Experience during facebook assignment

The Facebook assignment is over. It was not an easy assignment. To consider that it was only for a mere 15%, it was a lot of work. 3am, 4am was the earliest that we managed to sleep during a few days before the deadline.

However, everyone was motivated and happy. I was motivated and happy. For us, the fact that the assignment is only worth 15% doesn't seem to come into our mind. We were coding, googling (GOOGLE IS GOD!) and discussing among ourselves. Happily. We were stuck sometimes and couldn't seem to find the bugs in our codes. But we keep finding them. In the end, I must say, we have managed to do a good job, at least a very acceptable one provided the time limit of 2 weeks.

A lot of things must be credited to Justin, who is not only a great programmer, but also a good person. He doesn't seem to mind staying out late with us to discuss about the project (His wife kept calling! :P) and skipping his work for the project. He was also our mentor in programming. His programming knowledge gave us a lot of help and belief that it is possible to do it!

Other members were inspiring too! Bernard was always too eager to help and it's just amazing how many contacts he has with those people in real business! Xialin was a very good programmer! She managed to learn ajax in a matter of few hours and came out with a mechanism to upload photos in our application. It was just amazing! Biyan never seemed to be tired. She was so obsessed with flash and how to improve our application's interface. Her newfound knowledge in flash will come in handy in our applications in the final project!

In short, the first assignment was crazy, tiring and challenging! But it was a great experience. For me, the experience is worth doing it even if the assignment is given only 5% weightage!

The first Deadline is over!

YAY! The first deadline is over!! SO Happy!!

But WAIT! The second deadline Is NEXT WEEK! Woo! Even coOler! It means the first assignment is going to be over soon. XD (Must see from the positive light :P)

So far, I have done a bit of html and php coding together with mySQL. This is the first time I use them. So naturally, I had some problem. Especially with syntax. And also because I am not very sure how powerful these programming languages are.

Compared to C++, they seem a lot easier. There are functions like array_unique() and so on which make life so much better.

But I also realize that I have just touched the tip of what these languages, especially php, can do. There are definitely easier way of doing things if I know the tricks. Sometimes, I feel 'stupid' because I was writing some long codes to do something where I could have just simply used the ready-made in-built function from the library! XD

But generally, so far so good! I am improving as a programmer and I am enjoying the process!

Week 2: Software Engineering Lecture & A Taste of FB Programming

Week 2 Lecture was on Software Engineering. However, it wasn't a normal CS type of lecture. We had a short not-so-technical lecture from Prof Ben, followed by sharing from former CS3216 students.

The thing that struck me most during the lecture is that, in a software development team, everyone, including non-programmers such as marketing personal, has a crucial role to play.

And clear communication among the team members are of paramount important for the success of the project.

Another important thing that I noted was to "keep looking at the clock". It means that we have to be aware of and be realistic about how much work we can accomplish in the given time limit.

As facebook assignment has already started, I try to keep above points in mind as I struggle through the assignment together with my teammates. We are trying our best and are hoping that our team would be a success.

Week 1: Execution matters!

From the first lecture, one thing that has the most impression on me was

"Execution matters!"

Practice makes perfect. But sometimes we just don't have a chance to practise. Things happen. And things happen really fast.

So when we have to do (execute) something that we are not very good at for a very first time without preparation, what should we do to get the best out of ourselves?

Maybe, we cannot do anything about it! Rather our ability to handle these situations may come naturally as we gain more experience. More experience with unknown!

I am surely going to face some (maybe a lot!) unknown in this course. I will just do what I think is the best and see the result. I might be wrong. I might be right. But it doesn't really matter. I am still young and learning.

"When we don't get anything, we get experience."

Let the journey begin to get the execution right!

The Beginning (Morning of a new day)

The first CS3216 lecture is finally over! I was looking forward to it since the day I got accepted to the course. It wasn't exactly because I was extremely excited(of course I was excited lah). But rather because I wasn't so sure what I have got myself into. Finally, I have some ideas about the course and I felt good about it.

The three things that I learned about the course during the first lecture.

1. It is going to be tough (learning is tough)

2. It is going to be tough (learning is tough)

3. It is going to be tough (learning is tough)

Well. If it is not going to be tough, it won't be worth a module to take since it is not a compulsory module. XD

During the lecture and Show and Tell, I found all the people very talented. First I was a bit intimidated. But a thought that I must also be talented in certain way (since I am also in the course) brought a smile to my face. :)

The most importantly, I found the first lecture and Show and Tell very enjoyable.

It is a beginning. Maybe for a difficult journey. But I am ready for it!

P.S. the first challenge for me is going to be blogging! :P I am a lousy writer! Well, it's a chance for me to improve my writing! :)

What I hope to get out of CS3216

I am interested in programming. I love the feeling that I usually get after solving a programming problem or finishing a programming project. However, I have been away from programming lately (I didn’t do programming last semester. I had enough of programming during 2 months internship during holiday XD). As I tried to explore what I love to do, I decided to take mostly EE modules (electrical engineering modules) last semester. I also liked EE projects. However, I didn’t get the excitement that I got from programming. I felt relieved after finishing EE projects but not the sense of accomplishment or pride that I usually felt after each programming project (Maybe it was because I wasn’t very good at electrical engineering and so didn’t have confidence in the outcome of my projects). This semester, I want to focus my energy on programming related modules and projects and see where I get from there (I am also taking CS2102 and CS2103 this semester). I want to rediscover my desire and thrill for programming and become more interested and more passionate about programming. I am looking forward to draw inspiration from course mates, lecturers and tutors in this module.

I am also interested in techonopreneurship and new product development. During the second semester of year 1, I decided to take a module, TR3001. It is a course about new product development. We had to come out with a proposal for a new product and preferable with a working prototype. It was regrettable that my team didn’t manage to come out with a prototype. During the course, I realized that I had too little technical knowledge and experience to fully make of the module and enjoy its benefits. Nevertheless, I don’t have any regret for taking the module as the lecturer and many of my course mates gave me a lot of inspiration. Most importantly TR3001 made me realize that I have a latent but strong interest in technporeneurship and developing new products. Just thinking or daydreaming about what kind of new product will make a breakthrough in the near future gives me thrill and immerse excitement. I hope to rediscover this feeling during CS3216. Since I have better technical knowledge and more experience now than in year 1, I hope to make better use of CS3216 to improve myself and get valuable experience than I did in TR3001.

In conclusion, from CS3216, I want to pick up lots of technical knowledge, rediscover my thrill for programming and enhance my interest in technopreneurship.