.....get it?....There's a movie called the 'The Last Song' so I called this the Last Blog....
I thought it was catchy :)
Anywho, it's the last day of class for us and also the day of our poster session. I'm pretty excited about it because we put a lot of work into our poster and it actually turned out quite well. The semester is coming to a close, so we're also trying to get our work/final presentation finished before it gets here.
It seems like just yesterday we were just starting our work and trying to figure out what we wanted to do, now our project is almost complete and we can reflect on all we've gotten accomplished (which is actually a good bit). For anyone interested, our final presentations are May 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm in TATE 202. I can't wait to see what kind of progress everyone else made and how they decided to do their final presentation (I"ve seen a few prezis, which is exciting!).
Beyond that, there isn't much to share..just gotta wait until the Final to see how it all comes together ;).
See you there (hopefully)!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Time for some creativity!
Now that the semester is coming to an end, it's getting close to presentations time! It's time to start getting creative...create presentations that are visually pleasing but that also convey the information we want our audience to get. We are doing a poster for the School of Science and Mathematics Poster Session and have also gotten started on a Prezi for our final presentation. I'm mostly in charge of getting these things taken care of, mainly because of my role on the team (Documentation and Outreach), but I'm having to enlist the help of my other teammates. The biggest thing I need help with is getting the images for our Prezi compatible with the zoom in/out ability the prezi has (which is what makes it so cool, so we have to make it work). For the most part, any screenshot I take on my mac is saved as a png and comes up fairly clear when using prezi, but some of the other images, particularly ones I'm going to get from my other teammates, may not be as compatible. Therefore, Ryan is going to take the images that aren't working properly and help me turn them into raster/vector images. I've never been very good with photoshop or anything of that nature, but I guess now's as good of a time to learn as any!
Thanks to our open communication with the Fortune Hunter/Math4 Team, this project is continuing to progress (sometimes not quite how we want it to), but it's progress none the less. We've had to scrap a couple of things because of how much time they were taking in comparison to how much time we thought it would take, but we've accomplished a good bit and plan to accomplish more before the semester's end :)
Until next time folks...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
As the semester comes to a close...
Things are going to start really getting serious...Deadlines are arriving and there is much to be done. For our team, the first important deadline is this week (April 15). We have to have an abstract written and submitted for the School of Science and Math Poster Session (April 21, 2011 on the second floor of the New Science Building--all are welcome!). Being that we're not really doing "research", it changes how the abstract should be written. I've done a number of presentations and written a few abstracts, but they were all research related. It should be interesting to see how it turns out. Also, we need to get on actually creating the poster. One problem that we've encountered is that half the group won't be available to actually present on the day of the Poster Session because of class conflicts. That leaves two of us, which isn't bad, but being that we've been kind of working on our own assignments and coming together periodically, it's a little difficult for us to be able to explain what the other is doing. I'm sure we'll come to a final decision by the time of the deadline.
After that, we need to start organizing our final presentation. Once again, being that we all worked on separate things, this will have to be a group effort. We're leaning towards doing a prezi (powerpoint doesn't seem appropriate for a presentation about a video game). We're also going to work on making sure the code is uniform and gets to a stopping point to where we have something to demo for the audience (that is concurrent with what we've actually done).
Individually, we have to get a pdf of our blogs to submit but I'm not exactly sure how that would happen. I've been doing some research into it and Jaime said she may have found something but if anyone knows anything or has figured anything out, some input/help would be greatly appreciated :)
I'm sad to see the semester come to an end so quickly...I was just starting to get into a lot of things and now I'm about to be gone. There's still a lot to get done, though, so it's not the time to mourn or think about that...gotta do work!
Until next time...
After that, we need to start organizing our final presentation. Once again, being that we all worked on separate things, this will have to be a group effort. We're leaning towards doing a prezi (powerpoint doesn't seem appropriate for a presentation about a video game). We're also going to work on making sure the code is uniform and gets to a stopping point to where we have something to demo for the audience (that is concurrent with what we've actually done).
Individually, we have to get a pdf of our blogs to submit but I'm not exactly sure how that would happen. I've been doing some research into it and Jaime said she may have found something but if anyone knows anything or has figured anything out, some input/help would be greatly appreciated :)
I'm sad to see the semester come to an end so quickly...I was just starting to get into a lot of things and now I'm about to be gone. There's still a lot to get done, though, so it's not the time to mourn or think about that...gotta do work!
Until next time...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Blitzkev = YES!
Hello again,
Not much to update...still working on our project individually and as a team. I have not posted to the mailing list yet today because I would like to wait and see if anyone on my team has anything specific they would like to add or report or ask before I post. Also, the request we got from one 'Blitzkev' (whom we now know is named Kevin Hockey) has turned into a reply from a message we sent him. He is basically here to help us as we need it and make comments on our wiki for things he feels he can help with. He said that he programs on Fortune Hunter and also on Math Maze (which was another game we were looking at in the beginning). He seems to be very kind and I think with him so willing to help, the rest of the semester and this project should really begin to move smoothly.
I know this was a relatively short blog...but there will be more (and it will hopefully be more exciting) :)
Until next time...
Not much to update...still working on our project individually and as a team. I have not posted to the mailing list yet today because I would like to wait and see if anyone on my team has anything specific they would like to add or report or ask before I post. Also, the request we got from one 'Blitzkev' (whom we now know is named Kevin Hockey) has turned into a reply from a message we sent him. He is basically here to help us as we need it and make comments on our wiki for things he feels he can help with. He said that he programs on Fortune Hunter and also on Math Maze (which was another game we were looking at in the beginning). He seems to be very kind and I think with him so willing to help, the rest of the semester and this project should really begin to move smoothly.
I know this was a relatively short blog...but there will be more (and it will hopefully be more exciting) :)
Until next time...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Four's Company makin' moves :)
Hello again all,
I don't have much to update regarding any homework or assignments in my class...Right now the main focus is on our FOSS project and getting our contributions complete. If you would like to see a detailed list of the tasks we are trying to and have accomplished, please check out our Timeline and Calendar. Although the steps aren't huge, we are making steps in the right direction and it looks like we will get a good bit accomplished before our presentations.
We also decided that we're going to do a poster for the 22nd Annual Scientific Research Poster Session, which I'm pretty excited about. This gives me a chance to go a little out of my comfort zone (by talking about gaming and things I'm not very experienced with, as opposed to my research I've been working on for years) and get some more experience presenting a poster. It should be fun/interesting to see how it turns out.
That's all for now...don't forget to check out the Four's Company Wiki.
Until next time...
I don't have much to update regarding any homework or assignments in my class...Right now the main focus is on our FOSS project and getting our contributions complete. If you would like to see a detailed list of the tasks we are trying to and have accomplished, please check out our Timeline and Calendar. Although the steps aren't huge, we are making steps in the right direction and it looks like we will get a good bit accomplished before our presentations.
