Lmst

emmatonkin boosted:

the tech company is certain. "cats want to know what time it is!". they design a wristwatch for cats. a watch, to tell cats what time it is. but adoption is poor. cats aren't using the product. "actually, cats just want to know whether it is time for dinner". a new streamlined version, to tell the cat whether it is dinner time. still no success. billions wasted. more research. "it seems cats just want to eat dinner". theres no tech solution to this. whole department is laid off. cats still unfed

emmatonkin boosted:

I have discovered that teaching programming goes much better with my fifth grade students if I take the time to teach them about all the symbols I think of as "normal" that are totally new to them.

"These are square brackets, you'll find them over the 'enter' key we use them for lists. In programming we have three kinds of brackets..."

This reduced confusion so much. And I feel a little silly for not realizing that OF COURSE they don't know what they characters are or how to type them.

emmatonkin boosted:

I was reminded of this excellent post

tumblr user stimmyabby says,

Sometimes people use "respect" to mean "treating someone like a person" and sometimes they use "respect" to mean "treating someone like an authority"

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say "if you won't respect me I won't respect you" and they mean "if you won't treat me like an authority I won't treat you like a person"

and they think they're being fair but they aren't, and it's not okay.

user do-as-youre-told comments,

This is so well put I am stunned

Source: flyingpurplepizzaeater

emmatonkin boosted:

NEW

The good, the bad and the ugly of ‘rebalancing’ the ECHR

Human rights law should be kept under review, but that does not mean it should be weakened

My latest post for Prospect

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/the-weekly-constitutional/71813/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-rebalancing-the-echr

One should always be on the guard against those who insist “human rights have now gone too far”. It is often a cant phrase—like “legitimate concerns”—that masks disingenuous intentions. Those who protest that human rights have gone too far often do not like human rights in the first place.

Of course, the founders of the convention were not unaware of mass population shifts and the threat of extreme politics. The mass population movements in Europe during and at the end of the Second World War were profound.

And the convention was put together by many countries with actual experience of rule or occupation by fascists and national socialists. Migration and radicalism were very much the experience of those who wrote and ratified the convention.

emmatonkin boosted:

"We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones."

This might be one of the stupidest headlines I've ever seen

Ideas are not a commodity you stockpile. They are not an existing resource. They don't run out. Being human means you make new ones ad infinitum.

And AI is a regurgitation machine, not a creative thinking machine.

emmatonkin boosted:

@Leeisme@mastodon.xyz i wasn't aware there was a gender gap but now that you mention it it's the least surprising thing ever lol

i find chatgpt mansplaining to be extremely irritating, makes sense that women who are disproportionately victims of this would also hate it

the gender gap is 16 points according to this study, even after adjusting for differing gender ratios in professions https://www.psypost.org/new-research-reveals-staggering-gender-gap-in-chatgpt-adoption/

emmatonkin boosted:

TheGamer just posted:

Fallout Season 1's Official AI-Generated Recap Is Gone

Well, at least they know.

https://www.thegamer.com/fallout-amazon-season-1-ai-gen-recap-deleted/

#gamingNews

Header image for an article titled: Fallout Season 1's Official AI-Generated Recap Is Gone

emmatonkin boosted:

#Cat #Cats #CatsOfMastodon

emmatonkin boosted:

committing to that kind of approach is just so obviously a massive PR mistake to me, too. historically it's been so difficult to pin down exactly what 'causes' bugs and regressions (beyond "entropy" or "mistakes") that developers aren't really blamed for them. but if you've decided to "Go All In On AI", any user experiencing any problem whatsoever now has their explanation: it was your fault. you decided to let the AI in, on purpose. it wasn't neglect, it was willful damage you caused

emmatonkin boosted:

a high-profile software project proudly announcing that it's going to start "using AI" is basically the same thing to me as seeing a big "this repo is archived" banner. perhaps even worse in some respects? intentionally or not, the message it sends is "we don't really enjoy programming and we don't want to work on this anymore, but rather than retire the project we're going to do a really lackluster job from now on". like if your favorite coffee brand proudly announced "now 20% more sawdust"

emmatonkin boosted:

A new Postal game was announced yesterday, making extensive use of Generative AI. The announcement was a disaster, players widely rejected it, and now the publisher has cancelled the game - it’s gone from Steam and they’ve put out a statement apologising.

emmatonkin boosted:

@GossiTheDog its interesting how many young people think AI is the absolute pinnacle of fakery and reject it. It’s labelled as something losers rely on. I’m not kidding, my daughters and their friends have this really strong view that if you rely too heavily on AI, you obviously don’t know what you’re doing. In their school it seems to be seen as a negative if you’re bashing stuff into a prompt and hoping for the best. Interesting to see the distain my kids (14yrs old) have for generative AI.

emmatonkin boosted:

New article from Smithsonian Magazine about how stupid Reflect Orbital's plans are: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/giant-mirrors-in-space-could-bring-sunlight-after-dark-one-startup-says-and-astronomers-are-concerned-180987781/

Features interviews with me and several of my excellent astronomer colleagues on the American Astronomical Society Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment! Looks like Reflect Orbital has followed SpaceX's lead and stopped responding to journalist inquiries.

emmatonkin boosted:

80 Level just posted:

Sean Murray Responds To Once Human Selling Possibly Stolen No Man's Sky Asset

"Joke's on them, we forgot to LOD those rivets."

https://80.lv/articles/sean-murray-responds-to-once-human-selling-possibly-stolen-no-man-s-sky-asset/

#gamingNews

Header image for an article titled: Sean Murray Responds To Once Human Selling Possibly Stolen No Man's Sky Asset

@vfrmedia
I remember angry right wing politics being weird, but these days it has become so weird that it just makes me want to give the person in question a funny look and say, "You alright, mate?" in that special tone of voice one uses when the person in question has puked all over their shirtfront but doesn't seem to have noticed.

emmatonkin boosted:

Gephi Lite v1.0.1: Complete Beginner's Tutorial (2025)

Dear Network,
I invite you to read my new article on Medium about the latest version of Gephi Lite. It includes an introductory section, illustrations, as well as a step-by-step guide to creating your first network with this powerful tool.

I would like to thank the @ouestware team for this important update to the tool.

Link: https://medium.com/@vespinozag/gephi-lite-v1-0-1-complete-beginners-tutorial-200eaa4b9d0d?postPublishedType=initial

#networkscience #datavisualization @Gephi #gephi

emmatonkin boosted:

Please don't let the fear of not doing something well stop you from trying it for the first time. Write a messy story. Paint a crappy flower. Whittle the worst wooden bear of all time.

The best gift you can give yourself is to have fun and grow.

emmatonkin boosted: