Post for week of 25th April

We are on the final week for this project. We implemented the search last iteration and simply need to put the finishing touches on it and the login system. I worked more on SMP to try to optimize it a bit....I ran into a bug and it was going to be too much trouble. The speedup only netted about a 30% increase in performance. I think I'm starting to catch a cold...I hope it doesn't get too bad. We went over a lot of the refactorings this week. The factory pattern was pretty interesting. Out test is next week, so I'm hoping to have time to study for it while I'm getting other things done. I have a major project due next week. After this coming week, I'll be about 90% done. I only have one more test...I can't wait to graduate.

blog post for week of 19th of April

Hello good readers. I skipped a class this week. My truancy, though, is highly irregular...like bad Chinese food...stops up the bowels. Anyway...on to more palatable discussions. We watched more presentations this week, and I only failed one quiz. I feel so happy!! Our presentation fell victim to google down-time. Just as the proud Jean Claude visage was to beam brilliantly upon the glowing projection screen, instead there appeared a warning in testimony to the fallacious state of google resources. That's what happens when you put too much trust into 3rd party hosting services. I would have preferred to host the site on our own machine. If I get some more free time, I will play around with configuring such an environment. I wonder if the google appengine can be configured to broadcast from a remote location?

blog for the week of April 12th

Hello fellow bloggers...I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I'm still failing quizes...I put up a valiant effort on Friday...but to no avail...I fear I may have failed that one as well. I will keep fighting the good fight...hopefully one day I will deliver up to the quiz its comeuppance. We are doing a little supplemental unit for SQL...mySQL specifically. It's been an interesting little digression into the 'language' but I don't think we are going to go into too much depth. Our project has been going well. We have added lots of glitz to improve the presentation for the benefit of our ever eagerly awaiting fans. JCVD is GOD!!!!!!!!

Post for the week of April 5th

This previous week wasn't so bad. I mainly failed quizes and listened to presentations of other groups as they sought to further expound upon what was an as yet unexplored means to construct our common electronic conceit. Two groups decided to make use of the django libraries...we have made significant inroads to a similar effect. While not totally utilizing the libraries, we use the templating utility to enable greater flexibility in our efforts to create an ever more perfect electronic description of our TA matching utility. Our next step is to implement the automated matching function. This task may be harder than it seemed in our first contemplation. It is my wish for swift termination to our labor. While initially interesting, the project seems to have taken on a much(although more manageable due to django templating) scope...this has somehow diminished the nascent luster it exuded when it first began to bud. Perhaps I'm projecting frustration that originates from without the context of the project.

Post for week of 29th March

This was a pretty good week. I had plenty of projects and tests to take care of. We have started presentations for the projects. It seems that two of the groups are building projects that show competence that could only have been obtained by prior knowledge of python/google toolkits. We have been working hard with our project, but I'm not sure if we will ever have as polished of a website as it seems these two groups are capable of constructing. Our group has commited to becoming more adept with the django framework. We are going to meet next week to discuss which aspects of the framework we want to use.

Post for week of 22nd March

Hello my excellent readers!!! I know that everyone has missed Dave...but, please understand that Dave has been busy with all sorts of silly stuff. The extent to which Dave has been working is more easily understood in terms of continuity than of volume. In short, Dave needs a vacation. However, Dave did do well on the test...so Dave is very comfortable with his grade so far. But, the quizes are an evasive target for Dave. He simply can't guess what will be covered on the quizes, and thus he can imagine that they secretly, and gleefully, snicker at Dave's seeming ineptitude. At first thought, the reader may infer that Dave has resolved himself to lackluster grades on the quizes...but Dave, in fact, conspires to ensure their eventual comeuppance. Dave shall smite their ruin upon the mountainside, and Dave shall proclaim that it is good. All readers should take note of Dave's resolve and they should despair.

Post for the week of March 9th

This blog is a bit belated. This was the final week before spring break...a break I really needed. Glenn had us do work on the project over the break. I found this a little annoying since I already had plenty to do over the break. I moved into my house and I had to work over the break. We made a lot of progress on the project. All of our forms are in mostly finalized condition. We merely have to formalize our specification and construct more complete unit tests. We have a test coming up this Friday, and I'm not very prepared. I'm hoping that I can get time to study on Thursday because I'm going to be very busy for the rest of the time.

Post for the week of March 2nd

I almost forgot to make this entry...I finished installing SVN web-access on my home system. It was a bit harder than I thought it was going to be. The server is simple to set up, but you have to set it up very precisely. All the configuration files had to be syntax-error free. After a lot of trouble shooting, I was finally able to get the configuration just right. I learned a lot about the svn service. It's very convenient and pretty easy to work with. We're hoping to get a head start with the project so that we won't be too busy later when it's due. I've set up our group webPage...so all the group members can correspond with each other easily. I'm pretty confident that we have a good arrangement. We will meet this Wednesday.

