Scrapbook 1 - Comcast hasn't figured out how to count

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/tales-from-comcasts-data-cap-nation-can-the-meter-be-trusted/

1) This article is talking about Comcast charging a customer for using 3TB of data during one month and charging the customer $50 per 10 GB over the 300GB cap. Customer service was unhelpful despite the fact that this kind of usage would require somebody watching HD video 33 hours a day for the entire month. It turns out in the shocking Shyamalan-esque twist of the century, Comcast had incorrectly recorded the customers mac address and that a small family of three people did not use enough data to run a small business.

2) I chose this article for two reasons. First, access to the internet is one of the most valuable resources on the planet. Anything that makes that more difficult or expensive is a very dangerous and relevant topic. Secondly, I have and hate Comcast.

3) I have to admit, the sources for this particular article are not particularly credible. While the article does include photos and screen grabs of the exorbitant bills received by the customer and a quote from Comcast admitting their mistake, much of the content is derived from consumer testimony.

4) Telecom company's have found a way to act like drug cartels except they do not have to kill people. Often times people have no alternative provider to switch to and are stuck with the terrible treatment of their area's major provider. This is an example of a company behaving unethically by holding an extremely valuable resource hostage.

Week 4

So this week was a mixed bag. I seriously need to get my CSUMB hosting up and running as the course work is getting more complicated, spending several hours trying to jury rig an analogue with the worlds cheapest web hosting is becoming less and less viable as a strategy. On the bright side, I'm really excited with the coursework. All of the work I had previously done with HTML and web development in general was with an extremely constrained environment. Having access to a completely unrestrained environment is like taking off the training wheels. There is so much potential and cool stuff to be done.

Week 3 - PHP and Forms

This week I got to learn a little bit more about back end web development. It was a bit of a struggle for me especially compared to last week because I was already pretty experienced with html with my last job giving me a head start in the class. However, I had never used PHP before and found myself making classing programming day 1 style mistakes. It was certainly a good learning experience though and a good reminder that I am an idiot. Don't get me wrong, I think I'm a pretty smart guy but it is always good to remember that nobody on the planet is immune for making stupid mistakes every once in a while.

Week 2 - Introduction to PHP

PHP is awesome. I desperately wanted something like this at my last job. Unfortunately, php was not supported on the platform the website I was responsible for was on so I was extremely constrained in the amount of stuff I could do. I have always enjoyed scripting languages and PHP is no exception. I can think of some pretty cool ideas for different ways this could be implemented so I can't wait to see what else we can use this for. It is also making me excited for JavaScript because I like the idea of something I create running right there in a web browser.

Week 1 - Basic HTML and CSS

This week's content got me very excited about this class. I have experience with HTML from a previous internship so I am looking forward to learning the material in a formal setting. My previous training consisted of my boss walking into my office and saying

"Hey Kev, you're building this website now. You should probably learn some HTML. I need it done in two weeks."

It was nice to learn this stuff academically instead of just hacking together stuff that just kind of worked at 4AM.

Week 15 - Finished

This was a pretty fun class. I enjoy programming so needless today I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the writing class. I learned quite a bit about how to program in python as well as how to work with images and audio; something I had never done before. As for my future career, I was not planning on ending up in any kind of multimedia work so that is not terribly useful but python is everywhere so being familiar with it is definitely helpful.

Advice for future students would be to make sure to save your code since about a third of the labs are basically restructures of stuff you have done in a previous lab.

Week 14 - Heavy Lifting

I absolutely loved the assignments this week. Nothing but coding and it was all new challenges for me and the team. This was the kind of week that makes me happy I have chosen this major. Lots of fun problem solving and lateral thinking. I hope more weeks are like this. I am a little worried about the final project since it seems pretty ambitious but I'm sure our team will do fine.

Week 13 - Adventure Time!

Oh I hate myself for titling this blog after such a terrible show but it is fitting none the less. This week was our first big project as a team. I am a very happy with how it turned out but a little disappointed with my own contribution. Of course, there have been weeks where I did my fair share and some extra but it never feels good to feel like you aren't pulling your own weight. I hope for the next big project I can contribute in a big way.

