Tootfinder

"The web was supposed to evolve into semantically structured, linked, machine-readable data that would enable amazing opportunities. That never happened. (...) We also never achieved truly personal computing. Computers could've been personal knowledge bases, with structured semantic connections akin to HyperCard, that take advantage of the semantic web and open standards. (...) AI is not a triumph of elegant design, but a brute-force workaround."

Designing for Self-Regulation in Informal Programming Learning: Insights from a Storytelling-Centric Approach
Sami Saeed Alghamdi (Open Lab, School of Computing, Newcastle University), Christopher Bull (Open Lab, School of Computing, Newcastle University), Ahmed Kharrufa (Open Lab, School of Computing, Newcastle University)
https://arxiv.o…

Designing for Self-Regulation in Informal Programming Learning: Insights from a Storytelling-Centric Approach
Many people learn programming independently from online resources and often report struggles in achieving their personal learning goals. Learners frequently describe their experiences as isolating and frustrating, challenged by abundant uncertainties, information overload, and distraction, compounded by limited guidance. At the same time, social media serves as a personal space where many engage in diverse self-regulation practices, including help-seeking, using external memory aids (e.g., self…

Reading (listening to [Stephen Fry read]) @… ’s new book and he makes an interesting observation that at the dawn of popular personal computing, we used to type commands into computers and get text responses “like we do today with AI chatbots.”

Affective Air Quality Dataset: Personal Chemical Emissions from Emotional Videos
Jas Brooks, Javier Hernandez, Mary Czerwinski, Judith Amores
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15774 ht…

Affective Air Quality Dataset: Personal Chemical Emissions from Emotional Videos
Inspired by the role of chemosignals in conveying emotional states, this paper introduces the Affective Air Quality (AAQ) dataset, a novel dataset collected to explore the potential of volatile odor compound and gas sensor data for non-contact emotion detection. This dataset bridges the gap between the realms of breath \& body odor emission (personal chemical emissions) analysis and established practices in affective computing. Comprising 4-channel gas sensor data from 23 participants at two di…