Tech Talk with Toni

This past weekend, my mom found herself in a modern-day crisis: her emails were bouncing! No new messages were coming in, and the culprit was a little notification reading, “Storage Full.” Her immediate, reflexive solution? She wanted to go to the store to buy another flash drive. I had to gently talk her off the ledge. I explained that she couldn't just plug a USB drive in and solve all her problems. Hoarding physical drives in desk drawers is a relic of how we used to think about data. But as we sat there clearing out gigabytes of old forwarded videos and blurry photos, it got me thinking... My mom’s instinct to hold a physical object to store her digital life makes perfect sense when you look at how we got here.  The human race has spent over a century trying to figure out where to put our memories. Here is the story of how our data evolved from heavy, physical objects you could hold in your hand, to invisible streams in the cloud.  To put the timeline in perspective, thi...

 This iconic graphic mark cleverly morphs a traditional heart symbol into a subtle "L" for Lovable.   Lovable has heavily popularized the concept of "vibe coding" and this Sunday morning I decided it was finally time to try it for myself. I fought off the doomscrolling demons and searched YouTube for an hour-long Lovable tutorial. This is something I'd wanted to do since a free DataCamp session about it a month ago, but life kept getting in the way: work, travel, chores.  That's also why I haven't posted since May 31st ! But today, I'm bringing you my first published vibe-coded landing page: a site for a fictitious space exploration company I lovingly named Soucouyant  after the Caribbean folklore figure who sheds her skin at night and flies off as a ball of fire.  Felt fitting for a rocket company The prompt I used: Create a website for my space exploration company called Soucouyant. The color scheme is red and black. Make it include the following...

Feedback is the breakfast of champions   Imagine driving down the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway at 100 km/h. You don't just point the steering wheel straight, lock your arms, and close your eyes. You are constantly making micro-adjustments based on a continuous stream of visual feedback, whether it's a slight curve in the road, a pothole, or the car ahead tapping its brakes. Obstacles are inevitable... But the sooner we become aware of them, the smoother the drive! The world around us is constantly changing, and we need to keep our eyes open and adjust accordingly to avoid running off the asphalt. In an era where data and information are generated at breakneck speeds, cruising on autopilot is a massive disservice to yourself. To stay on the road, you must remain fully aware of who you are and what is happening around you. That constant adjustment on the highway is a real-time feedback loop in action: you take in data, process it, and adjust your behavior to stay on track. These lo...

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask yourself and others.”  — Tony Robbins Last Thursday, I attended CIBC’s Women in AI Event at UWI St. Augustine, and one of the most memorable parts of the experience was the Q&A session. The room was filled with thoughtful questions on topics such as data collection, AI history, performance metrics, and accountability. It was the kind of discussion that could have easily been its own event. While many of these topics were already familiar to me, it was refreshing to be in a space with women asking critical questions about the future of Artificial Intelligence. One question stood out to me most:  What are you doing to support the community when it comes to AI? That question stayed with me long after the event ended. Today, I’m using this blog post to reflect on that question and summarize three others raised during the session, blending key ideas shared in the room with my own perspective. F...

They open in the same app. That’s where the similarities end. As someone who works with large amounts of data (and has made a lot of mistakes), I'm writing this for anyone still fuzzy on the fundamental differences between Excel (.xlsx) and Comma-Separated Values (.csv) files. If you’re expected to automate data flows , please don’t ignore this one. This post is for you! On the surface, these two look like identical twins: Tomayto.xlsx Tomahto.csv But if you look closely, you’ll notice the first difference. If you noticed that Tomayto.xlsx is 7× bigger in Size than Tomahto.csv —you’re right! And here’s the key detail: both files are EMPTY . So, what's going on? They both look the same to us, but the computer sees it differently. 

  "You have not because you ask not" - James 4:2 Today’s inspiration comes from a recent conversation I had with a friend about AI. It took about five minutes for us to agree on one thing: AI is a supercharged dictionary. It retrieves, remixes, and summarizes information that already exists at blistering speed.  Where AI Shines (And Where It Doesn’t) AI is already doing useful, practical work across industries: In finance , it scans transactions for anomalies—very useful when you’re trying to spot fraud faster than a licensing officer giving out a ticket. In education , it tutors students on demand, explaining concepts in multiple ways without getting tired (or vex). In government and utilities , it helps analyze reports, policies, and data trends that would otherwise sit unread in a folder labeled “Final_Final_v7”. But notice the pattern. AI accelerates known work . It doesn’t decide what work matters. It doesn’t wake up one morning and ask, “Why does this system feel i...

