@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

jannem

@jannem@fosstodon.org

Programmer and computational neuroscientist, now HPC support engineer in Okinawa, Japan.

Photography, bouldering, recreational programming and playing the sanshin are things I do.

Sweden, Osaka and Okinawa are places I particularly care about.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

A tight flight connection that I’m surprisingly (after a late takeoff) going to make, but am more skeptical about my bag!

May end up giving my in-person talk on Monday online from my hotel room, wrapped in a bed sheet 🤔

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
Ah, the Socratic method!

elizabethtasker , to random
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Working at JAXA, I often get asked about job opportunities and life in Japan. Truthfully... I dread these questions for a few (probably not terribly good) reasons...

Firstly, I can do little more than direct people to the employment opportunities page at JAXA. As it's unlikely that I'm hiring myself, I do not know anything beyond that page, and I have no sway in whether an application will be successful. JAXA also has many different teams, so I most likely won't know about the group hiring.

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
A couple of thoughts: re: institutional language it's helpful to remember that foreign researchers with very little in the way of English ability do come to universities in the US and GB - and universities all over Europe - and will manage to successfully live and work where they do. I came to Japan to work at a lab where only the PI and the secretary spoke English at all, and it was doable.

Don't think that language barrier is disqualifying.

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker @A_bee
The thing is really that once you hit 35-40, finding new friends is going to be challenging no matter where you move. By then most people have a stable group of friends, and they're really busy with their families and their careers and have little time for socializing even with their existing friends, never mind any new people.

Finding a hobby you like, then finding people who like the same thing, is a good way forward.

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
It does depend a lot on your attitude whether you thrive or not.

Over a decade ago I ran into an online argument. A new American PI was upset their Chinese and Taiwanese postdocs were speaking Chinese with each other; the PI couldn't understand what they were saying.

They were also upset that when they had been a postdoc in Japan, people were speaking Japanese with each other, not English.

Seems their attitude was "Everybody must adapt to me". And no, that won't ever work.

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

I was reading one of my Japanese graded readers (stories for language learners) on the flight (since even in my 40s, being strapped into a seat is a great homework aid), and I accidentally replied to the flight attendant bringing around food in Japanese.

I may now have started an irrevocable chain of events where I’m not addressed in English again for the whole trip 😨

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
It's good practice! Nothing will motivate you as much as knowing you won't get coffee until you figure it out in japanese 😋

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
You clearly need to develop more linguistically channeling tastes😁

My weakest part of japanese is dealing with businesses over the phone. So I make a point of calling myself even if my wife offers to do it. If I didn't, I'd never improve.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

If you see a new youTube channel with a plain sounding name like "NatureView" or "BrightScience" etc. and there is what looks like a tempting video on a specific education topic "Most Active Volcanoes" or "Incredible Carnivorous Plants"

There is a 50/50 chance it will be a generated voice with stock footage and a script written by GPT.

I am now avoiding videos if I don't recognize the creator, or don't see signs it was made by a person.

So much spam!

jannem ,
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@futurebird @llewelly @nottrobin @shiri
Feelings are the conscious representations of emotions. And emotions are fundamentally evaluations of your state or situation - is this thing or situation good? Bad? Scary? Tasty? Sexy? Dangerous?

With that definition, insects definitely have emotions. You could argue that a thermostat embodies the simplest possible emotions (are we too hot? Too cold? Just right?).

ElleGray , to random
@ElleGray@mstdn.social avatar

If I was a university prof and a student's parent contacted me demanding that I change their grade I would get my mom to write back to them & tell them to leave me alone

jannem ,
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@ElleGray
There's been news here in Japan of parents coming to job interviews instead of their kid.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I've largely dismissed the strain of AI alarmism based on the notion the a computer will be so smart that the danger it poses to humanity is outsmarting us.

There are real dangers in AI, most of them relate to people using these technologies in improper ways due to having a poor understanding of what they really are... and most important the exploitation & degradation of the human body of knowledge creativity represented by publicly available digital information. 1/

jannem ,
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@futurebird
Even the premise - the smarter people "win" - is suspect at best. Look around; the people in power really aren't the smartest people around. Conversely, many of the smartest people are too single-minded or disinterested to have any impact on society.

