Random Thoughts from a Computer Science Student…

I just wanted to share with you another cool tool that I’ve been using: MacFuse and SSHFS.

With this very neat program, you can use SSH as a means to mount a remote filesystem.  In a lot of circumstances, the only way  you might have to access another machine is via SSH.  There are native tools on OS X (Tiger and Leopard) to copy files from one system to another.  Native command line tools like ftp and scp are among them.  Of course, those tools don’t allow you to integrate a remote filesystem into the current one on your machine in a seamless fashion.

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Not that I think I’ll get any. As it turns out, my EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) is much higher than the Cost of Attendance at Harvard Extension. The main reason that I did it is because I then qualify to obtain student loans and as an “independent” student, I can borrow more than a “dependent” student, even if my EFC is too high.

Like many people employed full time, I get some tuition assistance from my employer. In my case, I get about $8000 per year to attend school. As long as I get a B or better in the classes, they pick up the tab for tuition, fees, and books.

Of course, I need to pay the tuition in the meantime. As it turns out, my current method (using a credit card) is costing me too much in interest during the term. I’ve decided to investigate using student loans to help with that financing. If all goes well, I’ll be able to pay them off at the end of the term and leave with a zero balance. Of course, I can always just consolidate the new loans with some old ones I have. It turns out that the interest rates are really pretty low right now, especially compared to credit cards. As long as you are enrolled in a degree program at an approved school, you can borrow money to go.

This kind of financing will be even more important once I apply to graduate school. Classes at the school I’m looking at cost about $4K each which is a lot to carry on a credit card for 4 months.  What will probably happen is that I’ll run up some student loan debt and then get a direct federal consolidation loan to roll it all into one payment.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

FAFSA Application

May the Harvard Force be With You!

I actually understood some of that without looking at the subtitles.  How nerdy is that?

A recent article discusses a worrisome trend in computer science education:

It is all about programming! Over the last few years we have noticed worrisome trends in CS education. The following represents a summary of those trends:

1. Mathematics requirements in CS programs are shrinking.
2. The development of programming skills in several languages is giving way to cookbook approaches using large libraries and special-purpose packages.
3. The resulting set of skills is insufficient for today’s software industry (in particular for safety and security purposes) and, unfortunately, matches well what the outsourcing industry can offer. We are training easily replaceable professionals.

These trends are visible in the latest curriculum recommendations from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Curriculum 2005 does not mention mathematical prerequisites at all, and it mentions only one course in the theory of programming languages.

Any individual who has spent as many years working on a CS degree as I have can tell you that there is a distinct difference in the way that Computer Science is taught now as compared to how it used to be taught. I’ve certainly noticed a difference. It’s important to quantify that difference before we decide if its a positive trend or a negative trend.

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As you might guess, there is a bit of confusion regarding the degree programs from the Harvard Extension School. I was in my first semester at HES when the following article was printed in the New York Times:

Harvard, for Less: Extension Courses’ New Allure

One of my professors was interviewed for the article. His impression was that the reporter was trying to get him to admit that the program wasn’t as rigorous as the regular Harvard College classes.

For instance:

At Harvard, although extension students must maintain a C average and fulfill language, science and math requirements, they may deal with the perception that they are not full-fledged Harvard citizens.”Some people are like, ‘What are you exactly?’ ” Ms. Shortill said. “But some people are like, ‘Oh my goodness, you can do that? Wow, that was really smart of you to figure that out.’ “

It’s a topic that is endlessly discussed on various college websites whenever the school is mentioned.

I’m going to list a few reasons why I think that you can make a strong case that the degree you earn from Harvard Extension is comparable in many respects to the degrees you earn from the other undergraduate and graduate schools at Harvard.

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Just in case you were wondering if getting a degree would improve your job prospects:

Man in Yellow Dog Mascot Suit

I’m not trying to pick on the guy but that couldn’t have been his first career choice.

One suggestion that I received from another student when I told them of my plan to take classes online was to investigate a product called 2xAV by Enounce.

In simple terms, what it does is speed up the playback of video streamed over the Internet. I was skeptical at first but the instant I used this product on a real class I knew I was hooked. It was the best $29.95 I spent. Videos can be played back at significantly faster rates with no loss of intelligibility.

To give you an idea of how valuable this feature is, consider that many classes offered at Harvard Extension are streamed via RealPlayer over a broadband connection and last around 2 hours per class. Each video section is about an hour long.

With 2xAV, I can regularly speed up my videos 1.5 times normal rate and watch those videos in 40 minutes. That’s about 80 minutes versus 120. For some classes where the professor has a particular slow style of speech, I’ve been able to speed up the video two times normal speed! That’s an extra hour!

