Wed Jan 10 17:33:26 PST episode iv: a new quarter: Well, it's time for a new quarter at UCLA. I passed all my classes and did pretty well, so I figured it was time to invest in a sweatshirt. Now people stop me in the grocery store and say things like, "Go Bruins!" which is an unsuspected downside.
This quarter, I'm taking which is a grad-level Computer Security (236) course (sort of a current topics discussion), and the undergraduate breadth requirements Networking (118) and Automata and Complexity (181). I'm also taking the grad topics seminar, CS 201. I really like my schedule so far -- all my classes are back to back on Monday and Wednesday, so that I'm done by 2PM, and then I don't have to come in on Tuesdays or Thursdays except for seminar. Then Fridays I have some discussion sections. I also have friends in every class, which helps make it more enjoyable.
The Security course is cool because it's a grad course and is focused on current stuff; my last job and my history as a sysadmin, etc. helps me feel pretty tapped in to the subject matter. Right now I'm trying to brainstorm on a project for the class. Networking looks pretty straightforward; it helps that I taught a simplified version of the course at North Park. Automata and Complexity will be my most challenging course, I think, because it is more abstract and sometimes I have trouble really getting inside formulas and the like. But I really like the subject material, and so far, the professor is great.
So I think the big challenges will be the Automata stuff in general, followed by the Security project (which should be something new, functional and hopefully interesting), and then the Networking projects, which require some sockets programming in C... I'm going to start working on some practice in that area right now.
