The Hacker Within

I got back to Toronto late last night from visiting The Hacker Within, a grassroots student organization at the University of Wisconsin – Madison that helps science and engineering students figure out how to use computing in their research. I think it's a great model for schools elsewhere to adopt, and despite truly awful "service" from Delta Airlines, it was worth going down to chat with Katy, Nico, Paul, and everyone else, and to see a large auditorium filled with people (80? more?) learning how version control, the shell, Doxygen, and other tools can make them more productive researchers. And as a bonus, I can now take "sleep in a frat house" off my list of 1000 things to do before I die… :-)