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:Go Forth and Conquer, but Postpone the Selfie“We have about 850 graduates, and we hav…AcademiaHow One Stupid…
Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Kairos Similar:Dr Jerz I think your microphone glitchedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPqnXF7A…AcademiaWilliam Zinsser: What Is Good Writing? (Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity.)Most of the students in my “News Writing…CultureKristin and Haley's Discussion on Poe's "The Raven"I gave my literature students 30 minutes…AcademiaIf You Ever Find a Link to ThoughtCatalog, I'm Begging You Not to…
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:Saints and Poets, Maybe They Do SomeI wrote the following in 2004, when my s…DramaGame Criticism, Why We Need It, and Why Reviews…
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:The girl is rehearsing for Hello DollyPersonalLego goes steampunkBe still, my nerdy heart. Steampunk —…AestheticsWhere No One Has Gone Before (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 5) Wes's warp-drive guru help…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….CultureOn set. #indiefilm #historicaldrama #creativity #enjoylifePersonalSportsWorks…
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:Stem subject snobbery: a student’s view on why arts subjects matterWhile everyone complains about the subje…AestheticsA Few Good Men at the Pittsburgh Public TheatreFantastic performances, powerful writing…CultureI've got a lot to learn, but my #blender3D #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser, and…
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:My Polish grandmother used to bake these cookies, which my wife picked up at a Ukranian fe… My grandmother shaped …AestheticsWhere No One Has Gone Before (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 5) Wes's warp-drive guru help…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….CultureBack in…
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:Easter Blessings 2021 Current_EventsDid you put enough donuts in the elevator shaft of your #steampunk #neovictorian cruiser t…https://youtu.be/lSgv5L0sXtc &nbs…AestheticsA support sloop on deck and in the landing bay. #steampunk #neovictorian #aesthetics #desi…AestheticsA student who is writing her research paper on Taylor Swift made a passing reference to…
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:Goodbye, Google Search. I've switched to search.brave.com …for now. I can’t stand Pinterest. I hate when G…BusinessThe first officer's office adjoins the officers' pub, because of course it should. Working… AestheticsMy parents doing their daily brain treasers in a coffee shop.PersonalTake a…