Week 12 probably - Midterm Complete

Rough week in the town of Kevsville. Work went nuts and as I am writing this, I have had four hours of sleep out of the last 60. On the bright side that should subside and this weekend I am in a Hearthstone tournament like an adult person should be. As far as what I've been studying, this week we delved into audio which was really cool for me because it isn't pictures. I got to write some new code and felt like I learned a lot.

Week 11 - More of the same

Hey folks, this will be a relatively short post since not much has changed. Although this might mark a landmark week for how little new code I actually had to write. Quite a bit of this week was mostly about combining techniques used in previous labs. Again I understand the necessity but I see myself as a Sherlock Holmes except way dumber and way less sexy. I like to solve problems and this kind of stuff is more akin to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I am excited for the midterm project as that will necessitate something new and I am also excited to work with my partner who's pretty awesome. So next week thinks will all be coming up Kev!

Week 10: The Grind

This week was a little rough for me. I felt like the labs had a lot of the "Now do the same thing for these other fifty nearly identical situations" in them. I suppose it is good because with us being so early in our understanding of python, rote practice and repetition helps drive home the basics but still, I get bored pretty easily.

Two things any readers can take away from this.

1) I have have practice altering one picture and one color, I don't feel like I need to practice altering a different picture and a different color in basically the same way. For huge portions of this weeks' assignments, I just copy pasted my code and changed one color to another.

2) I will take almost any opportunity to whine about a first world problem.

I ended up having fun with it though. I decided to investigate the mythical Ballmer's Peak. For the uninitiated, the Ballmer's Peak is when a programmer consumes the proper amount of alcohol to become uninhibited enough to think creatively, but not so inebriated that he or she vomits on the keyboard and loses complete control of their motor functions. I am not sure if I hit the peak after four martinis but I definitely had a good time during the investigation. Further research may be required.

Week 9 - Python

This week I got a crash course in python. I had always been interested in this language but slightly too lazy to ever take the plunge and learn it myself. After this primer, I am very excited to move forward. I also need to thank my original java professor for forcing us to have very good code style and indents since that basically replaces brackets in python.

Struggles were definitely adapting to the new course. I did not realize I was taking a quiz in the workbooks until after my first one. Thankfully, I did fine but it still threw me for a loop. I will definitely have to look at the assigned readings much more carefully to make sure I don't miss anything.

Extra Credit - Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success

Book Report:

Keys to Success by Napoleon Hill is a self help book designed to help the reader succeed at whatever task they have before them. The chapters are broken down into individual steps each with a self contained piece of advice that is relatively self contained but all advice in all chapters have a synergistic effect with one another. For example, defining purpose and making a plan is good even if the reader does not take care of their body and health.

Worth noting about this book is that Hill is not afraid to talk about or even embrace the darker side of human nature. Even in the first chapter, he states that all rewards are related to or derivations of

Self Preservation
Love
Fear
Sex
Desire for life after death
Freedom for mind and body
Anger
Hate
Desire for recognition and self expression
Wealth

This is particularly noteworthy because several self help books tend to read like they were written by a person who overindulged in drugs in the 60s. Talking about how the most important thing is love and to come together. This book is actually focused on results and is more than happy to say that often times in a situation like a start up, wealth is the primary motivator and that as a leader, you should be generous with that wealth not because it is the right thing to do but because it will inspire your team to make you more money. Even the chapter "Use Cosmic Habitforce" which definitely sounds like a Pink Floyd song written under the effects of powerful psychedelic drugs is just a chapter about how to use the fact that things are influenced by their environment to your advantage.

Another worthwhile thing to point out is that this book focuses on actually making a change to the personality of the reader. Many self help books are not actually meant to help anybody, they are meant to make the reader feel better about themselves and not actually improve anything. It is the classic 90's movie delusion of "Just be yourself and everything will turn out fine." Well I was an antisocial chain smoker who drank too much and was really mean to people for no reason other than mean spirited cheap laughs. My life turned around when I decided to actually make a positive step towards being a better person. Adapting my personality to the world instead of expecting the world to adapt to my personality and true to the promises made in Hill's book; it worked.

