The Glade 4.0

I got a 78 on the algorithm midterm; highest grade I saw was an 88 and definitely some down in the 60's. He gave out an extra credit assignment to re-do one of the problems that everyone had trouble with. I got 20/20 on the sort-and-remove-duplicates problem though, so I was pretty happy about that.

I was a bit irritated, though, about problem 1; the one I described earlier in the thread with sqrt n in the (n/b) part. It turns out the right answer was O(log log n). The way the master theorem was presented, there were only 3 possible outcomes depending on the relationship between r and log base b of a, and O(log log n) was not one of them. The book, and the professor did both say that there were "edge cases" that didn't fit into any of the 3 possibilities, but it did not really say what the solution to those edge cases looked like and I was not expecting to see one on the test (if that even is one).

Still, I feel like mid-high 70s is really not bad for someone coming in with no prerequisites.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Ended the semester with an A in Algorithms and a B in computer architecture. I was a little surprised; I thought the A would be in Architecture if it were in either, but I guess I put more effort into Algorithms as it was definitely an exceedingly challenging course.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Be careful with those Bs. Most programs require at least a 3.0, if not a 3.5. Assistantships and Fellowships are competitive, especially if you decide to go further with this toward the doctoral level.

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This program requires maintaining a 3.0; I won't be doing any assistantships or fellowships and its very unlikely I will go on to the doctorate. I'm using my post-9/11 GI Bill for this; I won't have any to speak of left when I'm finished and it doesn't cover the whole cost as it is. I have one kid that I'm already paying off parent loans for, and three more that will be needing college starting in 6-12 years (plus weddings for all four of them since all of them are girls). I'm already working full time and I have at least 6 years left before I can retire from the Reserves, plus I'm already over 40.

The point of this is to be able to qualify for different civilian jobs; I'm thinking of something to do with missile defense with Aegis, THAAD, or GBI perhaps. If not I might look for something at SpaceX or Raytheon or Lockheed or something like that.

I also don't see myself fitting in well with academia; I'm trying to keep college life at arms length this time around. I find I rather envy the young people walking around the campus and I miss my undergrad days, but that time of life is long past now, with all its attendant mistakes. I see all these college-age girls walking around in their leggings and shorts and I think "damn, that's hot" and then I remind myself that I have a wife, and a kid that's already 3 years (at least) older than they are and I just feel like an old man. My classmates are all talking about their internships at Google or Facebook or whatever and they can have that stuff; I already have a good job (2 of them) and I don't want to go work at some tech giant in a shithole like Silicon Valley populated by self-important assholes with prices and taxes for everything that are outrageous. I care mainly about getting better jobs, and proving I can do it. People visibly react when I say "computer science" as if I'm completely insane so yeah, I want to prove I can do it.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I am seeing more and more people getting doctorates to be competitive in the private sector, but I understand your position.

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Computer science is one of the best fields for getting an interesting and high-paying job, and it’s worked out very well for me. I’ve been doing software development since college, and would recommend it for anyone. I’ve found in my experience that big companies generally have better work environments than smaller ones. Some people I know from college are working at Raytheon and Lockheed, and they seem to be enjoying it, as far as I can tell.

with the caveat that you have to want to spend ungodly hours writing code

Well in my experience most of it is thinking about code you’re going to write, while you’re glancing through documentation or source code, or simply procrastinating. It’s not like you’re some factory worker where you sit there moving your fingers all day nonstop and software comes out.

Writing software is fulfilling work. My only problem is there were too many people in India that could do my job for much less.

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The Dude abides.

That's why I plan to get a nice GS job working on the Aegis system, or THAAD, or GMD or something, whether or not it involves the actual writing of code. Jobs that require Top Secret clearances don't tend to get outsourced overseas so freely - especially not the GS-series ones. I can do just fine as a GS employee, and I have enough aches and pains coming up that, after this deployment, I'll likely be getting military disability to some degree while I wrap up my last few years teaching ROTC or something equally undemanding in terms of time away from the family.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Now that I'm home, back to school. Theory of computing this semester; mid-term is on Wednesday.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."