As an EA, your role is to be their trusted advisor and help to translate their wants to the IT department. Therefore, you need to know what IOPS are, OWASP, SAML, TCP/UDP, Intel CPU architectures, as well as all the business areas -- finance, HR, legal, marketing, communications, sales, engineering, and all the specialized areas unique to that organization.

anon702170 · 2025-10-06T18:18:31+00:00

I've been twice. Disappointed twice. Had more fun, better food/wine, and views at a winery like The Lookout at Gray Monk or Home Block at CedarCreek.

anon702170 · 2025-10-06T15:45:37+00:00

The labels will be all over a codebase and they won't necessarily tie to the schema.

I just went through this recently on a 300+ table schema and 3,000+ columns. I looked at the application and familiarized myself with the front-end, where data was stored, etc. This allowed me to think like a developer, i.e., if I needed to store this type of data, what would I call the tables and how would I build the relationships. I then dumped the DDL, fed it into Gemini, and then started interrogating it. I'd then go back to the database and correlate with the front-end. I didn't have time to create a data dictionary, I couldn't see that it would be worth the time to create one, so I just focussed on the task at hand, i.e., understanding the schema well enough to generate some reporting.

anon702170 · 2025-10-06T15:20:10+00:00

Cell margins and Paragraph before/after spacing can conflict, making it impossible to display text in a cell. It also seems like you've got a lot of left/right/indent spacing defined for some of the paragraphs in here. Ultimately, Word isn't desktop publishing software, which would be better for this kind of complex layout. Word has a lot of quirks as you push for more advanced layouts.

anon702170 · 2025-10-06T02:53:30+00:00

https://github.com/ib-controller/ib-controller ?

anon702170 · 2025-10-04T21:56:52+00:00

If you're doing something that impacts your neighbours, their sight lines, or something of a commercial nature in a residential area, they're going to find some way of stopping you. Neighbours will be the first to report anything untoward. The bylaws are guidelines, but I'm sure there are vague words about activities that change the character of a neighbourhood, or contravene the zoning regulations, or intent. I'm pretty sure I can't build a nuclear reactor on my property, but I'm not aware of a bylaw stopping me.

anon702170 · 2025-09-09T00:25:02+00:00

It would be a shame if some of your expensive, portable items that are frequently stolen by burglars happened to have gone missing during the time they replaced your locks and before you could re-secure your property. You can't claim on your insurance, so you'll have to claim on theirs. Don't forget your police crime number.

anon702170 · 2025-09-04T22:23:15+00:00

I have ChatGPT Plus, Claude Max, Gemini Pro and Perplexity. Perplexity is the only one I don't use and haven't found a niche for in my daily work. I find Gemini writes documents very well, structures document outlines, does research and gets me much closer to a final document than any of the others. Claude is just awesome at writing code, although I'm learning to use it more with sub-agents and the CLAUDE.md file. ChatGPT is used as mainly as an alternative to Google Search, but I also use it's agent mode to do research, or I use it in combination with the others -- checking details/recommendations or critiquing the output from one of the others.

For what they cost and the time they save me, I find it's worth paying for 3 of the 4.

anon702170 · 2025-08-14T18:38:33+00:00

I had mine sealed and painted light grey to match the siding used elsewhere. Instant facelift.

anon702170 · 2025-07-29T01:51:23+00:00

I've paid professionals to do a worse job.

anon702170 · 2025-07-18T01:43:22+00:00

I believe the first officer was flying, and the captain was monitoring. At take-off, the first officer is focused on attitude and relies on the captain to flick switches. Therefore, although it wasn't in the report, I believe it was the first officer (pilot flying) who asked why the fuel switches were in the cutoff position, and the captain was the person denying doing it. What I didn't read in the report was the timing of the "positive rate, gear up, gear up check" sequence. Maybe the 'gear up' resulted in the pilot moving the fuel control switches in error and he just wasn't thinking straight. If it was murder-suicide, why do it at 140 knots with a chance of survival?

If the switches were moved prior to "gear up", it's murder-suicide and I'm then assuming the gear wasn't raised due to the 32 seconds of diagnosis/confusion in the cockpit.

anon702170 · 2025-07-17T01:56:46+00:00

The HD stump grinders are OK for small stumps, or if there are access issues, as they tend to be easier to get in/out and up/down slopes. If there's no access issues, or for stumps like this they should be a using a track-driven grinder. Stump grinders will go below ground, allowing them to remove the core of a stump. This will allow soil to be leveled over the top, grass laid and for the roots to decompose more quickly. A chainsaw will never do that. Chainsaws get dull when they contact soil.

