Screenshot: A Weblog

I would not want to buck the weblogging tradition of posting some type of year-end wrap-up, and I was quite lax on the photography and book-reading this year so I thought I would tie up 2007 with a recap of some of the new technologies that I have started using in the past year.

• RSS Feeds: My general websurfing habits had been to open folders of bookmarks into my Firefox tabs and click my way through them, but I finally broke down and tried out reading feeds and it's an experiment I'm sticking with. I started out using Sage, a Firefox extension, but I'm pretty firmly wedded to Google Reader at this point. Sure, Google is harvesting what I read when, but I can keep up on my feeds anyway, including on my cellphone and it's support for tracking new feeds and letting you star old entries for later references is great.
• Eclipse: I had played with it very briefly before, but this year marks the first time I have really used it, and after a surprisingly shallow learning curve I feel like I'm pretty proficient with it. I've only tested out the Java support, and have heard that it is less ideal for C++, but it has all of the expected bells and whistles, I like the debugger, and I'm a fan of using a free tool that my students can continue to use after the end of the semester. I still think you ought to get started with a simple text editor and command-line compilation, but if you are going with an IDE this is a reasonable choice.
• Facebook: I was talked into setting up a profile and, having never gotten on MySpace or Friendster or any of those things, it's been interesting to play with. I'm invested enough that I even have opinions on the recent changes allowing your status to not start with "is" and emailing you messages you receive, and not just notifications (both great!).
• New Toys: My laptop and lab computers all got upgraded, along with shiny new flatscreen monitors. Bonus on the laptop - all of my wireless networking problems went away, at home and in my office. I upgraded my cell phone and along the way learned to text message and access the internet using it. I think 2007 was the tipping point in my always-on accessibility.

This coming year, I've got modest technological innovation goals. I'm going to learn either Python or Jython. I would like to get my old laptop running Linux. And I'll probably jump on a few other bandwagons along the way, just to keep current - so send me your recommendations of what I ought to be playing around with before next December rolls around.

Posted by Amanda at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got around to watching this short documentary (split into five pieces) about a nuclear laboratory surplus shop in Los Alamos while baking cookies today, and it is pretty cool. Both the stuff that this guy has, but also the fact that this guy is living in Los Alamos, used to be a machinist at the lab, is currently repurposing what the lab discards, and is now quite outspoken against nuclear experimentation. It's interesting to see the town reaction to him also.

If you haven't seen that site, which I had not before this, it's got some other interesting films there too. I think it is cool they figured out a fairly low-tech way to film inside a running dishwasher.

Posted by Amanda at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was chatting with a friend tonight about the fact that both of us are interested in learning Python, for slightly different reasons. He has noticed some job listings that indicate Python as being a particularly desirable skill, and theorizes that it would be pretty straightforward to pick up if you have a good understanding of Java. That theory is supported by the large number of books and articles written specifically to help the Java programmer learn Python. (See: Python for Java Programmers or Python for Java Programmers) In fact, if you have a background in Java, this Python & Java Side-by-Side Comparison does a nice job of not just laying out the differences, but in doing so describing what Python is. For me what is the most jarring is the lack of types. Which is weird, because I spent many years in grad school programming LISP, but I also spent a fair amount of time surrounded by proponents of strongly-typed languages. Between that and my current immersion in Java world, it makes me feel vaguely itchy to think about writing code without types. What if I try to add an int and a String? The world would end! Or at least it should!

For myself, my interest in Python comes from thinking about my upper level courses. With programming as a prerequisite, I can ask students to write Java programs, but Java can be unwieldy and I have wondered if I would be better off spending a couple of classes teaching Python and then have students write code in that. Or, even better, I could use Jython - an implementation of Python that runs via the JVM and lets programmers use the Java libraries in their Python code. I had never heard of this until my friend pointed it out, but it sounds perfect. Students can use the familiar and vast Java libraries, including nitpicky ones like Swing that take some practice, but avoid the complexity of writing a full-blown Java program. Assuming Jython works the way it sounds like it does - I guess I have a backburner project to work on now....

Posted by Amanda at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The week before finals is the long dark teatime of the academic soul. When it corresponds with the first frigid, blowsy weather of the winter, the mind turns to piles of poofy blankets. Barring that, I end up wondering if we have enough laptops to relocate my small advanced programming class to be held around the campus center fireplace with mugs of hot chocolate.... I start thinking that a brain shawl would be cozy and timely. Or at least decide that I need to get serious about shopping for a new winter coat.

It is not too late to catch up on the 2007 X-Entertainment Advent Calendar, if you like odd stories acted out using Playmobile and LEGO characters, riffing off the contents of toy advent calendars. It's like improv weblogging.

Posted by Amanda at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)