Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[alanp]

Some beautiful pieces of art in this video. Somewhat surprised that Rodin's famous Gates were not included, though.

[reddesert]

I look up how to do simple programming tasks on stack overflow all the time (partly because I have to proficient in more than one language and get the methodology of simple things confused, plus python2 -> 3, etc). However, it's because I have years of programming experience that I can translate the stack overflow answers into an efficient application to my problem. If one only copies, one won't learn nearly as much. This is the essence of homework - by definition, you're doing something that has already been solved, somewhere. That may be tedious at times but it's necessary for practice, like playing scales, or building a Fuzz Face before you tackle a Lovetone.

P.S. Happy American Thanksgiving, everybody!

[somnif]

So, Update to plagiarism in the Bio class I teach. Turns out, I did have someone submit a copy for their last lab report.

But they did so in such a blindingly stupid way that they almost got away with it.

See, we use an online drop box for submissions, and it has automated similarity checking. Its not very "smart" but it spits out a similarity percent score, and typically anything less than ~25% or so is fine (as you end up "copying" common lab jargon and works cited and whatnot). Anything in the 30-40% range I tend to manually scan to see if anything is hinky (not uncommon when we used shared data sets and they just copy/paste them straight in), and higher than that we usually have people copying/sharing whole sections.

Well, I had one student who had an 18% similarity score on their paper. I didn't even bother opening it to scrutinize, just treated it as clean and moved on to grading things (he's near the bottom of the pile). Today I get a call from my lab director telling me to take a closer look. Turns out, he submitted another students paper, word. for. word.

As in, he didn't even bother putting his own fecking name on the thing.

But because he submitted it first, his was treated as the "original" and the student who ACTUALLY wrote the thing got flagged with a 100% similarity score. Now 100%'s are normal when both partners submit the same paper, but these two don't even have lab on the same day, let alone the same section.

I like to think that I'm awake enough that I would have noticed Luis had signed his work "Victoria" when I eventually got to his, but there is a chance I might have missed it, and if that had happened, he would've gotten a pass.

I'm honestly a little flabbergasted. Dude's never been a top student, and his normal partner had asked to work alone on this particular assignment (not uncommon), but I hadn't expected the guy to straight up pull a "dis is mine". Its... really really stupid.

[alanp]

My supervisor at work loaned me his new EHX Oceans 11 pedal, with the comment, "Maybe you can get some ideas about making your own "

Took the back off, and there is no way that it isn't digital. Not with all those options it has, and the header connector for some kind of programmer to be attached.

It's a seriously, seriously nice reverb. There's even an option to kick the tank, on the Spring setting! I liked the Shimmer setting the most. If it wasn't $299NZD, I'd be tempted to get one myself.

[midwayfair]

and his normal partner had asked to work alone on this particular assignment (not uncommon)

Ask his normal partner if cheatyface ever did any of the work on previous assignments.

[somnif]

and his normal partner had asked to work alone on this particular assignment (not uncommon)

Ask his normal partner if cheatyface ever did any of the work on previous assignments.

I know shes the better student overall, but for now I've just kicked the case upstairs. My boss is the one who has to give the "you're getting a zero on this paper that is worth 12.5% of your overall grade and you have to write an apology to the dean" conversation.

[EBK]

My policy (written on my syllabus) was to divide the grade equally between the two copied reports (i.e., 100% would become 50% for each of them).  I still got some thesaurus-style copying ("We measured the voltage" became "We determined the voltage") and some passive-voice, somewhat Yoda-like in its repetition, reordered copying.  I couldn't blame them too much.  It was tedious stuff that didn't really effectively assess writing skills anyway.

[alanp]

I read something more than a decade ago that still sticks with me. The essay was on the Coyote, and the Roadrunner.

More specifically, it was about which one a person identified most with.

An example of a Roadrunner type was a hippy -- happy, zipping through life, not like some droopy-nosed sourpuss old politician.

Personally, I've always cheered on the Coyote. Stubborn, doesn't give up, will one day *GET* that smart-arse, better-than-thou Roadrunner. Plus the Coyote is like the patron saint of mad garage inventors.

[Muadzin]

Everybody likes the Coyote. He at least has character. The Roadrunner has no personality other then being a smart ass. At least with Tom & Jerry they alternated roles. Sometimes Tom was the smart ass, sometimes Jerry. You could root either way. The Roadrunner was always the same.

[nzCdog]

Everybody likes the Coyote. He at least has character. The Roadrunner has no personality other then being a smart ass. At least with Tom & Jerry they alternated roles. Sometimes Tom was the smart ass, sometimes Jerry. You could root either way. The Roadrunner was always the same.

I always wanted Road Runner to die. Coyote's ingenuity and persistence was crying out for a reward that never came. It's an injustice

[EBK]

I just always wanted that Acme catalog Wile E. Coyote was ordering his gear from.

[somnif]

Everybody likes the Coyote. He at least has character. The Roadrunner has no personality other then being a smart ass. At least with Tom & Jerry they alternated roles. Sometimes Tom was the smart ass, sometimes Jerry. You could root either way. The Roadrunner was always the same.

As someone who lives with real coyotes and real roadrunners....

Roadrunners are adorable little goofballs that make you smile. Coyotes kill your pets and rummage through garbage cans. Also, coyotes never shut up at night and it gets a little annoying sometimes.....

[Muadzin]

As someone who lives with real coyotes and real roadrunners....

Roadrunners are adorable little goofballs that make you smile. Coyotes kill your pets and rummage through garbage cans. Also, coyotes never shut up at night and it gets a little annoying sometimes.....

Are you seriously going to nitpick over some cartoon characters? 

Cause in that vein Tom is always the good guy and Jerry the bad guy, cause cats are awesome, period! And mice are always vermin to be exterminated.

[nzCdog]

I always wanted Jerry to get eaten as well!  And now that I think about it Tweetie bird too.  (Thufferin thuckatash, Sylvester!)

Does that make me a bad person?   

[Muadzin]

You're just rooting for the underdog. The cats never got their prey so that makes them the underdog.