We also decided that we're going to do a poster for the 22nd Annual Scientific Research Poster Session, which I'm pretty excited about. This gives me a chance to go a little out of my comfort zone (by talking about gaming and things I'm not very experienced with, as opposed to my research I've been working on for years) and get some more experience presenting a poster. It should be fun/interesting to see how it turns out.
That's all for now...don't forget to check out the Four's Company Wiki.
Until next time...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Not much longer left...
Hello all,
Time is slowly winding down. The end of the semester is getting closer and closer...right now in 462 we're focusing on our FOSS projects, so there really isn't much to post about. If you're interested in checking out my team's progress on our project, please feel free to check out our wiki. Between this project, my research, and my independent study, I got my hands pretty full...and I didn't even mention the other 3 classes I have. I can't complain though...I'm about to graduate and I already have SOMETHING planned for me (NC State acceptance :) ). Even though Georgia Tech is where I really want to be, things will turn out how they should...and at least I got accepted somewhere!
Also, I would like to put a plug in here that I think me and Alex Johnson should still try and plan an end of the year something for CS Seniors. We're the shiz and deserve the celebrate it :D!
That's all for now...more to come later..
Until next time...
Time is slowly winding down. The end of the semester is getting closer and closer...right now in 462 we're focusing on our FOSS projects, so there really isn't much to post about. If you're interested in checking out my team's progress on our project, please feel free to check out our wiki. Between this project, my research, and my independent study, I got my hands pretty full...and I didn't even mention the other 3 classes I have. I can't complain though...I'm about to graduate and I already have SOMETHING planned for me (NC State acceptance :) ). Even though Georgia Tech is where I really want to be, things will turn out how they should...and at least I got accepted somewhere!
Also, I would like to put a plug in here that I think me and Alex Johnson should still try and plan an end of the year something for CS Seniors. We're the shiz and deserve the celebrate it :D!
That's all for now...more to come later..
Until next time...
Monday, March 28, 2011
POSSCON 2011
Hello again all! I come with reports from POSSCON. As anyone who follows my blog or is in 462 knows, last week was the Palmetto Open Source Conference. I didn't get the opportunity to attend the entire conference, but I did get to go and experience the tail end of it. It's hard to completely judge something based off of one day (especially the last day) but I'm going to share my experience at POSSCON 2011.
First I would like to start by saying I did not get to meet any of the 3 speakers that I initially really wanted to meet. I feel like there weren't as many people there on Friday as there may have been the other two days, but the turn out wasn't bad. I did get to meet and speak briefly with John 'maddog'. The rumors are all true....he's one the coolest, most badass, intelligent person you will probably ever meet. I first met him in the 3D printing session. I didn't know who he was at first, but he had been sitting in the same seat with his laptop open the entire session. Once it was time to get up and break into groups, I heard someone walk up to him and call him 'maddog'. That's when I knew who he was. Brandon, Jordan and I got the chance to share a couple of laughs with him. The real treat with him was hearing him speak. Even though he was kinda long-winded, his History of Linux session had to have been one of the most interesting ones and I regret only getting to see the last portion of it (especially since the session I was in lost internet and had to end early with little accomplished).
Now to sort of backtrack, I would like to give a brief recap of the day. I arrived a little late (still not quite able to figure out Columbia), but checking in was still fairly easy. And of course, like at most conferences, I got a 'swag bag' :), which had some pretty cool stuff in it, including a Ubuntu user magazine with articles on different open source software alternatives available for Ubuntu users. It also included a guide in the back of the magazine with setup and troubleshooting help for Ubuntu. The first session I went to was the 3D printing breakout session where I got to see 3D printing for the first time...as well as learn that I can build my own 3D printer for around $400. Now, when I first thought about this, I was thinking 'this seems really cool, but what am I gonna really do with a 3D printer?'...then I actually thought about it and realized how much I can make with a 3D printer. So now, I am convinced that I am going to build a 3D printer (and hopefully very soon). I even got to keep one of the objects they printed, which I also found to be super cool :) One problem I had with this session was that there was a lot more talking than I thought there would be in the group I chose to be a part of. I thought it would be more hands on, but I did get to walk around and see what the other groups were doing. I ended up leaving this session early in order to go and check out the open source gaming session that I knew some other students were in...this was a mistake. I'm already not a big fan of video games, but when you walk into a session on video games and half the people are doing their own thing and the speaker sounds bored, you know there's something up. So this particular session wasn't too successful.
Of course, lunch was great....the food in general was great. Yogurt parfaits, muffins, fresh fruit....yeah, you get the point.
For the afternoon session, I decided to check out the session on how to start a business cheaply on open source. The speaker, David Duggins, was really nice, but because of technical difficulties, the session didn't go quite as it was supposed to. He was planning on showing us different websites and open source software he uses and that the audience was interested in when it comes to open source alternatives to closed source software such as Microsoft Office and Outlook. Although the session had to end early, I still got the opportunity to get some good resources to open source software, which I believe was the main purpose.
There were also raffles and give-aways, none of which I won....so I don't think it's worth going into detail on that. Well..except that one was the Galaxy Tab and I would have loved to have taken it home with me in my 'swag bag'.
Overall, it was a interesting, and informative experience at POSSCON. As with most computing conferences, the best thing was the people. Everyone was friendly and forthcoming with information. That always makes the experience all the more memorable.
Until next time...
First I would like to start by saying I did not get to meet any of the 3 speakers that I initially really wanted to meet. I feel like there weren't as many people there on Friday as there may have been the other two days, but the turn out wasn't bad. I did get to meet and speak briefly with John 'maddog'. The rumors are all true....he's one the coolest, most badass, intelligent person you will probably ever meet. I first met him in the 3D printing session. I didn't know who he was at first, but he had been sitting in the same seat with his laptop open the entire session. Once it was time to get up and break into groups, I heard someone walk up to him and call him 'maddog'. That's when I knew who he was. Brandon, Jordan and I got the chance to share a couple of laughs with him. The real treat with him was hearing him speak. Even though he was kinda long-winded, his History of Linux session had to have been one of the most interesting ones and I regret only getting to see the last portion of it (especially since the session I was in lost internet and had to end early with little accomplished).
