What a weekend...
Whew, that has to be one of the longest weekends I have EVER had. Friday morning we leave campus at 8:30ish AM heading towards Melbourne, Florida. It turned out to be an 11 hour ride with Mr. Whitston, Jarred and Jeremy in a Dodge Neon. We weren't as cramped as I had initially thought, but Mr. Whitston was cold blooded so poor Jeremy and Jarred burned up on the way down and back. Mr. Whitston continuously talked the ENTIRE WAY. I could not even play gameboy or listen to music because he continuously talked, thus I eventually gave up trying. Jeremy had an inverter so he enjoyed several episodes of Firefly.
We arrived in Melbourne and found our way to the motel. We were very agitated at Whitston at his disregard to our directions, thus we found the motel some 30 minutes later than we should have. The cute girl at the front desk at the Suburban something motel was swamped with a couple people trying to get her to do numerous things at once. Whitston didn't make it any easier either. I felt sorry for her.
We got to be late and had to wake up early because Whitston wanted us at the competition at 8am to get checked in since we failed to make checkin on Friday night. The introduction speech was not scheduled until 10am so we could have slept in for a bit longer. After being suffled around between buildings and such we had the practice session where we finally got to see the true environment we were to work in. We had to figure out how the "standard" input worked exactly and we had two practice problems, the first with code that we were to basically type in and find the bug in the logic. Then the second problem was a fairly straightforward problem to solve and submit. We got our feet wet and learned a few lessons that we should have remembered from Hain's class in the first place. We did have a little "oh crap" moment. We got to our workstation and it was not on, so we turn it on and it does a fsck (file system check) and fails!!! So we reboot again, and it load up just fine...in a way it was a big sigh of relief, then again maybe if it had died we could have used one of the back up machines which were much better than ours.
After that, we had a break for lunch. So we got to walk most of the way across FIT's campus. It was quite interesting in that they had a center portion of the campus that was like a jungle with walkways and streams. It was very cool indeed. I could spend hours admiring it. So we get to the cafeteria and we get in line for some food, which turned out to be pretty decent. We then march back to where the competition is to be held and wait for the environments to be wiped and reloaded on all of the machines. We file into the gym area, go to our machine and wait for the competition to begin.
Competition begins and we start to file through the problems looking for one for each of us to begin work on. We select some problems and begin working on them...yada yada yada. We submit our first problem and its wrong, so Jarred looks at it and makes some changes, wrong again. So, we switch off and I start to code my solution and get it all coded up and it doesn't work right so I go back and start to rethink my logic to ensure I was doing it right. Several changes and such and of the two example cases, one is correct and the second is incorrect. I make a couple more changes and then the first is incorrect and the second is correct. I scratch my head and let Jeremy start to code up his solution (i think). By this time both mental and physical fatigue is setting in from the long ride and lack of sleep. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken advantage and drank a soda for the caffeine, oh well. But at some point in there Jarred returned to look at the first submission and figured out the problem, resubmitted it and we were on the board. Anyway, the competition ends and i'm still kicking myself in the rear because we _should_ have gotten 3 problems right. But, in the end all three teams solved one problem each, and our team, USA Red, beat the other two teams, Blue and White. We ranked in the top 50 of the participants and had a good time. I have to say, some of the problems were very difficult and I applaud all of the teams who attended. Especially Georgia Tech and UCF who came in first and second respectively with 9 problems solved each.
Would I do it again, definitely. Would I spend more time practicing, Most Definitely. We did very well considering how dependent many people are on intellisense and the debugger and our total lack of experience with Linux.
On the trip back (another 11hrs) we made a pit stop by the beach so that the winning team (from south that is) could put our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. I have some pictures but i'm too tired right now to get them off the camera.
I have to applaud my teammates for their hard work and their professional attitude traveling and attending the competition. Of the three teams representing USA, we were by far the most professional.
On the way back, of course I got to hear A LOT from Whitston about what he has taught and his plans for upcoming classes. While, I could not stand having him as a professor, he seems to give out some interesting projects. If he gets to teach OS, he wants access to a small lab of computers to install linux on and assign some nitty gritty projects to be done in C. His reason for Linux, is because you can get much closer to the hardware level than in Windows with many things. Is it possible he can spur a rejuvination in the CIS department, or will he come up short and basically be forced out. Only time will tell. I hope so. Anyway, I have a good mp3 of a 'lecture' by the coordinator which covers several things from the use of a php based scheduler for advising, to why we have one degree with specializations instead of seperate degrees, among others. If anyone wants to grab this file i'll see about making it available.
Oh, and during all of this I had the sniffles and a soar throat, which I still have both. I think it was compounded by the A/C in the motel room and the weather. But I think i'm on the mend now.
