Paper books are often useful (pretty pictures, reading code in the bathroom or in bed), but I'm on a student's ultra-tight budget, so I tend to prefer free electronic books whenever possible.
I'm from the Philippines. IT's being strongly pushed by our government and private sector. MIS and other computer-related courses are among the most popular majors in the universities, and the sheer number of technical colleges and institutes says much about how technology is valued in my country.
And in fact it seems that Filipinos have whole-heartedly embraced whatever technologies we have access to. We text (send SMS) more than any other country in the world. Although broadband Internet hasn't quite taken off yet, quite a lot of people have Internet access. Even the Catholic Church has gotten into the action with CBCPnet, its ISP.
Something to think about - many observe that we have a culture of consumerism. The large shopping malls that dominate our landscape stand in stark contrast to the rest of the metropolis. <wry grin> Instead of creating new things, we customize and adapt other people's stuff. Repackage software, maintain systems. <shrug>
This has affected our local industries. We lose a lot of talent - the much-lamented brain drain of computer professionals to richer countries like the United States and Canada that appear to have more opportunities for advancement and growth.
I'll probably post more when I get past all of this work - finals week coming up. =)
I've wanted to make my own keyboard for quite a
while now. One of my friends told me about a nifty
split-apart keyboard - two separate pieces, not just
a Microsoft Natural ergnomic-type keyboard - and
I think that would be really fun to work with.
He says it can attach to the armrests of a chair. I haven't been able to find it anywhere, though,
so I wonder if I can make one of those.
It seems.. intimidatingly complicated. Has anyone
tried making a custom keyboard before? I took apart a couple of keyboards a while back, but the circuitry looked a bit complicated. I'd really appreciate stories, advice, whatever. =)
Syncing with web-based groupware would be a very useful thing, but unfortunately most open-source apps don't really take PDAs into account yet. Maybe if you donated some units to the developers.. |)
More solutions will likely come out for the Palm, especially since the Palm programming faqs explain how to create conduits (programs that can interact with the data on your Palm). From there it should be a bit of work to get it to talk to a web server, or any other app for that matter.
Too bad PocketPC isn't that easy to fiddle around with - I won a Jornada in one of the HP contests and I've been trying to find out how to sync it with pine. Waah!
If you browse through the SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net)
listings, you'll find that many of the projects there are in planning or alpha stage, and there's always a need for good programmers. =)
Lots of people are trying to do lots of things. Instead of reinventing the wheel - or working on something by yourself - why don't you try going through some of the more promising projects, read the source code, get up to speed on it, that sort of thing? That way you can take advantage of all the work other people have done. |-) You don't have to start from scratch.
Then again, starting your own project does have its merits.
Oh, that's just mean. I happen to really like using Google, and for them to deprive the Net of such an incredibly useful service because they patented indexing...
I won a Jornada in an HP-sponsored contest and it's been _really_ helpful. Some of my friends also take notes on Palms. Compared to a full-size notebook, it's less conspicuous - a concern especially when many of your classmates don't have access to the same technology. Teachers might also be disturbed by too overt use of technology (you may be playing Hearts, for all they know! =) ). So a PDA's small enough to not attract a lot of attention. Besides, some labs don't allow user-owned computers inside, although PDAs are OK.
Handwriting recognition - enhanced with programs like Transcriber, which I use on my Jornada - are a great plus, especially since touch-typing is difficult when the keyboard is much smaller than normal keyboards. I don't have room in my budget for one of those fancy folding or flexible keyboards, and tapping the tiny keys on my screen can be difficult when I'm trying to pay attention to the teacher. Being able to look at the board or at the teacher during the lecture really helps me comprehend the notes I'm taking. =)
I can sketch on my screen, and I carry around pad paper for the more complicated figures, labelling them with [Fig N] and referencing them in my notes.
After the day's classes, I usually go over my notes, tidying them up and formatting them for sharing on our groupware system. We use LearnLoop (http://www.learnloop.org) to share our files - it's a cool system. =)
Using a PDA to take notes makes more sense to me than typing my notes up after class, although the latter would help me review better. =) Sure, data entry's a bit slower, but being able to edit my notes - I take notes in a rather non-linear fashion =) - is one of the things I really like about using my PDA.
"The idea is to have a totally autonomous swarm you can send out to explore multiple bodies,"
Sending tiny probes (only a kilogram each!) to check out the asteroid belt - could be prone to problems like big rocks smashing into them, or space anteaters.. Still, very good idea, especially since only by carpet-bombing the asteriod belt will you get the exploration done in reasonable time. Those are a lot of rocks to explore!
