Notices by Robert Belton (shiawase@mastodon.social), page 2

@mario
I would have said ボサボサ

@mario
I’m saddened by the short sightedness of shutdowns of language programs in schools. Usually to divert money to stem. I’m glad I had the experience of learning languages, even if only to schoolboy levels.
I have a calculator can I skip maths class?

A better question might be how to leverage MT (& other tools) in learning languages.

It’s also a bit rich coming from a native English speaker. A dominant language that most of the world is expected to learn.

/end rant/

@mario
Subeditors and headlines eh?!

In a utilitarian sense he’s probably right. I’m not going to relearn French or start German just to read a toot. I think it polite to at least try to attempt the language on holidays.

For low risk & prosaic tasks MT will be fine. Not so for medical, legal or diplomatic use. Both Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima (at least in part) were caused by mistranslations.

Absent a Babelfish, speaking a language will be better than a stop start MT experience.

@mario
If I try to hum while pinching my nose I can’t, so maybe they were on to something in naming it.

@mario
I could see how it would improve translation. (I think). The problem is more constrained (but not simple) with translation; you have a large prompt and only so many ways of outputting a meaningful matching result. And while we expect accuracy, we aren’t asking for extra information not present in the original text. (Leaving aside stylistic choices etc.)
Is training an LLM really it doing research? Can it ‘do’ anything? There’s so much anthropomorphic language around ‘AI’

@mario
Because I don’t have a background it’s hard to get a handle on how LLMs work and what processes they go through.
I have heard a presentation that talked about how expert training didn’t produce as good a result as just increasing the size of the LLM (what GPT4 did).
Leaving aside factual accuracy. Going from a single sentence question prompt to several paragraphs of a plausible answer in good English through a program is frankly amazing.

@mario
Maybe.

Once I assess a site’s trustworthiness it’s more or less constant. ChatGPT has to be evaluated each time. The hope seems to be that if it comes up with proper prose that prose will also be accurate and factual.

If some respected organisation came out with “Expert Japanese-English Teacher” I’d probably trust that over ChatGPT for accurate information (rather than a summary or starting point)

Time will tell.

@mario
I think one of the tools people use for judging sites (or expertise) is how they are written and presented. This partially goes out the window now with ChatGPT.
There’s also reputational trust. Eg BBC, NHK
Even websites for Japanese, I assume good intent and human oversight. With content sourced from books and experience.
It’s possible to judge a site as a whole, or see maybe a specific area you don’t value.
The internet skill is in judging sites. GPT makes that harder.

@mario
It’s the sense of distrust in the accuracy of the output that diminishes the usefulness for me. It lacks authority because there’s always that sense of I should check that, which somehow defeats the purpose. The catch 22 of needing expertise to catch any errors.
If I found the info in a book or (most) websites I’d believe it. GPT algorithm ? Not so much. Maybe because despite how it’s marketed expertise is not it’s purpose, plausible English prose is.

Great film from 1959 about the precursor to the Shinkansen. The Kodama limited express reaching 160km/h. It took 7 hours 50 mins Osaka to Tokyo. Now it takes 2 hrs 20 mins.
This shows the changes that were necessary to get higher speeds.

https://youtu.be/4SwX7_zDSzI

Seldom discussed is the frequency of the Shinkansen and how many train sets that entails. 1 per 3 mins needs at least 80 sets in operation on the Osaka Tokyo route. There are over 2,600 sets in Japan in total !

@mario
It’s one of my favorite films. I would have liked to see the play adaptation at the National Theatre but pandemic and no desire to sit in an audience.
I like his use of documentary techniques.
だれも知らない also uses them to help get performances from the child actors. It’s quite a powerful film and I recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

I struck gold with the YouTube algorithm.

Electric Fan Harp | 扇風琴
This instrument was based on the idea "What if Jimi Hendrix, the god of electric guitars, played electric fans as instruments?" The light bulb and guitar strap are attached to an electric fan, and the fan blade is replaced with a self-made disc with holes

https://youtu.be/QJavHc48iZU

@mario
Upper Tooting. How suitable for Mastodon. ?

Sorry for the non sequitur

Found the designer of a site called Nippon Colors here by accident today.
Takehito Ono. @onopko

The site gives the codes for traditional Japanese colours. I first saw it years ago. I quite liked it, both for the design and the names of colors.

He toots in English and Japanese in parallel so could be useful for learners into web design etc.

#日本語

https://nipponcolors.com/

— edited to correct onopko’s domain —

@mario
My wife often runs her hand over my bald head and says つるつる

@mario huh? I know of an app that already does this, and is free to use. Called miwo and developed by Dr. Tarin Clanuwat, currently a senior researcher at Google brain. It’s been out since last May on iphone.
I wonder if it’s the same app.

http://codh.rois.ac.jp/miwo/

https://tkasasagi.github.io/

@JapanProf She makes around 100 sets for collection on Dec31. A very busy time of year.

@JapanProf Nowadays many are bought rather than made. Although I think my mother in law still makes one.
Here’s a pic of one my wife makes at the fishmongers where she works.