Monthly Archives: October 2008

FSOSS 2008 Wrap-up: Toward Open Source Education

I’ve finally recovered enough from last week’s FSOSS to sit down and write a bit about it.  The event was a real success, and I had a great time attending and participating.  This year I focused on speakers and content instead of logistics, which meant I got to actually attend the talks, imagine!  Hats off [...]
Posted in CDOT, FSOSS, Mozilla, Seneca | Comments closed

The tyranny of presence

As I drove home from the dentist today, I listened to Spark on CBC.  Today Nora was interviewing Sandy Pentland about his idea of “honest signals,” those things that we do/perceive in converstation that help us understand beyond what the language says.  It’s the sort of thing I’ve heard a lot of people discuss over [...]
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Northern Shrike

Today, as I made pancakes for the girls (“…with chocolate chips please daddy!”), a bird alighting on the top of a white pine outside our greatroom window caught my eye.  “Why,” I thought, “is a Gray Jay this far south?”  I stopped what I was doing and went to the window.  Upon closer inspection, I [...]
Posted in Nature | Comments closed

CCoup

It’s nearly FSOSS-eve, and I’m in the mood for telling a story.  One of our speakers this year is an FSOSS-alumni, Marcus Bornfreund, the project lead for Creative Commons Canada.  I first heard Marcus speak three years ago, when he gave the opening keynote at FSOSS.  It was the first year that FSOSS was starting [...]
Posted in CDOT, FSOSS, Seneca | Comments closed

FSOSS, teaching open source, and golf

In two days I get to watch a year’s worth of work burst into life.  FSOSS, the open source event I help run, is happening on Thursday and Friday, and for the first time in some years, I’m actually getting to speak!  I’ll be part of a panel on Teaching Open Source from the perspective [...]
Posted in CDOT, FSOSS, Seneca | Comments closed

FSOSS Online Registration Closes TODAY!

A quick note to let all you stragglers know that online registration for the Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) ends TODAY.  Tickets will be available at the door, but will cost you an additional $25.  Don’t miss your chance to registered today and save.
Posted in CDOT, Seneca, Uncategorized | Comments closed

Apple recognizes homeschool

I was really happy to see that Apple recognizes homeschoolers for its educational pricing and other education programs.  I qualify as a professor anway, but it’s good to know that they’d also accept us as homeschoolers too.  Nice!
Posted in Digital Swag, family | Comments closed

What is a release?

My students are getting ready to release their open source work for the first time, with a 0.1 release.  For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve written something that wasn’t canned or otherwise a toy project.  This is, we hope, something that matters to the community, something that people will receive with interest, [...]
Posted in CDOT, Seneca | Comments closed

There’s a simple fix to this

Reading about Disney’s EULA on the Sleeping Beauty BlueRay, one thought comes to mind.  Don’t watch it.  Don’t buy it.  Don’t put up with it.  We don’t subject our kids to this stuff for multiple reasons.  I hear so many parents telling me, “it’s Disney so it’s OK for them to watch.”  No, no it [...]
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Toward a Philosophy of the Table

I was about to go to bed and I made the mistake of reading Luke’s blog, and specifically his attempt to define a Philosophy of the Table.  I decided to forgo sleep for a while so that I could reflect on it before losing my train of thought, not least because I believe an authentic [...]
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