Day of Days

Well, today is any other day, but being in the Department, I feel compelled to announce my presence to the world. The next time you may see me is the second day of the new year.

Not much to report, actually. May spend some time transcribing the second CS 131 module.

Giving In

Well, by democratic decision, the CS 135 exam for Friday has moved to January, allowing more time to... I'm not sure. Study? Make more problems? Better clarify? Not too sure. There is tomorrow's CS 11 exam which will not be problematic in the least... unless if I decide that there will be three sets...

Timing Issues

A little laxity is always going to bite you in the arse a little. I may have arrived too late for some students to get their CDs. Oh well. C'est la vie?

Winding Down

Lateness in the morning translates to lateness in the afternoon. I feel a bit of the comprehension gap that occurs when discussing the correctness of bubblesort. I wonder if there's something I'm doing wrong. This sem's discussion is tighter and more mathematically sound than last sem's "Err... yes, this does mean that we can conclude that... I think" approach.

Rest for the Wicked

After outlining in grueling detail the solutions (and some alternative solutions) to the problems of the third Machine Exercise, I feel not up to the task of purchasing copious amounts of homogenized somewhat frozen flavored dairy product, so I may yet give an ice cream treat in the next year, instead, knowing the cornucopia of festivities festooned with generous foodstuffs to arrive in the next week and a half.

I find myself with a rather worrisome deep cough I may have picked up from MH 209. I will block out the rest of the world through the use of earphones and focus on making things better for those students taking exams next week. Those students taking exams next year will have to wait for my generosity (and free time) next week.

Loop-de-Loop

Iterative algorithms are the rite of passage for the young mathematician programmers today. What with the flavor of Fibonacci sequence, prime factorization, GCD and LCM, and a bit of nondeterminism and just a smattering of ASCII, we have a hodgepodge of problems that may prove toughest yet. Will they realize that the tougher the problems are, the harder it is to make the long examination questions tough? They probably will never know...

Edit: Removed the ASCII portion to make the second bonus concern the nontermination of the program (redoing the operation) until a specific input is provided.

Birthing Pains

Still problems covering average-case time complexity and correctness proofs, and now having problems looking for the perfect rootfinding method. And still half the day to go, too. Ugh.

Graeffe's of Wrath (Punny #100)

Graeffe's Root-Squaring Method is so tedious to perform without a calculator. I guess that means that I should do all my initial calculations at home on the Windows calculator, and bring those notes to class, for the practice next week. And so many! Ugh.

Must remember to upload PS#2 for CS 135. And maybe the solutions. And finish the first level of encoding module 1 for CS 131. And rush my special project. :P

Post #100!

Barely In the Water and Already Drenched

Have days like these? Sweating profusely before even riding the first jeepney? Panting heavily as you get to your desk? We go on to discussing the second machine exercise, and bring MHX up to speed today. Hopefully will finish module one for today and do something special for the rest of the days in the week that I have.

Tight Pacing

I have recovered from almost not eating lunch, and am hurrying to whittle the submissions for the second machine exercise I gave today, which, admittedly, was upped in the difficulty setting by a notch. I must check results from the first ME, because I may have moved points from one student to another.

Squeezing In

Time has an interesting property of being simultaneously dense and elastic, in a local area. I have a tendency to squeeze time under the unfortunate assumption that I perform better under stress. Let's hope stress isn't in anyone's local area of dense and elastic time, shall we?

Belly Ache

Working through the sequencing that Eng'g Week carefully but utterly befuddles, I am forced to finish the first module of the CS 131 Quiwa notes before December 7 (5:30-8:30), when the exam will be given. I also have to give an exam for CS 135 (December 9 or 16), and CS 11 (December 14, 12-2), along with two more machine exercises for CS 11 (November 30 and December 7, three shifts each, so three sets each), a second problem set for CS 135 (given December 2, when the first one is due, and due December 13). Should I plan on a bonus research for CS 131? Or one of the machine problems (although I think they should be for the second and third sets... what is my breakdown for CS 131?)?

What to do first? At least there's an extended weekend... but I may want to look into something the British Council is co-sponsoring... and I have the other class...

At least there's a two-week vacation for Christmas... in which I will have to work on the three other CS 131 modules, and encode the other class notes, and work out the schedule for CS 131 and CS 135, not to mention the syllabus changes I may want to enact in CS 135, and the requirements for CS 131...

Edit: Lucky! Met Prof. Quiwa to get both the notes and the slides for the second module, which I have to study for the restart of classes in January. More work!

Busy as a Bee with Honey in My Nose

Sounds sweeter than it is. Unfortunately, it more gooey than it aught to be. Must read up on Richmond's method, and do a bit of CS 11 documentation.

