Something a little better

Just for convenience's sake, I'm putting a link up here for my extension that now actually installs properly.
(Yeah I know, I should've fixed that a while ago. But at least it's better late than never.)

Custicon@andrew.raynier.xpi

The code's improved too, although I can't seem to find a workable solution to get images to load in both Firefox 2 and 3. The new Favicon Service for FF3 is still be worked on (The API isn't finalized yet, and there's a lot more of it undocumented).

Contributions

So earlier this week, I contributed to Simon Jung's project by sending him a list of extensions and their Id's for him to use in testing out his Metrics Server Collection. I think Simon's done quite well with such a large component to dig through and test.
You can check his project out over here if you're interested.

Simon was also very helpful to me in contributing to my project by giving me a lovely package of Favicon images (*.ico files) to use in testing out and as an addition to my extension file bundle. Although what I really appreciated from him, was a link to Cathy's extension files to use in contributing to her project, from his blog. Mainly because I had been looking to contribute to it, but her blog, wiki page, and even the project description don't have any links or real information on the canvas3d project.

Well anyways, I managed to download the canvas3d.xpi for minefield, but unfortunately it only works with specific version of Minefield(3.0b1), and mine wasn't one of them (3.0a9pre?). So I went and downloaded and built myself a 3.0b1 version of Minefield (took about 2 hours on the open lab PC), and got the xpi to install. Lucky for me, Simon also noted in his blog the simple images I needed to use to test out this extension.

....after struggling with several failed attempts to get the images to show, only know as I type this, do I realize (after reading through extension errors) that I needed to compile the build as a Gecko project, and not a Browser one.... alright then... back to the salt mines... (ugh, I wonder how many more hours that'll take to compile).

However, assuming I do get all this actually working... there aren't any instructions on what to do with the extension once I do get it working, or a project page I can list my contribution on.
Oh well, I guess as long as I post about it here for Chris to read, that will hopefully be enough.

OSD600 Course Classroom discussion

During our class discussion about this course and the CPA program, I was really intrigued to learn how others felt about the way they were taught, what they had been taught, and the things they still wanted to learn about.

After reflecting a little on what was discussed, I grew curious about what every body's high school (or pre-Seneca) Computer Programming lessons/experience was like. Namely because I think my own previous classes seemed to give me some additional insight and view of the outlook on how most of the classes at Seneca fit in to what we would need to work as a programmer.

I was lucky enough to have a few real computer programming classes when I was in high school. I got to learn how to program in Turing, VB, and Java. Although that's not all I was taught. One thing i wish we did at Seneca, is have little interactive class programming sessions in a lab, where the teacher gives coding challenge to the students (ex. do operation in this many lines; or how do you do operation with only this/these functions?), and lets them hack at it for a part of the class. Then after the allotted amount of time, the teacher writes his answer/version up for everyone to see, and they compare and explain what the students did and how it works.

That was one of the interesting and apparently unique things that I got to do in my High School (Thornlea S.S.), but I also liked learning how to write pseudo code to plan out programs and algorithms on paper, so I could code programs an the like.

I wish Seneca would've had lessons like that in CPA, cause I've met so many students who always seem so lost or frustrated when trying to program. Learning how to program with or without pre-made code (although with specifications for the structure should be used with at least 1st years, if not 2nd) and knowing the difference between good and bad code (as well as how to make it) should be essential foundations for Student's programming knowledge at Seneca.

...and that's my little addition to CPA program discussion.