Well, that's that then. Except for the final, that's the last I'll ever see of CSC165. Unless there are similar courses to be taken in the coming years, which is more than likely...
All in all, I thought the course was more than alright, and much less of a hassle than I had expected it to be. And, while I still managed to fall asleep in class on occasion, the course material remained both interesting and challenging. I do indeed find it rewarding to properly complete a proof, so that's fun. While I may still not be 100% clear on some topics, I'll be sure to look over all our work be ready for our final on the 25th.
Our TA, Lalla, was very helpful during tutorials and it is mostly thanks to her that I understand most of this stuff. I would definitely be lost without those tutorials, so I'm grateful for that :)
Danny was also cool, which is always good. This course would be pretty dreadful with a boring prof... so thanks!
So yeah, the end. That's it. Enough with the blog.
Paix et Prospérité...
Duck out.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Almost Done
The end is nigh, and the final assignment has been submitted. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to do big-oh and such using the limit of f(x)/g(x), mainly because I didn't really understand the purpose of the limit... maybe I was just doing it wrong, so I'll have to revise the slides and the notes or something. And I don't see how to implement the limits for proofs, only for disproofs... so yeah.
Also had a bit of trouble working with MS Word to write it all up. The tab indentations were all over the place and often just not working, which was annoying. And also, sometimes when I ctrl-shift selected multiple equations, they would all irreversibly turn into question marks... which really made no sense. This was the first time I ever experienced such problems, so it was pretty strange.
The halting problems seem understandable though, so I think I'm down with those. Hopefully. Googled turing machines and came back with some cool Lego contraptions, so that was fun.
So yeah, blog
Also had a bit of trouble working with MS Word to write it all up. The tab indentations were all over the place and often just not working, which was annoying. And also, sometimes when I ctrl-shift selected multiple equations, they would all irreversibly turn into question marks... which really made no sense. This was the first time I ever experienced such problems, so it was pretty strange.
The halting problems seem understandable though, so I think I'm down with those. Hopefully. Googled turing machines and came back with some cool Lego contraptions, so that was fun.
So yeah, blog
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Some O's and Stuff
Assignment 2 is well and done, and we've got a test right around the corner, but things are going generally well. I don't know my results for the assignment yet, and I only skimmed through the solutions, but I think it went quite smoothly. I don't know why, but I never like going to office hours, or asking the TAs questions, for this or any of my courses. I get along just fine though. I feel like I've got the hang of proofs and proof structure, which is always nice. I only had a bit of trouble with the final question, which was based on the gcd, but I may have been over-thinking it. I eventually came up with an answer, but I don't know if I would stand 100% behind it. I'll get solid part marks though, at the very least :)
I'm not too worried about the test either, if its only a few proofs. I generally enjoy coming up with proofs, and as prof. Heap said they won't be too long... So I'm not too worried about that.
Program complexity, however, is some other story. I still fail to grasp the seemingly simple concept of summing up the (n - 1)s, and I completely fall behind with picking the B and C and all that jazz. I feel like I understand it while we do it in class, but just fail to remember how it all works when I look back at it. I would definitely not be able to figure out such a problem on my own at the moment. I really just need to go back over the course notes and take my time understanding what's going on, but things are getting pretty crammed up with my other courses, so that'll have to wait.
That's it though, so have a nice day :)
I'm not too worried about the test either, if its only a few proofs. I generally enjoy coming up with proofs, and as prof. Heap said they won't be too long... So I'm not too worried about that.
Program complexity, however, is some other story. I still fail to grasp the seemingly simple concept of summing up the (n - 1)s, and I completely fall behind with picking the B and C and all that jazz. I feel like I understand it while we do it in class, but just fail to remember how it all works when I look back at it. I would definitely not be able to figure out such a problem on my own at the moment. I really just need to go back over the course notes and take my time understanding what's going on, but things are getting pretty crammed up with my other courses, so that'll have to wait.
That's it though, so have a nice day :)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Holy moly...
Well, that was fun. Finished the midterm, and got my grade back for the first assignment. All is well and good in that department, I believe, and since my assignment mark was well above average I'm not feeling too worried about the midterm.
Except for delta epsilon and friends... didn't get that. Kinda freaked me out that they were on the midterm, because I knew for a fact that I had missed that lecture due to issues of sleep. Never having seen those symbols before (not even in any of my math classes ever), I kinda panicked and assumed that they were more than just symbols. So I got those two questions wrong, but I'm not too bummed about it. I think I get em now. Probably. I find it sort of confusing sometimes when there an existential statement, followed by a universal, followed by an existential. Not sure how to read em out in proper English.
