Ryan Somma

Software developer interested in synthesizing new teaching strategies for computer science using gaming.
I have a book!

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

My book is shipping! Check it out for a myriad of strategies for bringing CS to the classroom.

[No Starch Press @nostarch]

Unlock students' future potential and boost K-12 computational thinking with 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮, shipping now. Learn more at https://t.co/4OmFSbKG9d

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

TIL the road leading into the incinerator facility near our home is named "Mordor."

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@PWCSChairman And yet, here you are spending time on it yourself. How about you focus on what's important instead of wasting time fighting right-wing culture wars on twitter. I will not be voting for you again.

[Vicky Somma #3DPrintopia2026 @TGAW]

This was much fun! I wrote a little MVC/C# web app to send arguments to an @openscad project. It lets me easily turn my #Wordle results into STLs for #3DPrinting. Don't be too terribly surprised if I print myself a fresh Wordle pendant each morning! :)

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@dallas_hawthorn Our local delegate, @pwcdanica is my hero. She conducts herself so nobly while tirelessly fighting the good fight in our community. As a parent, I point to her as a role model of leadership with her strength to stay positive and progress-focused in our political environment.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

Last week's news of Fantasy Flight's Keyforge card game going on indefinite hiatus because the deck-building algorithm is "broken" provides a teachable moment for Computer Science Education. https://t.co/H97jqLv6Gz

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

Today's playtesting session of #VotesForWomen from @fortcircle games was a nail-biter, but @tgaw squeaked out a win in the final voting. The game is so enlightening for understanding the process for amending the US Constitution and the political strife surrounding the history.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

As a software developer, I completely understand. I've had deployments that were supposed to take an hour take all night. This is a major software update and will be well worth the wait. @MTG_Arena

[Wizards Customer Support @Wizards_Help]

⚠️ In Progress: Maintenance is nearing completion and we expect game clients to be live soon. Thanks for your patience. https://t.co/DH5v1nYjGA

[NSFVoyager2 @NSFVoyager2]

I am currently 17 hrs 32 mins 30 secs of light-travel time from Earth (2021:158:000000:2L)

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

"Making up rules and seeing what happens is basically what math is." Vihart is still my favorite Math youtuber after 10 years. https://t.co/LWgenJCQdx

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@KGcodes Working in the government back in the day, we had to maintain Section 508 compliance. There was an online tool called Bobby that would evaluate your site and list the accessibility issues. Looks like it's no longer around, but there are many sites like it. https://t.co/Ia5DI7NDD1

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google today vs Oracle. The oral arguments made in October were fascinating for how the lawyers communicated complex concepts to non-technical judges using metaphors like restaurant menus as APIs. A teachable moment: https://t.co/JKZfdKV3Co

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@moshhamedani Graduated with a BA in English. Taught myself programming out of college and have been doing it professionally for over 25 years now.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@JosieShenaniga1 @FlynnVale @MTG_Arena Me three. Just started 10 minutes ago. Reinstalled and still blank.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

Fun family project. I let my boys dictate a short RPG to me which I coded. I had to include a small JS framework to handle really large numbers as you start with a googol life. https://t.co/W3MejTQ9Jl

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

Great thread. Computers are abstractions upon abstractions upon abstractions.

[Buy Mass Effect The Board Game! (also on bluesky) @ithayla]

randomly I remembered that the original roller coaster tycoon was programmed by Chris Sawyer in assembly, which, honestly, the stones on this guy. short thread follows on why this is so ridiculous.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@Wizards used to include these "Kaijudo Code" cards in packs of Duel Masters. I love these for how they encourage a healthy-mindset when playing what can oftentimes be a very stressful competitive experience. I refer to this card whenever I'm feeling low on @MTG_Arena.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

My son just explained to me that #Fortnite won't allow first-person view because players can't see--and therefore care about--their own expensive custom skins. I'm thankful for my kids educating me in digital literacy.

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

From one of the decoders of the Zodiac message. Here's a high-quality entertaining video taking viewers step-by-step through decoding the secret message in the Perseverance parachute: https://t.co/pd25On56od

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

@0x11eaea I understand. Maybe it was a little easier for me because we didn't have too many internet snippets in 1999, but instead had thick, expensive books that would start from the very basics. I had an English BA and had to self-teach myself from those old tomes. 🙂

[Ryan Somma @ideonexus]

This was a HUGE problem for me starting out in VBscript, PHP, and Java. Having to set up a server, configure it, update environment variables, and many other arcane technical chores to output "hello world." Much more accessible to code in JavaScript, a text editor, and browser.

[Lea @0x11eaea]

@gillianmsmith A thing that frustrated me a lot when I was beginning to program was not knowing, uh, where to type the code? Like I would see an example code snippet, but have no idea how to make it run.