[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Lorn Asbord Schutta wrote:
2 years ago
I was more intrested in lingustics/AI part of cognitive science.
The thing is that it is a high time I decided which studies I will pursue. And due to circumstances I have a seat on cognitive science in the top univeristy in my country, but at the same time it is a field that is little-known here. I do not want to spend 3~5 years to be able to talk much, but help a little, so I want to know wether those studies are useful anywhere
In my opinion AI/ML is likely to be very valuable in the future. It's been modest in its impact in imaging so far - the initial claims were a bit grandiose about it putting radiologists out of work but there's a lot of reason to think we could use AI/ML to help understand how the brain works by helping interpret imaging, especially at scale. As more data accumulates that stuff gets better.

I don't know what the program of study for cognitive science is exactly - so can't offer much advice on it. If it has a lot of hard science and programming for AI/ML/NLP stuff I think there's a lot going on there.

Natural language processing has made massive leaps over the last decade and is a cool area of study -- automated translation as well as sentiment analysis and so on. I don't think we're that far from really solid computer translation (it's not *that* bad now, just not great).

Just make sure you don't take fluffy theory stuff only and learn how to do something.

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SocorroTortoise
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Post by SocorroTortoise » 2 years ago

Lorn Asbord Schutta wrote:
2 years ago
I was more intrested in lingustics/AI part of cognitive science.
The thing is that it is a high time I decided which studies I will pursue. And due to circumstances I have a seat on cognitive science in the top univeristy in my country, but at the same time it is a field that is little-known here. I do not want to spend 3~5 years to be able to talk much, but help a little, so I want to know wether those studies are useful anywhere.
Not directly in the field, but my brother-in-law graduated with a cognitive science degree a couple years ago. My impression is that it's largely what you make of it. There are a relatively small number of employers looking to hire cognitive sciences directly as opposed to a more focused science/engineering discipline, but it has elements of a lot of desirable areas. Where you focus your studies and what kind of experience you can get will have more impact than just having the degree.

More broadly, AI/ML are big topics in a broad swath of industries right now. I'm an electrical engineer and I can expect a solid 20-30% of conference papers to be ML related, even though none of the methods being proposed have seen widespread industry adoption yet. I've heard from friends in other technical industries, e.g. aerospace, that there are similar levels of interest there. My brother is wrapping up his CS PhD with a focus on NLP and has had no trouble finding (well-paid) internships throughout, so his job prospects on graduation look like they'll be pretty good. I'll echo @pokken saying that if you can develop some solid technical skills in those areas you're likely to be more successful after school.
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Post by Rumpy5897 » 2 years ago

Science is all about transferable skills. There's a guy in the lab down the hall who got his PhD in astrophysics, but is now doing computational biology as his mathematical/programming apparatus was strong and he just readjusted to the new subject matter. What I studied for my undergrad had little to do with my PhD, which in turn had little to do with what I'm doing now. This AI/ML stuff is pretty hot right now, I'm seeing it penetrate various topics in computational biology, so if you get a good core going then you should be able to adapt to whatever application of it later on.

I'm also an avid rewatcher myself. Toc's focus on the vibe media creates is a big part of that, and as usual I'm in agreement that Mike Schur shows are perfect for that purpose. I'd expand the list with 30 Rock, Futurama, Friends and a Polish show nobody here would know :P I was personally rather unfazed by Queen's Gambit, I am a complete chess layman so the attention to detail there went completely over my head. With that removed, it's a pretty stock rise to success featuring obligatory slump story. Pokken's observations, both current and prior, on the redundancy of material hold very well. A bunch of new shows I watched relatively recently felt like taking a tested scenario Mad Lib and filling out the holes with character tropes and subject matter. Superstore was extremely guilty of that - apart from a couple moments of commentary on late stage capitalism, it felt like it was more concerned with emulating tried and true shows than doing its own thing. I've still got the Schitt's Creek recommendation to carry out, but I haven't been in a watch'y mood lately.
 
