Tag: software
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Teaching SE: code as design
Software engineering lecturers have some misconceptions to grapple with — students’ certainly, but also our own. One is this: we have tried to carve out an unambiguous [1]Well, sort of. We occasionally pay lip service to the concept of an overlap. distinction between software design and software implementation. In a previous post, I discussed a 2nd-year unit that historically…
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Teaching SE: from UML to Patterns
In teaching software engineering at Curtin Uni, we have long had a 2nd-year unit that dealt principally with the grandiosely-named Unified Modelling Language (UML), that diagrammatic language that promised to be software’s answer to the technical drawings of other engineering disciplines. I recall it as a student, when the various UML notations (each one allowing you…
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To be a male feminist
I haven’t ranted in a rather long time, so here goes. A (male) friend of mine voiced an opinion recently that, surely, everyone ought to be a feminist. At least, I shall rephrase slightly in deference to those with the greatest experience on the subject, everyone ought to aspire to feminism. It is a perspective, after all, not…
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Non-consensual wisdom
Previously, Shane Greenup brought to my attention two very interesting software projects, with somewhat similar goals: his own rbutr (currently in beta testing), and Dan Whaley’s Hypothes.is (currently being planned and prototyped). Rbutr (pronounced “rebutter”) allows its user base to link together web pages that rebut one another. These links eventually form conversation chains and webs that…
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Curing viral misinformation
A great deal of mischief is caused, regularly, by viral misinformation. Factoids that support one side of any controversial issue are rapidly copied and pasted many times over (the “echo chamber”). By the time anyone manages to marshal the truth into a coherent response, it’s too late — the lie has convinced enough people for…
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One brand to fool them all
As you might have realised, I work at Curtin University, [intlink id=”16″ type=”post”]formerly[/intlink] Curtin University of Technology (CUT), formerly – though conceivably somewhat apocryphally – Curtin University of New Technology (CU*T), formerly the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), formerly Perth Technical College, formerly Perth Technical School, formerly – and definitely more apocryphally – the New…
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Existence continuation
As you have doubtless deduced from my total failure to keep you entertained over the last month and a half, I have in fact been a little busy. Possible illusions to the contrary notwithstanding, my existence is not synonymous with that of my blog. (At least, not yet it isn’t. This may change later in…
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Open source science
Slashdot notes an article from the Guardian: “If you’re going to do good science, release the computer code too“. The author is, Darrel Ince, is a Professor of Computing at The Open University. You might recognise something of the mayhem that is the climate change debate in the title. Both the public release of scientific…
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Please reboot the aircraft
I was hearing vague snippets of the disaster that was the Virgin Blue computer system, but my JetStar flight had its own problems. Everyone was seated (that is, except for the restless and very, very sensitive toddler standing on the opposite window seat, who burst into tears whenever mum dared suggest he sit down and…
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Admit me to the conspiracy
Deltoid takes a look at a piece of code taken from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) that apparently has the denialists salivating. Buried therein is the following comment: “Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL [sic] correction for decline!!” Are you convinced yet of the global leftist socialist global warming alarmist conspiracy?! I certainly am. I’d also like…