Insightful, funny list. (This guy is a good writer.) Let’s be fair: technology has improved my life in ways that still surprise and delight me on a daily basis. My phone is also a torch! My TV remembers how far I got in last night’s episode, even if I don’t! The bus stop knows when…
Rewatching ST:DS9 On an assignment to write a profile on Bashir, budding writer Jake tags along to a medical conference, and nothing really surprising happens. Their casual, character-based banter is not interrupted by a distress call from a colony in desperate need of medical assistance, and no side-quest, custom-tailored to appeal to the people who…
In my lit classes, I’m definitely teaching more short stories and fewer novels that I used to. I’ve expanded the time I spend on note-taking, synthesizing quotes from different sources, and why at the college level it’s not a good paragraph if it simply introduces “One quote that supports my position,” repeats three or four…
For years I used ScreenFlow, which offers a paid upgrade every couple of years, and doesn’t update the old versions when OS upgrades break them. There was a time when I was making promotional videos almost every week for a nonprofit, and at the time I thought some of the specific features of ScrenFlow were…
Starting with the robot and basic locomotion that comes with Unity3D’s “Starter Assets.” I’ve added a system that lets you tag an object with a custom translation/rotation, and a custom help text message (such as “[E] Activate Door”). Similar:Learn from this typesetter's mistakeWisdom to keep in mind as I plan for thi…LiteracyEarth With RingsSure, Saturn’s…
Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Kairos Similar:12 Mistakes Nearly Everyone Who Writes About Grammar Mistakes MakesDescriptive grammarians rejoice. Formal…CultureThe Jem'Hadar (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 26) Sisko father-son bonding vaca… Rewatching ST:DS9 Sisko is unimpr…JusticeThis is fine. Really.Thanks(?) to social media, it’s very eas…CulturePolice raid best-selling Turkish newspaper hours after government takes it overTurkish…
Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a lot of focused attention. I lost 2 hours today trying to decide the right typeface for text overlays for a steampunk game. Similar:The Post-Coding Generation?I knew the command line well, and very o…CybercultureReport to the bridge so the captain can assess your virtual upholstery skills.…
Rewatching ST:DS9 Outside the O’Briens’ quarters, Quark catches Bashir eavesdropping on raised voices. (It’s actually Miles and Kira fighting.) Dax and Worf are happily bickering over opera when he is smitten by the sight of a “glorious” Klingon woman. “She’s okay,” says Dax. It’s Grilka, Quark’s ex-wife. Quark realizes she needs his financial advice, but…
TThe automatic doors on my fantasy steampunk cruiser do work… kinda. My PC got trapped. Similar:Making more retro props for a #blender3d project. The way to get better at a thing is to d…PersonalTop deck of a #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser needs an airlock at the top of the spiral s… AestheticsThe boy plays chess…
Interesting. I don’t particularly care for the title of this YouTube clip, which seems very self-centered and not at all in tune with the message the speaker (Connor Neill) gives. He focuses on that moment when we realize there’s a difference between what we feel we need to say, and what we know the other…
No names in this single-source anecdote out of Hong Kong, credited to “Senior Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching.” The employee joined a video call with who he thought was the business’s chief financial officer. He was initially suspicious after a message from the CFO mentioned a ‘secret transaction’, suggesting it was a phishing scam…. However, after other…
The organ composition is called “As Slow As Possible.” It’s currently being performed in a church in Germany. The first chord proper whooshed through the pipes in February 2003, prompting complaints from neighbours that it was too noisy. In 2011, a way was found to reduce the air pressure. “We haven’t had any complaints since…
Ok, never mind Dusgcxms2… buddy, you can keep your first place as far as I’m concerned. Similar:Utility Tactical Waist Pack Pouch Military Camping Hiking Outdoor Hand Waist Bag: Sports &…Really. These things aren’t at all assoc…AestheticsWhat would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood? @shu_hog… AmusingThe boy plays…
Researchers had programmed the various large language models (LLMs) to act in what they termed malicious ways, and the point of the study was to see if this behaviour could be removed through the safety techniques. The paper, charmingly titled Sleeper Agents: Training Deceptive LLMs that Persist Through Safety Training, suggests “adversarial training can teach models…
The amazing daughter is featured in the ads for this commercial dance event. Similar:Assembling wall units to bake into a texture atlas. Teacup is a freebie from polyhaven.co… AestheticsAnd to think… I had just decided to retire this meme because the last time I used in cla…AcademiaRecent SHU journo grad, upon the hiring of an…
When the kids were little, my wife and I managed their media consumption with the help of reviews from sites like Common Sense Media. (Or maybe a competitor. It was a long time ago… I emailed the webmaster to correct a detail they got wrong in a VeggieTales review.) I’m impressed by the level of…
Attending Religious Perspectives on the War in Gaza. Similar:Ginger Christ Superstar!AestheticsAuditioning in Pittsbugh (flanked by shots from recent performances).CultureMaking movie magic with my dueling gut-shot daughterAestheticsWide-angle view of a villain’s secret lair. #blender3dAestheticsDon't call it "social distancing" or you just might get a polite correction from the admin…AcademiaAnother delightful #blender3d #cgi #steampunk control panel. #design…
For confessionals or tapdance routines vertical video is fine. When my students do multimedia projects I remind them that the video screen in our classroom is horizontal, so if they do use a vertical video there’s plenty of room for them to add infographics and annotations. Or they can actually edit a vertical video. If…
Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills to understand the words they’re processing. […] A trained and tested LLM, when presented with a new text prompt, will generate the most likely next word, append it to the prompt, generate another next word, and continue in this manner,…
Look what I found on my shelf in a closet. #history #archaeology #media Similar:I rather like my camera. Bought a new zoom lens a few months ago.PersonalStandardized Test Scores Don't Really Measure LearningThere are ways to raise a child’s test s…AcademiaSharing a root beer float with your dad doesn't fix everything that's wrong in the…