Edit: Belatedly found that my TF 6 PM class is actually a TTh 6 PM class. Not that that changes my schedule much. Just that on the days I have it, I can wear sandals.

PS: Must buy umbrella. Mustn't summon the thunder.

Another Busy Day

Booted a project class out for my CS 11. I hope no-one is too surprised by this. Giving the first machine exercise---as I speak---to the first batch of the class, of three batches. The last batch I will have to have Ate Mila watch over, as I must look presentable for the faculty meeting, which I doubtlessly will enter late. Came walking briskly from the Wednesday morning, and will be walking briskly to the Wednesday night. Tight schedule.

Edit: The ACM certificates arrived through the mail. No more ranks, just Honorable Mentions. Oh well.

Lazy Lately

It could just be old-flavored laxness or something more tinged with mucus, but I don't want to push too hard today. My coughs aren't as fake as they could be, but could do with a little more phlegm to expectorate. I wonder if it's my asthma acting a little up, or maybe a little bit of hypochondria?

Are Numerical Methods Boring?

Of course, what I mean is that my own take on the CS 131 class must be enormously boring. My personal charisma versus Prof. Quiwa's need no comparison to find lacking. However, is there a better way to present numerical methods than to just read and present the slides? How about evaluating them?

An evil thought begins to hatch...

Ill Versus Sick

As I remind people every so often, I am (nearly always) sick. However, the illness that prevented me giving and attending my Friday classes has gone the traditional route from respiratory tract to digestive tract, meriting a lateral promotion from flu to stomach flu. Anyways, I've decided to change my consultation schedule to the following ten-hour allotment:

Thursdays 12:00-1:00
Mondays and Thursdays 1:00-2:30
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 4:00-5:30

This now allows me to leave in time for the TF 6 PM class, and allots sufficient morning leeway, while not touching the Wednesday schedule, which is tight enough as it is.

Also, today marks the debut of the Quiwa notes. No relation to the title of the post.

Drawn

After yesterday's tight marathon, today's lunch break offers little reprieve. Checking completions is one matter that grows direly important as the week ends, and I have to decide whether I will rely on slides or my own knowledge of the subject matter, which I admittedly have to at least research on now.

Thumbing My Nose

Overheard about broadband:

If I'm paying through the nose, I can afford to be snotty.

Walkin' Around

Hm. Almost came severely late for class, due to my folly of riding a jeep when I should've just run. A quick "Why are taking this class?" with some comedy (or what I would call my teacher comedy - undoubtedly more deadpan than my usual). Mario tells us he will be here every Monday (not true - merely conjecture) because Baguio has no classes on Monday (true - if only Mario said it).

Rudeness: due to House or innate?

In Denial

Tomorrow is the walkthrough of the new Computer Science and Engineering Library building, which will hopefully be functional in time for the next school year. I will be part of the welcoming committee, hopefully not turning off some of our important guests.

Ugh-ugh

Running start with the CS 11 for Math class: after yesterday's "Why are you here?" class at MH 501, today was "What is a computer?" at MH 209. I have to remember to be around on Thursdays by 8:30, and to try and finish up by 11, since there are a number of students who have to rush from my lecture instantaneously to get be late for their Math 63.

Busy building the CS 11/12 CD to burn. How many programming languages can we fit?

Change of Grade Letter

My wonderful girlfriend summerized for me as such:

I was a boob. It was a booboo. Please change their grades.

If only I wouldn't lose so much face...

Week

This is the week for the ACM. So many things yet to say. Will the teams gel and smoothly handle transitioning from problem to problem and from coder to coder during the five hours over the eight problems? Will they be properly forearmed with knowledge and references? Will they be confident enought to face adversity in the form of difficult and possibly ambiguous problems, recalcitrant and often obstinate judges, and sly and daunting opposition?

We've had a sem and a week. Let's see what'll go on.

Training Day V: Pizza!

Today is the Pizza training day. Today's set is from ACM ICPC Tehran 2001.

8:50 AM: I arrive. We're wondering if we can start, considering that there are rallies clogging Elliptical Road and parts of Manila.

9:50 AM: Riza goes to get the team notebooks. We'll start soon.

10:12 AM: We begin. No Booroonggoo nor Art/Eng'g for pizza.

10:39 AM (273 min): Wet gets Parencodings. Pizza!

10:47 AM (265 min): Roger gets Parencodings. Pizza!

11:15 AM (237 min): BisDak gets Parencodings. Pizza!

11:38 AM (214 min): Decided gets Parencodings. Pizza!

12:11 AM (181 min): Wet tries Chase.