Now to sort of backtrack, I would like to give a brief recap of the day. I arrived a little late (still not quite able to figure out Columbia), but checking in was still fairly easy. And of course, like at most conferences, I got a 'swag bag' :), which had some pretty cool stuff in it, including a Ubuntu user magazine with articles on different open source software alternatives available for Ubuntu users. It also included a guide in the back of the magazine with setup and troubleshooting help for Ubuntu. The first session I went to was the 3D printing breakout session where I got to see 3D printing for the first time...as well as learn that I can build my own 3D printer for around $400. Now, when I first thought about this, I was thinking 'this seems really cool, but what am I gonna really do with a 3D printer?'...then I actually thought about it and realized how much I can make with a 3D printer. So now, I am convinced that I am going to build a 3D printer (and hopefully very soon). I even got to keep one of the objects they printed, which I also found to be super cool :) One problem I had with this session was that there was a lot more talking than I thought there would be in the group I chose to be a part of. I thought it would be more hands on, but I did get to walk around and see what the other groups were doing. I ended up leaving this session early in order to go and check out the open source gaming session that I knew some other students were in...this was a mistake. I'm already not a big fan of video games, but when you walk into a session on video games and half the people are doing their own thing and the speaker sounds bored, you know there's something up. So this particular session wasn't too successful.
Of course, lunch was great....the food in general was great. Yogurt parfaits, muffins, fresh fruit....yeah, you get the point.
For the afternoon session, I decided to check out the session on how to start a business cheaply on open source. The speaker, David Duggins, was really nice, but because of technical difficulties, the session didn't go quite as it was supposed to. He was planning on showing us different websites and open source software he uses and that the audience was interested in when it comes to open source alternatives to closed source software such as Microsoft Office and Outlook. Although the session had to end early, I still got the opportunity to get some good resources to open source software, which I believe was the main purpose.
There were also raffles and give-aways, none of which I won....so I don't think it's worth going into detail on that. Well..except that one was the Galaxy Tab and I would have loved to have taken it home with me in my 'swag bag'.
Overall, it was a interesting, and informative experience at POSSCON. As with most computing conferences, the best thing was the people. Everyone was friendly and forthcoming with information. That always makes the experience all the more memorable.
Until next time...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
POSSCON Excitement
POSSCON has begun! Today was the official start for the POSSCON Conference that I will be attending this Friday. As I stated previously, I would have liked to have been able to go all 3 days, or at least Thursday and Friday, but if I want my life to remain semi-sane for the next few weeks I should probably just go Friday (class conflicts). I will just continue to hope that the speakers I want to meet will still be around come Friday. If not, I'm sure I'll be able to find someone interesting to talk to.
Also, my team and I have been working away on the Fortune Hunter project. Working with Documentation is a little more difficult than I initially thought it would be. Especially since I didn't write the code (so for a lot of the code I don't know what exactly to put documentation wise--because I don't know what it's supposed to do!). But I've decided that the best way to try and get some decent documentation is to go through each class and make note of what's documented and what's not. Once I've gone through all the classes, anything that wasn't documented and I can intuitively figure out what it's supposed to do, I'll document it. After that, I'll go to the mailing lists to see if anyone can help me as I try to follow methods to see if I can find what they're supposed to do somewhere else in the code.
The semester's slowly but surely coming to an end and it's time to get into gear and get'r done!
Until next time...
Also, my team and I have been working away on the Fortune Hunter project. Working with Documentation is a little more difficult than I initially thought it would be. Especially since I didn't write the code (so for a lot of the code I don't know what exactly to put documentation wise--because I don't know what it's supposed to do!). But I've decided that the best way to try and get some decent documentation is to go through each class and make note of what's documented and what's not. Once I've gone through all the classes, anything that wasn't documented and I can intuitively figure out what it's supposed to do, I'll document it. After that, I'll go to the mailing lists to see if anyone can help me as I try to follow methods to see if I can find what they're supposed to do somewhere else in the code.
The semester's slowly but surely coming to an end and it's time to get into gear and get'r done!
Until next time...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
TOS Ch. 9 & Miscellaneous
Once again I have returned to spread the word of the happenings (or at least my happenings) in my Software Engineering Practicum course. Our assignments for today were to pick the 3 speakers we would like to meet and discuss what we would like to discuss with them if given the opportunity and to read TOS Chapter 9. I did the first assignment over Spring Break (I was looking at the page anyways so I figured I would go ahead and knock it out), which you can read in my previous post. Now that I know that at least two of the three people I want to meet will be there on Thursday, I'm trying to make it my mission to find a way to be there Thursday. If I can't...I'll just have to hope they're there Friday as well.
The readings we have had to do in Teaching Open Source haven't been very lengthy, but I think this Chapter was by far the shortest Chapter we have had to read. I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to get from it besides how the book is written and how to gain access to it and its resources. The concept "release early, release often" is definitely not unfamiliar to me, but I believe this Chapter was just used to close the book and let us readers know how we can get access to it any other versions of it.
On a bright and sunny note, I was just recently accepted at North Carolina State for Graduate School (Ph.D. Computer Science Program)! :D Although my heart is still set on Georgia Tech (Go Yellow Jackets!), it feels good to know I got in somewhere and that that somewhere is actually a good school. Hopefully there will be more good news to come soon :)
Until next time...
The readings we have had to do in Teaching Open Source haven't been very lengthy, but I think this Chapter was by far the shortest Chapter we have had to read. I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to get from it besides how the book is written and how to gain access to it and its resources. The concept "release early, release often" is definitely not unfamiliar to me, but I believe this Chapter was just used to close the book and let us readers know how we can get access to it any other versions of it.
On a bright and sunny note, I was just recently accepted at North Carolina State for Graduate School (Ph.D. Computer Science Program)! :D Although my heart is still set on Georgia Tech (Go Yellow Jackets!), it feels good to know I got in somewhere and that that somewhere is actually a good school. Hopefully there will be more good news to come soon :)
Until next time...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
POSSCON Ahoy!
Hello all...it is nearing the time of POSSCON. Anyone reading this who does not know what POSSCON is should definitely check out this link. As part of our 462 curriculum, we are required to attend at least one day of POSSCON this year. I'm conflicted right now because the day I can attend the day I want to attend are two different things. I would LOVE to attend all three days, but this becomes difficult because of classes and things of that nature. Unfortunately the only day I can really go is Friday (labs have pretty strict attendance policies for some reason). I am, however, going to blog about the 3 presenters I really want to see (even though they will not be speaking or may not be there when I am)..I will also mention one or two from Friday, being that those are people I have a higher chance of meeting.
The three speakers that I would really enjoy getting the opportunity to meet with are Walter Bender, Leslie Hawthorn, and Bryant Patten. The main reason I would like to meet Walter Bender is because I am currently working on software for his organization (Sugar Labs). It would be interesting to hear straight from the horse's mouth what brought about the idea of Sugar Labs and what he expects to come from the organization. It would also be interested to find out his research background (being that I am interested in continuing research outside of undergrad) and see how big of a role it played in his career now.
Being that I am a female in technology, I feel it is only befitting for me to try and meet at least one female in technology. it doesn't look like any of the speakers for Friday are female, but hopefully there will still be people there from the previous days. Aside from her sex, I would really like to meet her to get to discuss with her exactly what it is she does. For our FOSS project, I am in charge of Outreach/Documentation so it would be interesting to find out what it's like for someone who does it for a living. Again, I am also interested in her research background and the role it has played in her current success.
