
2025-08-19 16:12:45
Ukrainian war masters: repair units and the “Flamingo” missile changing the course of the war: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/19/ukrainian-war-masters-repair-units.html
Ukrainian war masters: repair units and the “Flamingo” missile changing the course of the war: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/19/ukrainian-war-masters-repair-units.html
I was going to drop this into a group chat, but I decided to make it your problem instead. You're welcome.
Now I'm going to disable mastodon on my phone for a few days and let this simmer. Nothing could go wrong.
Something something "all gods, no masters."
Edit: I lied. :P
Satisfies in TypeScript
This is a post about one of TypeScript’s less common features: the satisfies keyword. It’s occasionally incredibly useful, and knowing how to properly wield it is a valuable trick to have up your sleeve. Let’s take a look!
🧑💻 https://frontendmasters.com/blog/satis…
Brand Masters
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: #GreatAusPods
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Saint Etienne:
🎵 Only Love Can Break Your Heart
#SaintEtienne
https://housemusic3.bandcamp.com/track/saint-etienne-only-love-can-break-your-heart-masters-at-work-dub
https://open.spotify.com/track/2l2JonC9Mmrqs5sC7G0SlD
Eco Puzzlers For Masters of Engineering - For those on their way to mastering engineering... A set of thought experiments to help fix the real world. #ecoEngineering - https://www.earth.org.uk/MEng-Eco-Puzzlers
I think we should use CSS logical properties wherever we can. Chris Coyier has outlined some cases where we cannot:
https://frontendmasters.com/blog/should-we-never-use-non-logical-properties/
I made a traditional to logical mapping in [checks wat…
(Original title: How to not build the Torment Nexus)
https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-to-not-build-the-torment-nexus/
Synthetic Protein-Ligand Complex Generation for Deep Molecular Docking
Sofiene Khiari, Matthew R. Masters, Amr H. Mahmoud, Markus A. Lill
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12915 https:…
Should we teach vibe coding? Here's why not.
Should AI coding be taught in undergrad CS education?
1/2
I teach undergraduate computer science labs, including for intro and more-advanced core courses. I don't publish (non-negligible) scholarly work in the area, but I've got years of craft expertise in course design, and I do follow the academic literature to some degree. In other words, In not the world's leading expert, but I have spent a lot of time thinking about course design, and consider myself competent at it, with plenty of direct experience in what knowledge & skills I can expect from students as they move through the curriculum.
I'm also strongly against most uses of what's called "AI" these days (specifically, generative deep neutral networks as supplied by our current cadre of techbro). There are a surprising number of completely orthogonal reasons to oppose the use of these systems, and a very limited number of reasonable exceptions (overcoming accessibility barriers is an example). On the grounds of environmental and digital-commons-pollution costs alone, using specifically the largest/newest models is unethical in most cases.
But as any good teacher should, I constantly question these evaluations, because I worry about the impact on my students should I eschew teaching relevant tech for bad reasons (and even for his reasons). I also want to make my reasoning clear to students, who should absolutely question me on this. That inspired me to ask a simple question: ignoring for one moment the ethical objections (which we shouldn't, of course; they're very stark), at what level in the CS major could I expect to teach a course about programming with AI assistance, and expect students to succeed at a more technically demanding final project than a course at the same level where students were banned from using AI? In other words, at what level would I expect students to actually benefit from AI coding "assistance?"
To be clear, I'm assuming that students aren't using AI in other aspects of coursework: the topic of using AI to "help you study" is a separate one (TL;DR it's gross value is not negative, but it's mostly not worth the harm to your metacognitive abilities, which AI-induced changes to the digital commons are making more important than ever).
So what's my answer to this question?
If I'm being incredibly optimistic, senior year. Slightly less optimistic, second year of a masters program. Realistic? Maybe never.
The interesting bit for you-the-reader is: why is this my answer? (Especially given that students would probably self-report significant gains at lower levels.) To start with, [this paper where experienced developers thought that AI assistance sped up their work on real tasks when in fact it slowed it down] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09089) is informative. There are a lot of differences in task between experienced devs solving real bugs and students working on a class project, but it's important to understand that we shouldn't have a baseline expectation that AI coding "assistants" will speed things up in the best of circumstances, and we shouldn't trust self-reports of productivity (or the AI hype machine in general).
Now we might imagine that coding assistants will be better at helping with a student project than at helping with fixing bugs in open-source software, since it's a much easier task. For many programming assignments that have a fixed answer, we know that many AI assistants can just spit out a solution based on prompting them with the problem description (there's another elephant in the room here to do with learning outcomes regardless of project success, but we'll ignore this over too, my focus here is on project complexity reach, not learning outcomes). My question is about more open-ended projects, not assignments with an expected answer. Here's a second study (by one of my colleagues) about novices using AI assistance for programming tasks. It showcases how difficult it is to use AI tools well, and some of these stumbling blocks that novices in particular face.
