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Peterborough Linux User Group (Canada) Forum
If it's not broken, you're not trying hard enough.
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#1
General Discussion / Re: No internet service for ov...
Last post by fox - Today at 11:33:35 AMWow,that is an awful story, Bill! I'm with Cogeco and my internet was down for a week after the ice storm. But it wasn't Cogeco's fault. The pole in front of my house where the Cogeco line comes from was badly weakened by the storm. Cogeco had to wait until Hydro reinforced the pole before they could do their work. Good thing I had a mobile phone with 20gb of data during that period.
#2
Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...
Last post by fox - Today at 11:27:10 AMI would have said in the past, that an essay is a good way to evaluate a person's ability to use information creatively to tell a story or test a hypothesis. But in one of the courses I taught called Fisheries Assessment and Management, I learned before the days of AI that it was too easy to plagiarize an essay on a relevant topic - from past ones written, from other students, or buy purchasing one online. After awhile I felt that I no longer had the ability to catch these violations, and which ones I caught was just a matter of luck. (Most of the cheating I caught in this course was from students lifting paragraphs from published papers, not the other kinds of plagiarism mentioned above.) So I came up with a creative way to issue the assignment that would be much, much harder to plagiarize or buy. I called it "advances in ....". You would take a fisheries topic, identify five relatively recent advances in the science around that topic, indicate why they were; advances, and review the five published papers where the advances came from. The paper also had to summarize the state of the art on that topic. It worked very well and probably cut the rate of plagiarism to zero or near zero. But I'm not sure that AI couldn't handle this; I never had to find out.
#3
Distributions / Re: CachyOS ranked 2nd on Dist...
Last post by fox - Today at 11:10:16 AMI'm with Buster on the use of DistroWatch for checking out distros. I wouldn't go to DistroWatch to access any distros I already use; I would go right to their site. As for Cachy, I hadn't heard of it either until it was reviewed by DistroWatch. I like reading about them, but I don't bother trying any new ones anymore, unless there is something particularly aesthetically pleasing about them.
#4
Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?
Last post by buster - July 02, 2025, 09:46:48 PMI have a suggestion for a meeting that might attract a fair number if we could publicize it. However it would not convert Windows users to Linux.
Jason, you have upgraded your Win10 to Win11 without incident, even though Microsoft didn't suggest you do. You could explain what the problem appears to be in many cases, and how this can be worked around relatively safely, maybe cloning the Win10 drive for safekeeping.
Some of us have Win10 computers, such as my TV computer which interacts with my Win11 computer very nicely. The Linux Mint does not do so well. I would love to move my 10 to an 11.
Just a suggestion.
Jason, you have upgraded your Win10 to Win11 without incident, even though Microsoft didn't suggest you do. You could explain what the problem appears to be in many cases, and how this can be worked around relatively safely, maybe cloning the Win10 drive for safekeeping.
Some of us have Win10 computers, such as my TV computer which interacts with my Win11 computer very nicely. The Linux Mint does not do so well. I would love to move my 10 to an 11.
Just a suggestion.
#5
Distributions / Re: CachyOS ranked 2nd on Dist...
Last post by buster - June 29, 2025, 08:34:45 PMRemember that the Distrowatch list is not a guide to the number of users, but the number of people looking up information on the distro. I never click Mint on the list, and I suspect Mike doesn't click Ubuntu on that list. I do poke about sometime when I see something new that looks interesting. Arch doesn't interest me, or something based on Arch.
#6
Distributions / CachyOS ranked 2nd on Distrowa...
Last post by ssfc72 - June 29, 2025, 08:36:48 AMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXWJAdKy_sY
So for the past number of years, on Distrowatch, the top 2 Distros for page hits have been Mint and MX Linux, in that order.
Now for the last few months the CachyOS Distro has come out from nowhere, to place 2nd in the list.
I have never even seen CachyOS anywhere in the listing, before this.
Apparently it is based on the Arch distro.
So here is a link to a comparison of CachyOS to Mint.
So for the past number of years, on Distrowatch, the top 2 Distros for page hits have been Mint and MX Linux, in that order.
Now for the last few months the CachyOS Distro has come out from nowhere, to place 2nd in the list.
I have never even seen CachyOS anywhere in the listing, before this.
Apparently it is based on the Arch distro.
So here is a link to a comparison of CachyOS to Mint.
#7
Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?
Last post by buster - June 28, 2025, 05:00:01 PMI have posted into the void lately, but it seems to be a solitary occupation.
But I think I understand why there hasn't been a flood of responses to your request about meetings.
27 years ago there were computer clubs with Windows that people attended and learned, but ultimately they broke up. (I believe Jason's Linux group was an offshoot of one of those.) We had a core of people who were eager to learn this new exotic system.
We explored and created desktops with the distros that were released, and there was energy and there were surprises as the months went by. But the distros matured as we aged, and we, I think, did less distro hopping. Many tended to settle into a comfortable Linux system that just worked for us. I tend to use computers now rather than tinkering with them.
Bill and I seem to have selected Mint, Mike has settle into Ubuntu Gnome (some things in the universe cannot be explained), and I'm sure others have come to the same conclusion about a distro. Marilyn has used Linux for years, specifically Mint. If you like your systems, as Mike and I do, why change and tinker?
