(no subject)
See, told you I was going to try and make entries more often. :-)
Things are going pretty well, aside from me spacing and forgetting to grab my book for Database Management Systems for today's lab (first one this quarter). Doh. But it isn't due until early next week, and it's an Access database. Relations between tables, foreign keys, that sort of stuff. And honestly, this is stuff I learned back during my Microsoft high school internship, so for now it's all just review. I can *easily* get this done tomorrow between classes, and have it in by the end of the day. So no big deal. As long as it doesn't happen again.
I am kind of irritated with one thing about this lab though: 1.) I don't get to use autonumbered keys, and 2.) the values I'm supposed to use for the keys include numbers AND letters. Chris made a point of telling me to do my best to use numbers (integers) wherever possible instead of letters, because letters make it a string instead of a simple number, and that's a waste of space and time (and therefore impacts efficiency). Half of the class started shifting in their seats and looking at each other when we were told about these string-keys, and one of the guys beat me to it and said exactly what I'm thinking. And the prof just shrugged and said it didn't matter, that it was just essentially a longer integer (letters represented by numbers, but we already knew that).
I was kind of surprised by his response: aren't we supposed to strive for efficiency in the first place? I mean, sure, it's not a big DB, but aren't we supposed to plan ahead? Aren't we supposed to NOT learn bad habits in the first place? *slightly exasperated*
And what if it did become a big DB? You never know how many people will really use a product, and making just one seemingly minor mistake can PISS OFF your users. (Case in point: Safari. Need I say more? *desperately wants to hack Safari just to fix the UI but won't because she doesn't want the school to kick her ass*) Inconsistency == not good. No, the DB is not the prof's design, but I would've thought he'd at least say "Yeah, that part of the design sucks, but do it that way so we don't I'll have to ask the prof about that tomorrow (um, if I can find a way that doesn't make me sound like I'm questioning his knowledge), and I'll check with Chris about it as well.
Anyway. I'm not that irritated about the DB specifically. It's the principle of it: if indeed ints are better than strings, I'm pissed because we should be learning to do things efficiently the *first* time, not the second or third or fourth time. *sigh*
I finally found someone who can check my desktop's power supply for me. (Damn thing died at the end of last quarter; I'd be completely frakked if not for my laptop.) There are a couple of stores that could diagnose it, but do you REALLY think I'm going to carry my precious all the way down there? The whole case? No car? Several blocks? Haha. LMAO. No. Way. In. Hades. But I ran into Mike today, and he told me that he can diagnose it in the electronics lab, and to bring just the power supply itself on Monday. *relieved* (And I'll watch carefully so I can check it myself next time.) Thanks a million, Mike!
Y'know, I really need to get a few tools to diagnose things like that and to make the occasional repair... a multimeter definitely, small soldering iron, stuff like that. *thinks* I'll get on that. Yes, I know I'm a geek. You've (probably) seen my favorite t-shirt: the GEEK one with the definition on the back? So yeah, deal. :-)
Am going to the Starlight with Heather later tonight. Girls' night out, and Bellini 'Tinis! MMMMMMMM. Yes, I know it's a school night. Yes, I'm being [semi-] bad. But I NEVER do this. And it's only one drink, it's more about hanging out. (And we're hanging out in a bar just because WE CAN.) So :-P I'm looking forward to it. And speaking of which, I need to start getting ready to go. :-D
EDIT: One last thing. Spring Knitty needs to get posted! I can't take the anticipation much longer...