Official Thread of Flogging the Log: A Place for Better Random Talk

[Himu]

He doesn't? This is new to me!

[Flannel Boy]

Yeah, Joel, but he has mentioned it on many occasions.

I think this is the first I've heard of it.  And for some reason I thought he did is undergrad in English or literature or some shit. 

He was a double major.

[Madrun Badrun]

see now that makes sense.  Drinky did you just do a masters then?

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I did fine with most group projects.  My senior design projects turned out to be amazing (although one guy in the first one fucked up) because we all worked together well.  Group projects work ace when everyone gives a damn or at least half of one.

see now that makes sense.  Drinky did you just do a masters then?

You're killing me here...

[Van Cruncheon]

i was a double major in lit and cs, with a minor in math. got a masters in cs, no thesis option because i am teh lazy.

[Bocsius]

you
don't

need
to

e
merge

from
noth
ing

you
don't

need
to

tear
a
way

[Bocsius]

i was a double major in lit and cs, with a minor in math. got a masters in cs, no thesis option because i am teh lazy.

How many years did it take you to achieve all of that? I need a reference.

Probably 6-7, depending on the amount of "lazy."

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

He has an IQ of 181 or 183, he probably did it in a couple of years

[Bocsius]

I wish I had done CS in retrospect. I think I would have received a better exposure to general programming theory. Instead, I did ISOM, and we didn't deal in object oriented programming at all and learned VB. To which, I copy/paste this quote:

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Had to take a bunch of business courses to go along with it, not much math (not much math in business... makes sense). On the other hand, I think the ISOM route was better regarding working with databases, but I guess that would probably depend on the school.

[Polari]

Where my nicca Scenester at? He dead or banned yet?

[Polari]

Scenester evolved to... The Sceneman

Oh snap. I did warn him about playing Pokemon at his age.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I'm going to be an eternal student.  I got everything lined up to start on my second major in EE.  Then I'll do an MBA (although they hand those out like candy; it will get to the point where you need to have one much like the Bachelor's Degree is the new High School diploma) and get a JD.  I like independent learning but the post collegiate world is boring.  I need some mental stimulation.

I wish I had done CS in retrospect. I think I would have received a better exposure to general programming theory. Instead, I did ISOM, and we didn't deal in object oriented programming at all and learned VB. To which, I copy/paste this quote:

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Had to take a bunch of business courses to go along with it, not much math (not much math in business... makes sense). On the other hand, I think the ISOM route was better regarding working with databases, but I guess that would probably depend on the school.

Until the 10th grade, there was nothing I wanted to do more than CS.  Until I took two C++ courses.  And that was that.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Eternal student on loans or what?

The company I work for is paying for my EE degree

[Madrun Badrun]

I'm going to be an eternal student.  I got everything lined up to start on my second major in EE.  Then I'll do an MBA (although they hand those out like candy; it will get to the point where you need to have one much like the Bachelor's Degree is the new High School diploma) and get a JD.  I like independent learning but the post collegiate world is boring.  I need some mental stimulation.

I wish I had done CS in retrospect. I think I would have received a better exposure to general programming theory. Instead, I did ISOM, and we didn't deal in object oriented programming at all and learned VB. To which, I copy/paste this quote:

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Had to take a bunch of business courses to go along with it, not much math (not much math in business... makes sense). On the other hand, I think the ISOM route was better regarding working with databases, but I guess that would probably depend on the school.

Until the 10th grade, there was nothing I wanted to do more than CS.  Until I took two C++ courses.  And that was that.

what's wrong about c++?

[Bocsius]

Until the 10th grade, there was nothing I wanted to do more than CS.  Until I took two C++ courses.  And that was that.

I sort of got sullied by a comp sci course I took with a companion C-programming lab during my freshman year of college.

I was a pre-business student at UNC-Charlotte and registered for classes late for my second semester and needed an elective. I added CSC whatever number it was after classes had already started. Anyway, I missed the first lab (or was it 2?) and was already behind, and then I missed another not very long into it after being out all night and then having car trouble on top of it so I couldn't make it back to campus in time for that 8 AM lab on Monday morning. I was behind, I had no prior exposure to programming, didn't understand it, I wasn't going to be a computer science student anyway, it was only an elective... so I stopped doing the lab portion altogether, keeping the classroom lecture portion (they were graded seperately).

