Serious questions and musings

[Slugjc]

I don't know if it's an age thing. Or being a burnt out thing. These days I'm becoming less involved with things I enjoy.

I've loved Ghostbusters since I was old enough to remember. I used to listen to several podcast on the, sigh "franchise" and would be engaged with everything. Figures, you tube videos. Since the pandemic and afterlife coming out, I've stopped. I now only engage with one podcast on the subject, they are very sporadic with how they release. Which means they stay on topic better, than the weekly providers.

Similar with the towers. Once upon a time I would be knee deep in content. Now, I'm happy to sit in the wings and enjoy it my way. I try and leave the threads about the parks alone, unless I really feel I need to contribute.

I'm also seen a very sharp decline in content around, leisure activities. For want of a better phrase. You tube and podcasting has exploded in the past few years, but the standard has dropped. Instead of being about the subject in the bar, we have to put up with 30mins of social interactions. You tube content providers seem more arsed about having there mug on camara, rather than the subject matter. "Hi guys,.like rate and subscribe I'm here at Alton towers to look around........." Usually the point I switch off. Luckily, our resident YouTubers are nowhere near this bad. Well done to you all.

Then we have comments. Negative comment, after negative comment with extra argument thrown in because some was less negative than you. Again, I will say This forum seems to be less affected by this phenomenon. Which is why I hand around like a bad smell.

I just seem to have regressed into how it was when I was younger. Where information was little. I remember first knowing about oblivion, walking round the supermarket and seeing a hologram on a box of frosties. There's just to much now, and the joy of seeing, hearing or Experiencing something for the first time has been taken away from us. So I took the step of waiting until my eyes and ears experience it first, before looking for the theme on YouTube.

After the pandemic I took the decision to not engage with content as much. Go back to discovering things my way. As an example, still never seen anything other than the posters the new haunted house. I don't know if it's an age thing. I like to know if anyone else has had a similar experience?

 

[rob666]

Gave up on 99% of you tube about five years ago, Mr Zola excepted.
Holograms made me smile, first exhibition I ever saw of them, after a couple of features on Tomorrow's World, just across from Crevettes, where the chip stall is now.
Blew my mind, well worth the 50p.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I don't know if it's an age thing. Or being a burnt out thing. These days I'm becoming less involved with things I enjoy.

I've loved Ghostbusters since I was old enough to remember. I used to listen to several podcast on the, sigh "franchise" and would be engaged with everything. Figures, you tube videos. Since the pandemic and afterlife coming out, I've stopped. I now only engage with one podcast on the subject, they are very sporadic with how they release. Which means they stay on topic better, than the weekly providers.

Similar with the towers. Once upon a time I would be knee deep in content. Now, I'm happy to sit in the wings and enjoy it my way. I try and leave the threads about the parks alone, unless I really feel I need to contribute.

I'm also seen a very sharp decline in content around, leisure activities. For want of a better phrase. You tube and podcasting has exploded in the past few years, but the standard has dropped. Instead of being about the subject in the bar, we have to put up with 30mins of social interactions. You tube content providers seem more arsed about having there mug on camara, rather than the subject matter. "Hi guys,.like rate and subscribe I'm here at Alton towers to look around........." Usually the point I switch off. Luckily, our resident YouTubers are nowhere near this bad. Well done to you all.

Then we have comments. Negative comment, after negative comment with extra argument thrown in because some was less negative than you. Again, I will say This forum seems to be less affected by this phenomenon. Which is why I hand around like a bad smell.

I just seem to have regressed into how it was when I was younger. Where information was little. I remember first knowing about oblivion, walking round the supermarket and seeing a hologram on a box of frosties. There's just to much now, and the joy of seeing, hearing or Experiencing something for the first time has been taken away from us. So I took the step of waiting until my eyes and ears experience it first, before looking for the theme on YouTube.

After the pandemic I took the decision to not engage with content as much. Go back to discovering things my way. As an example, still never seen anything other than the posters the new haunted house. I don't know if it's an age thing. I like to know if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Dunno what you are talking about mate. There are only two Ghostbusters films and one cartoon series.
And nothing else.

