Michael Piotrowski @true_mxp@qoto.org
Associate professor of digital humanities, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Professeur associé en humanités numériques, Université de Lausanne, Suisse
Joined Nov 2022
@felwert @tillgrallert @dta_cthomas I know that there’s more than LGC, but what I was trying to say is that issues with color emoji aren’t necessarily due to a lack of awareness of non-Latin scripts.
@felwert @tillgrallert @dta_cthomas I’m certainly not a fan of Brill, but I do think they’re well aware of other scripts. https://brill.com/page/290?language=en
@CerstinMahlow Collect ’em all!
Michael Piotrowski
boosted
An example of how far we've come in processing power: These are the three workstations I used in the 1990s, a #CommodoreAmiga 4000, a SUN #Sparc 5, and a white boxed #Pentium running #NeXTSTEP 3.3, all running at the same time, at full speed, and I still can do other things. #retrocomputing
@jjssto Sure, that’s entirely possible.
Michael Piotrowski
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I wish people would understand that using a microphone for questions in a conference room is also a question of inclusivity.
Always some (mostly men) to say "it's OK I'll speak up" without waiting for the mike.
Michael Piotrowski
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RT @adfichter
"Praxistauglich ist das nicht, wenn Mitarbeitende bei jedem Dokument entscheiden müssen, ob es nun in die Cloud kommt oder nicht." https://www.inside-it.ch/meinung-bund-kauft-mit-m365-die-katze-im-sack-20230216
“Re-export ban ‘beginning of end’ for Swiss defence firms” https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/re-export-ban--beginning-of-end--for-swiss-defence-firms/48294436
@jjssto Yes, but not the parts that Microsoft adds to the releases. Maybe it’s just tracking for now, but I’m sure they’re thinking of other things.
Michael Piotrowski
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The really remarkable thing isn't just that #Microsoft has decided that the future of #search isn't links to relevant materials, but instead lengthy, florid paragraphs written by a #chatbot who happens to be a habitual liar - even more remarkable is that #Google agrees.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked
1/
Michael Piotrowski
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Sure #AI can write a poem or park a car but there are mathematical problems that current computers will never solve.
“Even if a computer’s speed could reach the physical limit, computational hurdles remain due to the limits of algorithms.”
Michael Piotrowski
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I wanted to write something like, "oh you don't say" but this is *actually* a brutal read
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/05390184221142218
Michael Piotrowski
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Lacking in all the (vast) discussion of ChatGPT, Bing, et al: transparency about the degree of ad hoc human intervention in creating answers to frequently asked questions. How much is being hard-coded, in other words?
I suspect it’s much more than we know. https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/16/23602335/microsoft-bing-ai-testing-learnings-response
Michael Piotrowski
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#DHers (and beyond)! We want to talk about #operationalisation, and invite submissions to a specific #workshop on the topic. The full #cfp can be found here: https://cretaverein.de/mmcc/cfp.html, abstracts need to be submitted by May 1st, workshop will be in September.
“What’s noteworthy isn’t that large language models generate false information, but how good they are at turning off people’s critical reasoning abilities.”
The possibilities are endless.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/16/1068695/chatgpt-chatbot-battle-search-microsoft-bing-google/
@sramsay This is an accurate summary. Microsoft was literally founded on nonexistent products.
Unlike #VSCode, “#Emacs is Free Software and not owned by anyone. I say that not as a true believing ideologue but as someone who’s been around long enough to know how #Microsoft operates and to not trust them or their intentions. I worry that Microsoft will eventually revert to type and pull the rug out from under VS Code users.”
https://irreal.org/blog/?p=11153
I fully agree. I’d even say it’s absolutely certain that Microsoft will at some point lock people in. For example, why is code plain text and can be edited with any text editor? Microsoft will certainly change this at some point: if you want to use the cool new AI features, you’ll have to store your code in a proprietary format in the Microsoft cloud. Maybe you’ll be able to export it, but only one file at a time, and through a Web interface that crashes after three files.
@sramsay It was probably meant as threat. I mean, everything Microsoft says is essentially a thinly veiled threat.
Michael Piotrowski
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FKA kevin
And if you'd like to dig into the social and political implications of BBS culture, you might click on...
An essay based on excerpts from my book, "The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media," published in ISSUES in Science and Technology
https://issues.org/prehistory-social-media-modem-world-driscoll/
And a thrilling roundtable on the theme of "Imagining a Better Internet" with @tamigraph, Finn Brunton, @apdamegriff, Kat Brewster, Frances Corry
https://issues.org/imagining-better-internet-driscoll-forum/
Michael Piotrowski
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Happy BBS DAY 2023! It's been 45 years since the creation of CBBS Chicago.
Northern Public Radio published a nice piece about the legendary system https://www.northernpublicradio.org/education/2021-02-15/this-week-in-illinois-history-worlds-first-bbs-goes-live-feb-16-1978
To hear the story from Ward and Randy, watch BBS: The Documentary by @textfiles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dddbe9OuJLU
Redditors are posting videos of themselves BBSing from all sorts of weird devices https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/
To light up a few boards yourself, check the Telnet BBS Guide https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
Associate professor of digital humanities, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Professeur associé en humanités numériques, Université de Lausanne, Suisse
Joined Nov 2022