Last, but not least, I would like to be able to meet Bryant Patten. The research I am currently involved with deals with educational software, as well as the software my team and I are working on, so it would behoove me to speak with him as well. I can definitely see myself working with educational software further down the road, so that is more incentive for me to meet him. I would love to know, as with the other two, his research background and whether it played a role in his career decision. Also, I wasn't able to find as much information on this speaker as the other two, so I would also be interested in finding out how his career got started as well as any advice he'd like to dish out.
There aren't many speakers on Friday, so I haven't quite decided which 3 I would like to meet...I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.
Until next time... :)
The three speakers that I would really enjoy getting the opportunity to meet with are Walter Bender, Leslie Hawthorn, and Bryant Patten. The main reason I would like to meet Walter Bender is because I am currently working on software for his organization (Sugar Labs). It would be interesting to hear straight from the horse's mouth what brought about the idea of Sugar Labs and what he expects to come from the organization. It would also be interested to find out his research background (being that I am interested in continuing research outside of undergrad) and see how big of a role it played in his career now.
Being that I am a female in technology, I feel it is only befitting for me to try and meet at least one female in technology. it doesn't look like any of the speakers for Friday are female, but hopefully there will still be people there from the previous days. Aside from her sex, I would really like to meet her to get to discuss with her exactly what it is she does. For our FOSS project, I am in charge of Outreach/Documentation so it would be interesting to find out what it's like for someone who does it for a living. Again, I am also interested in her research background and the role it has played in her current success.
Last, but not least, I would like to be able to meet Bryant Patten. The research I am currently involved with deals with educational software, as well as the software my team and I are working on, so it would behoove me to speak with him as well. I can definitely see myself working with educational software further down the road, so that is more incentive for me to meet him. I would love to know, as with the other two, his research background and whether it played a role in his career decision. Also, I wasn't able to find as much information on this speaker as the other two, so I would also be interested in finding out how his career got started as well as any advice he'd like to dish out.
There aren't many speakers on Friday, so I haven't quite decided which 3 I would like to meet...I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.
Until next time... :)
Thursday, March 3, 2011
TOS Ch. 8
Hello again...because we didn't have class on Tuesday, I'm not sure how class is going to go today...but I'm going to blog anyways. Our assignment for "today" was to read TOS Chapter 8 for our in-class exercise. This chapter was on documentation and ways of organizing a FOSS project. A lot of things discussed in this chapter are things either I had already been told a million times (i.e. Documentation is ALWAYS important) or things I had at least heard about previously. Overall I found the information very interesting. One thing I am very interested in learning more about is technical writing. I've heard how important it is and even had to write a couple of technical papers...but I'm not very experienced/knowledgeable in the area. Even though this wasn't really a lesson learned, the concept of a "brain dump" is hilarious to me (probably mostly because of what it's called). The concept behind the term is interesting as well of course :) . It is also interesting to think of documentation as being more than just in the code. After reading this, I can now understand how wikis, blogs, technical papers, etc. can be considered 'documentation' for a project, especially an open source project. These are all means of conveying information about the project for those using as well as contributing to it.
On another note, I am starting to get pretty excited about POSSCON...even though we still got about a month before we go, it's getting closer and closer. I still haven't been able to pick the three presenters/speakers I'm most interested in (there's just so many) but I'm sure I'll be able to narrow it down.. but until then, Spring Break is next week and it should be a nice, relaxing and well deserved break.
Until next time... :)
On another note, I am starting to get pretty excited about POSSCON...even though we still got about a month before we go, it's getting closer and closer. I still haven't been able to pick the three presenters/speakers I'm most interested in (there's just so many) but I'm sure I'll be able to narrow it down.. but until then, Spring Break is next week and it should be a nice, relaxing and well deserved break.
Until next time... :)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Almost halfway there...
Hello again all....there isn't much to report for myself at the moment. My team and I are waist deep in trying to figure out how we want to handle the rest of this semester. At the moment, we are planning to work on a few small tasks as opposed to one large task. The only large task we found that we may want to work on is ticket number 62 (Dungeon 3 stuck) on the active ticket list. The only problem with this is that we aren't exactly sure how to get to dungeon 3 (or out of dungeon '1' for that matter!). So instead, we're thinking we will organize our time to get a few things done this semester. If you're interested in the task we're considering taking on, check out our team wiki.
On another note, the semester is almost halfway over (hence the title of this post :) ). Spring Break is next week and after that, it's the grind to the finish (Class of 2011 of course!). I should begin hearing from Graduate Schools soon...and hopefully I won't get any more FALSE ACCEPTANCE EMAILS....yeah. NC State sent out an acceptance email to all Fall 2011 PH.D. applicants, following an email that instructs us to disregard said email....say what now? You know what that spells....f-i-r-e-d. Oh well, hopefully i'll be getting some big envelopes soon.
Jusqu'Ã la prochaine fois...
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Chapter 7 Exercises
Hello again! As I stated in my previous post, our current assignment is to read TOS Chapter 7 and do some of the exercises. After reading over the chapter before beginning the actual assignment was helpful because I got the opportunity to get a grasp on what was being discussed before I actually did it. Even though I had already used the diff command before, I got to learn how to do some things with the command that I never knew how to do before. For example, with the diff command, you are able to not only compare one file to another, but also compare files in directories if needed. I didn't have too much trouble follow along with the step by step walkthrough of creating patches.
We were assigned Exercises 7.2.2, 7.8 and 7.9.
Exercise 7.2.2 wasn't too difficult, after following along in the previous section, this exercise was actually fairly easy. The way that exercise 7.8 is worded is a little confusing to me, so it took me a while to do that one. I understand the concept of patches and how to create them, but the wording has me thrown off slightly. What I wound up doing (hopefully it's correct) was creating a file named bar with something in it and then copying it and its contents into a file names foo. I then ran the diff command with it's contents being sent into a file called foo-bar.patch. To be sure I was reading things correctly, I even read the question aloud to some folks to see how they interpreted it. Most interpreted it my way, so I stuck with it :).
Exercise 7.9 was a little more extensive so it took me the most time of the three. It wasn't any more difficult, however, because the step by step instructions given made it pretty clear what needed to be done. I was able to get everything to work properly.
Our team is now on our way to getting the rest of our semester planned. We have a few ideas on how we would like to contribute and will be posting them on our team wiki as we figure them out.
We were assigned Exercises 7.2.2, 7.8 and 7.9.
Exercise 7.2.2 wasn't too difficult, after following along in the previous section, this exercise was actually fairly easy. The way that exercise 7.8 is worded is a little confusing to me, so it took me a while to do that one. I understand the concept of patches and how to create them, but the wording has me thrown off slightly. What I wound up doing (hopefully it's correct) was creating a file named bar with something in it and then copying it and its contents into a file names foo. I then ran the diff command with it's contents being sent into a file called foo-bar.patch. To be sure I was reading things correctly, I even read the question aloud to some folks to see how they interpreted it. Most interpreted it my way, so I stuck with it :).
