Programmingravenclaw - Code On

"Stop beating yourself up. You are a work in progress - which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once."

- Unknown

Margaret Hamilton (b. 1936) is a computer scientist and engineer who, as Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, played an important part in the Apollo space programme. Her division was responsible for developing the onboard flight software for the missions that put the first men on the Moon, and she was the supervisor and lead programmer of the project.

She graduated with a degree in abstract mathematics, during a time when computer science and software engineering were not yet disciplines in their own right. She worked for the SAGE Project, used by the military in aircraft defense. Since 1986 she has been the CEO of Hamilton Technologies, an organization which she founded.

Roses are #FF0000

Violets are #0000FF

I’m in physics and I’ve turned into a nerd

hi! i was wondering what are some of the most helpful resources you've found on data structures and algorithms? i took the class in college, but didn't do so well, so i'd like to relearn it on my own time. also, i love reading all your updates on coding, you offer an interesting perspective!

What are some resources to learn Data Structures?

DAY 584

Hi Anon,

I’m glad you enjoy the blog!

I’ve been meaning to put together a larger list (there are so so many to wade through), but the vast majority of what I’ve learned so far has come from the same two resources:

Lynda.com - Foundations of Programming/Data Structures

Edx - cs50/Week 5: Data Structures

I’ve also heard good things about this course, but haven’t started it yet:

Coursera - Princeton University/Algorithms: Part 1

Lynda.com membership costs money, but is free with a paid LinkedIn membership, and is often free with a local library membership (ask at your library).

The course is only 2.5 hours so it should also fit easily within the 10 day free trial. I had heard a lot of rave reviews about Simon Allardice as a teacher, and I looked him up specifically. He really is great and I enjoy his lectures a lot.

So, when I was doing my thesis on whether or not fanfiction should be considered a legitimate genre of literature, my advising professor asked me for examples.  I gave him the generic ones, of course - “Pride & Prejudice and Zombies” is a horror fanfic of “Pride & Prejudice”, “50 Shades of Grey” is an erotica fic of “Twilight" - and that seemed to make him understand what fanfiction is, but not how it’s useful.  So I thought about it, and, after about a minute, I said, “Paradise Lost is basically a fanfiction of the Book of Genesis.  And The Divine Comedy is an epic self-insertion fic for Catholic doctrine.  So, basically, you were teaching us fanfiction last semester.”  I had never before seen a grown man’s eyes widen with such fear, incomprehension, disgust, awe, and understanding.

me: starts looking at material for my programming languages class next quarter

me: stops looking

How can it be such a stupid error if I had to search three hours to find it?

Probably every programmer ever (via fyeahcode)

People think coding / debugging means highly concentrated furious typing, but mostly it’s just angrily staring at the screen for long periods of time waiting for the problem to solve itself

6 Things I Learned From Studying For Exams in College

If you skip a topic or don’t study it thoroughly enough because you think it won’t be on the exam, it will be. Study that in particular so you won’t be surprised when it shows up as the first question. Unless your professor explicitly states that it won’t be on the exam, don’t skip any topics.

Put aside the content you’re comfortable and familiar with and start studying the things you don’t know. It’s hard and time consuming but that’s where the actual learning happens.

Start studying at least 4 days in advance. I always regret not starting earlier when I’m at the library 24 hours before the exam and not even close to being done. When I’m having trouble focusing, I’ll sit there and imagine myself an hour before the exam scrambling to finish up a topic, wishing that I had these extra few minutes, hours, or days that I have now. Take advantage of the time you have right now.

Changing up my location helps a lot when I’m studying. If I study in the same corner at the library, eventually my brain will start associating that spot with everything I do in that chair, including wasting time. For me, new location + new material = focus. A few location ideas: a quiet corner in the library, a noisy floor in the library, at your desk at home, a room with a view of the outdoors from high up, a bench/table outside, a cafe or brunch place.

Stay on top of studying and homework from day 1, not after syllabus week and not a month into the semester. When you submit a homework assignment, make it a point to 100% understand everything you just handed in. Homework is assigned for a reason; they’re meant as practice exercises for the material you learned and exams often mimic them. Once you hand in homework, you should know and understand the material. This saves you time when it’s finals week and you have old and new material to study.

Well before the exam, make a list of topics you don’t understand and get your questions answered. There have been so many times where I didn’t fully understand something and thought, “It’s okay, they’re probably not going to ask that,” and it shows up on the exam. When you get your question answered, branch out and ask things like, “What if it weren’t this particular situation/these particular numbers but a different one instead. How would you work through it this time?” (physics/math) or “What caused that/what came after that as a result?” (history). Try to understand all possible scenarios if you can.