12:42 PM (150 min): Roger tries Chase. Pizza arrives. Roger tries Chase again and again. Wet gets Chase. Pizza!

12:46 PM (144 min): Break for lunch. Pizza!

1:14 PM (144 min): Resume after pizza.

3:07 PM (31 min): Masarap daw yung pizza.

3:38 PM: The end of intensive training session.

Training Day IV

After yesterday, we up the tempo even more with today's set from ACM ICPC Taejon 2001.

9:20 AM: We begin with three teams and four people.

11:23 AM (177 min): Three tries by Wet for Calendar. That's it.

11:53 AM (147 min): Tries from Wet and Roger for Polynomial.

12:22 AM (118 min): Roger tries and Wet gets Polynomial.

1:42 PM (38 min): Finished checking MPs. Roger tries Polynomial and has progress. Decided tried Tables.

2:16 AM (4 min): Madness. Tries from all teams.

Training Day III

Woohoo! Roger overtook Decided after I had left yesterday. Very tight. Today's set is from ACM ICPC Northwest Europe 2003, and ups the difficulty another smidgen. So far, two early birds and no one else. We'll see how things progress...

9:13 AM: We begin with no sign of Roger.

9:57 AM (256 min): Artist/Engineers try Vases.

10:27 AM (226 min): A steady flow. Wet tries Signals. Art/Eng tries Vases again. Wet tries Signals again. Decided tries Boss?. Wet gets Signals.

10:43 AM (210 min): BisDak tries Numbers. Roger tries Signals. Decided tries Numbers.

10:48 AM (205 min): Decided tries Boss? again. Roger tries Signals again.

11:58 AM (135 min): Two tries over the last 70 minutes, both over Boss? by Decided and Wet.

12:07 PM (126 min): Ten minutes later, two more tries: Booroonggoo with Signals and Art/Eng'g with Boss?

12:10 PM (123 min): Wet tries Boss?

12:20 PM (113 min): Roger tried Boss?

12:38 PM (95 min): Art/Eng'g tried Boss? Who IS the Boss?

12:58 PM (75 min): Roger tries Subway. Crimson Editor crashes. Used Command Prompt.

1:04 PM (69 min): Roger tries Subway again. No crash this time. May have been from trying to capture all the cascading 0s and 1s that were being output earlier.

1:41 PM (32 min): Now playing Mansion Impossible and Nanaka Crash. Roger tries Subway again.

2:00 PM (13 min): Roger tries Subway again. Wet tries Tour. Roger tries Subway again. Wet tries Tour again.

Final Countdown

As the grading deadline winds down, I have made amends with the graduating peoples' grades; I am assured that is a non-issue at the Department, although higher up is a haze. The semester at Ateneo had ended with the slightly abortive Problem Set, the first I have truly regretted not being able to attend to with my usual intensity. I am at MH 209, minding my wayward CS 135 students as they reclaim a sense of accomplishment by taking the finals and salvaging their semester.

Truth to be told, this should be a removal exam, and it is, in a way, as only those below passing can take it. The opportunity is extended to those in the slightly higher red zone, and the results of failing (but being able to bring up to half the total) is an INC (of course, a truly dismal performance merits nothing but a failing grade); however, the exam is only an addendum to their lowest exam - so, ironically, those with good exams but bad everything else would have the hardest time, their own achievements becoming hurdles. It's never an ideal solution, but it is a last gasp, something that should only be made available to the direst.

Maybe I have mellowed, more than I had at the end of my tour at Philippine Science. Is it worthwhile to send someone who had labored for four months back to the back of the line? How much of the course is truly necessary to function effectively? How much of my values and valuations truly matter in the lifeplot of those who must bear its influence?

This is partly the reason why I had never put too much stock in grades, as much of their value is truly subjective to the one teaching. Teacher factor is never truly avoidable, but as an educator you always must make an effort to make it negligible. However, negligible against no absolute measure can never be truly neglible. You can only hope that differential would always be positive, for all involved.

Training Day II

This set is from ACM ICPC Greater New York 2001. Yesterday's was from ACM ICPC South Central North America 2003. So far, all teams except Booroonggoo are here, so we can begin soon.

9:07 AM: Beginning without Booroonggoo.

9:37 AM (270 min): A flurry of successive submissions. Roger and Decided take early leaps. Wet gets a setback.

9:40 AM (267 min): Wet gets back up.

9:56 AM (251 min): Another flurry. Some more good subs, with some quick fixes for almost correct submissions. Roger and Decided change places, and BisDak starts with Morse. Karen leaves, as she will not do it alone.

10:23 AM (224 min): Quiet. Hmmm...

10:44 AM (203 min): BisDak tries Color.

