PNW Chit Chat thread

[ahrensNW]

Cs is almost an unattainable major at this point. In 142 they'll mark you down for too wordy of sentences lol. There's just way too many people going for it. Informatics included from what I understand.

[84driver]

CS has a ton of theory, but leaves out a lot of current industry practices. Calc is worth learning regardless because once the theory clicks then a ton of engineering sciences become much easier to quickly reason about. The foundation of CS is Lambda Calculus.

That being said, you can learn applied programming regardless of your major, it's very helpful to understand another domain well in order to apply software to solve problems in that niche.

PM is a set of skills in itself. I agree about finding side projects, it's great to help discover what area of IT you find really interesting and worth pouring yourself into.

(I just spent a year as CTO of a startup and am now working on a new product.)

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Cs is almost an unattainable major at this point. In 142 they'll mark you down for too wordy of sentences lol. There's just way too many people going for it. Informatics included from what I understand.

That said, I just got off an interview with a CS student out here who didn't get graded on any kind of commenting, syntax, naming conventions, he couldn't write me a function to return whether a function was prime or not. It honestly just bummed me out halfway through it.

I had to take 143 every year because they graded so hard, but I'm thankful for the lessons learned.

[ahrensNW]

^how did you get into the program then?

[OldDrunkenSailor]

143 isn't required to get in, just to graduate. Info is great because entry reqs actually aren't super high and you can take most classes if you wait for an add code (or audit them), so you don't often have to be in-major. Only issue if you want to get into engineering is that there aren't too many development classes, so you reeeeally need to do site projects or you'll be too green in a lot of different areas.

[Wschnitz]

I have a feeling I might end up like that with my Calc class, Gonna try and avoid it and have a tutor the whole time.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Calc in HS was easy, barely got by 122, was definitely failing 123, and that's when I knew that I wasn't going to bother with CSE.

[ebox86]

Theres always the CSS program at Bothell, its getting pretty good reviews lately and involves a good bit of practical too. It only requires calc 1 and 2. Thats what im working towards. Currently in calc 1, next quarter will be calc 2. Its definitely going to be useful later on down the road. Linear Calc is also a recommended class to take by my co-workers.

[ahrensNW]

Calc in HS was easy, barely got by 122, was definitely failing 123, and that's when I knew that I wasn't going to bother with CSE.

Did they change the calc sequence? I'm in 125 and it's calc 2

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Theres always the CSS program at Bothell, its getting pretty good reviews lately and involves a good bit of practical too. It only requires calc 1 and 2. Thats what im working towards. Currently in calc 1, next quarter will be calc 2. Its definitely going to be useful later on down the road. Linear Calc is also a recommended class to take by my co-workers.

From a (our) hiring point of view, I care most about what you can do, but the opportunities at Bothell are just so limiting, it'd instantly go into the "cautious" pile just due to limited exposure of that campus. If I've got two candidates with the same bullet points and one is UW Seattle and one Bothell, it'd be Seattle all day. Informatics vs CSE Seattle vs CSE Bothell, I'd probably take the Informatics person as well; a huge part of candidates is their personal motivations and growth and Bothell just has geographic considerations that limit that.

The book learning is important, but industry leading profs and researchers are going to be in Seattle, that's where I expect bleeding edge and excitable people to go.

That said, we rarely get people with the same experiences, so it's not that big of a concern.

Did they change the calc sequence? I'm in 125 and it's calc 2

Whoops, whatever the second one was. 124/125/126, is that it? Second one is when I gave up.

[ahrensNW]

So would you guys rather have an m20 stroker turbo or an na s5x. Those are the two options I'm contemplating.

[Wschnitz]

NA s5x

That being said I think im still gonna end up with an ITB'd M20 lol.

[ahrensNW]

I just think a turbo would be so fucking fun

[Wschnitz]

I just like the feel of NA better. Turbos are still fun tho.

Also I like the look of NA, nothing more beautiful then an older motor with ITBs, coil on plug, cam timing gear, long tubes, etc.

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Turbos on old cars are way more fun, dat big gulp of power halfway through the band is intoxicating. Other than that, linear NA is so good. I wish I had cylinder deactivation though, would love to easily break 30mpg.