Ben Taylor @VoxDei@qoto.org
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
@MylesRyden @sidereal @stevendbrewer @va2lam @Hotdog @pluralistic
I'm the same. Team games are the best way to learn to type. If the difference between victory and defeat rests on being able to type "target GunK1dd13" or "going left" in under a second while watching your screen, pretty soon you're touch typing pretty damn fast.
My 9yo son has homework to find six "adverbial phrases" (I had to look this up) in one of his books. I had to look through three novels to find even one example, and in the end I made four of the six up.
You may say I shouldn't be doing my son's homework for him, and you'd be right. But if you're going to say that, please also explain to me how there is any expectation that any of these primary-age children are going to do this themselves, and what the benefit of doing so is, and what the benefit of knowing what an "adverbial phrase" is? Because the whole thing seems to me like a waste of time designed to teach children that they can't be expected to do their own homework.
#English #englishgrammar #grammar #primaryeducation #education
@darkade You forgot "right before Christmas"
@anomalocaris @Wolven @pluralistic
It's not even (just) that. If you're saying LLMs will result in the apocalypse, then a call for regulation makes you look careful, philanthropic even. But if you're Microsoft, Facebook or Google then even heavy regulation is not a threat, it's just one more compliance issue. It'll sure do a great job of strangling the competition in the cradle, though, now that everyone and his dog is trying to write an LLM.
The quiet part though is that they don't want that regulation to either have teeth or to actually apply to them. Which they probably would if they thought it might actually result in the end of the world. See eg. https://time.com/6288245/openai-eu-lobbying-ai-act/
@LindaCollins11 @joekoffee @cstross This feels like a quote that would appeal...
Ben Taylor
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We need to talk about the Clangers. The Clangers (copyright Coolabi Productions Ltd, Smallfilms Ltd and Peter Firmin, images used under review/satire...) live on "a small Moon"...and are tall enough that the Moon's curvature is comparable to their scale. This is the best pic I could find to illustrate this, the further Clanger seems to be pretty much ON the horizon from the camera's point of view.
So we can draw a circle to match that curvature...
Ben Taylor
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Google announced that starting in June 2024, ad blockers such as #uBlock Origin will be disabled in Chrome 127 and later with the rollout of Manifest V3 (#Mv3).
The new #Chrome manifest will prevent using custom filters and stops on demand updates of blocklist. Only #Google authorized updates to browser extension will be allowed in the future, which mean an automatic win for Google in their battle to stop YouTube #AdBlockers .
#ManifestV3 is deceitful and threatening to your privacy, and now is a good time to switch to #Firefox (@mozilla) and/or #TorBrowser (@torproject) if you haven't done so already!
EFF (@eff) on Google’s Manifest V3:
⚠️https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/chrome-users-beware-manifest-v3-deceitful-and-threatening
⚠️https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy-security-innovation
Chrome Manifest V3 Transition Timeline (2023-11-16)
🚩https://developer.chrome.com/blog/resuming-the-transition-to-mv3/
Ben Taylor
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EVERYONE: We gotta save salmon
US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Ok we'll build a giant fish vacuum
TRIBES: Why not just open up the dams
ARMY CORPS: We have to save the power companies!
POWER COMPANIES: No, you really don't
ARMY CORPS: FISH VACUUM
CONGRESS: Maybe u should look into shutting down the dams
ARMY CORPS: Our FISH VACUUM only costs $1.9 BILLION AND DOESN'T WORK LET'S GOOOOO
TRIBES: “Killing salmon to lose money deserves a deeper analysis.” (actual quote)
Ben Taylor
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Look after bees.
Post from a local Beekeeper 🐝
“Its late, and maybe in the morning I'll delete this post, but I've just got home and for now I need to write this down.
Earlier this evening I received a message from a home owner to say they had a swarm of bees in their hedge, but they were worried about them because children had been throwing water at them.
By the time my fellow beekeeper and I arrived, what had been a beautiful prime swarm was reduced to a few hundred drenched bees, huddling limply around their queen.
I've already deleted the photos of the puddles of water, the dripping wet hedge, and the many, many dead and dying bees that hadn't been able to escape the attack; sharing those pictures serves no purpose.
We gently placed the bees that had survived into a collection box, and hopefully tomorrow, when they've had chance to dry out and settle, we'll check on them and if necessary feed them; they'll be exhausted and possibly (understandably) defensive. They've been through a lot.
Please, please, help me to educate your children, your grandchildren, your neices and nephews, your neighbours, your colleagues and your friends that a swarm of bees isn't dangerous - they're amazing creatures that are just looking for a new home.
Please don't let anyone harm them. Just call a beekeeper who will gladly rehome them.
Please help me to spread this message and hopefully save any more bees from being unnecessarily harmed” 😢
- A Sad and unhappy Beekeeper
UK politics, fantasy cabinet
@clacksee I mean, this is funny, but goes nowhere. What we need is some sort of scoring mechanism where you get one point for a speech in parliament, two points for an appearance on the BBC and three for either embarrassing a minister or being forced to resign over a sex scandal involving three nuns and a chicken.
Ben Taylor
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SIMON CASE: David.
SUNAK: It shows we're serious people.
CASE: David. Cameron.
SUNAK: We'll give him a Barony
CASE: Of where? Ham?
SUNAK: Well it's done now so-
ED MILIBAND <interrupts>: CHAOS MOTHERFUCKERS!
SUNAK: Damnit! Who keeps letting him in?!
CASE: I think it's the cleaners
@garius You know he's going to come out and say something about how he felt like he had to help make Brexit work, since he called the referendum...
I love that they're only just realising how inadequate they all are. Anyone competent got purged by Boris in case they showed him up, so without exception they're either too inexperienced, too stupid or in another job.
From the Guardian
Ben Taylor
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Brilliant. A bot that buys/sells stocks after Congresscritters buy/sell stocks. It is up 20% during a period the market was flat.
https://www.threads.net/@quiverquantitative/post/CzcB-Gsgqow
via @pluralistic
Ben Taylor
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🏴 🏴 "Hand-drawn map of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton in 1579." #Map #Maps #Atlas #Cartography #England #Wales #Europe #History #Histodon #Histodons #C16th #16thCentury #PublicDomain @histodon @histodons
Attribution: Christopher Saxton, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anglia_Atlas.jpg
Ben Taylor
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The Chestatee River Diving Bell. Built to enable gold mining underwater and you'll immediately recognise that was not subsequently "a thing", as I believe the kids say. Essentially dropping an iron balloon into the river bed to poke around for gold is less financially rewarding than going somewhere dry and - rather more important, this - with actual gold present.
When histories say it was abandoned in mysterious circumstances please substitute "in extreme embarrassment".
Ben Taylor
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If you have had an adult family member or friend that was recently diagnosed with a previously unknown developmental psychological disorder (ADHD, autism, etc), you might have noticed something that confused you. Right around the time they were diagnosed, maybe even a bit before, they "suddenly" began to exhibit symptoms when never had before. You might be like, "I've known this person for X years and they never behaved like this." You might even think they are "acting" or something.
1/4
@ChefleGrand You nearly had me - I read that as "ambulatory ballistics" and wondered what on Earth that was.
(Sadly even if I were interested in ambulatory basilics, my German isn't up to it. Sorry!)
@Woodswalked @dungeons Yup, also it's ranged, so we'd have a combination that means we don't have to have either disadvantage or improvised weaponry against ranged enemies.
Leave the crappy shield, get the crossbow!
Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon
Joined Nov 2022