10:58 AM (189 min): BisDak tries Color again. Wet tries Morse, but sends it to the wrong place. Roger tries Plato.

11:21 AM (166 min): Decided breaks back in with Morse.

11:29 AM (158 min): Wet tries again and again.

11:57 AM (130 min): Wet gets Morse. BisDak tries Cyclic.

12:22 AM (107 min): Roger tries Bode. Decided tries Set again and again. BisDak tries Cyclic again.

12:28 AM (101 min): Decided gets Set. I'm going, so Riza will take over.

Cram Session

Just found out yesterday that some of my students are graduating this sem (although one is enrolled in Los Banos - so I should have remembered). I am so late in giving their grades. Day two of the week-long training. Yesterday was fun - a relatively easy set to whet the appetites. Summary of the results are here. The running blog will resume in about ten minutes.

Did I mention the finals I'm giving today? Or grades due on Thursday?

Mock Competition II

Partly due to yesterday's bad headache, today's Mock Competition is definitely less prepared than the first. Nonetheless, everyone's having a go.

8:45 AM: Due to forgetfulness, I forget that as soon as people log in, the problem names are available.

8:51 AM: Competition begins.

9:22 AM (269 minutes remain): First submission. LCS should be a gimme.

10:06 AM (225 minutes remain): Came back from buying C2 and candy. A second hit from Booroonggoo, this time Language Cardinality.

10:30 AM (201 minutes remaining): Two more tries from two other teams for LCS. Weird how they get the samples right and the test data wrong.

11:30 AM (141 minutes remaining): A lot of action. Very cold here. One correct submission by Decided. Confusion with History Grading.

11:55 AM (116 minutes remaining): More action. Artistic Engineers get the Minimum Transport Cost. Roger tries Theseus, and again, and again, and again, and LCS.

12:21 PM (80 minutes remaining): Ruckus over History Grading earlier. I wonder why? It is kind of ambiguously stated, but there is only one way to interpret the instructions to get the sample dialogue.

12:46 PM (65 minutes remaining): Another flurry of submissions---no go. Booroonggoo trying both History and Theseus, Roger doing both Theseus and LCS.

1:08 PM (43 minutes remaining): Quiet on the homefront.

1:20 PM (31 minutes remaining): Wet gets Theseus. Up to the extent I'm testing, though. Booroonggoo tries Useless, but gets negative. Whoops.

Blind Faith

Gave the make-up for LE#3. Talked with Riza for the sked for Mock #2. Cleaning out my sked.

Where am I going to hold the finals? Eng'g Theater: renovation. MH 235: renovation. Resked? Take home?

One More Time

The cut in the time is too close: I'm physically buckling. Today is LE#3. And today is the report on QR algorithm using Hessenberg matrices.

Bad Timing

It would truly be awful timing if I would be ill the day before an examination I haven't written and a report I hadn't finished were to be given.

Also, I have to remember about the make-up for tomorrow's exam to be given next week (Tuesday).

Sucks

Okay, this sucks. Posting a reminder for the third time. I give up.

SW#3, 4 PS#5, 6 sols: Tuesday
LE#3, MA249 Report: Wednesday
SW#5: Thursday

LE#2, 3, SW# 5 sols, MC#2, Finals: next week

Checking SW#3, 4, 5, PS#5, 6, LE#2, 3: before Finals, hopefully, or maybe next next week

Checking MP#1, 2, Bonus: next next week

Not too shabby. Get it done. Especially Boyer-Moore and Knuth-Morris-Pratt.

Tight Bound

That's how schedules seem to be. I forgot that this morning's class ends at 9:30! Curses. I guess the TFR SW#4 will be on Tuesday and SW#5 on Friday.

This is what I get for forgoing last Friday's morning class.

Feverish

For the last week or so, I've been working slightly under the weather. I've felt flashes of feverishness, but otherwise have been okay.

In other news, SW#4 will only be for 30 minutes, to be entirely fair to the TF sections. Now to make sure that I can cover Floyd-Warshall's and Johnson's, and at least cover a bit of NP-Completeness for TFR. Maybe the secondary lecture comes after the SW?

Steam Dissipation

It could be that this time of the semester is the most hectic for students, or it could just be a lack of spirit in teaching. For the third week in a row, the lecture for CS 175 was held on the table in the faculty. And I uploaded the notes. Is this good for people training for a regional competition? Is it good for me to act this way?

This interesting tidbit from /.

Treading Carefully

Rereading NP-Completeness and Approximation Algorithms for the TFY class. Working out the holes in the MHR discussion. Rediscuss for MHR? If there's time, preferrably after the long examination.

