its_me_xiphos
@its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org
- Comment on ChatGPT’s latest stylistic quirk is sinister, infuriating – and absolutely everywhere 21 hours ago:
When I’m tired this is my shortcut. I usually edit them out in drafts but miss a few in my substack posts. I am more machine now than man I guess.
- Comment on ChatGPT’s latest stylistic quirk is sinister, infuriating – and absolutely everywhere 4 days ago:
Nailed it.
- Comment on The blue light from your phone isn't ruining your sleep 1 week ago:
You, dear user, are my spirit animal now.
- Comment on Used EV sales spike alongside gas prices 1 week ago:
No worries. 39,000 CAD.
- Comment on Used EV sales spike alongside gas prices 1 week ago:
Got a Chevy Bolt used with a battery replacement after their warranty debacle. They had a glut of them due to that. Never looked back. It got me, realistically, 200+ miles of range. I never had a problem. No mechnical, no range issues, nothing. I’ve never had a flawless car experience.
If you have the ability to charge at home or reliably at work, get an EV. There is nothing to fear.
- Comment on US tech firm Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as it steps up AI spending 2 weeks ago:
Hopefully he can dock in the UAE and use AI to repair the crater that was a data center.
- Comment on US tech firm Oracle cuts thousands of jobs as it steps up AI spending 2 weeks ago:
I despise LinkedIn for being the shitty veneer covering corporate brain rot speak.
- Comment on ‘The era of invincibility is over’: the week big tech was brought to heel 2 weeks ago:
Wtf is uo with the Guardian lately and these headlines? They are invincible. That fine is a pittance. Thats a get out of jail free card.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 29th 2 weeks ago:
Dropped KCD II after they replaced localization translators with AI.
Back to BG 3!
- Comment on Solar is winning the energy race - The world’s cheapest power source is scaling at warp speed, pushing coal, gas and nuclear aside 3 weeks ago:
Holy crap. Do you live in a bitcoin server farm? Thats insane.
- Comment on US bans any new consumer-grade routers not made in America 3 weeks ago:
I’m calling it now - Palantir and others of their ilk will be the ones leading this nonsense.
- Comment on Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power 3 weeks ago:
Circling around to say I thought about this over the last four days. In brief, my perspective that you can have a surveillance apparatus and a contemporary democracy in the 21st century were misguided. You are right.
- Comment on Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power 4 weeks ago:
That’s a fair set of arguments.
- Comment on Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power 4 weeks ago:
That’s a good read, thank you for sharing. I do not believe that a lack of privacy and surveillance are a given. You can have a strong Democratic state with surveillance, if you have strong privacy guarantees and the means to enforce them.
This is a much larger discussion, but your article and point are well taken.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 15th 4 weeks ago:
Valheim again. I need some calm meadows music.
- Comment on Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public? 5 weeks ago:
The future is now fellow old man (my joints hurt just typing this). If it helps, I remember the comforting noises of a 14.4k modem connecting me to the world wide web.
- Comment on Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power 5 weeks ago:
Take anything Palantir says about democracy as either a dog whistle or a threat. Palantirs product is mass surveillance and criminal behavior prediction (location, whereabouts, movement patterns). That’s authoritarian, but not necessarily antidemocratic. You can still vote and be a democracy withass surveillance, don’t conflate it.
Where the anti Democratic comes in is using that surveillance to prevent people from exercising their right to vote and manipulating their information so they vote how you want. That’s what Palantir is enabling.
Its nuts on accurate their name is in spirit. Almost commendable.
- Comment on Palantir CEO Makes Shocking Confession on Disrupting Democratic Power 5 weeks ago:
A Labyrinth reference? Glorious.
- Comment on Android: sideloading blocked and open source updates withheld to twice a year 5 weeks ago:
Reading this makes me realize how ignorant I am on all things tech.
- Comment on Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public? 5 weeks ago:
The Kardashians and any reality show that needs to showcase a phone call for the audience. That is exactly how this all got to the level it did. People who watched and were raised on that media learned to use a phone like that and do.
