How is any of that computer science ? I mean, is there a list out there for astronomy students that includes, grind your own lenses?
10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
31–40 of 164 posts
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#32How is any of that computer science ? I mean, is there a list out there for astronomy students that includes, grind your own lenses?
Its not, and that's the point. I've seen computer science students struggle at basic system administration tasks - even things like moving files and directories. I maintain that half the trouble we have deployment is that developers don't know anything about how configuration and setup works in the real world. This list helps to bridge some of that divide by having programmers deploy software, not just build it. EDIT…
So 0001 is definitely on my someday TODO list.
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#33Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I assume he means putting together a computer in the sense of constructing one from commodity parts, in which case that one is definitely in line with the rest of the list. The other two are certainly more advanced exercises than the rest, but I think they are absolutely things CS students should be expected to be able to do, though many won't be willing to. Many won't be willing to do the other things on the list ei…
Oh. I read it as, "design and construct your own circuit board." Building your own computer isn't that hard, but I don't know what (if anything) it has to do with computer science / software engineering.
Though I think that is a much lower bar than pretty much anything that is on the list there, any nontechnical person could figure out what parts to buy and put it together but it would be a lot harder for those people to write a MapReduce.
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#35I think a lot of people here missed the point. This isn't a list of "stuff that will make you SUPER BALLER," it's a list of easy things that teach you very much and give you a lot of confidence for a very small amount of effort. Plus, all of these tasks are highly relevant in our web database-driven world. Not everyone wants to be Johnny Writes His Own C Compiler Geek, but every CS student SHOULD be able to configure…
> it’s about doing, as opposed to knowing or learning
After graduating, I had to teach myself everything in that list before I could actually do anything that I found interesting. Now, this obviously doesn't apply if you're, as you say, writing a compiler, but for the average CS student, this is a great list to complete.
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#36up to 0100 and haven't been accepted to a CS program... (havent applied yet either)
Yet when I applied to a local University in a CS program a couple years ago I was denied. Why? High School Math grades not quite high enough.
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#37How is any of that computer science ? I mean, is there a list out there for astronomy students that includes, grind your own lenses?
This article has got me really conflicted. On one hand, I am a CS graduate, but on the other hand, I work in theory, and I would always point out to people that computer science and computer engineering are two completely different things. Unfortunately the two are often conflated in almsot all CS curricula. Maybe there ought to be two different majors, one that focuses on building systems and implementing algorithms…
The counter argument to this is that we often see computer engineers that lack a basic grasp of the importance of algorithmic complexity and theoretical folks who write terrible code. You have only to read some discussions on "JS performance" to see the ridiculous attention paid to making sure variables are local, when in almost all cases user programs are actually being slowed down by O(n^2) algorithms being used. Similarly, a lot of theoretical work takes a long time to make it into the "real world" because they are inaccessible to engineers (being written completely "in math"), and often when they do provide actual sample code for their work its written in a very sloppy way (from a "code organization" standpoint). It really would be ideal if you could have a major that covered both of these really well (and I'm sure there exist some that do, I obviously have not gone through every CS/CECS/EECS major in every university).
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#38How is any of that computer science ? I mean, is there a list out there for astronomy students that includes, grind your own lenses?
Its not, and that's the point. I've seen computer science students struggle at basic system administration tasks - even things like moving files and directories. I maintain that half the trouble we have deployment is that developers don't know anything about how configuration and setup works in the real world. This list helps to bridge some of that divide by having programmers deploy software, not just build it. EDIT…
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#39How is any of that computer science ? I mean, is there a list out there for astronomy students that includes, grind your own lenses?
This article has got me really conflicted. On one hand, I am a CS graduate, but on the other hand, I work in theory, and I would always point out to people that computer science and computer engineering are two completely different things. Unfortunately the two are often conflated in almsot all CS curricula. Maybe there ought to be two different majors, one that focuses on building systems and implementing algorithms…
We also have Computer Engineering, which is a middle ground between Electrical Engineering and SoftEng. :)
Re: 10000 things all CS students should do before graduating
#40I've done all of that many times before, and I don't have any CS degree. Do I get an honorary one now? :P