27 May 2011
I got a 56%, having done about an hour of revision for the Networks module that I took earlier in April. I owe it to the better learning strategy that I’ve been using this year, trying to understand and learn the material first time around, and using more holistic techniques, like forcing myself to be able to explain concepts to people. It’s kind of sad that past-paper style revision just works better and that everyone around me seems to encourage it. At least for this one, I agree that the content is too basic to be of practical use and maybe it is only the grade that matters. But I’m annoyed at the fact that it worked out okay for me. I’m going against everything that people have told me about hard work and I’ve just been a lazy shit over the Spring break, and then actually getting away with it somewhat.

I got a 56%, having done about an hour of revision for the Networks module that I took earlier in April.

I owe it to the better learning strategy that I’ve been using this year, trying to understand and learn the material first time around, and using more holistic techniques, like forcing myself to be able to explain concepts to people.

It’s kind of sad that past-paper style revision just works better and that everyone around me seems to encourage it. At least for this one, I agree that the content is too basic to be of practical use and maybe it is only the grade that matters.

But I’m annoyed at the fact that it worked out okay for me. I’m going against everything that people have told me about hard work and I’ve just been a lazy shit over the Spring break, and then actually getting away with it somewhat.

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/5954957961/2DMjRviu2
14 May 2011
And after weeks of only having the motivation, I now also have the time. There’s actually a huge list of things I’ve been putting off, but I at least want to work through these programming ones: Adobe Flash. I’ve always wanted to be able to use this, at first just for animation, but now to create a game. I don’t know what’s stopped me every time in the last 10 years… maybe it’s because of the stupid number of ways to do things and the huge disconnect between work and output. It’s amazing that I haven’t learned how to use a new program in years now, and it’s kind of scary now that I’ve lost my childhood capacity to just pick things up immediately. OpenGL/CGV. Taking on the hardware strand and being abroad next year means that I’ll be missing out on one of the more interesting courses. Graphics is maths-y and I don’t know whether I can pick up a 20 credit course in my spare time, but I don’t want to be left so far behind everyone else. Prolog/LPA. This one’s not really a hobby thing, but I need to invest some time to get comfortable with Prolog just for the sake of passing the course. The language just isn’t intuitive to me and I probably will never touch it again, but the idea of not being to grasp something bugs me. webOS. I’m being a hypocrite telling kids that mobile app development is a brilliant way to start of programming when I haven’t even tried it myself. There’s a huge list of things that webOS is really missing — even a basic countdown timer — and though I don’t intend to make a profit, the niche is still there. We’ll see.

And after weeks of only having the motivation, I now also have the time. There’s actually a huge list of things I’ve been putting off, but I at least want to work through these programming ones:

  1. Adobe Flash. I’ve always wanted to be able to use this, at first just for animation, but now to create a game. I don’t know what’s stopped me every time in the last 10 years… maybe it’s because of the stupid number of ways to do things and the huge disconnect between work and output. It’s amazing that I haven’t learned how to use a new program in years now, and it’s kind of scary now that I’ve lost my childhood capacity to just pick things up immediately.
  2. OpenGL/CGV. Taking on the hardware strand and being abroad next year means that I’ll be missing out on one of the more interesting courses. Graphics is maths-y and I don’t know whether I can pick up a 20 credit course in my spare time, but I don’t want to be left so far behind everyone else.
  3. Prolog/LPA. This one’s not really a hobby thing, but I need to invest some time to get comfortable with Prolog just for the sake of passing the course. The language just isn’t intuitive to me and I probably will never touch it again, but the idea of not being to grasp something bugs me.
  4. webOS. I’m being a hypocrite telling kids that mobile app development is a brilliant way to start of programming when I haven’t even tried it myself. There’s a huge list of things that webOS is really missing — even a basic countdown timer — and though I don’t intend to make a profit, the niche is still there.

We’ll see.

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/5478350341/2DMjRviu2
7 May 2011
I’m actually enjoying myself on this project, even though it’s a painful. Parts of what we’re handing in are utter garbage: that so much is just copied and pasted (which is why we’re heading towards the wrong side of 200 pages), or how the above quoted paragraph can slip in to represent 9% of the grade (granted, we shouldn’t have left it this late to think about). Maybe this is unfair: even I’m knowingly committing work that I can see glaring errors in… they all probably think I just play around in Visio, aligning connections and not doing any actual work. The worst thing is that the others are in agreement against me on an issue that would probably win us our marks back. TSP is part of the software engineering strand, and even though it’s composed of the how, the backbone has always been about why it’s done that way. I think the biggest error we’re making is handing in a model full of errors, and a half-assed QA procedure that says our system is wonderful, rather one that’s thorough and super critical. The negative slant, realising that a crap solution is crap, has got to be worth more — both in marks and in the real world. But yeah, I’m keeping my head down and just getting on with it. The project annoys me because there’s no room to get things wrong. No way can you expect *anyone* to hammer out a decent system in a week. I’m so glad it’s becoming a longer, fuller module in the future, though. Revised prediction: 4-6th 1st — Team 14 2nd — Team 7  3rd — Team 11

I’m actually enjoying myself on this project, even though it’s a painful. Parts of what we’re handing in are utter garbage: that so much is just copied and pasted (which is why we’re heading towards the wrong side of 200 pages), or how the above quoted paragraph can slip in to represent 9% of the grade (granted, we shouldn’t have left it this late to think about). Maybe this is unfair: even I’m knowingly committing work that I can see glaring errors in… they all probably think I just play around in Visio, aligning connections and not doing any actual work.

The worst thing is that the others are in agreement against me on an issue that would probably win us our marks back. TSP is part of the software engineering strand, and even though it’s composed of the how, the backbone has always been about why it’s done that way. I think the biggest error we’re making is handing in a model full of errors, and a half-assed QA procedure that says our system is wonderful, rather one that’s thorough and super critical. The negative slant, realising that a crap solution is crap, has got to be worth more — both in marks and in the real world.

But yeah, I’m keeping my head down and just getting on with it. The project annoys me because there’s no room to get things wrong. No way can you expect *anyone* to hammer out a decent system in a week. I’m so glad it’s becoming a longer, fuller module in the future, though.

Revised prediction: 4-6th
1st — Team 14
2nd — Team 7 
3rd — Team 11

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/5418796023/2DMjRviu2