Well things have finally come to an end. As my time with GSoC wraps up I look back and realize how quickly the summer came to an end, and how much fun I had. After my short trip out of province to visit family and friends I arrived home yesterday to finish off the last of my emails and correspondences. Today I exported my screencasts in a higher resolution for the TP media server, and got a few last minute bugs resolved. While I won’t quit working on Risk I am drawing the line between GSoC and personal work today.
This whole experience has been a real eye opener for me. I’ve become a lot more confident about my current skill as a programmer, and have also come to see more of the “big picture” and where I fit in. While I am still no where near being an expert I think I will now be able to recognize when I get there :P. I’m very excited to see the effect all this learning has had on me when I return to school this fall; Hopefully I won’t be butting my head with professors and the like too often, but it is now very clear to me how much my Computer Science training will/has failed me and my fellow students. If only everyone could have to opportunity to work with GSoC and extend themselves as I have. If I were to just complete my degree without GSoC or personal projects I am sure I would be an atrocious programmer.
As time permits I will continue to work on Thousand Parsec and Risk, but I cannot guarantee the same level of commitment as I have put in this summer. My first orders of business will be increased stability (mainly via upcoming AI’s and their development), improved audio and video (so like everything) for the screencasts, particularly “basic”, and in general just being available to help with the ruleset and improve upon it.
As far as I can see (and hope) this summer has been a success and if finances aren’t a problem I would hope to participate again next summer. If anyone has any issues with Risk don’t hesitate to email me, as I will never ignore a TP related email.
Eugene | 16-Aug-08 at 7:55 pm | Permalink
Hi, just curious but how has computer science failed you and fellow students?
Congratulations on finishing GSOC
jphr | 16-Aug-08 at 8:24 pm | Permalink
It has come to be my opinion that Computer Science is too varied a profession to simply be lumped into one degree. Depending on individual professors (and never consistently) I may receive one class from an academic standpoint, and another from a software engineering standpoint. While I applaud the effort of various “Software Engineering” certificates I don’t believe it is enough. I would hope someday Comp. Sci. would see hard differentiations between its disciplines, not unlike engineering is partitioned. Getting a little off topic though.
What I mean when I say “Comp. Sci. has failed me[...]” is that my particular program is not preparing me for what I want to do. I feel as if the current degree program for Comp. Sci. is so unfocused one cannot graduate and be a proficient worker without outside help and practice.
jphr | 16-Aug-08 at 8:24 pm | Permalink
And thanks for the congrats by the way!