Tootfinder

Jaguars' Travis Hunter flashes impressive ball skills with highlight-reel interception at OTAs https://www.nfl.com/news/jaguars-travis-hunter-impressive-ball-skills-highlight-reel-interception-otas

Micah Parsons touts his running back skills in high school highlight video https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/micah-parsons-touts-running-back-skills-high-school-highlight-video

2025 NFL OTA takeaways: Travis Hunter displays inhuman ball skills, Cam Ward 'f--- it mentality' embraced

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/20…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15325 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csAI_…

Odyssey: Empowering Minecraft Agents with Open-World Skills
Recent studies have delved into constructing generalist agents for open-world environments like Minecraft. Despite the encouraging results, existing efforts mainly focus on solving basic programmatic tasks, e.g., material collection and tool-crafting following the Minecraft tech-tree, treating the ObtainDiamond task as the ultimate goal. This limitation stems from the narrowly defined set of actions available to agents, requiring them to learn effective long-horizon strategies from scratch. Con…

1/
Commentary by @… (noted by @…: https://toot.ca…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.08832 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Offline Adaptation of Quadruped Locomotion using Diffusion Models
We present a diffusion-based approach to quadrupedal locomotion that simultaneously addresses the limitations of learning and interpolating between multiple skills and of (modes) offline adapting to new locomotion behaviours after training. This is the first framework to apply classifier-free guided diffusion to quadruped locomotion and demonstrate its efficacy by extracting goal-conditioned behaviour from an originally unlabelled dataset. We show that these capabilities are compatible with a m…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01848 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csCR_…

Identifying Key Expert Actors in Cybercrime Forums Based on their Technical Expertise
The advent of Big Data has made the collection and analysis of cyber threat intelligence challenging due to its volume, leading research to focus on identifying key threat actors; yet these studies have failed to consider the technical expertise of these actors. Expertise, especially towards specific attack patterns, is crucial for cybercrime intelligence, as it focuses on targeting actors with the knowledge and skills to attack enterprises. Using CVEs and CAPEC classifications to build a bimod…

Motivando el uso y aprendizaje de Bash a trav\'es de concursos de programaci\'on
Luis Costero, Jorge Villarrubia, Francisco D. Igual
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00105

Motivando el uso y aprendizaje de Bash a través de concursos de programación
Command line learning and Bash usage are fundamental skills in systems administration, software development, and data science environments. However, their teaching has been neglected in many curricula, despite its relevance in the professional field. To address this gap, we developed an interactive competition that encourages students to improve their Bash skills through practical and competitive challenges. This gamified approach seeks to motivate autonomous learning and reinforce command line…

A Hierarchical Integer Linear Programming Approach for Optimizing Team Formation in Education
Aaron Kessler, Tim Scheiber, Heinz Schmitz, Ioanna Lykourentzou
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02756

A Hierarchical Integer Linear Programming Approach for Optimizing Team Formation in Education
Teamwork is integral to higher education, fostering students' interpersonal skills, improving learning outcomes, and preparing them for professional collaboration later in their careers. While team formation has traditionally been managed by humans, either instructors or students, algorithmic approaches have recently emerged to optimize this process. However, existing algorithmic team formation methods often focus on expert teams, overlook agency in choosing one's teammates, and are limited to …

"My advice to young students today is to study language and mathematics. When you talk to a chatbot, you’re using everyday language to talk to a mathematical system that, in turn, talks back to you. Technical skills won’t be enough to deal with the unpredictable results in markets, so a broad-based knowledge of math and language will be the only way to adapt."

Decision-making skills are not something we either have or we don’t have. They are things we can learn and they are things we can practice and get better and quicker at https://www.overcomecompulsivehoarding.co.uk/podcast-ep-188-decision-making-hoardi…

Unlocking Musical Understanding - Practising the Piano https://practisingthepiano.com/unlocking-musical-understanding-keyboard-harmony/?utm_sourc…

Unlocking Musical Understanding - Practising the Piano
Learn how to use keyboard harmony as a means of developing essential musical skills such as theory, ear training and analysis!

