Please help if you can: I am working with some students who are studying programmers' beliefs about software engineering folklore. If you can spare a few minutes to answer the question in https://survey.bth.se/survey/2545, we would be very grateful. We would also be grateful if you could circulate the survey link to colleagues and friends - we would like to reach as diverse a demographic as possible. Thanks in advance.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/117038792149277863
A literal text extruder.
Also, can’t wait until people point this at images other than flowers to get some real poetry going. Give these to some goth teens for your next ad, cowards.
Bending Spoons just acquired Airtable for $1.3B. If you look at their track record with Evernote and Meetup, major price hikes and feature paywalls are almost certainly on the horizon.
You don't have to wait for it. Open-source alternatives like NocoDB and Baserow offer the same spreadsheet-database hybrid features, but you retain full control over your data.
Question for any blind person who has successfully passed Introductory Statistics in college. Just how exactly did you do it? Which accommodations have worked for you? Please boost for reach.
Anyone here have experience publishing an out of print book with Dover Publications? #Publishing #Dover
Anyway, if you are aware of guidelines for writing good alt text for chemistry structure images (think organic chemistry with all of the chains and rings), let me know! #accessibility #a11y
AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring
The models were even more likely to stereotype people by demographic group than the human participants in the original study.
Because LLMs “really are eager to create generalizations from limited data”
#bias #discrimination #hiring #jobs #hr #artificialintelligence #ai #technology #tech
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/20/1140655/ai-biases-hiring-humans/
Has anyone else noticed more difficulty having multiple programs running at the same time? I feel like this has coincided with the integration of “AI” tools everywhere. I disable them where I can, but it’s whack-a-mole. It used to be no problem to pop open another browser to check something, have Mastodon open while I work on something, etc. Now, almost always hangs. Here I am speaking of Windows 11, but my other computer runs Linux so no need to evangelize.
New study: "#Preprints are increasingly treated as legitimate, autonomous objects of #citation independent of their later publication status."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25220v1
PS: I'm fine with this, and so are the authors of this study.
I'm from the humanities, where it's common to cite unpublished letters and manuscripts, countless fiction and nonfiction genres never subject to peer review, and even an occasional "personal communication to the author". Cite your best sources, or your actual sources, and let readers judge their relevance and credibility. Every citation carries an implicit #FWIW ("for what it's worth").
I've seen fellow scholars insist that citable works must (1) be published, (2) be peer-reviewed, (3) have DOIs, or (4) most absurdly, be PDFs. To me, this is superstitious.
There are 7 PR people for every journalist in the US.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Please stop saying “lockdowns.” There were never true lockdowns in the US, and it fuels far right narratives to repeat this inaccurate statement. You can say closures, you can say restrictions, or better, you can say public health measures which saved many lives.
Tomorrow, @abbe98 and I will do our 123rd Wikidata live stream. Find links to join in on https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:Wikidata_Live_Editing_123
#wikidata
> One of the reviewers who seemed too close to the issue called it “unseemly” and “inflammatory” to talk about the central role and beliefs of private philanthropists funding open science.
https://scatter.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/science-funding-and-the-cherry-picking-problem/
The realization of these rights of women is ensured by affording women equally with men the right to work, payment for work, rest, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, pregnancy leave with pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.
#fascism #uspol #history #propaganda
My friends who use wheelchairs and specifically those of you with spinal cord injuries, I have some questions.
Feel free to boost this far and wide. We really want to know the tips and tricks.
I am an ambulatory wheelchair user. My spouse has a brand new SCI. We're good on many things because of my needs. But with him now not being able to stand, how do we make the kitchen easier for him to use?
One thought I had was a counter or table that's lower than the built-in for the coffee maker and other stuff he uses a lot. Would that be helpful?
Honestly, go beyond the kitchen. Tell me anything that's going to make our home even more accessible.
A specific issue is our sink. It's a corner sink and I cannot use it from my chair. Any ideas at all?
(Don't worry about ramps and room for wheelchairs. We did that for me, so it's there waiting for him.)
RE: https://xoxo.zone/@Ashedryden/117014475078782456
Four books I’ve read multiple times
1. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
2. Edward Tufte’s first 3 books on data visualization (counting as one book)
3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (tried and failed to understand why everyone thinks this is so funny)
4. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving by Eugene Bardach
A dark pattern scam targeting older folks.
Targets invest 20 minutes in a dementia quiz only to find at the end they have to pay for results, while a countdown clock ticks down from 15 minutes until the results expire.
Cost appears to be $2 for 7-day access, but fine print is that it auto renews at $40/month… forever.
Hi all,
Does anyone have any critical questions/statements about AI to a company? My library is holding a town hall about getting AI and I would like to hammer them, but, y'know. Professionally. They might consider it more strongly if it's not full of bile.
I've already sent several letters to the union about it. The most recent of which is that I want this to reflect in no part on our compensation. If the library wants us to use it, it will be wholly on their dime.
But yeah, any recs?