Category Archives: Idea Factory

Visual Studio considered Harmful

I was reading scrollback on irc this morning, where a number of my students were discussing the unit tests for the webvtt project we’re doing this term.  The main issue was that Visual Studio didn’t seem to provide the equivalent of our autotools build system’s `make check‘, that is, it can’t run all our tests [...]
Also posted in CDOT, Implementing WebVTT, MoFoDev, Mozilla, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

In 2013: letters, encouragement, edification

In 2013 I’m going to try something.  I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions, but I like the idea of the cold-startup (I don’t know what the opposite of cold turkey and ’stopping’ is, but that).  For whatever reason, I need to do things all-or-none.  I’m someone who thrives on having discipline in my life, [...]
Also posted in Introversion | Comments closed

Gitter: Toward Twitter on Git(hub)

tl;dr — I love Twitter and I love git, and wouldn’t it be nice if I could build the former on the latter?  What follows is a flight of fancy for your Friday feed reading… Introduction I went on a bike trip with my family last weekend, and when I came home, everyone was in flap about [...]
Also posted in CDOT, MoFoDev, Mozilla, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

On Tools and Tools()

My thinking often returns to tools.  Whether philosophically or practically, the idea of the tool fascinates me.  I first became aware of the question of tools through the writings of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger, and Gadamer–tools, devices, equipment, the in-order-to, the ready-to-hand, the hammer vs. the hammering-hand.  One of the difficulties of tools is [...]
Also posted in CDOT, Digital Swag, Mozilla, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

Elsewhere and Otherwise

One of the great difficulties I have in teaching is in trying to help my students understand the importance of narrative and personal reflection in their work.  I routinely see people doing amazing things, but being unable or unaware of the significance of what is happening.  Because it is happening to them at all they [...]
Also posted in CDOT, Seneca | Comments closed

“Dad, tell them we made a game!”

We made a game, the girls and me.  It happened like this.  On Saturday I saw that the Mojang gang were spending their weekend creating a new game and live streaming the event.  As I opened the video stream my oldest daughter walked into the room and asked what I was watching.  When I told [...]
Also posted in Home School, family | Comments closed

Compelled

Today, via Forbes, I read the following on the Nest thermostat: What Is It Like To Own A Nest Thermometer? … “It’s pretty satisfying. The more basic functionality is actually the most appealing. Twisting to change the temperature is more compelling and lighter weight than the standard thermostats, so I do that more often than [...]
Also posted in Come on!, Digital Swag | Comments closed

Future in the Past

The other day, while reading William Gibson no less, I paused to consider the term ‘Virtual Reality.’ I’ve encountered this term on both sides of its existence, even though it has never existed, never could. During my undergraduate work, In one of my computer science classes, I had a professor who specialized in [...]
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A Harvest Table

For many years, my wife and I have wanted to get a harvest table.  Between cooking, eating, and home school we spend a lot of time as a family around a table.  Philosophically as well as practically, the central organizing role of a well-made table is important to the functioning of our family. There are literally [...]
Also posted in Home School, family | Comments closed

Beyond Reality TV: The New Acting

The new acting requires new skills.  Where once an actor took a role in a film, television show, &c., the new acting disperses the subject across media, and increasingly, traditional, everyday media.  Where once the actor produced a body of work, the new acting is the body of the actor.  Distribution, we used to understand, [...]
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