Many chapters of the book are like exactly what one would expect from a self help book as many characteristics of successful people are simple ideas but difficult execution. Chapters like going the extra mile are obvious but worth reminding the reader that working hard is a major component of success. Something difficult like running a marathon is not a difficult concept. Run until you cant run anymore for a few months and then on the day of the race, run 26.2 miles without stopping. Very simple concept but actually enduring the pain and agony of running every morning is brutal when Netflix and a soft bed are just a stones throw away

Overall, this book is the standard recipe for success with a health dose of honesty. It is focused on driving results and living a healthy lifestyle without pandering to the target audience of self help books. It reads almost like an academic study rather than something passed off to the run of the mill Barnes and Noble bottom feeder. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Critique:

When I first got the assignment to read a self help book, I was definitely not looking forward to it. Due to my narcissism I felt like it was going to be a stupid waste of time I do for the extra credit. I fully expected to read a bunch of things I know to be false about loving every part of yourself and how love conquers everything. However, I was pleasantly surprised as Hill's book was much more honest than any self help book has any right to be.

Hill is not interested in catering to anybody's feelings and gives people a no nonsense approach to achieving whatever the readers goal might be. He embraces the dark side of human nature without judgement and recognizes things like the fact that some people just want sex and money, not some high minded ideal about changing the world for the better.

Also the section that I really like was the one about taking care of your body. It is important to understand the relationship between one's body and one's mind. If you work hard and exercise to take care of yourself physically, you have a tendency to do better in all areas of your life. Having been in great shape as a collegiate tennis player and in terrible shape as am obese chain smoker, I understand this concept better than most and found Hill's thoughts to be spot on.

Week 7 - Long Few Days

Part One

So our video planning this week was relatively uneventful since we accidentally did it last week. But like most things with this group, we decided quickly and efficiently. Our topic of choice is Cloud Computing and it's business implications. We figured this would be an interesting topic not just for those with an extensive technical background, but also a person with a more limited understanding of programming and technology in general

Part Two

Watching the presenters on those TED talks is an invaluable asset to anybody who wishes to improve their ability to give a presentation. I personally consider myself to be pretty good at this. I generally do not get all that nervous unless my jokes start to bomb so I already have a leg up on most people. One thing in particular I noticed and enjoy when watching a presentation is when the speaker is slightly less formal. I like to watch presentations that are more like conversations rather an information transferring from a detached authority figure to the rest of us rubes. It helps keep the presentation interesting and overall audience engagement.

Week 6 - Team Effort

Step 1 - Capstone Ideas

Our team briefly discussed our capstone ideas and it seems like we have a few common elements. One is that we want to help people or solve a problem. Many of our ideas focused on the consumer side of development and we had a lot of ideas focused around teaching people a useful skill or trying to make a person's life easier.

One idea that stood out to me was some kind of interactive learning program that teaches kids how to program. Nobody would doubt that the ability to code is a useful skill and the earlier a child learns these skills, the better off they will be if they decide to go into the tech field. Even if they choose a different profession, the problem solving and critical thinking skills they develop will be invaluable regardless of their chosen vocation.

Step 2 - Update

This week  was the first time I was able to meet with my team. I honestly couldn't be happier. Everybody seems capable, driven, and most importantly, easy to work with. Like any new kid I was a little worried that I would not fit in because either I did not like them or they did not like me but I do not see us having that problem. We are pretty much in sync on a lot of ideas and when we disagree, it is all in the interest of producing the best result.

As for capstone ideas, we went over the possibilities of what we want to do but we have not started working too much on that. This is not something I am worried about as we still have a fair amount of time to work on it and I am extremely confident that we will not have any difficulty tackling any challenges sent our way.

Week 5 - Recovery

Part 1 - Teammate Coaching

Lawrence - Lawrence has a solid career path and goals very similar to my own. I have found that there are two types of successful computer scientists. There are those who wish to build something completely new and their dream is to start their own startup. And there are those like Lawrence and I who would rather negate the risk and lend our talents to a more established shop. As for coaching, I would say that Lawrence that he has a good goal and should check into trying to find an internship ideally where he wishes to work. If that is not possible, try to find a place that is a direct competitor to where you wish to work. You will get relevant training and I'm sure a recruiter would love to stick it to a rival and steal you away.

