Information Uncertainty Principle
Through Denning’s Presentation Great Principles of Computing I heard of this fascinating tale regarding Buridan’s ass. It refers to a hypothetical situation wherein an ass is placed precisely midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Since…
Why Grading Sucks
It’s not just that the student provided solutions are unexpectedly “creative” and don’t fit the designed rubric. Nor that they make you wonder “Why am I even trying?”. Nor that they invoke thoughts such as “How did we ever make…
Segregate Third-Party JS Libraries
Typically, web authors simply load whatever library they’d like to use with full trust. In JS, such loading amounts essentially to a #include. I’m flabbergasted that this practice remains normal. It could be paranoia, but even without invoking all the…
Editor Wars
Normally, I use vi for most of my editing work. But, I’ve been hearing much about emacs and its ability to do a better job at syntax highlighting, code completion, spell checking, even a writegood-mode for detecting passive voice. Emacs…
Illegal Everything
John Stossel (I’m really starting to like this guy) recently did an episode titled “Illegal Everything” in which he make the following observations/arguments: Legalizing drugs does not lead to more use, but does lead to less violence. (example: Portugal, as…
What you should know about type systems
I read today, a really good essay on type systems. It covers what they can be used for and the differences between dynamic and static systems (although the word ‘type’ is used in both, it doesn’t mean the same thing…
Grading
Ugh. I spent too much time today and yesterday doing grading. I shouldn’t be this slow at it. Here’s the general process: Look at 5–10 submissions and note what are the most common errors. From this, a rubric can be…
Tricks of the Trade
Today, Howard Rheingold was searching for examples of clear posts in which to use as examples of online communication. One of the respondents identified a really good series set of descriptions answering the question, What is it like to have…
Introverts
Even though extroverts make up the majority of people on this pale blue dot, I happen to feel comfortably at home in academia. The profession seems overwhelmed with introverts. It’s not as if we are shy, or afraid of interaction,…
Great Presentations
Back when my interest in teaching was only just a spark on the kindling of my brain, I started to investigate the tricks of communication. Up to that point in my life I had completely underestimated the importance of communication….