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Liam O'Connor

@liamoc@types.pl
mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.2+glitch
  • Open on types.pl

Senior Lecturer at ANU School of Computing, Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country. I leave these toots, I do not know for whom. I no longer know what they are about.

Formal Methods, Verification, Concurrency, etc.

English, 한국어, 日本語, Lingva Latina

No AI-generated content, please.

408 Followers
175 Following
50 Posts
Joined October 27, 2020
Pronouns:
he/any
Website:
http://liamoc.net
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kamatsu8
ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2765-4269
Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

A few weeks ago, I postulated several conjectures, and my PhD student thought about them and came up with proofs or counterexamples for each of them. I was overjoyed and excited for our future work together.

I imagine a scenario where instead I had asked a chatbot to prove the theorems for me. Even if it did prove the theorems (extreme doubt), I think getting such a proof wouldn't have made me feel anything. No one's achieved anything.

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@julesh i disagree, but if you're right, then i'm out. I'm not interested in a computer science that's about this stuff.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

I quite enjoy reading the weeknotes from @byorgey@mathstodon.xyz and @jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz. Even though my research doesn't really overlap with theirs, it's nice to read people's thoughts and reflections in a format which is more considered and interesting than microblogging or social media. Has anyone else started weeknoting?

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling i've occasionally had students who are using Nix to manage their packages or whatever and the only observable difference between those students and my other students who just use conventional tools is the Nix-using students spend a much larger percentage of their time futzing around with their toolchain.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

Feeling pretty devastated. The vast majority of my first year students failed their second midsem test, with over half of the submissions having compile errors. This is for a _second_ programming course, where they're given and recommended to use IntelliJ. I'm racking my brain to see if I could have done anything differently. I don't think the test had too little time, it took tutors 25 minutes to complete (100%) and I gave the students 90 minutes. I gave them a practice exam that was the same format and structure (and very similar content) to the actual exam. I gave them homework exercises that are for nominal marks but primarily designed for programming practice and nearly half of the students have never even forked the repo to start homework 1, which came out 10 weeks ago. My class of over 100 students gets lecture attendance of around 10.

Why do I even bother?

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@megadec@aus.social yes, i should add that none of my post should be interpreted as a criticism of those who deal with this mindset. The fault is not for those who over-strive, but with the world that convinces them they have to.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 4mo ago

I got really pissed off at news coverage about the British heatwave. This is record-breaking summer temperatures *in May*, and I see reporting like how everyone was happy to be going to the pool or the beach and enjoying the "sunny weather". Stop. This is endangering people and not adequately educating the public on how to deal with this. British people are not properly educated about hot weather and sun dangers, and this kind of reporting will claim lives.

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling what worries me is that there seems to be many people who, despite innumerable technical gifts, have very underdeveloped consciences.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

RE: @liamoc@types.pl

I can gladly retract this call for assistance, my student is absolutely brilliant and has solved the problem and proved her theorem in Isabelle/HOL!

types.pl
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

I'm very blessed that my students are smarter than I am.

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@ltchen@mathstodon.xyz I did read it, and it made me feel slightly ill.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

My ult. rant is prompted by academics saying that the reason they train students rather than just do research themselves with claude doing all the legwork is that there's value in the apprenticeship, in training a person. To me that's a bad argument because it presupposes both that we should be prioritising efficiency above all else (definite disagree) and that working with AI is more efficient in the long run than working with a student (also disagree but falsifiable)

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling but these days I have the tools I need for the most part, so unless something is extremely low-friction i barely ever introduce anything to my work flow. The bar for something being more trouble than it's worth is not high at all.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling it was only a few weeks ago they had a headline about the "North American Treaty Organization" ..
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

I want to like the Vivaldi browser, because their project has worthy goals and they promote lots of good things like RSS and mastodon, but their UI is just a mess.

