HexesofVexes

If you can substantiate that, might be good to pass to someone in journalism… “Visa allies with TERFs” makes an epic headline ;)

Well now, here’s one that comes up under “other”.

I started using an adblocker because I was using an elderly netbook for my studies. Ads junked up resource usage so much they used to freeze my laptop, and render most sites unusable.

Thanks to my adblock, I was able to finish my studies.

These days I use adblock because I object to virus-like code execution on my hardware. I tell others about adblock and get them set up to get free tea/coffee (and to watch their faces as sites become usable again).

The quiet mention of the 12ft.io being taken down is disturbing, it was a good tool for students to read article sources. This kind of change forces them to rely on AI (Gemini respects paywalks, Copilot just ignores them), which risks misinformation being spread!

1. Add censorship for mods containing adult (sexual) content.

2. Slowly move the bar so that more content falls under definition of “adult” (themes of violence, LGBTQ+ themes).

3. Continue to move the bar until desired level of censorship is obtained.

Well done, you’ve used moral panic to control your media.

Dark futures aside, why do I think that folks are just going to VPN their way in?

And when this measure fails to protect children and, instead, becomes a data security nightmare, another scheme will be proposed to further erode the freedoms the web brings.

I look forward to hearing about the workarounds kids find.

I’ll extend this further - students are also not ok.

What I’ve observed this year is that a lot of students are opting for AI taught methods, or asking AI to summarise course materials for them. They then make bad copies into their notes, conflate these methods with those taught in class, then fail hard when an open note exam comes around.

The truth of the matter is we’ll see a post-AI degree lose its value against a pre-AI degree, and this will create a new vehicle of intergenerational inequality.

Teachers are never going to be ok - we’re “essential workers”, and we all know what that means. Our students though, they believe their actions are buying them a better future; when they learn otherwise, they’ll need all the support they can get!

10/10 device - it’s a solid laptop though I worry about longevity (they’re a bastard to repair because the arts are all hard to find).

Upside is it’s the perfect machine for travel gaming!

Ehh… Application of a addiction model is somewhat controversial for pornography (the ground seems divided on whether it’s a compulsion or an addiction). Social media, however, is no less controversial (it’s just the media likes to hype this more).

I will say - the point of a porn site is to sell user data and deliver ads, whereas the point of social media is to keep the user scrolling by any means possible. By its design, the latter cultivates addiction as a clear goal (the goal to scroll is artificially imposed), whereas the case for the former is less clear (the goal to masturbate isn’t something porn created). In essence, one creates a drive and then sates it, whereas another sates an existing drive.

Honestly, I think, at the moment, we’re on the “violent video games cause violence” stage of the research. In other words, not enough data to decide so the media has decided for us.

It’s on my old netbook, it will never leave.

That thing is nearing 20 now I think!

Shit, I’m old…

Hey… Wanna go down the geometry rabbithole?

https://archive.org/details/introductiontono031680mbp/page/n76/mode/1up

It has points at infinity, area as a function of angle defect, a triangle whose angles sum to 0…

The big issues with age gaps is mostly down to protective probability. By 30 most folks are experienced enough at life to make up their own mind.

Hope it goes well for you both!

Depends what you want kids to learn.

Propaganda, yes; everything else, no…

That’s the real joke behind it all, the use of AI is such a problem because we’re turning education into a stamp dispenser - everyone needs an A* to get anywhere.

AI has given every student a path to this - however if industry stopped demanding that universities train their damn staff for them, and instead insist we teach their future staff how to be trained (as well as giving them subject specific knowledge), then we’d see the misalignment vanish. Once the need for an A* to land a good job is gone, then so is the misalignment.

Ah yes, goal misalignment at its finest.

The students need high grades to get a job, so they focus on ensuring that happens (AI use being the easy path).

The teachers have progression targets to meet, so they focus on ensuring this happens (keep the AI vulnerable assessments).

If you want to change a module as a teacher, good luck getting that work loaded when you should be implementing AI in your curriculum ^_^

Truth is proof - I can neither prove the number of gods is >0, nor prove it is =0.

Thus cautious agnosticism (since the evidence suggests, if there is at least one god, then they really hate us).

Microcosmic example. Take 3 people - a newborn (A), a professor of biology (B) and a professor in philosophy ©.

You’re easily able to argue that both professors are more intelligent than the newborn (A<B and A<C). However, you’re unable to establish (in any meaningful way) whether B<C, or C<B; even B=C is out. This is because both professors have knowledge the other does not, so trying to meaningfully equate or order them in relation to one another is an act of futility.

This is a fun example of a partial order that most of us see every day (in a less extreme form).

Someone woke up this morning and chose violence.

Gaming, reading, and (rarely, when folks visit) drinking!

I’ve got this move coming up - my plan is to dual boot and slowly wean over.

Game crashes in Linux, try for a fix and if I get frustrated, boot into windows and enjoy the game.

Might be a rocky year, but the dual boot will likely take the stress off!

I’ve seen a lot of fedora-based distros pushed for gaming (mint is Debian based), apparently these can work better. Still looking into it, but no definitive answers there yet!

Tricky one to weigh up there. It might not be that you’re lazy, you may well just be burned out, not working effectively (i.e. overworking yourself), or it could even be imposter syndrome. On the other hand, yes you could just be lazy, or you might just really hate your job. Hell, there have been times where I’ve felt unmotivated because our leadership team were just arseholes - sometimes a lack of motivation goes beyond just your own choices.

There just isn’t enough data in a short post.

Take some leave, go get checked out by a doctor, talk to a friend/partner, take a look at job ads to see if anything sounds better than where you are.