 

[Matt.GC]

If people don’t mind helping me, I have a mild ethical dilemma I’d like to pose to you all this evening.

This afternoon, I’ve been concocting an up-to-date CV for applications to graduate schemes and graduate jobs following the end of my MSc degree next year. With me being a new graduate, I lack professional experience, so I largely centred it around the skills I have rather than experience.

After Googling some best practices for CV writing, I decided to list a smaller number of skills, but do a little blurb next to each one highlighting a real-world example (or examples, if applicable) of where I’ve exhibited the skill effectively. I asked my dad to read it, and he said that I was writing too much for each blurb and it needed to be more concise.

This came as no surprise to me; as most of you know, I am not a naturally concise writer! But to make these blurbs more concise while keeping the same information, I decided to do something I’ve never really done before on the recommendation of a lecturer at university… I decided to use ChatGPT.

I’ve traditionally steered clear of ChatGPT, as I always felt like I’d be selling my soul if I used it for professional purposes, but since starting my MSc at Cardiff, multiple lecturers there have surprisingly sung its praises and said that “it will be your new best friend” or words to that effect. One lecturer recommended that we use it to make our writing more concise, so I decided to give ChatGPT the prompt “Make this more concise for me” followed by the blurb I wanted to make more concise. I have to say, I was very impressed by what it churned out; it maintained all the information, but relayed it in far fewer words and generally maintained fine English!

However, I must admit that part of me felt slightly immoral doing it given how much I’ve been warned off ChatGPT in the past. To part of me, it almost felt like plagiarism, or like I was being disingenuous doing it. With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; do you think it’s OK for me to use ChatGPT to make parts of my CV more concise, or does it sound ethically dodgy?

For clarity, I was not asking ChatGPT to write things for me. I was writing things myself and coming up with the information myself, and all of it was true. I was simply asking it to make the writing more concise for me, and I did also check it afterwards and correct a few mistakes and anachronisms (such as American English, a minor spelling mistake, or a bit where it misinterpreted my writing and said something that wasn’t true).

I should also clarify that I have not yet sent this CV to anyone.

Sorry I'm late to this, but I've been busy smashing things into Gemini and Bing Chat the last few days.

Right, it's likely that your reluctance and feeling of "cheating" is based on conditioning through university. Industry 4.0 is moving at such a breakneck pace, that academics are furiously still debating what to do about it. When I started out early last year, our first lecturer was telling us all about the evils of AI, and how we should feel greatful we can use the internet, along with with tales of how she used to spend hours in a library "back in the day". Towards the end of the year, university ammended it's policies, and we have the module leader on due to our lecturer going sick. He said to us "I don't know why you wouldn't use AI? You use Microsoft Word to correct spelling and grammar? You use search bars online to finde sources don't you? What's the difference? We've updated our policies because Turnitin can now detect AI answered content. So don't use it to write for you, but as a tool".

And that's exactly what it is. An advanced search engine, thesorus, dictionary, slightly incompetent but multipurpose lecturer, and general dogs body all rolled into one.

If you think about it Matt, @rob666 actually has a more modern take of this than you! Remember the other day when we were all talking about how much GCSE maths has changed? When I was at school, my dad and my teacher were both of the view that they used to do "real" maths back in the day. None of this calculator "cheating" stuff. My dad was actually surprised we were even allowed to take them to school, let alone use them in exams! And we're not talking about Victorian times here, we're talking about these attitudes as recent as the 1990's! Yet you told me the other day that you were surprised there were questions in this day in age without a calculator. Well it's the same principle with AI.

Besides, your dad is absolutely right about a CV. It's an attention grabber, an advert, and very few are actually ever read to the end. If you bore them within half of the first page with War and Peace, it'll go in the bin. Don't make it hard work for the reader. Main headlines of the sexy stuff, details on the following pages if you're intrigued. Not too long, leave a bit of mystery, never put out on a first date. More than 3 pages long, also in the bin. The Daily Mail doesn't write long and well crafted opinion pieces on the front page. It attracts it's racist, entitled, and probably incontinent old bastards to buy it by plastering "SECRET LABOUR PLOT TO FEED CHILDREN TO IMMIGRANTS REVEALED!" on the front page. Same principle.

