Tag Archives: computer science

2B||!2B

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Always returns true, durr.

Anyway, I realized I hadn’t put up any appraisal of what I took for the last few terms (so 2A coop, 2B, and 2B coop, hence 2B hurr hurr hurr), so instead of studying, I will do that now.

ECON 102: Introduction to Macroeconomics (Smith)

I took this during my 2A coop term. Larry Smith is super-duper entertaining. In addition to that, it was nice that he incorporated economic happenings from the real world as they happened. I regret not being in Waterloo for his commentary in Fall 2008 when the financial crisis became too big to ignore and Obama was elected. An excellent introduction to macroeconomics.

LS 101: Introduction to Legal Studies (DE)

I took this during my 2B coop term through distance education. Nothing special here, just a course that goes through the basics of law in Canada. Pretty easy, what with one paper and one final and no effort put into either netting me a very good mark. I guess if you suck at writing, you shouldn’t take it?

CS 240: Data Structures and Data Management (Chinaei)

Not a terrible prof, but I bought CLRS, so I wasn’t missing too much.

CS 246: Software Abstraction and Specification (Davis)

Again, not terrible, but the course was just C++, obscure UML details, memorizing design patterns, and long tedious assignments.

CS 251: Computer Organization and Design (Cowan)

I’m not a fan of low-level stuff and this was pretty much the lowest-level course that CS has. I already took SE 141, so that saved me for the first half of the course, but the second half seemed like obscure architecture details. It didn’t help that the prof liked to go on long tangents, both in lecture and on assignments.

STAT 230: Probability (Chisholm)

I wasn’t in her section, but I went to one class with the prof that I was supposed to have and never went back. I hate statistics, but she was a really good prof and made it bearable.

PMATH 345: Rings, Polynomials, and Finite Fields (McKinnon)

This was my favourite course of the term. Of course, this was also my hardest course, and I pretty much got destroyed. But I loved the course content. And the prof was awesome too. It might be my favourite course I’ve taken so far. Of course, it’d be my lowest mark too. Go figure.

Plugging the webs together

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So I’ve decided that web development isn’t for me and I can see why everyone has a fairly negative view of web development.

I tried to keep an open mind when applying for jobs last term and ended up working at a web development studio. I went through about a week or two of mindless work, doing tasks that really should be scripted. Then, I went through another week or so of learning new technologies that I’d need to know to work on development. So I managed to finally get around to having a look at Flex, PHP, JSP, and get a better understanding of JavaScript, which was a surprisingly interesting language.

After that I began to get smaller development projects, which consisted of adding some sort of functionality in some existing site. It was at this point that I realized that all web programming was was gluing various objects together and sticking a smidgeon of simple logic in between. In other words, I’d gotten into the type of development I so desperately tried to avoid.

But I guess I understand now what it was that I was so interested in. When I have nothing to do, I like to think about myself all meta-like. I thought that I was interested in web development and it turned out I wasn’t. I was really into web standards though, what with the XHTML and CSS and the whole semantic web and separating structure and view.

It turns out I was interested in languages. I’m far more interested in XHTML and understanding its uses and purpose than actually writing it. The most interesting technology I learned was JavaScript, when I learned that it was a functional programming language and I went off to play around with it and learn more about functional programming. I was far more interested in learning the design philosophy and architecture behind Flex than learning how to throw some buttons on a page.

So, note to self: don’t get a job programming for businesses.