If you cared why I have not posted any content, that would be because I’ve been busy with school.

University isn’t like High School, especially if you have a job. Free time? What is this Free Time you speak of?

For the last several weeks, I’ve had moments where I’ve felt like I’ve been on a rocking boat while in fact I was sitting perfectly still on a perfectly still platform. I guess it would be because I’ve had to spend so much time at the library lately until late night studying and doing homework. I don’t think I’ve really done much studying, really homework.

I don’t like that I’m studying while doing homework, because it means I’m only learning what I need to know at that specific moment to do that homework.

I do not recommend this study routine. Because the information that I learn may be soon forgotten.

Problem is, Finals are coming up (next week), so I really need to study.

So, I might as well tell my Winter Semester story while I’m at it.

Classes

I am finishing Statistic 121, or Intro to Statistics.

I haven’t shown up to half the classes.
I’ve gone to none of the labs.
Most of it is review since I took AP Stats in high school

I am finishing CS 124, or Computer Systems

We had to use a 16 bit MSP430 device, which half the labs were with C or micro-architecture.

I’m glad I took this class. It removed a lot of the mystery behind computation speeds and the low-level things in general.

I also got to have fun with fixed point arithmetic! As opposed to floating point, which is incredibly slower.

I am finishing a class which you won’t be interested in hearing about.

I am finishing CS 236, or Discrete Logic / Mathematics

This class is by far the coolest class I have taken as of yet.

Now, you might not think that Finite State Machines, Grammars, Predicate Logic, or Graph Theory sounds all that cool.
That is… Unless you’ve seen situations where they apply so well.

I haven’t gotten a good score in this class. Although it consumes like 70% of my studying/homework time, and I’m deeply fascinated by the contents, I simply don’t have enough examples to go by to learn the materials in time before my homework.

I’ve done fine on the programming portion, It hasn’t been too mind bending.

Just that the homework asks us to extrapolate from the little content the slides have to offer. Sure, there are links to wikipedia on stuff like Depth First Searching, but we simply have not been exposed to various examples.
So, they might show us an undirected graph example.. Just one.. But then they’ll ask us to take a directed graph with a seemingly nonsensical prompt at some starting node, and combine that with  post-order numbers and some other things. And I’m like “The starting node is a terminating node! I can’t go anywhere!”

It is ridiculous. Then I have to wait until I get the answer key online (A few days later) and try to figure out how they got to the final result.

Also, as the teacher has admitted, they blew it when it came to grading things. So, a paper I turned in like a month ago? Still not graded. The last 6 assignments? Still not graded.
So.. its not like I can even get my old work back within a month to even figure out what my thought process was at the time..

Now, you might say “Surely you can look at your text book.” Yes, that would be true, except that this class was taught without one because the text book available has been deemed material not suited for teaching this class with.

So, if I had anything to say for this class, it would be that the

• TAs should not be using their TA time to work on their homework, and they should be grading the homework like their job position requires.
• A decent book should seriously be selected
• Supplementary materials, such as online video lectures would be really handy so to see the process step by step to figure out what the heck is going on.
• Although talking about previous homework in class would be nice, we got behind and we had to depend on the slides to figure things out.
• Really, this class should have a scheduled lab time for a weekly recap of the information at hand.
• I also think it should be worth more credits, and it deserves more class time. There’s just so much content.
• No class’s last assignment should say “If we had more time we would learn <this> and <this> and <that>, so this small concept test should suffice for now.”
• Get someone with an English minor or major that has a major or minor in CS (respectively) to write the questions. The battle should not be in tests or assignments to figure out what is being asked, but to show an understanding of how to solve or design to solve a problem or situation.
• Have more examples, like 3 or 4 for a given concept. Don’t expect us to figure out how to extrapolate from one single general and sometimes incomplete example, and then test us on a bunch of oddball edge cases that combine lots of other things. There are simply too many unknowns, not enough experience.
• I’ll say it again, there needs to be supplementary materials. Going over in class is fine and great while in class, but it doesn’t stick unless it is exposed multiple times, which there simply isn’t time for in class.

I really feel like I’ve been screwed over in this class, even though I like it so much.

That’s it for classes.

Work

If you didn’t know, I’m a web programmer for Campus Accommodations at my university.

This means that I work with

• Front end web design, page design, CSS, Javascript, etc.
• Back end web development
• Oracle Database
• VB.NET ASPX
• PHP (for a few in-house things)
• Existing Systems
• A few proprietary systems I’m not sure I can disclose, but have large license fees to use
• I don’t use them directly, but they have to do with financials

And of course, I work with code that others have written in the past.

Depending on who wrote it, I’ll either be glad or saddened.

So far since the start of this year my work has consisted of(not in order and likely incomplete)

• One small patch on a php-based kiosk system that prints sticky labels with bar codes
• Complete overhaul of the Meal Plan selection system
• Modifying the Housing selection for the new meal plans
• Correcting and validating the existing proration functions
• Adding features to a Task Management System that I made from the ground up for Conference Services
• In case you’re interested, its focus is that there may be an arbitrary amount of conferences with duties assigned to employees. These duties are time-sensitive and can be completed in a day, or have subtasks which can be completed atomically in their own days.
• Helped with a police investigation indirectly
• Helped solve 4 people that had inconsistent records which had their genders wrong (because the university allows people to change their user names, and then someone else uses the same one later, after already being a customer of us)
• That really caused some frustration…
• Two people had this issue before we found out about how to solve it. There were upset mothers.
• Some other things which I can’t remember off the top of my head. They add up, but are individually small.

Being a full time student and working a mentally challenging part time job is stressful and time consuming.

I am glad I work, though sometimes I’d like a break. I still wish I were payed more. My pay currently does not recognize the experience and training required for it.

Personal Projects

I do my own coding for my own projects, so far I haven’t found any one with the time or the will to take on ambitious projects with me. So I’ve worked by myself.

Which is unfortunate, because I am like 700% more effective with someone else around working on the same thing physically by me.

I do not think I could ever take on a telecommuting job.

So, what HAVE I done?

I would post a few of the timelapse videos I’ve done coding, but I’m not ready to disclose that right now.

I’m working on an engine, I was stumped for a good while on how I’ll even design my engine with the following technical features

1. Game Object modularity at runtime
2. Subsystem modularity at runtime
3. Inherent Scriptable support
4. Full control of the Rendering and physics pipeline, maybe even at runtime
5. Extensible Game-Agnostic Design
6. Complete Memory control at runtime.

So, how the heck can I do all that?

Even the Systems will be Component like.

Now, the concept is that there are Systems, and SubSystems.
SubSystems will be component like, such as Audio. I want to eventually support some relatively insane audio setups, from simple 2D, 3D, to even live dynamic specially aware systems that make a much richer experience. All which can be switched to and from in runtime.

Is it worth it to support this modularity? Well, to me its not a question, its part of my design where I want the application to be able to run without constraint, it can become anything later, whenever. Now I’m not trying to make an over-arching equivalent to a Content Management System.  What I am trying to do is provide myself with a robust workbench that can make whatever I want later.

Analogously, I don’t want to end up trying to cut out a perfect circle with a hand drill, but I’m not saying I will be making every shape of saw there exists. Though, continuing this analogy, I would make a desk mounted drill, which I can fashion my own cylindrical bit for and plug it in, and the result will be exactly what I want, without reinventing the drill, or a cylindrical saw.

I think I might break down my resources of design inspiration in a later post.

For now,