When I was a kid I would spend holidays with my grandparents in Michigan and Florida. It was during one of those holidays in the early 1980s that my grandparents introduced us to their fancy new microwave oven. Today, we take them for granted, but back in the 1970s are and 1980s they were magical. […]
It's August of 2026 and the Mbed platform is dead. You're forgiven if you don't know what Mbed is. It can be summarized this way: Mbed was a cloud service to help engineers make stuff on little chips. Basically, think of it like Google Docs for microchips. It launched in 2009, around the time that […]
Here at YorkU the bells ring for AI. We're all in on AI in all kinds of systems and services. We've declared that each student will have their own AI "private tutor". While we keep being told there is no money for building maintenance or new teaching initiatives, there seems to be an unlimited supply […]
Recently, York University's Information Technology (UIT) department blocked access to our Learning Management System with a message about AI called "AI Features in eClass". You could not get to eClass without clicking on the "I acknowledge" button. I didn't click the button because I actually read the message and I don't accept it. And, because […]
At York University management tells us that Microsoft Copilot can "[enhance] your productivity with our advanced AI tools—YU AURA and Microsoft Copilot. These services streamline tasks, improve efficiency, and support your everyday activities." (source). Policy documents exhort the work potential for Copilot and Copilot Premium, with helpful tips about guardrails and data types: It's hard […]