Logan Leger http://loganleger.com Logan Leger's Blog Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:49:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 loganlegerhttp://feedburner.google.com Learn Your Damn Homophones http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/oZ1hksW_4S8/learn-damn-homophones http://loganleger.com/learn-damn-homophones#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:49:23 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=521 Brandy Ryan and I put together a site out of our frustration from people continually screwing up homophones, the most basic grammar you learn in elementary school. This was a quick project. It’s a single-serving site and meant to be taken as satire, however we’re legit: learn your damn homophones.

Visit LearnYourDamnHomophones.com →

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]]> http://loganleger.com/learn-damn-homophones/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/learn-damn-homophones Steps to Debugging http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/IajYpn8ABjY/steps-to-debugging http://loganleger.com/steps-to-debugging#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:13:42 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=515 From my conversation with Richard Felix

  1. Stop fucking shit up.

After I showed my friend Bryan Culver this, he appeneded it:

  1. Do it right the first time.

From Bryan again. If it isn’t your code:

  1. Go beat the developer.

I showed this to my friend Bonnie Lewis, who had this to say.

  1. Look for errors.
  2. Fix every error you find except for the one that’s actually giving the message.
  3. Give up and call it a ‘feature.’

I think all of this is equally great advice.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/steps-to-debugging/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/steps-to-debugging James Cameron Quote: 11/11/09 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/mhE2ZybWmwE/james-cameron-quote-111109 http://loganleger.com/james-cameron-quote-111109#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:05:40 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=513 If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/james-cameron-quote-111109/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/james-cameron-quote-111109 Mitch Hedburg Quote: 11/10/09 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/Z1RbRK3O7PY/mitch-hedburg-quote-111009 http://loganleger.com/mitch-hedburg-quote-111009#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:11:54 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=511 I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/mitch-hedburg-quote-111009/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/mitch-hedburg-quote-111009 No Shave November http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/gWHPUlvadsA/shave-november http://loganleger.com/shave-november#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:05:26 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=509 I was recently interviewed by The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student-run campus newspaper for No Shave November.

You can view the video here, or the Facebook album of my daily progress here.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/shave-november/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/shave-november Rabbi Julius Gordon Quote: 11/02/09 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/PjcGvnFaG-g/rabbi-julius-gordon-quote-110209 http://loganleger.com/rabbi-julius-gordon-quote-110209#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:11:07 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=507 Love is not blind—it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/rabbi-julius-gordon-quote-110209/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/rabbi-julius-gordon-quote-110209 Dexter Quote: 10/27/09 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/TDgjWalTvrA/dexter-quote-102709 http://loganleger.com/dexter-quote-102709#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:33:24 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=505 Karma. What a fucking concept.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/dexter-quote-102709/feed 0 http://loganleger.com/dexter-quote-102709 Top http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/R2k8dvw1fAo/top http://loganleger.com/top#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:16:15 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=494 This is a cheap top that I got as a handout at some conference. It has a special place on my desk because it happens to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Of course, physics easily explains this really awesome phenomena. I remember doing this in high school Bonus points to whomever solves it first.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/top/feed 3 http://loganleger.com/top Grades and Responsibility in Academia http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/Qb6IUL7kjto/grades-responsibility-academia http://loganleger.com/grades-responsibility-academia#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:24:47 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=490 In academia, particularly higher education, examinations are the standard method of ensuring that a professor’s pupils are learning. The grades of these examinations, often measured on a 10-point scale, usually fall within a standard bell curve distribution. In this bell curve, a majority of students receive marks around a low B or high C. This is the ideal distribution, and particularly hard classes offer a standard “curving” method where points are added to every score to ensure that this bell curve is met. In this ideal distribution, the standard deviation is low, ensuring that the test was fair and that the students are comprehending and absorbing the covered material.

Whenever this bell curve isn’t met, both sides of the classroom—i.e., both students and professors—should be worried. Students should be always worried because it affects their grade, which is extremely important in the short term, because it affects scholarships, major progression, graduation, etc. Moreover, a poor grade can also present one of two scenarios to the student: either that they aren’t spending enough time on the class or that the professor is failing to educate them. In either case, there are adjustments the student must make to be successful in the class.

At a certain point, however, the professor’s fears should at the very least equal, if not outweigh those of the student. This equilibrium, of course, is when the class test average drops ridiculously low. This point is probably subjective, varying from class to class, but a good measurement would be when the average ≤ 60%. It is at this point that the grade stops reflecting as much on the student and begins to reflect poorly on the professor.

An effective professor would recognize this, and instead of spending time blaming the students, would instead focus on connecting more with the students and trying new methods of education. Each class, after all, is different, and the same method might not work for every class every time. Conversely, an ineffective professor will spend valuable class time lecturing a class about their inability to comprehend the professor’s instruction and focus on the same failed methodologies, throwing the class into a vicious cycle.

Unfortunately, most professors in academia today don’t qualify as “effective.” Academia has become incentivized by research and grants and so professors are hired not by their ability to teach but by their ability to bring money to the institution. This is an increasing problem, and most contemporary professors are out of touch with the real world. This negatively affects the quality of education students receive, and thus negatively affects the future.

Therefore, both sides of the classroom have responsibility when it comes to final grades. The student, of course, has the most responsibility. However, there is an equilibrium: At this point, the responsibility is shared, and anything beyond it is when the responsibility for poor performance lies on the professor. This is an obvious problem, and the mere fact that it needs to be stated speaks volumes about the current state of the American higher education system. Even more painful is how obvious the solution is and how little professors past this equilibrium tend to implement any solution at all. There is a growing cancer on higher education, and it’s become metastasized to the entire organization. There is a revolution that is coming, maybe not in the next few years, but if you thought the journalism revolution was bad, just wait.

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]]> http://loganleger.com/grades-responsibility-academia/feed 2 http://loganleger.com/grades-responsibility-academia Fortune Cookie Quote: 10/05/09 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/loganleger/~3/PUVm3F79soM/fortune-cookie-quote-100509 http://loganleger.com/fortune-cookie-quote-100509#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:08:20 +0000 Logan Leger http://loganleger.com/?p=488 Act as if it were impossible to fail.

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