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March 2008 - Posts

Monday, March 31, 2008 11:13 AM

The Art of the Demo

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about doing demos among the people I work with. Showing how a piece of software and how it works is not always, perhaps not even often, as easy as people think it is. It involves knowing something about the
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 5 Comments
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Friday, March 28, 2008 9:40 AM

Five Questions with Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen is probably best known either for FIRST Robotics or for inventing the Segway device. But he has invented a lot more than that and his robotic arm is showing some amazing potential to replace human limbs. He's also got an invention that creates
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments
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Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:07 AM

XML in Schools - Is Now the Time?

The other day I was chatting online with a good friend of mine. Dave was a teacher but has gone back to industry. He's a SharePoint consultant these days. Its been a real learning experience for him and he seems to be enjoying it. But one of the things
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 7 Comments
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 5:42 AM

Computer History Links

Recently at SIGCSE there was a panel on Perspectives on History in Computing and Education with John Impagliazzo, Bill Aspray, Mary Anne Egan, and Vicki Almstrum. I wasn't able to make that session but Vicki Almstrum sent out an email with a lot of links
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 5:29 AM

Students 2 Business - Its About the Jobs

Students 2 Business (S2B for short) is "a Microsoft® Community Initiative designed to connect Microsoft partners and customers with qualified students for entry-level and internship positions. The objective of the S2B program is to inspire local businesses
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
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Monday, March 24, 2008 11:10 AM

Silverlight, Popfly, and other Software Trailers

I'm very lucky to be working with a bunch of bright young people. Well they don't always think of themselves as young but since I have a son older than most of them they seem young to me. These guys are talented in many areas but it is their use of new
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 2 Comments
Friday, March 21, 2008 7:05 AM

CS & IT Symposium at NECC 2008

The information and registration page is up for this year's CS & IT Symposium at NECC this summer. Some of the announcement is below: Take advantage of this opportunity for relevant professional development! Explore issues and trends relating directly
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Thursday, March 20, 2008 2:33 PM

Binary, Hex, Octal - Does Anyone Care Anymore?

As the old joke goes there are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand Binary and those who don't. There seem to be fewer of those Binary understanding people in the world today. Or do I just ravel in the wrong circles? Does computer science
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 10 Comments
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:51 AM

Summer Robotics Workshops for Faculty

I see that IPRE ( Institute for Personal Robotics in Education ) is running a pair of faculty workshops this summer. We're offering two IPRE Summer Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Workshops ( K-12 teachers also invited! ). In these workshops we will
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:25 AM

Bill Gates Calls For More Technology Education

Bill Gates testified before Congress last week ( transcript here ). Most of the news reports focused on his calling for more H1B visas and left out some of what I think are the more important things he said. First among those is that we need to improve
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Monday, March 17, 2008 11:18 AM

20% Time For Students

I spent last week in Portland OR for SIGCSE . As usual it was a great conference and I was able to visit with a lot of old friends and meet some new ones. I was also able to attend some of the sessions though not as many as I would have liked. Too many
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 3 Comments
Friday, March 14, 2008 4:45 AM

Singularity - A Research Operating System

Microsoft Research has released the Singularity Research Development Kit (RDK) and it is now available including source code, build tools, test suites and other materials. What is Singularity ? From the project site at CodePlex where you can get the RDK:
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Thursday, March 13, 2008 4:54 AM

MIX 08 Sessions OnLine

The MIX conference is a major Microsoft conference on web development and design. It was run in Las Vegas last week. I didn't get to go. Probably you didn't go either. The good news is that most of the sessions from MIX are now online for on demand viewing.
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:18 AM

Build Your Own or Buy Built

I'm not much of a hardware guy. Oh sure I have built a few systems and I can add and replace hardware with the best of them. I've installed hardware since back in the days when installing software meant bringing a tool kit so you could connect wires and
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 6 Comments
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 6:29 AM

So You Want A Job in the Software Industry

Clint Rutkas has been doing a lot of interviewing lately. At a number of events he has been interviewing software professionals about what it takes and what people need to know to prepare for a career in the software industry. His most recent interview
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 1 Comments
Monday, March 10, 2008 11:57 AM

Passion Quilt meme

Yeah I used a Microsoft image but the view of the mouse and the books connected was irresistible. It's Information; Learn it; Use it! Megan Golding tagged me for the Passion Quilt meme. The rules: Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 2 Comments
Monday, March 10, 2008 6:28 AM

Is Computer Science Enrolment Heading Up?

The Computer Research Association (CRA) has a new report out on computer science enrollment. The discussions online are a real mix of the glass being half full and half empty. If you look at the long term you see things like enrollment dropping about
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Sunday, March 09, 2008 12:59 PM

Big Money for Teachers or for Technology

There is an interesting new charter middle school opening in New York City that promises to pay teachers $125,000 a year plus the potential for bonuses based on student performance. There was an interesting article on the school in the New York Times
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 3 Comments
Sunday, March 09, 2008 12:12 AM

Keeping Track of Education Bloggers

I found an interesting new site today. I found it on Twitter actually. I am finding that a lot of the people I follow make mention of interesting websites, blogs or news stories. That may be the most useful thing about Twitter for me so far. Anyway, the
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 4:56 AM

More on the GDCSE Conference

So I'm still way behind on blogging to say nothing of my email. I spent the last day as a vacation day with my father who I don't see often enough. I've also been fixing his computer, showing how to use his new GPS device, and setting up his DVD player.
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:01 AM

LiveWeb - insert and view web pages real-time

Philip DesAutels sent me a link to a PowerPoint add-in called LiveWeb . I haven't had a chance to try it out but it looks like the thing that could be very useful to teachers and others who create presentations that involve looking at web pages. A bit
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
Monday, March 03, 2008 3:15 PM

Game Development in Computer Science Education Day 1

I am on the M/V Celebrity Century at sea out of Miami as I write this. The Internet is expensive and I'm not sure I want to spend the money for it. These are my first day notes and while I intended to write every night the need for sleep overtook me after
Posted by Alfred Thompson | 0 Comments
 
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