Rushing Headlong into the Break

Finally caught up on reading for Bellman-Ford, DAG and Johnson, though Johnson still seems a little vague. Caught up with TFR as well, with B-F and DAG inserted, but because I was late, we're still left Floyd-Warshall and Johnson. Will focus a bit, try to make SW#4, SW#5, LE#3, and solutions to SW#3-5 and PS#5-6 for the weekend. And still have to read on Computational Geometry and make the last balloon fight for CS 175, as well as study on CS 131 not just for next semester, but also for a report on numerical methods for getting the eigenvalues of a matrix for Ma249. Whoo!

Winding Down

Me, at the end of the sem: a nattering fool, telling you what to do with your sem-long gathered information.

Emptiness

Which is worse: being the test set for a lecture, or always having the lecture delayed?

Rushing Through

Tried to see if I could cover all the graph algorithms in one meeting. Covered Krsukal's, Prim's, Dijkstra's, Floyd-Warshall's, and some Matrix Multiplication. And started late, too. Will have to review Bellman-Ford's, DAG and Johnson's, probably cover those next meeting, probably before the SW 4. Whew.

Yawn

I can't believe, barely two weeks from the hustle-bustle period of deadline-for-dropping, that I have suddenly lost enough steam to let inertia guide my motions into the day. Not much going on anywhere. There's small mounds of work, threatening to get larger, but where to start? Moreover, how to start?

Too Many Options

Bonuses, drop the lowest requirement, overloaded seatworks with low maximum scores. How much can you give someone by which you don't want to have themselves hung?

Student Evaluation

I didn't get to give the third seatwork (mostly because I didn't start with the slides last meeting), and gave fifteen minutes for evaluation. With some dread, I prodded Ate Mila for the SETs from the last three semesters. It wasn't so bad, I'd say my average so far is in par or slightly above par territory vis-a-vis promotion standards. The last sem was as bad as I thought, but I knew that before. This sem, however, is the backbreaker, as I have no CS 11 to pad my scores. CS 11 is relatively easy to teach and the ease of their understanding stems from my being familiar with the topic and the approach.

Also, I saw this article on /. Interesting to see that the exposure of these types of contests has not completely been embraced by the 'l337'.

PSHS University Fair: Some Comments

I feel that the booth for the fair was successful, as we were able to attract a sufficient number of students to have run out of the stickers provided to signify that a student had visited and learned from the exhibit. On the minus side, the logistics of moving to and from the venue were somewhat complicated, unfortunately, by the offer of the college to provide vehicles for moving equipment, as these vehicles and equipment were available at inconvenient times (although the bulk of the movement and the setting up was done at 4AM on Friday) or they had less space than could be used (the truck that left 5PM on Thursday only had room for the formica boards that served as posting boards and dividers). It was a good gesture from the college, but some more consideration should be made for the next fair, which may be next semester.

Either way, faculty and students of the department both provided for the movement, the setting up, and the packing up of the booth for the fair. There was much more activity at the site in the morning, and I was there to eye the other exhibits. From first blush, it seems that the La Salle exhibits had the most preparation; however, one must note that both La Salle and Mapua have good marketing, and it showed. I still believe that it was a good idea to have students manning the booths, because it both gave a down-to-earth and an approachable set-up, as well as removing the veneer of marketing flash to show solid substance underneath, supported by the "customers" instead of pushed by the "vendors".

The venue lacked ventilation. Otherwise, with half a room, there was not much to complain about in terms of hosting.

The science colleges throughout had the sparsest exhibits, and thus had the least traffic (noting the exception being the Ateneo Math Department, which had puzzles to play with). The best draws for the exhibits were all the interactive ones - ones with robots, ones with ice cream, ones with games.

Talking to Sir Denoga about lunch, when the torrent of students became trickles, I heard that the UP booths were being criticized for booth attendants ignoring the students. I know that this is not the case for our booth, but I hope that more attention is given to the attendees. (I feel a little guilty, as most of the time I felt my job was to entertain whoever was keeping an eye on the booth.)

One fair down - two more to go.

Sliding In and Out of Lectures

I think I'm getting the hang of slide-based lectures. Finished both BST and RBT in the lecture, and caught up with TFR on Heapsort, Counting Sort, and Radix Sort. Not bad, speeds things up. Must make sure to read them ahead of time, though. And the colors are gone, too.

Searching for a Tree

I have decided, after a less than clear lecture, to break out Dr. Tungol's slides for tomorrow. Will I be even more boring with slides? Tune in tomorrow.

All's Fair

With most of the PSHS University Fair done and over with, what's left is to pack up and leave. All my class standings have been computed, and I am in the process of making tomorrow's balloon fight. All's right with the world. At least for an instant.