But what about intermediate students? Might there be some level where the AI is helpful because the task is still relatively simple and the students are good enough to handle it? The problem with this is that as task complexity increases, so does the likelihood of the AI generating (or copying) code that uses more complex constructs which a student doesn't understand. Let's say I have second year students writing interactive websites with JavaScript. Without a lot of care that those students don't know how to deploy, the AI is likely to suggest code that depends on several different frameworks, from React to JQuery, without actually setting up or including those frameworks, and of course three students would be way out of their depth trying to do that. This is a general problem: each programming class carefully limits the specific code frameworks and constructs it expects students to know based on the material it covers. There is no feasible way to limit an AI assistant to a fixed set of constructs or frameworks, using current designs. There are alternate designs where this would be possible (like AI search through adaptation from a controlled library of snippets) but those would be entirely different tools.
So what happens on a sizeable class project where the AI has dropped in buggy code, especially if it uses code constructs the students don't understand? Best case, they understand that they don't understand and re-prompt, or ask for help from an instructor or TA quickly who helps them get rid of the stuff they don't understand and re-prompt or manually add stuff they do. Average case: they waste several hours and/or sweep the bugs partly under the rug, resulting in a project with significant defects. Students in their second and even third years of a CS major still have a lot to learn about debugging, and usually have significant gaps in their knowledge of even their most comfortable programming language. I do think regardless of AI we as teachers need to get better at teaching debugging skills, but the knowledge gaps are inevitable because there's just too much to know. In Python, for example, the LLM is going to spit out yields, async functions, try/finally, maybe even something like a while/else, or with recent training data, the walrus operator. I can't expect even a fraction of 3rd year students who have worked with Python since their first year to know about all these things, and based on how students approach projects where they have studied all the relevant constructs but have forgotten some, I'm not optimistic seeing these things will magically become learning opportunities. Student projects are better off working with a limited subset of full programming languages that the students have actually learned, and using AI coding assistants as currently designed makes this impossible. Beyond that, even when the "assistant" just introduces bugs using syntax the students understand, even through their 4th year many students struggle to understand the operation of moderately complex code they've written themselves, let alone written by someone else. Having access to an AI that will confidently offer incorrect explanations for bugs will make this worse.
To be sure a small minority of students will be able to overcome these problems, but that minority is the group that has a good grasp of the fundamentals and has broadened their knowledge through self-study, which earlier AI-reliant classes would make less likely to happen. In any case, I care about the average student, since we already have plenty of stuff about our institutions that makes life easier for a favored few while being worse for the average student (note that our construction of that favored few as the "good" students is a large part of this problem).
To summarize: because AI assistants introduce excess code complexity and difficult-to-debug bugs, they'll slow down rather than speed up project progress for the average student on moderately complex projects. On a fixed deadline, they'll result in worse projects, or necessitate less ambitious project scoping to ensure adequate completion, and I expect this remains broadly true through 4-6 years of study in most programs (don't take this as an endorsement of AI "assistants" for masters students; we've ignored a lot of other problems along the way).
There's a related problem: solving open-ended project assignments well ultimately depends on deeply understanding the problem, and AI "assistants" allow students to put a lot of code in their file without spending much time thinking about the problem or building an understanding of it. This is awful for learning outcomes, but also bad for project success. Getting students to see the value of thinking deeply about a problem is a thorny pedagogical puzzle at the best of times, and allowing the use of AI "assistants" makes the problem much much worse. This is another area I hope to see (or even drive) pedagogical improvement in, for what it's worth.
1/2
🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
Saint Etienne:
🎵 Only Love Can Break Your Heart
#NowPlaying #SaintEtienne
https://housemusic3.bandcamp.com/track/saint-etienne-only-love-can-break-your-heart-masters-at-work-dub
https://open.spotify.com/track/2l2JonC9Mmrqs5sC7G0SlD
I'm burned out, good night! No gods, no masters! Anarchy always!
Hey y'all. My wife recently graduated with a masters in CS (main focus areas being data science and AI/ML) and is still looking for a job as the market is utter shit. We're in the Bay Area for the foreseeable future, so she's currently looking for job opportunities either in the area or fully remote!
