Sub Ubi

In preparation for a trip to the British Library, I’ll be consolidating links and references over the next week regarding novice programming. Unfortunately (fortunately?), Google and Citeseer tend to be very good resources for this kind of thing; the literature shows up in too many places, and I’ve discovered lately (see previous rants on this) that some literature just “disappears” after a few years, save for it’s existence in references…

• [ Studying the Language and Structure in Non-Programmers' Solutions to Programming Problems (2000) ]
• References regarding novice programming
• [ An analysis of user errors in a natural-language-style programming language ]
• [ A comparison between novice and experienced compiler users in a learning environment ]
• [ Experiences gained from producing a compiler to guide first year programming students ]
• [ Construction and architecture of a dedicated compile server ] (Less related, by the same author as the previous two papers)
• [ Common Errors Made by Students in Assembler Language: Can They be Avoided? ]
• [ Cognitive correlates of programming tasks in novice programmers ]
• [ Individual Differences in Program Comprehension Strategies in
  Unfamiliar Programming Systems ]
• [ Java: How does it compare? ] (No research.)

• [ Seven deadly sins of introductory programming language design ]
• [ Evaluating Languages and Environments for Novice Programmers ]
• [ Planning and Implementation Errors in Algorithm Design ... ]
• [ Usability Issues in the Design of Novice Programming Systems ]
• [ Towards literate tools for novice programmers ]
• [ Plagiarism in natural and programming languages ]
• [ NOVICE MISTAKES: ARE THE FOLK WISDOMS CORRECT? ]
(This site might have other PDFs of old papers… need to go back and check. Yep. This page is titled Lit Review on teaching/supporting student learning of parameter passing in programming courses.)
• [ A Visual Programming Environment for Functional Programs ] (Not exactly related, but I want to come back to it.)
• [ Implications on the Learning of Programming Through the Implementation of Subsets in Program Development Environments ] (Pete’s thesis!)
• [ Does programming language affect the type of conceptual bugs in beginners' programs? A comparison of FPL and Pascal. ]
• [ An Assessment of Visual Representations for the "Flow of Control" ]
• [ Development of Program Visualization Systems ]
• [ A Comprehensibility Comparison of Three Visual Representations and a Textual Program in Two Paradigms ]

I’ll call that a day. At least, that’s getting away from what I was looking for to start with. That, and Kung-Log is slowing down drastically at this point, probably because of an inefficient syntax-highlighting algorithm.

Hm. A course on CS education at Brown.

Memo to self. Move these links and others into the CS-ED.org resources list.

Once again, I should be in bed.

The contributions will be judged considering not only the quantity and quality of the contributed code, but taking in consideration also how well the competition participants use the #dotgnu irc channel, the mailing lists and the wiki for coordinating their coding efforts, and for helping newcomers with getting started.

(emphasis mine)

These are the judging criteria for the DotGNU International Collaborative Coding Competition. I’m accustomed to the notion of judging code based on quality (although, it is an elusive thing to define), but the community aspect of this is fascinating. Unlike many other programming contests, they’re explicitly judging the participants on their ability to communicate and share their ideas and frustrations with the greater community. I especially like the fact that a good participant is also one who spends time bootstrapping newbies into the community.

Still. That’s a twist.

While living in Bloomington we were spoiled by too many good restaurants. One that I miss particularly is Anyetsang’s Little Tibet, one of the few Tibetan restaurants I have encountered in my wanderings around the US and (now) UK. Their dumplings and curries were excellent across the board; in particular, I loved their Thai red curry.

I’ve attempted to recreate this dish a number of times, always ending up with something… tasty, but not quite what I was looking for. While our paths crossed this summer, Teena (who has partaken of Little Tibet’s goodness) assured me that this recipe would set me on the right path. This seems to be in line with a number of other thai red curry recipes I looked up as cross-references on the WWW. (As an aside, this led to the discovery of a recipe blog and a hilarious Matrix-esque ping-pong match.) My suspicion is that the lemongrass, an ingredient I’ve always been lacking, may have been a critical ingredient considering the flavour I was looking for.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a food processor for mooshing up the curry paste thoroughly. Perhaps we should get one; I’d really love to do a Thai red curry tonight…

I remember seeing Sodaplay a year or two ago. I thought it was cool then. Now?

Whoa. Oy.

They now have a downloadable version of the applet, so you can play with if offline. I know the whole Sodaplay universe is… simple–almost simplistic–in design, but something about it intrigues me in the same way that Conway’s Game of Life does. Someday, I hope I have an opportunity to lead a seminar where we get to explore things like Sodaplay, StarLOGO (massively parallel microworlds), and other “alternate universes” that challenge us to think… well, think different. Apologies to Apple.

I’m going to bed. I should have been sleeping for the last few hours, as I have a lot of copyediting and restructuring to do on my prospectus. Perhaps this is a good thing: getting caught up in something like this until the wee hours of the morning is sometimes the breaking point for a case of mild apathy. We’ll see what the morning brings.

(Art made using StarLogo! Constructivism is so cool…)

I missed it. Yesterday (the 27th) was the one year anniversary of when we arrived in the UK.

Time… what is it?

The BBC opening up its programme archives? Consider the model: the public pays for the content on the BBC (TV and radio) by paying a yearly TV license fee. Now you can find impassioned calls to end the license, but as an American living in Britain, I think the license makes a lot of sense.