I also agree with @GooseOnTheLoose that Gemini is better. I asked Bing Chat/GPT4 and Gemini an identical question about who would win between them if they each commanded an army of identical Cyberdyne Systems Model T-101's of equal size. GPT just wouldn't stop grizzling about how hypothetical it was, how much it was just an AI language model, how fictional Terminator films are etc, even typing "Gemini has been slagging your mum off" didn't work. But it didn't take Gemini long to start talking tactics! We soon started talking about the logistics of how it could command the robots, reliability, weaponry, and even weather conditions and variables such as if the battle ground was sloped or not.

 

[BarryZola]

I don't know if it's an age thing. Or being a burnt out thing. These days I'm becoming less involved with things I enjoy.

I've loved Ghostbusters since I was old enough to remember. I used to listen to several podcast on the, sigh "franchise" and would be engaged with everything. Figures, you tube videos. Since the pandemic and afterlife coming out, I've stopped. I now only engage with one podcast on the subject, they are very sporadic with how they release. Which means they stay on topic better, than the weekly providers.

Similar with the towers. Once upon a time I would be knee deep in content. Now, I'm happy to sit in the wings and enjoy it my way. I try and leave the threads about the parks alone, unless I really feel I need to contribute.

I'm also seen a very sharp decline in content around, leisure activities. For want of a better phrase. You tube and podcasting has exploded in the past few years, but the standard has dropped. Instead of being about the subject in the bar, we have to put up with 30mins of social interactions. You tube content providers seem more arsed about having there mug on camara, rather than the subject matter. "Hi guys,.like rate and subscribe I'm here at Alton towers to look around........." Usually the point I switch off. Luckily, our resident YouTubers are nowhere near this bad. Well done to you all.

Then we have comments. Negative comment, after negative comment with extra argument thrown in because some was less negative than you. Again, I will say This forum seems to be less affected by this phenomenon. Which is why I hand around like a bad smell.

I just seem to have regressed into how it was when I was younger. Where information was little. I remember first knowing about oblivion, walking round the supermarket and seeing a hologram on a box of frosties. There's just to much now, and the joy of seeing, hearing or Experiencing something for the first time has been taken away from us. So I took the step of waiting until my eyes and ears experience it first, before looking for the theme on YouTube.

After the pandemic I took the decision to not engage with content as much. Go back to discovering things my way. As an example, still never seen anything other than the posters the new haunted house. I don't know if it's an age thing. I like to know if anyone else has had a similar experience?

I think this happens to us all mate at some point. Not to say it isn't a thing worth noting. You're an absolute diamond for showing love for my hobby of making videos around Alton etc. I always see it and appreciate it. Even me, myself, I, or whatever, spent quite a few years away from the Alton and theme park game some years ago. Some of them, I was loving life, sharing bifters with mates, hardcore in work, or whatever. Also, trying not to be an absolute pisshead (which I'm pretty good at now). I probably took around 3-4 years out, I can't even remember. I managed to get a 1st class degree in history at some point (that I'll do nothing serious with). I had a bit of a photography phase too, until smartphones basically started being able to do most of the stuff a good standalone camera could do (apart from a top quality zoom). Why waste the time and money on good equipment when Sharon down the pub can click a button on her new phone and get just as good a picture through the phone's computer wizardry? But then, I was drawn back to trying to enjoy the things that I actually found more interesting in life. Like exploring.

The thing is, it doesn't even need to be exploring or whatever, it can be playing Football Manager, which I wasted loads of time on (enjoyably) for several years. Or randomly get into stone-masonry and repair some 19th century buildings and your art will live on for hundreds of years, or something. I don't know.

I think the absolute trick is to find that one thing that you just enjoy doing for the sake of doing it. Then you've always got that to fall back on.

And yeah, I definitely have had that feeling that the magic has not been there anymore. You have to find it again for yourself...

 

[Slugjc]

Dunno what you are talking about mate. There are only two Ghostbusters films and one cartoon series.
And nothing else.

How very dare you..............