Weekly blog for week of Feb. 22nd

The class seems to be going smoothly. We are almost done studying the python language and it looks like we will be starting on the major project for the class soon. I'm hoping that we don't have to work on the project, too much, during the spring break interval. The TA still hasn't finished grading our third project. I prefer to get my grades sooner rather than later so that I can dispute the grades if warranted. Also, so that I can see what I did wrong. We have already finished the 4th project. It didn't seem to be quite as difficult as I first thought it was going to be. I'm starting a new job(part-time) on Tuesday, so I also hope that I will still have plenty of time to do my work. I'm working on the SVN blog, but the configuration is a little tougher than I first thought it was going to be. I'm hoping to get most of it figured out by next weekend and then by spring break if I can't get it done on the weekend.

week of Feb. 15th

This week has been a bit stressful. We have a project do Sunday that describes the way they vote down under. It's a pretty cool project but it was completed under a great deal of duress. I had to fight off two bears...a couple of old ladies wanted hugs, but I told them I was too busy with my project. However, I'm making good progress and the forecast bodes well for the coming fortnight.

Weekly blog for week of Feb. 9th

We had a test this week. Hindsight being 20/20, the test was not terribly difficult and was moderately representative, as representative as a test can be considering the short length(time-wise) of an exam that sought to measure the comprehension of a substantial (an entire book) amount of material as well as measure a nascent ability to program in the introduced programming language python. On the subject of the book, I confess that I found the book a bit dry and terribly elementary. I admit that I may have read the book with an attitude one would adopt when assuming a more critical perspective, but I do not think that my inherent bias could sufficiently render my experience a totally local one. I have heard the testimonies of several peers and the general consensus on the book is one of dissatisfaction bordering on mindlessly inundating.

To start with, the language of the book is entirely inappropriate to communicate what is essentially a topic of epistemological importance(The topic of development philosophy that attempts to precisely define a strategem in terms of developmental actions, vis a vis development philosophy that focuses on the form/function of a system, is so profound that it certainly deserves a more formal discussion than what I believe these authours are capable of delivering). It was as if the authors were children trying to explain what differential equations are. Now I admit that I probably can't eloquently explain what differential equations are, but that is besides the point.(I am clearly not a child because no child would admit that he/she can't do something...as Donald Draper says, "...the young don't know anything...especially that they're young") Suffice it to say that the book was filled with too much anecdotal evidence. "Anecdotal evidence" is probably a bit too pedantic of a word...a better way of saying it: the book was filled with church-lady like gossip stories about stan and sue and other such clever characters. I think it should have been a bit more professional and should have strove to communicate its important ideas in a more organized and precise manner. Before writing a 2nd edition, I think it would behove the authors to first enroll in a freshman composition course. I did like the pictures though.

Last week we covered some of the more advanced list operation available in python. It seems to me that the operations are more than "syntactic sugar." I suspect that like Matlab, the functions allow for faster computations than the more naive semantics expressed with java-like syntax. I am anxious to begin working on our large project. Web development seems like a good skill to know. I'm curious to find out exactly how much SQL we are going to learn.

This not being the day relevant to the following musings, it is necessary to begin this entry with some manner of entreaty to excuse my belated comments on the day's events.

There is a plurality of educators and there are numerous pedagogical tools. In this particular discipline, they must be fitted such that, in their application, they have the wherewithal to elucidate the seemingly evanescent quality inherent in computing language. I often muse over how often instances of inspiration manifests when pondering what things are not instead of what things are. I believe that it is a sign of maturity to first consider what is lacking instead of what is present.
Today we continued to discuss the snakey language. We also discussed various administrative tools that enable us to better organize our efforts. It as if we are all a messy rabble- -held together by the crude glue of electronic bureaucracy. If only we could all be free, and express our selves in such a manner as to render to one another signs of goodwill and charity. Is it so much of a part of our condition that we must chain ourselves and coagulate as logical components of a larger system. In all of our efforts, surely there must be some vestigial artifacts demarking the last mute cries of stand-alone units .

The lecture pertained mainly to a new project called four primes. I have solved this problem before and would have preferred to discuss python. Python seems like a simple language to learn, but I'm still not totally comfortable with it. I also need to figure out how to setup a build of subversion on my own machine. This sounds like a worthwhile skill to learn and I would like to use it for future projects. It seems that our instructor made a mistake in his initial program-skeleton for our first project. The correction made a bit more sense to me.

26 January 2009

Commuting to and fro, via my sleek silver conveyance, is no more troublesome, in the general case, than clothing myself with a pair of denim trousers in the morn. Mettlesome morning dew, regardless of its splendid shimmering in the dim twilight hours, does make a mess of the many motor-vehicle meanderings.
Suffice it to say, as I'm sure many a good educator will innocuously mention, most truancies, and instances of tardiness cannot be countenanced by either charisma or clever fictions. Normally I reserve a three-quarters of an hour for my trek, but perhaps it is best to reserve a more conservative lapse of time. The taking of a quiz did not become me this day, but I pledge to rend asunder all future quizzes in a timely and complete fashion.
I think it's important to mention that no one laughed at my tardiness. Hopefully this trend will extend into the rest of the spring semester.

-David J. Garcia