Lesson 2 -- get to know team, break down the project

get to know team -- get to know what they are good at, how good at it, their ways (habits) of doing things (maybe better habits than I have, and I shall learn from them)

break down the project -- since most of the time tasks are not meant to be cracked solo -- because I am not genius.

schedule the work, do what you say -- in a software engineering project like this, it will be horrible that things do not get done ( since some people's work cant start without other people's work DONE).

figure out all the features, prioritize them -- even if you cant show the whole in the end, but you get the majority (and the most important ones) done at least. For example, when developing a game, the developers should try to get a very light-weight version done first, so that the artists can have better understanding what they are going to design the avatars, cursors, maps.... So things are prioritized, dont start with mother-of-all-designs.

These are what I learnt yesterday, hopefully can come up with some more, but I got to rush to class now. :p

3 catches -- first lesson

First lesson, as usual, the train hasn't started yet -- a comfortable "regular" NUS first lecture.

Ah... very unfortunate I had many catches today... --

1, overslept (from 2:30 all the way to 6:30! that is why I didn't set up an alarm. I was also surprise when I woke up)

2, consequently, lacking warm-up, I screwed up the show-and-tell -- forgot all I had prepared to say -- it just went "blank" -- I always do when I rush to a class after I overslept..

3, after school, returning hall the damn Fedora went "dead" -- keep poping up Nautilus windows... I was insane....

OK.. already a bad start, cant be worse, right! I got nothing to lose now -- I lost face already. :)

What I hope to learn in CS3216

Frankly speaking, I had no idea whether I will be approved to join the class since I "screw up" my 1101S final. But I do want to join the class since this is a cross-faculty module and I will be able to work with non-computing people. This is a good chance to experience *real* working life. I convinced myself again after I read from the 3216-info.pdf that we will work with different people in different assignments. -- I hope to gain real-life experience to work with people more effectively and efficiently in the future.

I know 3216 is a very intensive course. Prof Ben said we can get 3 A's elsewhere with the effort put in 3216 to get an A. But I won't regret. Joining uni is not all about CAP, but more importantly learning some stuff, including all those programming stuff , working with peers, scheduling the project, managing people... These are things that will benefit myself even if I do not leave uni as a programmer. I think this matters, and this is the truth of uni education -- most of the things ( programming stuff ) learnt at school are pretty useless. So I come to improve my social skills.

Um... seems I haven't talked about learning CS stuff at all. Computing/ programming stuff I can learn outside 3216, I would say. Learning PHP/mySQL/... is not my major aim -- I think I get the basics , if not the core idea, of all those through the training assignment.

"Bricks wall are there to let you prove how hard you want it." 3216 is intense; 3216 is full of treasure, so prove yourself that you want it.