#GetFediHired
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Funk Masters:
🎵 Love Money
#FunkMasters
https://djbacksongs.bandcamp.com/track/funk-masters-love-money
https://open.spotify.com/track/07aBBTWwZ3XvP1hVa27zjL
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #RoundMidnight
Brian Jackson, Masters at Work & Rahsaan Patterson:
🎵 Is That Jazz?
#BrianJackson #MastersatWork #RahsaanPatterson
⭐ Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/organized-crime-gold-trade-are-increasingly-connected-report-shows/
Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/organized-crime-gold-trade-are-increasingly-connected-report-shows/
I am slowly but surely enjoying Reiner Keller's "Sociology of knowledge approach to discourse". I highly appreciate the level of care towards what is identified/extracted and taken for real. However, as with any other sociological framework, the position of the analyst remains problematic.
Even if one masters the analytical practice, communicating it remains problematic, as language must be used to do so. Traditionally, sociologists attempt to find a new form of language, which often becomes increasingly abstract and incomprehensible.
I wonder what the alternative would be: expressing analytical insights in every possible language or discursive logic (which is practically impossible), or at least in those connected to the analysis. Language translation or 'elif' could be examples of this. However, I also consider 'speaking in your terms' when communicating with individuals from different backgrounds.
#ADSK #Sociology #DiscourseAnalysis
Of the top 20 UK albums right now, 11 are "best of", collections or re-masters. If you need any evidence of the state that the music sector is in right now, here it is. The algorithm is only making money for the incumbents.
Reversing what was undisputable knowledge
Branded as false-factual information
A game of sovereigns
Masters of deceit
Weapons of art
Tables turn on the overpowering
Balance to be restored
Force fed fabricated quandaries of diplomatic myth, untruths
Consequences of pride, and misplaced malice
The dialogues fall through
Oh, but they ingest it
Undoing from the inside begins as a seed
Until it grows
Lies form
Blind and targ…
Modulated deuteron spectra observed with the Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer at the National Ignition Facility
Bao Nguyen, Yousef Lawrence, Christopher Wink, Timothy Mark Johnson, Niels Vanderloo, Benjamin Reichelt, Amber Hennessy, Daniel Thomas Casey, Dave Schlossberg, Nathan Masters, Jose Milovich, Ari Le, Stephen Craxton, Maria Gatu Johnson, Johan Frenje
EUCLID: Photometric redshift calibration with self-organising maps
W. Roster, A. H. Wright, H. Hildebrandt, R. Reischke, O. Ilbert, W. d'Assignies D., M. Manera, M. Bolzonella, D. C. Masters, S. Paltani, W. G. Hartley, Y. Kang, H. Hoekstra, B. Altieri, A. Amara, S. Andreon, N. Auricchio, C. Baccigalupi, M. Baldi, A. Balestra, S. Bardelli, P. Battaglia, R. Bender, A. Biviano, E. Branchini, M. Brescia, S. Camera, G. Ca\~nas-Herrera, V. Capobianco, C. Carbone, V. F. Cardone, J. Carret…
Empowering Educators in the Age of AI: An Empirical Study on Creating custom GPTs in Qualitative Research Method education
Qian Huang, Thijs Willems
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21074
I decree
Bow before my badge
Get on the ground
Hands behind your neck
Cuffed up tightly
Disarray I don’t take lightly
Dislocated shoulder
Anarchists getting bolder
Go!
Our knees in their backs
“Non-lethal” fire cracks
Taze the bastards
Answer to your masters
Under my surveillance, no one stands a chance
I’ll break you bones and bring you in at first glance
You can't fend off my figure
I’ll pull up my gun a…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Masters at Work:
🎵 The Ha Dance (Ken/Lou mixx)
#MastersatWork
https://ruffkaval.bandcamp.com/track/masters-at-work-the-ha-dance-kaval-edit
#ArtEnsembleOfChicago
#CecilTaylor
#TheloniousSphereMonk
what else did you need to know?
Dreaming of the Masters Vol. 2
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #DonLettsCultureClashRadio
Brian Jackson & Masters at Work:
🎵 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (feat. Black Thought)
#BrianJackson #MastersatWork
#newRelease 🆕 single
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/album/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-feat-black-thought
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Va9lgzBLlMG6UcwuY91A9
Beyond the Bermuda Triangle of Contention: IOMMU Interference in Mixed Criticality Systems
Diogo Costa, Jose Martins, Sandro Pinto
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19670 https://
IRANIAN PROGRAM DEBATED AT M.I.T.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/27/archives/iranian-program-debated-at-mit-training-of-atom-scientists-called.html?u…
Tracking the affordability of least-cost healthy diets helps guide intervention for food security and improved nutrition
William A. Masters
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22965
I feel weird saying “Happy July 4” to my American friends, because I don’t think many Americans are very happy with where the country is headed. Independence Day? From what? Tyrannical Kings? Colonial masters?