It's going to require I think an intriguing topic to get people off their couch and to a meeting. But I hope you can do it Jason.
But I think I understand why there hasn't been a flood of responses to your request about meetings.
27 years ago there were computer clubs with Windows that people attended and learned, but ultimately they broke up. (I believe Jason's Linux group was an offshoot of one of those.) We had a core of people who were eager to learn this new exotic system.
We explored and created desktops with the distros that were released, and there was energy and there were surprises as the months went by. But the distros matured as we aged, and we, I think, did less distro hopping. Many tended to settle into a comfortable Linux system that just worked for us. I tend to use computers now rather than tinkering with them.
Bill and I seem to have selected Mint, Mike has settle into Ubuntu Gnome (some things in the universe cannot be explained), and I'm sure others have come to the same conclusion about a distro. Marilyn has used Linux for years, specifically Mint. If you like your systems, as Mike and I do, why change and tinker?
It's going to require I think an intriguing topic to get people off their couch and to a meeting. But I hope you can do it Jason.
#8
Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?
Last post by Jason - June 25, 2025, 09:35:59 PMI'd love to get more input from other members, not that you guys don't count. Buster usually chimes in but he'd rather talk more about AI and essays, I guess. 
#9
Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...
Last post by buster - June 18, 2025, 10:47:42 PMJason: "My history teacher in high school had most of his tests like this. He'd have two statements to choose from, you picked one and then had to back it up with facts."
I wasn't thinking about a high school evaluation. I was thinking mostly in terms of a senior university arts program or courses where a student might be expected to come to grips with say an unusual event in history, or a novelist or poet who dominated a certain period of literary history. Analyzing why this occurred would take maybe weeks of research, reading, and thinking. Some of these things are still not fully understood.
The best students can come up with unique view points. The weaker will show that they have at least a basic understanding of the problem.The essay is not written just to get a mark. In some cases this sort of research is the reason to be in university. This has been a key way to learn for generations. This is how experts came to be, through study, research and writing.
Even during my short lifespan, I've seen that the learning started taking second place to something called 'marks'. When I was first teaching in Hamilton I borrowed from another teacher a text book on the middle ages. He could not believe I would read something like that if it weren't for a university credit. Learning to him was earning credits.
Anyway, profs have used essays for student evaluation. They were pretty good indicators. And the essay distinguished between different levels of achievement. There are other ways that are used such as small groups of students sitting around a table with the prof having a discussion about some philosophical conundrum where contributions are expected from all. Those who haven't worked or simply do not understand are easy to pick out.
My point is the heavily relied upon essay for evaluation is going to be useless. This does not mean the essay is useless. I think it's great tool for sharpening ideas.
I wasn't thinking about a high school evaluation. I was thinking mostly in terms of a senior university arts program or courses where a student might be expected to come to grips with say an unusual event in history, or a novelist or poet who dominated a certain period of literary history. Analyzing why this occurred would take maybe weeks of research, reading, and thinking. Some of these things are still not fully understood.
The best students can come up with unique view points. The weaker will show that they have at least a basic understanding of the problem.The essay is not written just to get a mark. In some cases this sort of research is the reason to be in university. This has been a key way to learn for generations. This is how experts came to be, through study, research and writing.
Even during my short lifespan, I've seen that the learning started taking second place to something called 'marks'. When I was first teaching in Hamilton I borrowed from another teacher a text book on the middle ages. He could not believe I would read something like that if it weren't for a university credit. Learning to him was earning credits.
Anyway, profs have used essays for student evaluation. They were pretty good indicators. And the essay distinguished between different levels of achievement. There are other ways that are used such as small groups of students sitting around a table with the prof having a discussion about some philosophical conundrum where contributions are expected from all. Those who haven't worked or simply do not understand are easy to pick out.
My point is the heavily relied upon essay for evaluation is going to be useless. This does not mean the essay is useless. I think it's great tool for sharpening ideas.
#10
Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...
Last post by Jason - June 18, 2025, 08:25:00 PMQuote from: buster on June 18, 2025, 11:11:28 AMSome of his kids had been academics, so we wandered in our topics to AI easily writing essays.
</quote>
If it can be written by AI, it can be detected as such by AI. There are already some paid services that let teachers do it. But you could enter shorter essays in the free version of ChatGPT and ask it if the essay is AI-written.
<quote>The essay will have to be replaced in the university as a grading device. However, how we assess the capabilities and knowledge of a student's mind will require some creative thought and innovations. That will be an interesting challenge.
Essays are only one form of evaluating students and can be done at the same time as an exam. My history teacher in high school had most of his tests like this. He'd have two statements to choose from, you picked one and then had to back it up with facts. The province mandated 30% for final exams, which also had a huge essay component in his class, but other than that, most of the mark was from those essays.
What would we be grading when we grade the mind? Does it include the stuff we can't remember consciously, but it's still there somewhere? Would it be passive? Would that be the ultimate form of teaching to the test? I honestly can't picture this replacing essays, multiple-choice, short answers and practical tests until AI can do all those things and not be visible doing it (to prevent cheating). At least not for a long while. But perhaps when AI has mapped every thought in an MRI scan...