decompiled » School

Academia Part Deux

Jonathan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:15:16 +0000

For those of you who haven’t heard, I’m starting a masters program at the University of Washington starting this fall. I’ll be in the Professional Masters Program in the department of Computer Science and Engineering. Last Thursday, I went to campus for orientation. There are about 40 new students starting with me — the program is only about 150 students large.

It’s a pretty sweet gig: I’ll spend 2½ years doing one class and one colloquium credit each quarter, not including summer. That amounts to 40 credits spread over eight quarters. Better yet, Microsoft pays for most of it.

I registered on Friday and will be taking Compiler Construction and Computer Science Colloquium this fall. I’ve already watched one talk online for the colloquium — It was by Vint Cerf, commonly known as the father of the internet. He invented TCP/IP and currently works for Google as their Chief Internet Evangelist. Really good talk — he’s definitely a solid public speaker.

Anyway, I felt like I should mention that here for my loyal and few readers. Now you may carry on with your day.

I’m famous

Jonathan — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:55:33 +0000

Earlier this year, before I graduated, I got an email from the Computer Science chair at Cal Poly Pomona. She had been asked by Thomson Publishing (now Cengage Course Technology) for a student who was graduating from a Cal State school that was going on to do something cool after graduating. I guess going to work for Microsoft was cool enough for them, so they interviewed me and are going to put the interview and a short profile + picture of me in their upcoming textbook: Principles of Operating Systems: Design and Applications (pictured to the left). The book publishes in January.

P.S. Yes, I know….Tanenbaum or go home, but this book has me in it….so ha!

The Governator

Jonathan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:01:58 +0000

I realized recently that my college diploma is signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. It almost makes it look fake.

Done!

Jonathan — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:48:34 +0000

I’m finally done! My degree posted today.

I now hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

Yay.

ASCII Art Student: Part 2

Jonathan — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:14:48 +0000

Star Wars

It certainly gives me something to be entertained about while grading. And he got the year right this time.

Does that make me leet now?!

Jonathan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:41:13 +0000

So if you didn’t know, I’m a TA for 2 classes at Cal Poly Pomona this quarter. So I’m in the middle of grading a project for the lower-level of the 2, CS 140 – Intro to Java. I came across this student’s project and just had to post this bit:

View file

Haha, still deciding if that’s worth extra points.

possibilities

Jonathan — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:45:00 +0000

So, lots of options at the moment. I won’t list them all, but I will at least keep an on-going list of grad school options.

UCLA – Accepted
UCSD – Accepted
UCR – Accepted with full-ride fellowship
UCI – Accepted
UC Berkeley – Not Accepted
Stanford – Not Accepted

I’ll update this entry as decisions come in.

Yesteryear

Jonathan — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:46:11 +0000

Remember back in elementary school when you’d get your report card? There’d always be at least two, if not three, columns…one for actual grades, one for effort and/or one for citizenship. But the latter two didn’t get regular grades; they got the special grading scale: O, S, N, U…outstanding, satisfactory, needs help, unsatisfactory. Those grades didn’t affect your GPA nor did they have any real consequence, but if your parents caught an N or, worse yet, a U on your report card, you’d be screwed.

I’m less than two months from graduating college. I’m about to go forward and get my masters degree (one way or another). Looking back on all I’ve faced and accomplished, I’m a bit staggered. As you go through school, you feel “too cool” for it (no pun intended). It often feels like it is all a chore to complete before going into the awesomeness of the working world. But in hindsight, it all kind of combines into a coherent masterpiece of knowledge and skills that in fact has meaning. Taking my last physics course this quarter, I’ve finally found out what means…really not too hard at all, but I know that there is no way in hell that I’d of understood it before years of math dating back to 1+1. Everyone always tells you that “it” will all be useful eventually, and I’m finding that’s mostly true. I guess my point is that, for me, it all makes sense in the end.

So to all my friends and colleagues wasting away in Calculus 3 or Thermodynamic Physics, I want you to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s rather awesome.

Disclaimer: I just finished watching 3 episodes of House MD.