Ellen Spertus

Is there a reason "replace conditional with table" isn't a standard refactoring? I'm preparing a lecture where I will start with a many-branched conditional statement and replace it with a table. For example, I could start with: function getMonthName(monthNumber) { if (monthN...

@martinfowler.com If you have time to weigh in on this, it would be great to get your opinion. softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/45...

Julia Evans is great, but I need something that starts with pwd and is free.

Any recommendations of resources for students to learn the basics of the Un*x command line?

@shriram.bsky.social #csed

AI for "good", indeed. Glad a journalist picked up on this story and interviewed Abeba. Streisand Effect these asses.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. –Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn is a historian and author of multiple books including "A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present". Look back through the pages of history. You will find darkness but also light. Let it give you hope.

Goodnight 💚

Video: ICE agents drive SUV through protesters at S.F. immigration court Immigration agents clashed with protesters, who were trying to stop an arrest, in San Francisco’s most violent ICE encounter of 2025.

ICE OUT OF SF

I found it too depressing to read in the current political environment. I loved her book I loved her book on the Great as Migration.

I found it too depressing to finish in the current political environment. I loved her book about the great migration.

My favorite part of the article:

[Researcher Jacob] Glanville figured that a person who'd been repeatedly exposed to lots of different venoms might have human antibodies that could target such a site to interfere with the toxins. "I was calling vivariums hoping for a clumsy snake researcher."

• Al Overview The idiom "you can't lick a badger twice" means you can't trick or deceive someone a second time after they've been tricked once. It's a warning that if someone has already been deceived, they are unlikely to fall for the same trick again. Here's a more detailed explanation: • Licking: "Licking" in this context means to trick or deceive someone. • Badger: The badger is a wild animal, and the phrase likely originates from the historical sport of badger baiting where dogs were used to harass

Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine

SF activists demand release of gay man jailed in El Salvador: ‘He is not a member of a gang’ SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Several members of the group Gays without Borders protested in San Francisco on Saturday. They’re demanding the release of a Venezuelan man seeking U.S. asylum wh…

Story by @kron4-news.bsky.social about recent @harveymilkclub.bsky.social rally to free Andry Hernandez Romero from CECOT. www.kron4.com/news/bay-are... #AndryRomero

After the rally, I visited the nearby Pink Triangle memorial.

Where you at today's protest in the Castro? I didn't see you but maybe that's just because you didn't speak.

@actioninhighered.bsky.social is there a more accessible way to find events near me than the interactive map on your website?

Applications close soon for Code In Place @codeinplace.bsky.social, an online intro programming MOOC with human section leaders that was created in the early days of the pandemic. I plan to be a section leader for the 3rd time. Applications are also open for learners. #CSEd codeinplace.stanford.edu

Canada places 200% tariff on little Canadian flags Americans wear while travelling OTTAWA – As US President Trump’s unilaterally-launched trade war continues, Canadians have struck back with counter-tariffs on a valued American item: the little Canadian flag patches Americans put on...

@ianmmacintyre.bsky.social Thanks for including your Bluesky handle, although the link in the article goes to a nonexistent Twitter account. www.thebeaverton.com/2025/03/cana...

To be clear, this is satire, which means it won't be true for several months.

Colleague: Last dev survey said an astonishing 70% preferred TypeScript over JS.

Me: 80% of developers prefer being poked in the eye over JS.

I would add defunding universities to abuses of power that should not be done in our name.

Not In Our Name Sign the Statement March 11, 2025 Not in our name. We are Jewish professors, staff members, and students from universities across the United States. We hold various views about Israel and Palestine...

Join me and other Jewish academics in "denouncing, without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name – and cynical claims of antisemitism – to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities." docs.google.com/document/u/0...

A tiny handwritten sign at the Tesla dealership as a big crowd protests Musk reads “We hate him too” yup 👍

Big crowd at the SF Tesla dealership protesting our unelected overlord. A tiny sign hangs from an upstairs window

GitHub - shevek/jarjar: Jar Jar Links is a utility that makes it easy to repackage Java libraries and embed them into your own distribution. Jar Jar Links is a utility that makes it easy to repackage Java libraries and embed them into your own distribution. - shevek/jarjar

I need to repackage a third-party Java library and found out the utility for doing so is named Jar Jar Links. github.com/shevek/jarjar

Setting: Man (M) and woman (W) talking at a cocktail party. M: What do you research? W: Worm holes. M: I've always wondered, what lies at the other end? W: Usually a worm W: I'm a zoologist @Twisteddoodles

www.newscientist.com/article/2457...

My least favorite part of teaching is when the students I've grown to care about are replaced by strangers.

BREAKING: In a surprising turn of events, businesses that said their Cyber Monday sale was limited have extended the sale

Your post reminds me of the rhetorical question: If Rush Limbaugh hated gender-neutral bathrooms so much, why did he ensure his grave would be used as one? pbs.twimg.com/card_img/186...

Yes, I typed BASIC programs in from Creative Computing.

It blows my mind that when I tell my students about something I remember from the '70s and '80s (like the creation of exceptions and the rise of object-oriented programming), it's as though one of my professors told me about the '30s and '40s. #CSEd

Interesting, but the students I'm thinking of are looking for accredited residential colleges.

Those sound great! Where do you get them?