Exercise 7.9 was a little more extensive so it took me the most time of the three. It wasn't any more difficult, however, because the step by step instructions given made it pretty clear what needed to be done. I was able to get everything to work properly.
Our team is now on our way to getting the rest of our semester planned. We have a few ideas on how we would like to contribute and will be posting them on our team wiki as we figure them out.
Monday, February 21, 2011
TOS Ch. 7 & Team Bug Report
For our individual assignment for today, we were assigned to read TOS Chapter 7 on creating and submitting patches to open source projects. Before I began actually reading this, I thought I was about to learn about something that I had never learned before. After reading the first couple paragraphs and our brief discussion we had prior to doing this assignment, I now realize that I have indeed created a patch before. Another name for a patch is diff. I have had experience running the diff command in ubuntu terminal using a script from my previous software course CSCI 362 (Software Engineering). Doing this reading, however, gave me a deeper look into the proper way of using diff and patches in the open source community. The step by step instructions on how to create patches was very helpful as well..now that I've read through the chapter, I can go back and look at the Exercises and begin to figure those out.
As far as my team and I, we have been making pretty great progress. Our current assignment (which is due tomorrow) is to fix the bug we previously found and reported on. It didn't end up taking us as long as we thought it would. If you would like to see our bug report, please check out the First Bug page of our wiki. We not only share our solution, but the process we followed to get to the solution. We are currently trying to figure out what kind of major contribution we would like to make to the project. We're pretty proud of ourselves for fixing the bug, but we would like to try and do something a little different. For example, we were thinking we could work on some documentation to start out with and then possibly work on some graphics for the game, or even create our own portion/game within the game! The cards are still on the table, but hopefully we'll be able to come to a conclusion soon as a team.
Until next time folks...
As far as my team and I, we have been making pretty great progress. Our current assignment (which is due tomorrow) is to fix the bug we previously found and reported on. It didn't end up taking us as long as we thought it would. If you would like to see our bug report, please check out the First Bug page of our wiki. We not only share our solution, but the process we followed to get to the solution. We are currently trying to figure out what kind of major contribution we would like to make to the project. We're pretty proud of ourselves for fixing the bug, but we would like to try and do something a little different. For example, we were thinking we could work on some documentation to start out with and then possibly work on some graphics for the game, or even create our own portion/game within the game! The cards are still on the table, but hopefully we'll be able to come to a conclusion soon as a team.
Until next time folks...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Just some thoughts...
Hello again!
This blogging thing isn't quite as easy when there aren't assignments that have been made. As I mentioned in my previous post, the current team assignment to fix the bug of our choice. Now that this has been done, there hasn't been much more to do (next assignment hasn't been posted yet). We have decided to devote this extra time to finding things we can work on. Some ideas we've come across so far include working with some of the graphics, documentation, or possible even building our own mini-activity for use on the XO laptops. Besides that, everything is running smoothly. We even got the opportunity to Skype with Jonathan, the guy at RIT that has been helping us through all of this. We learned a lot more about the Math4 Team/Fortune Hunter project and got some helpful suggestions. I'm pretty excited about this project and I hope that my team and I get to make successful contributions to this team.
On another note, the 5th annual Computer Science Alumni Symposium was yesterday. I can honestly say it was the biggest crowd I've seen at any CS function (ACM meetings, etc.) There were students and professors alike there taking in all the valuable information the alumni had to offer. The guests ranged from businessmen to Ph.D. students, all having come from where we're coming from. It's almost inspiring. I even got to see an old friend in the process (Bobby Goodrich). I also can't forget to mention how amazing the bread that was provided for our sandwich making privileges really was. I heard that the wheat bread wasn't too great, but the white bread was perfect and I think I need to buy some.
That's all for now folks...until next time.
This blogging thing isn't quite as easy when there aren't assignments that have been made. As I mentioned in my previous post, the current team assignment to fix the bug of our choice. Now that this has been done, there hasn't been much more to do (next assignment hasn't been posted yet). We have decided to devote this extra time to finding things we can work on. Some ideas we've come across so far include working with some of the graphics, documentation, or possible even building our own mini-activity for use on the XO laptops. Besides that, everything is running smoothly. We even got the opportunity to Skype with Jonathan, the guy at RIT that has been helping us through all of this. We learned a lot more about the Math4 Team/Fortune Hunter project and got some helpful suggestions. I'm pretty excited about this project and I hope that my team and I get to make successful contributions to this team.
On another note, the 5th annual Computer Science Alumni Symposium was yesterday. I can honestly say it was the biggest crowd I've seen at any CS function (ACM meetings, etc.) There were students and professors alike there taking in all the valuable information the alumni had to offer. The guests ranged from businessmen to Ph.D. students, all having come from where we're coming from. It's almost inspiring. I even got to see an old friend in the process (Bobby Goodrich). I also can't forget to mention how amazing the bread that was provided for our sandwich making privileges really was. I heard that the wheat bread wasn't too great, but the white bread was perfect and I think I need to buy some.
That's all for now folks...until next time.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Ewwww....bugs...
Another week has gone by and lots of progress is being made with my team on our project. We haven't had any individual assignments in a while, but my team and I have been working very hard to get things rolling smoothly. Our next team assignment that's due is to fix the bug we chose to work on and then write up an experience report on how things went. Fortunately, my team and I have been working pretty hard and were able to get that done fairly quickly (being that it's not actually due until next week). It took us some time, but as we sat down longer and looked at the code more in depth, we began to see where things were getting confusing and why the bug was there to begin with. One of the major problems (and I think my team will agree with this as well) is that documentation isn't the best. On top of that, the way they're developing the project, there's so much to have to look through. We were told that we only needed to work on files in the MAFH2 folder, but some of the changes that really needed to be done involved files outside of MAFH2. However, once we noticed that the files were not communicating properly, we just moved some of the code needed to fix the bug over to our folder (MAFH2). This left us with duplicate code, so we may have to reevaluate our solution, but a solution was found and that's definitely a good start.
On another note, today we have the CS Alumni Symposium, which I am pretty excited about. I attended last year and learned a lot of valuable information (and also had a pretty fun time :) ). Hopefully this year will go as smoothly as last year did!
Until next time...
On another note, today we have the CS Alumni Symposium, which I am pretty excited about. I attended last year and learned a lot of valuable information (and also had a pretty fun time :) ). Hopefully this year will go as smoothly as last year did!
Until next time...
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Updates
Although I have not had any individual assignments, I've been busy working with my team on our project. Right now, we are working on a bug for our bug report. We have found the bug we want to work on and we are making some strides in figuring out the problem. It's turned out to be a little more difficult than any of us initially thought it would be, but you can check out our wiki to see updates on our progress.
