Peter Drake, he/him, LFHCfS 🔥 @peterdrake@social.cleverlibre.org

#3GoodThings

1. Sabbatical approved.
2. An obligation was cancelled.
3. Going to bed early.

Perfectly cromulent words added to #Scrabble dictionary.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/16/1137179512/yeehaw-bae-an-embiggened-scrabble-dictionary-cuts-slurs-and-adds-words-new-and-o

Every year, students in my CS 488 Software Development course work in teams of 4-8 to build software for an external customer. If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, that customer could be you!

Last year's ​projects included:

* A video game to teach people about earthquake preparedness.
* Creative animation software for an artist.
* A tool to help a faculty member organize course content.

Do you (or someone you know in a local organization) have a computational problem for which you need a piece of software? Let me know and maybe we can help you out.

WHAT YOU GET

Free custom software! This comes with some caveats:

* We usually produce stand-alone desktop applications. Other things are possible, but I'd prefer to stay within this realm.
* These are mostly seniors working on their first large piece of software. I make no guarantees as to quality; you might get something that you can use to do real work, but you might just get a fragile "proof of concept". We use an agile development technique that regularly reexamines goals, priorities, and expectations; this leads to a good probability that we'll have something working by the end of the semester, even if some of your more optimistic features have to be dropped.
* There probably won't be anyone to maintain your program after the semester is over. You might be able to hire some juniors to do more work on it.

WHAT YOU GIVE (We'll work with you on all of these things)

* Create an initial description of your project.
* Create and maintain a list of "user stories"​ (​things that you want your program to do​)​.
* Commit to meet with the students every other week to discuss progress and priorities. This must be a firm commitment; it's a disaster for me ​and ​the students and me if a customer flakes out.

Please boost and let me know ASAP if you're interested!

#software #ComputerScience #education #portland #pdx

#3GoodThings

1. Made it to my first meeting on time despite traffic surprises.
2. Good enrollment numbers for next semester.
3. A dreaded pile of committee work checked off.

#ttrpg idea: you are all pets/familiars, looking after your hapless humans. The humans think they're the protagonists, but they're only alive because of your diligent and adorable work.

Movie pitch: formerly living in mob households, a parrot and an Amazon Alexa are now both in the witness protection program.

Howdy raises the question whydy.

I got an email, which appears legit, from Disney+:
---
Disney+ now requires additional information from the primary account holder, including your birthdate and what best describes your gender. To avoid any interruption to your streaming, please update your account with this information before December 8, 2022.
---
I can understand the birthdate, what with all the new NC-17-rated Star Wars content coming out, but why would they need a gender?

#3GoodThings

1. The end-of-semester "work on your final project" days where I do less "teaching" and the students do more learning.
2. More people from the outside world are discovering Mastodon.
3. All assignments are ready for one of my classes.