My answers to the questionnaire

My name is Jerod Weinman. For this course, I prefer to be called any of the following: Professor Weinman, Dr. Weinman, or (in egalitarian Grinnell College style) Mr. Weinman, whichever you prefer.
I studied Computer Science and Mathematics (double major B.S.) at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a similarly-sized school in Terre Haute, Indiana that focuses on teaching engineering, math, and science.

My PhD in Computer Science came from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I specialized in computer vision and machine learning. My dissertation research involved designing algorithms for a system to help the blind navigate by reading text from images (such as street signs and storefronts).
In addition to this course, I am teaching "Computer Vision", a fun class investigating what it takes to get computers to understand and do useful things with images. I am also teaching CSC 151 "Functional Problem Solving in Scheme," which I hope you already know about
As always, I look forward to getting to know my students and their approaches to learning about computation.
Even if you are not a Computer Science major or choose not to take any further CompSci classes, my biggest concern is that you will all see the utility of object-centered thinking and come away better equipped to write and study powerful algorithms for processing data.

What questions do you have for me?

Which is your favorite programming language and your favorite OS and why?: Interesting questions! I like using MacOS because (a) it's *NIX based, which means I can do all the down-and-dirty things I like to do on the computer, but also (b) it's pretty, and (c) it (mostly) just works.
The programming language is indeed a hard one. Different languages are good for different things, so it's hard to pick a universal favorite. I use MATLAB the most; I love the elegance and simplicity of Scheme; and Java has a lot of powerful properties (which we'll learn) and libraries that make it less painful to develop large software projects (which I have not needed to do in some time). I am currently using both Java and MATLAB (they play nicely together) in my text recognition research.
Do you have pets at home?: My wife would love it, but no, I'm not much of a pet person (though I like other people's pets).