What do professional software developers need to know to succeed in an age of Artificial Intelligence?
Matthew Kam, Cody Miller, Miaoxin Wang, Abey Tidwell, Irene A. Lee, Joyce Malyn-Smith, Beatriz Perez, Vikram Tiwari, Joshua Kenitzer, Andrew Macvean, Erin Barrar
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00202…

What do professional software developers need to know to succeed in an age of Artificial Intelligence?
Generative AI is showing early evidence of productivity gains for software developers, but concerns persist regarding workforce disruption and deskilling. We describe our research with 21 developers at the cutting edge of using AI, summarizing 12 of their work goals we uncovered, together with 75 associated tasks and the skills & knowledge for each, illustrating how developers use AI at work. From all of these, we distilled our findings in the form of 5 insights. We found that the skills & know…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00420 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Think Small, Act Big: Primitive Prompt Learning for Lifelong Robot Manipulation
Building a lifelong robot that can effectively leverage prior knowledge for continuous skill acquisition remains significantly challenging. Despite the success of experience replay and parameter-efficient methods in alleviating catastrophic forgetting problem, naively applying these methods causes a failure to leverage the shared primitives between skills. To tackle these issues, we propose Primitive Prompt Learning (PPL), to achieve lifelong robot manipulation via reusable and extensible primi…

Political turmoil in Washington has dried up job opportunities in what Professor Ladher calls
“the best research ecosystem in the world.”
Some decided they would now rather take their skills elsewhere, including Austria, Japan and Australia,
while others opted to stay in India.
As the Trump administration moves with abandon to deny visas,
expel foreign students and slash spending on research,
scientists in the United States are becoming increasingly alarm…

World Scientists Look Elsewhere as U.S. Labs Stagger Under Trump Cuts
With the welcome mat withdrawn for promising researchers from around the world, America is at risk of losing its longstanding pre-eminence in the sciences.

Browns' Shedeur Sanders flashes 'elite' skills, gets glowing review from team color analyst during OTAs

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news…

Series B, Episode 11 - Gambit
JENNA: She's right, Blake. He's led a privileged life. He's got money.
BLAKE: He's also been on the move for a long time.
JENNA: But even so, a man with his skills can always earn it.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/211/170 B…

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

The highs and lows of fieldwork: on the sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding process of learning new skills. Also, back to the sea ice again.
#FieldDiary updates
https://sternaparadisaea.net/2025/05/24/field-diary-2025/

'Sky's the limit' for Joe Milton as Cowboys backup QB flashes skills during Cowboys OTA practice

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/skys-th

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12018 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csCR_…

A Human Study of Cognitive Biases in CTF Challenges
Cybersecurity training has become a crucial part of computer science education and industrial onboarding. Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions have emerged as a valuable, gamified approach for developing and refining the skills of cybersecurity and software engineering professionals. However, while CTFs provide a controlled environment for tackling real world challenges, the participants' decision making and problem solving processes remain under explored. Recognizing that psychology may play a …

Sincerely, Carter by Whitney G. My rating: 1 of 5 stars Oh, wow, this was ridiculously bad. Carter and Arizona have been friends since fourth grade. They are the closest of platonic friends – until they, as is most convenient for the plot, both suddenly at the same time realise how insanely hot they are for each other. With all the language skills of a teenager and the sensitivity of a butcher, Whitne...

Where's the Line? A Classroom Activity on Ethical and Constructive Use of Generative AI in Physics
Zosia Krusberg
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00229 http…

Where's the Line? A Classroom Activity on Ethical and Constructive Use of Generative AI in Physics
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are rapidly reshaping how students and instructors engage with course material-and how they think about academic integrity. This paper presents a classroom activity designed to help physics students critically examine the ethical and educational implications of using AI in coursework. Through a structured sequence of case analysis, discussion, and optional policy drafting, students develop the metacognitive, ethical, and collaborative skills needed to navigate e…

Prompt Engineer: Analyzing Skill Requirements in the AI Job Market
An Vu, Jonas Oppenlaender
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00058 https://

Prompt Engineer: Analyzing Skill Requirements in the AI Job Market
The rise of large language models (LLMs) has created a new job role: the Prompt Engineer. Despite growing interest in this position, we still do not fully understand what skills this new job role requires or how common these jobs are. We analyzed 20,662 job postings on LinkedIn, including 72 prompt engineer positions, to learn more about this emerging role. We found that prompt engineering is still rare (less than 0.5% of sampled job postings) but has a unique skill profile. Prompt engineers ne…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.10741 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

