Helgztech

Aussie academic in vocational education, sociology, creative arts & edtech. Interested in theories of self & online learning. History & scifi nerd.
Living on Wiradjuri land. Pronouns: she/her.
#infosec #floss #foss #oer #solarpunk
"Sometimes antisocial, always antifacist".

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nprofile1qqsxgx8npn5vdv2f4n89sc0jyxsutmw6c52uvgr8a05rpyw2d39vzygpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsr6havd

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Last Notes

2024-06-23 00:58:25

I've been attempting to read E.P. Thompson for years, but it's hard to read more than a page or two without feeling intense rage and frustration at our lack of barricades and molotov cocktails so I put it aside. Now I'm going to try to get through the whole thing and make notes.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/662/731/121/413/827/original/0fc33c9fb6ca3427.jpg

2024-06-18 20:26:12

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@npub1y7x…jrl4 is Pummpkin Limited Ram Dass' publisher?

2024-05-27 08:44:11

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@npub15nw…s0l7 ahhh ok. Hmm no Arch was more work than I wanted to deal with so perhaps I'd better not then :) ... maybe when life isn't so hectic.

2024-05-27 08:37:11

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@npub15nw…s0l7 hmmmm.... apparently I need to check out nixos then....

2024-05-27 05:54:46

Nothing anyone has written is ever interesting enough for me to want to sign up to another piece of spam.
Nothing.
Got an signin wall? I'm not reading.

2024-05-27 05:23:25

If I get some random email 'survey' from some random company, I"m marking that sucker as phishing and moving on. How are we supposed to develop good email hygiene with all this corporate-generated noise?

2024-05-22 06:57:14

Time, use and practice are key to switching OSes, platforms and apps: you get comfortable with what you use. A good start to moving away from Microsoft Windows might be to install Libre Office on Windows, and start learning to use that for your daily word processing, presentations and spreadsheets. Take some steps with open source software before you even have to tackle a new operating system. #floss #foss #freesoftware #recall #quitwindows #quitmicrosoft

2024-05-20 06:54:55

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@npub16uk…pv7k the shape of things to come. Of course, the big climate culprits are safely ensconced in their air-conditioning.

2024-05-20 03:36:50

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@npub1vcl…k6t3 institutions have completely capitulated. It's weasel words all the way down.

2024-05-20 03:22:47

Fuck I'm sick of listening to middleclass white bros waxing lyrical about embracing AI. Such little appreciation of the actual realities of teaching and learning and the impact on educators who are actually doing the teaching and assessment.

2024-05-19 08:26:09

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@npub1wst…ez75 Gotta say the latest edition of Plasma is the bee's knees.

2024-05-19 08:24:38

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@npub1wst…ez75 sounds frustrating. any idea why Nautilus is broken? Maybe repairable?

2024-05-19 05:15:37

I was considering taking Ubuntu for a spin, partly for nostalgia (fond memory of the jawdropping moment I booted to that gorgeous orange and purple wallpaper) and partly because they seem good at what they do, so promise stability and security. But Canonical seems awfully chummy with Microsoft.

2024-05-14 05:32:23

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@npub18am…p424 I once swore at someone about trying to call our office fax machine and it turned out that yeah... it's using sound to communicate... they heard me 😳

2024-05-10 03:59:13

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I mean we put up with a lot of shit for the sake of paying the mortgage, but you're pointing a gun at our kids? That's a line you can't cross.

2024-05-10 03:55:46

Why in god's name would you EVER work for, attend, or send your kids to a college that has put a sniper on its roof and aimed it at student protestors? Like that should be IT for that institution. I would not go within a hundred yards of that institution if it were the last university on earth.

2024-05-04 06:35:31

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@npub1sua…szrk relpying to remind myself to check in tomorrow. In the market for an ereader.

2024-05-02 01:19:55

When did I become so angry at everything?

2024-05-01 00:29:59

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@npub1rsl…lqqt it annoys the bejeebus out of me just reading the text. That and 'let that sink in' always have this chest-poking air of self-importance.
I must go educate myself on emojis and accessibility.

2024-04-20 14:51:55

the whole business-as-usual thing is astonishing. The functionalists were right. What inertia the status quo has. Look at all this, look at it, the bombs raining on the children and a year's rain in a day, and here we are trudging to work and paying our taxes and watching godawful reality TV day after day, buying, buying. the fuck is wrong with humanity?

