Dan Russell – Search Engineer at Google

misc

Heard Dan Russell from Google speak at the CCSC Eastern Conference two weeks ago.  Enjoyed his talk “What does it Mean to be Literate in the Age of Google?”.

A few tidbits …

  1. 90% of people do not know that you can use Control and ‘F’ to find text on a web page.
  2. Chrome can use regular expressions to search text within a page (requires plugin).  Note:  Guessing that 99.9% do know how to use regular expressions for any reason
  3. Good user interface designs are intuitive (you shouldn’t need help to understand them)
  4. The Mundaneum was a precursor to the Internet that captured data as a series of index cards.
  5. Google Earth has historical photos.
  6. For fun (and a good challenge) test your searching skills at the daily Google search challenge http://agoogleaday.com/

SugarSync no longer free

cloud

My “free” 5GB SugarSync account expired recently.  As of early 2014 SugarSync has moved to a paid model.  I started using SugarSync about 3 years ago when my wife needed a way to sync files between our desktop and her laptop.  I was already using a DropBox account to link my home computer and my work laptop and did not want to try to link two free accounts.  There are workarounds, but it was easier to use SugarSync.

Will SugarSync’s be able to survive as a paid service?  It will be difficult to complete with Google Drive (15GB free), Amazon Cloud Drive (5 GB free), and Microsoft OneDrive (7 GB free) as well as many others including DropBox.  SugarSync has a user friendly interface and robust syncing options allowing the user to sync multiple folders to different machines. In the end, as push has come to shove ($60 GB for $74.99) we have chosen not to join the paid model.

Given the small number of files we need to sync with this account, we are going to use a free 2GB DropBox account for the laptop and the web interface for our desktop as needed.

EdX

misc

Last fall I completed edX course 6.00x Introduction to Computer Science and Programming offered by MIT. The course involved reading a textbook, watching videos, answering on-line questions, reading a textbook, completing programming assignments (graded on-line), and completing several exams.  The course was taken by thousands of students with over 5,000 students taking the final exam.  The course used the Python programming language.

I completed enough work to pass the course. I must admit I found myself doing the minimum work at times which gave me a good insight for how some of my students may approach my classes as well.  A permanent link to the certificate I earned is provided to be used as “proof” that the course is covered.

Five percent of the course grade was earned through online questions that were asked after watching video segments.  The questions could be submitted multiple times which encouraged student to submit the answers until they were correct.  This seems like a great way to try to get students to interact with the material.

All of the grading was done with on-line code submissions.  While there were a few problems it worked well.  Most problems could be submitted up to 20 or 30 times (only 5 for exams) which allowed for minor issues to be addressed.  The grading program also gave feedback which was often helpful for determining why the program did not “pass”.  This type of interactive feedback and problem solving is something I would like to integrate into my courses.

All of the courses on edX are free to audit.  They have added a fee for some certificates. Overall it was a positive experience and a great way to learn.

 

Read Later – Instapaper and the Kindle

current tech, Kindle, mobile computing

Instapaper (http://www.instapaper.com) is a web service that will save web pages in a readable format and e-mail the pages in Kindle format as a single document. To save articles you add a “read later” button to your web browser. The articles are sent once a day. The free version is limited to ten articles per day. You can also read the articles on-line.

It seems like I am often distracted by articles I “stumble” upon when browsing the Internet or receive links by e-mail or Facebook. Instapaper provides a way to save these articles in a readable format for later viewing.

50 GB free storage

cloud

Box.net is offering 50 GB of free on-line storage as part of a new promotional.  Users must register and download the iPod app by December 2nd, 2011 in order to get the free storage.  Individual file sizes are limited to 100 MB.  See http://www.box.net

Box.net normally offers 5GB of free storage for personal accounts.

Leaving the laptop behind … travel with iPod Touch

current tech

I have been wondering if my iPod Touch can replace my laptop when traveling.  My family and I visited Chicago over Christmas and I was able to use the iPod Touch to access the essentials (ie. web, e-mail, weather and of course facebook).  I am thinking of doing the same for an upcoming conference trip.  It will certainly be nice not to lug a laptop through the airport.  On the other hand, I wonder if I will miss being able to use a full-size keyboard? and have a full-size screen available.  I will need to purchase a USB charger.

Update: March 22nd, 2011
I decided to take my laptop to the conference as I needed to grade student assignments.  This would not have been possible with the iPod Touch.  That said, checking e-mail including a few quick responses, facebook, web sites, etc… worked well with the iPod Touch.  I found that I left the laptop in my hotel room and only carried the Touch with me at the conference.  I loved not having the weight of the laptop.  Will see if I can leave the laptop at home for the next trip.

Rubik’s Cube is solved! … God’s number is 20

research

If you take a solved cube and create a graph of all possible moves, you can solve the cube by finding the current cube and following the shortest path back to the solution.  This approach is known as “God’s algorithm” as God would be able to easily visualize the graph and know the perfect solution.  Until the summer of 2010 no one had been able to create the graph as it simply required too much processing time.  Researches, using 35 years worth of CPU time (current desktop PC) from Google, accomplished the task in July of 2010 proving that Rubik’s Cube can always be solved in 20 moves or less (see http://www.cube20.org/).

I have to admit it is a little disappointing to have the problem solved as I have also tried to tackle the problem.  In 2004 I was able to create graphs of approximately 7 moves from the origin (solved state) using a standard PC.  In 2009 I looked at using nVidia’s CUDA architecture to tackle the problem.  That said, now that we know the answer, we can still look for ways to improve the algorithm.  Could a standard PC be used to solve the problem?  What about the 4x4x4 cube (Rubik’s Revenge)? or the 5x5x5 cube (Professor’s Cube)?

Netflix streaming to iPod Touch and Wii

current tech, misc

Netflix now streams to the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I do not own an iPhone, but performance seems to be good with my 2nd generation iPod Touch.  I have only watched about 15 minutes.  Not sure that I would want to watch too many full featured films on the small screen, but it works!

I like using streaming feature via our Wii console connected to our TV.  Netflix continues to add more content to their library.  I could see a point at the future where they stream all of their content rather than sending DVD’s.  The technology is there, but the contracts with the content owners will take time.  At $9 a month for one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming it seems like a decent deal to be able to legally watch movies.

ACM launches revised magazine for students

Uncategorized

“With the Summer 2010 issue of XRDS, ACM inaugurates a completely revamped edition of its popular magazine for computer science and computer engineering students. Targeted to both graduate and undergraduate students contemplating computing careers, the newly redesigned XRDS offers breaking news and information, practical career advice, and first-hand stories and profiles of people on the front lines of the burgeoning computing field.  Formerly known as the student journal Crossroads, the new magazine and its website http://xrds.acm.org reflect the real voices of today’s students, and will create a hub of interaction and communication for them to access.”