Pickle cat is marvellous via simply. personal. Joe Jenett (@joejenett)
Category Archives: enviable stuff
Liked: Coding is not ‘fun’, it’s technically and ethically complex
Coding is seen as fun and glamorous, but that’s a sales pitch. In reality, it’s complicated, both technically and ethically
It’s better to admit that coding is complicated, technically and ethically. Computers, at the moment, can only execute orders, to varying degrees of sophistication. So it’s up to the developer to be clear: the machine does what you say, not what you mean. More and more ‘decisions’ are being entrusted to software, including life-or-death ones: think self-driving cars; think semi-autonomous weapons; think Facebook and Google making inferences about your marital, psychological or physical status, before selling it to the highest bidder. Yet it’s rarely in the interests of companies and governments to encourage us to probe what’s going on beneath these processes.
Clear well explained short and powerful article. via both Scripting News and Memex 1.1.
Perhaps we need another term for the coding like activity than can be a lot of fun for folk that have the skills that Walter Vannini explains coders need. I have a lot of fun dabbling in AppleScript, bash and JavaScript without the discipline and study necessary to be a coder.
Kids in school can have this sort of fun too, perhaps helping in maths and in skills like problem solving, working together and practical skills. Scratch and micro:bits can be a a lot of fun in a primary classroom.
There are so many reasons to be excited about generative art, but at the core of everything is this fundamental value: generative art is truly working with the essence of what shapes our new digital worlds. Coding is the key. Our future lives will be built with it. The artistic exploration of code and how it can be re-imagined, re-examined, and re-purposed is critical if we wish to build a healthy, human experience in the non-physical landscapes to come. Generative art is one step in that direction, and one that feels more important to me every day.
Many fascinating looking essays by a generative artist. On Instagram too.
Another fine rabbit hole found via Doug Belshaw’s Thought Shrapnel
Around 4.6 billion people use the internet every day. In fact, 350,000 tweets have been sent in the past minute. We tend to think of the internet as something ephemeral – partly thanks to terms like “web” and “cloud” – but the servers that host all that data produce huge amounts of emissions, leaving giant carbon footprints behind.
Email is a powerful tool, but it feels like using a shovel to cut down a tree.
Macdrifter is one of my favourite mac blogs. Disappeared for a while and recently sprung back to life. I noticed through the power of RSS.
This post takes a look at digital gardening and looks at some of the elements of IndieWeb & blogging I am interested in.
Stars, favorites, reading lists,bookmarks, notes, playlists, and the whole mess of podcasts, is exhausting to keep track of, let alone keep alive and healthy.
and:
I think I want to return to this old-fashioned concept of blogging for Macdrifter. I want to worry less about “reviewing” things and more about leaving tasty breadcrumbs.
There is a nice list of blogs and blog types at the end too. Really glad to see this feed come alive again.
In this test face detection algorithms will determine how normal you are. 100% privacy friendly.
Experience how “artificial intelligence” judges your face
Fun ad fascinating via the daily pointers 06/05/21
We were lucky to be there on probably the first dry day in a month. In the Golden Hour as the sun was starting to set, the fresh new leaves on the trees shone like stained glass in a cathedral window. The place shimmered with bird song, butterflies and wild flowers.
What a marvellous post.
The tech giant has expressed an ambition to transform education with artificial intelligence, raising fresh ethical questions.
These are technical, ethical, and political issues that should not only be delegated to educators and school leaders to sort out. They need to be addressed at the regulatory level, and through democratic, collective discussion about the future of schools beyond the pandemic.
As a teacher, I don’t think educators or school leaders have any hope of sorting these issues out.
Pretty scary article!
Liked: Caught in the Study Web
Caught in the Study Web – Cybernaut – Every
Much of Study Web parallels more adult and professional spaces that have emerged in the last decade—revered influencers, a bend towards materialism, and inspiration over analysis.
Really interesting post, strangely l’ve listened to some of the ‘music’ videos as background in my classroom of much younger learners.
Study Web is the space students have constructed for themselves in response to the irl system that just isn’t working. Unable to find a place or person to turn to with their academic and career anxieties, they find internet strangers—strange kin—to speak to, or simply share the same space with, online. Lacking the intrinsic inspiration to study for hours each day, online advice and group accountability provide a solution. Feeling isolated, virtual study partners create a sense of fellowship.
During lockdown I occasionally gave my class time to complete a short piece of work. Turning off my screen and playing some music, often the lofi type mentioned in the article. I wonder if having longer ‘working together’ sessions would have been helpful? Did anyone else try this sort of thing with primary pupils?
Coincidently one year ago I noted: Our Magic Box A poem written by my class in teams w hen I gave them some 5 minute intervals to write.
Link via Waxy.org
Organizing information is hard. I'm not a taxonomist. I don't have a formal information design background. For the most part I just wing it ad hoc and hope for the best.
love this. I think my blog is a bit of a garden, but also a blog.