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:We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack UpOur provost sent this link to English fa…AcademiaIn April, 2002, I…
Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Kairos Similar:Why are sports in trouble in the U.S.? Because we didn’t do the work. Hard-hitting column from Sally Jen…BusinessWhat if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud?I’m sad thinking of all the students who…BusinessA professor examines why her students seem to act so helpless (essay)This essay on college…
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:Motivation Amid Crisis (Autotrophic Bat)As part of an independent study project,…BooksPast Tense, Part 1 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 11) Plot contrivance…
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 boy wins once again. #chessGamesI filed my grades early. I shall now, briefly, do something irresponsible.Grades submitted. I’ll reward myself wit…PersonalComing of Age (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 18)Rewatching ST:TNG A character-heavy e…MediaMy 11yo, of the opening chapters of…
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:On the Virtues of a Dadsplained Literary ChildhoodThe last book I read to her was Wutherin…BooksI really enjoyed powering through Wilson’s Century Cycle during winter term.AwesomeTalkback session after the matinee and my brother and faculty colleagues after the evening…Talkback…
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:There, in my morning snapshot of the kids home-schooling in the kitchen, is the cable I sh…EducationThis is manageable. Far better than some semesters.This is manageable. Far better than some…PersonalWaiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo program So much…
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:I told them to put their name on both pages.I told them to put their name on both pa…Academia#AugustWilson #CenturyCycle Three week intensive course (whew!) All the students did very …PersonalHanging with the rude mechanicals @setonhilluniversityA Midsummer Night’s Dream.CultureMy brother set my parents up for a Mother's…
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:Find yourself someone who makes you plomeek soup like Nurse Chapel makes for Spock.PersonalI'm down to a king and two pawns but my son likes playing until he crushes me.PersonalLego-Building Tween Refers to "The Hobbit" TextMy daughter, having just received a hand…AestheticsI…
This was before the printing press, so books were copied by hand on parchment, which made them expensive and rare. Most people didn’t read much, especially for pleasure. Instead, they listened to books at group readings for entertainment. Pero López de Ayala wrote at the end of the 14th century, “It also pleased me to…