platypus matt
One of my students this semester has hair longer than mine. Maybe that's why he's been writing such great blog posts! Anyway, I thought you might enjoy or profit from his review of free alternatives to Microsoft Word. It's fairly comprehensive and even has screenshots. Check it out!
I borrowed a copy of Programmers at Work and found some pretty good comments in there from the Bill Gates interview. It's harder than heck to get a copy of this book--I ILL'ed it, and then they only let me keep it for a week. But here's the quotations. These are from either from 1986 or 1989; my guess is the interview was closer to the former.
Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?
Gates: No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system.
You've got to be willing to read other people's code, then write your own, then have other people review your code. You've got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you're doing wrong.
I don't know how everybody else is faring now that Obama has chosen Joe Biden for his running mate...You've no doubt heard about Biden's Pro-RIAA, pro-FBI voting record. Still, we can hope that all this talk about the "little guy" will somehow pertain to people besides Jack Valenti, who is surely not all that downtrodden (really). Being disgruntled (and wondering if anyone has ever been just gruntled?), I checked out some of the fringe action and found some interesting stuff.
Just read that some 100 odd college and university presidents are calling for a reduction of the drinking age to 18. They seem to think that'll cut back on drinking, since there will no longer be a need to binge when the coast is clear. However, MADD is, uh, not happy about it, and has accused these presidents of not doing their homework.
PC Magazine has published a list of 12 Tools for students who want to stay organized this semester. The list includes the usual suspects (RateMyProfessors, Facebook), but there are some here that I hadn't heard of before, such as MyPunchBowl, Mint, and TheDailyPlate. There are also some citation and bib tools here, though I think Word's new built-in bib tools pretty much render them superfluous.
I was browsing the template library of Office 2007 today when I came across an interesting "academic" letter template: "Complaint about Teacher." The letter is probably what you could expect from a parent whose kiddo isn't making the A's she rightfully deserves. Here's a few snippets from it:
Do you love words? Of course you do, you're an English teacher! :) Well, anyway, I found Wordie today, a social network all about words:
Wordie lets you make lists of words and phrases. Words you love, words you hate, words on a given topic, whatever. Lists are visible to everyone but can be added to by just you, a group of friends, or anyone, as you wish.
Then, if you're feeling social, join the discussion. Wordies are friendly! Add citations and comments to words and lists. See who else has listed the same words.
In imitation of some dude I saw on a YouTube of a SNL skit, I have decided to take the headlines from Google News and offer my own commentary.
San Francisco Shortens Torch Relay
Mr. San Francisco just doesn't get the Olympics. I mean, first shorten the torch relay, next do away with the human sacrifice. Where's a laurel wreath? Isn't this just a case of the monk wagging Zedong?
General challenged to justify Iraq deployment
Is it just me, or has Facebook suddenly got more popular than subway? I'm noticing that many of my RL friends and colleagues are now finally getting on the facebook, and I'm wondering what made them finally do it.
One thing may be that they've added some kind of "do you know these peeps" tool. I'm guessing it's based on the six degrees concept; if three of the people in your network have this other person in their network, there's a good chance you know them, too. At any rate, I think I've about quintupled my friend list in the past week or so (91, but who's counting?)
Well, finally back from 4C's and all that jazz (literally). I have to admit, I think this is probably my favorite experience at 4C's. New Orleans is an awesome place, and I'm sad that I didn't visit it more when I was actually living in Louisiana. Guess I know now what all the fuss was about.
