CS 491 Homework: Web APIs
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The Walt I never knew
I’ve just finished reading The Illusion of Life, by Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. As a child, I never bought in to Disney’s magic kingdom—it was too popular for my countercultural leanings. I’m learning that I missed out on a lot. As I got to know the man Walt Disney through this book, I’ve found […]
CS 491 Homework: Persist
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A logarithmic data usage graph?
Getting a new phone last week meant getting a capped data plan. That made me a Paranoid Android user. Luckily, I saw that there was data usage graph available under Settings: Unluckily, someone thought a logarithmic scale would be effective here. To match, I think I’ll have to make my data usage exponential as the […]
CS 491 Homework: U and I
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Flipping my classroom with Ruby
I’m trying something funny in my mobile software development class. I scheduled it in the computer lab, not a lecture hall, and students are going to have to teach each other some things they prepared before we meet. Here’s what I’m telling them: You will do some preparation before each class, by watching a video […]
CS 491 Lecture 1: AppInventor
Introduction Welcome to CS 491, Mobile Software Development. In this class, we’re going write software for mobile devices, which have changed a bit. We’ll be focusing on Android. Without getting political, let me explain why: iOS development requires Apple hardware. We don’t have any. We don’t have room for any. You must pay $99/year for […]
CS 491 Homework: TODO
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Is a point in a polygon?
Here’s a practice attempt at recording a mini-lecture. I’m convinced now of its difficulty. Enjoy the abrupt audio changes, the bad handwriting, and me drowning in self-consciousness. I did not use Camtasia Studio to assemble this. In this video, we develop an algorithm for checking whether or not a point falls within a polygon. The […]
Bad moon rising
In reading picture books to my young son, I have come across several pictures like these: In looking at these “moon shadows,” you should get a feeling that they are not right. Why? Because at any time other than a lunar eclipse, only half the the moon’s surface has a direct path to the sun. […]