As for myself, I have been busy working on this bug and trying to find a solution. We are unable to debug Python in Netbeans (which we had to figure out), but in searching the program files for the project, I was able to find some possible leads for the bug assignment. This is posted on the our team's wiki as well. There will be more here soon, as I work more on the project.
Side-note: I submitted my last graduate school application yesterday to UNC Charlotte...Now the wait...
As for myself, I have been busy working on this bug and trying to find a solution. We are unable to debug Python in Netbeans (which we had to figure out), but in searching the program files for the project, I was able to find some possible leads for the bug assignment. This is posted on the our team's wiki as well. There will be more here soon, as I work more on the project.
Side-note: I submitted my last graduate school application yesterday to UNC Charlotte...Now the wait...
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Chapter 6 Exercises
TOS Exercise 6.4
My team and I's project keeps a list of active tasks and bugs. There are currently only two bugs listed, but of the two the oldest bug in the project (Fortune Hunter) is the scan damage bug. In the game, when you encounter an "enemy", you are supposed to be able to attack them and scan them for how much damage has been done. In the game, you are able to fight the opponent, but when you scan them instead of telling you what their weakness is, it kills them. Even though this is the oldest bug, it is relatively recent (posted november 3, 2010). I believe it has not yet been resolved for a couple of reasons. One, I think it's still pretty new and there's still investigation being done into the root cause. Also, after looking at the code with my team and finding where the "scan damage" function is implemented, it's not as trivial to solve as my team and I thought it may be. It states clearly what it is supposed to say/do when the button is clicked in the code, but finding where something's going wrong seems to be a completely different story. These may be the reasons that my team and I decided to take on this bug for our next deliverable.
TOS Exercise 6.5
Before seeing this assignment, one of the main developers of Fortune Hunter already gave us the information we needed to make an account on the bug tracker. I thought I had done what I needed to do to have that, but when I went to try and login, it wouldn't let me. I didn't see a link on the page for registering either. I sent an email to the main developer (because he had said he was having some trouble with permissions and things) to see if that had anything to do with it or if I did something wrong...I'll update as soon as I hear back.
Just as an update, I finally heard back from Jonathan and have made an account with fedora to be able to access the trac list. The problem I am not running into is that I am not able to log in on the page with the active tickets. It asks me for my username and password, I put the ones I created with the link provided by Jonathan, but it keeps asking me to enter it so I never really get logged in. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm in the process of trying to figure it out.
TOS Exercise 6.6
Being that there are only two bugs in our project, my choices of a bugs to replicate are slim. The bug that my team chose I can definitely reproduce (it's not too difficult to terminate an object when a button is clicked). I cannot, however, reproduce it as it is written now because I have yet to find out how it is being caused now. The other bug, Dungeon 3 stuck seems like it would be the more difficult to not only reproduce, but to find the root cause of it now. In order for me to be able to try and reproduce a bug, it has to be taken care of first and I have not yet been able to figure out how to fix either of these bugs. If I do come across a solution, it will be posted here....
TOS Exercise 6.7
None of the bugs/tasks on the list are labeled new. The newest task was posted November 15, 2010. I'm not sure if I completely understand what it means to "triage" a bug. I understand what they're saying triaging includes, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to add any part that is not already there. The bugs that are on the trac list seemed to have already been triaged (labeled with the priority, understandable explanation of bug, etc.) The tasks as well are documented pretty well. Some of them could have been explained a lot better, however. Also, the bugs could have been described a little more in depth. The scan damage report did a good job of explaining the fact that the button doesn't work, but it doesn't explain what does happen when it's clicked. I feel like this is pretty important information if you want to fix the bug. Once I hear back from Jonathan about my account, I will be able to see if I can alter anything/work with the bug tracker.
Until next time...
My team and I's project keeps a list of active tasks and bugs. There are currently only two bugs listed, but of the two the oldest bug in the project (Fortune Hunter) is the scan damage bug. In the game, when you encounter an "enemy", you are supposed to be able to attack them and scan them for how much damage has been done. In the game, you are able to fight the opponent, but when you scan them instead of telling you what their weakness is, it kills them. Even though this is the oldest bug, it is relatively recent (posted november 3, 2010). I believe it has not yet been resolved for a couple of reasons. One, I think it's still pretty new and there's still investigation being done into the root cause. Also, after looking at the code with my team and finding where the "scan damage" function is implemented, it's not as trivial to solve as my team and I thought it may be. It states clearly what it is supposed to say/do when the button is clicked in the code, but finding where something's going wrong seems to be a completely different story. These may be the reasons that my team and I decided to take on this bug for our next deliverable.
TOS Exercise 6.5
Before seeing this assignment, one of the main developers of Fortune Hunter already gave us the information we needed to make an account on the bug tracker. I thought I had done what I needed to do to have that, but when I went to try and login, it wouldn't let me. I didn't see a link on the page for registering either. I sent an email to the main developer (because he had said he was having some trouble with permissions and things) to see if that had anything to do with it or if I did something wrong...I'll update as soon as I hear back.
Just as an update, I finally heard back from Jonathan and have made an account with fedora to be able to access the trac list. The problem I am not running into is that I am not able to log in on the page with the active tickets. It asks me for my username and password, I put the ones I created with the link provided by Jonathan, but it keeps asking me to enter it so I never really get logged in. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm in the process of trying to figure it out.
TOS Exercise 6.6
Being that there are only two bugs in our project, my choices of a bugs to replicate are slim. The bug that my team chose I can definitely reproduce (it's not too difficult to terminate an object when a button is clicked). I cannot, however, reproduce it as it is written now because I have yet to find out how it is being caused now. The other bug, Dungeon 3 stuck seems like it would be the more difficult to not only reproduce, but to find the root cause of it now. In order for me to be able to try and reproduce a bug, it has to be taken care of first and I have not yet been able to figure out how to fix either of these bugs. If I do come across a solution, it will be posted here....
TOS Exercise 6.7
None of the bugs/tasks on the list are labeled new. The newest task was posted November 15, 2010. I'm not sure if I completely understand what it means to "triage" a bug. I understand what they're saying triaging includes, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to add any part that is not already there. The bugs that are on the trac list seemed to have already been triaged (labeled with the priority, understandable explanation of bug, etc.) The tasks as well are documented pretty well. Some of them could have been explained a lot better, however. Also, the bugs could have been described a little more in depth. The scan damage report did a good job of explaining the fact that the button doesn't work, but it doesn't explain what does happen when it's clicked. I feel like this is pretty important information if you want to fix the bug. Once I hear back from Jonathan about my account, I will be able to see if I can alter anything/work with the bug tracker.
Until next time...