Seems #theAmericanFascist is headed back there as quickly as he can.
You gotta fight it, friends. You have to stop what you are doing today and really think about how to force Trump and his backers to reverse course now, hopefully peacefully, but maybe not.
So Happy Independence Day to my good hearted American friends. I know you are there, from both parties.
I wish for you the strength to stand up for that Independence and Freedom for all within your borders so you can again become a beacon. Remember that you have friends in the world willing to help, but the first step has to be yours.
#usa #july4 #independenceday
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Brian Jackson & Masters at Work feat. Omar:
🎵 The Bottle
#BrianJackson #MastersatWork #Omar
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/track/the-bottle-ft-omar-produced-by-masters-at-work
Where I wuz at #OTD 41 yrs ago...
$5 #AllAges Punk/ Funk Spectacular at #Georgetown University Hall of Nations
#GoGo Beat Masters
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #JazzTheatre
Art Ensemble of Chicago:
🎵 Dreaming of the Masters / Excerpt Part 15 & 3A
#ArtEnsembleofChicago
https://open.spotify.com/track/7tHXpiOh9F1FgWm4x2LpCY
Replaced article(s) found for econ.GN. https://arxiv.org/list/econ.GN/new
[1/1]:
- Retail prices, environmental footprints, and nutritional profiles of commonly sold retail food it...
Elena M. Martinez, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Parke E. Wilde, Anna W. Herforth, William A. Masters
…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Brian Jackson & Masters at Work feat. Omar:
🎵 The Bottle
#BrianJackson #MastersatWork #Omar
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/track/the-bottle-ft-omar-produced-by-masters-at-work
The average undergrad tuition fee in the 1974/75 academic year in Canada, across all disciplines, was $547 ($3445 adjusted to 2025)
Fees 50 years later in 2024/25 were $7360 ($7496 adjusted)
That is more than double. 117%.
And I *know* from personal experience this is a low ball average. If I could find a breakdown by discipline or by length of study for today, some would be even more obscene.
What has changed? Any occupation outside a minimum wage paying job demands a 2-4yr undergraduate diploma or degree, if not more.
Think about the 1970s and how common it was for people to get good paying jobs, leading to careers, without even high school education. Our free education stops with high school.
My family is a good example.
Mom and Step Dad: teacher college/degree. One got a Masters mid career.
Dad: didn’t complete HS
Father in law: didn’t complete HS
Mother in law: completed HS mid-career
Leadership positions and full careers demand a Masters or PhD requiring 5-10 years of study after HS!
Add in the cost of food and housing and the massive cuts happening at all colleges and universities because of the loss of international student tuition and I am going to go out on a limb and say our students today are going to pay double the price for a far worse experience than possibly any time since the Second World War.
Public education should be free.
Food and Housing should be controlled.
If the only thing government cares about is the economy, then they are setting us up for failure, and have been for decades.
(Don’t get me started on the kinds of “values” Canadian governments demonstrate when International student tuitions are 5x more than domestic students, let alone the inherent revenue risk in that funding strategy that has now come home to roost)
#canpoli #cdnpoli #education #university #college #canada
(
74/75 Source Stats Can: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710015001&pickMembers[0]=1.1&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1972 / 1973&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2006 / 2007&referencePeriods=19720101,20060101
24/25 source stats can: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710004501
cc: @… @…
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Brian Jackson & Masters at Work feat. Omar:
🎵 The Bottle
#BrianJackson #MastersatWork #Omar
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/track/the-bottle-ft-omar-produced-by-masters-at-work
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Brian Jackson & Masters At Work feat. Omar:
🎵 The Bottle
#BrianJackson #MastersAtWork #Omar
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/track/the-bottle-ft-omar-produced-by-masters-at-work
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #DriveTime
Brian Jackson & Masters At Work feat. Black Thought:
🎵 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
#BrianJackson #MastersAtWork #BlackThought
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/album/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-feat-black-thought
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Va9lgzBLlMG6UcwuY91A9
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #MorningShow
Brian Jackson & Masters At Work feat. Black Thought:
🎵 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
#BrianJackson #MastersAtWork #BlackThought
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/album/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-feat-black-thought
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Va9lgzBLlMG6UcwuY91A9
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Brian Jackson & Masters At Work feat. Black Thought:
🎵 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
#BrianJackson #MastersAtWork #BlackThought
https://thebrianjackson.bandcamp.com/album/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised-feat-black-thought
https://open.spotify.com/track/6Va9lgzBLlMG6UcwuY91A9