Computer scientist and educator. Creator of ChessCraft. Senior scientific programmer at Environment Canada.
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
The free ChatGPT AI gave excellent or perfect answers to all my real ECCC interview questions: code writing and soft skills.
This post is written for public servants that need to know about the latest AI tool called ChatGPT. We should all understand what kind of text and interview answers …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
The views expressed here are my own, and do not express the views of my employer or my union.
Here's my experience attending my union's annual general meeting. I felt some empowerment but mostly outrage and boredom.
Clearly my union is sclerotic and archaic. We gathered to vote and share …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
If you love your stable diffusion art made with a vague prompt, consider checking out the artist instead.
I've made many thousands of SD images and I'm having a blast. I also love seeing what others have created. But I've only recently been able to put into words something that …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
What's more important to you: climate science or social justice?
Canadian politics is better when all parties are strong. How can the Green Party of Canada (GPC) recover its legitimacy and relevancy? Here I describe a simple and likely controversial membership test. I can't think of any other way forward …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
I often see these questions online:
"What are the differences between private and public sector IT?"
"What makes you stay in government IT?"
"Aren't government IT workers underpaid?"
This page is my list of the best things about public sector IT.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own, and …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
Most training videos are really bad. This is troublesome to me because I must constantly re-explain my philosophies and processes to colleagues or volunteers. This page aims to help.
Over the years I've made over a hundred training videos for public servants, high school and university students, workshops, and the …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
Richard Stallman may be a legend in the world of software, but he also has decades of history promoting a toxic environment in software communities. Due to this, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has been pressured to kick out Stallman from the board of directors, which they did, though he …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
The privately employed
May say they're annoyed
about public servant perks.
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What they fail to note
(and it's fair that they don't)
is that zombification lurks.
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Zombies are not happy,
humans need to be scrappy.
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Hold on to your fire,
stir the pots and aspire.
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Are you a zombie?
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
When I post tutorial videos people often make suggestions on how to improve my computer code. Thank you for your code suggestions! However, we may have a problem.
I often find that code suggestions are not teaching suggestions. Almost all computer programmers are not experienced educators, so this is understandable …
Posted by Stuart Spence in Blog
Hidden Figures is a 2016 movie about the 1960s space race, the early days of computation, and segregation. It's an uplifting movie - described by some as "cheesy". However the cheese serves to distinguish it from other films in its genre which are typically very dark and gritty. It's an underdog …