Tomorrow through Thursday Kurt and I have training at Mentor at 8:45am so I guess if nothing else the trip got me into the habit of waking early again.
Peace out
~Kisea
We arrived in Melbourne and found our way to the motel. We were very agitated at Whitston at his disregard to our directions, thus we found the motel some 30 minutes later than we should have. The cute girl at the front desk at the Suburban something motel was swamped with a couple people trying to get her to do numerous things at once. Whitston didn't make it any easier either. I felt sorry for her.
We got to be late and had to wake up early because Whitston wanted us at the competition at 8am to get checked in since we failed to make checkin on Friday night. The introduction speech was not scheduled until 10am so we could have slept in for a bit longer. After being suffled around between buildings and such we had the practice session where we finally got to see the true environment we were to work in. We had to figure out how the "standard" input worked exactly and we had two practice problems, the first with code that we were to basically type in and find the bug in the logic. Then the second problem was a fairly straightforward problem to solve and submit. We got our feet wet and learned a few lessons that we should have remembered from Hain's class in the first place. We did have a little "oh crap" moment. We got to our workstation and it was not on, so we turn it on and it does a fsck (file system check) and fails!!! So we reboot again, and it load up just fine...in a way it was a big sigh of relief, then again maybe if it had died we could have used one of the back up machines which were much better than ours.
After that, we had a break for lunch. So we got to walk most of the way across FIT's campus. It was quite interesting in that they had a center portion of the campus that was like a jungle with walkways and streams. It was very cool indeed. I could spend hours admiring it. So we get to the cafeteria and we get in line for some food, which turned out to be pretty decent. We then march back to where the competition is to be held and wait for the environments to be wiped and reloaded on all of the machines. We file into the gym area, go to our machine and wait for the competition to begin.
Competition begins and we start to file through the problems looking for one for each of us to begin work on. We select some problems and begin working on them...yada yada yada. We submit our first problem and its wrong, so Jarred looks at it and makes some changes, wrong again. So, we switch off and I start to code my solution and get it all coded up and it doesn't work right so I go back and start to rethink my logic to ensure I was doing it right. Several changes and such and of the two example cases, one is correct and the second is incorrect. I make a couple more changes and then the first is incorrect and the second is correct. I scratch my head and let Jeremy start to code up his solution (i think). By this time both mental and physical fatigue is setting in from the long ride and lack of sleep. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken advantage and drank a soda for the caffeine, oh well. But at some point in there Jarred returned to look at the first submission and figured out the problem, resubmitted it and we were on the board. Anyway, the competition ends and i'm still kicking myself in the rear because we _should_ have gotten 3 problems right. But, in the end all three teams solved one problem each, and our team, USA Red, beat the other two teams, Blue and White. We ranked in the top 50 of the participants and had a good time. I have to say, some of the problems were very difficult and I applaud all of the teams who attended. Especially Georgia Tech and UCF who came in first and second respectively with 9 problems solved each.
Would I do it again, definitely. Would I spend more time practicing, Most Definitely. We did very well considering how dependent many people are on intellisense and the debugger and our total lack of experience with Linux.
On the trip back (another 11hrs) we made a pit stop by the beach so that the winning team (from south that is) could put our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. I have some pictures but i'm too tired right now to get them off the camera.
I have to applaud my teammates for their hard work and their professional attitude traveling and attending the competition. Of the three teams representing USA, we were by far the most professional.
On the way back, of course I got to hear A LOT from Whitston about what he has taught and his plans for upcoming classes. While, I could not stand having him as a professor, he seems to give out some interesting projects. If he gets to teach OS, he wants access to a small lab of computers to install linux on and assign some nitty gritty projects to be done in C. His reason for Linux, is because you can get much closer to the hardware level than in Windows with many things. Is it possible he can spur a rejuvination in the CIS department, or will he come up short and basically be forced out. Only time will tell. I hope so. Anyway, I have a good mp3 of a 'lecture' by the coordinator which covers several things from the use of a php based scheduler for advising, to why we have one degree with specializations instead of seperate degrees, among others. If anyone wants to grab this file i'll see about making it available.
Oh, and during all of this I had the sniffles and a soar throat, which I still have both. I think it was compounded by the A/C in the motel room and the weather. But I think i'm on the mend now.
Tomorrow through Thursday Kurt and I have training at Mentor at 8:45am so I guess if nothing else the trip got me into the habit of waking early again.
Peace out
~Kisea
posted by Brian Wright at 10:00 PM
3 Comments:
Hit me with the mp3 when you get a chance.
How did you guys turn an 8 hour drive into 11? Was Whitson driving Ms. Daisy?
Sounds like fun!
Well, he stops about every other rest area to stretch and prevent his knees from 'locking up'... Which were always eagerly anticipated by me so my ears would get a rest and prevent a strangling.
Post a Comment
<< Home