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
TOS Ch. 5: Freeciv project
Our assignment for this week was to visit the Freeciv page, download their code, and follow the Building instructions given in Section 5.4 in TOS. Getting the folder and everything wasn't that difficult (even though it did take a while with all the files in the folders). The difficulty came in when I started the building process. The text walks you through how to do everything (including dealing with errors that come up), but I found myself getting errors that weren't explained in the text and solutions that were given that didn't work. One thing the text mentioned that I had to go and do some research on is the idea of 'root' vs. regular user. To install a number of the things needed to configure the file, I had to figure out how to become the root (command line sudo -i ). In the process of installing everything, I would keep getting messages like 'No package so and so available.' and 'package so and so is not installed' even after I would have them installed. Sometimes I would also have to use the Synaptic Package Manager in order to install packages as opposed to terminal. Even though I kept getting these messages, when I went to go configure everything, the one thing that was missing was something the book didn't mention at all (libcurl development files). I tried installing it in terminal, with no success, so I then went into Synaptic and tried to install it myself. Everything I needed was there, but it wouldn't let me actually download it. So I went back to try terminal again, as the root this time, and typed sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev and tried to configure again and it worked beautifully. After that, all that was left to do was make the file and make sure everything was working (as the instructions in the text illustrated). I didn't have any problems making or running the project. Being that this project is written in C and the project I worked on last semester was written in C, it made it a littler easier to understand what was going on and how to fix problems that the text didn't account for.
Also, for an update pertaining to my team's issues with building and running our project, we heard back from Jon and found out that we were indeed missing some files. He told us what we needed to do but not how to do it, so I did some research and I think I may have found what I need to do to get the code to build/run in terminal. Don't forget to keep track of my team's work as well on our team wiki, where you can find more detailed reports and information.
More soon...
Also, for an update pertaining to my team's issues with building and running our project, we heard back from Jon and found out that we were indeed missing some files. He told us what we needed to do but not how to do it, so I did some research and I think I may have found what I need to do to get the code to build/run in terminal. Don't forget to keep track of my team's work as well on our team wiki, where you can find more detailed reports and information.
More soon...
Monday, January 31, 2011
Progress
This has been one busy weekend. Getting the code wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be. On top of that, a couple of my team members were sick this weekend so we didn't get to meet very much. We did get the opportunity, however, to decide that Fortune Hunter would be the way to go for our team to contribute to. Our decision may have been slightly swayed by the fact that PacMath was inactive and the one person who has consistently been keeping in touch with us works on Fortune Hunter. :) One of my team members, Jaime, also figured out how to get the code on ubuntu (and installing git, which is needed) and shared it with us.
I personally prefer to just be able to work on my mac (ubuntu gives me migraines unfortunately :/), so I had to do a little research myself into how to get things rolling on my mac. I started with some links that the guy from Fortune Hunter (Jonathan Meschino) gave our team. As I was installing the things on the list, I stumbled across a GUI called OpenInGitGui. I should go ahead and say that I put the link here, not because I am using it and think it's awesome, but because if anyone gets curious and can get it to function properly I would love to know how :) . I tried using it and it seemed pretty self-explanatory, but I kept getting errors telling me certain things didn't exist or they couldn't get access to them and it became more of a headache than it was actually worth. So I decided to go the terminal route and check out everything that way. The command to get the code in terminal was the same line that is used in linux to do so (which Jaime had already provided), so I was able to successfully (and semi-painlessly) get the code. Once I got the code, I also went ahead and made sure I could view the code and everything in Netbeans (my savior), which was easy enough. After all this, I'm just glad I get to work on my mac os this semester.
On a semi-unrelated side note, I paid my graduation fee today....it's that much closer. :)
'Til next time...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Subversion Test..1,2,3...
I can't believe how much progress my team and I are making on this project. Although we have yet to actually look at the code, our wiki is looking better than ever and we all work wonderfully together. Our next assignment is to check out the code and install what we need for our project...Once we get to that I will be sure to post information on that.
Our current assignment is to log into the 462 subversion repository and play around with it. At first, I was looking at this with another classmate and we were confused as to how to use Subversion. I've used subversion clients before, but I've never used them and Subversion. After figuring some tweeking and asking some questions, I figured out that I can view things with Subversion, but I need an actual client with a GUI in order to add/delete folders or files or anything like that. I created a folder called brittany with a text file in it called FYI. Once I added the folder/file, it immediately showed up in my web browser on Subversion.
We also had to read the Subversion book Chapters 1-4. I've already read parts of this book when I first started working with CIRDLES, but re-reading/looking over it again may be a good refresher. We also were assigned to read TOS Ch. 4. I haven't gotten to finish the readings yet, but I'm sure they will be very helpful/informative.
More to come soon...
Our current assignment is to log into the 462 subversion repository and play around with it. At first, I was looking at this with another classmate and we were confused as to how to use Subversion. I've used subversion clients before, but I've never used them and Subversion. After figuring some tweeking and asking some questions, I figured out that I can view things with Subversion, but I need an actual client with a GUI in order to add/delete folders or files or anything like that. I created a folder called brittany with a text file in it called FYI. Once I added the folder/file, it immediately showed up in my web browser on Subversion.
We also had to read the Subversion book Chapters 1-4. I've already read parts of this book when I first started working with CIRDLES, but re-reading/looking over it again may be a good refresher. We also were assigned to read TOS Ch. 4. I haven't gotten to finish the readings yet, but I'm sure they will be very helpful/informative.
More to come soon...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
New team name...the Math Squad??
It seems as if I can't escape programming for mathematical purposes. First CIRDLES and now this...I think I've found my calling :). As I stated in my previous blog, my team (4's Company) is going to work with Sugar Labs on their Math4 Project. We have been in the process of learning more about our project, things like its history, who the important people are, what their goals are, etc. I can't speak for my whole team on this, but I can say the more I read the more excited I got. The project itself is very well organized and the people involved are as helpful as ever. If you check out our team wiki, you can see some of the information we were able to dig up on the project. Although this is only the beginning, I believe this going to be a great and successful project.
I would also like to note that I am very happy with who I've been grouped with for this assignment. We all just seem to agree on things concerning management of the team and project. We all contribute equally and we don't have to meet everyday to get things done. I have a good feeling about it and I can't wait to see how this project unfolds!
Stay tuned...
I would also like to note that I am very happy with who I've been grouped with for this assignment. We all just seem to agree on things concerning management of the team and project. We all contribute equally and we don't have to meet everyday to get things done. I have a good feeling about it and I can't wait to see how this project unfolds!
Stay tuned...
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Project Progress...
The decision has been made! My team will be working with Sugar Labs on their Math4 Project. My tema and I are very excited about working on this project and learning more about it along the way. Our first assignment is to 1) find an IRC client and investigate and 2) sign up for the mailing list and check out some threads.
