It occurred to me that I've never blogged about my work, so why don't I start...
My thesis work is centered around the use of a visual programming environment (VPE) to teach students new to computer programming how to construct software. This isn't a new idea of course, others have done so (Alice, Squeak, etc), however use of a VPE based upon the functional programming paradigm in educational settings is rather uncommon. The VPE I'm using is known as the Gem Cutter, which is a part of the OpenQuark framework originally developed at Business Objects.
To give a bit of background: OpenQuark is a framework which consists of a language called CAL which is a very Haskell-like language which compiles down to Java bytecode, and thus is interoperable with existing Java code. The Gem Cutter is a VPE which is built upon the CAL language (that is, all components or gems in the Gem Cutter correspond to CAL functions, or imported Java routines). Much more info can be found on the Wikipedia page on CAL and Quark, as well as the main homepage. It is similar in some ways to the Scala programming language, although Scala is intended as a language by itself (and compiles down to Java bytecode) whereas CAL is intended as a way to bring the functional paradigm to Java.
The reason that I find the Gem Cutter interesting is because typically I've found VPE's counterintuitive, not particularly useful, or "dumbed-down". For example, I've always found Alice a bit hard to take seriously (to be fair it has been designed to be friendly to younger audiences) due to the emphasis on kid-like "toy" animations rather than general programming constructs.
The Gem Cutter OTOH is a tool designed for and made by professional software developers working at a major software company. In particular, the functional paradigm seems particularly well suited to this, as (like dataflow programming) it has a natural visual mapping of having functions (or "gems" in Gem Cutter terminology) composed together with outputs of one feeding into the inputs (or arguments) to another. So rather than seemingly bending the paradigm to fit the visual model, it seems to be a much more natural fit.
Now you're probably thinking I'm overselling Gem Cutter, and I am. There are warts on it. Numerous times while working with it I've run into bugs, or "gotchas". Part of my thesis will be the exposition of these issues from the perspective of one trying to use the tool in a learning environment. Having said that however, it really is a cool piece of software to play around with, and in particular if you're a Java developer who's ever had the desire to pass around higher order functions then I highly recommend checking it all out. And more imporantly, it's all open source released under a BSD-like license so you can do pretty well whatever you want with it.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Firefox 3.0 revision 2 (or okay it's growing on me)
Well, I was somewhat critical of the newest version of Firefox before, but I'd have to say that it really is growing on me. The fact that my extensions including the two "cannot live without" ones (Session Manager and All in One Gestures) have now been made to be FF 3.0 compatible.
I still haven't run into any real technical issues, although in spite of claims about improved memory usage, FF is still a pig when it comes to using memory (as I write this on my Windows XP machine it reports ~128MB of memory usage with 7 tabs open). Occasionally I get CPU usage spikes, but they're thankfully quite rare.
All-in-all it is working well.
I still haven't run into any real technical issues, although in spite of claims about improved memory usage, FF is still a pig when it comes to using memory (as I write this on my Windows XP machine it reports ~128MB of memory usage with 7 tabs open). Occasionally I get CPU usage spikes, but they're thankfully quite rare.
All-in-all it is working well.
Monday, August 4, 2008
My streak is now done....
Well, I was on quite a roll this year, keeping a (I think) pretty impressive achievement streak going, but alas, as the cliche goes, all good things must come to an end. I'm currently away from home in the Kooteneys doing a combination of work and visiting family. I brought a 360 with me, but after the 9+ hour drive yesterday I didn't find the time to get any gaming in and as a result my 216 day achievement streak came to an end.
I really gotta tip my hat to people like Knuckles Dawson who did close to 2 solid years getting at least one achievement a day. That's incredible perseverance.
Oh well, maybe now I'll get that masters degree finished. :p
Some stats about my streak:
I really gotta tip my hat to people like Knuckles Dawson who did close to 2 solid years getting at least one achievement a day. That's incredible perseverance.
Oh well, maybe now I'll get that masters degree finished. :p
Some stats about my streak:
- Length: 216 days (Dec 31, 2007 to Aug 2, 2008)
- Total Gamerscore gained: 33,808
- Total Number of achievements: 1,475
- Number of Games 100% Completed during the streak: 23 (20 retail and 3 arcade)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Firefox 3.0
So, those of you who read this and know me will know I'm a fairly strong supporter of the Foxy web browser known as Firefox. This past week Mozilla released version 3.0 of Firefox, and I wanted to share some thoughts.
It wasn't a good start: upon installation 6/16 of my extensions (including 2 absolutely "cannot live without" ones) weren't compatible. The new address-bar is interesting, but I'm wondering where it pulls data from, as upon installation it knew I liked achievement sites, and yet I have my history disabled. As a privacy nut, I have concerns about what's being stored, and what isn't (if I say don't remember any history, it shouldn't remember anything about where I've been).
Haven't had any problems with speed/performance at all. Some have raved about how smooth the page scrolling is, but it looks the same to me as any other version. Memory usage seems to be slightly better, although it's WAY to early to say for sure (and to be honest, the mem usage problems of FF are somewhat exaggerated).
