Why "programmer" is not in my job title

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|November 30, 2012

There are two activities which, when taken in combination, have occupied the vast majority of my working hours for the past 20 years: writing computer programs and writing…well, just writing. During my college years I completed my degree with a double-major: Computer Science and English. (My English degree has a [...]

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Too many pies can be hard to digest

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|December 12, 2011

On his SAS and R blog, Ken K. recently posted an example of a visualization technique called “small multiples”. In this exercise, Ken shows the programming technique for replicating a particular series of pie charts in R as well as in SAS. It’s a useful exercise to learn from, but [...]

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Computer Science is not just for basement dwellers

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|December 2, 2011

When I was a teenager in the 1980s I purchased my first computer: a TI-99/4A. (Wow, TI’s version numbers are more confusing than ours!) I had several friends who had other brands of computers, including the TRS-80 (affectionately known as the “trash 80″) and the Commodore 64. Despite our divisions [...]

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Pop Quiz for Computer Science Education Week

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|December 10, 2010

I helped to write a quiz for the Computer Science Education Week promotions that were featured on our company intranet. Do you fancy yourself as a Comp-Sci aficionado? Let’s see how you do with these. 1. Which achievement is Charles Babbage most famous for? A. Establishing software retail shops in [...]

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Computer Science isn't just for geeks anymore

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|December 7, 2010

Computer science is more than the pursuit of “let’s see what we can make this computer do.” If that’s your only goal, then you might make a fine computer geek, but a lousy computer scientist. In her blog post for Computer Science Education Week, Caroline McCullen reminds us that computer [...]

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What's my line? (CSEdWeek edition)

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|December 1, 2010

Author note: I’m “replaying” this post in honor of Computer Science Education Week. It originally appeared here over 3 years ago. Today was “career day” in my daughter’s 3rd grade classroom. A few privileged parents were invited to attend and answer questions about their professions, press-conference style. Among those on [...]

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Celebrate Computer Science Education Week with SAS: December 5-11

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|November 30, 2010

Next week we’ll be celebrating Computer Science Education Week. SAS is a partner in this event, which makes complete sense because we have a vested interest in creating more computer scientists. After all, SAS does employ a lot of them. When I was enrolled in a computer science program (sometime [...]

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