Month: April 2011

DFLL now integrates with Twitter Tools

…or, another edition of “OMG SHUT UP WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID PLUGIN!!!!1”.

Anyway, I’ve updated the [DF Linked List WordPress plugin](http://yjsoon.com/dfll-plugin) again:

* Fixed RSS feed validation. Many thanks to [Michael Camilleri](http://inqk.net) for pointing this out and pushing a fix! Getting to discover blogs like [his](http://inqk.net/weblog) is one of those happy unintended results of having written this plugin.
* Added [Twitter Tools](http://crowdfavorite.com/wordpress/plugins/twitter-tools/) integration. Now you can add a glyph in front of tweets that link to non-linked-list posts, just like how Gruber does it for the [DF Twitter account](http://twitter.com/daringfireball). In addition, you can also add a glyph or text (e.g. “Link:”) in front of linked list item tweets. Thanks to [Ben Brooks](http://brooksreview.net) for the suggestion on this one.

Escalating enrolment in Computer Science

Prof Eric Roberts on how the intro CS courses at Stanford have surpassed even pre-tech bubble numbers. He notes that the students coming in seem different this time round:

> The students who are now inflating the ranks of CS106A are, it seems, deciding to take a computer science course as a way of bolstering their credentials before they emerge into a weak economy. Most have majors in other areas but recognize, probably correctly, that having programming skills will likely increase their chances of gaining employment in their own field. A surprising number of those students, however, once they get into our introductory courses fall completely in love with the material and continue on to double the size of the downstream courses in the curriculum.

I didn’t take many CS courses back in the day, but I have great memories of being part of the CS106 course assistant team. After having planned and taught my own intro programming curricula, I’m now even more impressed by how effective CS106 was, with its engaging assignments, well-planned structure and overall strong pedagogy. I’m glad more students are giving this course, and computer science, a shot.

The courses are available [online](http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx) for free, if anyone’s curious.