jannem

elizabethtasker , 6 days ago to random

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 , 6 days ago

@elizabethtasker
Ah, the Socratic method!

elizabethtasker , 6 days ago to random

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 , 6 days ago

@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 , 6 days ago

@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 , 6 days ago

@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 , 11 days ago to random

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 , 11 days ago

@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 , 11 days ago

@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 , 13 days ago to random

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 , 12 days ago

@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 , 24 days ago to random

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 , 23 days ago

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

futurebird , 27 days ago to random

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 , 27 days ago

@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 , 27 days ago to random

Have a bright future. Make good choices.

Well, ain’t that the dream? 😂

jannem , 27 days ago

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

futurebird , 1 month ago to random

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

:(

jannem , 1 month ago

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

elizabethtasker , 2 months ago to random

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 , 2 months ago

@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 , 2 months ago

@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 , 2 months ago to random

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 , 2 months ago

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

futurebird , 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

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 , 2 months ago

@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.