Long, time, no see, and what have you been up to? Rather a lot, really, and I'm proud of my accomplishments.
I completed CS50x, a programming class, which includes basic knowledge of C, Python, SQL, and web design; including a final project that runs a grading web application, titled Mascarra. The application allows logged-in faculty members to pull up images of students in the classes they teach, either by generating an alphabetized photo directory or by returning the image and class info for a student selected from a drop-down list. It then enables grading of student groups along several metrics, one of which applies equally to all members of the group, the others of which apply individually. One metric is attendance; if a student is absent, the app zeroes out their other metrics for the session, even if the faculty member forgets to. All of the data is then written back to the spreadsheet for export to an LMS. It's not gorgeous (I spent my time on making it functional, not on making it pretty), but for a single-person's work, I'm pretty happy with it. Submitting it for grading included the creation of an explanatory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA0LZsxAZM. I'm currently waiting to see if the application can be brought inside our intranet at work, which would simplify a lot of the security aspects of the build, or if I'll have to deploy it myself, pwerhaops on AWS Elastic Beanstalk.
I also submitted a patent application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The application describes a method for demonstrating X-rays, and a model for use with the method. I won't go into the details here since the application is pending (and likely will be for about a year and a half - that seems to be the standard turn-around time.) I may have another application to write up for a type of pliers - that's still in the research phase; we'll see what happens.
And, of course, there's the full time job, and the part time job, and that fussy little things commonly called life. So: no, not slacking off. More to report soon.