Once there, 100 ruler and messenger "ants" would look on, guiding operations, as the 900 or so worker probes did the bulk of the work.
Pretty good - one manager to 9 workers, unlike the normal ratio of one queen ant to one gazillion workers..
It'd be nice to see what happens with this social-animal experiment: very different from NASA's usual put-everything-on-a-huge-spacecraft/station approach. Hope it works.
Looks like a perfect opportunity to adhere to the following RFCs:
RFC2325 - Slavitch - 1 Apr 1998 Definitions of Managed Objects
for Drip-Type Heated Beverage
Hardware Devices using SMIv2
This memo defines an extension to the Management Information Base (MIB)
for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In
particular, it defines objects for the management of coffee-brewing and
maintenance devices.
RFC2324 - Masinter - 1 Apr 1998 Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0)
This document describes HTCPCP, a protocol for controlling, monitoring,
and diagnosing coffee pots.
Wow. Science fiction writers would be happy.
on
Pushing The Envelope
·
· Score: 2
This stuff is pretty wild - just took a look at the magsail, and suddenly I think of windsurfing..
'Course I can't just walk into a job and become a hotshot. Goodness. You guys have years of industry experience, you've figured out how to work in Real World Groups and according to the Real World Rules, and you've got plenty of domain knowledge. Fresh out of college, how could I hold a candle to that?
So if I went into the industry, I'd like to start off small. Maintaining someone else's code - good code, so I get a feel of the coding standards and what good programming practices there are. Ideally a pair-programming thing, too, and mentorship. Doing little bits of code - the grunt work - so that the talented and experienced developers can spend their valuable time on something else.
Then I'll graduate to working on bigger pieces of the puzzle. Maybe working on a different project. Finding or making something that will make life easier for everyone.
After that, I can move on to training the next person in line.=)
I've had to help other people with really ugly code, and I'm currently going over the source code for something without being able to talk to the developers. Lots of redundanct code and inconsistent spacing - my progress is slow, but I'm gradually understanding enough of the application to clean up the code a little. So I take pains to make my own code neat. (It helps me debug and do code reviews, too. =) )
I know there's a tendency for fresh grads to overengineer stuff. I try to avoid kludges whenever possible - it just makes things harder to maintain. However, I do follow the principle of The Simplest Thing That Works - so I won't use fancy data structures when a simple array will do the job efficiently.;) I don't have a compulsion to apply _everything_ I learned in class - just a need to keep learning something new. =)
And I hate reinventing the wheel. I'm lazy - I always look for stuff I can reuse, perhaps modify a little to make it fit better. <impish grin> That's why open source software is so terrific. =) I've found a couple of tools, like a mailing list manager, an IRC proxy and an online collaborative environment, that our organization has found useful. They have maaaany more features than I would have the time to implement, and they fit our needs.
I'll still be careful about the traps you mentioned. Anything else I should look out for?
Sort of the same, except I started a little bit earlier - my sister was taking up Pascal but wouldn't teach me, so I took the liberty of going through the online help and all the books. I still do all the course work and the assignments, even those that I'm not supposed to do. It's pretty fun, and it's easier to help your classmates understand that way. I've also been taking some advanced classes (my CS department is _soooo_ nice! =) ), and although that usually means that I end up with the seniors and juniors, they haven't given me a hard time about being a bit advanced.
If you don't get any interviews just because you're an hour and a half away, then I'm probably going to face a significant problem. =) I'm willing to relocate anywhere (as long as the living conditions are nice - no war-torn areas, please, I've had enough of chaos at home). That's also why I can consider schools anywhere on the world - last I checked, a few universities in Sweden and Australia were actively doing research in computer science education. It's far, and a completely different environment, but I think I should be able to adapt. =)
Real-world experience is definitely necessary. Does working on open-source stuff count? I also help train other people around here - I even get to help some of the graduate students with C++ and Linux from time to time - so maybe that's a plus. What other things should I work on? =)
Wow, someone in this thread who actually didn't think I was a money-grubbing, greedy foreign worker intent on stealing everyone's jobs!
Goodness - if I were in it for the money, do you think I'd even _consider_ teaching? It's not exactly the best-paid profession. Besides.. I really want to do open-source, which also means I probably won't make B1G BUCK$ from some <ahem> proprietary products...
I'm in computer science because I love working with computers and I want to make people's lives easier. I know a lot of people get into it because of all the hype and the money that could be made, but I've been into computers ever since I used my first Apple IIe (one of the first few things I could remember..), and I really love it. =)
Hey, sure thing! I keep asking my friends to go and introduce me to geeks - it's surprisingly hard to find other people as into computers and programming as I am, people don't mind chatting about science and algorithms and optimizations over lunch.