Lucky for our team, Sugar Labs has a page dedicated to the communication channels used when contributing to their project. The first thing we decided to do was actually make a team email address, that way we could use it to sign up for the mailing list and everyone would have access to what everyone was working on. Once we got that done, I went ahead and sent an email to add a thread to the list and see who I heard back from. Within an hour I heard back from someone. I got an almost overwhelming welcome for 4 different contributors to the Math4 Project. Everyone was friendly, welcoming, and willing to help me help them in any way they could. I even got links from a few people that would help my team in future assignments. I also looked at some of the threads that were already there but it ended up being much more productive to try and talk to some people as well.
We also found links to IRC clients on the communication channels page. I decided to check out the web-based chat called qwebirc where you can pick any username and the channel you want to join and it connects you right to it. The interface isn't much, but it does what it's supposed to. I decided to check out the sugar-newbies channel (being that I am a newbie). It was fairly simple to use and I even got to talk to a couple of people. There wasn't much activity going on, but I got a feel for what to expect when using it later.
On a side note, we also had to read The Cathedral and the Bazaar and blog our reflections. Although it was a lot of reading, the concept of hacking and open-source software being related is something I never thought of before reading this. It was also interesting seeing the comparisons in styles of developing software, particularly that of Linux which I don't know much about. The lessons given were for the most part familiar. There were familiar concepts from readings I did in 362, and they even quoted one of my favorite readings "The Mythical Man-Month". I didn't fully read everything, but I did understand the lessons being taught.
Next step, full report...more to come soon!
Lucky for our team, Sugar Labs has a page dedicated to the communication channels used when contributing to their project. The first thing we decided to do was actually make a team email address, that way we could use it to sign up for the mailing list and everyone would have access to what everyone was working on. Once we got that done, I went ahead and sent an email to add a thread to the list and see who I heard back from. Within an hour I heard back from someone. I got an almost overwhelming welcome for 4 different contributors to the Math4 Project. Everyone was friendly, welcoming, and willing to help me help them in any way they could. I even got links from a few people that would help my team in future assignments. I also looked at some of the threads that were already there but it ended up being much more productive to try and talk to some people as well.
We also found links to IRC clients on the communication channels page. I decided to check out the web-based chat called qwebirc where you can pick any username and the channel you want to join and it connects you right to it. The interface isn't much, but it does what it's supposed to. I decided to check out the sugar-newbies channel (being that I am a newbie). It was fairly simple to use and I even got to talk to a couple of people. There wasn't much activity going on, but I got a feel for what to expect when using it later.
On a side note, we also had to read The Cathedral and the Bazaar and blog our reflections. Although it was a lot of reading, the concept of hacking and open-source software being related is something I never thought of before reading this. It was also interesting seeing the comparisons in styles of developing software, particularly that of Linux which I don't know much about. The lessons given were for the most part familiar. There were familiar concepts from readings I did in 362, and they even quoted one of my favorite readings "The Mythical Man-Month". I didn't fully read everything, but I did understand the lessons being taught.
Next step, full report...more to come soon!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Down to the wire...
After doing a little more research into the final 3 projects my team and I chose, I have been able to narrow down my interests. For each of the final 3, I looked into the various ways to get involved. I am most interested in working on developing code for the projects, so I focused on development opportunities. The project that interests me the most so far is the Math4 Project (Sugar Labs). I am also interested in creating an Activity for Sugar Labs and their software. After looking at some of the resources provided, it seems like creating an Activity could be a fun way to get involved.
Even though these are my favorites, I did see quite a few interesting projects for One Laptop Per Child. A couple that really caught my eye were Write, a collaborative word processor, and Free Fome Malaria, a game teaching the importance of protecting yourself from Malaria.
I'll be posting more information soon....stay tuned folks!
Even though these are my favorites, I did see quite a few interesting projects for One Laptop Per Child. A couple that really caught my eye were Write, a collaborative word processor, and Free Fome Malaria, a game teaching the importance of protecting yourself from Malaria.
I'll be posting more information soon....stay tuned folks!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Initial Progress
Although it is only the second day of class, a lot of individual and team progress has been made. Individually, blogs have been put up and posts have been posted. The most progress that has been made has been made on my team, 4's company. In case anyone is wondering why we're called "4's Company", there's 1 male and 3 females in our group. We got the idea from the old T.V show 3's Company (if you haven't heard of it, you should Google it...pretty good show).
Today we got the opportunity to get together and begin to discuss potential projects to work this semester. After each of us considered our individual interests and then came together, we realized that we all were interested in working on similar projects. We finally were able to narrow our choices down to three:
Sugar Labs
OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)
OO4Kids ("OpenOffice for Kids")
The Flux Capacitors, which includes my arch nemesis Alex Johnson ( :D ) has chosen the same three as we have...but I believe we have decided to settle our differences and keep our same ones and work around it. (love you Alex)
Our next move is to figure out which of these three projects interests us the most, and give more detail on it. Brief descriptions of each of our top three are located in our team Wiki (the link is in the upper right hand corner under 'CSCI462 Links'). You can also visit the websites and see for yourself what they're all about.
I think I myself am leaning more towards working with Sugar Labs, especially since that would still give us the opportunity to work with OLPC.
I am open to any input or anything from anyone...this is going to be a long, fun semester :)
Today we got the opportunity to get together and begin to discuss potential projects to work this semester. After each of us considered our individual interests and then came together, we realized that we all were interested in working on similar projects. We finally were able to narrow our choices down to three:
Sugar Labs
OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)
OO4Kids ("OpenOffice for Kids")
The Flux Capacitors, which includes my arch nemesis Alex Johnson ( :D ) has chosen the same three as we have...but I believe we have decided to settle our differences and keep our same ones and work around it. (love you Alex)
Our next move is to figure out which of these three projects interests us the most, and give more detail on it. Brief descriptions of each of our top three are located in our team Wiki (the link is in the upper right hand corner under 'CSCI462 Links'). You can also visit the websites and see for yourself what they're all about.
I think I myself am leaning more towards working with Sugar Labs, especially since that would still give us the opportunity to work with OLPC.
I am open to any input or anything from anyone...this is going to be a long, fun semester :)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
First Impressions
After the first day of this course, I can see that I am going to thoroughly enjoy it. My classmates are a familiar group of people that I have had at least one other course with, so working together should not be a problem for anyone. I am very excited about my team (4's Company) and what we will accomplish this semester.
The first individual assignment is to read Teaching Open Source Chapters 1 and 2 and to, of course, create this blog. Teaching Open Source seems to be a great resource for learning how to work with open source software in a team development environment.
Our first team assignment is to decide on some FOSS projects that interest us and write about it on our team wiki (which we were also assigned to create).
More updates to come soon...
The first individual assignment is to read Teaching Open Source Chapters 1 and 2 and to, of course, create this blog. Teaching Open Source seems to be a great resource for learning how to work with open source software in a team development environment.
Our first team assignment is to decide on some FOSS projects that interest us and write about it on our team wiki (which we were also assigned to create).
More updates to come soon...
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