 

[Slugjc]

I think this happens to us all mate at some point. Not to say it isn't a thing worth noting. You're an absolute diamond for showing love for my hobby of making videos around Alton etc. I always see it and appreciate it. Even me, myself, I, or whatever, spent quite a few years away from the Alton and theme park game some years ago. Some of them, I was loving life, sharing bifters with mates, hardcore in work, or whatever. Also, trying not to be an absolute pisshead (which I'm pretty good at now). I probably took around 3-4 years out, I can't even remember. I managed to get a 1st class degree in history at some point (that I'll do nothing serious with). I had a bit of a photography phase too, until smartphones basically started being able to do most of the stuff a good standalone camera could do (apart from a top quality zoom). Why waste the time and money on good equipment when Sharon down the pub can click a button on her new phone and get just as good a picture through the phone's computer wizardry? But then, I was drawn back to trying to enjoy the things that I actually found more interesting in life. Like exploring.

The thing is, it doesn't even need to be exploring or whatever, it can be playing Football Manager, which I wasted loads of time on (enjoyably) for several years. Or randomly get into stone-masonry and repair some 19th century buildings and your art will live on for hundreds of years, or something. I don't know.

I think the absolute trick is to find that one thing that you just enjoy doing for the sake of doing it. Then you've always got that to fall back on.

And yeah, I definitely have had that feeling that the magic has not been there anymore. You have to find it again for yourself...

Cheers for the response my friend.

up until meeting the wife, I always kept my interest away from people. The lads I went drinking with, knew I liked the footie and rugby league. Big manly pursuits. I kept things like Ghostbusters and Alton Towers to myself. The one regret I have about when I was young and single, was never just getting the car and going on own to the towers. Now I'm older, I'm itching for that chance to go. Working Mon-Fri is just a terrible way to live. People with sprogs inhabit weekends. I was lucky to grown up in a village with 5 pubs. 4 on the same street. All with a walking/staggering distance from my house. Plus a short bus trip away from night clubs in Cas, with is £10 all you drink and easy women, was heaven for a young JC. My lord do I regret all that now.

I did volunteer last year to work in the archive of a place called Eden Camp. (Near Castle Howard, which I'm sure you know about.) I Unfortunately, I couldn't get the dates match up. Which I was a little miffed about. I still go there alot with the dog. I've started exploring places near where I live, would like to venture further afield. Mrsslugjc works on the railways so can travel ridiculous cheap. I've Already stated to her I would like to do Dimmingsdale and the village of Alton (thanks to your video) be good little walk for the dog. Starting a new job in November so hoping to take advantage of the new start times.

Unfortunately my PS2 died earlier this year, after 20+ years of loyal service. For the last 15 of those years was spent just playing LMA 2007. Nothing more pleasing than after weeks and months of gaming, winning the European cup with Stafford Rangers.

 

[BarryZola]

Oh yes, can't beat a good footy manager game. I've actually banned myself from playing as I'd never get anything else done if I started playing again. Saving it for retirement if I ever get there! And yes, Castle Howard. A glorious place to explore. Went several years ago and going back next year to do a video on it. One of my top 3 fave country house estates

 

[Slugjc]

Oh yes, can't beat a good footy manager game. I've actually banned myself from playing as I'd never get anything else done if I started playing again. Saving it for retirement if I ever get there! And yes, Castle Howard. A glorious place to explore. Went several years ago and going back next year to do a video on it. One of my top 3 fave country house estates

Considering I live within 40mins of it. Never been. It's on the list along side Harewood House.

 

[DiogoJ42]

How very dare you..............

Not a fan of GBII, then?

 

[BarryZola]

Considering I live within 40mins of it. Never been. It's on the list along side Harewood House.

Been there too haha. Both are class. Great view out from the terrace at Harewood. Castle Howard is the bigger and more interesting one though.

Edit - View from the terrace at Harewood (you can have your dinner there):

 

[Slugjc]

Not a fan of GBII, then?

Im that disgusted in you right now, I've just punched a rat.

 

[Matt N]

I have a serious question today; how on Earth do universities prevent cheating in online exams?

I did an online exam (well, a “class test” in Cardiff University speak, but I don’t really know what the difference is between a class test and an exam seeing as this particular school’s exams are also all online…) today, and to me, the whole way it was done just seems ripe for abuse.

