Monday 31 October 2011

coming to an end..

--entrepreneurs talk--

good thing i did not skip this lecture. Its good to listen to people whom have really been there and done that. Since this is my 2nd last semester. what to do after graduation has dominated much of my thoughts. its good to be assured that you dont neccessarily have to start young if you want to go into entreprenuership.

on another note, chin leung reccommended some books for us to read. coincidentally, i have read one of the books. Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's a really good read(chapter 1 was boring though). Its about individualism. I see alot of people using this as an argument for capitalism but i dont think its the same thing nor is there any correlation between the two. Anyways i like the protaganist very much cause she is incredibly outstanding and has never once grumbled in the face of adversity. She also has never given any justification of any sort for achievement nor preached its virtues. She did just because. thinking about getting fountain head now.. hmm..

--final project--

wrapped up some things before the presentation. We've been working really hard at this and I like the product very much. I hope everyone in class likes it too.

Monday 17 October 2011

catching up with blogging

--Zit Seng's lecture--

after Zit Seng's lecture i am better able to appreciate how inefficiencies of the code in the app can impact user experience in terms or loading speed. this is very valuable to me as he was speaking from experience and this will impact how i work in future. Also, i discovered my weakness in my complete lack of knowledge in OS. this explains why im bad at server administration too.

--Security and Privacy--

quite interesting to learn about how people hack hehe. i must confess i did not give security much thought at all during the first 2 assignments. It's not a topic that interests me in particular and it not being part of the milestones was the perfect excuse. Also, another one of my weakness -zero knowledge on security. Maybe taking a module on security would solve the problem. But i'd probably be bored to death. perhaps instead of reading up more about security, i will read up more about hacking.

--final project--

prototype done! by some stroke of madness, all 5 of us iOS noobs decided to build an iOS application instead. we faced many difficulties, mostly logistical :/. But within a week or so, we built a pretty good looking app. im looking forward to building in the extra features :)

I was surprised how difficult it was for sharon to get approval for use of content. Reminds me of the painful red tape i encountered during my internship stint at OCBC. I was also surprised to be kicked out of PL1 when i was trying to quietly mind my own business working on one of the 10 or so unused iMacs. How times have changed. Lab TAs used to be cool.

lesson learnt: never expect anyone to be cooperative with you (unless they are your team-mates)

--other stuff--

3 projects and FYP CA2 within the next few weeks. im ready for the mad dash. RAWR.

Sunday 2 October 2011

taking a break from studying for mid terms

--assignment 2--

This time round, i did not function as a designer. i decided to leave that part of work to zul. i did most of the backend functions and dealt with geolocation and webstorage functions. improved much in javascript. tried to use github but failed. my conclusion, there's much more to learn.

--reflections--

I thank my groupmates for the encouraging comments, as well as the critical ones. strangely i had conflicting comments. some said i was uncompromising and some said i was easy going. i guess everyone has things that they care about more than others. certain things that i think are not important, i will compromise. but if i think they are important then it will be difficult to change my mind. its impossible to please and agree with the whole world so i stand by my views. I never felt that tension or disagreement in a group is necessarily a bad thing. it shows that people care. as long as it doesnt get out of hand of course. what do you think?

but at times, i believe i appear more confrontational than intended. :/

other things, i will pay more attention to coding style. I suppose i neglected this bit in my pursuit to make things work. Leadership, not my cup of tea. My top priority is the team. so i will only step up to be one when the team requires one.

--final project--

decided to work on the singapore heritage trail. i like it because i like history and museums. and i think its important to keep the younger generation engaged. Furthermore, it will be the first time i get to work with external parties like NLB (through sharon). The prospects of augmented reality draws me as well.

On another note, this time round, we will be using github again for version control. and since octocat is cute, i will give it another go.

--other stuff--

read classmates blogs. This is a class full of incredibly motivated people. it seems as though everyone is ready for more. me? looking forward to december. i hope its just a temporary thing that will pass in another day or two.

last week at a presentation for another project, the prof. asked me if i ever attended his classes cause he never saw me before. :/ a very good evidence that i have not been managing my time well. i worry about what i can ever achieve if i cant even handle the workload of this semester (not that its little its actually alot). This also makes me worry about which career path to take, since graduation is coming in another 1 and a half semesters.


ps, im quite dissappointed that the google talk is being cancelled :( but at least now theres more time for my mid terms