It wasn't until a few semesters later when I had transferred to UNC-Greensboro and had declared as a marketing major that I had a change of thought and looked at ISOM (Information Systems/Operations Management), which was still within the business school so all my "common body of knowledge" coursework wouldn't have been wasted. Marketing wasn't for me, ISOM looked attractive, so I started down that path and it actually took. But, again, it skimped on the work that a CS student would have had to do. We did two (2!) courses on working with Microsoft Office. Seriously. Took a database class which taught us database theory and SQL, took a class on advanced Microsoft Access (seriously), two programming courses using Visual Basic, a networking class, a class dealing with ecommerce and ASP (this was pre .NET), and a course dealing in "operations management" (if I would have concentrated on the OM side, there would have been more of these, but I did the IS side). The last course was a project where we built a database application for the mythical tracking of birds for 100% of our grade.

I then graduated, 9/11 happened, economy went into the crapper (well, it was considered bad at the time), couldn't land a decent job, stopped looking, and settled for status quo* for a few years. I finally got motivated to get going again, decided to learn .NET and C#, and my career path is 2+ years back on the upswing. But I still feel like I've missed out on a more rounded programming background.



*During this time, I worked at a job I already had while in college. I continued programming, but it was not 100% of the time, and it was mostly limited to VBA. Towards the end of my time there after I was already teaching myself .NET, a couple of us were given licenses to Visual Studio 2005 with no real mandate as to what we were supposed to do with it. So I did some prototype work, rebuilding some of the reporting tools I had created with Access/VBA, and left to become an ASP.NET developer** 2 years ago.


**Knowing what I know now, there is no way I should have gotten the job I have now***. Despite teaching myself .NET and doing some prototype work at my prior job, I knew far less than I thought I did but at least no one was around to know better. After my second week on the job, they cut the other contracter who was there and I was left to work alone and do my own on-the-job training.


***The same one I'm dying to leave, as it turns out. I want to work on more substantive applications and be a part of a team. I'm now confident in my abilities, but I also want to be able to exchange ideas from time to time and learn from people obviously more experienced than I am.

[Phoenix Dark]

I pussied out and gave the presentation. We did alright (only 1 other member showed).  :'(

[Bocsius]

I don't get these stories of people not even showing up for presentations. Yes, I have certainly been in group dynamics where a couple of us did the work and a couple would show up at random times for group meetings, but at least everyone was there for the presentation. In fact, it was unheard of for anyone in any group to miss a presentation. I mean, we never considered that a possibility.

[Phoenix Dark]

I've given many presentations and this is the second where someone didn't show up. So yea, it's a rare occurrence. Usually even if someone half asses things they'll show up.

Maybe people took an early holiday break, dunno. smh regardless

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Sometimes the presentation is worth like 10% of the overall project and no shows figured they can make it with a B.

=====================================

The only reason why I picked civil engineering is because it was the easiest engineering that I knew of at the time (I forgot all about construction and industrial aka imaginary engineering) and knew that there were stable careers that could be made off of it.

The biggest beef I had with c++ is that I didn't feel like combing through code to find various bugs.  I liked writing it and I liked the theory of fixing those bugs but it clashed with my top priority at the time, which was to do nothing.  I spent more time at candystand.com during my c++ classes than doing any kind of c++.  That and stickdeath.com.

My whole academic career has been about doing the absolute bare minimum possible while making it look like I'm taking challenging courses.  I did Graphic Design for a year but there was no mental stimulation.  The teacher had a certain slant and the only way to ace the project was to just conform to their tastes.  One professor was a big minimalist so everything I did in his class was heavy on the minimalism.  The upside is that I met a lot of good people and smoked a lot of good bud - both which were lacking in engineering, sadly.

[OptimoPeach]

Until the 10th grade, there was nothing I wanted to do more than CS.  Until I took two C++ courses.  And that was that.

Same here, except that it was 9th grade and only one C++ class. I think I mentioned it in one of recursive's threads.

[Don Flamenco]

I had a prof who made the presentation worth 5% and on presentation day, everybody in the class said they were willing to accept the hit on their project (because it was a pain in the ass project that was difficult and the prof wanted a full powerpoint presentation on it.)  So the prof got pissed, decided it was now worth 15% of the grade and gave us the weekend to put it together.  That was probably the biggest load of bullshit I dealt with in undergrad...