The BBC news is generally regarded as some of the best in the world; likewise, the programming (while eccentric at times) is generally more enjoyable—if nothing else, because there aren’t any commercials. Compare this to a situation where the news must be salable, otherwise they won’t get advertising contracts that keep them on the air. As such, the news must be palatable to the people (lest they switch to another news station), and the advertisers looking to sell their product in-between soundbites pull their adverts. At the end of the day, you’re not likely to be critical of anything that challenges the opinion of the people, are you? Explain to me how you get good news from that system, please?

When your content is paid for by the public, it’s nice to see the corporation behind it moving to put that content back in the hands of the public, for free. Or, for the cost of your TV license. I just don’t see how you can call it anything other than good value for money; someone will have to explain that to me.

While traveling in the States, I visited my alma mater (my wife lives just down the street, so it isn’t exactly out of the way). I walked around with my father, telling him stories and remembering friends from when I was there. That kind of thing is always humbling, because it just seems like I know so many neat people doing amazing things.

Karina Leppik (photo), a fellow Physics major and good friend, is still down in Antarctica (journal). What an experience! I’ve spent a few weeks out in the Alaskan bush, and must admit that the move to England has been a new and different experience, but living out on an ice cube for a year… wow. How cool is that?

The first time Karina was out there, I got a small video clip of a barbershop quartet singing I’ll be Home for Christmas around the South Pole. As her journal has progressed, we’ve now had a chance to see things like sunset and sunrise on the South Pole. Karina, I want hi-res copies of your pictures someday…

A certain mad scientist and his beautiful assistant introduced us, once upon a time, to Babylon 5. Now, Carrie and I would like to own it. (Someday, anyway.)

Season one @ Amazon.com is $85. Season one @ Amazon.co.uk costs 35 GBP.

If I do a currency conversion (based on the value of the pound and dollar, today), I discover that 35 GBP is around $55. Since both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk will offer me free shipping options, it is $30 cheaper (per season, and there are 5 seasons in all!) to purchase the DVDs in the UK.

Region encoding is simply a way for the RIAA/MPAA/Insert Tyrannical Organization Here to control their content for the maximization of profit. There cannot be any particular reason for this price discrepancy except for artificial price inflation and price-fixing (or other similar, rude practices).

While the content producers claim I have no rights to fair use, I know that A) most DVD players have the ability to be set to a “region free” mode (thus making the region encoding on the disc irrelevant), and B) I can always rip and re-encode my DVD into a region-free format (eg. SVCD, one episode per CDR). I’ll have to check into whether a US DVD player can handle a DVD encoded in the PAL format (as opposed to NTSC). I know from experience that a US DVD will play just fine in Europe…

UPDATE (2003-08-22)

---

There is region encoding, and video encoding. Region encoding is arbitrary, and a way for the producer to control when and where content is released on DVD. The USA is Region 1, the UK is Region 2, etc. Video encoding is simply because different parts of the world developed TV technology at different times, and standardization didn’t happen. It’s just like there being different line voltages in different parts of the world: I can’t just plug a US toaster into the socket in Great Britain; the current and voltage are wrong, and the plug is a different shape.

In most parts of the world, TVs are made to handle both NTSC and PAL encoded video (or, they are made to handle a multitude of video signals). Also, many DVD players (outside the US) are capable of doing the decoding as well, so you can take a DVD with video in the NTSC standard, and the DVD player will convert it to PAL, so the TV can display the image. (See this massive FAQ if you want to know more.)

So, if I buy the DVDs in the UK, someday (assuming I move back to the US when I’m done) I’ll need to buy a DVD player that can do two things:

1. The DVD player will need to be capable of ignoring the region encoding on the disc. Many DVD players are capable of this.
   
2. The DVD player will need to be able to convert the PAL signal into an NTSC signal, since US televisions don’t typically have the ability to transcode PAL->NTSC.
   

At the moment, this looks possible. I’ll assume that a few years from now, it still will be possible.

A very good friend dropped a note w.r.t. the last few rants regarding libraries:

Good luck finding your library articles… I think it’s $1 if I want an old article turned into a PDF here; let me know if you need anything really obscure and I’ll see what I can do for you…

I think the Reader’s Pass for the British Library should go well enough. If not, you can bet that I’ll be sending an email with a list of articles…

It turns out that the pricing I found for inter-library loan through the University of Kent was incorrect; prices went up this year. While it is true that departments have a budget for this sort of thing, I’m still displeased about the whole situation.

In short, the US got libraries right, and the UK got them wrong. Consider: the University of Kent just invested in a card-swipe system (that doesn’t work reliably), and now you must have your student ID to enter or leave the library. Please! Compared to my experiences with libraries at a variety of institutions in the U.S. (Berea, Oberlin, Kenyon, Cornell, Indiana), you can just go in and make use of the library as a member of the public. Checking materials out might be difficult (and some special collections might be off-limits, as is expected), but still… it’s a library! You’re supposed to be able to come and go as you please, with some conditions (eg. a library card) on actually removing things.

I just applied for a Reader’s Pass at the British Library. The collections of the library are, generally speaking, off-limits—that is, you can’t even go in!—unless you obtain a pass. What isn’t clear is how difficult it is to obtain such a pass; hopefully I’ll qualify. I would like to note that it is significantly cheaper (at $18/round trip) to go up to London and do a bunch of research, than it is to order things through inter-library loan at $15/article. Oy!

Libraries. I can honestly say that I think we got them right in the States.