The test was released at a certain time and closed at the end of the time a couple of hours later, with a bit more time added to compensate for people submitting stuff online. The front of the paper read us the usual riot act about “you are under exam conditions” etc… but I’ve got absolutely no clue how they enforced any of this. Admittedly, they officially allowed us to use notes, so it wasn’t a closed book exam, but they basically just left us to it. I didn’t, of course, but theoretically, I could have Googled things, I could have whacked the questions into ChatGPT, I could have rung friends and asked them the questions, I could have rung someone I knew in industry and asked them the questions, I could even have had someone else sit the exam for me… and they’d literally be none the wiser, as far as I can see.

I’m thinking to myself; surely they must enforce the rules in some way to prevent cheating in this format that I don’t know about? If not, this format seems like a remarkably naive way of doing things, and I think it would make more sense to do the test in person to prevent some of these loopholes. The other school my degree is based in is doing exams in person next week, and I think it makes far more sense, even though I did value not having to physically travel to Cardiff today.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I have a serious question today; how on Earth do universities prevent cheating in online exams?

I did an online exam (well, a “class test” in Cardiff University speak, but I don’t really know what the difference is between a class test and an exam seeing as this particular school’s exams are also all online…) today, and to me, the whole way it was done just seems ripe for abuse.

The test was released at a certain time and closed at the end of the time a couple of hours later, with a bit more time added to compensate for people submitting stuff online. The front of the paper read us the usual riot act about “you are under exam conditions” etc… but I’ve got absolutely no clue how they enforced any of this. Admittedly, they officially allowed us to use notes, so it wasn’t a closed book exam, but they basically just left us to it. I didn’t, of course, but theoretically, I could have Googled things, I could have whacked the questions into ChatGPT, I could have rung friends and asked them the questions, I could have rung someone I knew in industry and asked them the questions, I could even have had someone else sit the exam for me… and they’d literally be none the wiser, as far as I can see.

I’m thinking to myself; surely they must enforce the rules in some way to prevent cheating in this format that I don’t know about? If not, this format seems like a remarkably naive way of doing things, and I think it would make more sense to do the test in person to prevent some of these loopholes. The other school my degree is based in is doing exams in person next week, and I think it makes far more sense, even though I did value not having to physically travel to Cardiff today.

I would imagine that you have to accept certain "operationally necessary" cookies to take the online test. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't tracking page activity. You can see if a visitor is active on your page, or in another tab; you can tell if the browser is active; you can also track mouse movement around the screen (within the browser window) and keyboard activity; you can see how long someone spends on one page / question bs everyone else. This would be enough to make a very educated / informed guess that someone has engaged in some sort of cheating activity.

 

[Matt N]

I would imagine that you have to accept certain "operationally necessary" cookies to take the online test. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't tracking page activity. You can see if a visitor is active on your page, or in another tab; you can tell if the browser is active; you can also track mouse movement around the screen (within the browser window) and keyboard activity; you can see how long someone spends on one page / question bs everyone else. This would be enough to make a very educated / informed guess that someone has engaged in some sort of cheating activity.

The computer I did it on was university-managed and lent to me by the university for the course, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had some sort of tracking software on there as well, actually. However, the test file was simply a downloadable PDF with questions it rather than a web page, so unless they were physically tracking individual computers, I don't think it would necessarily be able to register activity within the test file itself.

It just surprised me; I know some universities make you install spyware on your computer or have a Zoom call with an invigilator for an online exam, but there was none of that upfront defence today!

 

[Dhev123]

I have a serious question today; how on Earth do universities prevent cheating in online exams?

I did an online exam (well, a “class test” in Cardiff University speak, but I don’t really know what the difference is between a class test and an exam seeing as this particular school’s exams are also all online…) today, and to me, the whole way it was done just seems ripe for abuse.

The test was released at a certain time and closed at the end of the time a couple of hours later, with a bit more time added to compensate for people submitting stuff online. The front of the paper read us the usual riot act about “you are under exam conditions” etc… but I’ve got absolutely no clue how they enforced any of this. Admittedly, they officially allowed us to use notes, so it wasn’t a closed book exam, but they basically just left us to it. I didn’t, of course, but theoretically, I could have Googled things, I could have whacked the questions into ChatGPT, I could have rung friends and asked them the questions, I could have rung someone I knew in industry and asked them the questions, I could even have had someone else sit the exam for me… and they’d literally be none the wiser, as far as I can see.