Course is still good though. And so are tutorials, cause they're helpful. Big challenge now though is leaving myself enough white space to write the body of a proof in between the start and end of it. I like saving paper, but then it gets all squished :(
Peace and love
Except for delta epsilon and friends... didn't get that. Kinda freaked me out that they were on the midterm, because I knew for a fact that I had missed that lecture due to issues of sleep. Never having seen those symbols before (not even in any of my math classes ever), I kinda panicked and assumed that they were more than just symbols. So I got those two questions wrong, but I'm not too bummed about it. I think I get em now. Probably. I find it sort of confusing sometimes when there an existential statement, followed by a universal, followed by an existential. Not sure how to read em out in proper English.
Course is still good though. And so are tutorials, cause they're helpful. Big challenge now though is leaving myself enough white space to write the body of a proof in between the start and end of it. I like saving paper, but then it gets all squished :(
Peace and love
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Second Coming of the Duck
Second post.
Things are advancing quite nicely with the course. Tutorials are all going very well and help much in clarifying what I don't understand. Lectures also remain interesting, and I'm glad to not be completely lost within the P's and not-P's and contrapositives and such and such. Our first assignment will be the real test to see how I place though...
When first given the assignment, my primary reaction was to panic and deeply regret not having taken any notes during lectures. I'm just that bad at notes. However, I kicked myself into work-mode and revised the posted lecture notes and assigned readings, which slowly but surely brought me up to shape. The result is what I hope to be a successful assignment, and I have confidence in what I've written. I had intended to visit office hours, but I couldn't really think of any specific questions to ask and I doubted they would respond to "Are all of these right?" So I skipped on office hours ;)
My biggest fear while working on the assignment was converting it to PDF. I used Word and the built-in mathematical equation inserter to write up my work, but when I converted it all to PDF my equations all disappeared!! So I was pretty bummed about that. However, a quick look at Google told me to visit the Regional and Language Options in the control panel and to load up the "Files for Complex Script and right-to-left languages". Upon re-conversion to PDF, the equations were back! Problem solved and jig of success complete.
Hopefully the assignment will go well, or I shall fall into the deepest pit of despair. But still, better than philosophy essays :)
Peace out.
Things are advancing quite nicely with the course. Tutorials are all going very well and help much in clarifying what I don't understand. Lectures also remain interesting, and I'm glad to not be completely lost within the P's and not-P's and contrapositives and such and such. Our first assignment will be the real test to see how I place though...
When first given the assignment, my primary reaction was to panic and deeply regret not having taken any notes during lectures. I'm just that bad at notes. However, I kicked myself into work-mode and revised the posted lecture notes and assigned readings, which slowly but surely brought me up to shape. The result is what I hope to be a successful assignment, and I have confidence in what I've written. I had intended to visit office hours, but I couldn't really think of any specific questions to ask and I doubted they would respond to "Are all of these right?" So I skipped on office hours ;)
My biggest fear while working on the assignment was converting it to PDF. I used Word and the built-in mathematical equation inserter to write up my work, but when I converted it all to PDF my equations all disappeared!! So I was pretty bummed about that. However, a quick look at Google told me to visit the Regional and Language Options in the control panel and to load up the "Files for Complex Script and right-to-left languages". Upon re-conversion to PDF, the equations were back! Problem solved and jig of success complete.
Hopefully the assignment will go well, or I shall fall into the deepest pit of despair. But still, better than philosophy essays :)
Peace out.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Advent of the Duck...
First post.
I don't think it was necessary to submit a post on this date, but then again what is there to lose, right?
CSC165 hasn't really begun yet, so there isn't really much to talk about. Venn diagrams. I could talk about Venn diagrams. They're alright, I guess. I remember disliking them in highschool because I could never fit enough writing in the middle bit (does the middle bit have a cool technical name?), but if we're just putting in X's and O's and question marks then there shouldn't be much of a problem.
I was told that this course would be crazy difficult, but so far I'm enjoying it. Maybe it's because of the prof change. Or maybe it's because we are only at week two. I like writing upside-down A's though, so that's kinda cool.
Not sure if I'm down with the Slog, but we'll see.
Peace and Cheers
I don't think it was necessary to submit a post on this date, but then again what is there to lose, right?
CSC165 hasn't really begun yet, so there isn't really much to talk about. Venn diagrams. I could talk about Venn diagrams. They're alright, I guess. I remember disliking them in highschool because I could never fit enough writing in the middle bit (does the middle bit have a cool technical name?), but if we're just putting in X's and O's and question marks then there shouldn't be much of a problem.
I was told that this course would be crazy difficult, but so far I'm enjoying it. Maybe it's because of the prof change. Or maybe it's because we are only at week two. I like writing upside-down A's though, so that's kinda cool.
Not sure if I'm down with the Slog, but we'll see.
Peace and Cheers
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