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 4mo ago
Replying to
@tranquillity@mastodon.minionflo.net of course I don't know your situation, but most people *do* actually have the option and are too quick to think that they don't. Don't let the world take away your time. It's yours, not anyone else's!
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@ltchen@mathstodon.xyz but my thoughts on these LLM technologies are more negative than even most AI sceptics.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 3mo ago
Replying to
@tsturm@famichiki.jp @carnage4life@mas.to eggs do not lay eggs
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@irene@discuss.systems it's comfortable for the cat, which is of course all that matters.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@foxy@blahaj.zone We're not locally pressured to pass students because our school is trying to uphold a high standard but I think more globally the university doesn't want us failing everyone.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@phil444@mastodon.org.uk I do adopt this mentality, but there's a real conscientiousness crisis with the younger generation that makes this problem so much worse than it used to be. I don't know what to do about it.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@pigworker ohhhhhhhh i just got it.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@kevin @jonmsterling I was a Mac (classic) user throughout the 2000s until I started using gentoo in 2006. By 2012 I had given up and bought a Macbook. I used Linux when I was a teenager with loads of free time. When I had actual shit to get done it was not OK when an update broke NetworkManager again or pulseaudio broke my microphone again.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz i think that's clear from the claude code leak where the engineers were just begging the model to do what they wanted it to do. Apparently the only way to get it to generate valid json was to repeatedly ask it while validating the output.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz if they're that compliant, wouldn't that make them useless for mathematical exploration? They'd never push back on any conjecture and when asked for a proof they'd give something that looks plausible that is only broken on further examination. Not only is it no help but it actually wastes time and effort.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz not just a clanker editor, I think MS Word 97 can catch it.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

Does anyone who follow me have strong expertise in descriptive set theory and topology? My student and I are stumped by a fairly particular problem.

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 4mo ago

RE: @marioguzman@mastodon.social

I'm glad. I can probably just skip 26 and go straight to 27

mastodon.social

Mario Guzmán: "The Wallpaper is VERY classy! Finally, they fixe…" - Mastodon

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@janeishly@beige.party i have at least local support of my school and colleagues who are indeed in a similar situation (although I bear the brunt as I was lecturing first years for the past year) but I am less certain of having global/institutional support. I am collecting lots of data to show that I'm doing things right and I'm just upholding normal standards for a computer science degree, because it's possible an investigation will come down the tubes if I end up failing the majority of my students.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@mio@shrimp.mio19.uk what I don't get is why students do this, and more specifically why this problem seems so much worse than it used to be. Even 10 years ago there was indeed a lot of people who were just doing computing because they thought it was a path to a good job and they didn't really *like* it for its own merits, but they were still motivated enough to apply themselves to their studies and gain at least basic skills. That is now mostly gone.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@TerryBTwo@ohai.social yes, i have scheduled some interviews
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling I make an Atom feed for my weeknotes but I don't really consume RSS feeds myself - at least not yet. Do you have any recommended apps or workflows that work for you?
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@tomminieminen@mastodontti.fi @kamstrup@fosstodon.org cat in the a2 was "catalog" whereas cat in unix is "(con)cat(enate)"
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@simon_jf this never happened to me after I lost my hair
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jac @jonmsterling that's where you lose me. If a student of mine tried to get ME to use Nix as well they'll get a frosty response.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jac @jonmsterling no, what I mean is, they also say they use nix (or nixos) "because it "just works" and everything is remarkably easy to configure and doesn't randomly break." and yet they spend more time than all of my other students configuring it or getting stuff to work.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

RE: @phoronix@masto.ai

Another one bites the dust.

masto.ai

Phoronix: "Ubuntu Linux Will Begin Landing AI Features Throu…" - Mastodon

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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz It's basically every day with this paper.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@chrisamaphone i guess it's okay to boost, but this isn't urgent, and I do have some colleagues I can also ask
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@mio@shrimp.mio19.uk debatable
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling Hm, maybe I could make a custom NetNewsWire theme that puts a youtube embed in the page for YT video feeds. Then I could bypass YT's algorithmic video selection entirely.. hmm
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jonmsterling they aren't even pronounced exactly the same to my ear.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@jac @jonmsterling i would believe you except this is exactly what my students who waste their time fiddling with nix say.
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago

Come and hear me sing with a great Canberra chamber choir.

https://www.corocanberra.com/concerts

corocanberra.com
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Open post
Liam O'Connor @liamoc@types.pl
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@Linkletter@mastodon.social anu recently went from their own hacky not very good deployment of moodle to a new canvas install..
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