Going up a couple of days late, here’s some things I came across in the past month….
A new favorite comic from SMBC
There is a variety of content at the ELIZA Archaeology Project site including the complete code of the text generation system with a description of the MAD language it was written in, a blog on the software archaeology process of recovering it, and a running version you can try out.
The Calm Tech Certification (IEEE Spectrum article, project site, book) is a really appealing idea, both for consumers and as a tool for encouraging developers to think about making our technology less intrusive and stressful.
Stimulation Clicker is in the idle clicker genre but with a definitive end after not too much gameplay that walks you through the exact opposite of “calm tech”. Interesting to notice your personal point of “too much”.
The point of this article recounting a conversation with the Replit CEO on their shift to AI-driven software development seems to be to argue that developing software should not require an understanding of code, but rather the skill of recognizing problems that software can solve. I’ve seen good writing elsewhere about how to include more instruction on identifying software-appropriate problems earlier into CS curricula, though these conversations can get stuck when you start to get into the weeds of what each of us mean by “developing software” (are we producing a product for sale with assurances to a customer base about reliability, or are we building a tool for ourselves to solve a local problem?). I’d have liked to see some comment on the decision to embed AI-generation of code into Replit mid-semester with no advance warning or ability to disable it in student accounts after years of presenting themselves as educator-friendly.
The data analysis you didn’t know you needed of the Most Mario Colors.