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I really don’t like being rushed, but I have a tendency to wait till the last moment to do most of my school things. During work, I can work away on projects and get them done. But when I’m in school, with lectures, reading, and programming projects: it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes. The first two just make me want to wait to absorb all the details of the day, but I really can’t. I still end up doing the bad thing and waiting till the last moment. Take for instance my current course load: Advanced Digital Design (Circuits), Computer Graphics (OpenGL Programming), Principles & Paradigms of Programming Languages, and Compiler Construction II. The first one we designed a WEP co-processor, FREAKING HARD AS HELL, let me tell you. Actually I don’t want to scare you. Comp Graphics is probably the funnest class I’ve taken, I really enjoy messing around and creating some neat looking 3d things, it takes time, but oh so much fun. PP of P Languages: Not much work, until a HW deadline comes up, then its rush rush rush to get it done. They’re not posted that often, so I have an excuse (week to do it? come on!). Now the kicker: Compiler Construction II. WHAT A CRAZY CLASS. I never thought I’d ever need to create a compiler, but my lord, I AM. Two projects kind of sucks, plenty of time to slack off and not do anything. First one I bombed, don’t wait till 2 days beforehand to get started. Second one, deadline is a week away, okay. So, started a bit early, I just hope I finish! Its actually rather rewarding going through and seeing, "Look, I take this language, I get this other language, easy compilation, its low level assembly: Program Runs and output is created! WOW!"

I guess the moral of the story here is: Classes are part of the equation, but assignments are where you really shine. Don’t eat all your time up with one class, don’t slack off. 10 weeks is too quick, its so easy to get behind.

Also, fun programming assignments, where you actually create something that is amazing is the most rewarding thing. Writing simple programs that work in the background and don’t show you much of anything, are not the way to go.

 This doesn’t look like much, but its per-pixel lighting. The lighting is dynamic and it looks damn fine to me:

Oh, and thank you White Stripes, back to the awesome. 

I’m still trying to install a Linux distribution on my laptop for school since it is much better for programming, but I always seem to run into problems. I had Slamd64 setup and sort of working and tonight I just installed Fedora Core 4 (both for x86_64/amd64) which is working rather well. The only problem I always seem to run into is that the built-in wireless card and also the touchpad never seem to work properly. The touchpad this time is making my browser go nuts when I use it. So, I am considering just installing regular ole’ Slackware since it is something I know and drivers work well for it. But then what’s the point of having a 64-bit processor? Well there is none at the moment, the drivers and programs never seem to work properly for it. And cutting-edge isn’t so great because manufacturers refuse to provide drivers that work in linux by either making them open source or supplying multi-architecture ones.

 That’s what makes me angry with Microsoft and their stranglehold on the Desktop Computer market. We’re all stuck with the x86 architecture since all the programs are compiled and run on it. And until recently have we begun to switch. But what if we want to switch in the future? Its going to take lots of hours and hard work to port all the code over, which just won’t happen, so we’re all stuck. What we need in the computer industry is some software that can keep the sourcecode recompilable on the user end and safe for companies to release this to the world. Which again, probably will never happen. </rant>

So. I like computers