Mike Rundle's Weblog

What I Learned In College

I've been removed from RIT for about 8 months now, so I think I can finally write somewhat objectively about what it did for me. Obviously I took a route different than most in the sense that I spent many a night doing client work instead of hanging with the boys, but I still did my fair share of college stuff. Throwing 2' diameter water balloons out 5th floor windows at 3am, putting bars of soap in the microwave until they quadrupled in size and then exploded, destroying old computers with 2x4s, you know, the usual.

I thought pretty hard about the most important things I learned at college (related to academic stuff only, no inner-growing mumbo jumbo... I'll save that for another entry) and I think a Top 5 list is in order. Honestly, I would have done a Top 10, but I don't really think I could pull together more than 5.

1. The first two weeks of Java I where my mind was boggled with object-oriented programming techniques. The rest of Java really doesn't have any bearing on what I do now, but the first few weeks of the first course (of 3) were the most important. Friends of mine were telling me how badly they were doing in Java, how they didn't understand OOP or logic or conditionals or whathaveyou, and I basically told them to switch majors. If you're in a technical major (IT, CE, CS, SE, etc.) and you don't "get" encapsulation and polymorphism and all the rest of that stuff, then you're in for a world of trouble. OOP paradigms prepare you for every other type of code you'll be writing so if you don't get the early stuff then you'll NEVER get the later stuff. It's like learning how to hit a golf ball without learning how to properly stay back on the ball. If you continue to swing like you're playing baseball you'll never hit it as far as real golfers.

2. The second to last class of the only database course I ever took. I made the mistake of taking a 3rd year database course when I was still a budding freshman, and I got my ass solidly kicked with a C which was the only C I ever got in a course in my major. The first 8 weeks of the class (my college is on trimesters: 10 weeks courses) we diagrammed databases on paper. Every single assignment was a hand-drawn database schema, and every single quiz was drawing a schema based on a problem scenario. Not once in the 8 weeks did my idiot professor mention how databases were accessed or manipulated, until the 9th week when he was away and a substitute professor came in who was a database genius. She walked in, starting talking about SQL, and then immediately noticed that we all had a deer-in-headlights look upon our faces. After explaining that our professor never mentioned SQL the first 8 weeks of class, she cried a little inside, and then gave us a crash course that was 100x more useful than any of the high-level garbage our real professor ever taught us.

3. The entire course titled "Spatial Visualizations and Pattern Perception." So imagine me, three years into RIT, still carrying a great GPA, thinking I'm invincible and wanting to take on the world. Then, picture me signing up for a high-level psychology course with a cool title that has 3 pre-requisites for it that I didn't feel like taking. This course was one of the greatest courses I took at RIT, and I think it was because I actually learned new things. For most of the courses I took at RIT, I walked into the class knowing about 60-90% of the material prior to showing up. Blame it on being a really bright youngster who read books on science, language, and philosophy like they were going out of style... which they probably where. Anyway, this class was 100% all brand new to me, probably due to the fact that not only was THIS course new to me, but so were the three classes I needed to know BEFORE this one, so just imagine how much I had to learn in order to do well :) Nothing prepares you for a career as a designer more than knowing in excruciating detail how a light wave/particle moves from outer space, into your eyeball, and then into your brain. This course was responsible for posts like these :)

4. Introduction to XML. I was getting really bored with the undergraduate courses at RIT, so I decided to jump up to graduate level and take some stuff which was much more interesting. Intro to XML was the first graduate-level course I took (I think I ended up taking 4-5 more) and it definitely taught me a ton. I thought I knew about XML before walking into that class, but man was I wrong. Now I can handcode schemas like a professional, and my amazing professor showed me that XSLT is the greatest thing known to man.

5. Human Factors and Interface Design. Human Factors (or, HCI: 1) is the pre-requisite to Interface Design (or, HCI: 2) where HF is the theory part and ID is the design/conceptualize portion. I started getting into usability a few months before my schedule freed up for these classes, so I convinced some people to let me take both at the exact same time. Extreme usability overload! The best thing, apart from making interfaces that people can use and not vomit on, is that usability teaches you how to talk. I can now look at any design (analog or digital) and analyze it from every single angle in regards to 1) ergonomics, 2) visual aesthetic, 3) emotional attachment, or any number of other things. Learning about user-centered design makes you a better "talker" because not only can you now design cool things, you can also talk important people's ears off about them as well. This is very important when a client asks you "why does my current design suck?" or my favorite, "why does your new design do it better?" so you can stand up and have something to say instead of slouching and mumbling about color palettes or metaphors.

Well, 3 1/2 years of college all wrapped up into a nice little list.