Not so Panic

There's tomorrow's programming competition that I'm going to judge whose questions I haven't seen yet (but I have been assured...), Friday's PSHS Univ Fair, tomorrow's bringing stuff over, and Friday's deadline of dropping, which requires me to check like a madman. I have to remember to call PSHS CS dept to see if I can ask for some temporary space for the alumni coming over at 1ish. I hope it all goes well...

Time... is NOT on My Side

Yes, it ain't.

Overkill

In pursuit of options, more than twice the needed were generated. The casualties: my odor, and the time that could have been spent on checking. Ugh. You'll hear that a lot.

The Sound of Silence

Tension as people await judgement. The judge busily cramming the knowledge necessary for an adjudication. Ugh.

Hoping for the Best

For the long examination, since explaining things only made my MHR class tenser. And for a short trip that will hopefully end up with more cash on my person, which hopefully will be safely transported to where I will need it.

Exanimation!

Second LE for 135 today. Was able to check the first seven that took it while I was catering to six 175 students. Lowest? 52. Everyone else passed. That's good, right?

Sick, Tired and Worried

Sick most of last week, still a little tired, partly from yesterday's exam, worried about tomorrow's examination, and the PSHS University Fair. And then there's the deadline for dropping...

Under the Weather

I am fairly certain that this is a cold/cough/flu that has to be slept in a day or so. Maybe tomorrow morning. I can't forget the other class in the afternoon.

Branch-and-Bound

aka Brute Force's Wise and Sensible Sister. A bit younger than Backtracking, but able to pick up on his technique, doesn't go headlong down a path. At every junction, notes the likeliness of a good path (may even go back to a junction which has a slightly better promise of a path!) and goes down each to the next junction. Meticulous, has the best eyes amongst the siblings, and sometimes comes with the best answer before either of her brothers. Will definitely know that it is best before anyone else does, and is often annoyed if Greedy Technique gloats about being there first.

Rush Rush

Because I didn't get to meet the TFR class last Friday, I took them through a whirlwind of greedy algos and backtracking, with stops on Huffman codes, knapsack 0-1, and revisiting brute force methods. Left n-Queens for Tuesday. I wonder if the backtracking method was clearer in the analogy, or in the reconstruction? I will ponder giving them more algos next meet.

Going Back

Backtracking a la Skiena seems like a hit for discussions. n-Queens is particularly interesting. Good sign, at least people aren't all sleeping.

Backtracking

aka Brute Force's Smarter Younger Brother. Can direct Brute Force to meaningful operations, avoiding blind run-ins and dead ends. Guides Brute Force back when faced with such a dead end. Isn't much faster than Brute Force, just slightly smarter.

Daylight Savings and Botch

It seems UVLE is experiencing some sort of Daylight Savings phenomenon, advancing by one hour and closing my submission bins (opened an hour before deadline) as soon as they were opened. Still that way, it seems.

In other developments, I still feel like I botched the PS#3 divide-and-conquer solution. I don't sound too convinced by myself.

Ugh.

Botched explaining how to get the divide-and-conquer solution to the longest ascending subsequence problem. Hopefully I can fix it for tomorrow. At least I can determine a bit for PS#4, MP#1, MP#2 and the extra 25 bonus points.

Ugh. Good thing the Pisay kids didn't watch me.

Greedy Algorithms

aka Myopia. Looks for the bex fix now, all the time. Gets the job done in the best way sometimes, but this doesn't happen too often. Needs guidance and preparation to get it done well, but sometimes, cannot perform up to peak performance.

Competition epilogue

Basically, no more posts after the blackout, and we check the unuploaded solution - no good. 33 submissions, 7 solutions, max of 4 for one team. I hate interruptions of the type that makes things unfair and undoable.

Competition

Today is the first Mock Competition in CS 175, where we will see if the students have learned enough to get by. This will also gauge competition readiness for Ateneo less than three months away. Much as there is anticipation, there is anxiety. This is also 25% of their grades. Will they make it? What will happen? Stay tuned.

9:24 AM (247 minutes remain) Three clarifications. Not much else. We're hoping for an average of four correct solutions.

10:18 AM (193 minutes remain) After a flurry of submissions, one correct solution. For a medium difficulty problem.

10:21 AM (190 minutes remain) Another correct solution, for an easy problem, this time. Output format problems, though.

10:42 AM (170 minutes remain) Opened the Tortillos. Still waiting. No Slurpys.

11:02 AM (150 minutes remain) Halfway through. Slurpys solved. :)

11:23 AM (128 minutes remain) Another flurry of submissions, slightly harder problem, without success. An important part of competition performance is determining the easiest problems and the hardest problems. The judges always want to make it hard to make that distinction.

