I just got back from a wonderful vacation, hence the no posting for the last couple weeks.
From a geek’s perspective, it is kind of interesting to look at the infrastructure of places you travel to. One of the stops on my trip was Grenada, a beautiful island with poorly constructed homes and a relatively poor group of people. But even there, with concrete shells for homes and scrap tin roofs, multiple people were sitting outside with bluetooth headsets and laptop computers with wireless access. My perceptions of a deep digital divide on this small Caribbean island were completely shattered! It was really kind of neat.
I have to catch up on work, so this is a short post. But I leave with another rubber duck, this time found in Brenner and Queens’ apartment.
Apparently this duck grew bloodthirsty and violent with age. It has been caged to protect those that would otherwise have been drawn to its deceptively innocent features.
A new quarter at school has started, and I’m pretty excited for this one. My schedule consists of probability and statistics, programming skills, privacy and security, and an independent study.
Probability is boring, boring, boring. My instructor frequently uses incorrect notation, confusing all the students. We won’t be discussing that class, because I try to keep this blog a happy place.
Privacy and security is pretty cool. Right now we are going over the legal and ethical issues in electronic privacy. The class is discussion based, and some of the talks have been fairly enjoyable (especially since Brady is taking it with me). Our first assignment was to use any resource available to us to datamine our professor and his family. Along with his public records and other easily available stuff, I obtained a list of all his vehicle registries in New York, and discovered some other fun tidbits about his children. Later on we’ll actually be jumping on the more technical side of computer security. Not a lot of it will be code-based (which I’m really disappointed about), but it is the part of class that I’m most looking forward to.
Programming skills is an upper level CS elective that has a changing curriculum depending on the quarter and professor. My class is focusing on Aspect Oriented Programming. We are just getting into it, but AOP is… well, a trip. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but I’m learning.
My favorite class this quarter is my independent study. I’ve wanted to get some exposure to web development for a while now, and I’ve also been wanting to get some more experience with python. By developing a web-based quiz administering system for the CS department at RIT, I hope to accomplish both of those goals. It is kind of a big project for only 10 weeks, so Dave is signed on to help. As far as implementation goes, we’ll be using Python Server Pages as provided by mod_python for Apache. Javascript will assist with client side logic and any AJAXian features we decide upon, while HTML and CSS will be responsible for making a pretty interface.
It should be a fun quarter :)
I am a team player.
Notice I’m not saying it to a recruiter or in an interview, it is something I actively seek in all avenues of my life. I play soccer because I love the interdependence everyone has on one another for the collective to succeed. I am a part of Computer Science House because I like the feeling of belonging to something larger than myself. It is this attitude that makes me bond with my peers in work and school to form truly kick-ass functional units. Put me in a group where we can form a team, give us enough freedom to be autonomous, and presto-chango: you’ve created a self-reinforcing productivity monster.
I put a lot of effort into my teams. Regardless of the role I play, I never expect more out of anyone than I have given and am prepared to continue to give. If everyone else feels the same, your teammates are happy, respect one another, and bond at a depth that goes beyond the work at hand. However, there are people that destroy teams.
They look good on paper, but truthfully their successes have little to do with their individual abilities. The material on their resume comes from the effort of other people, their previous teams, which they have used as a cover for their own incompetence. They exploit their personality, physical appearance, or the good nature of the people they interact with to get assistance in every avenue of their work. They handle the basics, but the real shine comes from many other used, uncredited individuals.
Their results look good, but they are not their own. True team players put forth completed work as the result of the group’s effort, fully understanding that the goal would have been unattainable without utilizing the skills of their teammates. The user, however, abuses the efforts of the group for their own personal gain. As the efforts of the team go from working for the collective to furthering the agenda of an individual, the team suffers. Members will be unfairly burdened by the work, becoming burnt out, unhappy, and suffering the pains of missing deadlines while hearing no praise for their successes. Meanwhile the individual stands out in the group, appearing to produce quality work while the rest of the team is straggling.
These individuals may not be conscious of their actions. But it doesn’t matter. Either they are unaware of the effects of their actions and are too oblivious to see them, believe what they are doing is normal, or they understand what they are doing is not right but continue to do it anyway. In any case, keep them off my team. I want individuals who are fully capable of doing their job, people competent enough to do their work without changing the position to better fit their lacking skill set. Bring me people who are both reliable and willing to rely upon others, and cast out those toxic individuals who will serve themselves over the group.
So to any hiring managers reading this entry, don’t take a chance on that individual. See past their credentials and degrees, and ascertain whether that person really got to where they are from their own efforts and contributions. Because while that candidate may look incredible on paper, with a 4.0 GPA and more letters behind their name than are in the English alphabet, their pristine throne may rest upon the backs of everyone they’ve used to get there.
And that is not a person I want on my team.
Alrighty, as life presents the opportunities, I’ll be sharing the funnier things caught on camera. Here is one that made do a double take before laughing a little:
Caught it in the RIT parking lot. I’m not going to explain it; LISP junkies, have your moment ;)
It’s a rubber duck. I found it one day after work protecting my car. Why he was out of the water, we may never know.