It was for a computer networking course, which I got an A in but scared me away from doing anything computer related.

[Bocsius]

I don't think there was any such thing as programming classes in my high school.

I took a computer applications course and we worked on machines that ran whatever there was before Microsoft Office. And Windows, for that matter, because these things were barely more than dumb terminals. We did word processing, spreadsheets, and I think we even worked a bit with databases but for the life of me I can't remember the names of the applications themselves except to say they weren't GUI.

Of course, we had access to computers for most of my time through grade school, I'm not that old. But most of it for the first few years was to play Oregon Trail on Apple IIe machines, and possibly whatever came before those. I think my first encounter with Windows was in an Accounting class in 11th grade. That was probably 3.1 because, of course, that would have been 1993-1994 and there was no Win95.

At any rate, access to computers were largely limited (with the exception of that trip to the computer lab once in a while) other than in those aforementioned courses. There wasn't a computer in the home, either, until I was already in college.

[Polari]

Sounds like these people are getting it the wrong way round. My strategy was always to try and do as little work with the group as possible and then turn up on the day and ask for my lines.

One time a girl in the group told the professor I wasn't pulling my weight which really fucked me off so I paid her out until she was in tears. It was true, but still it's a dick move, if she had a problem she could've talked to me first.

[Don Flamenco]

Sounds like these people are getting it the wrong way round. My strategy was always to try and do as little work with the group as possible and then turn up on the day and ask for my lines.

One time a girl in the group told the professor I wasn't pulling my weight which really fucked me off so I paid her out until she was in tears. It was true, but still it's a dick move, if she had a problem she could've talked to me first.

  ballsy and funny because I wasn't in your group.  but I always hated it when time came to confront the person who didn't do anything and they'd get ticked off and act like there was nothing for them to do.  I didn't go straight to the professor though, that's a bitch move...I'd talk to the group slacker a lot and try to get them to do small stuff. 

But the worst is people who flat out give up.  In that same project for the networking class, one guy was super depressed and didn't want to do his part because he was going to drop out or something.  The problem was that he had all the material for his part with him, so me and another guy couldn't do the part if we wanted and it was the night before the project was due when we realized he hadn't done shit.  So I had to spend time chatting with him on AIM and telling him he had a lot to live for and shit    He was kind of a friend before the project but I don't think I spoke with him much after that.

[Polari]

If he'd actually killed himself you probably could have got a compassionate pass.

[OptimoPeach]

Christ, how many group projects are there in college?

[lennedsay]

Too many.

[BlueTsunami]

So I had to spend time chatting with him on AIM and telling him he had a lot to live for and shit    He was kind of a friend before the project but I don't think I spoke with him much after that.

You should have got extra credit for suicide counseling

[Phoenix Dark]

Too many.

.

[brawndolicious]

I've only had two group projects outside of GE courses.  Those two were easy and my partners didn't slack off so they were great.

[lennedsay]

I always offered upfront to do the most boring, tedious part of a project, because secretly, I usually like that part the most. Usually I'd take on the final part of the project where we'd combine everybody's parts, so I'd basically have final say on what was submitted because I'm secretly a control freak.

Then everybody else felt bad from the beginning and tried to make up for the fact that I was doing more work than them, so their part always ended up being pretty good.   

[Bocsius]

The way my college career went, individual projects were the norm for 100 and 200 classes, group projects were the norm for 300 and 400 classes. There were, of course, group projects as a freshman and sophomore and individual projects as a junior and senior, but there was a definite emphasis on collaborative work in higher level courses.

[Madrun Badrun]

The way my college career went, individual projects were the norm for 100 and 200 classes, group projects were the norm for 300 and 400 classes. There were, of course, group projects as a freshman and sophomore and individual projects as a junior and senior, but there was a definite emphasis on collaborative work in higher level courses.

That's pretty much how the compsci department here operates too. 

[Don Flamenco]

I had a handful throughout college.  They went a little better at UW-Madison than at community college.  

Thankfully we don't have them in law school, though we have group exercises in my writing class.  People usually don't say anything and stare at their papers going "hmmmmm" until someone breaks the ice...nobody ever wants to be first.  A friend and I usually come to some quick conclusion, then sit there writing nihilistic and angry comments about group work and the class in general. fun stuff.

