tankplanker
@tankplanker@lemmy.world
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
Yeah its a super paranoid process, I would just rather take a traditional person exam
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
Question difficulty makes no difference whatsoever with proxying, these are already long form questions in the main. The whole point of it is you are paying somebody else to take the exam for you, either directly by something like screen sharing or indirectly by relaying questions and answers. The AI voice assistant is another form of this, its higher risk as LLMs aren’t always right but its still proxying.
I personally know of half a dozen people who used Cheggs to indirectly proxy their engineering degree exams as they weren’t proctored and had 12/24 hour exam window. The uni was meant to require an in person defense of similar questions from anybody getting unusual results, something people who cheat simply cannot do, but because they had done it the whole way through they never triggered the flag. This is why proctoring is so important.
One of the reasons so many companies use Pearsons for their exams is because they have centers everywhere, they are by far the largest. If you cannot do it online then you have to go to your nearest center. Simply too much cheating is attempted otherwise. As always the actions of a minority ruin it for everybody else as rules have to be put in place.
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
Yup, exactly that. You are not allowed to proceed if you have additional devices including your mobile visible during the setup phase, you have to sweep the area with your webcam so they can see. When the exam is proctored if they see a phone or anything suspicious that you introduced into the frame you are generally fucked and have to go through a review.
Pearsons run a lot of different exams on behalf of a lot of different companies so the rules change depending on what that company wants and will pay for.
I know of one that you have to connect with your webcam and again with your phone camera so the phone can capture from behind you.This is one is live proctored by a real person throughout, it is pretty damn expensive so its not the norm. Many are just at the start and end, with AI triggers and random sampling to find cheaters.
I know of another than limits how many screens you can have connected to just one, this is principally to reduce the chance of a IP KVM being used for proxying. Its trivial for the software to detect how many displays are connected, same with number of HID devices.
I think you are underestimating how much cheating is attempted with these, and how much they have already been through the loop of being able to detect it.
- Comment on The Biggest Box Office Bombs of 2024 1 week ago:
So these costs do not appear to include the often massive marketing costs that can run into tens if not hundreds of millions for big blockbusters? Unless I am missing something.
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
Nope as you have to show the room before the exam starts andusing the second computer shows up in the webcam. It’s what the webcam if for.
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
So, in principle, I agree, but it doesn’t help with proxying, or for example, one I saw this week of someone using AI voice assistant to answer questions. Or people copying and pasting from online groups.
Their shitty software monitors all the connected devices, running processes, and webcam. That’s still needed for open book.
- Comment on Pearson complaining about using Linux to access my course material 1 week ago:
Does it have online exams? Pearsons shitty anti cheat stuff they use for proctoring is windows and mac only.
Having seen how much people cheat including using someone else using screensharing to proxy the exam for you I cannot blame them for wanting to do this, but I do blame them for not wanting to support Linux properly.
- Comment on Yvette Cooper ‘open to EU youth mobility scheme’ 2 weeks ago:
This will be hilarious if it goes through. Imagine the scenes when a certain pro Brexit demographic that has always been the priority for government policies suddenly doesn’t get preferential treatment at the airport for their month in Spain every winter yet “millennials” do.
(Yes I am are the youngest Millennials are 28, its part of the joke)
- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
Lore is complicated as if you aren’t familiar with the letters, silmarillion and appendices to an insane degree, some things that look right are wrong, and some things that look wrong are actually right depending on what you count in cannon.
I think this sums it up for me as the only bits actuallyin the lore:
The existence of characters named Galadriel, Elrond, Durin, Sauron, Isildur, Elendil, Celebrimbor, some of the others
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The existence of Numenor and Middle-Earth and some of the places in it
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The existence of rings of power
The armour just highlights what I mean with its lazy approach to just about everything.
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- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
They already have enough clout to be put in charge of a decent budget tv show, so their idea must have sucked something terrible if they can’t get it made without slapping a license onto it
Just make the damn thing you paid to make not your shitty show you can’t get anybody else to buy.
- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
“I’m commander shepard, and halo is my favourite tv show on the citadel.”
Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if that turned out to be the case.
- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
Rings of Power.
I am going to caveat this with I know it has some fans, and if you enjoy this series more power to you, but I fucking hate it and that’s also fine.
I think it just twists the lore while being badly written regardless of source material, and often looking incredibly low rent despite having a stupidly high budget, while the cast is patchy, its like they saw the Hobbit films and decided that was moving in the right direction while LotR got it totally wrong. I think its sheer stubbornness that’s keeping this show running despite its return on views vs. budget at this point.
Halo.
Its completely out of character for Master Chief to face reveal and had a sex scene, neither is the worst thing with this show either. I get that actors do not like non face roles, see Pedro with Mandalorian, but it should be deal breaker for casting for such roles.
- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
It was very clear that they had no respect for the source material and just wanted to make their own show but this was the only way it was getting funded. Then to double down and insult the fan base was just beyond dumb.
- Comment on What TV show were you highly excited for, but ended up quickly disappointing you? 4 weeks ago:
I viewed the TV show like a YA drama and it came across a lot better because of it.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
Do they speak Spanish? The English version of them make no effort to learn to speak Spanish, or integrate outside their own communities, then make videos about people doing that who go to England.
- Comment on Minecraft movie spawns ‘annoying’ cinema trend that viewers claim ‘ruins’ the film 5 weeks ago:
Born to be a creeper
- Comment on What Can We Do to Get Youth into Ham Radio? 1 month ago:
Yeah, they usually have me changing band as I want well away from that, i don’t want them hopping across.if I stay there But even just unprobalamtic farmers chat ain’t going to be appealing to most kids.
