I’ve updated the dependency chart to match the 2019–2020 catalog.

This now includes DATA classes as well as CPE and CSC classes.

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Another year, another foolhardy venture across mackerel-infested waters.

Mother Nature, always the trickster, loves to make folly of our predictions, to wit (from last year): “I hate to say it, but I think the days of wet suits in Blue Hill Bay are over. Pretty soon it’s going to be like the Bahamas up here.”

Oh, John, if only you’d knocked on some wood after writing that we might not have had such a spate of hypothermia this year.

This is all to say that the water was very very cold this year. Four swimmers pulled up short and shivered their way to shore on boats, while others of us that did make it shivered upon completion at the Becton’s dock. It was the Year of the Great Shiver. It was also the 25th ANNIVERSARY of the Granite, née Long Island, challenge. WOW! Congratulations all around! And it was a banner year in all respects other than water temperature. We had a large-ish complement of 10 swimmers, and 7 chase boats watching, ready to ward off any seal attacks. We caught a pretty good flood tide which got the first swimmer (yours truly, Mark Read) into the dock in about 01:20. Tricia Sawyer was leading the way but had to pull up short after an hour in the water due to the cold. It was a glorious morning of bright blue sky, strong sun, a light breeze, and camaraderie to spare.

This year the swimmers were:

• Mary Clews
• Moira McMahon
• Lane Murnik
• Jenney Wilder
• Amanda Herman
• Mark Read
• Tricia Sawyer
• George Pendle
• Molly
• Heather Dawn Jones

We also had help from an incredible support crew, including:

• Sean Guinness
• Mike Murnik
• Ellis Murnik
• Nathan Semler
• Andy Wanning
• Eliza Wilmerding
• John Jeffrey
• Abby Jeffrey
• Charlotte Taylor
• Jenny
• Sara Ardrey
• Neddie Clews
• Ana Huseby

None of it would have been possible without the superior cajoling and organizing skills of Mary Clews, per usual. Much gratitude to her and to all the volunteers that help out. The Bectons were especially welcoming this year, with hot beverages and ample towels to warm the cold and weary swimmers. So thanks to them as well.

See you next year!

Photos courtesy of Christina Guinness, and Eliza Wilmerding. Thanks!

Again: not too much new here, but the spring and fall quarters quarter is new:

Here’s the college as a whole (we’re better):

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The swim!

It happened again! thanks pretty much entirely to Mary Clews, who organized it this year.

This was the 24th annual event. Yikes. Next year will be a quarter century.

The water was really ridiculously warm this year. Also very very calm. I didn’t wear a wet suit this year either, and I hate to say it, but I think the days of wet suits in Blue Hill Bay are over. Pretty soon it’s going to be like the Bahamas up here; the algae in the water will all die, and it will be crystal clear. Can’t wait. (That was sarcasm.)

Ah, but… the swim! The swim went really well. Here’s who we had:

• John Clements
• Charlotte Clews
• Mary Clews
• Jenney Wilder
• Chris Guinness
• Sean Guinness
• Amanda Herman
• Ted Heyd
• Lane Murnik
• Justin Pollard
• Tricia Sawyer

It turns out that this was the biggest swim ever, with 11 participants, topping 2013, when we had 10.

We also had help from an incredible support crew, including:

• Katie Cancila
• Anika Clements
• Robin Clements
• Alton Coolidge
• Springer Huseby
• Jerome Lawther
• Mike Murnik
• Nathan Semler
• Andy Wanning

These photos are courtesy of Chris Guinness, although she’s in all of them, so I suppose she couldn’t have been framing the shots.

Many, many thanks to all of you!

Not too much new here, but the winter quarter is new:

Here’s the college as a whole (we’re better):

My name is John Clements. I’m a computer scientist and programmer, and quite frankly, it’s hard for me to remain civil in discussion of the Dickey amendment, one of the most pernicious pieces of legislative ledgermain it is my deep displeasure to be familiar with.

Since the Dickey amendment of 1996, the Centers for Disease Control—responsible for safeguarding the health of the American public—has been unable to perform research on the effects or causes of gun violence.

My government—the finest on earth—makes many decisions that I disagree with. Money is spent daily in ways that I am not in support of. However, when we institute a blanket ban on funding for research into particular topics, it sends a much stronger message; not only do we not want to spend money on this or that; we’re actually afraid to discover the truth. Senator Dickey himself—the author of the amendment—has since come out against the it¹.

This tactic is one of a number of what I think of as “force multiplier” or “upstream” approaches to controlling society, and I think they’re all appalling. These tactics seek to change the rules of the game, to prevent our political system from working correctly. Gerrymandering is one such tactic. Allowing unlimited corporate donations—that is, the lack of campaign finance laws—are another. Rules such as this are similar; rather than trying to persuade the public that your point is correct, you simply prevent the truth from being discovered in the first place.

In my mind, this kind of ban seeks to prevent the free flow of information, tacks perilously close to freedom of the press, and can only come from a group that is frightened that the public might discover the truth.

It’s time for us to discover the truth.

Okay, I’ve replaced this blog post with a perma-link so I can update it without keeping huge amounts of old data around:

permanent location

Some good news, here.

On my way home from SIGCSE, I drew some more pictures.

This shows how each year of incoming students handles 357. Specifically, the x axis shows quarters since the students’ first one, and the y axis shows what fraction of the students have passed 357. Each line shows a different cohort.

Some of the lines are longer than others. This is because some cohorts that take a really long time to pass 357, and also because some cohorts haven’t yet had more than 6 or 9 or 12 quarters since entry.

There’s some sobering news here—since 2005, we’ve never managed to heave more than 75% of the students over the 357 bar.

However, looking more closely, we see that more recent cohorts—specifically, those since 2010 (a.k.a. “when we started 123”) look a lot better.

As part of our work on our recent SIGCSE paper (citation forthcoming), I took another look at our numbers of incoming students. The results surprised me. This table combines CSC, CPE, and SE students, and associates them with the quarter in which they first took a lower-level CS class.

The surprising thing about this—to me, anyway—is that our enrollments have actually been dropping over the past few years. I’m surprised.

Do we need to go through this again? Another entry on the list. Sarcasm aside, this gun really has no plausible purpose aside from killing people. Can we please have an assault weapons ban?

• July 20, 2012 - Aurora, CO – 12 people dead - Smith & Wesson AR–15¹
• December 14, 2012 - Sandy Hook elementary school, Newtown, CT – 20 people dead - Bushmaster AR–15²
• December 2, 2015 - San Bernardino, CA – 14 people dead - Smith & Wesson AR–15³
• June 12, 2016 - Orlando, FL – 49 people dead - Sig Sauer AR–15⁴
• October 2, 2017 - Las Vegas, NV – 57 people dead - “AR–15-style” assault rifle⁵
• February 14, 2018 - Parkland, FL – 17 people dead - “AR–15 semi-automatic assault rifle”⁶