I gave up a media pass for the crowning of the 2008 Playmate of the Year over the past weekend so I could spend some time with my nephew. Yes, that Jayde Nicole; and a handful of her playmate friends.
Does this mean I’m slowing down?
No, I just really like my nephew 
Yes, it’s coming soon!
My subway commute took 30 minutes longer than usual—at least according to my phone’s clock. I barely made it in time for my 10am class.
When I got there, no one was around. So I fired up my laptop to see if the room changed.
I quickly learned that my laptop was either 30 minutes behind, or my phone was 30 minutes ahead.
My phone’s clock is set to sync with my cell provider’s time server. I thought it’d be safe to assume that a huge national communication services company would at least know what time it is.
Not only are they taking my money—they’re also trying to steal my time.
Had our first paper discussion session of the year over lunch today. I think I focused too much on the negatives this time. It’s hard to overlook poorly formulated arguments, especially when it’s backed by inconclusive data.
I should have tried harder to tune into the signal while filtering out the noise. Would’ve been more constructive to think about some of the new contributions (if any—see? Negative again) those studies brought to the field.
Those papers did shed some insight on the difficulties of conducting experiments in software engineering. Solid numbers about the practical aspect of software engineering is hard to find. The interesting bits are hard to measure (e.g. productivity, reliability, correctness, efficiency).
Even if we could come up with a way to do it, many factors would get in the way of collecting those metrics faithfully and reliably (e.g. how do we get test subjects to “collect” data for us without bogging them down with extra documentation work?).
Round two—fight!
As I was wandering into the grad lounge to brew myself a cup of coffee (note to self: don’t put water in grinds basket or people will laugh at you again), I found myself caught in a grad student’s talk. It was a topic I had little background in, so I had a high chance of getting lost.
I decided to stay for a different reason.
A number of faculty attended this talk and grilled the poor student. These same people will eventually grill me when I have to give a talk or defend my thesis. It was extremely constructive to see it live.
It also helps that the object of grilling wasn’t me in this case
Went to my first class today as a graduate student. Lots of smart people, small close-knit groups, and best of all, virtually no exams and tests! All schools should be like this.
Highlights:
I met four people over the past week who’ve been thinking about attempting a triathlon (or a sprint, or a try-and-tri). I’m sharing an office with three of them; our desks, all lined up in a row. Sometimes, I wonder if our supervisor did that on purpose.
The first (indoor) tri is coming up in February. Looks like it’s going to be a good year