Have y’all seen all the happy UHC ads everywhere? “My life is great because of UHC” again and again.

Novice question: I think I am understanding that Aurora is a way of accessing the Google store without actually installing the Google Play Store, but is there a software package that it comes with? Is it MicroG? I am a little lost with how these relate to each other.

I installed Lineage and MindtheGapps on my Pixel 3a yesterday, but I’m interested in alternatives before I commit to this setup. It seemed like the easiest route given my lack of know-how, but my hope had been to de-Google gracefully and I don’t know if that’s possible with system-level Google still installed on my phone.

Isn’t part of the issue here that they’re defaulting to LLMs being people, and having the same rights as people? I appreciate the “right to read” aspect, but it would be nice if this were more explicitly about people. Foregoing copyright law because there’s too much data is also insane, if that’s what’s happening. Claude should be required to provide citations “each time they recall it from memory”.

Does Citizens United apply here? Are corporations people, and so LLMs are, too? If so, then imo we should be writing legal documents with stipulations like, “as per Citizens United” so that eventually, when they overturn that insanity in my dreams, all of this new legal precedence doesn’t suddenly become like a house of cards. Ianal.

Like kei cars … Kei rockets!!!

Smoke weed and listen to D&D podcasts on headband headphones. I sleep better than I ever have before.

Didn’t some articles have the pocket icon, and some were without? I remember trying it a number of years ago and being completely flummoxed by not being able to save things I wanted to read. Though it could have been user error.

Yes, but for a kid who is new to the country and who is taking a 3-4 hour test in English, a paper dictionary is an impediment. I’m not saying it should be illegal, but I know we can do better by these kids. (Honestly, my preference is for a newcomer with limited English to not even take this test at all their first year, but that’s not my choice.)

I didn’t say 20 years, I said 20 devices.

Yes but the process of obtaining the information is significantly more difficult. We can, you know, reuse the same 20 translation devices for years, and all kids have a laptop… I feel like you’re focused on the wrong thing.

My point is that it’s a somewhat outdated skill, and these kids have enough to figure out without the encumbrance of a paper dictionary. Most of my kids have never used one before, and yes, I can show them how to use it, but it’s not a functional testing accommodation. Testing accommodations should not include learning skills that are only tangentially related, especially not when there is a reasonable alternative.

There are good teachers, and there are good methods for writing essays. Did anyone ever give you a graphic organizer to plan an essay? You should know how to put an essay together after coming up with an organized outline, and you should never write an essay from beginning to end without planning it out first in some way or another.

Maybe, but are there other things we can focus on? For example, as an ESL teacher, why do my newcomers only get a word to word paper dictionary on end of grade exams? I’m pretty sure the state of North Carolina just hates children? There’s literally no reason for this. Give them a digital dictionary.

Wait wait, can this be where we get “a load of Bologna (baloney)” from? Or is that because no one knows what’s actually in bologna…

Unpopular opinion:

I am a public school teacher and I support public schools, but there have been a lot of issues with our education system for a long time. Talk to any kid with ADHD who had to sit through 12 years, and they are indicative of a larger problem. Our idea of school now is as a place that teaches kids to behave and mostly follow rote instruction. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we were teaching kids to be creative thinkers, work well in groups, problem solve, and think critically about the information they’re getting? We know that’s what school should be, but maybe now we will be forced to go there. Yes, there will be issues like learned helplessness and certain skills being difficult to teach, but it’s kind of exciting too.

Though it’s also possible that public schools will close and only the wealthy kids will be well-educated… can we not, please?

Fuck YES (says a middle school teacher)

Many middle schoolers I work with have an ear bud in at all times, and as an ESL teacher my population of kids really needs to practice processing spoken English without that as a distraction. Hell, that applies to every kid… This isn’t an issue of somebody listening to music in the hallway or while studying, this is during class, during lecture, during group work, while writing essays, while reading…

There’s lots i hate about having a Pixel, but the spam protection isn’t one of them

I just found the Warcraft install disk for Windows 98 if y’all need something to do…

I fucking wish my neighbors would stop playing with fucking tannerite. It scares my dog half to death. Fuck tannerite and fuck people who light it on fire. Get a hobby.

Edit: sorry, rant. Still, fuck tannerite.

Where I live is not super uncommon for people to drive an hour into the nearest city. I don’t recommend it, though!

It really makes me envious when I see how much Europeans work: my partner already works more hours on average than the average European, and then his commute is on top of that. Why are we here? Give me mandatory vacation and a job I can bike to ANY DAY.