2024-04-20 14:45:23

🎵 It's the end of the world as we know it 🎶

2024-04-20 05:47:13

Do you have trouble getting rid of old study notes? Trying to declutter and I'm stuck on my old Psych (GradDip) notes. I'm not in that field and never will be. Lots of stats notes, stuff on neuro testing (mri/fmri), etc etc through to qual research methods. Like if I ever need to know any of this (casual tutoring/marking maybe???) - I'd go to a textbook. When did you last refer to student notes?

2024-04-15 00:17:30

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@npub1kxp…lt8h and Twine is afaik oriented to particular type of task so not surprising that you perhaps can't do what you'd wanted, at least directly. I hate video tutorials too. Can be useful though. What are you making?

2024-03-24 06:07:50

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@npub1aka…zzz2 nice. I was thinking of getting a Twsbi next, or the Pilot Metropolitan - I like snap caps. I've not tried the adapter for the Lamy yet. Mine has a medium nib and it certainly gets through the ink.

2024-03-24 05:54:57

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@npub1aka…zzz2 I've spent an absurd amount of time browsing Goulet pens ... so many pretty things. What did you buy?

2024-02-12 23:24:39

Task for today: gather some good resources on RSS and find some VET (Vocational Education and Training - adult technical education) and pedagogy RSS feeds for my edtech class. Planning on doing a 'technology of the week' centering on FLOSS tools they might like to investigate for their practice.

2024-02-11 06:42:04

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@npub1w78…efqy scaling images, mixing art mediums, adjusting recipes, reshaping clothingvpattern pieces, and intuitively when reaching for a high note on a cello string (space between notes gets shorter the higher you go). Used to use it in photography (inverse square illumination). Estimating water pressure in a hose.

2024-02-07 03:27:13

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@npub16uk…pv7k thanks, that's kind of you - though it'd still have to be approved. Also I no longer donate labor to institutions; even relatively minor to-and-fro to set up and administer etc wouldn't be covered by my current contract. Later on I would love to explore some of these platforms for my own use and FLOSS/OER contribution, and would be keen to chat about it.

2024-02-07 03:10:31

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@npub16uk…pv7k absolutely (I'm talking wrt myself asking students to use it independently). As a casual academic I have zero influence on the digital infrastructure here. We do already have a Wordpress installation ('Thinkspace') within our ecosystem for student use.

2024-02-07 03:04:31

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@npub16uk…pv7k nice! I did momentarily consider getting them to use peertube, but of course with assessment we need to retain those materials, and there may also be privacy/security issues on third party platforms. Trying to teach in this environment always feels like you're in a sack race - you can't actually run. And if you get too enthusiastic you fall flat on your face.

2024-02-07 02:56:19

Can your students easily upload a video to your LMS? If not, your institution is not serious about online learning. #lms #blackboard #onlinelearning #its2024ffs

2024-01-29 03:45:30

have I mentioned how much I loathe Microsoft Teams?

2024-01-23 02:30:55

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@npub16uk…pv7k I used to keep a list of 'stuff to do on fresh install' - the tools I liked to install and settings to tweak - must find that again.

2024-01-23 02:29:53

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@npub16uk…pv7k eh to an extent - but I am something of a pedagogue (both by training and practice, and as a lifelong learner) - confusion isn't helpful, especially when people don't know whether it's them or the tools. It's pretty easy to find the solution now, but back then I had to do a lot of digging. At one point I had one machine and *reinstalled window* so I could get net connection and troubleshoot!

2024-01-23 02:24:25

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@npub16uk…pv7k nowadays I'd agree with that argument but back in the day you basically couldn't do anything without gcc/make - it was my first frustrating lesson in 'command not found' and trying to figure out whether I was doing something wrong (always the issue when you're a noob and winging it).

2024-01-23 02:19:29

sometimes I really wonder at the stuff that isn't installed by default. Like build-essentials. Kinda essential. And net-tools. rlly?