11:27 AM (124 minutes remain) Two correct solutions, two different problems, two different teams. One breezed easy, the other outputting to screen instead of file. Tsk tsk.

11:34 AM (118 minutes remain) They may have just figured it out. Oh, they did.

11:37 AM (115 minutes remain) I guess they did.

11:52 AM (99 minutes remain) Another flurry of submissions. Hmmmm... at least people can shift gears when they need to. Don't smash your head against the same wall over and over.

11:56 AM (95 minutes remain) ... And it also pays to revisit problems which were seemingly unsolvable for several tries after fresh insight.

12:32 PM (60 minutes remain) Inet went down. One hard solution. Test data was wrong for that set.

12:47 PM (45 minutes remain) 45 minutes. One team at expected, most teams below. Can they catch up?

1:12 PM (20 minutes remain) All's quiet and not all's well.

1:14 PM (18 minutes remain) Spoke too soon. Light goes out in NEC. Two teams' PCs die. (No UPS)

1:21 PM (11 minutes remain) One team's PC dies, before uploading submission. Will check after.

1:32 PM (0 minutes remain)

Insertion Sort: Dynamic Programming?

Is there a sort the performs dynamic programming? By definition, dynamic programming relies on the optimal solution of subproblems to generate the optimal solution. Insertion sort relies on the first i elements being sorted.

Or is it selection sort that is dynamic programming? All I know is that bubble sort is brute force.

Dynamic Programming

aka Divide-and-Conquer's fatter brother. MO Insidious long-term planner, starts small, funds his larger rackets with returns from smaller heists. Doesn't step in until his brother's way in over his fool head. More concerned with means than his brother, but also is very fastidious with accounting and documentation of his activities. Most people don't know what he's up to until it's done and over with.

Needing Sleep

A little listless from lack of sleep and a three-day gym binge. Looking at less than 10 minutes left in the 6th Balloon Fight for CS 175. I thought the problems were distinctly easier. I guess I thought wrong.

To Slide or Not to Slide?

I am averse to using slides, mostly because of inexperience, but partly because I think they're boring. However, I almost bored myself in today's morning lecture, and I know that Dr. Tungol's slides are more organized. Will I take the acetate plunge?

Divide and Conquer

aka You-Take-the-Left-I'll-Take-the-Right-Let's-Meet-in-the-Middle. MO Has a strongly organized bureaucratic force willing to take apart any problem and handle it at the lowest level, using only idiots and brainless buck-passers at the lowest level. Shrewd tactician, uses knowledge of the mark to correctly work out the problems as they are passed up along the hierarchy. Very forgetful, approaches each smaller similar problem in exactly the same way, not accounting for memory or experience, thus making him vulnerable to virtually DDoS attacks.

Diophantine Equations of the Form $ax + by = c$ and Euclid's Algorithm

Tried google: got this amongst others. That should clarify things.

Brute Force

aka Exhaustive Search. MO Leaves no stone unturned. Methodical, if a bit anal retentive. Has poor time management. Can be made to work for conditional output.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round-and-Round...

... as the gears of history grind onward, squishing everything that comes between its teeth. I could make parallels between the political climate and the classroom climate, but there's less of an inevitability in the air for CS 135 than there was for CS 130, and the air of CS 175 is still relaxed but competitive. It's the culmination of things that results in lightning, and not just the hot and unsettled airs. Lightning strikes best and brightest in the most agitated situation, but lightning can only be controlled under tight supervision, lest it go awry.

Skipping Out

Left school at 10, went to the gym, and basically avoided the investiture. Am thankful my MTh class is early, so that I won't lose two classes in a row to the investiture of UP President Roman, and the sure-to-be-delicate State of the Nation address on Monday. I hear they'll probably close Quezon Circle by 9. Oh well.

Boom

... as disaster struck. Or did it? Well, for me, a bit, since I still gave an exam with a flaw. Apparently, I forgot what the index was for the recursive implementation of acquiring the nth term in the Fibonacci sequence. Just changing a 0 to a 2 or a 1 to an n would make it work. Oh well. I wonder when I'll have time to check.

Doom

... for me or for my CS 135 students? The have little confidence, dubious skills, and bewildered expressions. Will they make it tomorrow, or will it be a repeat of last sem's CS 130 exam?

PSHS University Fair 2005

In line with the Philippine Science High School Diliman Campus Guidance Office's career consultation agenda, during the end of this school year's Humanities Week festivities, several colleges and universities are invited to set up booths in the classrooms and the exhibition area in the Advanced Science and Technology Building for a University Fair, setting up from the afternoon of Thursday, September 1, and opening for all students from first to fourth year (although the efficacy of the exercise on the seniors may be minimal, considering the UPCAT would have passed a month prior) for the whole of Friday, September 2.

