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Showing posts from April, 2014

Final Exam, Question 11

This term I was teaching a Computer Data Structures class and I needed 5 more points for my final exam.  I decided to have some fun.  These are the top 10 student answers. Disclaimer: pigs are not computer data structures, even when they have hats. #10: The Venn diagram of CS students and art students is almost two disconnected circles. #9: This hat reminds me of bloodninja. #8: Viking pig took the time to put on a vest and pants. #7: Note the conspicuous absence of a hat. #6: I would not think that getBacon would be a mutator method. #5: This pig is in mourning, probably because of pig #6. #4: I actually like the pig better than the lamp, but I'm not sure why the power outlet has a wizard hat.  A bowler seems more appropriate. #3: I like the French pig.  The flower on the hat really brings it home. #2:  This pig is fancy, but smaller than a desktop computer from 1

A year with the Nissan Leaf

So about a year ago I decided that I'd had enough of driving a normal car and wanted to try something out that seriously limited my ability to drive far away, look cool, or haul anything ever. I used to drive a Jaguar X-Type and I loved pretty much everything about it (even looking like an old man) except for the nearly $300 I was paying to fuel it every month.  Turns out that 19 miles per gallon is expensive.  So, I decided to check out the Nissan Leaf because I'm a bit of a geek and a bit of an early adopter.   I was watching electric vehicles for a while and it seemed to be the first "practical" one - it had enough range to get you where you're going but wasn't prohibitively expensive. I really wanted a Tesla but... Not pictured: 2nd Mortgage $69,900 is a lot of money, even with a $7500 tax credit.  They're awesome, but a Leaf with all of the options is just a touch more than HALF of the price of the base Tesla Model S.  So while a Tesla mig

Learning to Program

I just created a new site called Coding4us  as a way to teach people how to program. I have a few other exercises I want to add to the site (including about 100 Java sessions) but right now there's a Tic-Tac-Toe program that can be written in about an hour.  If you've ever wanted to learn how to do some basic programming, or know somebody who would, take a look.