TITLE: Seeing and Getting the Power
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: August 22, 2007  8:08 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
After six months of increased blogging output, if not blog
quality, August has hit me head on.  Preparing for
vacation.  Vacation.  Digging out of backlog from vacation.
Getting ready for fall semester.  The start of the semester.

At least now I have some time and reason to spend energy on
my compilers course!

The algorithm geeks among you might enjoy this
frequently-referenced and
<A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-SSu3tJ3ns">
   very cool demo</A>
of a graphics technique called Content-Aware Image Sizing,
presented by
<A HREF="http://www.faculty.idc.ac.il/arik/">
   Ariel Shamir</A>
at SIGGRAPH earlier this month (in San Diego just before
I arrived for the above-mentioned vacation).  I think that
this will make a neat example for my algorithms the next
time I teach it.  (It's on tap for next spring.)

Algorithmically, the idea is cool but seems straightforward
enough.  To me, what is most impressive is having the idea
in the first place.  One of the things I love about following
research in other areas of computer science -- and even in
areas far beyond CS -- is seeing how thinkers who understand
a domain deeply create and apply new ideas.  This particular
idea will be so useful on the web and in media of the future.

The guy who sent the link said it well:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
SIGGRAPH has a way of reminding me that in many
ways I'm the dumb kid at the back of the classroom.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I feel the same way sometimes, but I usually don't mind.
There is much to learn.

Still, I hope that by the end of this semester my
compilers students don't feel this way about compilers.
I'd like them to appreciate that a compiler is "just
another program" -- that they can learn techniques
which make building a compiler straightforward and
even fun.  What looks like magic becomes understanding,
without losing its magical aura.
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