Huy - Huy's plan is basically exactly the same as mine and we are in about the exact same spot. Sounds like he landed an internship and will be working in industry sooner rather than later. My only coaching to Huy would be to absolutely kill it on the job since hiring from within is generally easier than going outside. Of course, I know he will but it is important enough to be worth repeating.

Part 2 - Capstone Ideas

1. Game in which programming or at least that kind of thought process is the primary gameplay mechanic. Get kids started early.
   
2. Yelp focusing on value. Basically, I'm flat broke and I care significantly more about value than quality. So instead of just generic quality, I'd prefer a metric of happiness/dollar.
   
3. Speed reading trainer/app - Hugely valuable skill that nobody seems to have.

Part 3 - Review

As for this weeks assignments, it was relatively slow which I was extremely thankful for. Work was pretty busy and I was basically camped out in my room attempting to recover from the flu. On the bright side, I quit smoking and set a date for my wedding. So I guess you could say that everything was coming up Kev, including any solid food. As for my future, I can not see myself applying to grad school. It would be cool to get a masters so I could rub my higher education right in my considerably more successful brother's face but with getting married two months after graduation and all of the fun time adult expenses like a mortgage or kids on my horizon, I just don't see it happening. If anything, I may go for an MBA since I'm looking at sales anyway and based on the homework I helped my business major friends with, shouldn't be very hard compared to CS.

Week 4- Back in Business

Part 1: Educational Goals

Like many 26 year old college students, I just want desperately want to graduate. It seems that I have succeeded in other areas in life that others tend to struggle with. I am engaged to a wonderful woman, I have a great group of friends, and I am pretty happy pretty much all of the time. I can even strike up a conversation with a complete stranger and not feel awkward about it in the slightest. However, what is holding me back professionally is a college degree. I already have several soft offers from various co workers and I cannot wait to accept one. I am so close but it is important for me to not get too worked up and lose focus so close to the finish line.

Part 2: Career Goals

This may sound bad but I am very much not ambitious in regards to my career. In my opinion, work facilitates life and not the other way around. My fiance grew up below the poverty line so I am well aware of what is at stake with my career. I need to make enough money so that my family never has to worry about the basics in life like if there will be a roof over our heads or if we get to eat that night. However, aside from that I have no aspirations of making my own start up that gets bought by Google for millions of dollars and then I buy a Yacht.

Part 3: Team Members Time Management

No surprise here, my team members are all much better than me in the time management department. I feel that I have the most difficulty starting early enough and then sticking to a schedule. That being said, as a result of that I am very good at thriving under pressure. If I had to give advice to any of my team mates it would be to make sure to relax and never panic because once a person panics, the battle is lost. Of course, none of my teammates have shown any sign of panic since they have never been so foolish as to put themselves into a situation that warrants it.

Part 4: Update

This week I learned two things. One, outlines are hard. Two, scouting wedding venues takes a lot longer than I thought it would. I have always been more of a free form writing. Just sitting at a computer and kind of letting my papers organically evolve. So whenever I encounter an outline, it's almost like I'm a monkey trying to do a math problem. My brain just kind of doesn't naturally work that way. But because of that I am grateful for the assignment. The only way to get better at something I suck at is to do it a bunch of times until I don't suck at it anymore.

Week 3 - Back on Track

So this week/day is an exciting day for me as I have just about caught up with where everybody else is. I am actually pretty proud of myself since I not only managed to do three or so weeks of work in about four days, that is actually nothing new for a career procrastinator like myself, I am happy that I did it in a way that is healthy and sustainable. I stayed up no later than two, ate regular meals, slept a full night's sleep every night, and even managed to squeeze in some work out and recreation time. This may not seem like much of an accomplishment and many would consider it just one aspect of being a well balanced adult, but for me it is a big step forward. Now, onto the readings and reflections.

