FionaCCharles @FionaCCharles@sw-development-is.social

"Elisabeth Hendrickson has managed to write one of the best books on test design I’ve ever read." Alan Page, Microsoft

Just $5. Promo FLASHEXPLORE to 11:59P March 26

https://pragprog.com/titles/ehxta/explore-it?view_page

If you think fraud and deception _is_ the point of AI, as it was with the crypto industry, then yes, this will kill that industry.

But, if you think there's more to the technology, that it could lead to major improvements in the UX of modern computing, then you should embrace any measure that sets the industry on a more sustainable path than the "let's speed-run the crypto bubble and see if we can make it even bigger" course it's on currently.

One of the interesting and disturbing aspects of modern LLMs isn’t what new they do, but what they make cheap. Low-quality, duplicative content makes retrieving quality information incredibly hard, especially in commercially lucrative domains such as product reviews. Making it 3+ orders of magnitude less expensive to produce that content will not help our informarion ecosystem, even if AI content is identical in quality and substance to what humans are already producing.

Certain old-growth trees grow so gigantic that over the centuries they become whole ecosystems, nurturing a wide range of plants and animals in their bodies. These ancient trees almost feel like their own separate worlds; thus, some biologists metaphorically compare them to forest gods.
#WyrdWednesday #forest

Robert Reich: The undeserving rich https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-undeserving-rich?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=auto_share&r=df9r

Blogged: Meet Me Halfway? https://qahiccupps.blogspot.com/2023/03/meet-me-halfway.html #testing #questions #answers

Women weren't allowed to major in genetics when Barbara McClintock attended Cornell, so she earned her PhD in botany instead.

Working on the chromosomal activity of maize in the '40s and '50s, she discovered genetic transposition, proving that genes turn physical characteristics on and off.

Initially met with skepticism, her work was confirmed in the '60s and '70s; she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983.

#WomensHistoryMonth

https://www.energy.gov/articles/five-fast-facts-about-barbara-mcclintock

graphic: Cort Kreer

@RamblersScot is calling on the outdoors community to unite to save globally-protected Highland dunes that are once again at risk of becoming a golf course.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/walkers-fight-to-once-again-save-highland-dunes/

NPR interview of immunologist Akiko Iwasaki:

“Studying #longCOVID, I'm still very much fearful of, you know, catching the virus and potentially developing this... I would still keep maintaining preventative measures like mask-wearing and making sure ventilation is happening in buildings because, you know, not getting #COVID19 is your way to avoiding long COVID.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/13/1163028287/future-of-the-covid-pandemic-scientists-say-there-is-still-a-lot-to-learn

Billionaires lost $1.9 trillion in 2022.

Elon Musk lost $115 billion.

Jeff Bezos lost $80 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg lost $78 billion.

Say it with me, they can afford a wealth tax.

OK, so the Alt-Right regime at the BBC has cancelled a 96 year old national treasure. THE national treasure. Lifelong naturalist and broadcaster, who introduced most of the country to a love for the natural world in their childhoods. For the capital crime of a nature program covering damage to ecosystems. In the final series of his lifetime of service

Remind me, which side of the political spectrum does cancel culture? 🤬

#IStandWithDavidAttenborough #BBC

I've been thinking a lot about the classic engineer's fantasy of "I'm going to rewrite this old complex system, and get it right this time".

It's a fantasy based on the idea that it's possible to build a system without the contours of its history showing, or that it's possible to erase them after the fact. That it's possible to manifest the rewritten system from nothing in a single step.

I also wonder if this is part of why fundamentalism seems to attract engineers...

If you are discussing your abortion and you live in a place where abortion is now essentially illegal, please remember to speak only to people you trust and remember to use end-to-end encrypted comms with disappearing messages turned on.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/10/texas-abortion-lawsuit/

My lessons here?

1) Hold a vision/or goal about what you want. Be bold and be brave in your ambition.

2) Be receptive to feedback on the how. Hold implementation loosely & open yourself up to the possibility that your how maybe be flawed.

3)Avoid predetermining RED LINES. There is ALWAYS a line, but sometimes, you have to cross it (several times) to know where and what that line looks like.

4) Redrawing lines and accepting consequences hurts. Allow grieving.

I’m not sure those are in any sequence. Hope it helps someone.