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Post by Guardman » 2 years ago

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Ramble on about something tangibly related - My stories in science go back to originally I wanted to go to college to become a freshwater biologist. I've always loved marine biology, and went to marine biology and oceanography camps in Maine and Jamaica while in high school. But I didn't want to study the sea and ocean as my passion always lay in freshwater. The problem was there weren't many programs that specialized in freshwater biology. And the one of note that did was small and way in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, literally a half hour from anywhere. It was a nice school, but I just couldn't see myself going there. As such I swerved to my back-up career path in Entrepreneurship, which made me go to Marquette since it fit all of my criteria and had one of the best Entrepreneurship programs in the country. I had fun at Marquette, spent a semester studying abroad in Japan, and graduated with a double major in Entrepreneurship and Commercial Real Estate. But I often wonder about the path I didn't travel. I could see myself doing two things. First studying (and trying to not be killed by) the Asian Carp, finding ways to prevent them from getting into the Great Lakes, and even more ambitiously, finding ways to remove them from the ecosystem. Second, and perhaps ironically, is studying the bull shark. But not from the normal marine biologist perspective, but from more of a freshwater biologist perspective as I would love to study their rare, but notable, incursions into freshwater rivers, specifically the Mississippi.

Now for something completely different - How is everyone liking AFR so far? I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised with how much fun both the sealed and draft environments are. The modal spells and creatures are great, and having so many of them makes for some neat play decisions. Same with the dice cards. The dungeon mechanic has been extremely interesting so far, as while easy to grok, it really asks you to predict the future, as knowing which dungeon or room you should go into is often not as much based on your needs now, but your needs a couple of turns from now. I appreciate how deep the mechanic actually is and understand why they limited it to three dungeons. Now I just wish I could play it in person (the closest game stores are like a thirty minute drive from me and they all sold out there limited spots like that).

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Post by Sanity_Eclipse » 2 years ago

I tend to rewatch things personally. There's definitely a psychological comfort thing there, since I know how those things are going to progress and how they're going to end. When your actual life is constant change with a potential for having to swim back to shore as opposed to facing the storm, going back to a comfort place is surely understandable.

On a progressive note to that, I did make it some amount through Season 3 of Castlevania.
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Admittedly I definitely had a few too many, but I remember that Hector is a somewhat childish idiot, Carmilla has three sisters and I swear one scene implied more than just a family relationship between two of them, Sypha and Trevor have definitely shacked up a few times, and there's a demon-influenced clergy place S and T are investigating.
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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

Sanity_Eclipse wrote:
2 years ago
I tend to rewatch things personally. There's definitely a psychological comfort thing there, since I know how those things are going to progress and how they're going to end. When your actual life is constant change with a potential for having to swim back to shore as opposed to facing the storm, going back to a comfort place is surely understandable.

On a progressive note to that, I did make it some amount through Season 3 of Castlevania.
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Admittedly I definitely had a few too many, but I remember that Hector is a somewhat childish idiot, Carmilla has three sisters and I swear one scene implied more than just a family relationship between two of them, Sypha and Trevor have definitely shacked up a few times, and there's a demon-influenced clergy place S and T are investigating.
You still have some way to go. It gets better and better. The Bill Night cameo is perfection too.
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Post by vandertroll » 2 years ago

toctheyounger wrote:
2 years ago
Sanity_Eclipse wrote:
2 years ago
I tend to rewatch things personally. There's definitely a psychological comfort thing there, since I know how those things are going to progress and how they're going to end. When your actual life is constant change with a potential for having to swim back to shore as opposed to facing the storm, going back to a comfort place is surely understandable.

On a progressive note to that, I did make it some amount through Season 3 of Castlevania.
Castlevania Season 3 Stuffz
Show
Hide
Admittedly I definitely had a few too many, but I remember that Hector is a somewhat childish idiot, Carmilla has three sisters and I swear one scene implied more than just a family relationship between two of them, Sypha and Trevor have definitely shacked up a few times, and there's a demon-influenced clergy place S and T are investigating.
You still have some way to go. It gets better and better. The Bill Night cameo is perfection too.
This was an amazing series! Warren Ellis is one of the greats.
Did anyone watch Black Widow? Thoughts?
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Post by benjameenbear » 2 years ago

I'll hop on the Castelvania train as well. Excellent, excellent series. I was both sad/elated in how Season 4 ended. I think they did a fantastic job of adapting the game to a series and the mythos of it all was very pleasing to both my wife and I. It's the only series we actually went out and bought the DVD's for.