StyleSinger: Style Transfer for Out-of-Domain Singing Voice Synthesis
Style transfer for out-of-domain (OOD) singing voice synthesis (SVS) focuses on generating high-quality singing voices with unseen styles (such as timbre, emotion, pronunciation, and articulation skills) derived from reference singing voice samples. However, the endeavor to model the intricate nuances of singing voice styles is an arduous task, as singing voices possess a remarkable degree of expressiveness. Moreover, existing SVS methods encounter a decline in the quality of synthesized singin…

My latest bit for The Register on why engineers should develop their communication skills:
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/18/communications_for_engineers/

To progress as an engineer career-wise, become a great communicator
Systems Approach: It'll even help you develop technical skills

There's certain jobs that I've always done when publishing with more senior colleagues (like formatting the references or tables, checking for consistency) and I thought "well obviously". But now that I'm mostly publishing with more junior colleagues I'm *still* doing those jobs, so I've come to think it's probably just a combination of a certain level of skills obsession 🙃 #academicChatter
(ignoring the gender issue for now which may contribute to making "housekeeping" my job?!)

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.20527 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_eco…

Financial literacy, robo-advising, and the demand for human financial advice: Evidence from Italy
This paper investigates the impact of objective financial knowledge, confidence in one's financial skills, and digital financial literacy on individuals' decisions to seek financial advice from robo-advice platforms. Using microdata from the Bank of Italy's survey on adults' "Financial Literacy and Digital Financial Skills in Italy", we find that individuals with greater financial knowledge are less inclined to rely on online services for automated financial advice. On the contrary, confidence …

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12583 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

A Comprehensive Survey on Physical Risk Control in the Era of Foundation Model-enabled Robotics
Recent Foundation Model-enabled robotics (FMRs) display greatly improved general-purpose skills, enabling more adaptable automation than conventional robotics. Their ability to handle diverse tasks thus creates new opportunities to replace human labor. However, unlike general foundation models, FMRs interact with the physical world, where their actions directly affect the safety of humans and surrounding objects, requiring careful deployment and control. Based on this proposition, our survey co…

Series B, Episode 11 - Gambit
JENNA: She's right, Blake. He's led a privileged life. He's got money.
BLAKE: He's also been on the move for a long time.
JENNA: But even so, a man with his skills can always earn it.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/211/170 B…

Blakes7Bot | Search
Companion site to the Blakes7Bot Twitter, Mastodon, and Bluesky accounts. Automated lines of Blakes 7 dialog. Includes a script search facility.

Distinguishing Fact from Fiction: Student Traits, Attitudes, and AI Hallucination Detection in Business School Assessment
Canh Thien Dang, An Nguyen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00050

Distinguishing Fact from Fiction: Student Traits, Attitudes, and AI Hallucination Detection in Business School Assessment
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes integral to the society, the ability to critically evaluate AI-generated content is increasingly vital. On the context of management education, we examine how academic skills, cognitive traits, and AI scepticism influence students' ability to detect factually incorrect AI-generated responses (hallucinations) in a high-stakes assessment at a UK business school (n=211, Year 2 economics and management students). We find that only 20% successfully identified …

🌟 PostgreSQL pros, assemble! SCaLE 21x brings you the best talks to sharpen your skills. Watch, learn, and conquer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoC6QKBQOTk&list=PLh1QjGnfC2eSlLgxcHJtO7QgoOeAEUi6V&pp=iAQB

"Debug Like a Pro: Improve Your Efficiency with Visual Studio & Copilot" is worth watching.
#visualstudio #build

Count the bears. An important test of your outdoor survival skills, human.
#wildlife #Bristol #Zoo

Feel the Force: Contact-Driven Learning from Humans
Ademi Adeniji, Zhuoran Chen, Vincent Liu, Venkatesh Pattabiraman, Raunaq Bhirangi, Siddhant Haldar, Pieter Abbeel, Lerrel Pinto
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01944

Feel the Force: Contact-Driven Learning from Humans
Controlling fine-grained forces during manipulation remains a core challenge in robotics. While robot policies learned from robot-collected data or simulation show promise, they struggle to generalize across the diverse range of real-world interactions. Learning directly from humans offers a scalable solution, enabling demonstrators to perform skills in their natural embodiment and in everyday environments. However, visual demonstrations alone lack the information needed to infer precise contac…

"If anything, this author firmly believes that programming skills are second to those related to communication; most engineers coming out of colleges these days are unable to express themselves in public, to teach their peers, to write an essay or a blog post, to communicate their ideas to stakeholders, or to put together a simple documentation bundle without suffering a seizure in the process."
https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/banning-adopting-reckoning/

Lovely thoughtful inspiring thread from @… on the skills, traditions, business & infrastructure of getting things repaired:
#repair #fixing #RightToRepair

Was thinking today that if I was in career advice I'd get young people starting out to do a trade, then go to Uni. Manual skills are a big deal.

