CS371P Fall 2020 Blog 6: Mason Eastman
What did you do this past week?
This past week I attended lectures, finished Voting, and looked over the starter code for Allocator. I also had an algorithms midterm that I think went well, and regular lectures/assignments in my other classes. My club had a week of regularly scheduled events that went smoothly.
What’s in your way?
Nothing is currently in my way, as it pertains to this class. I’m planning on starting Allocator very soon, to try and be done earlier, and I’m partnering with one of my friends in the class for this project. I have a quiz in another class on Tuesday and a test in yet another class on Thursday, so that’s a bit in my way right now.
What will you do next week?
Next week I’ll go to lectures and try to make a lot of progress on Allocator. I’ll also start studying for the test coming up in this class. I’ll get my other classes’ work out of the way so that I can focus on this class. My club has some events this week too, but nothing major.
If you read it, what did you think of Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?
I thought it was a well written article that highlights just how far the tech industry still has to go with equality in the workplace. I think some people think that this issue doesn’t exist in the tech field because of the nature of the work, but it very clearly does; it’s unfortunate that this is the case, because women have contributed so much to technology and programming, and should be credited and respected as such. I hope that women continue to speak up and more employers listen to them, so that company cultures can be changed to be more inclusive, welcoming, and safe for women.
What was your experience of arrays, equal(), and iterators?
I’m very comfortable with arrays, having used the extensively in my programming, but iterators less so. I remember briefly going over them in 314 (I think?), but I never saw a reason to incorporate them into my code. I found them more interesting the move we looked at them in the past few lectures, in addition to their uses. I haven’t heard of equal before we talked about it, but it makes a lot of sense to me know, and having also used it to talk about templates, I can see the power those hold in tandem.
What made you happy this week?
I went hiking with my girlfriend on Saturday, and it was such a nice day for it. It was really good to get out with her and get some fresh air, and to take our minds off school for a few hours. We also cooked dinner together, which turned out to be really delicious.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My tip-of-the-week is to get some fresh air! It’s easy to just sit inside all day, and I know I do plenty of that because I don’t want to go anywhere if I don’t have to — of course due to the pandemic— but even just going on a walk or sitting outside to read for a bit is really great. It’s easy to get caught up in everything going on in classes and the world, but taking some time away from that to be outside is quite nice.
