Speeding Ahead

Life is slowly settling down over here. School has started with some pretty interesting stuff this year. Firstly we have a math analysis course in multiple variables which is ok. I’m not a fan of the previous analysis courses but maybe this will be a bit different. We’re contining with computer hardware, microprogramming and such, and I enjoy it a little.

When I started programming the big question was how did the code I typed into my editor become something the processor could understand? I’ve got a good feeling for different programming languages, and now including the assembly for 86k processors. Now the basic hardware, from logical gates to ackumulators, and code are being connected together which feels very nice indeed. I still like to construct and make stuff in a more high level way though.

We’re also having a new course, it’s been totally remade since last year, about software prototyping. I’m quite used to prototyping with my games but as expected a university course about the subject is a bit more structured and dare I say more boring? The course book, Effective Prototyping for Software Makers, is pretty good as it explains the design process in a formal, but not mindnumbingly boring, way. I need to investigate more but I’ll definitely use some of the ideas.

The last course for now is the advanced course in linear algebra which me and a friend chose. Linear algebra was probably the hardest math course we’ve had but at the same time I think it’s the most enjoyable and useful so far. And finally I hear it’s very useful for programmers in computation and 3D programming so it’s something I really want to understand.

Life with Veronica is also working out, mainly because she’s awesome, and I went to a Taekwon-do training this week. Feels good to practice again!