Notices by Dr. Anna Latour (anna@mathstodon.xyz)

@gvwilson

Okay so I tried this, and initially it didn't look so bad, until I hit enter again and copilot came up with a new suggestion...

I then deleted the test file, created a new empty file, and opened it with a different editor to see what would happen if I prompted it with "calculateManSalary(baseSalary". Got an opposite result, of sorts.

My friend and I exchange unsollicited duck pics whenever we encounter good ones in the wild.

I'm presenting at a symposium tomorrow and am working on my slides. Was trying to figure out how to create a slide containing only one slide-filling image and nothing else in LaTeX beamer, and this gem came up (make sure to also check out the answer). 🤩

https://stackoverflow.com/q/71372167

@gsverhoeven this you?

#AcademicLife #Latex #UnsollicitedDuckPics #Ducks #Duck #Presentation

Another afternoon of protesting the announced budget cut of 1 billion (yes, 9 zeros) euro on higher education in the Netherlands. Due to circumstances, I could not make this protest, but my fabulous colleagues at TU Delft kindly shared some pics with me and gave me permission to share them with you.

Pics by Alex Neagu.

#WOinActie #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter #BudgetCuts #Education #HigherEducation

@liztai I literally grew up on a former graveyard, and learned very quickly that I could blame any unexplained "phenomena" in our house on the ghosts.

Susie Dent's word of the day: recrudescence.

#SusieDent #Language #WordOfTheDay #us #us2024 #election2024 #election

Conversation I had recently:

him: my train was delayed for 15 minutes by a hobo.
me: how so?
him: the police had to come to get him off the train.
me: whoa, what did he do?
him: he was sleeping on the train.
me: and not bothering anyone?
him: no
me: so the police came to drag a sleeping man off the train, even though he wasn't bothering anyone, just sleeping?
him: yes
me: why?
him: we thought that he might not have a ticket.
me: So a man, who you thought may be experiencing homelessness, was sleeping on the train, other passengers thought that he might not have a ticket, and called the police, who dragged him off the train? And that caused a 15-minute delay? Seems to me like it wasn't the sleeping man who caused the 15-minute delay?
him: ???

Just now, the gates were broken, so I couldn't scan my public transport card. Went out of my way to scan it at a different station, almost missing my connection.

Train conductor just checked our tickets. Young white dude next to me hadn't scanned his card. Conductor tells him to "remember" next time, even though you have to practically break through the gate to get into the station without scanning your card.

Guess we have different rules for different people here. Also I'm low-key annoyed with my own honesty and integrity. Could've saved myself 8 euros and a sprint for the train today.

#treinleven #PublicTransportation

My BiL overheard me trying to teach my nephew that the Dutch word for "lizard" is "hagedis", and decided that "hagedis" is a ridiculous word and he'll teach his kid to say "gekko", instead 😅

Kiddo decided to settle the matter by referring to each lizard as "my friend".

#kid #language #family

When I started my pre-Master in Computer Science, I had no experience with programming, command lines, git, Linux, ssh, ...

The pre-Master consisted of Bachelor-level courses from all three Bachelor years. Hence, from day 1, I had to be able to program at the level of a 3rd year Bachelor student, in multiple programming languages.

Unsurprisingly, this was a steep learning curve for me. Being surrounded by people who had been writing code since they were 8 years old contributed massively to my sense of insecurity and anxiety. Being surrounded by mostly men, who in some cases really felt the need to put me in my place whenever I showed any sign of competence, really didn't help me feel better.

This has kinda stayed with me. Even though I sometimes encountered people who were way more clumsy than I was in working with these tools, I still felt massive imposter syndrome.

Just now, a software developer sat next to me as I typed commands into my terminal. Afterwards, he remarked that I clearly know my way around the command line.

I wouldn't say that I'm healed now, but this for sure felt like a win.

#GreatColleague #SoftwareDevelopment #Linux #CommandLine #Programming #Coding #AcademicChatter #AcademicMastodon #WorkLife #WomenInSTEM #WomenInTech #WomenInComputing #WomenWhoCode

Question: what does your 'internal reading voice' sound like?

When I read something sufficiently complex that I need to do it slowly, I 'hear' my internal reading voice.

My brain usually borrows the voice of a real person for this; usually someone I had recent interaction with.

Yesterday, I binged a couple of Contrapoints videos. Today I'm learning about proof assistant Coq, *in Natalie's voice*.

"Coq provides a module system to aid in organizing large developments."

Just spoke to someone who doesn't experience this internal reading voice, which surprised me.

Is this (not) a common thing? Do you hear a voice when you read? Whose voice is it?

#Reading #Question #Questions #Answers #QuestionOfTheDay #AcademicChatter

@blackcoffeerider

This I find very interesting! There are a lot of people commenting that they do different voices for different characters. I personally dislike it when people do that (curiously, the few exceptions are some of the Discworld audio books, but even there I dislike it for most characters). I guess it may have something to do with it being a distraction when I feel like the voice doesn't sufficiently fit the character?

I also find it interesting that many people seem to consciously choose the voice in which they read things. I can change the voice if I make an effort, but when I'm focusing on the contents, the voice will tend to default back whichever voice I started out in. Making an effort to change the voice seems like it might take more energy than it's worth?