Computer Science vs. Computer Programming

Although some specialists may distinguish computer science and computer programming, most people think of these two areas as one and the same. They are tragically mistaken. Computer science is as different from computer programming as physics is from bridge building. In fact, this analogy holds completely. Computer programming is the engineering of computer science. It is the application of the ideas computer science explores. Let me give a concrete example. Any computer scientist will be able to tell you how to reverse a linked list, balance a binary tree, or write a huffman encoding algorithm. Programmers quickly forget how to balance a binary tree, because they don't need to. They have convenient methods that they can find in the MSDN library that will do this all for them. Computer programmers don't really need to know much about data structures or computers in general because they don't need to. All computer programmers need to know is how to find and use the methods they need in order to get things done. They need to find out which algorithms they need to apply, but don't need to understand them. Because of this, the kind of programming most people do doesn't actually require much thought. Rather, it requires specialized knowledge in highly specific areas. I find that incredibly dissapointing.

Fractal Program

I'm thinking of writing a program that draws and lets the user play around with fractals. I wonder if it's worthwhile...

Google Video

I usually consider Google Video to be a complete waste of time. But ocassionally, I'll stumble on rare videos I find incredibly compelling. This particular video is a work of art. The video seems to make sense out of complete chaos, and illustrates just how powerful 3d computer animation can be. This short rivals any pixar film I've ever seen. Check it out here .

Why Staying Home is Good

Having one day off from school can be a bit boring, but in addition to giving me time to catch up with my impossibly busy schedule, this day off lets me make whatever lunches I want. Today, I opted for chicken drumsticks with garlic bread and a fresh tomato salad.
The food tasted pretty good, but the best part of the meal was the preperation. I had plenty of fun making my simple (yet succulent) salad, and topping off my slices of French bread with the garlic butter I'd prepared just moments before was quite fun. It's nice to have a day off when you can construct an idea (in this case, it was a meal) in your head, and then make it happen.

It's a nice feeling.

The Coolest Light in Seattle

Today I had the great fortune to come across this beauty while wandering around Seattle. This little guy is located on the top of pier 66, about 40 feet away from the stairs. What makes this light so particularly fascinating? As always, it's all about the hat. The fountain-like wires that come out of this light's top complement the lights angular body to create a fusion of two prominent modern tastes. This light perfectly combines the concrete with the organic, balancing the natural bend of the wires with the light's sharp and permanent angles. And then of course there's the location. Pier 66 is arguably one of the best places in Seattle to view sunsets, and as a result attracts many people to this location. Even the lighting this light gives off is nice. It's not the ugly orange of most city lights, but rather a more modern bright white. Everything about this light spells creative, sophisticated, and modern. It is simply the coolest light in Seattle.

It's DONE

So, after 10 hours of painstakingly difficult work, I'm finally done enough with my project to turn it in. Finishing this project was a harrowing experience. I sat up from 9 pm until 7 am first commenting, then simply tweaking and prodding my project until I was happy with it. To be honest, I'm STILL not at all hapy with my result. Although my blogging client looks pretty nice and simple, it really doesn't have all the features it could and should have. First of all, I couldnt' get my file menu to display (even though I have all the proper code for a file menu...for some reason it just doesn't show up). The other thing I'm a little upset about is that I didn't get to implement the search function even though it would have been relatively easy to do for me because of the way I structures the program. That makes me angry since because of this my program will never actually be usuable since people will have to scroll for their friends. I really should have included a search function. Maybe I'll write one and stick it in even after the due date. So then, what took me so long? Well, it was mostly the design. In case you don't know, design takes forever. So does commenting. But the problem with design is it takes a long time to figure out what you're doing right or wrong. It takes time to pick out the perfece way for something to look. So I ended up going back and forth between options because I wanted my blog to look perfect. I sacrificed functionality for looks. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make, mostly because looks are really important when it comes to stuff people will be using. Also, this was more of a challenge for me since I was pretty sure how I'd pull the search off, but I was completely in the dark when it came to design. I dunno...I think my design turned out OK. I hope Gayle liked it.

I Went to Google and all I Got Was a Lousy T-Shirt...

