Last year, Google announced a set of resource to help students and faculty with CS education. They’ve revamped the set of resources and redesigned the web page and all the jazzy stuff to produce: Google Code University. Marty Stepp, whose courses are featured in the Google code university, has his office just down the hall from me. His name plate says “Marty Stepp++”
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The Great Debate
Since my laptop was stolen, it’s time for me to think about getting a replacement. My last laptop was a tablet PC, a Toshiba M400 Portege, which was “Vista capable,” which I’m pretty sure means that it was “just barely Vista capable.” I loved having a tablet PC, but the Toshiba wasn’t exactly behaving great under Vista (slow, slow, slow.) So now the question is what should my next laptop be. In particular I am almost tempted to (close you ears Seattlites)….buy a Mac.
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Morpho Towers
Happy Leap Friday! For your enjoyment, some ferromagnetic fluids jiving to a piano piece:
Assorted Technology Bits
Technology tidbits of assorted flavors:
- I think I just made myself dizzy.
- Multi-touch to the max, dude!
- What does it take to build the next Silicon Valley (besides Gallium Arsenide?) Via John Cook’s Venture Blog comes this report.
- Bill Gates uses LinkedIn and asks: “How can we do more to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology?” (Is it wrong that my knee jerk reaction is “eliminate middle school?” 🙂 Oh and look I have more LinkedIn connections than Bill Gates! He has more dollars, though, I guess. I bet I have more joke-like “Bacon” paraphernalia though!
HD Shroud of Turin
Coming soon to a desktop near you: Your own digital Jesus. (Someone to hear your prayers. Someone who’s there. As much as a collection of bits representing the image of a sheet can be there, I guess that is.)
Yeah I just wrote this post because upon reading the article I couldn’t get that damn Depeche Mode song out of my head (or the Johnny Cash version.) Begone you fowl occupier of my neurons which could actually be doing some work!
If Only I'd Founded "iPho"
Quick, Batman! To the trademark-mobile along with a stack of three or four letter company names:
Feb 27 (Reuters) – On-demand business phone service provider Nuvio Corp said it filed a lawsuit against Garmin International Inc…alleging Garmin’s Nuvifone infringes on Nuvio trademark, which it uses on its phones and telephony services.
Self Cleaning Hyperbolic Tweed Clothing for Academics
Some days it seems the universe is trying to tell you something. The last few days, this has apparently been something to do with clothing:
- Self cleaning clothes. I really need these as I am in a constant battle with mustard.
- Via Three-Toed Sloth, A Call for Professional Attire on dressing in academia. Recently my dog ate the elbows out of a new sweater, so I now have a sweater with patched elbows, the ultimate in professorial attire, I suppose. Sadly the article doesn’t take the argument to its conclusion and require that not just profs wear fancy clothes, but that students also be required to wear uniforms of less sophistication, so that those little rats know their place in life.
- In a related note, New York’s fashion week features tweed. So take that you scruffy enforcer of suits and ties: soon professorial tweed will be all the rage.
- Crocheted models of hyperbolic space. Impressive, but I’m still waiting for “Crocheted models of eleven dimensional space time.” On a related note, knitting and cellular automata.
Must Pass Texas
As a native Californian, my sworn enemy is the state of Texas. Thus it gives me great pleasure to see that the state of Washington is tied with Texas in venture capital funding. Soon, Seattle, will rule the world! Okay, maybe not. But I love Oren Etzioni’s comment on comparing Silicon Valley to Seattle:
Mr. Etzioni says Seattle has at least one advantage over its storied counterpart in California. “People aren’t distracted by too much sunshine,” he said. “They sit in their offices or garages and get creative.”
Jenn
Via John Cook’s Venture blog, introducing Alaska Airlines new clippy, “Jenn”.
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A Many Worlds Puzzle of a Different Kind
Fortune has put out its list of the top 100 companies to work for. The Google Monster is number one. Washington state does pretty good, as it is in a tie for fourth in the total number of companies on the list with headquarters in the state. (Per capita it comes in third, losing to Delaware and D.C.)
Looking through their article on “10 fascinating Googlers” I found Wei-Hwa Huang. Hey, he was in my class at Caltech! Indeed Wei-Hwa was responsible for one of my favorite stories about the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory. Huh?
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