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Samuel Thomson

@samuelthomson.bsky.social

1.1K followers 4.5K following 1.2K posts

Lecturer in Game Design | Technical Artist | Artist Interests include history of creative disciplines and technology. Artist: http://samuelthomson.org Technical Artist: http://framelord.ltd Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@samuelthomson they/them

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 22d

Still one of my favorites!

Reposted by Samuel Thomson

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 3h

I actually think useful vs. harmful is the wrong binary. All use will always be harmful to one degree or another. The question is *what* are these technologies doing and—crucially—for whom.

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 3h

I hope as we move past the first wave of AI criticism ("it doesn't work, all hype") we get a new wave of AI criticism rooted in the acknowledgement that, yes, these systems are very powerful & quite useful and focusing a deep exploration of when AI uses are uplifting and when they are detrimental.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 5h

I don't know though, she does seems INCREDIBLY dismissive.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 5h

I do feel this as a "not understanding the gravitas" situation, but there's something else going on, maybe "do you know how many people with atrocious views I have to deal with on a daily basis", or even "I detest the woman too, but I long stopped caring". Definitely made me wince though. Ew.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 5h

I'd like to see the version without the cut away when she's asked the question. I think you'd get a better idea whether it was actually a surprise for her or not.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 6h

This is like saying they'll fight a war in VR.

New York Post @nypost.com · 11h

Top US Army general says he’s using ChatGPT to help make key command decisions

Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor told reporters that he's been using ChatGPT to refine how he makes choices affecting thousands of troops.

nypost.com

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 6h

Composition of the Earth.

ouinne @ouinne.bsky.social · 6h

Also I labored for so long trying to dig a hole and here is a handy survey of the composition of the dirt in my backyard.

A badly hand drawn pie chart with the overwhelming volume of the circle being blue, labeled Rock. A tiny sliver of the circle is mauve and reads Not Rock but Not Dirt??

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 8h

That's amazing, but for a second I thought it was part of an excavator buried in the cement.

Reposted by Samuel Thomson

Tim Ellis 🍁 @djdynamic.ca · 12h

Here is a Reddit threat that explains how to disable Copilot in Windows, which I've just followed:

www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHel...

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 9h

"Give me a Nobel Peace Prize or I'll kill some people" is the line you use to explain what an abuser is to a lamp post.

Nash Is Here for It @nashishereforit.bsky.social · 9h

Hamas never agreed to all of the terms of this “Peace Agreement”. It didn’t win him the Nobel Peace Prize, so now he’s going to get retribution from the innocent Palestinians that finally had hope for their country’s future.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 9h

Radio controlled demolition bombs with 500m kill radius, used by Israel to level city blocks and indescriminately vaporise people in Gaza.

www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 10h

How creepy is it to call your newspaper "The Spectator".

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

Yep this is a problem. It's basically very slow and boring and makes messing around hard work. I suggested doing some work in the console to get started, and I might go back to that idea. But I don't really want to work with C++ standard library for 2 weeks then switch to Unreal C++!

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

EHRC has temporarily withdrawn its guidance on trans people.

I've been considering transphobia as a failure to understand what it's like to "not fit in" with m/f groups, growing up, and into adulthood.

For me, non-binary is refusal of the gendered hierarchies that repeatedly marginalised me.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, and I'm setting the bar low because I want students to make something (anything!) of their own. Just write a function and call it somewhere. But I'm finding it hard to get students to go off on their own at all. I need some very very simple "challenge" exercises that get harder very gradually.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

We've already done BP so they know what variables, functions, and loops are, and that definitely helps, but it doesn't feel much like BP!

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting idea. There's a gradient between motivated students who are very keen to get started with C++ and students who find it unrewarding initially. You can't do much in Unreal without pointers, and it's a big initial hump to get over. I'm trying to motivate people past those first weeks.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes there are loads of tutorials online, and additional learning resources.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

It's also something I've noticed, although Rider gives helpful links to C++ classes.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, I'm naturally inclined to worry about being an Unreal feeder course, but students want to make impressive looking games by 3rd year. It's hard to do that if working with an engine for less than a couple of years imo. There's a lot of competing constraints though for sure!

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

My argument for learning C++ is that it seems better to me to learn BP and then a bit of Unreal C++, and get to an OK standard in 3 years, rather than split the time between different engines and do very similar things in each because you have to learn the basics each time.

Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

It's a design/development course with a small amount of art! Definitely not engineering though.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

The real difficult part is thinking about a course being "unreal heavy". I think it's better to stick with one "main" engine for 3 years. Learning two generic engines is a lot of duplication of effort with anim systems etc. Learning e.g. Unreal BP and Unity C# seems like a misstep to me.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

We do C++, is this what you mean? It's hard going as a first programming language and we only do it for 12 weeks in second year (maybe extending to a 3rd year elective module). Some people enthusiastically pick it up. A lot struggle. But I think any first language is difficult.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think it's a good idea to try teaching e.g. Godot in first year, Unreal in second year, because it takes so long to learn an engine to a usable standard. There's about equal enthusiasm for learning a strong 3d engine, and learning programming fundamentals.

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Samuel Thomson @samuelthomson.bsky.social · 1d

I'm conscious of promoting a single engine to students, but there's so many competing requirements e.g. teach fundamentals/easy to use/industry applicable/looks nice/good tools. I can't think of a better option but someone was saying we're too UE heavy.