Today I visited Google for lunch with a friend, and it was absolutely amazing. There were yoga balls, lava lamps, magic eight balls, various renditions of Google logos (even cooler than the Seattle logo), and colors. Colors everywhere. I seemed to have stepped into a second grader's dream-land...with grown ups.
And then there was the food. Aside from having a wide assortment of drinks and snacks, Google's cafeteria is first rate. The salad bar had a wide assortment of fresh vegetables. Not only did they have the usual baby corn, crutons and dressing, they also had greek olives, a rare find even in some 3 star restaraunts in Seattle. The main entree was first rate: okra stir fry (another rare find), sweet pork roasted with pineapple, and rice. I didn't try the soup or the rest of the entrees, but can't imagine them to be much worse. The real difference with Google's food is not just the assortment of dishes, but the quality of the meals themselves. Google's food leaves you full, but doesn't weigh you down. You don't get the unsettling rumbles in your stomache that indicate something down there doesn't agree with you. You don't get that unpleasant taste in your mouth afterwards that indicates a distasteful meal masked with heavy sauces, flavoring, and MSG. You just feel satisfied, and full.
Of course, there's more to Google than just food: Games! I had the pleasure of playing ping pong and air hockey with my friend (we managed to scare a few employees off with our almost frighteningly intense air hockey game), which was a lot of fun.
And then there's of course the countless numbers of really intelligent people surrounding you with their discussions of Pascal, Fortran, and Python. That's always fun, if you can understand it.
I left Google today a little dissapointed. Not because all I got was a lousy T-shirt, however (in fact, the T-shirt is really awesome! Especially since it's a women's shirt!), but because I knew I wouldn't be going back there again. Well, at least not until next week ;)

Computer "Science"

I'm planning to major in computer science. But is computer science really a science? What is science, exactly? The Free Dictionary defines science as :

a. The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

Let's use this definition as a reference. When most people think of computer science, they think of computer programming, which is of course not a science. Computers and computer programming are products of engineering. Computers are engineered using principles from physics, and programs are engineered using a combination of data structures, algorithms, and programming languages. But what are things like data structures and algorithms but principles ("laws, so to speak") of the abstract information phenomenon? Linked lists are not direct products of computer hardware, but are rather structures defined by the idea of a node and a reference to another node. Computer science observes, identifies, describes, investigates and explains these abstract information phenomena just like any other science. It describes properties of algorithms (such as how fast it works), and tries to investigate new and faster ways to make these algorithms. The only difference is now the phenomenon is more abstract. Computer science doesn't investigate plants or animals which you can touch. Rather it investigates abstract ideas in our minds that we use to program our computers with. How can that not be a science?

Friday Adventure

Fridays are no fun without a nice little adventure, so today my friend and I decided to go explore Golden Gardens Park in Loyal Heights, Seattle. So we went to the library, figured out generally where we wanted to go (what busses we would take, and whether it was actually possible to get to the park by bus), and headed out.
Once we got on the bus, the ominous clouds above finally started to release some of their promised rain, so we decided to stop in a little Indian restaraunt to subdue our growing hunger and wait out the rain. We sat and ate the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted (called tandoori chicken) while the seattle sky poured its heart out. The rain stopped just as we finished, and we hurried to arrive at the park in time for sunset.
We made one pitstop at an interesting tree swing we found just off of the mian trail (pictured above). The steep hill at the top allowed you to propel yourself pretty far on the swing and get high above the trees, which was quite a bit of fun. Then we decided to take "The Road Not Taken" (a shortcut through the trees really) to get to the beach as quickly as possible. A few stumbles and an underground tunnel later, we arrived at the beach with little of a sunset to see. Since it was cloudy, we couldn't really see the colors a sunset promises. Instead, the clouds put on quite a dynamic display for us, which almost made up for the fact that there wasn't much of a sunset. We walked along the beach until we reached the fence that didn't block off anything, sat down for a bit, then headed back with our eyes closed. This was quite an adventure, since none of us could see, and often neither of us knew where the other one was. We could hardly take 30 steps without peeking to check if we were about to walk into water.
By now it was night, but even the beach wasn't all that dark due to the surrounding light pollution. The pollution was quite terrible. Only once were we in relative darkness, and even then it wasn't that dark.
We headed back to the U. District, drank some coffee at Coffee and Comics (a great coffee shop...the first nerdy coffee shop I've seen) and headed home. It was the perfect way to spend my Friday. So, the moral of this post: spend your Fridays exploring with friends. It's the best way to forget about your troubles and relax.

