Week 3

Part I: Visit Time Management and Study Strategy 

     Outlining Textbooks is an area of improvement I need to work on. A note taking technique I can use is the 2-6 method. Two columns are made with the red line as the border. 6 inch column is for class notes and the 2 inch column is for main headings and points. This is essentially the Cornell system but without a summary at the bottom. This reminds me of something I used to do in college for memorization based classes. I would what is essentially the 2-6 method on every right page. I tried to get every important detail on the page as was mentioned in class or on the powerpoint. Then on every left page, I would condense that material to a mnemonic or clearly written and numbered list. Now, I don't do any handwritten notes. Everything I have is typed. In future classes that have more concepts and connections to be interpreted; I will probably go back to handwritten notes.

Part II: 

     In the readings and assignments this week, I learned about CST 363,CST 336, and CST  370. I'll learn about the rest when my teammates are done with theirs. We all had a unique approach to answering the question which may lend some insight to their thought processes and level of prior knowledge regarding the various languages.

     I took a Professional Ethics course at CSU Bakersfield. Some concepts are still familiar such as utilitarianism which is still my most favorite ethical theory to date. I am most likely a rule utilitarianist. The various forms of ethical theories: deontology, utilitarianism, rights and virtues. Ethical theories are a part of the decision making foundation when ethics are in play. These represent the viewpoints of people when they make decisions which can be using the same info and rules. A few ethical principles: beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, and justice.

     There are clear differences between ethics and law. Ethics is a moral philosophy where a person makes a moral choice. Law is a legal system with rules that govern a community controlled by a political authority. The two can work hand in hand to prevent the misuse of computers, prevent crime and create a healthy society. Sometimes, unethical things do not break the law and sometimes they do. They are simply a philosophy one can use to make moral choices and create a better society through their use.

date	time approximations	activity description	how I feel	duration	value	water (90oz is normal)
13-Sep	5pm-7pm	study	sleepy	2h	high
13-Sep	7pm-10pm	study+meeting	tired	3h	high
13-Sep	12am-5am	internet/tv	tired	5h	low
13-Sep	5am-12pm	sleep	sleep	7h	low	60oz
14-Sep	12pm-3pm	networking workshop	energized	3h	medium
14-Sep	3pm-6pm	lunch	tired	3h	high
14-Sep	6pm-8pm	nap	sleepy	2h	low
14-Sep	8pm-10pm	study	energized	2h	high
14-Sep	10pm-3am	dinner/internet	tired	5h	low	40oz
15-Sep	3am-230pm	sleep	sleep	11h	low
15-Sep	230pm-930pm	family time	tired	7h	low
15-Sep	930-1000pm	homework	tired	30mins	medium
15-Sep	1000pm-4am	internet/tv	awake	6h	low	50oz
16-Sep	4am-2pm	sleep	sleep	10h	low
16-Sep	2pm-5pm	homework	waking up	3h	low
16-Sep	5pm-7pm	gym	awake	2h	medium
16-Sep	7pm-8pm	homework	awake	1h	medium
16-Sep	8pm-4am	dinner/internet	sleepy	8h	low	55oz
17-Sep	4am-2pm	sleep	sleep	10h	low
17-Sep	2pm-5pm	homework	awake	3h	high
17-Sep	5pm-7pm	homework again	tired	2h	medium	12
17-Sep	7pm-8pm	cooking	tired	1h	low	16
17-Sep	8-9pm	homework	tired	1h	low	16
17-Sep	9pm-12pm	dinner/internet	tired	3h	low	30
17-Sep	12pm-5am	homework	relaxed	5h	low	74oz
18-Sep	5am-11am	sleep	asleep	6h	low	20
18-Sep	11am-2pm	womens entrepreneurial conference	learning	2h	medium	20
18-Sep	2pm-6pm	lunch and internet	asleep	4h	low	16
18-Sep	6pm-12am	homework	work work work	6h	high	56oz

Part III: Reflect on the Reading
What a Computer Science Student Needs to Know Reflection

  

       Yes, I agree with the article. There are many things students should know in order to find employment. At times, school studies will not be enough to learn the real world skills or the technologies used will be just plain outdated. For example, I know someone in engineering at UC Merced. His Engineering Computing class last year taught Matlab and Fortran. He's taking it again this year, and its finally been changed to something more relevant: Matlab and Python.

         I attended an informational session hosted by EJ Gallo, for a local wine company's internship program. They informed us that in order to be competitive for this internship, we should have leadership positions whether it be on campus in a club or at work. We should also have projects where we can talk about the skills we have learned. This knowledge coincides with the articles argument that a portfolio is necessary for a computer science student.

A Project Management Primer
Idea 1: ten axioms for success

• o  know your goal
• o  know your team
• §  spend time in promoting trust and ensuring everyone contributes
• o  know your stakeholders
• o  spend time on planning and design
• o  promise low and deliver high
• §  build confidence
• §  buy time in case something happens
• §  generate positive vibes
• o  iterate, increment and evolve
• §  break down the problem
• o  stay on track
• §  learn schedules and budgets
• o  manage change
• §  flexible choice that can absorb change
• o  test early, test often
• §  test often to eliminate errors
• o  keep an open mind
• §  dont get locked into an ideology
• §  dont get blinded by methodology
• §  focus on the minimum viable product? but like, a good one.

 Idea 2: Scope triangle

• o  a scope triangle: time, cost and quality tradeoffs in any project. In a normal situation, one is fixed and the others are inversely proportional to the other.
• §  add time
• §  add cost
• §  cut quality
• o  scope creep is the tendency of a project to accumulate new features. This is good early on in order to add more features. Decisions will be made to trade off time, quality and resources.

 Idea 3:the critical path

• o  The critical path is the minimum but critical set the project must include to travel in order to complete the project on time.

Other

  I attended the 2nd Women's Entrepreneurial Conference for two hours here in Merced hosted by the UC Merced Venture Lab. I learned about the importance of getting a mentor and choosing the right partners for a venture. I learned about the new mentoring program with UC Davis and of resources through CalTrans for small businesses who have minority owners. I spoke with Margo Souza, a former CEO, and with the program coordinator for the Modesto Venture Lab. 

     I experimented with Zotero, an open source reference management tool, as recommended by Matthew R. It integrates with Microsoft Word very nicely and can even save the web page for quick referencing. It doesn't usually read the author or date in web articles but I was lucky enough for it to get every detail correct when I used a DOI article.  Here is a video on how it works. 

     Next week, I will definitely preview every assignment in case something is due on Sunday again.