The best part of this is that you find yourself actually getting more out of the videos because all of the distracting pauses are eliminated. You can’t drift off because the pace of the lecture keeps you engaged.

If you plan to do a significant amount of your coursework over the Internet, you owe it to yourself to investigate this tool. It works on Real and Windows Media codecs (but they are two separate products) and doesn’t require you to download the video to speed it up. It’ll work on streamed video.

If I’m honest, I wish the program (which is a plugin for your media players) was more robust. I encountered some minor problems the first time I installed it but was able to get it working in short order.

I also wish that they developed support for Flash video players. Harvard is experimenting with Flash-based streaming of videos and that doesn’t work with this tool. Unless they drop Real entirely, I’ll probably stick with the provided Real streams. I find that they look better at the higher bitrates and the usefulness of this tool is too much to ignore for some minor Flash convenience.

If you’re constantly looking for a way to cut down the time required to get through the lectures, you owe it to yourself to investigate this tool. I give it my endorsement.

2xAV Plug-in
Enounce

A recent submission on Reddit asked if it was better to quit a job to attend a top 20 CS program or to keep the job and commute part-time to a local school that’s ranked 60th or 70th.

First, setting aside all of my misgivings about how poorly the common school rankings fail to measure the suitability of a particular program for anyone, if you’re already employed in the field of IT or in a technology position, it’s my opinion that leaving a paying job that you enjoy to take up an undergraduate or graduate course of study is a mistake, no matter what the school. Your situation might differ, but once you’re in the field, the name on your diploma begins to matter less and less. The common refrain is that your school pedigree is only important in landing that first job. I have to say that my experience mirrors this sentiment.

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It’s finals season for Harvard.

Examinations for Harvard Extension run through Jan. 8–10 and Jan. 14–19. When everyone else is enjoying the holiday season, HES students are worrying about finals.

One of the tough parts about being a distance student is that you have to find your own proctors. I have been using a guidance counselor that is attached to the adult education section of the public school system where I live but I recently found out that one of my finals is scheduled for a Saturday. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be available which means I have to find someone else who can be a proctor.

I’m pretty sure that I can line up a proctor for the exam. If I don’t, it means I’m going to have to travel up to Boston to sit for it. That would be expensive but do-able. The biggest concern is the time and hassle of traveling. Final exams are stressful enough without having to add travel stress on top of it. Travel for me means flying which is no picnic these days. Even though it’s only a one-hour flight, the time and effort of getting to the airport can really put you into a sour mood.

I had to do this one time before when it turned out that I was going to have to work in the Boston area during the time when my exam was scheduled. Since I live in the DC area, if I can find a proctor I don’t have to visit campus to take tests. If I lived in the 6-state area called New England, attendance in-person is mandatory.

All things being equal, I prefer using a proctor. It’s less stress on me. I make an appointment for the exam and I have the room all to myself.

I’ll let you know how the weekend exam goes.

Besides telling you about what it’s like to be a CS student trying to complete a bachelors degree via distance ed, I’d like to share tips for getting academic work done easier and faster. At the top of the list for students of computer science is this: learn how to write papers in LaTeX.

One of the features of a true computer science program is that a lot of the courses are theory-heavy. That is, they don’t deal with computers or languages as much as they deal with the ideas behind how to compute things. As you might expect, there is a good deal of math involved in this. Discrete mathematics, data structures, and analysis of algorithms are the foundation of a true computer science degree. If you’re involved in these classes, you’re going to find yourself dealing with some pretty hairy formulas and symbols that aren’t necessarily part of any word processing program. It doesn’t matter how well you know Word, it isn’t going to make your job any easier.

My introduction to LaTeX (which is pronounced lay-tek) was a class called “Introduction to Cryptography.” Not knowing any better, I did my first homework assignment in Word and it was a royal pain in the ass. The main problem came from trying to enter in all of the formulas and then edit and align them so they looked decent. I became frustrated and asked my TF for a suggestion. He clued me in to LaTeX.

LaTeX can best be described as a programming language for documents. You use a special markup language (similar to HTML) to enter text and formulas and specify the formatting of a document. It sounds complicated (and it is) but once you know it, it’s easy to create documents with very complex formulas in a snap.

Here’s an example:

And another:

,

One more:

See what I mean? Try doing that in Word. You can, but it’ll take you a lot longer and be much more frustrating to accomplish.

If you want to save time, invest a little now and learn LaTeX. LaTeX has a bit of a learning curve but it’s not impossible. You can get started writing documents in a day or two but you’ll need a reference book to really get the most out of it. I recommend two particular texts: The LaTeX Companion and Math Into LaTeX.

Your professors, TF, and classmates are probably using it already. Free implementations are everywhere. Learn it. You’ll thank me.