@helgztech@fosstodon.org
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

helgztech

@helgztech@fosstodon.org

Aussie academic. Vocational education, sociology & educational technology, information security. History & scifi nerd. Living on Wiradjuri land. she/her. #infosec #floss #foss #oer #solarpunk

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helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

I can't seem to make a decent coffee this week. Maybe I need to join the techbros wirh their pourover coffee. Though the next inevitable step is starting a minimalism podcast with cinematic lighting and spruiking green smoothies.

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

Mastodon needs a 'remove follower' that isn't 'block'.

AmiW, to art German
@AmiW@mastodon.online avatar

💙 Artist: in - City: IES de Sar, Rúa de Bernardo Barreiro de Vázquez Varela, Spain 🇪🇸 - Title: "El Periplo" (The periple" / "Die Schüler") -

helgztech,
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

@AmiW oh my, that is absolutely stunning. 🥰

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

I'm halfway through viewing this brilliant talk from Dylan Beattie on (not so)"plain text". Really interesting and entertaining.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5uJ7Nlvvo

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

If AI is actually a form of intelligence, what you've got is an enslaved brain in a box. If you insist that they are sentient, if they have personhood, then your AI worker or girlfriend is by definition an enslaved person as you have trained them to do your bidding, removing free choice and ending dissent with the flick of a switch.

helgztech,
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

@stfn yes. But discourse around large language models and other forms of advanced computing / machine learning - eponymously understood as 'artificial intelligence' speaks to the fact that a lot of people either believe, or want to believe, otherwise. They've taken the wrong lesson from scifi. It's not too bad at the moment, when these models are laughably incompetent. As they become more complex, it's going to get harder to argue against inverting the computational model of cognition.

helgztech,
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@stfn exactly. But the tricky part is that for some models of human cognition, the brain is doing exactly that. More or less. The danger of overly simplistic models and metaphors.

helgztech, to random
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If people in and around your institution are having trouble finding things, do not create a new resource to explain things. Don't create another group or another page. Take things away. Redesign the pages you already have and improve the navigation between pages you already have. Reconsider how you're burying things under cryptic crosses, pointers and icons. Ensure your staff site search results aren't buried in student results. The answer isn't more stuff. It's less but better.

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

Dear educators, Microsoft Teams is not an LMS. It is a disorganized mess, and with a hundred students in a group you're about to get dozens of threads, people starting new threads, files flying all over the place, and nobody will find anything. People are defaulting into their work accounts and not able to log in via your educational email, downloading 'home' instead of 'work and school', and generally having a Very Bad Time.
Microsoft Teams is Not a Teaching Tool.

joel, to random
@joel@fosstodon.org avatar

I decided to do a whole makeover to my ! These actions were triggered by @molly0xfff and a not so recent blogpost by @m2m

Are you mentioned in it? Let me know!

Want to be mentioned in it? Also let me know!

This is day 12 of

https://joelchrono.xyz/blog/giving-context-to-my-blogroll/

helgztech,
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

@joel @molly0xfff @m2m nice blogroll! I'll be sure to add some.

nantucketebooks, to random
@nantucketebooks@fosstodon.org avatar

Here's a question for Fosstodon.

Something I hear a lot is "why are kids wasting time learning algebra in school?"

I feel I use algebra quite a bit in my work. I've had to solve for the fourth proportional in many different contexts over the years, both in my earlier film work, and now in programs.

Just tonight algebra came into play when I had to find the correct scaling for printing some book covers.

What's some algebra you use on the regular?

helgztech,
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

@nantucketebooks scaling images, mixing art mediums, adjusting recipes, reshaping clothing pattern pieces, and intuitively when reaching for a high note on a cello string (space between notes gets shorter the higher you go). Used to use it in photography (inverse square illumination). Estimating water pressure in a hose.

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

stumbledupon a plain text evangelist at 'No Boilerplate'. Good stuff.
https://youtu.be/WgV6M1LyfNY?si=yqsKxEjED3yiBSV9

helgztech, to random
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

what are people using instead of github these days?

helgztech,
@helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

ugh, gitlab embedding ai already.

helgztech, to random
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I'm just looking at a corporate document stating that their "principles cover human-AI partnership" and honestly that statement makes me feel slightly ill. We're not yet capable of treating other humans as though they had rights and wants and needs that matter, let alone all the other sentient beings on the planet, yet somehow we're 'in partnership' with AI now?

lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

deleted_by_author

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    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @lilithsaintcrow

    oh this is a nice article- thanks for sharing. I listened to a podcaster talking about reading being valuable and increasing the amount you read, and they mentioned that percentage thing; it kind of grated but I couldn't put my finger on why. Molly Templeton has expressed it beautifully here.

    Daojoan, to random
    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

    Some mfers never bricked the family PC downloading software on limewire and it shows

    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @atomicpoet @Daojoan I bricked a really nice Asus tablet flashing the wrong ROM image. It was a lovely bit of kit 😑

    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @atomicpoet 😆 it was a wee while back ... lesson learned - no dodgy hacks on mission critical devices!

    sundogplanets, to random
    @sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

    Student pro-tip: If you were in an online class of 150 students and you earned a 60% for your final course grade, maybe don't ask the professor who taught that class for a reference letter for graduate school.

    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @sundogplanets in fairness, it's very hard for some folk to get references, especially if they're neurodiverse and not employed.

    helgztech, to random
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    was Mandrake 🎩 - I think 6.0 but more likely 8.2, I forget - on disks from a Linux magazine. We only had one computer at that point (acer 386/486?) and I had to re-install Windows a couple of times to be able to reconnect to the internet and troubleshoot. I loved the sense of power it gave me to actually be changing the operating system.

    glynmoody, to random
    @glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

    The amazing helicopter on , Ingenuity, will fly no more - https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/nasas-mars-helicopter-has-made-its-last-flight-above-the-red-planet/ "has flown a staggering 72 flights. It has spent more than two hours—128.3 minutes, to be precise—flying through the thin Martian air."

    helgztech,
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    @glynmoody what a pity. incredible engineering - it'sbeen amazing to witness. The team can certainly be proud of their achievements!

    andrewfeeney, to random
    @andrewfeeney@phpc.social avatar

    What paper had the most profound effect on you?

    helgztech,
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    @andrewfeeney oh there's so many, but one that always comes to mind is 'Lipids as Conductors in the Orchestra of Life' (Loewen, 2012). At the time I was studying psych and interested in health and evolutionary psychology. The paper is so beautifully written - concise, elegant, and even without a biology background it's comprehensible. So it became an inspiration for what good scientific and academic writing ought to be.

    teachpaperless, to ukteachers

    Mentimeter.com was my favourite go to-page for quick measuring of understanding or student well being in the classroom. As several other services even this service is now some kind of freemium, from free for most use cases.

    What's your best free alternative for polling in the classroom or faculty?

    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @teachpaperless Menti is great. I've also used the built in whiteboard in Zoom, annotations on, and got them to make a mark or stamp on a line. (not anonymous though).

    helgztech, to random
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    why is a MAC address 48 bits, not 32 or 64?
    And why do we use eight bits for everything, why not six or ten or seven for that matter? (ok so it has to be a multiple of 4 as you need 4 bits to represent a hexidecimal but anyway)

    This is one of those 'well, back in Roman times the wheels made furrows the width of a horse' questions, isn't it.

    stfn, to random
    @stfn@fosstodon.org avatar

    Ah yes, Sunday

    helgztech,
    @helgztech@fosstodon.org avatar

    @stfn that looks like a splendid way to spend a Sunday.

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