Part 1:
One part of these readings that really spoke to me was to make your semester schedule livable. It is easy to say that I can just study and completely lock out recreation so I can get a lot done at once but what often happens is that I burn out. Academia is not a sprint, it is a marathon with maybe a quickened pace during midterm and final season. It is very important to work at a pace that is indefinitely sustainable. I know from experience that trying to blitzkrieg an entire month of coursework in a day is nearly impossible and performance will be heavily diminished after long periods of studying. Just like every other part of the human body, the brain needs rest as well. The pace I have been working to catch up has been a little taxing on me since I have done essentially a month of coursework in four days, it is still sustainable for a few weeks before even a slight decrease in quality. Do not misunderstand, I am looking forward to next weekend where I will most likely be able to take a day actually off without having to work or do any kind of classwork. But even if I do not get that day to rest, I am well rested enough so that even a night off would be sufficient to resuscitate me.

Another part of these readings that jumped off the page at me was about just getting started or Stage One as the article referred to it. Admittedly, planning is a bit of a week point for me both in that I often neglect it entirely and that I sometimes spend far more time than is reasonable attempting to optimize the order in which I do things. For example, on my day one, I had many assignments to choose from. I spent a good thirty to forty minutes trying to look ahead and plan out my attack on the large workload ahead of me. What I should have done was just start like a normal student on week one. It feels good to get things done, it does not feel good to look at the clock, see that an hour has gone by, and then realize that you have essentially done nothing.

Part 2:
I feel as though the essence of this week's lessons can be distilled into two salient points. Planning is important, and this program is giving us every opportunity to succeed. The survey of the curriculum and the mandatory appointment with Claudia for our individual learning plan forces us to lay out exactly what we are going to do to become graduates with useful skills after our tenure at CSUMB.

Part 3:
I found the reading about what every computer science major to know to be pretty much right on the money. I feel like many prospective computer science majors neglect the communication aspects of the job and focus solely on the technical requirements. Of course, I have seen quite a few people come and go at IBM because they were woefully technically incompetent, but the far greater problem for many is that they cannot communicate their ideas effectively. Thankfully, effective communication is something that I have always been pretty strong with but like every other skill, I had no idea how strong I was until I got a job and had a group of people to compare it to. I found that even as a wet behind the ears intern still trying to figure out the super reliable and never infuriating messaging client that I was able to translate what one person was saying so that another could understand it. I could help even between two distinguished engineers having a conversation about stuff I could barely understand. Their technical skill levels were off the charts but communicating their ideas was holding them back and wasting time. Of course, the technical skills list here is equally important and comprehensive. It is certainly a challenge to familiarize oneself with all of the things a Computer Scientist needs to be successful but then again, if it were easy, anybody could do it, there wouldn't be a massive engineer shortage, and our pay would be much lower.

Week 2 - Catching up

This week I am feeling optimistic about my chances of catching up to the rest of the class in a timely manner. A lifetime of procrastinating has given me a near superhuman ability to speed read which actually leads nicely into the next section.

Part 1 - Taking a personal inventory

Reading through the study skills, it was blindingly obvious the areas I need to work on. The three most representative of my character flaws are definitely The Value of A Schedule, When to Study, and How to Use Your Time. I feel like when I work, I am extremely efficient. I can produce high quality work in a relatively short amount of time. However, I have a tendency to rely on this ability to work quickly when it was entirely unnecessary. If something comes up or something takes much longer than my initial estimation, it can really masticate me in the hindquarters.

As for what I am good at, this was also easy to identify for me as my failings tend to produce these strengths in an individual. Reading, Getting the Main Ideas, and Extracting Important Details are all things that come very naturally to me. I got a 770 on the reading portion of the SATs largely due to all of these skills. I can read at roughly 600 wpm with an 80% retention rate which means that I am roughly three times faster with 30% more retention than the average reader.

Part 2 - Activity Log

Part 3 - Project Management Basics

Video 1:
     This video was a good primer on what is a project, operation, and the responsibilities of a project manager. Despite working in industry for the past three years, I did not know the concrete definition of project and operation. The video also gave simple analogies to help define projects and operations. It also served as a reminder that machine generated voice is nearly always worse than a regular human being reading a script but I think this point may have been unintentional.

