Seeing that I have all this time this weekend, I think I'll finally start working on a bit of web app design. I definitely need to start doing some more programming or development at home, but there are so many other things to do too! And also, exhaustion after work never helps either....
But with the joy of Jpop and the intensity of metal, I shall prevail!
(though, probably not.)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The End of a Meaningless Era
January 11th, 2007: The birth of Ubuntu Gusty Gibbon on my laptop. Instead of dual booting, I gave a half-hearted wave to Windows XP and dedicated my whole hard disk to Ubuntu. And my god, am I happy. No more hangs, when one program stalls, the others still run at regular speed. MY COMPUTER IS MAKING HAPPY SOUNDS (which means that just the fan is audible; hence no more grunts and grinding all the time). Sure it doesn't have the same robust software, and all the games found on Windows, but I've no need for either of those.
I forgot the name of the system that ties all of Windows' processes together, but that is the main reason of why I'm happy about the switch. Due to Windows' process management system, CPU dedication is given to the most "important" processes, and if they hang, so does everything else since all the processes are linked together. This is the fundamental flaw with Windows and it renders it completely inferior to popular UNIX based OS's. On Ubuntu, I've already had hangs with Firefox and Rhythmbox, but ALL OTHER PROCESSES RAN AT THE SAME SPEED. And I can easily kill the stopped programs in the terminal. In Windows, on the other hand, if Firefox froze, I'd have to kill it several times (for baffling, unknown reasons) and it usually resulted in system restarts. Anyway, due to that reason, I can't go back to Windows. Not until they change their process management...
By the way, for those who think computer crashes are normal:
They aren't. Reformat (if you really really love Windows or something), or just switch teams. Um... operating system teams, I mean. EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS. Plus, you can always dual boot (unless you hit unresolvable errors;) but reformatting would help that)
If Windows works for you, great; it's all about what works. But certainly for me, this is one decision I truly wish I made sooner.
Moving on...
In other news, I attended the last day CUSEC 2008 (Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering ...Convention?), which was fun and I got some interesting looks into different programming usage, but one talk I did appreciate the talk by CodingHorror.com's Jeff Atwood. He talked about the importance of writing about code instead of just coding, and putting importance on communication for computer science/software engineering students. I really find that to be a key issue, and kind of reminded me to start writing this blog again.
His points also reminding me that isn't about whose code is better, but whose code is most useful. Being in CS, we're told that optimization is key, but is it really? I think I'm better suited for software engineering if that's the case. Optimization is surely important and needed, but as CS students, we absolutely need to see the greater architecture of the software as a whole, and not just the code.
I forgot the name of the system that ties all of Windows' processes together, but that is the main reason of why I'm happy about the switch. Due to Windows' process management system, CPU dedication is given to the most "important" processes, and if they hang, so does everything else since all the processes are linked together. This is the fundamental flaw with Windows and it renders it completely inferior to popular UNIX based OS's. On Ubuntu, I've already had hangs with Firefox and Rhythmbox, but ALL OTHER PROCESSES RAN AT THE SAME SPEED. And I can easily kill the stopped programs in the terminal. In Windows, on the other hand, if Firefox froze, I'd have to kill it several times (for baffling, unknown reasons) and it usually resulted in system restarts. Anyway, due to that reason, I can't go back to Windows. Not until they change their process management...
By the way, for those who think computer crashes are normal:
They aren't. Reformat (if you really really love Windows or something), or just switch teams. Um... operating system teams, I mean. EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS. Plus, you can always dual boot (unless you hit unresolvable errors;) but reformatting would help that)
If Windows works for you, great; it's all about what works. But certainly for me, this is one decision I truly wish I made sooner.
Moving on...
In other news, I attended the last day CUSEC 2008 (Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering ...Convention?), which was fun and I got some interesting looks into different programming usage, but one talk I did appreciate the talk by CodingHorror.com's Jeff Atwood. He talked about the importance of writing about code instead of just coding, and putting importance on communication for computer science/software engineering students. I really find that to be a key issue, and kind of reminded me to start writing this blog again.
His points also reminding me that isn't about whose code is better, but whose code is most useful. Being in CS, we're told that optimization is key, but is it really? I think I'm better suited for software engineering if that's the case. Optimization is surely important and needed, but as CS students, we absolutely need to see the greater architecture of the software as a whole, and not just the code.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Those who can't do, teach.
And so my fate has been temporarily decided: If I enjoy programming enough, and find myself useful to others and what not, I shall set out in the job field in computer science. If not, I shall pursue higher studies with QUANTUMMMMMMMMM COMPUTTTTTTINGGGGGGG (reverb). That stuff sounds intense, and it's what the career advisors should have told me about before, as it combines so many fields I'm interested in. But moving a long to the main point:
I'm not an expert, but I am definitely considering writing an Intro to Programming/Programming Principles book. In Python. FOR THE MASSES. Why? Because computers shouldn't be so baffling to people (see The Daily WTF). Java, C++ (C especially), is complete gibberish to most people. What's a pointer? What's a variable? What... what... is that #! Q-Bert swear word doing there?!
Screw that stuff, it shouldn't be, and now isn't, that hard. We'll see how hard it is to explain when I start penning it down...
I'm not an expert, but I am definitely considering writing an Intro to Programming/Programming Principles book. In Python. FOR THE MASSES. Why? Because computers shouldn't be so baffling to people (see The Daily WTF). Java, C++ (C especially), is complete gibberish to most people. What's a pointer? What's a variable? What... what... is that #! Q-Bert swear word doing there?!
Screw that stuff, it shouldn't be, and now isn't, that hard. We'll see how hard it is to explain when I start penning it down...
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