That’s my theory.
- Comment on We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI 1 month ago:
Which is a tragedy. Many reasons pertaining to why that is the exception.
- Comment on We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI 1 month ago:
You can still fake it. Have AI write the essay, you “write” a first draft and simulate edits here and there. You can also prompt AI to writer a first, seomcond, and third draft and detail changes. Then you manually make them.
This is a chance for teaching and grading to change. It needs to as the traditional methods which were failing from budget cuts, overuse of shit tools, etc, weren’t working. Put learning, not evaluation, in the class and you can avoid AI abuse. I am an N of 1, but go grab Frier, read pedagogy of the oppressed, and then start researching contract grading.
- Comment on We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI 1 month ago:
In my in person classes I used contract grading and weighed in class participation and case studies at 75% of their contract. The final was optional and was from a list of possible choices. I’d focus on providing mentorship and feedback, not grading them, simulating real world growth and learning. I had no AI problems and both I and my students generally loved it.
I taught one online class. It sucked. I hated it. Rampant AI and totally fabricated everything. Even reflection paragraph posts. I need to learn how to design an online class like my in person ones. Until then, never again.
Most of the AI users were student athletes. I can quantify this, so I’m not exagerating. They would miss classes for travel, turn in AI slop, and I would have to fail them over and over. That online class was 60% student athletes. I tried so hard to talk sense and be accommodating, but it was unabashed AI everything. It was bad.
The student athletes are getting more screwed than normal because they are just faking it through college and getting exploited by the NCAA for money.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 8th 1 month ago:
Foxhole, the Airborne update has been fun. I alsonreturned to Valheim just to do chill builds.
- Comment on Ethical alternative to Canva? 1 month ago:
I read through all the comments and responses. @harfang@slrpnk.net you need to make slides quick and easy using drag and drop and font layouts. That’s why you use Canva from what I can tell. So getting hardcore image manipulation is not necessary, nor collaborative style programs.
You can, with minimal effort, use Libreoffice Impress. Its PowerPoint without the Microslop. What this requires is you find a good source for properly licensed fonts and images, places like Pixabay and such.
You can use GIMP if you want to, but it reads like you just need to learn to use the tools in Impress. Again, GIMP is basically a Photoshop replacement. I’m not sure you need that.
Here is my work flow I used to make pretty slides and lecture decks that rely on prompts and imagery for students, not death by text:
-Outline in Libreoffice Writer. -Search for images on Pixabay, Unsplash, or Wikimedia Commons. -Search for, or use incorporated, fonts. Two to three font faces. -Build a draft presentstion in Libreoffice Impress -Set it down, walk away for a bit. -Return and edit as needed.
- Comment on Ethical alternative to Canva? 1 month ago:
I’m not sure if GIMP is an alternative if you’re looking for drag and drop?
- Comment on Firefox is adding a switch to turn AI features off 2 months ago:
Is there an alternative at this point? I tried Brave on a recommendation and its got AI integrated from default with opt out required.
- Comment on Vimeo Lays Off 'Most' of Its Staff, Allegedly Includes 'the Entire Video Team' 2 months ago:
That’s why Evernote went the way it did? Oh, that makes me sad. That was an incredible resource in grad school. OCR saved my ass on my PhD exams. Hand written notes, scanned at the library copier, organized and OCR. Immensely useful for a test (take home) that takes three days and covers two years of classes.
I stopped using it about 5 years ago because it just started to feel off. Little things not working or a UI change I didn’t like. Plus the pricing was restrictive in a way I couldn’t justify it anymore.
- Comment on Redditors Are Mounting a Resistance Against ICE 2 months ago:
Considering reddit is corporate bot slop now, I’m impressed they haven’t done a Zuck and shut it down.
- Comment on ChatGPT to start showing ads in the US 2 months ago:
Can’t wait for it to turn its latest travesty Suicide Goodnight Moon into an ad for rope.