March 24th, power goes out in my area, according to my friend, it went out around 21:00... This was an interesting event, it was my first time in a high rise building during a blackout. Frankly speaking, I woke up from a long nap without realizing that the power had gone out. It wasn't until I saw that my friend had asked me if I had power that I realized that everything was off and I had no power in my room.
I was somewhat annoyed since I hadn't cooked dinner yet so I was somewhat hungry. But it was a good thing that my phone still had plenty of juice in it and I had data, so I could start making come calls around to see what was still open and serving food. Data really saved me, I was able to get a list of phone numbers for places nearby and had an idea of what my options were for a hot meal. I was glad to hear the elevators chime so I knew that the elevators were still running and wouldn't have to walk down numerous flights of stairs, I live near the top of one of the taller buildings in the area.
I ended up going to McDonald's since it was still open and is open 24 hours everyday, they have Wi-Fi, it was a short walk away, and they have free refills on coffee. :D It's rare occasions like today that I would actually go to McDonald's for food.
So I quickly packed my laptop and chargers and headed out to McDonald's and texted my friends to see if they were in the same boat as I was and we all met up at McDonald's. There was a long line up at McDonald's, pretty much no one had power but it still didn't take long before I got to order a meal.
In situations like these, it is important to have a plan of action and back up plans incase something falls through and doesn't go the way you want it to. Though, just sleeping through a black out is always a solid plan of action. You can get plenty of rest and wake up fully rested and ready to tackle some of those assignments you've been procrastinating on or you know, just binge watch your favourite show or game the day away.
Well, I guess I'll sit here at McDonald's for the next few hours and follow Waterloo Hydro's Twitter for updates.
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Friday, 25 March 2016
Saturday, 19 March 2016
Questions and Answers #6
Q: Hey man can you make a post about your everyday life as a CS student
A: My everyday life as a CS student. So, honestly, my life isn't very interesting. I pretty much do the same thing every single day. So, here's the gist of what I do every single school day:
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A: My everyday life as a CS student. So, honestly, my life isn't very interesting. I pretty much do the same thing every single day. So, here's the gist of what I do every single school day:
- I wake up in the morning (sometimes I don't but I try my best to :) )
- brush my teeth
- have breakfast
- get dressed
- head out for school
- wait for the elevator
- wait for the bus
- walk to my lecture hall
- furiously take notes
- wait for the bus
- go home
- make something for lunch
- eat lunch
- get some work done, probably?
- periodically check Jobmine (if you thought Quest was hell, this is even worse...), yconic, and YouTube
- take a nap
- get some more work done, maybe?
- cook dinner
- eat dinner
- get some more work done hopefully
- brush my teeth
- shower
- sleep
- and repeat
That is pretty much what I do on school days. But on Tuesdays, Wednesday, or Thursdays, instead of going directly home, I go to Sobeys for some groceries since they have 10% off discounts from Tuesday to Thursday for students. Weekends also aren't very different, only difference is I wake up later, don't usually go to campus, and sometimes my parents visit me or I take the GO bus home to visit family and friends. I try to squeeze in a workout whenever I can, but I don't really have a schedule for that. I literally just go whenever I feel like I have the energy to go.
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Wednesday, 9 March 2016
Questions and Answers #5
Q: I am also curious about this… How significant is the difference between the workload of a single degree vs dd? What are the major differences between the cs dd at laurier and the cs dd at laurier/uwl?
A: Major differences between the two are that the BCS/BBA DD at WLU won't have any of the Math/CS courses at UW which I assume would be slightly more rigorous at UW and the Co-op program at WLU is more limited since, as far as I know, the co-op employers at WLU are all Canadian based companies while UW has international opportunities.
The thing about the DD program is that you're juggling two very sort of different fields of knowledge and having to travel to and fro two campuses, if you are in the joint program. What I am trying to say is, the way you learn CS/Math is more practical in the sense that, if you learn a new concept, you can just write a program that applies this concept and it will always work, assuming your code is correct. So in CS/Math, you can put the knowledge into practice immediately and see results and how it works, whereas in BBA, they're just spoon feeding you with shovels full of theory, terms, and definitions and its a very theoretical approach compared to CS/Math.
So CS/Math are objective and absolute and are more about the right or wrong answers since it either doesn't work or works, there isn't really an in between, especially in the industry since "it works most of the time" really just means it doesn't work and will need to be fixed. And BBA is more subjective and theoretical since it doesn't always work in practice.
Let me know in the comments if you need me to clarify anything or have any additional questions related to the double degree programs.
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A: Major differences between the two are that the BCS/BBA DD at WLU won't have any of the Math/CS courses at UW which I assume would be slightly more rigorous at UW and the Co-op program at WLU is more limited since, as far as I know, the co-op employers at WLU are all Canadian based companies while UW has international opportunities.
