Ravi S. Iyer: Software Development

Summary Step   Action Tool 1 Copy Raw Markdown   Gemini Copy Button 2 Convert to HTML MarkdownToHTML.com 3 Escape Brackets Manual Edit (e.g.,  <  to  &lt; ) 4 Validate Syntax VS Code / Prettier 5 Publish Blogger (HTML View) ========================================================== ========================================================== Details The Problem: The "Rich Text" Trap When you copy directly from Gemini AI interface and paste into the Blogger "Compose" view, you aren't just pasting text. You are pasting inline CSS, specific fonts, and complex div structures. This bloats the post by a huge amount  and makes the post difficult to edit later as Blogger UI takes time to respond to keystrokes. Also, updating (saving) the post to Blogger takes much more time. The Solution: The Markdown-to-HTML Pipeline Step 1: Capture the Source Use the "Copy" button at the top of your/user messages and bottom of Gemini messages to capture each ...

Last updated on 4 Mar 2026 Summary The Problem: Copy-pasting content from Gemini Chat into the Blogger Compose view was injecting thousands of lines of hidden CSS and browser extension variables (like Dark Reader styles). This issue also impacted ChatGPT chats but with lesser size. The Impact: Single blog posts ballooned from a few kilobytes to upto  1.5 MB , causing the Blogger Feed to truncate results and breaking the BloggerFeedToBook incremental backup utility. The Solution: A 12-step sanitization process using PrettyHTML and VSCode to strip unnecessary tag attributes while preserving headers, bolding, and lists. This solution works for both Gemini and ChatGPT copy-paste CSS bloat issues. The steps in the process are given below in this Summary itself. The Result: Post sizes were reduced by 96% (from 1,491 KB down to ~50-60 KB) without losing any visible text or core formatting. 12-step Sanitization Process Copy HTML of original blog post using 'Edit HTML' ...

I was curious to know when I started blogging about my usage of AI tools. A couple of days back I searched on my active blogs and found that it was in April 2025 which is close to a year ago that I first started blogging about my usage of ChatGPT and Gemini which were the first AI tools that I used in a deliberate way. I think even before April 2025, I would have accepted some CoPilot code completion suggestions in VSCode and also perhaps tried out some chat messages with it related to some syntax errors. But those were not deliberate and sustained sessions. Also I would have tried out ChatGPT and Gemini prior to April 2025 but not to the extent that I wanted to mention that in my blogs. My first blog entry about CoPilot usage is in May 2025. Note that I have used CoPilot only in the context of software development work. I think I can conclude that it was from April 2025 or perhaps a month or two earlier, that I started seriously and deliberately using AI tools (for example, having a l...

Last updated on 28 Feb 2026 This post is a continuation of  Main notes about Google AI Pro plan features for software development work - Part 4 .  =================== In Part 4 of this series, I had mentioned about a (free tier) ChatGPT chat: "NotebookLM vs Google Colab" which I had and which was interesting but later realized that ChatGPT was not updated with the latest features of Google Colab. So I decided not to include those chat excerpts in Part 4.   Today, 27 Feb 2026, I had a separate chat session with Gemini (Gem) titled, "NotebookLM vs. Google Colab Use Cases" where I used many similar prompts to that I had used in above mentioned ChatGPT chat. Gemini's responses included what seems to be based on current or close to current versions of NotebookLM and Google Colab. Given below is almost all, if not all of that chat.   Me: When would I use a NotebookLM and when would I use Google Colab Notebook?   Gem:  While they both have "Note...