TEG

kjhealy, 14 days ago to random

As someone who still has a strong streak of Dream-of-the-90s Web in their bones it's a bit demoralizing to find the AI Search-Summarize-Slop Loop seriously confronting me with the question of why I, or anyone, should ever again write anything of substance that's just freely available online to people who might be interested.

TEG, 1 month ago to random

Someone stole a, fortunately not too valuable, package today - either the delivery person themself after taking the "proof of delivery" picture or someone in the short period before I got to the porch. Upside: It reminded me of the existence of Amazon Lockers of which I've got one a few minutes walk away, so that's the new plan going forward.

TEG, 2 months ago to random

Just saw Dune part 2 - it was good and everything but I'm not sure it was worth the hearing loss...

#DunePart2

TEG, 3 months ago to random

Live scientific debate, fight fight!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS1233skYYo

About "Representations in Neuroscience".

TEG, 3 months ago to random

Positive AI use news:

AI Just Cleared A Big Hurdle On The Road To Nuclear Fusion Energy

https://www.iflscience.com/ai-just-cleared-a-big-hurdle-on-the-road-to-nuclear-fusion-energy-73107

"“Previous studies have generally focused on either suppressing or mitigating the effects of these tearing instabilities after they occur in the plasma [...] But our approach allows us to predict and avoid those instabilities before they ever appear.”

Their answer: an artificial intelligence (AI) trained on previous experiments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego."

TEG, 3 months ago to random

Interesting science-related defamation case - "Passion is not misconduct", https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado6275.

"University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann was awarded more than $1 million in a lawsuit against bloggers who accused him of scientific misconduct in inflammatory terms, likening his treatment of data to what a noted child molester did to children. The verdict suggests that there are limits to which scientists working on politically sensitive topics can be falsely attacked."

TEG, 3 months ago to python

My hosting provider is discontinuing Passenger on my current plan. Does anyone know of what options are good currently, especially for people like me who don't really know what they're doing and just want Python/Flask apps to go brrrr?

#python #passenger #flask

TEG, 4 months ago to random

A Philosopher’s Case Against Death

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-philosopher-s-case-against-death

"Immortality should be sought in transcendence, in passing the flame of life on through our children, by contributing to the achievements of man, and through the religious and philosophical appreciation of the fundamental oneness of all being."

versus

"We are beginning to allow ourselves to openly admit what our actions already say: namely, that we want youth and life and that we hate aging and death."

#life #death

TEG, 4 months ago to blender

I recently got a question about some nice 3D humanoid stimuli we used in an old study, which came from the university technical department at the time. But they're really easy to make yourself independently if you don't have such a department!

A nice intro-tutoral on posing 3D models in Blender here: https://rhkibria.medium.com/how-to-pose-human-figures-with-blender-without-prior-experience-a421f72047ab.

And there are places shop for pre-made, posable models, e.g., https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/character/man/modular-military

#Blender #stimuli #3D

TEG, 4 months ago to random

More on Ofsted: "Ofsted inspectors ‘make up evidence’ about a school’s performance when IT fails"

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/03/ofsted-inspectors-make-up-evidence-about-a-schools-performance-when-it-fails

I'm more and more convinced there really is a sickness in English culture around relatively petty power - suspect the reality is way too often that it's "I'm the boss now, obey me losers" not "I have responsibility now".

#ofsted

TEG, 4 months ago to ai

Fundamentally cool, net-positive stuff I think: Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/21/hologram-lecturers-thrill-students-at-trailblazing-uk-university

"An AI Stephen Hawking would look like him, sound like him and interact like it was him."

"[...]reducing the need to fly in guest speakers[...]"

#AI #education #he

melissaryan, 5 months ago to random

Claudine Gay pens an essay about her resignation. Everyone should read and absorb this paragraph. Because it encapsulates everything that the next year is going to be. From the election to culture, education, culture, you name it. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/opinion/claudine-gay-harvard-president.html

TEG, 5 months ago to random

Been playing Signalis - good psycho-horror with at least one nice meta-screw-with-the-player moment so far, action + puzzles, dystopian aesthetic. The thing I don't like is having too little idea about how available ammunition will be so I'm stockpiling too much and Benny Hill-running around enemies too much - I think only with hindsight I get what the design was going for. Stagnated a bit yesterday and not sure I have the emotional resilience to go back and finish it though...

#Signalis

TEG, 6 months ago to random

Finished (Arkane's) Prey, what a great game, great story. Fully BioShock including getting used to the combat (or the combat having an anooying mid-power level bump?). Still mildly furious it's not better-known, it really deserved better. The name "Prey" is just so bad! Call it NeuroShock, it's right there.

appassionato, 6 months ago to books

Other Minds

The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life"

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus.

@bookstodon
#books
#nonfiction
#cephalopods
#octopus
#intelligence

TEG, 6 months ago to random

Slightly old news, but the misinformation/misinterpretation still goes around so maybe worth boosting it a little.

"Many commentators have claimed that a recently-updated Cochrane Review shows that 'masks don't work', which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation."

https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review

TEG, 7 months ago to random

Ugh, fireworks. Hate. Hate.

TEG, 7 months ago to random

Fell down a very nice musical nostalgia rabbit hole. ("Gen-X"-y?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNmO233OztQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohhbrHQ4Y-Y, etc etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMK0prafzw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGNK-cOtxSs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLsVGwNWOA4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFkP6xzzTeI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RaHTDNude4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89tgpzE4qkY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNFyxvIdaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9ROv7o_mQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FxmoVM7X4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmHDhAohJlQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORYO0atB6g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GY9DWIfpwc

TEG, 7 months ago to random

Does anyone know of a nice daily Bible study or maybe analogous not-necessarily-religious sort of thing, that's got a paper version? My mum's favourite one is going full app and that's a no-go.

#BibleStudy #daily

TEG, 8 months ago to random

Anyone have an idea as to the most appropriate word that's the opposite of "mensch"?

TEG, 8 months ago to random

One thing I feel is a shame about Baldur's Gate 3 is how short sub-plots are. I just met some very interesting-looking mad medical types, threw two dice and that's it. Donezo. And a lot is like that - there's very little extension to sub-quests where you get to "live" in some bit of the world, it's just jumping from peaks to peaks. Maybe an overreaction to filler quests. #baldursgate3

TEG, 8 months ago to random

Oh. My hosting did an upgrade and my amateur Flask app stopped working and is now giving me some lovely Pythonic-import-issue error it didn't before. See if they have any suggestions...

TEG, 11 months ago to random

I honestly don't want this to be mean to people, but - is there something you can hand out as a "reverse pamphlet" to people in (religious, mainly I guess) cults door-knocking? Something small that can help people get out if they want to?

Just had an older lady and a younger person try to get in the building to bother people, as has happened before, and it's sad to see the latter being so obviously exploited.

Used to be in things not 100% dissimilar; never know what can be a nudge.

#cults

TEG, 1 year ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Getting old hobby/research scripts online as web apps is nice, versus things being pretty inaccessible even if they're available in principle. Flask is really handy for it, if you have stuff in Python.

Currently got one app running (https://www.tegladwin.com/apps.php) that produces a best-guess at the emotional content per paragraph of a text, and another one that quantifies the relationship between a list of words and sets of attributes.

Can at least have the illusion of things being useful this way :D

TEG, 12 days ago to random

"Betelgeuse Betelgeuse", very cautiously optimistic, more than pretty much anything movie-wise for ages... The little "Be warned." at the start :D The cast looks great in any case, from the trailer I think it might depend on whether the slapstick hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoZqL9N6Rx4

#Betelgeuse