Although I wouldn't really call other people arrogant know-nothings.. =) It's just that I like the mental stimulation that comes from interacting with other geeks. <g>
We don't really have a strong research program at our university yet - computer
science students aren't required to do senior theses, and our faculty's mostly made up
of BS or MS graduates, with a handful of PhDs. Undergraduate research in CS is the exception
rather than the rule, which is why I need guidance from people in other universities with
more established research programs. I've talked to some of the professors and they said we just
don't have a "research culture" yet, so I'd like to know how to go about setting that up. =)
Still, one of the things I like about my university is that the faculty's really flexible
and approachable - they're encouraging me to pursue this interest of mine, and our department
head will even let me take psych/ed units for my major electives.
There must be some way to fill in the holes and improve the research environment in my
university, just in time for me - and other students who might be planning to pursue research -
to reap its benefits. =) Sure, it's a selfish little thing, but I need the foundation.
So, does anyone have any suggestions for setting up an undergraduate research program in
computer science?
I'm looking for assistantships for graduate school - I'd love to get
that teaching experience, and the financial aid will definitely help. So
in order to get into a good graduate program, I should focus on the research
aspect now.
I can take some time off between graduate and
postgraduate studies in order to check out my research in the Real World, and I
might find some new things to work on as well. Since I want to focus on computer
science education and programmer productivity, this has immediate advantages
for companies no matter what kind of applications they develop. Thanks for the great
advice!
Great advice! =) One of my friends encouraged me to play with all the
APIs of Java, so I could be exposed to a lot of different types of
projects and technologies. And at the organization that I'm a volunteer
software developer for, they're allowing me to explore different areas - I'm
the database admin, but they're planning to give me a sort-of project manager
role as well, so I get to work on my people skills too.
I'll remember not to be tied down to any one thing that might become obsolete -
I always have to keep learning something new in order to be even more useful.
Contract programming is useful, but still, there's not much future development in it - you
contract for a specific project, and that's it. There's no mutual investment and support.
I like the idea of mentorships, of companies investing in people in order to develop them
to become more effective, and of their employees likewise investing in the company in order
to be of use. I know that I could develop myself on my own - I read a lot, and I can pick
up experience on contracts and open-source projects - but I also know that guidance
would be really, really beneficial.
An internship that would take me to the US or to other countries is useful in quite a few ways -
(a) there are plenty of interesting and innovative projects to work on,
(b) I'd get around the disadvantages of telecommuting, which are many and varied, (c) I'd
get to interact with a lot of people, (d) I'm closer to all the conferences and conventions,
and (d) it's a whole different culture/environment/whatever.
Face-to-face meetings are definitely useful - it's fun to talk about algorithms and discuss
programs over lunch, and there's nothing better for quickly resolving ambiguities.
Hmm.. Working on open-source projects addresses the meeting-and-interacting-with-other-geeks,
so it's also a viable option.
It's great to hear that you're doing that, and thanks for your encouragement. =)
I'm definitely planning to help improve the way computer science is being taught
in the Philippines and other countries. I know that my university is relatively
better off than most schools here - there are a lot of technical schools that
only teach the use of applications! - but there's still a lot of room for improvement.
Hopefully, by learning and improving on the different ways that people teach - and learn -
computer science, I can spread those 'best practices' to universities here and
abroad.
Definitely, I'll choose to do what I love, knowing that everything else will follow. No
need to worry about whether or not I should chase the money - if I do what I love and I'm
good at it, the compensations - monetary or otherwise - will follow. And since
I'm into this long-range planning, I'd like to do things that bring me closer to achieving
my long-term goals, like making a significant contribution to computer science. =) (And
computer science doesn't just mean theoretical computer science, mind you..)
Slashdot Mirror
I find that Hogan Books (http://hoganbooks.com/freebook/webbooks.html) lists quite a lot of free books on the Web. The search engine makes it even more useful.
Many of the entries come from InformIT (http://www.informit.com/), which has a pretty good free library.
Then there's the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.linuxdoc.org) for Linux-specific things.
Of course there's also all the other documentation on the Net. Search engines are wonderful.
Not quite computer-related but also worth checking out are Project Gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg/), the Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/index.html) and the UPenn Digital Library (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/lists.html ). Mostly classics and other things whose copyrights have expired, but you have a couple of new books here too. General reading material - bookworm fare. =)
Yes, I know, you were looking for paper copies, and a lot of interesting information isn't available online. But it's worth checking out anyway. =)
And in fact it seems that Filipinos have whole-heartedly embraced whatever technologies we have access to. We text (send SMS) more than any other country in the world. Although broadband Internet hasn't quite taken off yet, quite a lot of people have Internet access. Even the Catholic Church has gotten into the action with CBCPnet, its ISP.