Haven't decided yet if I'll go back or not, but my initial impressions are not good. Admittedly though, I'm tough to please, most people will be completely tickled with this version. I just don't see any reason to stick with v3, but a lot of reasons not to. Perhaps if my "must-have" extensions become compatible then I might be more inclined to stick with v3, but given that there are extensions which aren't even v2 compatible that I really love and that have made me want to stay with v1.5.x on most of my machines I won't hold my breath.
Now for the rant:
I've been with FF since pre-version 1.0. It's amusing to me to look at its evolution as it started out as a lean no-frills browser that was supposed to be for the hardcore crowd. The idea being that if you didn't want a feature, you wouldn't have to have it, and if you did want a feature, that's where extensions came in. Now, it seems that feature-bloat has occurred with it, as with each version comes new advanced features that I don't really want, but are added from a marketing POV (so that when tech blogs & such can do those side-by-side comparisons of FF vs IE it doesn't look one-sided). I want the old FF back, where the goal is to create a minimal platform where extensions provide the functionality. If that were the case, then one of the big goals would be extension compatibility. One of the problems for me with FF is that I don't really care for the browser, but love the extensions, and as such I become very dependent upon them. The problem though is that every time a new version of FF comes out, half the extensions I use are no longer compatible (it's one of the reasons I still use v1.5.x on most of my machines). For me, that's a showstopping problem, and I'm not convinced the FF devs realize how much of an issue it is. I find myself now in a position on this machine where I either A) have to live without functionality I've become used to, or B) go through the pain-in-the-ass process of uninstalling v3 and reinstalling an older version along with all my extensions. That's not the kind of situation that is going to win support and/or adoption of the browser from the masses. One of the big criticisms of Microsoft is that they force features down your throat that you simply don't want. Now we see the same thing happening with the Mozilla team with Firefox, and the hacker in me can't help but feel his heart hurt a bit at that realization. I'm not going to go all hippie-ish and say that they "sold out", but there is a greater sense that there's less of a difference between FF and IE now (security issues aside) than there used to be.
It wasn't a good start: upon installation 6/16 of my extensions (including 2 absolutely "cannot live without" ones) weren't compatible. The new address-bar is interesting, but I'm wondering where it pulls data from, as upon installation it knew I liked achievement sites, and yet I have my history disabled. As a privacy nut, I have concerns about what's being stored, and what isn't (if I say don't remember any history, it shouldn't remember anything about where I've been).
Haven't had any problems with speed/performance at all. Some have raved about how smooth the page scrolling is, but it looks the same to me as any other version. Memory usage seems to be slightly better, although it's WAY to early to say for sure (and to be honest, the mem usage problems of FF are somewhat exaggerated).
Haven't decided yet if I'll go back or not, but my initial impressions are not good. Admittedly though, I'm tough to please, most people will be completely tickled with this version. I just don't see any reason to stick with v3, but a lot of reasons not to. Perhaps if my "must-have" extensions become compatible then I might be more inclined to stick with v3, but given that there are extensions which aren't even v2 compatible that I really love and that have made me want to stay with v1.5.x on most of my machines I won't hold my breath.
Now for the rant:
I've been with FF since pre-version 1.0. It's amusing to me to look at its evolution as it started out as a lean no-frills browser that was supposed to be for the hardcore crowd. The idea being that if you didn't want a feature, you wouldn't have to have it, and if you did want a feature, that's where extensions came in. Now, it seems that feature-bloat has occurred with it, as with each version comes new advanced features that I don't really want, but are added from a marketing POV (so that when tech blogs & such can do those side-by-side comparisons of FF vs IE it doesn't look one-sided). I want the old FF back, where the goal is to create a minimal platform where extensions provide the functionality. If that were the case, then one of the big goals would be extension compatibility. One of the problems for me with FF is that I don't really care for the browser, but love the extensions, and as such I become very dependent upon them. The problem though is that every time a new version of FF comes out, half the extensions I use are no longer compatible (it's one of the reasons I still use v1.5.x on most of my machines). For me, that's a showstopping problem, and I'm not convinced the FF devs realize how much of an issue it is. I find myself now in a position on this machine where I either A) have to live without functionality I've become used to, or B) go through the pain-in-the-ass process of uninstalling v3 and reinstalling an older version along with all my extensions. That's not the kind of situation that is going to win support and/or adoption of the browser from the masses. One of the big criticisms of Microsoft is that they force features down your throat that you simply don't want. Now we see the same thing happening with the Mozilla team with Firefox, and the hacker in me can't help but feel his heart hurt a bit at that realization. I'm not going to go all hippie-ish and say that they "sold out", but there is a greater sense that there's less of a difference between FF and IE now (security issues aside) than there used to be.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I should quit now, but only one round to go (round 4 predictions)
Okay, admittedly my predictions this year have been less than stellar, but only one more series to go:
Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.
Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Round 3 predictions
I don't even want to think about my round 2 results (LOL), so I'm going straight to round 3 predictions. Hopefully I'll do better (I suppose I couldn't do any worse....)
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Xbox Live Orientation
Came across this while watching the latest Sessler's Soapbox. It's a funny vid of a hypothetical Xbox Live Orienation, and it's gets everything just about completely bang on.
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
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