Hedy Hopper Lovelace

Apple for scale.

Apple for scale.

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this

Sister Mary Celine Fasenmyer: She Wrote the Algorithm Before Computers Existed to Run It Sister Mary Celine Fasenmyer shares how a quiet nun in mid-century Pennsylvania conceived the algorithm behind today’s computer algebra, decades before computers arrived – her method’s erasur…

Sister Mary Celine Fasenmyer: She Wrote the Algorithm Before Computers Existed to Run It
voxmeditantis.com/2025/10/27/s...

#WomenInSTEM #STEM #Combinatorics #Hypergeometric #ComputerAlgebra

When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they’re getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services.

“There are few things more dehumanizing than being told by a machine that you’re not real because of your face"

For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well

8-inch, 5,25-inch, and 3,5-inch floppy disks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk#/media/File:Floppy_disk_2009_G1.jpg

From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

By Christian Kriticos

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

#digital_dark_age

Abacus making a comeback with Japanese kids in an increasingly digital age Who needs hacking? We got clacking!

Some early computers, e.g. ENIAC and at least one IBM model, didn't store numbers as binary, they used a method similar to an abacus, with ten binary flags to represent the digits in each "column" (e.g. units, tens, hundreds, etc.) of the number being represented.
soranews24.com/2025/10/05/a...

(solemnly) You've had mail.

Examples Explore the possibilities of p5.js with short examples.

Have you come across p5js? I really enjoy teaching it to my Year 9 classes.

p5js.org/examples/

photo of paulina borsook

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it).

But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

JA Westenberg @Daojoan@mastodon.social My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.” Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner Kiddo: that’s AI Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

They've lost the 9yos

Welcome back to school this week, my geeklings!

Automated testing with Visual Studio, do it right from the start (h4-14) What is the point of automated tests? Obviously, code can be tested faster and easier if tests can be executed automatically. But you also save development time and the code has a better structure. MS...

Are automated tests only for professionals?

I don't think so. Programming beginners can also start early. I wrote this post as an introduction for C# developers:

frank.woopec.net/2025/06/22/h...

#LearnToCode #CSharp #dotnet #edutooter #informatikEdu

With results day around the corner, the pressure is on - for students, parents, and teachers.

But one message stands out: results don’t define you.

Thousands of teachers are saying it and they’re speaking from experience. Here's what they told us 👇

Trans ally Labour peer Michael Cashman 'deeply concerned' over new sex ed guidance Labour House of Lords peer, Michael Cashman, shared his concerns over changes that affect the discussion of trans identities in UK schools.

Lord Michael Cashman has spoken out against the RSHE guidance after signing the @prideineducation.bsky.social open letter.

Google is indexing ChatGPT conversations, potentially exposing sensitive user data Thousands of shared ChatGPT chats—including deeply personal details about mental health, relationships, and trauma—are appearing in Google search results, raising major privacy concerns.

NEW: ChatGPT allows Google to index chats users share using the Share functionality - presumably misinterpreting "make this chat discoverable". The result? Frank admissions about sex lives and drug dependencies. My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91376687/goo... tip @techmeme.com

When you’re such a good coder that you face the back of the monitor as you work

YouTube video by Steve Mould Playing Snake with water

This is so much fun.
What a captivating project!

The only thread you'll need to read today:

I‘m in love.

I just solved Bellingcat's 'Training Time' challenge 🏆 Try it yourself! challenge.bellingcat.com
cc @cs4fn.bsky.social
- really enjoyed this. You have to name the room, having worked out where it is from the clues given.

357686312646216567629137 and Friends Gold sold out. Silver still available for US$1 each.

The other day I saw a "left-truncatable prime" pencil - a prime number where you could repeatedly remove the first digit and get another prime. I thought I'd see if I could write a program to find the longest example. I found this while it was running! #TeamCompSci
fwphys.com/2021/12/01/m...

Today, we're highlighting Dina St Johnston, a pioneering woman in #Computing whose company, VPS, once owned our Elliott 803!

Learn more about Dina from Simon Lavington, TNMOC's Honorary Fellow from 2024 👉 buff.ly/kkHEChO

#RetroComputing #Museum #RetroTech

Good luck to everyone sitting CompSci GCSE paper 1 today!

Devices in schools – what's happening?

🖥️ 15% of primary & 20% of secondary teachers say students have 1:1 devices
📵 3% of primary & 21% of secondary teachers say some students have no access at all
👩‍🏫 Most schools rely on shared mobile units

Want to get closer to #Computing #History? 🤔 Our #Volunteer Open Day on 18th May is your chance!

Learn about the diverse roles available and how you can contribute to #TNMOC.

RSVP 👉 buff.ly/VTjOMlM

#Volunteering #BletchleyPark #RetroTech

Conversion
www.smbc-comics.com/comic/conver...

It’s incredible how often stuff like this has a default password that’s never been changed