David Oakes Learning Journal

 So now the Internet  Programming class is officially underway. And, I'll say it, I'm a little underwhelmed as to the material. It is bootstrap week for the course, so I can't be too harsh on it. I was expecting more than basic html writing however. Here's hoping things get a bit more interesting next week.

 Once again at the end of another college course. Some how this one felt like it went by the fastest so far. I wasn't expecting it to go as fast as it did, but here we are. Real grateful that the professor extended the due date for the final programming assignment to this Saturday instead of the usual Tuesday. It's a lot more headache than the previous three, despite the fact that most of my rust in python coding has been shaken off. Ah, well. Computers and programming have been like that for ages, I really don't think that's going to change anytime soon.  The orientation for the next course, Internet Programming, is also going to be this Saturday. I wonder if it's going to include any webpage authoring and html.

 I really wish I remembered to write last weeks post, but there actually wasn't all that much to write about, frankly. The only major thing that went on in our computer networks course that week was coding a simple chat room between two hosts. Equal parts fascinating and frustrating, the assignments demonstrated that network programming was just as much easy to grasp as it was migraine inducingly difficult. But, then, isn't that just programming in a nutshell? As for this week, we went over some of the internet's architecture and its quirks. One of which may be a familiar face for those who used to be a part of LAN gaming parties back in the 2000s. Much of the internet has and still is using IPv4 protocol which uses a 32-bit addressing system. 32-bits provides 4,294,967,296 unique IP addresses for devices. It seems sufficient at first glance, but 4 Billion isn't exactly a lot in the grand scheme of the world wide web. One of the ways to delay the very real possibility o...

Even on the surface, barely past the basics, the concept of computer networks seemed fairly complex. Now having finished the Midterm for 'Intro to Computer Networks', I can say that it's far deeper than I could've expected. Like onions, ogres, and computer programs on the one computer, computer networks have layers. And there are a lot more packets being thrown back and forth on a given network connection than most realize. I found my self fairly overwhelmed as to how much is going on at once. I'd go further into detail but it is 5 minutes past midnight at time of penning this. I was practically nocturnal earlier on in the program, so what the heck happened? Is it some seasonal thing, or what? If I ever figure it out for sure, I'll at least try to have it in a journal or something.

 And this was me having gone through the trouble of adapting Sam's framework only for the only work this week to be a programming assignment. Oh well. I guess that's just the ebb and flow of schoolwork I suppose. Once one's past the initial phase of socket programming, the code isn't all that intimidating. In fact, I found myself pleasantly awash with nostalgia. All the fond memories of learning Python years ago coming back to me as I worked. There are few things that beat the sensation of completing a program or script, and watching it do exactly as intended. With the next couple of weeks' work available and the midterm coming up, I'm starting to see what they were talking about back when I was in the Proseminar course last fall. This program is moving faster than I expected it to.

 I know. I'm late. But there was quite the bit going on this week. First there was a Canvas breach that hit 275 million students nation-wide, then there was a phishing attempt that was masquerading as some "career accelerator" or some nonsense along those lines. Real circus that.  Beyond this, the networking class is going rather well. I've already gotten to grips on much of the terms and names involved, and the layers that a network is comprised of. You have know idea how much that "____ has layers" line from Shrek  kept showing up in my mind as I was working this week. The second programming assignment has ben posted and I've been informed that such assignments are designed to build off of one another. As in, some of the files from the first assignment will be modified in the second. I'm curious as to how that works in practice.  Man, this post is short. I need to figure out how to adapt Sam's framework, sharpish.

 Here at the beginning of Intro to Computer Networks and I can already tell that Sam's journal format isn't going to be much help here. Or, at least, not for this week. Bootstrap week (yes, I'm still calling it that) is more getting everything set up for the rest of the class than it is learning anything groundbreaking. The class is already looking like most of the headache is in the demonstration side than it is learning the material side. Had to restart the first lab multiple times, and it wasn't to address needing to adjust configuration options. In any case, I pulled through it fairly well. The virtual machine, or, I guess its more of a virtual network, is a fascinating thing to work with, and when its all working as it should its very satisfying. I'll admit, I was expecting it to be a lot more difficult to grasp going in.