[Agent Whiskers]

EB, if you absolutely had to choose and assuming you find both girls extremely attractive, who would you go with: the girl who you would travel to Spain (for example) with for leisure or the girl who (jokingly) compares turds with you and claims superiority?

[Barry Egan]

pix

[Bocsius]

pix

You want to compare, too?

[lennedsay]

Why not hold out for a girl that encompasses both?

[Agent Whiskers]

Why not hold out for a girl that encompasses both?

I could probably do everything with girl 2 but it might mean waiting a while due to current Saudi living conditions. I'm in a pickle. And sorry, no pics of neither girls nor turds.

[Don Flamenco]

travel girl

[lennedsay]

Why not hold out for a girl that encompasses both?

I could probably do everything with girl 2 but it might mean waiting a while due to current Saudi living conditions. I'm in a pickle. And sorry, no pics of neither girls nor turds.

Damn.

[Bildi]

Tell us more about your pickle.

[Barry Egan]

why dont you ask Jinfash what he feels about your situation?

[Agent Whiskers]

why dont you ask Jinfash what he feels about your situation?

I would if this situation involved ladyboys.

[Van Cruncheon]

i was a double major in lit and cs, with a minor in math. got a masters in cs, no thesis option because i am teh lazy.

How many years did it take you to achieve all of that? I need a reference.

Probably 6-7, depending on the amount of "lazy."

7

[MCD]

why dont you ask Jinfash what he feels about your situation?

I would if this situation involved ladyboys.

sounds like you need a ladyboy.

girls are disgusting.

/virgin.

[Phoenix Dark]

nothing wrong with attractive ladyboys

[MCD]

if it's pretty

fuck it. there is no gay.

[Agent Whiskers]

Who said there was anything wrong with ladyboys? I just said that they're not relevant to my current predicament... yet.

[Reb]

Turd girl, obviously.

Who needs Spain? They'll probably build the worlds best Tapas restaurant in Dubai.

[tiesto]

The way my college career went, individual projects were the norm for 100 and 200 classes, group projects were the norm for 300 and 400 classes. There were, of course, group projects as a freshman and sophomore and individual projects as a junior and senior, but there was a definite emphasis on collaborative work in higher level courses.

That's pretty much how the compsci department here operates too. 

The only group project I ever had in Comp Sci was in my Principles of Software Engineering class, a 400 level course... the whole class revolved around the whole software lifecycle of a giant group project. Wasn't so bad, since by the time you got to the 400 level CS course, most of the slackers had been weeded out already. The most ironic thing was that I 'led' the group and managed everyone... since I'm usually pretty quiet and introverted in person.

[Agent Whiskers]

Well, talked to travel girl for an hour and after I witnessed her cry her eyes out, we decided to be friends for the time being to see what's gonna happen with my situation with turd girl. God I was in a fucking mess of a situation with two girls and I somehow managed to squeeze myself out of it unscathed for now. It was a trainwreck waiting to happen and eventually i'm gonna get sloppy and the shit will hit the fan. I'd tell you guys all about it but it requires way too much typing to explain what happened from the beginning.

[Barry Egan]

hey, practice what you preach, buddy.

[Robo]

Well, talked to travel girl for an hour and after I witnessed her cry her eyes out, we decided to be friends for the time being to see what's gonna happen with my situation with turd girl. God I was in a fucking mess of a situation with two girls and I somehow managed to squeeze myself out of it unscathed for now. It was a trainwreck waiting to happen and eventually i'm gonna get sloppy and the shit will hit the fan. I'd tell you guys all about it but it requires way too much typing to explain what happened from the beginning.

Sounds like turd girl was the right choice.

[MCD]

hey, practice what you preach, buddy.

[Bildi]

Go with the one that doesnt have an STD.

And best not to find this out by trial and error.

[Robo]

I had a dream last night where I was wearing one of those lycra suits with the mask, like in that horrible inflatable dolphin video.  Oh God, I don't want to say any more.

[Don Flamenco]

Paper comprete. 

now to clean up the apt a little cuz mom will be here tomorrow, then legitimately enjoy some vidyagames without feeling like I'm putting off my paper.

[Madrun Badrun]

Paper comprete. 

now to clean up the apt a little cuz mom will be here tomorrow, then legitimately enjoy some vidyagames without feeling like I'm putting off my paper.

Have you double checked you paper for spelling? 

[Bocsius]

Did FM just critique someone's spelling?

Flag on the play.