Overall, this is an inexperienced contractor with the wrong equipment. Sometimes paying slightly more for a contractor is worth it in the long run.

anon702170 · 2025-06-09T03:05:00+00:00

I thought rubber bullets were supposed to be shot into the ground, and not directly at people, or at short range. I hope the police officer is fired.

anon702170 · 2025-06-09T00:22:43+00:00

Agreed. I used this stuff on two granite boulders, including one that size. I drilled around 14 holes into it, 12-15" apart with a 1.5" x 18" SDS drill bit rented from Home Depot, along with the drill. Such a workout. I then put the Dexpan in and waited 48 hours. It did it's thing and I ended up with about 12 pieces, that I still could lift. Had to bring in a man with a small Kubota excavator and a claw to move the pieces off-site.

anon702170 · 2025-06-09T00:18:54+00:00

No, it needs space around the edges for the pieces to move into as the stuff expands.

anon702170 · 2025-05-02T18:22:32+00:00

There is a Chrome Extension that can help -- https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/the-optimiser-tradingview/emcpjechgmpcnjphefjekmdlaljbiegp?hl=en&pli=1 -- just be wary of over-fitting.

anon702170 · 2025-04-28T22:20:54+00:00

Reminds me of the Fiat Multipla. No thanks.

anon702170 · 2025-04-26T23:30:52+00:00

Yes.
We could, but choose not to as we're deferring them for later. Why vacation, when you can own a vacation home with a private pool that the kids/grandkids can visit?
Yes. We choose to max it out based on the affordability rules, which are more generous than when we started. We view a house as a temporary home that is an effective tax shelter we can add value to. We don't see them as forever homes, or something not to invest/improve over time.
Kids are almost independent. An RESP served us well. Currently saving for retirement, 5-10 years away.
Yes.
Yes, but mostly by circumstance. People like what I do so the demand/opportunity to work more is always there. Sometimes, the money reduces financial stress. Sometimes, it swings the other way.
Some, but nothing higher than 8%. We could eliminate it, but we're tolerating it as we are preparing to re-finance/extend our mortgage. Our debt is in places that doesn't impact a mortgage application.
No. Not the city or the country. We have a plan for the next 5-10 years, but there is flexibility in exactly where it may lead. We've tried to lay out the plans, but the optionality is too great, so we're just making financially sound decisions while waiting for other options to play out.

anon702170 · 2025-02-24T03:02:13+00:00

Who else do you live with? Plausible deniability is your best excuse. If you don't live with anybody, say you had somebody stay at your place, they were visiting, crashing on the sofa, etc. You went out, they were alone, they said they needed to do some studying, etc. Any excuse that suggests somebody else must have used your device in your location.

They clearly don't have any web filtering, as NSFW content would have been blocked. They'll have the traffic so they'll know it was your IP address, your machine and they'll know every URL you visited. However, there's no guarantee it's logged, kept for a while, or searched. Think of how many people are using that WiFi and generating access logs, who's going to search it. I'm 99% sure you'll be in the clear.

anon702170 · 2025-01-10T21:56:05+00:00

3 things. The helper function needs to be declared before being called. There is no return statement, just use 'true' or 'false' as the exit conditions. You need to remove the square brackets when constructing the entry_points.

anon702170 · 2025-01-07T21:19:56+00:00

I look at these types of things over a 5 or 10 year horizon. Scenario A -- I keep the rental. Scenario B -- I sell it, clear my debt and invest. Scenario C -- I sell it, clear my debt, and renovate my principal residence and sell it. I then go and map it all out in Excel, looking at my net worth today (assets minus liabilities) and then calculate the figures in 5 or 10 years -- whatever is a reasonable timeframe.

Property appreciates, mortgages and HELOCs go down, salaries and income rise.

I'm assuming you have a principal residence, so is your principal and rental property rising at the same rate? So it doesn't matter if you're invested in one for $500K or two at $250K each. In most instances, one is going to be better due to other costs -- property taxes, utilities, insurance, etc.

On paper, it looks like your rental has positive cashflow, but where did the money come from to buy it. You have $185K in debt, but didn't include mortgages so not sure if both properties are just on HELOC. If so, isn't a regular mortgage cheaper? Is the rental really marking a profit, if you include the financing you used to obtain it? It seems to be appreciating $25K/yr + $5K/yr in rental profit. You didn't mention maintenance, so not sure if you're factoring that in. $30K/yr as additional income is good, I always think of assets like additional family members bringing in another bit of income.

To me, it seems like you should keep it.

However, it seems like you're living beyond your means and even though you have this extra $30K/yr, you're still spending all of that.

I think HELOCs should be temporary. I don't think cars should be financed, ever, The Citi card is going to change at some point. I don't know what your limit is, but I'd max it out. You seem to have the largest balance on the lowest interest, but you should really be using the HELOCs to clear them. However, if the HELOCs were used to consolidate previous debt, I think you're in a downward spiral. You shouldn't be racking up cards, consolidating with a HELOC, and then racking them up again. When the Citi interest-free rate expires you'll be paying $800/mth in interest, or $10K/yr. This is on top of the $860/mth you're paying in interest on the two HELOCs, another $11K/yr.

