Eons Ahead
Last Updated on Sunday, 12 June 2011 16:00 Saturday, 28 May 2011 15:04
I would like to teach my students how to contribute to open source projects. Here I have begun to collect links to articles from which I am drawing ideas.
Last Updated on Friday, 25 March 2011 14:29 Friday, 25 March 2011 08:51
Your academic advisor
I am your academic advisor. You ask for my signature each spring when you register for the next year's courses. You ask for my signature when you add or drop a course in the middle of the year. You ask for my signature when you declare a major.
Why does the college require you to ask me to sign so many of your forms? What does my signature on your form signify?
Last Updated on Friday, 25 March 2011 14:19 Tuesday, 21 September 2010 15:32
Notes on searching and sorting
When a program checks the spelling in a document, the program searches for matching words in a dictionary. When a customer enters a title of a book on the Web site of an on-line bookstore, a program on the store's server searches for the price, reviews, and other information that will help the customer decide for or against making a purchase.
When the registrar's office publishes the list of courses that a college will offer, the office lists the courses in numerical order within departments that it lists alphabetically. Sorting is the key to efficient searches. Students can find the number of seats available in a course or the number of the room in which the course will meet quickly because the registrar has listed the courses in order.
Last Updated on Friday, 25 March 2011 14:13 Monday, 20 September 2010 08:10
What is Computer Science?
Computer scientists have created some of the most complex objects that human beings have ever designed and built. The largest programs contain tens of millions of instructions. If printed on paper and bound in books, a single large program would fill thousands of volumes. No single person can fully comprehend a large program. Large teams work for many years to write large programs. New members join and experienced contributors depart at every stage.
The smallness of electronic devices should impress us. The coordination of human beings in the development of software should impress us more.
