Positive reinforcement learning through barbacoa

Yesterday I had some extra barbacoa that Domino was super excited about and Andrew suggested I use it to teach him (Domino, not Andrew) how to lie down on command. I waited until he lay down on his own, said “yes!” and gave him a piece of barbacoa. He leapt up and ate the barbacoaContinue reading “Positive reinforcement learning through barbacoa”

Have you ever looked at your build? I mean, really looked at your build?

Bazel has a feature that lets you see a graph of your build dependencies. It could help you debug things, but honestly it’s just really cool to see what your build is doing. To try it out, you’ll need a project that uses Bazel to build. If you don’t have one handy, here’s a tinyContinue reading “Have you ever looked at your build? I mean, really looked at your build?”

Laptops are getting smaller all the time

As a “thank you” for hosting an intern this summer, Google gave me a little Android figurine. When I took it out of its box, a little backpack fell out, too. The backpack actually zipped and unzipped, but it didn’t have anything in it. So I decided to make a Macbook Air for it. First,Continue reading “Laptops are getting smaller all the time”

I will gladly write a test Tuesday for a program today

When I started at Google last year, I was really impressed by their testing. Every C++ class had three files: a <classsname>.h file, a <classsname>.cc, and a <classname>_test.cc. Every time something new is implemented, it has to be tested. The code review tool even warns you if you add a new .h without an accompanyingContinue reading “I will gladly write a test Tuesday for a program today”

TEALS – Teaching CS on your way to work, part 2

If you’re in NYC and thinking about volunteering, there is another TEALS information session tonight. After my last post on TEALS, Dan Goldin generously offered to answer some questions about his experience teaching students in Kentucky (remotely from NYC). What class are you teaching? What are they learning now? I’m currently teaching AP Computer ScienceContinue reading “TEALS – Teaching CS on your way to work, part 2”