asm

Computer Architecture + Assembly Language Class

10:18 PM

I realized, in the course of posting my recent school projects to my GitHub, that there is nothing here on my blog about the small programs I've made using x86 Assembly! I studied hard to learn it, and have understood higher level languages better in the process. I don't do much for personal reasons with Assembly, but I don't want to neglect the time I spent learning it, so I'd like to give it some love in this post!




I learned some x86 Assembly in the Computer Architecture + Assembly Language course I took in Spring quarter. I found it very fascinating, like a small puzzle. Sometimes I feel like my strength is systems and bigger-picture implementations, so getting into very granular instructions definitely. put me out of my element. Nonetheless, I found it rather fun. Biology was always my best subject in elementary through high school, but studying computer architecture scratched that same itch. It was intensely interesting to get down to the most granular levels and understand the entire system from the ground up. I'm genuinely sad my school doesn't offer advanced architecture courses, I absolutely loved the section we did on digital logic gates!

I'd like to do a writeup for each program I did as part of this class, but in the meantime, here are the ones I've posted to my GitHub!

css

Udemy Web Dev Course, Episode 1

10:45 AM

I decided to take the summer off from school to intern and focus on preparing for Fall quarter. One way I've been doing that is by taking a Web Development course on Udemy. Part of my required curriculum at school is a Web class. After hearing stories of people leaving the class hating Web work because they felt rushed, I decided to front-load my learning as much as possible.



I'm not new to Web Development. I taught myself HTML and CSS in middle school so I could customize my MySpace profile (really), and my last internship involved full-stack development, with a mix of HTML, CSS, JS in the front, and C# and SQL in the back. I built a couple things from the ground up there, which was fun!

I wanted to learn more advanced JS tricks, as well as to un-rust myself and get back some web-related muscle memory. In addition, the Web Development I learned at my last internship was in the ASP.NET framework, and I wanted to expand my horizons beyond that realm ahead of learning it in school. I've always found Web to be enjoyable, so I've been having fun!

The course I selected is pretty comprehensive, so it starts from absolute beginner. Instead of skipping ahead, I've been working through each video and exercise. This is to get my brain used to regularly working with HTML and CSS again, but also to try to pick up a few new tricks, or things I may have missed self-teaching. So far, that strategy has been really effective. 

c++

Sweet Lolita Print Name Generator, Visual C++ Program

5:54 PM



Hello again! This entry is to talk about a simple little "name generator" program I made with Visual C++. You give it some information about you, and it gives you a name. This one is a bit different, though. It's based off the often absurd-yet-endearing names for dresses and collections put out by the Japanese street fashion design house Angelic Pretty. Before I get into the technical details, a little context. Click to continue reading.

My Goals for Winter 2017

9:05 PM


Hello again! I want to begin a series of posts where, at the beginning of each academic quarter, I set new goals for myself, and assess my progress on previous ones. Because this is the first installment, and my first quarter as an OSU student, I'm going to set 3 broad goals.


My 3 goals:

  • Develop good coding habits
    • I chose to go the post-baccalaureate route as opposed to a bootcamp to build a strong foundation. I want part of that foundation to be good habits!
  • Improve my time management
    • I've survived 2 jobs and 5 classes before, but there's alaways room for improvement.
  • Make new friends
    • This might be difficult in an online program, but I've never said no to a challenge

Introduction

9:53 PM



Hello world! As a first post here, I thought I’d take a moment to introduce myself and provide some information on my professional and academic background, and a bit about my intentions for this blog. New year, new things!



I created this blog to track my progress through school, and to discuss my projects, and any other relevant thoughts and topics. Some will be focused on things that are specific to my school and program, while others will be much more broad and general. This is my first quarter attending Oregon State University as a Computer Science major, so I suppose now is a good time to begin documenting my experiences here! I’m a student in the Online CS Post-Baccalaureate program, so I don’t live in Oregon, and I already have one Bachelor’s degree.
I graduated from San Jose State University (with departmental Honors, I suffered for that title!) in May 2016 with a degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Management Information Systems. I was very involved during my time at SJSU. I was a student in the Honors program, a member of the MIS Association, and was selected twice to represent my school at the Women in Cyber Security conference. In addition, I spent a semester as a TA, doing regular TA work, as well as assisting the department chair in editing Salesforce application-building labs, and helping faculty members run them in their classes, and tutoring the students who were completing them. I was exposed to coding, networking, and database administration in the few technical classes that were part of my MIS curriculum, which is when I discovered my aptitude for technology.
I interned at a large healthcare organization for a year and a half, where I learned to code. I worked on several projects while I was there, including a tool that consulted internal customers through the process of pricing out infrastructure equipment. My experience as a business major came in handy for financial calculations! I enjoyed the challenge of being thrown into a project with little experience. I showed myself that I can learn anything quickly if I really try. The time I spent there was extremely valuable to my career development, and really solidified my desire to continue learning to code, and to go into a post-baccalaureate program.