I hope everyone had a great Holiday break! Now that classes have started, I finally feel as though I am getting back into the rhythm of graduate life and I am getting increasingly excited for my last semester of school ever (I think!) Life in the internship world has also been exciting this past month. […]
Make 2013 your Code Year
So you might think that a philosopher (like myself) and a computer programmer don’t have much in common. But you’d be wrong. We care about two basic things: logic and language. Syntax, semantics and validity are our buzz words. Variables, conditionals and booleans are the kinds of thing we work with on a regular basis. […]
Introducing HTML: Top-down or bottom-up?
I have recently switched the way that I approach intros to mark-up languages, HTML and XML in particular. In the past I have usually started by writing sample code, moving from simple to more complex structures. I have seen other approaches focusing on editing environments and others focusing on schemas. More recently I have begun […]
I See Dead People
Buried beneath never-ending lines of code all day, I find it easy to forget that I am dealing with a whole bunch of dead people. In a simple sense, the ancient Roman tombstones I'm studying obviously marked the end of an individual's life. They sought to commemorate someone in a more tangible and reliable way than […]
Library Futures
As new media formats challenge the future of the book, government changes its funding priorities and the profile of the library user changes, educators across the country are asking themselves what the future holds for the library. In response, a number of trailblazing libraries have come up with innovative ways of engaging their communities and […]
What does it feel like to be a non-native English programmer?
Just imagine if you are asked to code in Chinese. The very first trouble is the vocabulary. Although many programing languages mainly consist of simple words such as if, else, and for, the languages that are used to make webpages are often more complicated to read. This is part of the homepage of Lindt, just […]
Top Tools for Makerspaces
A major attraction of makerspaces is the eye-watering tools they have on offer. As well as traditional shop tools such as drills, sanders and soldering irons, many makerspaces have invested in the latest technology, making it possible for amateurs to create professional-grade objects. The tools below are among the showpieces of any well-kitted out makerspace. […]
The Ethics of Visualization
You are invited to attend the presentation described below. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. TOPIC: The Ethics of Visualization WHEN: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | Noon – 1:30 PM WHERE: 203 Butler Library SPONSORS: Columbia Libraries Digital Program Division and the Digital Humanities Center Speaker: Chris Alen Sula Affiliation: Assistant […]
Data Visualization #1: gapminder.org and The Oberservatory @ MIT
As part of an ever-growing interest in data visualization, infographics, and infosthetics, I thought these two resources would interest folks in relation to Ashley's recent talk about Social Science Methodologies. Enjoy! gapminder.org A screenshot of the gapminder World tool A great talk by Hans Rosling, creator of the gapminder tool gapminder.org The Observatory @ MIT […]
JSC3d – What we are using to show 3D Models
Not until I started working on this 3D model voting website did I find out that there are so many people building various tools in this field. There are thousands of websites out there, providing millions of 3D models to anyone who are in the need. Basically, you can get access to any models of […]