It was pretty easy to create a specific RSS feed for java.blogs to syndicate entries on all things java. It just worked (like it should). I was pleased.

Then I went to feed validator and it whined about date formats and local URL references (fixed by adding an “http” before a “www”). It gets points for noticing that the date format looks like a MovableType problem and suggesting a solution. But now I have 5 templates that generate slightly different formats and I’m not sure which tools support which versions. For the moment things seem to be working, so I’m going to stop tweaking (even though the date formats do look weird for the current RSS it generates).

Just in time for Halloween, a second solar storm produced some colorful effects for those in the right spot to watch them. Which didn’t include me because I was too near the city seeing Mystic River, so I borrowed this photo.

Northern Lights From Solar Storm (Michael Siedzik)

So I’ve finally broken down and installed an RSS aggregator. For now I’ve been using SharpReader which seems to do a reasonable job - supports different RSS formats, images are downloaded automatically, you can categorize feeds, familar interface. There are enough sources on the Net with a RSS feed I want to read that it makes sense to let them come to me. I can already see how if a weblog doesn’t have a good RSS feed people who use aggregators will just skip it.

So I tweaked the RSS feed for this site so that it will show up reasonably (times are correct, links to individual items work, etc.).

I recently finished reading Absolutely American by David Lipsky, a Rolling Stone writer, which follows cadets at West Point over four years. Just a little different than my liberal arts college experience. For example, no deans at my school ever gave a speech like:

“…I can guarantee you this: this class will move out, will go into the ranks of the Army. And somewhere, in some disputed barricade along the frontier, you will meet your destiny. And you will stack this nation’s enemies like cordwood.”

Lipsky successfully describes an interesting university culture that is remarkably different than the culture they aim to protect. Even having never considered joining the military there is an attractiveness to environment they’ve created. One that has a clear sense of shared values and mission, where they sacrafice in the service of others and that demands teamwork in a truly integrated, multicultural community. I can’t say those things about my university’s community where values are very individual, personal achievement is paramount, and the community is neither that diverse nor well-integrated. Lipsky illustrates many other factors about the cadet life that are unappealing, but the book definitely changed the way I view West Point.

The author was on On Point not so long ago for an interesting interview and conversation about his book.

This Fall two friends & I have been leading an apprencticeship through Citizen Schools at their 8th Grade Academy using LEGO Mindstorms to have kids build robots. They’re building a robot to navigate a maze. The Mindstorms robots are a great way to introduce various procedural programming concepts like branching, loops and algorithms. So far it’s been a blast, aside from the hassle of keeping track of a million Lego pieces and installing the software.

Student’s Mindstorm robot with Spider-Man aboard.

This Saturday’s class went especially well I thought, after a few that were a bit chaotic. We cut the lecture portion to the bare minimum and got them working with their Mindstorms robots and programming them using Tufts’ ROBOLab software. Sort of a “Less talk, more rock” approach. I was really impressed with how quickly they all took to using the visual programming environment. In their teams they programmed their robot to drive forward until detects it hit a wall, then backs up, and spins around for a random time. Then they learned about loops and had their robot do this a bunch of times.

Programming mindstorms using ROBOLab