# 01 Aug 2019, 09:09AM: Background Music:
So in my household we have a zillion little shared references, and some of those are about pop songs of the late 20th century. For instance, if we're in a restaurant or something and we hear "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood (I just had to look that up, it's not like I knew the name of the song or the artist already), we laugh because of the time Leonard pointed out that the main lyric kinda sounds like a complaint a customer might give a server.
Bring me a higher love
This love is insufficiently high
Leave bad review on Yelp
(Upon a full listen: the synth riff from 3:04 to 3:11 reminds me of the start of the Doogie Howser, M.D. opening theme. A lot of the folks I meet are not people who went to schools in the US in the late 1980s/early 1990s while younger than approximately everyone else in their grade cohort, and thus they did not experience being called "Doogie". Nor did they experience Head of the Class which was -- for me -- sympathetic representation of book-smart nerddom in mass media. Not sure I'd feel that way if I re-watched it now.)
Every once in a while we go use YouTube to watch the music videos for songs that are in sort of the "you will hear these in public spaces in the US" canon but that we've never really listened to. Always feels like popping the hood in a car where up till now I've just been a passenger.
# 05 Aug 2019, 09:01AM: Kickoff for Communications Work on the Python 2 Sunsetting:
Python's 2.x line will reach End of Life on January 1, 2020, meaning that the maintainers of Python 2 will stop supporting it, even for security patches. Many institutions and codebases have not yet ported their code from Python 2 to Python 3. And many of them haven't even heard yet about the upcoming EOL. Volunteers have made many resources to help publicize and educate, but there's still more work to be done.
So the Python Software Foundation has contracted with my firm, Changeset Consulting, to help communicate about the sunsetting of Python 2. The high-level goal for Changeset's involvement is to help users through the end of the transition, help with communication so volunteers are not overwhelmed, and help update public-facing assets so core developers are not overwhelmed.
During this project (starting now and going till the end of April 2020), Changeset's goals are:
- Create a concise page on python.org giving community guidance on the why and what of EOL
- Create and publicize a formal press release through the PSF
- Audit and update every mention of Python 2 on python.org, including in documentation and the wiki
- Develop a plan to handle redirecting https://docs.python.org/2/* (especially deep links)
- Publicize the new "what's up with EOL" page to a variety of audiences, respond to questions, and keep the page updated until PyCon US 2020 based on questions that come up
So, towards those goals, you'll see me with my colleagues:
- Researching, writing, and editing technical documents and the press release
- Corresponding with stakeholders, writing and publishing announcements and other communications in multiple media
- Initiating and facilitating meetings (I will try to make them very minimal and short; if I invite you, please let me know your response)
- Filing, triaging, labelling, prioritizing, and linking issues, such as in the website repo
For accountability, Changeset will provide reporting via:
I'm going to be asking for a lot of help along the way from the Python community: meeting with us, answering our questions, double-checking our drafts for accuracy, publicizing that EOL page to your circles, setting up some parties for January 1st. Thanks in advance and let's get the Python user base further along towards enjoying the shininess of Python 3.
# (1) 08 Aug 2019, 11:49AM: When/How Do People Decide To Apply To CS Grad School?:
I'm trying to understand how people decide to go to CS grad school in the US. For instance, what proportion of PhD applicants are coming straight from undergrad, versus another graduate degree (such as an MS in math), versus industry? Do they generally decide first on what they want to research, whom they want to work with, or that they want to go to grad school at all? I presume there is a survey of this somewhere?
I've found the Computing Research Association's Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline's report on why grad students choose computing, and I've also looked at the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics website. I have found a little data on what proportion of doctoral recipients were previously in a baccalaureate program, a master's program, or industry, but not about what proportion of applicants, or
accepted applicants, come from those categories.
Any pointers?
(Maybe there's paywalled research on this within the ACM's special interest group on CS education? If so, lemme know and I will try looking for that?)
The reason I am asking this is to help professors and guidance counselors I know (maybe you've heard that Outreachy has a new career advisor). They want to improve their abilities to help students and programmers consider research careers, and better target their outreach consider applying to specific graduate programs. How does the engagement funnel currently work? And thus, where are the gaps? I presume there are a bunch of people who would do well in grad school, and find it fulfilling, and use their research and their degrees in ways that would benefit the world, but no one ever says to them "hey have you thought about going to grad school," so they don't think of it as a possible thing for them.