2024-01-08 01:52:22

Whenever I get back into open source, I feel so much more optimistic about things. FLOSS is so contrary to the notion that people are fundamentally selfish. Maybe a lot of people are, but here is a community that loves to make cool things and share them. Where the idea of the greater good still has some value and is not antithetical to personal freedom. You get to feel like your computer is actually yours, not a corporate-mandated data-gathering device, and actually have fun with computing.

2023-12-05 00:30:24

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@npub16uk…pv7k yes, that sounds wise. Dynamic layout is pretty much essential nowadays, isn't it. Also anything that helps with accessibility.

2023-12-05 00:22:07

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@npub16uk…pv7k I find all of these tools kind of 'extra' - back in the day I hand-coded HTML and used FTP for my work site. For a personal site at one point I copy and pasted other people's javascript (never mastered, just enough to be able to edit things I wanted to use). So there's always that inclination to just do some vanilla HTML and not bother about bells and whistles. (never did quite master CSS).

2023-12-05 00:17:02

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@npub16uk…pv7k hmm. I've had a play with Grav once before, I think. I sort-of blog but so rarely it might as well be a static site. It's essentially an online portfolio, really. It'd probably be good learning to try some different tools, too - I might give them both a try and see what clicks.

2023-12-05 00:11:21

I like Wordpress a lot, but I wonder if it's time to ditch it in favour of something stripped down. I do need a gallery, but I don't need overcomplicated design, and don't need comments. Maybe just do some straightforward html? Or markdown and - ?

2023-11-21 00:26:27

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@npub16uk…pv7k exactly. I tend to use the term LLM myself. Or I don't know who coined it, but 'stochastic parrot'. The thing is, even if the output were 'better' in terms of 'truthiness' the impact on our capacity for human insight remains. The medium is the message.

2023-11-21 00:10:00

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@npub16uk…pv7k I feel it's impacting our capacity to think. It's being used at every step in the process of questioning, researching, reading, evaluating, and developing such that we only skim the surface of knowledge. We avoid genuine engagement, avoid effort, and substitute algorithmic connections for our own.

2023-11-20 23:17:09

I don't think I'm pearl-clutching over A I. Rather I'm clog-throwing, because I'm experiencing the damage unfold in real time. Most of our imagings about its impact have been high fantasies about what it is to be human, and have failed to fully explore the mundane realities of powerful computing.

2023-11-13 02:23:20

I find my old ipod (and I suppose any vintage MP3 player would do) still brilliant for podcasts. The batter life is amazing despite its age, and I'm not deafened by alerts, its settings don't get messed up by updates, the sound settings are always where I want them, and there's no distractions a click away. The navigation is admittedly clunky as hell, especially if I want to fast forward.

2023-10-21 01:36:48

Playing around with organization tools. So far I've been using Excel - now switching to #Libreoffice Calc. Spreadsheets are the bomb - you can do anything - calendar, gantt, kanban etc. So I'm not sure I see the value in things like Trello. Should I be looking at some other open source tool? I have three sets of org to do: home admin/tax, art (exhibition deadlines, funding application, tax) and work (lecture calendar/due dates/planning).

2023-10-19 17:52:11

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@npub1yyx…qa5g @npub1hyk…3p33 oh wow. me too. I always thought I wouldn't see 40. I think there's a particular age and time where the status mundi really impacted us that way; I've met only a handful of people who expressed feeling the same. I'd wondered if I was over-sensitive.

2023-10-11 23:32:09

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@npub1m2n…jyuf @npub1vvu…pj6u yeah nah, they're pretty much all on the corporate bandwagon, love digitoys with bells and whistles, and don't give a shit about privacy, security and software freedom. And Institutions are welded to Microsoft.

2023-10-04 13:42:05

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@npub1yp4…7d3l it would be awesome if someone would do a licencing talk focusing on edtech that we could share with students and colleagues.

2023-08-30 10:13:47

Can someone else try the fingerprint reader on their phone after washing the dishes (or showering) and let me know if it works. Wondering if it's just me ....

2023-08-22 00:56:00

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@npub1aum…5jx0 no single example but one of my daughters repainted my d20 into a d3 because I never roll anything higher if it's a tense moment. 😅

2023-08-21 23:36:55

I love the way I can just type 'apt-get install softwarename' and 30 seconds later I have a new tool installed. No licences, no subscriptions, not even hunting in a store for it. #opensource #freesoftware rocks.