Month: March 2013

The dark side of the beloved Python | ITworld

The dark side of the beloved Python

The schism between Python 2.x and 3.x and other deficiencies frustrate its enthusiastic developer community

By Paul Krill, InfoWorld |  Software, python

March 25, 2013, 3:11 PM — Python, the popular dynamic language, offers conciseness and a strong community. But it is dogged by the transition from the 2.x family to the 3.x line.

The language shows up as one of the most popular languages on the GitHub code-sharing site, accounting for 8% of code on the site and trailing only JavaScript, Ruby, and Java. But not all is rosy in the Python realm. After four years, programmers still are navigating a difficult transition from the 2.x to the 3.x version of the language because the 2.x version has been maintained in parallel, giving developers a reason to put off a migration to 3.x.

continue reading – The dark side of the beloved Python | ITworld.

Adventures in Alice Programming – Duke University

Adventures in Alice Programming is a project for integrating the programming language Alice into middle schools and high schools in the state of NC, based in the Durham, NC region. Originally, the target schools were the schools in Durham county, Vance county, Person county and Chatham county. We have now expanded to schools throughout NC. We have also taken a few teachers from other states.

via – Adventures in Alice Programming – Duke University, Durham NC.

Google Summer of Code – Open Source Programs Office — Google Developers

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary student developers ages 18 and older stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together over 6,000 successful student participants and over 3,000 mentors from over 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

Continue reading- Google Summer of Code – Open Source Programs Office — Google Developers.

Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology – NYTimes.com

Quantum computing is so much faster than traditional computing because of the unusual properties of particles at the smallest level. Instead of the precision of ones and zeros that have been used to represent data since the earliest days of computers, quantum computing relies on the fact that subatomic particles inhabit a range of states. Different relationships among the particles may coexist, as well. Those probable states can be narrowed to determine an optimal outcome among a near-infinitude of possibilities, which allows certain types of problems to be solved rapidly.

continue reading-  Lockheed Martin Harnesses Quantum Technology – NYTimes.com.

Introducing Kids to Java Programming Using Minecraft (Arun Gupta, Miles to go …)

Minecraft is a wildly popular game among elementary and middle schoolers. The game allows players to build constructions of textured cubes in a 3D world.

My son has been playing the game for about a year, lets say addicted to it. Last Fall he told me that the game is corrupted because the JAR file snapshot has messed up the configuration. And that right away rang a bell in me as a Java Evangelist at Oracle.

I learned from him that the game is written in Java, has a trial version that runs as an applet in the browser, and downloaded as a JAR file for desktop. The game is modular where the players travel through a world and chunks are loaded and unloaded to keep the memory footprint small. Something unique about the game is the ability to modify the game from what it was originally designed for. In Minecraft language, this is called as a “mod” – short for modifications. For example, a mod can add new characters to the game, change look-and-feel of the play field, or make it easy to build new structures.

continue reading-  Introducing Kids to Java Programming Using Minecraft (Arun Gupta, Miles to go …).

What Is NI LabVIEW? – National Instruments

LabVIEW is a highly productive development environment that engineers and scientists use for graphical programming and unprecedented hardware integration to rapidly design and deploy measurement and control systems. Within this flexible platform, engineers scale from design to test and from small to large systems while reusing IP and refining their processes to achieve maximum performance.

continue reading- What Is NI LabVIEW? – National Instruments.

Where Does Tech-ed Belong in Edtech? | EdSurge News

Students need to learn how to create, not consume, technologies in the classroom.

Edtech is about the use of technology in education, but does it include technology education? Should it include computer science education?

“Edtech” is an all-inclusive term, and computer science is thrown in along with iPad apps, blended learning, BYOD strategies and everything else. However, computer science education sometimes appears to be that distant cousin in the edtech family; it must be included in the party but no one really knows how to deal with it.

Most of the edtech community is interested in “using technology” to improve student learning in what is already being taught in our schools–math, reading, science, etc. We are excited that our students now use a browser to do research, Google docs to write and online games for math drills. We are happy that our teachers use a cool app to create a spelling quiz, or a YouTube video to teach math.

But while these are all significant steps in using technology to enhance traditional learning, we are not yet changing the “what and how” in student learning. Students and teachers are still consuming technology, but not necessarily understanding how to use it to create their own tools.

continue reading- Where Does Tech ed Belong in Edtech? | EdSurge News.