I’m thinking to myself; surely they must enforce the rules in some way to prevent cheating in this format that I don’t know about? If not, this format seems like a remarkably naive way of doing things, and I think it would make more sense to do the test in person to prevent some of these loopholes. The other school my degree is based in is doing exams in person next week, and I think it makes far more sense, even though I did value not having to physically travel to Cardiff today.

Does your uni use TurnItIn as the submission portal? If so, that software is highly intelligent and will cross check your work compared to other similar submissions, as well as scholarly articles and intellectual properties. For instance, I remember people getting 0 and disciplinary action because their work was 100% AI.

An interesting thing one of my old lecturers said to us was that they can usually suss out whether or not someone's work is genuine based on their general performance. For example, they said that they've had students who never attended lectures, did terrible in group work/in-person exams, but then suddenly ace an online submission. If these flags are raised then they may look into the student's submission further.

My uni experience ran from September 2020 - September 2024, and due to covid, every exam In my undergrad was online (even after we returned to normal), and then for my masters it was just coursework. Although for my bachelors, the exams were created specifically with the fact that they were online - the lecturers were not assessing us on memorisation, but instead assessing how we synthesised information based on sources that were made available to us. It's all good having articles and google, but if you don't understand the concepts or use the information correctly, you won't get a high grade.

EDIT: oh and also our uni gave us a seminar on how to use AI in a way that respects regulations - they kinda promoted the use of it but were very clear on what not to do

 

[Matt N]

Does your uni use TurnItIn as the submission portal? If so, that software is highly intelligent and will cross check your work compared to other similar submissions, as well as scholarly articles and intellectual properties. For instance, I remember people getting 0 and disciplinary action because their work was 100% AI.

An interesting thing one of my old lecturers said to us was that they can usually suss out whether or not someone's work is genuine based on their general performance. For example, they said that they've had students who never attended lectures, did terrible in group work/in-person exams, but then suddenly ace an online submission. If these flags are raised then they may look into the student's submission further.

My uni experience ran from September 2020 - September 2024, and due to covid, every exam In my undergrad was online (even after we returned to normal), and then for my masters it was just coursework. Although for my bachelors, the exams were created specifically with the fact that they were online - the lecturers were not assessing us on memorisation, but instead assessing how we synthesised information based on sources that were made available to us. It's all good having articles and google, but if you don't understand the concepts or use the information correctly, you won't get a high grade.

EDIT: oh and also our uni gave us a seminar on how to use AI in a way that respects regulations - they kinda promoted the use of it but were very clear on what not to do

I assume Cardiff uses Turnitin; my old university (University of Gloucestershire) certainly did.

There are still forms of cheating that Turnitin can’t compensate for that an exam hall can detect, though; things like collusion are detectable in an in person exam, but not by Turnitin.

That’s interesting to hear about your online exams. I don’t really know whether the one I had today was designed in a similar manner; it could have been, I guess, as it was more about how to apply knowledge than specifically asking regurgitation-type questions about it. I never actually had any exams at all at undergrad, so having them again at MSc level is proving interesting (and a little bit of a culture shock)!

 

[Dhev123]

I assume Cardiff uses Turnitin; my old university (University of Gloucestershire) certainly did.

There are still forms of cheating that Turnitin can’t compensate for that an exam hall can detect, though; things like collusion are detectable in an in person exam, but not by Turnitin.

That’s interesting to hear about your online exams. I don’t really know whether the one I had today was designed in a similar manner; it could have been, I guess, as it was more about how to apply knowledge than specifically asking regurgitation-type questions about it. I never actually had any exams at all at undergrad, so having them again at MSc level is proving interesting (and a little bit of a culture shock)!

I'd be exactly the same hahah I was the school year who had their a levels cancelled in 2020 so the last time I did an exam was June 2018 - thank god I didn't have to do any 6 years later during my masters!