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Post by SocorroTortoise » 2 years ago

vandertroll wrote:
2 years ago
Did anyone watch Black Widow? Thoughts?
I'm waiting for it to go free, so probably still a couple months out. How did you think it was (in a spoiler-free way)?
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Post by JWK » 2 years ago

I thought Black Widow was fine. It isn't my favorite of the MCU films, but it's far from the worst, and some of the fights and stuntwork were pretty cool.

I was on the road for the past week + but I managed to attend a AFR prerelease event. I had an insane WB pool that included tons of dungeon delve stuff + Lolth and Hand of Vecna and went 3/1, losing to a super-fast Rakdos goblin deck. I am skeptical whether the dungeon stuff will be good at all in commander, but it is great in sealed, and the set as a whole played a lot better and was a lot more fun than I expected just looking at previews. What have others felt about it so far?
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Post by Dunharrow » 2 years ago

I have done two drafts on arena, and done terribly. Dungeons are not that powerful so building around them is kinda meh (which is what I did twice). In commander I only see dungeons being a thing if it is being forced. The best you can do is venture into the dungeon infinitely, at which point why aren't you just winning off a blood artist instead?
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
I have done two drafts on arena, and done terribly. Dungeons are not that powerful so building around them is kinda meh (which is what I did twice). In commander I only see dungeons being a thing if it is being forced. The best you can do is venture into the dungeon infinitely, at which point why aren't you just winning off a blood artist instead?
So three to five color dungeon goodstuffs in commander?

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Post by JWK » 2 years ago

Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
In commander I only see dungeons being a thing if it is being forced. The best you can do is venture into the dungeon infinitely, at which point why aren't you just winning off a blood artist instead?
That is more or less my current thought on this. There are ways to go infinite with dungeoning, but at this point it just becomes a not-particularly-efficient combo deck, so why bother?

I play to mess around a bit with the dungeon-themed precon and see if I even care after few tries. I suspect I won't, but that deck has some okay cards that might find homes.

My current suspicion is that in two years we will see dungeon in commander games about as often as we see soulbond, or probably even less, since one soulbond card (Deadeye Navigator) is extremely strong and efficient on its own. I can't think of a single dungeon card that is worth playing on its own merits apart from a dungeon strategy.
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Post by Guardman » 2 years ago

Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
I have done two drafts on arena, and done terribly. Dungeons are not that powerful so building around them is kinda meh (which is what I did twice). In commander I only see dungeons being a thing if it is being forced. The best you can do is venture into the dungeon infinitely, at which point why aren't you just winning off a blood artist instead?
Dungeons is a weird mechanic in that how you value it and how you use it changes wildly based on the deck you are playing. Plus its a mechanic that you often have to plan how you are going to use it a couple turns in advance. It's not a bad mechanic, and in fact it can be used quite powerfully. I've won several games of Sealed and Draft thanks to dungeons. But it is difficult to use to its fullest. I think it is a mechanic that will be seen in a better light once players get more experience in the format.

As a general rule, on how I've used each dungeon:

Tomb of Annihilation - Great option in aggressive decks as it acts as burn/resource denial for little cost to you and the payoff is a big, hard to profitably block creature.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - The default option when you don't have many venture cards. Also good if you have cards that pay you off when you complete a dungeon.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage - The best option if you have lots of venture cards and/or you expect the game to go long.

