K2S0'Hara, but pumpkin spice flavored
@oharawe.bsky.social
490 followers 290 following 570 posts
Music theory prof interested in too many things, and too many sports teams. Currently writing about Amy Beach, DAWs, and games about the Second World War (not all at once). Swim dad. Happiest in/on water.
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oharawe.bsky.social
We could have ended world hunger, solved domestic homelessness, and probably established universal healthcare for the amount that has been poured into AI companies (The Guardian estimates $717 billion), all so they can soon answer the question, "What are you wearing?"
oharawe.bsky.social
other duties as assigned
unenthusiast.com
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/
hammancheez.bsky.social
"The chancellor approved it"
oharawe.bsky.social
Yeah I have a PhD, but I also have no idea how much spaghetti to cook for a given number of people.
oharawe.bsky.social
Yeah, it is extraordinary to realize that it's not employing any concept at all of "these are sharps and these are flats, and I need x number of them over here, then x+1..." It really is just slopping out pixels all over in something resembling images it's been trained on, and hoping for the best
oharawe.bsky.social
oharawe.bsky.social
wake up babe, new key signatures just dropped.

[Adding an AI policy to my syllabus this semester, and wanted an illustration so I went to ChatGPT. Now I'm really considering just making the policy, "If you'd like me to give you grades based on stuff like this, knock yourself out"]
ChatGPT's diagram of the Circle of Fifths. Many wrong key names (including two Bs, and the enharmonic pair C-sharp, G-flat, and 100% incorrect key signatures, mostly mixing flats, sharps, and the occasional double sharp)
oharawe.bsky.social
That’s actually decent compared to circles of fifths I’ve seen it make before
oharawe.bsky.social
Got back from the neighborhood fall festival to find the grisly scene of our Roomba trying to eat an American Girl doll hair first, how’s your Saturday going?
oharawe.bsky.social
This is the energy we all need to bring to bring to discussions about AI
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
oharawe.bsky.social
I've spent the past few weeks getting back into Times New Roman, as an act of aesthetic rebellion (or perhaps anti-aesthetic rebellion).
oharawe.bsky.social
Proposal: Faculty meetings, but somebody is running a sound effects board like an obnoxious drive-time radio show.

What sound effect or clip are you bringing to your faculty meetings? I'm wearing out the button on this one:

www.youtube.com/shorts/kQgI1...
'OH NO. DISASTER. WHAT A BAD IDEA' 🤣🍿 #cfb #usc #maryland #hornets #bigten
YouTube video by CFB ON FOX
www.youtube.com
oharawe.bsky.social
Wife and older kid away at Girl Scout camp so I’ve taken the younger one to the movies. The local ads here are just gloriously bad. Absolutely peak public access level stuff here, from bad lighting to awkward extras to voiceovers with intense Baltimore accents. It’s inspiring.
oharawe.bsky.social
Not until I saw this post, but I am now!
oharawe.bsky.social
Congratulations Chelsea! Can’t wait to read this!
Reposted by K2S0'Hara, but pumpkin spice flavored
merriam-webster.com
We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
Reposted by K2S0'Hara, but pumpkin spice flavored
komaniecki.bsky.social
Learning that 85% of ChatGPT users are men, and AI users are between 2-6x more likely to be men overall, and suddenly everything makes sense
oharawe.bsky.social
I hear it’s a light lift, most of the action is client side. Still, it’s pure luck that it’s still around. The EA news makes me dread the day when some private equity ass realizes that server is costing them 12 cents a day and kills it. But until then, I’m enjoying myself. bsky.app/profile/jaso...
jasonschreier.bsky.social
It’s official: EA is going private.

The leveraged buyout will be financed by a staggering $20 billion of debt, which likely means some *aggressive* cost cutting is ahead for EA in the coming months and years.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
www.businesswire.com
oharawe.bsky.social
Anyway, it’s an EA game, which makes its survival all the more miraculous. Normally, big companies turn these servers off once the game is no longer selling. Often only a couple of years. I’m pretty sure Star Wars Battlefield, which I had at the same time, is long dead.
oharawe.bsky.social
It feels miraculous that the servers are still running, and people are still playing it. It’s like a cozy sweater. it somehow unlocks a part of me I haven’t accessed in years. The old maps are like home, the old builds fit like a glove (or…don’t, for the ones that never did).
oharawe.bsky.social
I dropped off at some point, naturally. Life happens: I got closer to finishing, I started teaching some classes at Tufts (🩵🤎). I had a kid, went on the market.

ME3 was only a few years old then, but now it’s 13. I haven’t played in years. But I got the itch recently, and: it’s still around!
oharawe.bsky.social
I played it obsessively for about two years. I was decent, never great but good enough. There’s very much a feeling of playing pickup soccer (the other hobby I took up to rebuild my health): know your own strengths and weaknesses, support the team, don’t be a showboat. Don’t let the side down. 4/
oharawe.bsky.social
I think Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games ever made. You should play it, even now. The third isn’t as good, but…the third had multiplayer! And it was glorious. IS glorious. Four players, cooperative. Class-based, so you need a good team synergy and you need to know your role. 3/x
oharawe.bsky.social
It’s an action RPG, think of a blend of Star Wars and Star Trek. I played the 1st, and I remember starting the 2nd right after I took the exams; it held me together and helped me recover from the stress (I passed w/honors, but if you’ve known me long enough you may know I lost 15 lbs and went bald)
oharawe.bsky.social
I’ve been thinking about writing a post on this for a few days, EA news convinced me to.

The past two weeks, I’ve gotten back into playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. The Mass Effect series got me through my PhD exam summer. Study all day at the music department, go home and play to relax 1/x
oharawe.bsky.social
Schedule-sending literally 25 emails to go out at 9am on Monday morning is the real work-life balance. Can't wait to see what a mess my inbox is after teaching...