Something to think about - many observe that we have a culture of consumerism. The large shopping malls that dominate our landscape stand in stark contrast to the rest of the metropolis. <wry grin> Instead of creating new things, we customize and adapt other people's stuff. Repackage software, maintain systems. <shrug>
This has affected our local industries. We lose a lot of talent - the much-lamented brain drain of computer professionals to richer countries like the United States and Canada that appear to have more opportunities for advancement and growth.
I'll probably post more when I get past all of this work - finals week coming up. =)
It seems.. intimidatingly complicated. Has anyone tried making a custom keyboard before? I took apart a couple of keyboards a while back, but the circuitry looked a bit complicated. I'd really appreciate stories, advice, whatever. =)
More solutions will likely come out for the Palm, especially since the Palm programming faqs explain how to create conduits (programs that can interact with the data on your Palm). From there it should be a bit of work to get it to talk to a web server, or any other app for that matter.
Too bad PocketPC isn't that easy to fiddle around with - I won a Jornada in one of the HP contests and I've been trying to find out how to sync it with pine. Waah!
Lots of people are trying to do lots of things. Instead of reinventing the wheel - or working on something by yourself - why don't you try going through some of the more promising projects, read the source code, get up to speed on it, that sort of thing? That way you can take advantage of all the work other people have done. |-) You don't have to start from scratch.
Then again, starting your own project does have its merits.
Besides, the themes are pretty cute. I like Google's interface - Altavista's just too crowded. |)
BitLaw (http://www.bitlaw.com/) has some resources on patent law, but I'm still confused.
Handwriting recognition - enhanced with programs like Transcriber, which I use on my Jornada - are a great plus, especially since touch-typing is difficult when the keyboard is much smaller than normal keyboards. I don't have room in my budget for one of those fancy folding or flexible keyboards, and tapping the tiny keys on my screen can be difficult when I'm trying to pay attention to the teacher. Being able to look at the board or at the teacher during the lecture really helps me comprehend the notes I'm taking. =)
I can sketch on my screen, and I carry around pad paper for the more complicated figures, labelling them with [Fig N] and referencing them in my notes.
After the day's classes, I usually go over my notes, tidying them up and formatting them for sharing on our groupware system. We use LearnLoop (http://www.learnloop.org) to share our files - it's a cool system. =)
Using a PDA to take notes makes more sense to me than typing my notes up after class, although the latter would help me review better. =) Sure, data entry's a bit slower, but being able to edit my notes - I take notes in a rather non-linear fashion =) - is one of the things I really like about using my PDA.
Sending tiny probes (only a kilogram each!) to check out the asteroid belt - could be prone to problems like big rocks smashing into them, or space anteaters.. Still, very good idea, especially since only by carpet-bombing the asteriod belt will you get the exploration done in reasonable time. Those are a lot of rocks to explore!
Pretty good - one manager to 9 workers, unlike the normal ratio of one queen ant to one gazillion workers..
It'd be nice to see what happens with this social-animal experiment: very different from NASA's usual put-everything-on-a-huge-spacecraft/station approach. Hope it works.
URL's correct, title isn't - that's SourceForge, no second U. Sorry 'bout that - thought I previewed, didn't proofread well enough.
Wander over to http://sourcefourge.net - tons of projects, and people post help-wanted classifieds, too. =)
Definitions of Managed Objects for Drip-Type Heated Beverage Hardware Devices using SMIv2
This memo defines an extension to the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it defines objects for the management of coffee-brewing and maintenance devices.
Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0)
This document describes HTCPCP, a protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots.
This stuff is pretty wild - just took a look at the magsail, and suddenly I think of windsurfing..
So if I went into the industry, I'd like to start off small. Maintaining someone else's code - good code, so I get a feel of the coding standards and what good programming practices there are. Ideally a pair-programming thing, too, and mentorship. Doing little bits of code - the grunt work - so that the talented and experienced developers can spend their valuable time on something else.
Then I'll graduate to working on bigger pieces of the puzzle. Maybe working on a different project. Finding or making something that will make life easier for everyone.