"Life is hard, but that's what makes it interesting" - Dad It's time to break the silence once more! Things did not go as I planned, but it makes for a good story.  So you're probably wondering... " Toni, what happened? I thought you were coming back? " and to that I would say, I thought the same. I thought that I would get back in my groove and post blog 109 weeks ago! My simple hardware failure quickly escalated into a complex and costly international shipping disaster. It all started on November 7th at about 5 AM while I was clacking away on my keyboard, the display for my newly purchased Zenbook S16 decided that it was time to say goodbye. I made every attempt to reilluminate it by doing the famous "turn-it-off-and turn-it-back-on" trick and confirmed that it was a hardware issue with Asus Helpdesk. I still held a warranty , which was a relief. However, I had to send the laptop to the States so the manufacturer could fix it and send it ba...

The name October comes from the Latin “octo,” meaning eight . This morning, my dad asked about my blog. I winced — I’ve been dodging it since September! But that question was the nudge I needed. Because when I stopped to think, I realized:  even without posting, I’d been living. I hiked (and fell multiple times). Tried lobster for the first time. Met my coworkers in Barbados. And impulsively bought this... (I only had 1/4) All that living gave me plenty to reflect on — and two moments in particular stood out. 1. Women in Data Science (WiDS) TT Spotlight Talk Dr. Letetia Addison invited me to speak at the Women in Data Science TT Spotlight Talk — for the second time!  She actually found me through this very blog. I wasn’t publishing much here, but I was active on LinkedIn.  When it came time to prepare my WiDS talk, I had weeks, but I started only days before. Procrastination kept winning. Then came a call with my friend Carson White, we brainstormed ways in whic...

“Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence.” — Brooks Stevens   My Lenovo IdeaPad 350 carried me through my Computer Science degree and even hosted the beginnings of this blog series.  It witnessed late-night coding marathons, countless essays, and the very first drafts of ideas I’m still exploring today. I’ve since upgraded to an ASUS Zenbook S16 (which I’m very happy with) , but my old laptop still sits quietly on a shelf, waiting for its final chapter. If you didn’t know, the average lifespan of a laptop is about five years. When I asked a few friends what they do with their old machines, most admitted they just… keep them.  I guess I know a lot of hoarders... But honestly, that’s still better than those who throw them away like an old pair of shoes. Here’s something to think about: the world generates over 50 million metric tons of e-waste each year , and only about 20% is recycled properly . That means millions of tons of toxic metals—like lead, mercury, an...

  How does AI generate value? Today’s post springs from an episode of Bloomberg Technology that put a spotlight on Bank of America’s AI-powered virtual assistant, Erica. Billions are being poured into artificial intelligence. But here’s the hard truth: an MIT study found that 95% of corporate AI projects fail to deliver measurable financial returns.  Only 5% make it past the pilot stage with a real boost to the bottom line.  So when Bank of America’s Erica racked up billions of interactions and over $1 billion in value , it’s worth paying attention. What did they do differently—and what can Caribbean banks learn from it? Erica by the Numbers Since 2018, Erica has: Surpassed 3 billion client interactions with tens of millions of customers. Pushed millions of proactive money alerts —from subscription hikes to unusual spending. Cut employee IT help-desk calls in half , with >90% staff adoption. Why Erica Works When Others Fail Real pain points first: Customers ...

  The prefix “giga” comes from Greek and means billion (that's nine zeros) This week, I caught an insightful chat between Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Cleo Abram.  The topic? GPT-5—the smarter, sleeker sibling of GPT-4o. Redditors are already complaining that GPT-5 feels “dry” (some were apparently attached to GPT-4o—lol), but in the AI world models change is the only constant, and these models are evolving fast! The Three Pillars Holding AI Back Altman says AI isn’t just about clever code—it’s about Data, Algorithmic Design, and Compute. Here’s the breakdown: 1. Data: Knowing Everything (But Not Really) GPT-5 has practically ingested all the content you can find online. It’s a walking encyclopedia with a dash of personality. But don’t be fooled—AI still struggles with the “1000-hour problems” while breezing through the 1-minute stuff. Creativity? That’s still our turf! AI can summarize, predict, and analyze, but it hasn’t yet learned how to imagine something that never e...

 The Word “Stethoscope” Literally Means “Chest Watcher”   My dad always told me, "Toni, in life you need to have a doctor, a lawyer, and an accountant."  Today, I want to answer the question: How do people choose who takes care of them in Trinidad? Your health is something you shouldn’t take for granted — simply being able to walk is a blessing. (Gentle reminder to get your steps in!) We all find ourselves at a hospital at some point — whether it’s to welcome a new family member, say goodbye to one, or find out what’s causing that weird pain in your chest. In the past, choosing a doctor was simple: your mom would say, “We going by Dr. So-and-So,” and that was that. But now? We check Google. We scroll Reddit. We DM a friend on Instagram. Because when it comes to care, people want to know what others have lived through. What Are Patients Really Saying? To find out what patients really think, I analyzed over 120 reviews from hospitals across Trinidad. Here’s what...