Nothing makes me love my past self more than finding the check list of all the things to do when getting ready to teach a course again.
Some things we've been saying in a place where you can see us say them...
Allen School@uwcse.bsky.social · 11mo ago"The sky is not falling": With all the chatter about computer science graduates and employment in the #AI era, professors Magda Balazinska and @dangrossmanseattle.bsky.social examine the myths and realities surrounding AI and the prospects for #UWAllen majors. news.cs.washington.edu/2025/09/09/m...
I don't know who pushed for the overleaf list-of-projects page to have a pdf button for each project, but I bet they had tenure.
From an information theory perspective we should have a process for replacing rarely used short words with longer words in order to free up room for new short words. Lute, asp, vex, yak, cud — these are so inefficient. Please nominate others and propose new uses for these.
The main daily newspaper of a major American city -- my city -- has an interactive graphic that the editors allowed to be called the Dumper Dinger Tracker. And I love it.
There are only two ways to feel like a wealthy professor: 1. Actually be wealthy 2. Get all-new whiteboard markers for your office
Phenomenal work by folks down the metaphorical hall
Allen School@uwcse.bsky.social · last yr.Congratulations to #UWAllen Ph.D. grads Ashish Sharma and @sewonm.bsky.social, 2024 @acm.org Doctoral Dissertation Award honorees! Sharma won for #AI tools for mental health; Min received honorable mention for efficient, flexible language models. #ThisIsUW news.cs.washington.edu/2025/06/04/a...
We’re doing a thing. Tell your Seattle friends.
Allen School@uwcse.bsky.social · last yr.Are you a #STEM professional looking to understand and leverage the latest in #AI and machine learning in your work? #UWAllen’s Graduate Certificate in Modern AI Methods has entered the chat. Learn about our new program starting fall 2025: news.cs.washington.edu/2025/05/28/s... #UWinnovates
The penduluum-swing of emotions as you go to find the video link on your calendar for your 9AM meeting, see there are two separate meeting entries for the same meeting (uh-oh!), but they both have the same link (mayhem averted!)
Why is it called "cut and paste with formatting" and not "a bold move"?
Some days I'm just regular evil and then there are the days like today where I'm nested VLOOKUP plus an INDIRECT evil.
There's something oddly exciting about snoozing an only modestly-important email until mid-summer and it stems from the notion of, "oh, this will surprise in a small but positive way my future self."
The world is so irrational it’s like every day is Pi Day
I have made this plea before. I am begging for someone to point me to a desktop utility that lets me point at or select a portion of the screen containing a qr code and then follow the link. I should not have to point a camera at the screen to test it.
One of my most old-fashioned / dinosaur-like opinions is strong opposition to having staging/test versions of course websites. Version control is fine, but just push straight to production. If you break it, fix it. Forgetting to post something is the far bigger issue.
New favorite computer-science typo: treat model
Young enough to typically be able to get the printer to work, but old enough to be surprised when I am able to get the printer to work.
I did not know until today that Dvorak patented his eponymous keyboard while a professor at the University of Washington. I've still never used it, but it does make me slightly more curious.
I’m not a tax professional but removing a forced-air system from your home is surely a deduction.
The first decision to actually make sense is designed to literally not make cents
I am actually, unironically, a big fan of what I've seen of elementary-school math instruction over the last several years. And I think they should add a unit on how a 50% surcharge means ONE THIRD NOT ONE HALF of the total charge is the surcharge. Apologies for yelling.
Today after a presentation showing UTF8 is backward compatible to ASCII (every ASCII file is a UTF8 file), I recalled this is only my 2nd-favorite backward-compatibility story. The winner: Every Windows executable is a DOS executable that prints, "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" and exits.
Remembering my friend and colleague Gaetano Borriello on the 10th anniversary of his untimely passing on February 1 2015. A super computer engineer, a superb person, and a superb role model and inspiration for us all.
Students may be surprised to learn that [long-distance] phone companies used to be in the taxi business -- the longer the meter ran the better -- but managed to switch to the gym business -- maintain membership fees and hope there isn't overuse. The point is funding models can change.
One of the surer signs that I am Older and Wiser (tm) is that I'm much more likely to write "final (?) version" than "final version."
Today is a uniquely (???) Seattle holiday-not-a-holiday. Our sunset today is at 5:00pm and will be no earlier until DST ends in the fall.
Apparently this conversation keeps re-happening independently: "Our customer database has date of birth" "Yes, so?" "So we could script sending Happy Birthday emails" "But, why? Our product has nothing to do with birthdays" "Because we can" "Okay, let's do it"