href weekly | Aug27-Sep2

Bits

Plugin that provides a shortcode to easily integrate mastodon feeds into wordpress pages. https://wordpress.org/plugins/include-mastodon-feed/

Good tools let the user choose when to switch between implementation and evaluation. https://wattenberger.com/thoughts/boo-chatbots

What’s called for .. is not a ban on #AI but rather a reassessment of what #university #students are expected to do. https://torontolife.com/deep-dives/chatgpt-ai-cheating-revolutionizing-university-education/

Notice how after you consumed the Cake, the Cake is no longer in your inventory. #videogames https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/common-proverbs-as-video-game-tutorials

Politics & Economics

It requires us to stop equating an #university #college #education with preparation for the workforce. It requires us to recognize that encouraging everyone to get a four-year degree as a substitute for serious labor policy was doomed from the beginning. Perhaps hardest of all, it requires us to recognize that the true value of an education should not and cannot be quantified by its economic return alone. #debt #strikedebt #studentdebt https://newrepublic.com/article/175277/college-debt-biden-rethink-higher-education

This tool should take approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete. It depends on how much of an earful you want to give the #usa Department of Education. We encourage you to take the time to write more, but you don’t have to. #debt #studentdebt #strikedebt https://tools.debtcollective.org/run/student/#/1

 

href weekly | Aug20-Aug26

Bits

A tool to help you explore #FFmpeg #video filters in your browser https://ffmpeg.lav.io/

As we look forward, we should not let our reliance on #socialmedia overshadow the continuing significance of free-to-air broadcast #radio as a cost-effective, highly reliable information source. https://theconversation.com/as-canadian-wildfires-rage-facebooks-news-ban-reveals-the-importance-of-radio-211966

There is a long history and clear playbook for industry capture and instrumentation of open source projects, and major AI companies recognize the value of #opensource #AI in leveraging the benefits of owning the ecosystem, enjoying the fruits of community labor, and defining the terms of engagement. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

The idea behind #opensource was to rebrand #foss in a less ambiguous – and more instrumental – package that stressed cost-savings and software quality, as well as “ecosystem benefits” from a co-operative form of development that recruited tinkerers, independents, and rivals to contribute to a robust infrastructural #commons #ai #llm https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

This popular education-inspired guide breaks down and contextualizes artificial intelligence technologies within structural #racism — and provides hands-on exercises to help us imagine beyond, and dream up alternate and ideal futures with #ai #education https://alliedmedia.org/resources/peoples-guide-to-ai

Email masks are masked, or private, email addresses that forward messages to your true email address. These masks allow you to share an address with third parties which will mask your true email address and forward messages to it. https://relay.firefox.com/

Music & Sound

#rpi #guitar #music #midi MiGiC is an audio software that converts your electric guitar to MIDI with minimum latency and great accuracy. https://migic.com

Art

The idea was to create a very simple, modernist poster series for #movie enthusiasts. The designs rigorously adhere to the same mold: a circle overlaid by two diagonals, all inscribed in a square. #art #design https://www.michalkrasnopolski.com/#/classic-movies/

Politics & Economics

“We need to have a conversation as a nation on how we prepare for and fight fires. Nine communities in the Northwest Territories are being evacuated. I think that’s 63% of our population.” #canada #nwt #yellowknife https://macleans.ca/news/rebecca-alty-yellowknife-evacuation/

They use computer #algorithms to find houses that would be profitable to turn into rental properties, often snapping them up with cash bids within minutes of a property coming onto the market. And when areas no longer have affordable houses to buy, they can raise #rent. #housing #students https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/08/private-equity-at-the-head-of-the-class-why-college-students-are-sleeping-in-cars.html

Clout is the values-free currency of the always-online age – both a substitute for hard cash as well as a conduit to it. Clout is a calculus not of what you do, but of how much bulk you-ness there is in the world. You get clout by playing the victim. You get clout by victimizing others. This is something that is understood by the left and the right. If influence sways, clout squats, taking up space for its own sake. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/26/naomi-klein-naomi-wolf-conspiracy-theories

#inequality is a political choice, not an inevitability. https://wir2022.wid.world