The Idiots at Bob Jones University Ban Real-Life On Campus

Bob Jones University in South Carolina bans homosexuals on campus (trespassing gays are immediately arrested), public displays of affection including hand-holding or dancing, and recently removed its very old ban against interracial dating. Over 95% of the student body are caucasian, and while G.W. was trying to get elected four years ago he spoke there about bringing "the University's conservative values" to the White House. This post isn't political, but I wanted to throw that in there for the heck of it. Anyway.

If you're an incoming freshman to good ol' BJU, here's a list of things you can leave at home because they're banned in residence halls:

• Posters of music or movie stars and fashion models.
• New Age music, jazz, rock and country. Oh, and Contemporary Christian Music too, you don't want to bring that filth on campus, no sir.
• TVs, VCRs, and DVD players. And using your computer to playback any of those isn't permitted either, just in case you wanted to sneak Shrek 2 in, 'cause it'll be confiscated.

Oh, and if you're off-campus visiting friends, you're not allowed to watching anything past a G-rated movie, plus cinemas are off-limits. And don't bother planning on driving off-campus if you're under 21 because underclassman are only allowed to use their cars to drive to and from home, nowhere else.

Listen up BJU students, this is the real world talking. There is more to life than G-rated movies and lollipops, and if you get fooled into thinking the real world will hold your hand after college then you're living on a fantasy planet. Homophobia is stupid, hateful, and wrong, and by going to school at BJU you're perpetuating an ugly part of human nature. Life is more than than white people sitting around campfires singing kumbayah and practicing abstinence, and the faster you figure that out the better a world citizen you'll be.

Aristotle: On Longevity

One of the lesser known Aristotelian works is On Longevity and Shortness of Life, and I'm writing about it for my final Ancient Philosophy piece. If you haven't read Aristotle previously, his philosophy differs most directly from Plato in that Aristotle relies on his senses above all else. His philosophical works are generally observational in nature, and then work towards logical conclusions based on induction. This is generally opposite of other philosophers who do not believe you can trust your senses. Either way, Aristotle is considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time.

In On Longevity, Aristotle discusses his reasoning behind why some animals and plants die within a year of "birth", while others live to be 100 years old. He talks about the underlying oppositional elements inherent in all living things, and how this constant tug-o-war is what decreases our lifespan. I don't want to spoil it, so just check it out:

The fulltext of On Longevity as translated by G. R. T. Ross.

On Neglect

My final exam for the class Spatial Visualizations and Pattern Perception is in about a half-hour, and if only for my own edification, I want to write down a little bit about neglect so I can remember it more easily for the test. Here goes.

Neglect

The phenomenon known as neglect usually occurs after direct cranial damage, where unilateral right hemispheric lesions in the temporoparietal juncture render the perception of one half of the visual field unusable for the patient.

The contralesional visual field that would normally be processed in the ipsalesional hemisphere is absent, so the only visual input processed by the brain is in the ipsalesional visual field which corresponds to (in this case) the left hemisphere.

Persons who have right hemispheric lesions cannot process nor attend to objects in their contralesional visual field, so they view the world as right-sided. A person only has half a face. A flower only has petals on the right. A square is only made up of three lines (two of which do not intersect).

There is a theory that states a person with neglect can be made "normal" again by lesioning the contralesional hemisphere in order to even out the lesions. Somehow, after bilateral temporoparietal areas are lesioned, other areas of the visual pathway (be it V2, MT, etc.) will take over and all will be right. This theory has yet to be proven.

The test if over with and I probably got some sort of an A on it. All thanks to this post! Yeah!!!!

Adam Betts

I was surfin' the net (what else would I be doing at 2:30am), and found a fantastic graphic arts site from the mind of Adam Betts. I think he's been listed on Paul's CSS Vault and a number of other sites that showcase sweet weblog design.

I googled his name and found out that he's also designed icons that I use on my system! I'm addicted to a great instant messaging client for Mac OS X called Adium, and Adam's worked on the UI team as an icon designer.

I ran through some more search results, and found out — get this! — he's a sophomore here at RIT! He's got a brother here too. Freakin' amazing! I thought I knew everyone who worked with web standards at RIT (all three of us, yes I'm including professors), but this just blew my mind.

I should have my people contact his people, we could do lunch.

Update: NASA discovers the 10th planet. Whoa.

A Late Night Simile

Reality just hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was planning on going to sleep about 20 minutes ago, but before I jumped into bed I looked at my graduation worksheet — something that defines what classes you need to take in the Information Technology program before you graduate.

