After 3.5 years at GT and 18 years of schooling, I am finally done! I might go back for an MBA later, but wow! Talk about freedom… that is certainly what it feels like right now. The feeling of not ever having to intensely study 24 hours a day… the duties relieved… it’s all over now.
Anyway, I actually still have 2 more finals… to proctor and grade. I must admit, I will certainly miss being in an academic environment, but I am looking forward to seeing what life has for me. Rock on! ^_^
There comes a time each semester when most students dread final exams. They cause stress, lack of sleep, bad eating habits, and anything else horrible that you can imagine. But this year, the end of finals signifies something completely different. It means that I will be done another chapter of schooling and that I will have a college degree under my belt. So, with that outlook, final exams have become a positive thing for me. It also means that I will get a break that is longer than usual, so I’m excited about that, as well.
Anyway, best of luck to everybody on their finals… you probably won’t hear from me again until they are over. After that, I will be busy with graduation, so until all of that is over, take care, everybody!
So I am a very patient person, but right now, I am completely losing it! TSO is our own personal Tech Support for the COllege of Computing, and guess what? They cannot do their job- I know I speak for most students in the COllege of Computing when I say this. Let me explain my frustrations with them and suggest a very simple solution at the end.
1. I am Head TA for a course, and we use a computer lab from 3-6PM on Mondays and Wednesdays. The entire first week of school, the lab was shut down.
2. Now, it’s the second week of school, and the computers are finally back up. But, nobody can print, and logging in takes, on average, 5 minutes. Oh, and the answer to when I asked about the login issues: “That’s not our problem- OIT handles that.”
3. A few weeks later: The log-in problems are now fixed for Windows, the printing is still a problem, and there are no servers for the new credentials.
4. One week later: The printing is finally working, although there is rarely ever any paper, since it’s not properly monitored.
5. One week after that: The course that we teach is now in the Linux section. Guess what? Nobody can log into Linux! Also in Linux, if you have one instance of Firefox running, you can’t open any more. On top of that, after a while, the keys stop working, so you can’t do anything with it.
6. So, it seems like everything is finally okay, right? WRONG. It comes time to do my networking project, and guess what? The compilers on EACH MACHINE (out of ~80 of them) are different. Oh, and they’re also different on all of the servers.
7. 2 weeks later: I have lost track of time and the amount of time I have spent trying to fix things. The second networking project rolls around, and guess what? The servers/network is down for an entire day and a half! What happens if the TA tries to grade the assignment and the network is down and he tries a different compiler?
8. Throughout the ENTIRE semester: I am also the Webmaster for one of the websites in a student organization. I made a brand new website over summer, and guess what? TSO decides that they are going to get rid of the old servers and not replace them with anything, so what will happen to the new website? I asked them this, and I submitted a ticket, and nobody accounted for it. They have also been super-slow responding to any other emails too!
9. Throughout the ENTIRE semester: The computers are running Firefox version 0.5 (Just FYI, Firefox is in at least Version 3.0 right now).
10. If you try to log into your account through WinSCP, then guess what? There is an “error listing directory” error, and you know what else? It happens at least 1 out of every 5 logins- not just for me, but for EVERYBODY that tries! Oh, but if you try it with a different server, it SOMETIMES works.
11. Once in a while, when I try to SCP my files from my computer to the servers, guess what happens? Timing out. Oh, and that’s not just me, either- it happens to everybody AS WELL. The biggest problem is that I’m trying to release an autograder to 100+ students, and if I can’t access my directory, I can’t really TEST the code I’ve written and release it!!
12. Today: I called TSO, telling them that I cannot access my account (I tried on multiple servers and multiple computers), and this is generally how the conversation went:
Me: I cannot access my account and I get this error. It’s a prevalent error that almost everybody seems to be getting, but this time, it hasn’t worked when I just exited and retried.
Help Desk: Did you try on a different computer?
Me: Yes.
Help Desk: Well, submit a ticket detailing the problem.
Me: I’ve submitted multiple help desk tickets before, and they have never been addressed.
Help Desk: There’s nothing in the system about past tickets from you. I’m just a student assistant- all I can tell you is send in a ticket and we’ll take care of it ASAP.
So what makes me think they’re going to take care of it if:
-they have no record of my previous tickets
-they haven’t addressed any of the other issues above
-the person that answered the phone isn’t capable of giving any feedback
I have absolutely no more faith anymore in TSO. It’s embarrassing- we are the College of COMPUTING, and we can’t have Tech Support done correctly? Now you tell me: Wouldyou be frustrated after a semester of this? Oh, and here’s the kicker:
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) handles Tech Support for the ENTIRE REST of the university, EXCEPT for the College of Computing, and there hasn’t been a single, big issue that anybody has had with them.
My one suggestion: Get rid of TSO and have a branch of OIT in the CoC instead. Even if we didn’t have a branch of OIT, we’d be better off without TSO anyway.
