You know you're taking the wrong degree when...
When viewing the material for a specific module which included writing CGI scripts, I wondered if we could hand in things we have done outside the course for coursework. For example one piece I noticed had something about using a script to access a MySQL database and I already have a lot of good scripts that use MySQL.
Last morning (it was 2005-01-05 very early in the morning) I and Niall were looking at information for a module we will be taking next year called Introduction to Web Technologies (IWT). When looking to see if there was any updated material for the module (it starts in February, the lecturer should start putting stuff up soon), I mistyped the URL and ended up looking at the third-year course Deploying Web Technologies. Of course being about 1am in the morning and having just eaten cookies and soldered the mainboard of my Xbox in an attempt to enable me to flash the read-only BIOS (it didn't work, unfortunately), I don't think either of us noticed this. So we continued looking at what work we may be likely to come across, still thinking that this was a first-year module. So we have a read of each section and laugh at how easy it will all be.
Now that I know this is the most advanced module (out of a whopping two modules) on the WWW, I feel quite upset with the Computing department. I'd have said its content would be suitable for a first year module. I'm really not happy that this is a third year module. I can write more advanced things without thinking (just recently I've written two MySQL-based content management systems---one static and one dynamic---and a cache for Gravatars). I was expecting this course to challenge me at least a little bit.
What ever will I do to keep myself entertained throughout this course? I've already written about half of a prototype dynamic web content management system (one could argue what I've written could constitute the whole of the project since it is a prototype---it just needs some next/previous links on each page), which is not only a final year project, but it is also a masters project!
I'm rather pissed-off about this. I thought about reading the resources for the masters module Web Technologies but there's precious little there and the terrible design looks like somebody who doesn't know the first thing about writing Web pages wrote it. I like the way a masters module on the Web has a link to a Beginner's Guide to HTML. Can it not be assumed that a graduate of Computer Science wanting to do `Web Technologies' would already know HTML? I suppose not.
This is one of those few times where I really get annoyed at something. I come to university and my LEA pays thousands of pounds to Bradford University. And for what? So I can sit around doing my own personal projects for half the year (the holidays are so long) and the other half the year I'm going to lectures or labs and sleeping or playing on the wheelly chairs respectively for a couple of hours each day of the working week.
I'm going to have to invent new ways to have fun. Like whole new methods in pursuit of the concept of fun. It's going to be so boring if I don't constantly keep myself doing nice things. I could very easily run out of things to write (software-wise, that is, I can always blog). I should write a 100 Things to Do Before I Graduate list.
In just thinking randomly I came up with an interesting idea that I haven't seen implemented (I'm sure Opera already has it as it seems to do everything Firefox doesn't). Framed browsing (not to be confused with dreadful framesets). Such as splitting the browsing pane into two frames with one being in one frame and another being in a second frame. Each frame should have access to all the same set of loaded pages (like using the same
I believe there is a final-year project in Computing related to creating a multimedia WWW browser. It could be an interesting thing to consider.
In summation, I am not happy about the quality of my course (especially since I'll get bored one holiday and do each and every one of the masters and final year projects). Now I must depart for pastures much sleepier. Goodnight, the Internet.
Last morning (it was 2005-01-05 very early in the morning) I and Niall were looking at information for a module we will be taking next year called Introduction to Web Technologies (IWT). When looking to see if there was any updated material for the module (it starts in February, the lecturer should start putting stuff up soon), I mistyped the URL and ended up looking at the third-year course Deploying Web Technologies. Of course being about 1am in the morning and having just eaten cookies and soldered the mainboard of my Xbox in an attempt to enable me to flash the read-only BIOS (it didn't work, unfortunately), I don't think either of us noticed this. So we continued looking at what work we may be likely to come across, still thinking that this was a first-year module. So we have a read of each section and laugh at how easy it will all be.
Now that I know this is the most advanced module (out of a whopping two modules) on the WWW, I feel quite upset with the Computing department. I'd have said its content would be suitable for a first year module. I'm really not happy that this is a third year module. I can write more advanced things without thinking (just recently I've written two MySQL-based content management systems---one static and one dynamic---and a cache for Gravatars). I was expecting this course to challenge me at least a little bit.
What ever will I do to keep myself entertained throughout this course? I've already written about half of a prototype dynamic web content management system (one could argue what I've written could constitute the whole of the project since it is a prototype---it just needs some next/previous links on each page), which is not only a final year project, but it is also a masters project!
I'm rather pissed-off about this. I thought about reading the resources for the masters module Web Technologies but there's precious little there and the terrible design looks like somebody who doesn't know the first thing about writing Web pages wrote it. I like the way a masters module on the Web has a link to a Beginner's Guide to HTML. Can it not be assumed that a graduate of Computer Science wanting to do `Web Technologies' would already know HTML? I suppose not.
This is one of those few times where I really get annoyed at something. I come to university and my LEA pays thousands of pounds to Bradford University. And for what? So I can sit around doing my own personal projects for half the year (the holidays are so long) and the other half the year I'm going to lectures or labs and sleeping or playing on the wheelly chairs respectively for a couple of hours each day of the working week.
I'm going to have to invent new ways to have fun. Like whole new methods in pursuit of the concept of fun. It's going to be so boring if I don't constantly keep myself doing nice things. I could very easily run out of things to write (software-wise, that is, I can always blog). I should write a 100 Things to Do Before I Graduate list.
In just thinking randomly I came up with an interesting idea that I haven't seen implemented (I'm sure Opera already has it as it seems to do everything Firefox doesn't). Framed browsing (not to be confused with dreadful framesets). Such as splitting the browsing pane into two frames with one being in one frame and another being in a second frame. Each frame should have access to all the same set of loaded pages (like using the same
screen session on two xterms on the same desktop). I'm sure I've seen screenshots of something with lots of sub-windows inside one browsing pane. But that's more analogous to having 26 xterms open rather than two xterms and a single screen session with 26 screens in the session. A nice feature of this framed browsing would be the ability to drag a link in frame A and dropping it into frame B.
I believe there is a final-year project in Computing related to creating a multimedia WWW browser. It could be an interesting thing to consider.
In summation, I am not happy about the quality of my course (especially since I'll get bored one holiday and do each and every one of the masters and final year projects). Now I must depart for pastures much sleepier. Goodnight, the Internet.
posted by holizz at 04:02
3 Comments:
Yeah, but this course isn't designed to be a Web Technologies course, it's a Computer Science degree, I expect that the other modules in the final year will be challenging.
Niall
What Niall said. Sure, the web modules are woefully easy but then it's a Computer Science course - what did you expect?
That said, it's not any better if you take Internet Computing, though that does focus more on protocols and network communication than making web sites.
The link to the module pages are only accessible within the university, by the way (or if you are outside, with an Informatics user/pass). However the department doesn't seem to mind that I have a copy of the IWT page from 2 years ago publicly available. Apologies for the awful HTML but I was restrained by the requirements of the assignment.
By the way if you change to Computing & Information Systems, Multimedia Computing or Internet Computing you get to do Network Business and Distributed Information Management in the second year which does have some web stuff in it.
> The link to the module pages are only accessible within the university, by the way (or if you are outside, with an Informatics user/pass).
Gah. I tried to test it with my anonymizing proxy but it seemed to be broken when I wanted to test the links.
But gah again, the Web is the most interesting aspect of computer science. I'll certainly be reading the resources for the other second-year and final-year modules.
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