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:Cry from a Far Planet by Tom Godwin (WAOB Audio Theatre; read by Dennis Jerz)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ0BBIss…CultureExodus From an…
Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Kairos Similar:Understanding Anti-SLAPP laws – The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the PressShort for strategic lawsuits against pub…EthicsSeton Hill discontinues mask requirement for vaccinated individualsThe pandemic is not over. It’s a blessin…AcademiaHow to Lie with Data VisualizationData visualization is one of the most im…DesignAll the Classroom’s a StageSome good observations in…
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:Carolyn, Easter 2017 PersonalMechanical #greebles (more #Blender3D practice)https://youtu.be/NzUp-9e_olQAestheticsThe chief engineer does not know where the floating lamps are coming from, but he looks gr…AestheticsRude…
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:I am a dog and I am a good boy and I am prepping my Spring courses.AcademiaA vacation minibar story from 20 years ago.PersonalIt's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me an…
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:Setting up high, medium and low levels of detail for this element of a city wall. #medieva…PersonalConfuse Students to Help Them LearnConfusing sometimes helps cats, so why n…Academia"The face of the last man on Earth." #alquist #rur #robots #capek…
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:I asked my geekling whether she was ready for bed…I asked my #geekling whether she was rea…AmusingOn my fantasy #steampunk cruiser, every uniform is a parade dress uniform. #Blender3D #ble… The first few weeks of Jun…AestheticsPrime Stage Theatre Makes A Statement With…
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:Headphones, Croutons and RhetoricME (with crouton tongs in one hand and s…CultureThe heir to the throne of Gondor and and a scruffy looking nerf herder are handing out can… PersonalIn April, 2001 I was blogging about interactive fiction, Roget's Thesaurus, John Lennon, H… A student newspaper article about…
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:Over the years I have leveled up my Blender3D skills.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNLArSlF…AestheticsPopulating my simulation with a crowd. Tweaking and experimenting. #unity3d #medievalyork …PersonalIdeal Homeschool Summer Day: Studying Latin, Justifying Nilla Wafers, and Making a Duct Ta…Today, I managed to get in a couple of…