Beyond the RIM, the conclusion.

Oh did I tell you, dear blog? I got the job at RIM!
It's such good news it borders on being a small miracle.
Who woulda thought?
I get to work as a Java developer on my first co-op, skipping the slave-away-as-unit-testing intern stage.
This completely shatters my life view as a cynic of course. I'm not used to getting what I want when I want it. Life usually gives more of a fight.

I have to move to Ontario on very short notice.
Decided to drive there so that I can keep my car and my 2 synthesisers. "United breaks guitars" gave me a scare, so I'm going to avoid flying instruments if I can help it.

Next sunday, a day after my last final, I will pack up and leave.
Driving cross country on my own may be a bit boring, so I posted an add on craigslist. But let's face it, you have to be pretty dumb to go on a roadtrip alone with a total stranger for 5 days, so I'm not putting too much hope into it.

Considered offering some of the other SFU students who got accepted for jobs in the east coast, but we all get airfare covered, so it's not likely that they'd want to drive instead.

Although I think that's an excellent way to meet someone when you're both going to be living there for probably a year.

Trouble is I'm the only one who sees it that way. (always the cynic.)

On a side note, I sent the cmpt 275 instructor some hatemail. Basically congratulating him on inspiring a new generation of people who drop their trash on the floor to be picked up by others.

He liked it so much he wants to meet me to address my comments.
If he were any other man, I'd have hope, but knowing him, I can only assume this is some trick to cover his ass.

Hopefully he won't fail me for this.
That would be really sad. As much as I lack respect for him, I take him for a selfish, narrow-minded person, not a bad man.

Destroying my career over a well written, well argued insult would be devious.

this is the email:

I've been interviewing for a co-op this summer and taking this course as a requisite.


Although I finally landed a co-op, in 2out of 4 interviews, after enthusiastically describing my iPhone project, the first response was "what's objective-c?"
Imagine my frustration.
Apple does not hire SFU students, but RIM does.

Why not develop a mobile application for the blackberry and give your students a fighting chance.

Learning an extra language is nice. but most of these students barely know one language and have to be carried along by the more senior members of their team. If the project was in Java, it would not only help, it would inspire them to try.
in a group of 5, 2 could never pick up the language, and every time one of the other 2 committed code, i had to go over it and restructure everything because they have no concept of object oriented design and barely know how to program. all they know is assembly from engineering classes and very basic c.
that's 5th year sfu engineers for you. putting two of them in one team didn't help.

i can't take leadership when i have to deal with cliques. i have to let them try and fail first to prove my point and that's a total waste of time for me and the group.
put more thought into group compositions. maybe even force every team to assign a single project leader and give him/her some authority to handle internal issues.
I had to carry 5 people. and i had to break the law (hack osx) in order to do it.

I gained experience in a fringe language that never was and never will be an industry standard, and a better appreciation of the necessity of well defined team leadership and prior preparation.

Speaking of preparation...
I asked you last term to add something in the line of "This course relies heavily on Macs, so it would benefit the student to have access to one" in the course description.
It's a very small effort that would make a huge change. hacking osx takes time, if students know they need to do this (yes they do) they need to know about it in time.
I haven't checked, but according to the class reaction, i can safely assume you didn't do it.

That would have taken what? 5 minutes of your time? I guess you were powerless to do that too.

You know how they say actions speak louder than words?
Here's what values i learned through action in this course:

• you don't need to take responsibility for your group tasks, someone else will.
• you don't need to participate and contribute equally, because if your group succeeds you will get the same grade. why make the effort.
• ignoring conventions and accepted standards is clearly an example of good UI.
• accountability and responsibility is for suckers.

Congrats, you've inspired a new generation of people who leave their trash on the floor when they go to the cinema (why bother carrying it to the trash, someone will pick it up). I'd be proud if i were you.
just my thoughts on the course as i missed the evaluation and i believe in feedback.
you may and probably will ignore this,
but hopefully someone after me will benefit.


cheers.

Now that I reread this, I feel bad. This doesn't well implement what I learned in 376. I hope Ted doesn't see this :) I got the numbering all wrong, misplaced comas all over, sentence structure is a mess. the foramtting is bad, transitions lacking. not well written at all.
And the worst of it is I actually said "hopefully".

In my defense, it was revised so many times it lost all form and structure and written very late at night over a short period of time.
Sorry Ted!