(no subject)
Rather than apologizing for not updating frequently, let me just get right into this.
First, I got an interview on the IBM job. I've actually had it for three weeks now and a lot of you already know about it. It's scheduled for this Tuesday at 2:30. I'm excited and nervous about this at the same time as this will be the first interview for a "real" job I've ever had. I say that because at KWWL I was originally hired as a tape operator a month after I'd applied for it and I wasn't even interviewed, just offered the job, and then I switched to being a master control operator two months later, again with no interview required. So I'm pretty new at the interview thing, at least when it comes to jobs that don't involve serving food. If I get this job then I'll be moving to Dubuque and I have no idea if I'd continue pursuing my second degree and, if I did continue, where I'd do it as it would be an hour and a half drive each way to my current university. I'm really hoping I get this job. Wish me luck!
I've also decided to take a break from Starmen.net. It actually started a week ago and I'll be away from the site until May 12. There's quite a few issues I need to work out on my own and it was getting to be more of a hassle than a place to have fun to me. Hopefully I'll be on my way to resolving my issues and will have some fun again when I come back.
Classes are okay, though I can tell it's getting to the end of the semester because it's easier for me to slack off now. I bombed my latest project in Operating Systems, though. We had to use a pair of threads, one acting as a "producer" and the other as a "consumer" to download parts of a work of Shakespeare on our prof's server, assemble the pieces, put them in order, and write the whole thing to a file. Naturally since it's the language I know best and I used it on the other two projects with much success, I chose to do mine in Python despite the fact that my prof acts like the whole universe was written in C. The major sticking point for me was having to use linked lists. This was a problem for me because a) I never fully understood how to implement them (a byproduct of using Python in Computer Science III, which doesn't really make sense because of the next item), b) it doesn't make sense to have linked lists in Python since Python lists can already be grown and shrunk dynamically, and c) the project calls for inserting and taking out data from a randomly-chosen node in the list, yet linked lists only allow sequential access. Because of this I decided to work backwards: get the networking issues taken care of first, then find a way to sort the parts and write them to a file, and then worry about doing this with threads and linked lists later. I ended up getting the first two working to the point where I could do the downloading, reassembly, and saving without threads and linked lists. I thought I'd be pretty much golden at this point. I was very wrong. When I put the networking code into the "producer" thread, I kept getting either "Connection reset by peer" or "Connection refused" from the server, and I still couldn't figure out how to implement a linked list, and the pre-made implementations I found were either incomplete for this project or I couldn't find out where they came from, and in order to be able to use it without violating plagiarism rules I had to have somewhere I could reference. I ended up having to turn in what I had. I have no idea what grade I'm going to get on this, but I'm guessing it will be my lowest of any project so far. At least now I have an idea of why programmers hate using threads.
I can't close this entry without commenting on the fact that the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of requiring the state to allow same-sex marriages. As you might expect, I'm all for the decision, but I fear it won't last as there's already been a push from the religious right for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and given how many legislators are for such a ban, I think it has a pretty good chance of passing (never mind that such a ban would be a contradiction of our state motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"). Fortunately such legislation has been held at bay for now, and given that we have more pressing issues in this state to deal with the same-sex marriage opponents run the risk beating their drum so much that the general public will turn against them. Even so, there are a lot of religious conservatives in the western part of the state who might be persistent in getting a ban passed. As for what this means for Phil and me, for now we've decided not to do anything, as I know I'd like to at least live in the same region as he does and be able to interact in person much more before I contemplate marrying him. But at least for now it's good to know that if and when we reach that point we can get married in my home state. I hope it stays that way.
That's all for now.
First, I got an interview on the IBM job. I've actually had it for three weeks now and a lot of you already know about it. It's scheduled for this Tuesday at 2:30. I'm excited and nervous about this at the same time as this will be the first interview for a "real" job I've ever had. I say that because at KWWL I was originally hired as a tape operator a month after I'd applied for it and I wasn't even interviewed, just offered the job, and then I switched to being a master control operator two months later, again with no interview required. So I'm pretty new at the interview thing, at least when it comes to jobs that don't involve serving food. If I get this job then I'll be moving to Dubuque and I have no idea if I'd continue pursuing my second degree and, if I did continue, where I'd do it as it would be an hour and a half drive each way to my current university. I'm really hoping I get this job. Wish me luck!
I've also decided to take a break from Starmen.net. It actually started a week ago and I'll be away from the site until May 12. There's quite a few issues I need to work out on my own and it was getting to be more of a hassle than a place to have fun to me. Hopefully I'll be on my way to resolving my issues and will have some fun again when I come back.
Classes are okay, though I can tell it's getting to the end of the semester because it's easier for me to slack off now. I bombed my latest project in Operating Systems, though. We had to use a pair of threads, one acting as a "producer" and the other as a "consumer" to download parts of a work of Shakespeare on our prof's server, assemble the pieces, put them in order, and write the whole thing to a file. Naturally since it's the language I know best and I used it on the other two projects with much success, I chose to do mine in Python despite the fact that my prof acts like the whole universe was written in C. The major sticking point for me was having to use linked lists. This was a problem for me because a) I never fully understood how to implement them (a byproduct of using Python in Computer Science III, which doesn't really make sense because of the next item), b) it doesn't make sense to have linked lists in Python since Python lists can already be grown and shrunk dynamically, and c) the project calls for inserting and taking out data from a randomly-chosen node in the list, yet linked lists only allow sequential access. Because of this I decided to work backwards: get the networking issues taken care of first, then find a way to sort the parts and write them to a file, and then worry about doing this with threads and linked lists later. I ended up getting the first two working to the point where I could do the downloading, reassembly, and saving without threads and linked lists. I thought I'd be pretty much golden at this point. I was very wrong. When I put the networking code into the "producer" thread, I kept getting either "Connection reset by peer" or "Connection refused" from the server, and I still couldn't figure out how to implement a linked list, and the pre-made implementations I found were either incomplete for this project or I couldn't find out where they came from, and in order to be able to use it without violating plagiarism rules I had to have somewhere I could reference. I ended up having to turn in what I had. I have no idea what grade I'm going to get on this, but I'm guessing it will be my lowest of any project so far. At least now I have an idea of why programmers hate using threads.
I can't close this entry without commenting on the fact that the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of requiring the state to allow same-sex marriages. As you might expect, I'm all for the decision, but I fear it won't last as there's already been a push from the religious right for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and given how many legislators are for such a ban, I think it has a pretty good chance of passing (never mind that such a ban would be a contradiction of our state motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"). Fortunately such legislation has been held at bay for now, and given that we have more pressing issues in this state to deal with the same-sex marriage opponents run the risk beating their drum so much that the general public will turn against them. Even so, there are a lot of religious conservatives in the western part of the state who might be persistent in getting a ban passed. As for what this means for Phil and me, for now we've decided not to do anything, as I know I'd like to at least live in the same region as he does and be able to interact in person much more before I contemplate marrying him. But at least for now it's good to know that if and when we reach that point we can get married in my home state. I hope it stays that way.
That's all for now.