- Comment on What Can We Do to Get Youth into Ham Radio? 1 month ago:
Make clubs accessible for younger people again. Lots of clubs became old man’s clubs that aren’t where kids want to hang out. Clubs are a great way to get access to gear without having to buy it and be able to use it via the club license(s).
I think showing the different types of communications available, including sat coms is helpful. Not everyone wants to ragchew with old men.
- Comment on Why can’t HVAC be made smarter? 1 month ago:
With a thermostat, smart or dumb, you set a target temperature and a time. With a dumb thermostat it waits till that time and then activates. With a smart thermostat it should learn how long it takes to heat or cool to that target temperature in certain conditions and then aims to hit the target at that point.
So if you got up at 8am and wanted it 20c with a dumb thermostat you got to work out when it needs to go on in order to hit that as no heating system is instant on something the size of a house, with a smart thermostat with learning you do not need to do that at all, just set it for 8am.
As no system is working in a vacuum how hot or cool it is outside, even how sunny it is, has a big impact on how quickly your system heats or cools. Being able to measure and compensate for the outside temperature means the actual start time can be adjusted for you. This can save significant amount of cash.
As an example, lets say the outside temperature was going to be -10c 6am till 8am and you wanted it 20c by 8am. Doing it with a dumb thermostat you would either have to live with an under or overshoot on temperature. Say next day its 2C, now you need to adjust your overshoot again. With a smart thermostat I do not need to do that at all.
Sure, you can just live with the under/overshoot, but its better for your bills and better for the environment not to.
- Comment on Quarter of Gen Zs consider quitting work as young Brits cite mental health as key reason to go unemployed 1 month ago:
Are they still living at their parents, trapped by the UK housing and job markets?
Different pressure when you aren’t going to lose the roof over your head or you next meal if you quit work.
Its probably the only real upside of not being able to afford your own place.
- Comment on Captain of container ship involved in North Sea collision arrested in the UK, identified as Russian citizen 1 month ago:
It’s possible the tanker was the stand on boat and expected the container ship to alter its course. As the tanker isn’t the most manoeuvrable of vessels, it could have then left it too late to take avoiding action. They rarely move even when not the stand on vessel. Obviously, they should have been raising hell on the radio and prove that, too.
If they have the AIS transmissions from both vessels, it would be extremely unlikely they weren’t also receiving it. Now, if nobody was watching it, then that’s going to be a proper paddling once it goes to court.
I’m assuming the fog made it hard for visuals at a distance.
- Comment on More SEND pupils could go to mainstream schools as support shake-up is considered 1 month ago:
So there will be more funds from the central pot for councils to fund supporting SEND at mainstream school, right? RIGHT?
Honestly this is a dumb a decision as I have seen so far from this government. SEND in mainstream schools already costs a huge amount of a councils budget and is massively underfunded and under resourced as a consequence.
All it does is lower every pupils attainment not just the SEND kids who also have an unsuitable environment forced on them.
Couple this with successive governments making it harder to get a proper EHCP if they haven’t started the process in Primary School means there are far more kids than on the offiical SEND list that should be getting proper support.
Whats actually needed is picking a mainstream school in each area and converting it to a dedicated SEND school as a minimum. Then moving those who would benefit to that school while moving those who wouldn’t out. Most areas have more than enough kids for this to work. Its not going to completely solve the problem but it would be a big improvement on the shit show we have now.
- Comment on Mickey 17 is a big middle finger to space-obsessed strongmen [Review] 2 months ago:
Hope you enjoy it!
- Comment on Mickey 17 is a big middle finger to space-obsessed strongmen [Review] 2 months ago:
Gilliam-esque, the scientists in particular are very Brazil/12 monkeys like
- Comment on Mickey 17 is a big middle finger to space-obsessed strongmen [Review] 2 months ago:
I watched this today and really enjoyed it.
I’m not going to pretend it’s the greatest or deepest sci-fi film ever made, but it’s fun if you are into dystopian; it’s almost Gilliam esc. but it doesn’t quite embrace it fully.
The Messianic cult leader is a little on the nose and as 2D as his realife inspiration is.
It doesn’t explore all the possibilities or offer real depth to what is a complex topic, but as a soft sci-fi story it’s a fun and sometimes funny way to pass a couple of hours.
- Comment on Anyone remember this? 2 months ago:
Mosaic and Lynx on Sun workstations was how I started as well. Back then, there was a ton of open ftp access as well, wild.
- Comment on Amazon paid more than $1bn to take creative control of James Bond 2 months ago:
Musk is more of a Spy Kids villain. Trump is a Lazy Town villain as Spoticus is diametrically opposed to him even more than Robby Rotton. Putin is the perfect Bond villain, complete with his own evil mountain hideout.
- Comment on Inspirational 2 months ago:
It gets worse as the horse was part of a herd that came with the ranches he purchased to smush into a mega ranch. He wanted rid of the horses as they cost a fair bit to keep, so he was literally giving away something that saved him money and cost them.
- Comment on Hair loss drug finasteride 'biggest mistake of my life' 3 months ago:
Low T also causes hairloss…
Also, I used the difficulty in getting TRT when HRT is so widely available as a perfect example of how much harder it is to get medication for men from the NHS.
- Comment on Hair loss drug finasteride 'biggest mistake of my life' 3 months ago:
Its availability of treatment as well for mens health. TRT thresholds that the NHS applies to men are insanely low, almost like they do not want to spend the money rather than provide actual benefit to people with low test. Its pretty bad as the threshold for women to get HRT is almost non existent and its just given out without further tests.
While I think TRT should only be issued once tested it should be at higher thresholds as it solves so many other issues. However like the new weight loss drugs we do not give the NHS enough money to stick it on prescription for everybody that would benefit from it, particularly as both are likely to be very long term to whole life treatments.