If you posited an AI system with superhuman social ability to manipulate, then you'd at least have a vaguely possible premise.

elizabethtasker , to random
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Have a bright future. Make good choices.

Well, ain’t that the dream? 😂

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@elizabethtasker
I've seen that shape somewhere...

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I wish the meter long beetles were real. Why can't I live in the world where they are?

:(

jannem ,
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@futurebird
Wonder what the oxygen concentration would need to be. And how flammable everything would be as a result.

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

I’m on my way to tennis, but everyone else on this train has a giant suitcase and is presumably departing the city for Golden Week 🤔

(“Golden Week” is a run of national holidays that occur in Japan end of April / start of May. This year they’ve fallen on the Monday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, which isn’t a great line up, but many people will supplement with their paid vacation and take the week away.)

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@elizabethtasker
Since this year is kind of bad I took this week off instead, and will return home tomorrow to work over the three day week. I figured I'd have the office to myself.

Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea so we'll all be there next week :/

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
At least our users will mostly be gone (or at least work remotely). We'll order bento and run some internal training. It'll be fun.

futurebird , to random
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If you are connected to firewalled wifi and attempt to post in the Mastodon app you do not get an error. Your post is eaten. Deleted forever.

I wrote this amazing post and it’s gone. This has happened before. Other apps say “cannot post” when firewalled. Seems like bug.

(please don’t tell me to use a different app I have four apps each with their own issues- the purpose of this post is to check if it’s fair to call it a bug)

#mastodonSuggestions #mastodonsupport #mastodonapp #mastodonbug

jannem ,
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@futurebird
Sounds like a bug. Not a good ant-like bug either; a bad computer-error kind of one.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
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Why are all the sites on the internet that are just ordinary webpages like antiwiki and formiculture forums, and my friends simple websites so SLOW. Social media, YouTube, anything by a big company is fast, anything homebrew is slow.

Can I blame not having net neutrality?

jannem ,
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@futurebird
Big sites use a CDN (content delivery network) such as Akamai or Cloudflare.

They have servers all over the world, and cache web pages for their clients. Wherever you are, you're close to such an endpoint and the download is really quick.

Good news is that you can use a CDN even for a small website. If you don't have a lot of traffic it may be completely free.

Drawback is of course that there's another layer between you and your reader, that sees the traffic.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Suppose a rouge publisher puts out books, or an app, that claims to tell you about adverse reactions from mixing various drugs and other serious, don't get it wrong medical advice.

Only most of the information is wrong.

How does this interact with "free speech?"

I think there is some room for "false marketing" -- but looking at the things sold as diet drugs and health supplements... I don't think it has much teeth.

jannem ,
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@futurebird
You are in general still accountable for speech even if speaking by itself is allowed.

If, for instance, you tell someone to kill themselves and they do, you can get sued and you can get arrested. Free speech doesn't mean other laws don't apply.

In this case - could they be practicing medicine without a license? Should they reasonably know that unconfirmed information can cause serious bodily harm? Maybe. Depends on the jurisdiction I guess.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

The problem with desperately needing attention is it's not a character flaw that one can easily hide. MTG just swells and glows when everyone is clustered around her like this hanging on her every word, recording her, gazing at her. She is feeding. She is being nourished by this.

I suspect without it she shrives up and slowly fades away... uncertain if she really exists without the outside validation.

Is there a less destructive career for such people?

jannem ,
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@futurebird
I've known people with traits like that. Perfectly nice, sensible, trustworthy people, if a little exhausting for an introvert like myself.

One is product lead in an IT company. One was the CEO in the family business (now retired). Those careers presumably give them the social validation they need.

So I'd say becoming an authoritarian rear orifice is not directly due to those social traits at least.

18+ futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I keep seeing these discussions in left circles about how terrible social media is. It angers & frustrates me that Mastodon & the Fediverse don't even merit a mention.