School can definitely keep me busy. Sometimes, it gets to the point where it is so busy that it causes more stress than enjoyment of learning. Exactly when the stress is at its max, GT decides that its students need a break. They picked a good time for it, and I, along with many others, have come back refreshed and ready for the next 6 weeks (before Thanksgiving break comes along). :) Bring it on!
When you work so hard on something, it is sometimes really hard to see the silver lining around it. For example, if you study constantly for 3 days for a test and then it does not go as well as you had hoped (though certainly not bad), it’s hard to say that you are happy with it.
But, there are always other things to look forward to- such as Fall Break. For me, it is more like take-a-break-from-school-but-not-from-crazy-amounts-of-work. The good thing is that I don’t have any assignments due the week I get back, so that will give me a tiny bit of a breather.
In the meantime, though, silver may not be so bad for most people, but I definitely want gold- I guess that’s what the rest of the semester is for.
It has been insanely busy here, since I am trying to finish all of my reading before I head off to the Grace Hopper Conference. So, in the meantime, here are the countdowns that are helping me look past the still-pretty-large mountain of work left to do:
Anyway, it has been quite busy, but it’s definitely going to be tons of fun. :) Look for more updates soon, especially from the conference!
There is a mountain of reading on my desk. No, I am not kidding- it really is a pile of papers taller than me. It’s a tall order ( get it? ;) ) to have to get through all of the reading this weekend, but it will be worth it in the end.
In other news, Fall Break is only 22 days away, and the Grace Hopper Conference is about 10 days away, so I am super-excited. :) These countdowns are really helping me get through my work: I cannot wait for October- only a few more days until it’s all here! :)
What a weekend. I am pretty sure that it was probably the roughest one that I had. Considering what a pretty fun summer it was, the first 8 days of my last semester as an undergraduate have been quite rough. My first week started out alright, I guess. It is good that my classes are keeping me on top of my reading. The best part is that I am staying on top of the reading, and that I have the time to do that this semester. However, it has created a lot more pressure short-term. Because I will be having quizzes and tests at regular intervals, though, there is less material for each one, so the load will be mostly spread out evenly. I am really excited that I will have the time to learn the material. :)
On the other side of things, I have had 2 very bad experiences, non-class-related, with this semester, so that is really not helping me feel awesome at the moment. Plus, I am really starting to feel homesick again.
Anyway, to end things on a good note, I have possible career opportunities opening up for next summer/full-time at: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Expedia, Harris Corp, and some other Fortune 500 companies. Social networking is quite amazing these days, isn’t it? :) Also, my research is going really well. I have received a PURA grant for my project, and I am hoping to present it at the CHI conference next year… in BOSTON- talk about some amazing opportunities for my career in the next year! :)
In the meantime, it is back to reading and grad school apps. :) Sweet dreams and I will try to write again soon!
This little limerick reminds me of why I love computing and why I am a CS major :) I hope you get a good laugh out of it too!
A programmer started to cuss
Because getting to sleep was a fuss
As he lay there in bed
Looping ?round in his head
was: while(!asleep()) sheep++;
1 down, 1 to go. This semester has definitely had its share of ups and downs, but overall, I think I really found a balance that made me pretty happy, between school, work, and social life. Let’s not talk about sleep. I am really looking forward to my first summer of no studying. My summer after freshman year, I took courses at home and transferred credit. Last summer, I was in Barcelona (doing the study abroad program). This summer, it will just be working 2 jobs and taking some time off from academics. I cannot wait to start my full-time internship at Pardot and also my side job (which is more just a side project with a bonus of payment) for re-doing the entire Women@CC website! :) It really is going to be a fun-filled summer, and I’m living with some awesome girls, and I have half of my TAs for the fall living right upstairs, as well! Woohoo! :)
I cannot believe it has already been a year since I went to Barcelona. It feels like just a few weeks ago, and yet, it’s been a year. Every experience is as clear as if I was just there yesterday. The people bustling around Placa Catalunya, sitting in on the French Open women’s final, going to MontJuic and going to Madrid, and finally, seeing all of London. Speaking of London, it is raining right now, and the air and smell and environment make me feel like I am back in London. Every other day that I was there, it rained. Despite all the rain, I had such an amazing time with probably my bestest, most loyal guy friend (I am so thankful to have a friend like him, although maybe I don’t always show the appreciation in between all the stress.)! It was after classes ended, and we decided to see everything we possibly could. I didn’t have to worry about studies, or catching up on sleep, or any added stress. Just traveling and living in the moment. Oh how I wish I could go back to Europe! One day, I will, and I am determined to see even more than I did before. And, I will attend Wimbledon and see Roger Federer play live (once I have enough money)! :) But for now, I will just be left looking back on the experiences, happily smiling until I get another opportunity to get away.
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