Video 2:
     This video goes into detail about a work breakdown structure. This is different from a schedule in that the intention of this exercise is to see what needs to be done at various hierarchical levels. For example, building a smartphone can be broken down to hardware and software, the hardware can be further broken down into screen, battery, processor, etc. Each of these things have various deliverables that need to be completed until the result is the end goal and completion of the project.

Video 3:
     This video provided information about Gantt charts which are bar charts showing the different work packages of a work breakdown structure with estimated times of completed and which elements are dependent on one another. Gantt charts help organize a project and help people understand which elements can be worked on in parallel.

Part 4 - Previous Capstones

3D Architectural Animation - This project seemed pretty well done for the most part. However, the presentation suffered at the end due to the jittery nature of the demo video. I am not sure if the issue was the power of the machine the render was done on or some other much more complicated problem as my knowledge of 3D graphics is limited. I think if the demo ran at a smoother frame rate, the entire presentation would have more impact. As for improvements, I think that the general idea of using a 3D render to increase donations is a good one. People are more likely to give to a specific thing rather than a nondescript line item like "renovations." However, it may further increase donations if the 3D model was interactive and people could cycle through different tiers of donation goals like kickstarter with cooler and cooler structures being possible with greater donation goals.

Steebly Collaborative Coding Environment - This is a cloud based collaborative computing environment. While I will admit this project was an ambitious undertaking, I personally do not see the value over the many web based services that do exactly the same thing that are already established in the marketplace. Secondly, the presentation itself was a little sloppy with some unnecessary breaks while things got sorted out. Not a huge deal, but still could have been avoided. I feel like it would have been worthwhile for the team to go into their specific value adds; their special sauce if you will to help differentiate themselves from an exceedingly crowded market.

PICKUP Meet and Play Mobile App - First off, this presenter definitely had the best speaking style. He was concise while inserting jokes where appropriate. It makes the things that inevitably go wrong during demos not seem like a big deal. As far as the app goes, I can see it being a viable business. We have all sorts of apps and services based around being the middle man. Tinder, Grinder, Uber, Craigslist, Ebay, and AirBnB all connect people who need each other in some capacity and as far as I know there is no current app specifically designed for pickup sports. Back in a past life when I was a tennis player, I had difficulty finding somebody to play with. I was far to good to play with a novice but I would get absolutely destroyed by even an average collegiate player. I could see myself using this app to help me find a player whose availability and skill level were a good match for me.

Part 5 - Summary

This week contained a wealth of information about agile development and how projects are actually completed. I have always been interested in the human and business side of software development so this was a particularly interesting week of course material for me. It also further delved into the importance of good study skills and keeping to a schedule which is a nice reminder for somebody like me.

Week 1 - The Chase Begins

So this blog is supposed to be a record of what I have learned each week. And for 98 of the targeted 100 weeks that is exactly what it will be. For this and the subsequent post, I will be posting once I complete the coursework following a late addition and start to the class.

As far as the material for this week is concerned, I learned some general guidelines and information regarding how to succeed in an online program as well as the program itself. This was a pretty cool thing for me since I will probably not be going to the physical campus barring some kind of great catastrophe. It is nice to get a feel for what the school is like and helps me feel like a member of a team. This is especially important considering that this program is 100% online and if the disparity between the way people talk to each other on Twitter and the way people communicate face to face is any indication, empathy and emotional connection is much harder to forge from behind a keyboard.

As far as assignments are concerned, this blog seemed to be the bulk of the coursework for this particular module as far as deliverables are concerned but it also included information about our industry analysis paper. A six to eight page research paper can be a daunting task for many but writing has always been a secret passion of mine. I would consider it as a career possibility if it was possible to make any kind of money doing it. Despite what friends and loved ones think, I am not so narcissistic and delusional to think that I am actually one of the top .1% of writers who get published and my track record at various games of chance in gaming establishments leads me to believe I am not going to be one of those hundreds of lotto winners who writes the next Twilight series and makes more money than some small nations despite the actual writing being terrible. I suppose the point of all of that inane rambling is that a six to eight page research paper is something that I will be quite comfortable producing and am actually excited to get to. It will definitely be something I finish up early as soon as I am done catching up one roughly forty (now twenty) hours of coursework that took place before I added the class.

Until next time - Kevin