Please share this link about the EIGHT (STEM / coding / design / engineering summer camps Shelly Fryer and I are teaching in June and July 2025 through "Summer at Providence Day School!"
https://lessons.wesfryer.com/courses/summer-2025

Lessons by Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) - Summer 2025
Students: Come have FUN this summer and develop your STEM / coding / design skills with Dr. Fryer and Mrs. Fryer at "Summer Day School at Providence Day School!" All week-long classes are open to BOTH current PDS students and students attending other schools! Direct links to register for each camp

British defence jobs and skills will keep us safe, says the PM. So he’d better buy the UK’s jet, not the US one https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/06/british-defence-jobs-uk-jet-american-f35-typhoon?CMP=share…

This is a stark reminder for all of us, whether in tech, consulting, or some other previously promising career path:
✅ No company is too big to pivot.
✅ Operational efficiency doesn't always mean job security.
✅ Skills that once defined careers must now evolve with industry shifts.

If you ask your technical team to migrate off US cloud infrastructure, they’ll pull faces and ask “to where!?”
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/22/ditching_us_clouds_for_local/

'Close to impossible' for Europe to escape clutches of US hyperscalers
: Barriers stack up: Datacenter capacity, egress fees, platform skills, variety of cloud services. It won't happen, say analysts

Meet Alexius Chipalamwazani - 2023 Emerging NREN Programme (ENP) Participant!
At #TNC23, Alexius joined the ENP—a programme built to equip and empower emerging NREN representatives with the skills, knowledge, and community ties that will drive innovation back home.
In this interview, Alexius reflects on his ENP experience, how it shaped his growth, and the impact it’s had on Malawi’s NRE…

Reflections on the Emerging NREN Programme: a personal journey with the Malawian NREN | GÉANT CONNECT Online
Alexius Chipalamwazani from MAREN shares how the Emerging NREN Programme empowered him to drive innovation and lead IPv6 adoption in Malawi.

Financial literacy, robo-advising, and the demand for human financial advice: Evidence from Italy
David Aristei, Manuela Gallo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.20527

Financial literacy, robo-advising, and the demand for human financial advice: Evidence from Italy
This paper investigates the impact of objective financial knowledge, confidence in one's financial skills, and digital financial literacy on individuals' decisions to seek financial advice from robo-advice platforms. Using microdata from the Bank of Italy's survey on adults' "Financial Literacy and Digital Financial Skills in Italy", we find that individuals with greater financial knowledge are less inclined to rely on online services for automated financial advice. On the contrary, confidence …

Has anyone seen a pattern for a cadeseus quilt? I've found fabric with the symbol but I was thinking like a big paper pieced pattern made from different colors. I'm not that good with applique. Or any suggestions for a different medical related? Specifically a cardiologist, so an anatomical heart would also be pretty rad! (but might be beyond my skills!) #sewing

Posted here the other day about getting a #pinephone, so I guess I should update. As I was half-expecting, it's not usable for me as a main phone (though I should still try LineageOS before giving up completely).
I had the Linux skills to hack through a lot of the problems that came up, but the shaky state of Android emulation meant I'd never be able to run key apps I wanted to, and the battery life is abysmal due to fundamental OS issues (plus probably some hardware stuff).
Still a super interesting platform and I've got ideas for uses besides being my main phone.

Finally you have the chance to work with me. 🥳
Join Olivers Team in #hamburg as a Software Developer for #DSpace rsp. #DSpaceCRIS
German language skills are helpful

I’m currently playing Jedi Outcast on the #NintendoSwitch
I played it when I was around 15 I think so about 20 years ago.
It is still a lot of fun and I love the fact that there is no auto healing but you have to hunt for medi packs.
However I could do with a bit more auto aim.
My controller skills are still very poor.

A surprising Stanford study concludes AI-assisted writing tends to be highest in less-educated areas. Is that bridging gaps or creating dependence? Gaining opportunities or losing skills?
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonippolito

Perhaps we need a Campaign for Natural Intelligence. Dang, the acronym's already taken ("Critical National Infrastructure")
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15q5qzdjqxo
Wasn't some sort of rebellion or campaign against machine cognition a thing in a 60…

The people refusing to use AI
Worried about the environment and the loss of skills, some people are resisting the rise of AI.

