Notices by Prof. Catherine Flick (catherineflick@mastodon.me.uk), page 3

My 1 year old son has just started making noises when he plays with cars. He doesn’t say “brrrrm” or similar, he says “eeeee”. We own electric cars.

Think of it, a future where cars, buses, trucks, tractors go “eeeee” instead of “brrrrrm” in the minds of children.

#ElectricVehicles

@tante I've heard of PhD students submitting LLM-written abstracts for conferences and I'm like really??? How does this benefit you??

@tante They should still be learning how to pitch their work for conferences rather than relying on LLMs to do it for them. The PhD is a training exercise for academia (warts and all), writing these sorts of things is part of that training.

Same, buddy, same.

@forteller because it’s currently for patreon subscribers only :) hence no link in my post!

New Folding Ideas video on meme stocks is the most comprehensive explanation of the meme stock cult I’ve heard. Instead of the second coming of Christ they’re waiting for the Mother of all Short Squeezes. It’s absolutely bananas. 2.5h of meticulously researched and well presented information well worth your time to watch.

Look I’d love to get a new #RaspberryPi5 - I love playing with this sort of tech. I have a few older ones kicking around still too! But I won’t be buying one because I don’t like to support a company that belittles people for taking an ethical stance against hiring known surveillance police to help support that particular market. It was dismissive, exclusionary, and pushing minority groups out of making spaces. And they still don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.

@Npars01 yeah, so this (especially 2) takes time to filter back up the chain, cost benefit analyses etc. I mean I'm no social media marketer expert but I know it's even taking ages for universities to move off twitter too - and they really should be at the forefront. They want to "wait and see" and "see which platform wins" etc. before making a shift. It's not so easy to shift the momentum (I don't disagree with what you say though! just that it takes a lot to steer these ships)

@Npars01 So it's not about whether "fascism is useful" - that doesn't even really cross their minds. It's about "where can we keep doing the thing that helped us sell stuff" and there isn't a good place for that yet. I'm not saying this is a good excuse but it's an explanation of why & I kinda get it. Hence my post, which shows that Twitter isn't even good at the thing they think it's good for. That's how to get them to move somewhere else (but still, where?)

@Npars01 I mean I don't disagree but I think you'll find it just takes a lot of momentum to shift them elsewhere. Also the questions they're asking is where would they go? Mastodon isn't very welcoming to brands. Threads maybe but it's dead, apparently. So they stick with the devil they know. It's not an easy move to make.

PSA to people still posting on Twitter: Twitter no longer shows replies or threads to non-logged-in users - just the individual tweets you link to. It also doesn't show profiles with all your recent tweets. I'm not sure this is widely known, especially for those in charge of brands etc. It really cuts down on the usefulness of Twitter IMO.

This is all the wrong way around. We should be protecting front line workers who are least likely to be able to afford to pay for a vaccine privately, especially if it’s £100! These are the people who will a) feel they have to work even if they’re unwell, and b) be in contact with more (and more vulnerable) people to potentially spread it. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/17/covid-booster-jabs-approved-for-sale-to-uk-public

Oh and as the cherry on the cake, exhibit B https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/17/23836440/nft-creator-royalty-fees-are-dead-opensea-optional

AI should be a decision support system, not an autonomous one. We’ve seen time and time again how it doesn’t “think”, it just optimises for the end goal. Anthropomorphising it is dangerous because it lulls us into thinking it can imitate human decision making. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/01/us-military-drone-ai-killed-operator-simulated-test

I can’t have been the only one to think of this but wouldn’t it be nice if you could create a simulated 80s/90s cartoon experience on Netflix or whatever by adding a few shows to a playlist and then have them going through each in the right order but randomised shows? Then I wouldn’t have to keep changing the show for my 3 yo when he gets bored. 3yo’s don’t want to binge watch, they want variety! #ShowerThoughts