I regularly teach middle school age children coding skills with Python using the ‘turtle’ module. It’s a great way to introduce students to computer programming in a very enjoyable manner. The children love the turtle graphics that they can create and it also introduces them to mathematics topics like variability, recursion and logic. When I … Read more
I’ve long been a writer, but writing and publishing have been challenging. Pencil or pen and paper and then endless sheets of paper for rewrites. My writing took off when my parents sent me to college with a typewriter. Lots paper and ink were used, but the writing process became easier. Then came word processing. … Read more
A few days ago a friend sent me a message about an opportunity to work as a Maker Space coach at a local university. After discussing the opportunity with my wife she suggested I apply. I completed the online application and then toward the end of the process i needed to submit a resume. There … Read more
Pandoc is a versatile command-line tool that facilitates seamless file conversions between different markup formats. It supports an extensive range of input and output formats, making it indispensable for writers, researchers, and developers. I have found it particularly useful when converting output from LLMs to to HTML or more common word processing formats. Pandoc’s strength … Read more
I have been experimenting a lot with Ollama and other artificial intelligence tools and the anwers to my prompts always are rendered in Markdown. I have Marktext on my Linux computer and MacDown on my MacBook Air so I can easily copy and paste the output into either of those editors and save it as … Read more
A few years back, I learned about Markdown. I had never heard of it until I started exploring Jupyter Notebooks. Markdown was a familiar skill to many of my writing colleagues. It remained an uncharted territory for me. Markdown is a universal method for composing text, employing concise notation to apply to style. For instance, … Read more