After that, I can move on to training the next person in line.=)
I've had to help other people with really ugly code, and I'm currently going over the source code for something without being able to talk to the developers. Lots of redundanct code and inconsistent spacing - my progress is slow, but I'm gradually understanding enough of the application to clean up the code a little. So I take pains to make my own code neat. (It helps me debug and do code reviews, too. =) )
I know there's a tendency for fresh grads to overengineer stuff. I try to avoid kludges whenever possible - it just makes things harder to maintain. However, I do follow the principle of The Simplest Thing That Works - so I won't use fancy data structures when a simple array will do the job efficiently. ;) I don't have a compulsion to apply _everything_ I learned in class - just a need to keep learning something new. =)
And I hate reinventing the wheel. I'm lazy - I always look for stuff I can reuse, perhaps modify a little to make it fit better. <impish grin> That's why open source software is so terrific. =) I've found a couple of tools, like a mailing list manager, an IRC proxy and an online collaborative environment, that our organization has found useful. They have maaaany more features than I would have the time to implement, and they fit our needs.
I'll still be careful about the traps you mentioned. Anything else I should look out for?
Hey, why am _I_ saying this? I'm 17 - shouldn't I just be thinking about fashion, what's going to happen tomorrow, what cool movies I should watch?
Just my luck to be a geek. <impish grin>
Okay, these are the assumptions I'm making about 2.5 years into the future:
Is valid, no?
If you don't get any interviews just because you're an hour and a half away, then I'm probably going to face a significant problem. =) I'm willing to relocate anywhere (as long as the living conditions are nice - no war-torn areas, please, I've had enough of chaos at home). That's also why I can consider schools anywhere on the world - last I checked, a few universities in Sweden and Australia were actively doing research in computer science education. It's far, and a completely different environment, but I think I should be able to adapt. =)
Real-world experience is definitely necessary. Does working on open-source stuff count? I also help train other people around here - I even get to help some of the graduate students with C++ and Linux from time to time - so maybe that's a plus. What other things should I work on? =)
Goodness - if I were in it for the money, do you think I'd even _consider_ teaching? It's not exactly the best-paid profession. Besides.. I really want to do open-source, which also means I probably won't make B1G BUCK$ from some <ahem> proprietary products...
I'm in computer science because I love working with computers and I want to make people's lives easier. I know a lot of people get into it because of all the hype and the money that could be made, but I've been into computers ever since I used my first Apple IIe (one of the first few things I could remember..), and I really love it. =)
Although I wouldn't really call other people arrogant know-nothings.. =) It's just that I like the mental stimulation that comes from interacting with other geeks. <g>
Still, one of the things I like about my university is that the faculty's really flexible and approachable - they're encouraging me to pursue this interest of mine, and our department head will even let me take psych/ed units for my major electives.
There must be some way to fill in the holes and improve the research environment in my university, just in time for me - and other students who might be planning to pursue research - to reap its benefits. =) Sure, it's a selfish little thing, but I need the foundation.
So, does anyone have any suggestions for setting up an undergraduate research program in computer science?
I can take some time off between graduate and postgraduate studies in order to check out my research in the Real World, and I might find some new things to work on as well. Since I want to focus on computer science education and programmer productivity, this has immediate advantages for companies no matter what kind of applications they develop. Thanks for the great advice!
I'll remember not to be tied down to any one thing that might become obsolete - I always have to keep learning something new in order to be even more useful.
Contract programming is useful, but still, there's not much future development in it - you contract for a specific project, and that's it. There's no mutual investment and support. I like the idea of mentorships, of companies investing in people in order to develop them to become more effective, and of their employees likewise investing in the company in order to be of use. I know that I could develop myself on my own - I read a lot, and I can pick up experience on contracts and open-source projects - but I also know that guidance would be really, really beneficial.
Face-to-face meetings are definitely useful - it's fun to talk about algorithms and discuss programs over lunch, and there's nothing better for quickly resolving ambiguities.
Hmm.. Working on open-source projects addresses the meeting-and-interacting-with-other-geeks, so it's also a viable option.
I'm definitely planning to help improve the way computer science is being taught in the Philippines and other countries. I know that my university is relatively better off than most schools here - there are a lot of technical schools that only teach the use of applications! - but there's still a lot of room for improvement. Hopefully, by learning and improving on the different ways that people teach - and learn - computer science, I can spread those 'best practices' to universities here and abroad.
Definitely, I'll choose to do what I love, knowing that everything else will follow. No need to worry about whether or not I should chase the money - if I do what I love and I'm good at it, the compensations - monetary or otherwise - will follow. And since I'm into this long-range planning, I'd like to do things that bring me closer to achieving my long-term goals, like making a significant contribution to computer science. =) (And computer science doesn't just mean theoretical computer science, mind you..)