ffmike

joined 1 year ago
[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

And just like DEI teams, ethics teams will be easy to cut back on if a company runs into economic trouble.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My own high school debate days are decades in the past. From that perspective, though, the fact that you can easily look up the judges' biases, and so prepare for them, is a huge advance that we would never have even dreamed of. To me that seems like explicitly addressing biases in a useful way.

I'd be interested in a more serious analysis that went through all 47,000+ paradigms and categorized biases so some non-anecdotal conclusions could be drawn. That would take a lot more time and money than picking out a few instances that the writer knows about.

And yes, if an alternative ends up being liked better by debate coaches, people will go in that direction. It's entirely possible that debate competition will end up being as fragmented as national politics.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The article here takes a bit stronger stance than "losing debates because of tweets":

The NSDA has allowed hundreds of judges with explicit left-wing bias to infiltrate the organization. These judges proudly display their ideological leanings in statements—or “paradigms”—on a public database maintained by the NSDA called Tabroom, where they declare that debaters who argue in favor of capitalism, or Israel, or the police, will lose the rounds they’re judging.

The article calls out five judges for being biased. The NSDA site shows 47,168 paradigms. So, while there may be an issue, there doesn't seem to be much proof here. It could equally well be that the author is cherry-picking instances that fit his ideology.

 

Not quite your traditional gaming, but with 600 responses to user actions at least as complex as some interactive computer games I've played.

[Image description: two new Furbies]

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

Their web site is down, but their Github account is currently still available, with 3D printing files and software for their microlab.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So many, many choices.

I think my all-time dumbest came when I was about 22, so it doesn't fit here. In my teens...probably driving drunk at speeds up to 100mph on the mountain roads up above Pasadena with the headlights off at night.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Yep, I get it. Effectively block ads and javascript and it doesn't much matter what a site wants to do. I skip the few that have actually effective paywalls (as opposed to just putting a div over content on the page - as far as I'm concerned, if it's downloaded to my computer, I am allowed to read it). Of course, the sites that load up on ads tend to be pretty low-quality content anyhow.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago
  • Every morning: 2 cups Cafix, 1 cup decaf coffee, 4 prunes
  • Alternate mornings: 1 thick slice homemade whole wheat bread, dipped in olive oil
  • The other mornings: 1 large sourdough pancake, dressed with olive oil and salt

I usually eat breakfast around 5AM, and this holds me until lunch at 11AM.

Pretty sure I'm not in the mainstream.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is why I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, and Firefox with a few selected extensions that ensure I almost never see an ad. I would be shocked if Google enabled any long-term ad-free experience.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 23 points 1 year ago (7 children)

In addition to making it easier to find authentic perspectives, we're also improving how we rank results in Search overall, with a greater focus on content with unique expertise and experience. Last year, we launched the helpful content system to show more content made for people, and less content made to attract clicks. In the coming months, we’ll roll out an update to this system that more deeply understands content created from a personal or expert point of view, allowing us to rank more of this useful information on Search.

That seems like just a step in the inevitable AI arms race.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

This exactly. The more developers working on different parts of an application, the more chance of an apparently-easy merge having unforeseen side effects. git bisect is the easiest way to narrow down the problem so real debugging can begin.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 20 points 1 year ago

Well, most of my work was programming books, so honestly a 5 year copyright term would have been plenty. But the internet put most of those publishers out of business anyhow.

Outside of my own special case, I don't have really strong opinions on the term.

[–] ffmike@beehaw.org 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As a published author, I'm glad copyright existed. Without it, none of my publishers would have been in business and I would have had to find some other income source. But I think the default should be "public domain" rather than "copyright", and I'm skeptical of allowing corporations to own the copyright to individuals' works.

 

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/748817

I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety.

We're definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn't seen much use lately, so it's overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers.

Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn't have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together.

More pictures on imgur.

[Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

 

Well at least:

“The situation is not really getting worse, but it’s also not really getting better,” Steinhauer said. “It is not a bee apocalypse.”

[Image description: honeybee on honeycomb in a hive]

 

Generally depressing societal news.

[Image description: Bud Light, Target, and Disney logos overlaid with the "NO" circle-and-slash and surrounded by angry emoticons]

 

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/675946

I spent the day yesterday wandering around some trails in the Shawnee National Forest (southern Illinois) from the Golden Circle trailhead to Pounds Hollow and back. I didn't keep super good track of my route, but it was something like (trail numbers): 1440 to 154 to 001 to 155 to 001 to 137A to 165 to 166 to 164 to 001 to 180 to 185 to 184 to 183 to 006, bushwhack to 134 to 006A to 006B to 109, roadwalk Karbers Ridge to 001 to 010A. Whew! The River to River Trail Society has some excellent brochures with georeferenced PDFs that cover trails in this area.

The weather was a bit sticky, but not too bad - high temps in the lower 80s. Between some recent rain and increased horse traffic for the summer, low spots in the trails are getting pretty torn up in places, particularly as you get closer to the various horse camps. Poison ivy is out in force, ticks are too so take reasonable precautions.

The area is a mix of pleasant forests, clifftop vistas, and streambeds (almost all dry at the moment). Pounds Hollow Lake is one of the ones in the area created by the CCC building a dam in the 1930s and has a reasonably popular swimming beach, as well as rest rooms and potable water.

I had planned to camp at Pounds Hollow, but I stupidly forgot to pack cash to pay for the $10 fee, so what was planned as a 20 mile day turned into a 29 miler when I took the most direct route back to the trailhead where I started. There are a couple of other good spots along that route back, but all the water sources were dry or stagnant, and I didn't have enough water along for dinner & breakfast so I said the heck with it and came home. All told, 29.2 miles in just a shade over 12 hours. The last 4 or so were pretty tough, but I made it.

[Image description: southern Illinois forested hills receding into the distance, framed by trees and viewed from the top of Buzzard Roost]

More pictures at imgur.

 

I'll start: pesto as a bagel topping.

 

Good news for photographers

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