Mine is pretty well filled up. With the classes I'm taking next quarter all set (Visual Comm., Spatial Visualizations and Pattern Perception, Ancient Philosophy, Theatre Arts, Golf), I only have 27 credits left to graduate after the spring quarter. Just to give you some insight into RITs quarter system, I usually take 16 credits a quarter * 3 quarters a year = 48 credits a year. If you double check my math, you'll realize that I only need to take 27 credits next year to graduate. This number is far less than the 48 I usually take, which means that I can graduate early.

Wait a sec! Graduate early? Go into the real world ahead of all my friends? Leave my apartment? Leave my friends? Pay back my student loans?

I think I'm in over my head here.

I really don't know what to do. It would be easy for me to graduate early, no crazy schedules, no cramming 10 hours of class into one day... piece of cake. But do I want to? I (in no way) thought that I could be graduating around this time next year. It just didn't work its way into my head.

Instead of graduating early, I could take some classes over again to replace low grades. Would it really be worth it though? The reason I got a C in the class the first time around is because I hated it. It didn't challenge me. I didn't feel as though I learned anything, so therefore, I didn't apply myself. I truly don't care if I graduate with a 3.8 instead of a 3.75, that doesn't matter to me. But does it matter to graduate schools? Ahh! Therein lies the rub. In order to get a fellowship or graduate assistantship, it would be better to replace those low grades with As just for appearance's sake.

I'm really torn. What do you guys think?

Also: There's a new category in town — Academia.

My Academic Future

Well, its that time again. Since RIT is one of those goofy schools that relies on the quarter system (Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters... and Summer), and I'm already 60% of the way through the Winter one, I have to register for classes in the Spring. Unfortunately, it kinda crept up on me, and registration is Friday morning.

These are the classes I'm planning to take, accompanied by their description. Bear in mind that I am a Mass Communication minor, so I have to (and always like to take) an exorbitant amount of communication classes. Here they are, in no particular order:

Visual Communication

Examines communication processes and principles that use the visual mode. Through a survey of several areas represented in the literature of visual communication, this course examines theories, analysis, and the meanings of images. Emphasis is on communicative understanding rather than on aesthetic, technical or skills approach. Discussion primarily depends on, but is not limited to, photographic images.

Organizational Communication

Examines both interpersonal and small-group communication in organizational settings. Topics include information flow and networks, organizational theory, managerial decision making, interviewing, organizational development, corporate culture and conflict resolution.

Network-Based Multimedia

This course presents fundamental topics of designing and implementing multimedia on the Internet. Each topic is presented along with the underlying computer technology that supports it and hands-on projects incorporating the concepts. As the technology of interactive multimedia on the Internet changes, this course will present the current practice in preparing multimedia for cross-platform delivery to the growing audience of Internet users. Using the capabilities of current web browser client and http server technology, students will implement interactive multimedia for a variety of applications.

The Philosophy of Language and Literary Theory

This course will initiate students into the primary debates in philosophy of language and literary theory of the past forty years: debates over language and interpretation, culture and meaning, knowledge and textuality, debates shaped by structuralist and post-structuralist, as well as analytic and post-analytic orientations to language and textuality. Students will become grounded in the ways in which these and other orientations are rooted in long-standing philosophical and literary critical traditions - both Anglo-American and European.

I was this close to declaring my minor in Philosophy, but I decided against it at the last second because I thought that communication courses would better serve me in my field after I graduate. The philosophy course is actually a "special topics" course, which means the topic changes every quarter. Last quarter, the topic was "The Metaphysics of Death", and I really hope that they are offering that topic next year.

I'm really excited about Visual Communication — they only offer the course once a year, and it fit perfectly into my schedule. It is (unfortunately) the only course in visual communication and illustrative symbols that RIT offers, so I guess it'll do. My ultimate goal is to take a class either taught by Edward Tufte, or at least based around one of his brilliant texts. One can only dream :)

Graduate School
I have been giving more consideration lately to the Science Writing 1-year program at MIT. It is designed for writers and other professionals in the scientific field, who wish to better their science writing skills when writing for a more general audience. Think Scientific American. Think Popular Science. Unfortunately, for this to be a viable option, I'd have to set aside my real plans for my mid-twenties, and pay through the nose to attend one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Is it worth it? I haven't made my decision yet.

The infinitely more definite option is to attend DePaul University in Chicago, and to bask in the warm, forgiving glow of their Human-Computer Interaction program. The professors seem cool, the classes are definitely cool, and the area is just fantastic. I spoke with Joshua Kaufman recently about his experience at University College London and how their HCI degree varies from many others. I was also looking at Carnegie Mellon's Interaction Design program, but I think that's a little too narrowed for my tastes.

Thoughts?

Note to Self

Just because someone is working towards a Master's degree, it doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about.