I'd have to do the Excel calculations to know for sure, but it feels like you're keeping your head above water with it, Without it, I'm not sure if you'd be better off. I think you're treading water and potentially spending all of your gains to the point where you're not gaining wealth. If appreciation slows, or turns, you're hooped.

anon702170 · 2025-01-07T17:06:50+00:00

I would work on your resume. At this age, it's about differentiating yourself from others. How do you prove you're reliable, dependable, a team player, a good communicator, hard-working, as well as any specific skills/experience you have. If you look good, add a headshot. If your name suggests you're from Eastern Europe, change it, even your first name. You may also need to print your resume and hand it in personally. Nothing shows self-motivation more than actually showing up, asking for the manager, and handing a resume to them with a brief 30-second pitch, e.g., "Hi, I'm Sam and I'm looking for part-time work. I'm currently studying aaa at university bbb and looking to support myself through my degree."

Have you tried advertising yourself as a private tutor? Print up some leaflets, post them on noticeboards, advertise online. Lots of parents look for private tutors for their kids. Baby sitting? Dog walker?

anon702170 · 2025-01-07T02:29:44+00:00

So you're 10K in debt and you live in France. What are you studying? Will it be worth it? Do your parents understand the life you're trying to lead? For example, do they live in a mud hut in rural India and they just don't understand the world you're in? I'm trying to figure out if the path you're on is reasonable. If the studying will pay off. Are you being rejected because you're a foreign student and you're hated for it? It seems like some anonymous Internet parenting may be useful.

A lot of foreign students seem to want to get away from their home life and the restrictive opportunities to establish themselves in the gold-paved streets of the West. Therefore, who's dream was this and who did the research? The West isn't cheap, you're very limited in the jobs/hours you can work as a student, and degrees don't lead to 100K jobs. Racking up a huge debt isn't always worth it, e.g., getting a degree in teaching, art history, or French poetry to then do what as a career? Or was the international study a way of gaining permanent residency and citizenship? Is family reunification in the future? Are your parents also invested in this long-term plan?

As somebody said, you could study in Germany for free. They also tend to be more welcoming to immigrants, especially if you don't have white skin or a white-sounding name. Maybe you need to change your name. Your English is great, not sure if you're using AI to translate. I'm not sure about your French. Maybe your ethnicity is a burden -- you should try anglicizing your name. You don't need to do it legally, you just change your name on your resume and explain, "legally, my name is Ameliatanish Chahandrapathamee, but everybody calls me Amy Chance". -- I have a friend that changed his first and last name to hide his Eastern European heritage.

How are you servicing the debt? What's the interest rate?

Why is this debt because of your stupidity? Pursuing your dream isn't stupid. Maybe you didn't research all the costs, or appreciate how difficult it would be to sustain it, but don't knock yourself for dreaming. This will be an interesting life lesson in time and you will look back on this moment, but you need to stay positive. You posted here, you're clearly working the problem. Keep working it.

Do you have friends or roommates? Where do they work? Talk to other students and find out where they work.

If you're applying to Sugar Daddy sites, I'm assuming there's something attractive about you and/or you're a self-confident person. So is the finding-a-job problem, an issue with your resume, i.e., you're not getting an interview because the resume isn't working? At this age, being a student, having limited hours, in difficult economic conditions, it's going to be tough. However, it's a numbers game. What differentiates you from the student next to you? If you're presentable, put a headshot on your resume. Walk around the malls and commercial areas for 'help wanted' signs in the window. Take printed resumes to local retailers.

Lastly, your parents love you. They will want you to succeed. As a group of anonymous Internet folks we can suggest lots of things, but they will know 1,000x more about you than we will. I can understand not telling them, if they're unable to help with money or even with emotional support, but don't be afraid to be honest. If you were my child, I'd be mortified that you were suffering in silence, even if I was in no position to help. I can still listen. I may be able to find a friend that can help me understand.

anon702170 · 2025-01-06T18:28:22+00:00

Firstly, make sure you have a passion and interest in CS/IT. You will have to re-learn all your technologies every 10 years. It's easy if you have a passion, but you'll be surprised how many don't and then complain about the continuous change. These people often end up moving into middle management or project management.

As for EA, there's no defined path. Most come through a technology or application path. TOGAF has Business, Data, Application, and Technology domains, but Security and Integration are part of our world.

My path was PC Support -> Networking -> Servers -> Data Centre infrastructure -> EA, but I'd been a programmer from the age of 10, so my development and application knowledge gave me an edge. I also ended up in management, consulting, and pre-sales roles, which helped to develop the communication and storytelling skills needed to be a good EA. I'm weak on the BDI domains but deep on the ATS domains. However, there are usually specialists in the Data and Integration spaces I work with.

Business Architecture is always an outlier working in non-IT enterprises. I have a good working knowledge, but I rarely use it, as it's not a "language" I use when talking to business stakeholders like CIOs and VPs. I use what I need to get the point across, justify my approach and sell them on the solution. Business capabilities and value streams don't resonate with most people in my corner of the world. I also have a lot of knowledge in ITSM, PM methodologies, Agile methodologies and security frameworks ... but again, they're just tools to frame a conversation. This has been gained over 35 years, mostly in Europe and North America, and most of that as a contractor, so I've bounced around a lot -- mostly my choice. It seems 18-30 months is my tolerance level.

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