"The Majority Report" goes as far as dissing Threads but never mentions the fedi.

There are only 170 comments. Why not leave a comment asking why "the left" keeps complaining (rightly) about corporate social media but ignoring the alternative?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqY7sLRaUWQ

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird @secretsloth
You can see that with a less nefarious lens. It's like the host at a party introducing a new acquaintance to some people they may like in order to make them feel welcome and help them enjoy themselves.

We're not really doing that here but perhaps we should.

elizabethtasker , (edited ) to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

Let's do a quiz! The Japan-led Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission to Mars's moon Phobos will carry a rover named "IDEFIX" that was developed by the French and German space agencies. But what is the purpose of IDEFIX (in addition to other tasks)?

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@elizabethtasker
You mean it's going to land first, then the MMX lander will choose where and how to land based on that data?

elizabethtasker , to random
@elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

I'm a technical reader for a space exhibit at a museum in Japan. Their English translator is... actually really good: better than me. So most of the time, I make no changes and feel a bit bad that I'm being paid.

Then... occasionally... they take "Gibeon meteorite" and merge it into "Gibeonite". It's kind of cute, but given the Biblical association with Gibeonites playing tricks... also... no 🤣

(Other changes are simpler, such as "unmanned" --> "robotic", bit of formatting & odd fact check.)

jannem ,
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@elizabethtasker
They're getting their money's worth even if you don't change a thing.

They're paying for a second pair of eyes; to make sure it is as solid as it seems to be. You provide that.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

iphone maco is great …for a phone —but it can’t match my nikon with the macro lens. I will regret this because I’m sensitive —but any photo tips are welcome

Same scene of ant eggs but taken with iphone. 14 pro

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird
Those are good shots!

Getting peoples' or animals' eyes in focus makes a big difference. We're drawn to look at them and if they're in focus we feel the image is in focus.

For macro: Absolutely use a tripod. And you preferably focus by turning off autofocus and doing it manually; or, better, set lens focus first (that sets the magnification), then focus the image by moving the camera. A small macro focusing rail is great for this and is not expensive.

1/2

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It annoys me how people talk about using social media like it's a vice. And a female-coded one at that.

"Spend less time on social media" is trotted out a virtuous in the same way that "not eating a pint of ice cream" is.

Imagine if in the early days of movable type, there were people going around saying "don't read pamphlets, they are full of misinformation"

Social media is the primary way news is disseminated. It is superseding newspapers and TV as the primary vector of mass media. 1/

jannem ,
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@futurebird
I wonder how this ties in with the shift private social media more than public. You perhaps watch TikTok or YouTube but then you discuss it with friends on private channels in WhatsApp, Line and so on, not in public on Facebook or Twitter.

You're much safer but you also don't form connections with people you don't already know. And others never see that you are going through similar issues to them.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Are there therapists who specialize in helping children who are stressed out giving tech support to their parents?

My mom is a mathematician. She can program w/ punch cards. But, she & Dad just don't keep up with tech anymore. Drives me nuts.

Gave my dad an iPhone for Christmas. They HATE it. Probably would hate any phone. Now they say it's recording their conversations.🙄

Dad holds down the buttons on the side when he picks it up. Activates the voice assistant... they think it's a hacker.

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird @kritischelezer
Never mind parents - I'm 55 and I want that for myself.

Cars, appliances and so on have "safe" UIs; you can't really break anything.

Industrial machinery, power tools, servers and so on are dangerous, but also clearly signal that you better know what you're doing.

Smartphones are the worst of both worlds: their UI tells you it's all safe and easy, while really being dangerous and fragile.

tveskov , to random Danish
@tveskov@mastodon.social avatar

Not good 🔴🔵

jannem ,
@jannem@fosstodon.org avatar

@futurebird @tveskov
We both like to cook, and cooking together is among the most fun we have on weekends.

But yes, one reason my wife picked me was because I'm likely to help with the cleaning and laundry and all the rest; and native men here are not.

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