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This quote from a recent Chronicle article Infantilized by Academe struck me, particularly with the chaos of the end of the academic year: Our students are often more distracted than we are, and so inured to distraction that they are unlikely to notice it. As other commentators have argued, the process of gaining admission to selective American colleges now requires presenting an array of accomplishments so vast and varied that any reflection that might accompany them is purely incidental. This thought resonates with recent conversations I’ve been having with students and colleagues about the amount that students try to take … Continue reading Leaving time for focus

I am a crazy fan of advent calendars. In addition to my physical calendar of ornaments, I’ve got a collection of online calendars I’m “opening” each day as well. Here are my favorites I found this year: Saveur Cookie Advent Calendar: A new cookie recipe each day – check out day six’s Alfajores Erik Svedäng’s Advent Calendar: Fun little widgets to watch and, in some cases, interact with Advent of Indies: Each day another indie game is promoted alongside a freebie to enjoy (some available only on the day the door opens) LEGO Star Wars Game Advent Calendar: play through … Continue reading Counting down

There’s a lot to love about this account of how social network analysis was used to illustrate a slumlord conspiracy – it isn’t just a nice example of a real world use of the tools, but the step by step construction of the network is a lovely example of data presentation. A quick and easy read that may become my go-to link to send students when they want to understand what this stuff is our networking course covers if it isn’t about hubs and routers and tcp/ip. [via BoingBoing]

In a stroke of brilliance, Florida Atlantic University produced their final student issue of the student newspaper using pre-computer technologies. Like manual typewriters, Xacto knives and rubber cement. And lots of math. This sounds like a total blast, and like a great learning experience. My favorite quote from one of the students involved: After looking at a finished page – a page that took us half a day to finish – we felt so content and satisfied. I’ll compare it to the difference between buying a McNugget and hunting down your own chicken, gutting it, deboning it, and cutting it … Continue reading Manual Publishing

So it seems to be time for new weblogging software around these parts. It would be nice to be able to re-enable commenting, and I never really bothered to customize Moveable Type all that much. So, we’re giving WordPress a try. This is going to be an entirely half-assed trial-by-error effort, because that’s the type of weblog this is so – nobody get their hopes up and we’ll all be fine!

If I knew any woodworking, I would absolutely make myself one of these beautiful binary marble adding machines. It’s a six-bit binary adder, implemented with marbles and wooden toggles that allow for carrying. The page describes in a good bit of detail how it works, but if you just want the high-level overview, scroll to the bottom and watch the video demonstration. It’s really pretty amazing.

My most recently completed knitting project is this beaded mohair shawl, my first attempt at knitting with beads. I followed the “Patagonian Night Sky Shawl” pattern from Knit and Crochet with Beads by Lily Chen, though I included more repeats than the book called for since I wanted a slightly larger shawl. the yarn was a remaindered machine knitting cone that I got cheap a few years ago and had been looking for a purpose for; the beads are iridescent black glass beads – see the detail photo below. It turns out that knitting with beads is fairly easy, though … Continue reading

If you have ever enjoyed anything I have linked to, you will go listen to the song Code Monkey (just click on the “Code Monkey” link under the blurb). It is birlliant and true and funny and I am geeking out to this song in my office, to the dismay of the student who just came by to ask a question. I actually acquired a code monkey of my own last summer (he is purple and plush and from Seattle, as many good code monkeys are), and perhaps I’ll finally bring him in to the office with me tomorrow.