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Post by Legend » 2 years ago

Bored? Like Magic trivia? Then check out my Magic mechanics thread.
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Post by vandertroll » 2 years ago

SocorroTortoise wrote:
2 years ago
vandertroll wrote:
2 years ago
Did anyone watch Black Widow? Thoughts?
I'm waiting for it to go free, so probably still a couple months out. How did you think it was (in a spoiler-free way)?
We watched it on an open air cinema (1st time since covid struck) so it helped for a better experience. The movie was okay-ish, not the best, not the worst. There is a nice humor to seriousness ratio and David Harbour - Rachel Weisz (what an amazing actress) acting gives an extra edge. Storyline-wise I am not very familiar with Widow's arc but it was rather typical.
Overall nice movie to watch on cinema, dunno if I would stay awake during the whole movie at home :)
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Post by materpillar » 2 years ago

I played a handful of games of EDH yesterday. First two my opponents played half their deck / an infinite combo to wipe the table by turn 6. So that was... fun.

The next game went to turn 18. I won with High CMC tribal because my opponent tried to mill me out with Altar of Dementia (fairly with durdly creatures) and I have Progenitus, Worldspine Wurm and Darksteel Colossus in their just for lulz so he couldn't kill me. Then, Bosh, Iron Golem threw The Great Henge at his face along with Calibrated Blast to get through his Spore Frog + Genesis loop. That game was great.

Then, I played against a morph tribal, I don't have any wincons but attacking with a slowly growing swarm of manifests, that cast Ixidron 5 times against my Rhonas the Indomitable all I do is use Rhonas the Indomitable to fight stuff pauper deck. After 2 and a half hours of doing basically nothing, I finally got someone to kill my face down Rhonas the Indomitable for the fourth time. Re-cast him and suicided into the morph tribal deck with Declare Dominance to tap him out so that the Nin, the Pain Artist could kill him with his 25/25 Sturmgeist. I'd have rather died on turn 6 to an obnoxious combo.

We're 1/4 on games that were actually enjoyable. Wamp wamp.

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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

materpillar wrote:
2 years ago
Then, I played against a morph tribal, I don't have any wincons but attacking with a slowly growing swarm of manifests, that cast Ixidron 5 times against my Rhonas the Indomitable all I do is use Rhonas the Indomitable to fight stuff pauper deck. After 2 and a half hours of doing basically nothing, I finally got someone to kill my face down Rhonas the Indomitable for the fourth time. Re-cast him and suicided into the morph tribal deck with Declare Dominance to tap him out so that the Nin, the Pain Artist could kill him with his 25/25 Sturmgeist. I'd have rather died on turn 6 to an obnoxious combo.
My god do I hate the morph deck. :)

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Post by Hermes_ » 2 years ago

so last week, the guy i played against had a golos shrine deck lol
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Post by pokken » 2 years ago

Hermes_ wrote:
2 years ago
so last week, the guy i played against had a golos shrine deck lol
Those are fun. Did he stick 3 shrines and then jokiulhaups? That's been my experience

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Post by Hermes_ » 2 years ago

pokken wrote:
2 years ago
Hermes_ wrote:
2 years ago
so last week, the guy i played against had a golos shrine deck lol
Those are fun. Did he stick 3 shrines and then jokiulhaups? That's been my experience
no mass wipes of any kind, I think it's wincon was like "ten or more" or "different names" also had Approach of the Second Sun in or that may have been the sissay deck...ugh I hate my memory lol in both cases they weren't the normal 5c good stuff or standard decks for the commanders
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Post by vandertroll » 2 years ago

I play a Sisay all shrines/enchantress deck which wins via MLD.. In theory.. Most of the times I try to play Sterling Grove effects on the shrines and get max value from the shrines. Then someone tries to combo the table and I LD. It's my pet deck but it's kinda slow for my playgroup.
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Post by folding_music » 2 years ago

survived a week's heatwave, blasting myself with the fan now just to experience the privilege of being cold. a good way to describe the UK right now would be this card:

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Post by DirkGently » 2 years ago

Meanwhile in NZ, there's a decent chance I'll end up living here:

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Post by toctheyounger » 2 years ago

DirkGently wrote:
2 years ago
Meanwhile in NZ, there's a decent chance I'll end up living here:

Image

The most important question: what's the local MtG scene like?
Tryna figure out where this is based on Rangitoto on the horizon and I'm not quite there. Either way its gotta be pricey with a view like that.
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