I'm Famous!

Look everybody, I'm famous!
http://www.uwnews.org/uweek/uweekindex.asp
Yes, that's me and my friend getting ready to do two 3 up 180s into back to back passing. That's why we look so concentrated.

Also, I've decided to do a "my day in pictures" journal entry on flickr. Check it out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julenka/sets/72057594106702271/

Why I Haven't Posted Much

I haven't been posting much recently. That picture is why. I've been spending most of my time designing and writing a blogging client for my CSE 490 class. Why is this hard? Well, because accessing databases is incredibly complex, and making this complex process user-friendly is even harder. Right now my blog looks like a blank slate with a little logo and some random text. Not exactly pretty, or user friendly. Oh well. That's for next week. About 50 things happened to me since I've blogged, all of which I'd like to write about but don't have time. Maybe I'll get to them all some day. Here they are:
Interviewed for Microsoft.
Got an offer for doing full time summer reserach with Tablet PC.
Interviewed and got into the Honors in Rome Program
Ran for an hour
Got 100 catches of 5 clubs
Got a guitar

I think I've exceeded my events quota for the entire month. Hopefully nothing will happen to me in the near future so that I can catch up on all these events. Meanwhile, I've got a test to study for. So, I'm off.

The Quad Is Blooming!

Since I spend most of my time cooped up in my office, in class, or in the lab, the most of spring that I ever get to see is when the cherry trees blossom in the quad. They put on quite a spectacle, and university students flock to enjoy the beautiful weather and atmosphere.

Juggling in the Quad

Yesterday the Jugglers at UW had a spectacular showing in the Quad. During peak juggling hour, we had about 15 jugglers passing, juggling solo, learning to juggle, or spinning poi. It was a tantalizing display of objects of all different types and color flying around in the air on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. We had some photographers taking photos (one from our club, one from the daily, another from University Week), so my friend came up with the brilliant idea of gathering the entire club either onto or near one of the blooming trees in the quad. So there we were..15 jugglers juggling balls, clubs, and spinning poi around a tree in the quad. It was quite a display.

Relationship Problems

I wonder how many people will read this, or will want to read this, based on the title. If many people could see this title, I bet you a lot of people would read the entry. Why? Because for some reason, other people's problems interest us. Especially if they are social.

I think this partially has to do with the fact that we like to feel good about ourselves: if we know someone is having problems, and we arent, we feel good that we are better off than someone else. In the worst case, we can feel that we aren't the only person with problems in the world.

But mostly, I think it's just because we want to read about an interesting story that often has something to do with sex, courting, or drama, and want to be able say, "Ha! My life is only as bad as or perhaps even better than yours!" For some reason, that makes us feel good.

The Burke Gilman at Night

At 9:00 p.m. Friday night, a time when most college students are partying hard at the nearest frat house, my friends and I were wandering around the neighborhoods around Sand Point. As we walked along, we decided to take a break from the lights and clamor of the urban neighborhood and take a walk along the Burke-Gilman. So we slowly slipped into the darkness. The spiny trees enveloped us as we walked without moving towards the light on the horizon. It was so dark we could hardly see where we were going. We stayed on the trail by touch alone, our feet telling us when we had clearly stepped off the walkway. The trees protected us from any light or sound from the surrounding city.

Yet this protection was almost terrifying. We were grateful that we were not walking alone. At one point, an approaching light from a biker brought up images of invisible murderers hiding behind lights so that we couldn't see them. Of course, the biker would quickly pass and send us once agian into darkess.

After passing under a bridge, we finally reached the stairway back to the light. As we walked upwards, it got brighter and brighter until we were finally engulfed in that sea of unpleasant orangish yellow and it was back to business as usual.

For those of you who don't know what the Burke Gilman trail is, visit this webpage:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/BurkeGilman/bgtrail.htm