edX initial impressions

For the past several weeks I have been participating in the 6.00x Intro to Comp Sci and Programming class provided by MIT through the collaborative edX effort. It has been really great. Their syllabus states the course requires approximately 12 hours of effort, and unfortunately, it's not too far afield. The structure is very clean, and nicely everywhere I'm encountering difficulties the discussion forums are often well populated with feedback on similar if not exactly the same issues. The learning curve has been steep both getting into Python for the first time and recalling math that I haven't used in 3-10 years.

This course is not the only reason there are a paucity of posts for 2012, but it's a current contributing factor. My hope is that with some added skills I'll be able to begin prototyping some ideas we've been kicking around the house.

I'm still up in the air on Twitter. It was enjoyable at times using it during presentations at Edustat; although, listening and twittering was a bit overwhelming for actually absorbing higher level ideas. It was sound byte capture and recording provocations. My brother is using it for some entertaining bits like shouting out into the vast void of major stardom, which come off entertaining and occasionally rant-like. Still Pam continues to put the rest of us to shame with myriad daily updates. I for one am not going to sleep less and try to keep up with her.

What a delightful Fall day in Charlottesville. I have wrestled my statistics book for part of the morning, and it calls to me this afternoon as well. The homework was split this afternoon by a delightful visit downtown with my friend and colleague, Melissa. We sought delicious South African fare at Shebeen, followed by a tour of the grounds at 'the University' (UVA for the uninitiated. The university is declarative as there are no other universities within proximity). We saw the world re-known lawn. As well, we made our way past the buildings housing the McIntire School of Commerce's excellent programs. Melissa is three quarters of the way through her M.S. Management of Information Technology, and we compared notes of our programs. Many folks pursuing their M.S. along with her have already achieved their MBAs. Her program, or one similar, is of interest after finishing my current degree at Langone. Some point in the near future I will need to further develop my technology background in pursuit of a CIO role.

It was nice to walk a campus ('the grounds'), an enjoyment taken when possible. Definitely a welcome excursion given the holiday meal schedule.

Wired knows Mang:

Don't you see the resemblance:

I love the "Ninja" aspect of this technique:

realestate.com.au put technology into their business practices to create a comprehensive look at the property prospective buyers were considering. A google maps mash-up, taking advantage of the satellite component straight off as well as being able to add in preferences such as neighborhood, price, and more, they have the incentive for users to return to their site. Add to that RSS feeds based on preference, akin to Netflix's Recommendations RSS feed, and you have regular repeat visit.

When my father worked with Real Estate in New York we discussed ideas like this; the challenge is technically adding on layers of user's desired preference surrounding the property their considering. How many different categories of information make a property that much more appealing? And, then could you go a step further by providing a rating of a property's profile matched to a user's profile derived by survey with a high degree of accuracy. Could you imagine, the city's flower district being a direct hit?