A Little Admin, a Near Kitchen Disaster, GPS, AI, and Getting Structured! In other words, there’s a lot going on in Mystic Access Land this time around! We’re sharing several important announcements, talking about a serious AI-related experience that nearly led to a kitchen nightmare, previewing upcoming events, and wrapping things up with a look at a handy app designed to help get your day—and your tasks—under control. Yes, it’s a bit of a smorgasbord. Grab a snack and settle in! A Heads-Up About Physical Media For years, Mystic Access has offered the option of purchasing audio documentation on physical media, including SD cards, USB flash drives, data CDs, and NLS cartridges at an additional cost. Recently, however, the cost of physical media has been climbing dramatically. Chris recently found an SD card selling for roughly double what he was accustomed to paying for the same size and class of card—and decided that price was simply too high. We don’t want to pass unreasonable prices along to you. Nothing is changing right now, but if prices continue to rise and we can no longer obtain SD cards and flash drives at reasonable prices, we may temporarily stop offering physical media until prices come back down. We know that isn’t ideal for those who find it inconvenient to transfer digital downloads to physical media themselves. However, we’d rather give you the option of purchasing the documentation digitally and getting assistance putting it on media you already own than charge you an outrageous amount for the media itself. We think that’s better for you—and better for your wallet. We’re sharing this now so there are no surprises, particularly as we get closer to the holiday season. An Update on You’ve Got YouTube Our recent You’ve Got YouTube event turned out to be even bigger than we originally planned! The sales copy estimated approximately two and a half hours of content. As it turns out, the event contains more than four hours of material. We even extended the event by an additional week so we could spend time answering participants’ questions. Registration for the live event is now closed, but we’re not finished with it yet. We’ll be adding even more content, including questions from the live attendees, and turning You’ve Got YouTube into a product that anyone can purchase. Interested? There’s currently a wait list on the event page. Sign up, and you’ll be among the first to know when the finished product becomes available! A New Free Download: Our Library Event Have you visited Mystic Access Downloads lately? Our June virtual event about local libraries and the services they offer is now available as a free download! We discuss the amazing resources your local library may have available, including services such as Libby and Hoopla, which can make it possible to enjoy ebooks, audiobooks, and other materials from the comfort of home. If you weren’t able to join us live—or simply want to revisit the discussion—be sure to check it out. And while you’re there, take some time to explore. There are hundreds of hours of free audio material waiting for you! When AI Nearly Caused a Kitchen Nightmare Now for a much more serious topic. We recently had an experience in which a faulty AI response nearly led to something going very wrong in the kitchen. AI can be useful. It can save time, provide ideas, and help answer questions. But it can also be wrong. Very wrong. We share what happened, what nearly went wrong, and why this experience was an important reminder that there are situations in which blindly trusting an AI response can have serious consequences. Free Event Coming Soon: When Not to Rely on AI Our kitchen experience leads directly into our next free virtual event, open to everyone. When Not to Rely on AI will explore some of the problems that can arise when AI gives incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise unreliable information. While AI can be a fantastic tool in some circumstances. In others, it can create more work—or potentially more serious problems. We’ll discuss questions such as: * When do you find AI genuinely useful? * When do you find yourself correcting it? * When have you had to clean up after an AI response? * When should you stop and look for another source of information, or just not use AI in the first place? We’ll also open the event up for plenty of group discussion. We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’ll announce it in our Events newsletter first and here on the podcast as soon as it’s scheduled. Look for it around the time of our next podcast episode in mid-September! Kim Finally Twists Chris’s Arm: A GPS Event Is Coming! For months, Kim has been trying to convince Chris to teach a class covering the basics of GPS. And at long last… She’s mostly succeeded. We’re planning an affordable, two-session event covering GPS basics. This won’t be a highly technical class. Instead, we’ll focus on helping clear up some of the confusion surrounding GPS and navigation. Topics will include: * What GPS is. * How GPS works. * What GPS can do. * What GPS can’t do. * What you can reasonably expect from navigation technology. * And much more. Chris has spent years working with, testing, and being involved in the GPS and accessible navigation industry, so we thought it was time to put some of that experience to good use! There will also be plenty of time for questions and discussion. This event takes place beginning September 22, and the second session is September 29. You can learn more and register your seat right away by visiting this page. Getting Your Day Organized With Structured After all those announcements, perhaps you’re wondering how to keep track of everything you need to do without feeling overwhelmed. Chris recently found an app that may help! Structured is a planner available for both iOS and Android, designed to help you organize your tasks and events into a manageable schedule. Kim takes us on a tour of the iOS version, with a particular focus on the Timeline tab and the many things you can accomplish there. During the demonstration, we: * Set up an event. * Explore the Timeline. * Take a brief look at the Inbox. * Check out the AI tab. * Visit the Settings tab. We’re excited about this neat organizational tool and hope you’ll enjoy learning more about what it can do. Thanks for Listening! Whew! That’s a lot of announcements, events, technology, AI, GPS, and general Mystic Access business to pack into one episode! Thanks, as always, for listening—and for sticking with us even when we throw a whole bunch of admin information your way. We’ll be back with more fun midway through the month. Have a wonderful September, and we’ll talk to you soon!