The thing about the DD program is that you're juggling two very sort of different fields of knowledge and having to travel to and fro two campuses, if you are in the joint program. What I am trying to say is, the way you learn CS/Math is more practical in the sense that, if you learn a new concept, you can just write a program that applies this concept and it will always work, assuming your code is correct. So in CS/Math, you can put the knowledge into practice immediately and see results and how it works, whereas in BBA, they're just spoon feeding you with shovels full of theory, terms, and definitions and its a very theoretical approach compared to CS/Math.
So CS/Math are objective and absolute and are more about the right or wrong answers since it either doesn't work or works, there isn't really an in between, especially in the industry since "it works most of the time" really just means it doesn't work and will need to be fixed. And BBA is more subjective and theoretical since it doesn't always work in practice.
Let me know in the comments if you need me to clarify anything or have any additional questions related to the double degree programs.
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Saturday, 5 March 2016
Question and Answers #4
Q: Hey CS dude, can you shed some light and opinions about the advanced math and cs courses at uw (whether you took them yourself, or have seen other take them). Thanks
A: I personally haven't taken them but I do know people who have and regretted doing that. They are extremely stressful courses and tiring. If you're up for the challenge then go for it and there's no shame in switching back into the the regular section which already has a fairly heavy workload. The advanced sections just cover more topics at a faster pace.
Keep in mind, it isn't all about academics, you need to have a balanced life so don't take it just because it looks ever so slightly better to have taken it and end up over exerting yourself.
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A: I personally haven't taken them but I do know people who have and regretted doing that. They are extremely stressful courses and tiring. If you're up for the challenge then go for it and there's no shame in switching back into the the regular section which already has a fairly heavy workload. The advanced sections just cover more topics at a faster pace.
Keep in mind, it isn't all about academics, you need to have a balanced life so don't take it just because it looks ever so slightly better to have taken it and end up over exerting yourself.
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Question and Answers #3
Q: Can you elaborate more on the admissions process? I am currently in grade 12 and am hoping to get in the same program. I retook Adv Functions to upgrade my park (78 to 91) and was wondering how that will affect my admission chances. Also, when did you get your acceptance, and what were the admission averages for people who got in last year?
thanks for writing this blog, it is very helpful!
A: So your application, transcript, and completed AIF are sent to the admissions office. They use the AIF and marks to get some sort of "score" that is also affected by the success of other students that came to the University of Waterloo from your secondary school. That is roughly how admissions work as far as I know.
I think a repeated course would be looked at critically, so they would have preference over someone who achieved a slightly lower mark on their first attempt at advanced function than a repeated course mark. I think a repeated course may be enough of a reason that they would even go as far as not even considering giving you an offer into Computer Science since it is a very competitive program to get into. I remember seeing some numbers in regards to the number of applicants to the number of available spots in computer science and it was in the ball park of 16 or so applicants per seat last year and it only gets worse from there. There has been a 15% to 30% increase in applicants every year.
The averages of people who were accepted into Computer Science for Fall 2015 were about 93% as far as I know. I was accepted for Fall 2014 with an average in the low to mid 90's or so, it has been a while so I can't fully remember what my marks were like at the end of grade 12. I am sure I can find out but that would require I either (A) go home and look for my report card or (B) go ask administration to see if they can pull up my file and tell me what my average was on my transcript. Frankly speaking, I can't really be bothered to bring myself to do either since it does not matter and I have better things to do, like write a new blog post about my university experience thus far or answering questions, which I think is much more interesting for you, future university students, than a number that was calculated from six random numbers, so let's just stick with low to mid 90's for the sake of answering your question.
I hope I answered your questions, if not, let me know. And I am glad you find my blog helpful.
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thanks for writing this blog, it is very helpful!
A: So your application, transcript, and completed AIF are sent to the admissions office. They use the AIF and marks to get some sort of "score" that is also affected by the success of other students that came to the University of Waterloo from your secondary school. That is roughly how admissions work as far as I know.
I think a repeated course would be looked at critically, so they would have preference over someone who achieved a slightly lower mark on their first attempt at advanced function than a repeated course mark. I think a repeated course may be enough of a reason that they would even go as far as not even considering giving you an offer into Computer Science since it is a very competitive program to get into. I remember seeing some numbers in regards to the number of applicants to the number of available spots in computer science and it was in the ball park of 16 or so applicants per seat last year and it only gets worse from there. There has been a 15% to 30% increase in applicants every year.
The averages of people who were accepted into Computer Science for Fall 2015 were about 93% as far as I know. I was accepted for Fall 2014 with an average in the low to mid 90's or so, it has been a while so I can't fully remember what my marks were like at the end of grade 12. I am sure I can find out but that would require I either (A) go home and look for my report card or (B) go ask administration to see if they can pull up my file and tell me what my average was on my transcript. Frankly speaking, I can't really be bothered to bring myself to do either since it does not matter and I have better things to do, like write a new blog post about my university experience thus far or answering questions, which I think is much more interesting for you, future university students, than a number that was calculated from six random numbers, so let's just stick with low to mid 90's for the sake of answering your question.
I hope I answered your questions, if not, let me know. And I am glad you find my blog helpful.
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