Computing: The Science of Nearly Everything

On 11 April 2011, I wrote the first Computing: The Science of Nearly Everything blog post: Hello, World! (a fairly typical starting point for a computer scientist, I’m sure you’ll agree).

My second year of blogging has been somewhat different from the first, especially now I appear to have developed a readership of sorts: 150 blog posts with over 140,000 hits, 450 comments (12,000 spam comments!) and a couple of hundred followers. The majority of the traffic to my blog has been from Y Combinator’s Hacker News, Google, Twitter and Reddit, with the top search term being “0xB16B00B5” (see this post).

So, the second year’s top five blog posts (see last year’s) are as follows:

1. A set of top Computer Science blogs
2. Programming is the start not the end: let’s develop computational thinking and problem solving skills
3. Feynman Problem-Solving Algorithm
4. We’ve sold Computer Science, now we have to sell what it means to be a Computer Scientist…
5. Academia vs. Industry

Thank you to all of my readers and followers — here’s to another good year of blogging!

On 11 April 2011 at 1:15 pm, I wrote the first Computing: The Science of Nearly Everything blog post: Hello, World! Rather inspiring, I’m sure you’ll agree.

As you’d expect from the blog title and its tagline, the majority of my posts have focused on computer science (education and research), science policy and science communication, interspersed with a bit of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Richard Feynman and the odd quote or two. I’ve been very pleased with the interest and interaction on the blog, averaging between one and two thousand hits a month. Thank you dear readers, long may it continue. FYI, my favourite search term to the blog was “recreational scolding“…

So, the first year’s top five blog posts (excluding the Home page and About) are as follows:

1. Feynman, Bethe and the beauty of mathematics
2. Will 2012 be the Year of Computer Science?
3. Expert Panel report on the National Curriculum review
4. Sense About Science: Report Dodgy Science
5. “These aren’t the drives you’re looking for…”

Now I’m off to write a “proper” blog post.