This is a stark reminder for all of us, whether in tech, consulting, or some other previously promising career path:
✅ No company is too big to pivot.
✅ Operational efficiency doesn't always mean job security.
✅ Skills that once defined careers must now evolve with industry shifts.

good piece from Rafael Behr on Starmer & migration
"The prime minister’s immigration approach follows a now-familiar pattern: letting fear of a difficult argument get in the way of policy that might work"
Starmer once again demonstrating an absence of leadership skills i.m.o.
#LabourParty #KeirStarmer #UKPol

I've been tracking #Hopetown 's Kickstarter as I've become interested in #discolike video games. I don't have skills in Kickstarter analytics, so I picked The Sinking City as a comparator:
<https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/frogwares/the-sinking-city-2/#chart-daily>
Hopetown's has fewer people interested:
<https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/longduegames/hopetown/#chart-daily>
Which may sadden the Hopetown devs, as the Kickstarter aims to show future investors there's interest in the game. They say the $$ won't help them. But I understand they already have at least 1 tech bro investor, so is Kickstarter really the venue? The Kickstarter page boasts so many industry credits & mentors, it feels uncool to ask for community help.

The more time goes on, the more conflicted I get about #AI. (or, more specifically, generative AI. I like causal AI a fair bit)
On one hand, I hate so much about it:
the needless environmental and electronic parts waste, the impact on labor, the monopolistic nature of main organizations driving it, the endless conversations about AGI and other absurdly utopian (or dystopian) futures, the widespread theft of IP and human work, the devaluation of labor and craft… so much of it is not okay at all.
On the other hand, I kinda get it?
I like to test software for myself, so I've been dipping my toes into some popular AI tools over the past couple of years. I have a paid subscription to ChatGPT (which I don’t feel great about, I know), and I have found genuine utility in it.
More so, I feel so conflicted when I talk to people I respect and who I think are very smart and creative and they tell me how in love they are with all of these AI tools, about the complex workflows they build, about their experiments with agentic AI and integrations... These people seem so excited, so alive, so joyous about the things that this technology allows them to do. They often wouldn't have had the skills / knowledge / financial capital to do some of those things with human efforts alone. And now I see them coding their own tools, doing complex data analysis, trying creative experiments with graphics / text / video...
And I feel like a total jerk going "BUT ACTUALLY THIS IS UNETHICAL AND INEFFICIENT AND YOU SHOULD STOP IT BECAUSE AI SUCKS".
The technology behind all these gen AI models does have real utility, and it has kicked off a lot of creativity from people who wouldn't have dabbled in those kinds of projects otherwise.
So I don't know how to feel. Because I can't let go of the guilt and the real problems and the awareness of how much empty hype there is.
#technology #artificialintelligence #genAI #ChatGPT

2/3
🔹 Pros:
✅ Higher earning potential than gig work
✅ Full control over pricing, clients & schedule
✅ Opportunity to grow into a full-time business
🔹 Cons:
❌ Still time-dependent – if you don’t work, you don’t earn
❌ Business management skills required
❌ Can be stressful if not systemized

2/3
🔹 Pros:
✅ Higher earning potential than gig work
✅ Full control over pricing, clients & schedule
✅ Opportunity to grow into a full-time business
🔹 Cons:
❌ Still time-dependent – if you don’t work, you don’t earn
❌ Business management skills required
❌ Can be stressful if not systemized

1/3
In an earlier post I introduced the principle that there were four categories of side hustle. Let’s now talk about the second category.
2️⃣ 𝐒 – 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬: 𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐛
Ever thought about turning your skills into a business? Many side hustlers shift from Employee (E) to Self-Employed (S) – gaining more control but still relying on their own efforts.
🔹 Examples: Coaching, consulting, independent contractors, small-scale service businesses (photography, home repairs, etc.).

1/3
In an earlier post I introduced the principle that there were four categories of side hustle. Let’s now talk about the second category.
2️⃣ 𝐒 – 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬: 𝐎𝐰𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐛
Ever thought about turning your skills into a business? Many side hustlers shift from Employee (E) to Self-Employed (S) – gaining more control but still relying on their own efforts.
🔹 Examples: Coaching, consulting, independent contractors, small-scale service businesses (photography, home repairs, etc.).