Hi, my name is Kimberly Blessing. I'm a computer scientist, Web developer, standards evangelist, feminist, and geek. This is where I write about life, the Web, technology, women's issues, and whatever else comes to mind.
Five ACM experts have contributed to the twelfth edition of Deborah Morley’s college textbook, Understanding Computers: Today & Tomorrow. One of them, Chandra Krintz, Vice Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages, answered the question, Are programming skills necessary to be a Web site developer today?
Yes, more than ever. Web sites today are dynamic, interactive, complex, and highly adaptive to appeal to the specific and changing needs of the individual users and consumers that constitute today’s competitive commercial markets and popular Web communities. Programming languages have evolved to support existing and emerging Web technologies. Developers today must be able to use effectively a wide range of high-level programming language technologies, such as Java, AJAX, Ruby/Rails, Python, ASP.Net, and PHP, and to adapt quickly to new languages, frameworks, and practices. Programming expertise enables developers to implement efficiently dynamic Web page content, as well as the distributed and layered systems through which Web pages interact with databases and other back-end applications. In addition, strong and marketable programming skills today include team-based work styles and pair programming, test-driven program deployment, agile workplaces, and use of visual and interactive development environments. Programming skills are key to the success, productivity, and satisfaction of today’s Web developers.
We’re pleased to let you know that the robot platform we developed for CS-1 instruction is now available for purchase.
The $149.95 platform includes a Parallax Scribbler robot, with an add on board developed at Georgia Tech. The complete diff-drive robot then includes: a color camera, bluetooth connectivity, a speaker, light sensors, and line sensors.
The robot can be controlled and programmed from a PC in Python using the Myro package developed at Bryn Mawr (included with the robot).
It is all part of our new curriculum for CS-1 centered on a robot context. The new textbook is also available online at our website.
Until November 26December 31, you can sponsor One Laptop Per Child by buying an XO laptop for a child in a developing country, and then get another one for yourself. I just got mine… hurry up and get yours!
This video was just too good to be left in my sidebar; the sheer fact that it exists mandated a full entry for it and its hilarity makes watching it a moral imperative.
Watch as a young(er) David Letterman is upstaged by Grace Hopper, not long after her retirement in 1986. My favorite part? Dave asks, “How did you know so much about computers then?” and Grace replies, “I didn’t. It was the first one!”
Hi, my name is Kimberly Blessing. I'm a computer scientist, Web developer, standards evangelist, feminist, and geek. This is where I write about life, the Web, technology, women's issues, and whatever else comes to mind.
