CS 373 Fall 2020: Week of 14 Sep — 20 Sep
What did you do this past week?
This week I was able to finish the Collatz project and we were able to start on the semester-long IDB project. For now, we are working on phase 1 which is figuring out our idea, what content will be on our website and where it will come from, as well as setting up the initial static version hosted on either AWS or GCP. I was able to meet with my team for the first time today afternoon and we were able to really hammer out our idea and start making a plan. We still need to wait for it to be finalized but we have started making a list of the APIs that we can use.
What’s in your way?
As for the project, we still have yet to finalize the details and figure out who will work on what. That will take some more meetings and planning to really get rolling. Outside of that, I have been applying to many companies to see if I can get an offer for an internship in the summer of 2021. I have my return offer from my previous internship but I would like to have more options when I decide. I am having to balance both that process and leet code with classes which can be difficult at times.
What will you do next week?
Next week I will focus on getting a large part of Phase 1 of the IDB project done (it is due the following Wednesday after all). I also plan to get ahead in some of my other classes as right around this time is when a lot of the projects and work will start to pick up. There is also both the Career Fair and FOCS Brunch on Wednesday which I need to prepare for if I want to make a lasting impression. I need to make sure I am confirmed for the times I have registered for.
What was your experience of exceptions, IDB1, and types?
IDB1 seems like an incredible learning experience as you really have to be familiar with a large variety of tools and technologies to complete the project. It will also be a great team experience, especially since we will be able to work together for the rest of the semester. I ended up learning more about exceptions and how typing is implemented in Python than I knew before. I am actually very interested in the direction these lectures are taking as I am learning a lot more about Python that will be useful for when I use it in the future.
What made you happy this week?
I am staying at home for the semester in Dallas, TX due to the current situation so I have not seen any of my friends in person since spring break started in mid-March. Recently I was able to have a group FaceTime with some of my friends and we were able to catch up on what had happened so far with each of us. It felt comforting to realize that everyone was sort of feeling the same way I was as well.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
We have been using Docker for this class which has been very useful in making sure all of the required tools are pre-installed and one can just easily run their code knowing everything is there for them. However, I learned about virtual environments in Python this week and if for some reason, you need a virtual environment but don’t want to go through the trouble of creating a Docker image, you can always create a local virtual environment in almost no time! You can install packages easily without affecting the actual machine which can end up saving quite a bit of time.