Considering this, it seems best to highlight, for the UP Diliman Department of Computer Science, the activities of the CompSci orgs, as they have been particularly active in activities in line with the Department's mission, and the student projects, to showcase talent and skills honed through the tutelege of the aegis of the Department. Highly interactive demo software will be best for these purposes.

In addition, it was noted that students had difficulty differentiating between Computer Science and the Computer Engineering course offered by the EEE Department. This may be addressed.

Ideally, the booth should be manned by PSHS alumni, who could best identify with the target audience, both from the students and the faculty, although this need not be the case, especially if none can be found to represent a particular org or project. Also, minimizing the personnel required would be ideal, e.g. having student representing both an org and a project, although there should be sufficient numbers to handle each project or each org simultaneously. Also, a brochure highlighting the mission, vision and curriculum of the Department, bundled with profiles of the Computer Science organizations should be made available to the students.

Preferable to have the demo software in a laptop, so that it could be brought on Friday, and that a minimal amount of setup be needed.

My Time Has Come

Finally, the purely mathematical problems will be highlighted in the next three weeks of CS 175, starting with the Algebra and Arithmetic problems. I feel fairly confident about this portion - though discussions of the problems in the book makes me believe that there is a lot more to cover than is actually in the book.

Meeting later, class even later. Later.

Confidence Building

Hmmm... it seems like a larger part of my job currently is building confidence in using techniques, especially for proving and such. I hope to focus on that in the next meeting.

Gotta remember to upload the prospective schedule.

Whoops

Hmmm... either the seatwork was harder than it looked, or I botched teaching this part. Will find out more tomorrow.

Rushing Again

Hmmm... I really don't like sweating in this shirt - it sticks to you. Have yet to do the test data for tomorrow's set of CS 175 problems. Been playing around with Yahoo! and Google toolbars (both official and fanmade), but I don't like the way that they're exclusive to their lines, eating up precious browser room. Oh, well, must think about it when I have time. I like the fact that I can have buttons for Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Briefcase and Gmail, but don't like the way that you can't remove the search bars of either (and can't resize the Yahoo! one) and that I can't put them on the same row. Grrr. Also feel foolish for having two Google search bars. Maybe I'll change the Firefox Google bar to Dictionary permanently or something. Haven't done a Yahoo! search in a while, though, so that feels pointless.

Mustn't Forget

Clarify all the stat involved in getting the average case. Clarify that $F_n = \phi^n - \hat{\phi}^n$, and $0 < \hat{\phi} < 1$, so $\hat{\phi}^n \rightarrow 0$ as $n \rightarrow 0$.

\TeX ownz me. :P

Edit: Foolish, too. Can prove this: $\displaystyle F_0 = F_1 = 1\qquad F_n = \frac{\phi^n - \hat{\phi}^n}{\sqrt{5}}.

Sorting and Searching

So... you sort and search. Although not searching so much, 'cause that's covered in other topics. And the sorting involved noodles. And pancakes.

Right.

Poor, Poor MHR

I promise to try harder to read the topics ahead of time, so that my Monday class does not suffer. I hate having to try and catch up so much on Thursday. On the other hand, I'm nearly polished on Tuesday afternoons.

Is It Too Late?

Finally, after a month of putting it off, a schedule for CS 135 has been drafted. And it may be too late already. The three exams will barely have a month in between each, and I'm planning to dedicate a week of review for each of the exams, leaves me less than 4 weeks for each set of lectures. I was sort of playing around with the idea of letting the third part be reporting to match the last two problem sets, but there may not be enough time for that.

At least I know there's enough time for everything. Not much leeway for anything else - like goofing off.

Stat!

I need to brush up on my statistics for the probabilistic analysis involved in getting the average-case analysis of algorithms. I still think that the GCF worst-case of two consecutive Fibonacci numbers is a nice touch, but I have to to tighten the arguments.

Struggling Against the Clock

With the amount of struggling going on, I'll end up being a protest leader.

Struggling Against the Sandman

I'm in front of the computer at the department, plunking away, while trying to last on four hours' worth of sleep with bowtie pasta in italian meat sauce and peach c2. I have yet to finish a report, and look at some problems, and continue trying to complete the solution to last week's shocker problem.

There has got to be a way for me to properly schedule my sleep cycle...

"C Sucks"

Well, I did say that, but that's with regard to strings and string manipulation, because in C strings are arrays and arrays are pointers, and, well, "pointers suck".

I'm a BASIC brat myself, so I often myself longing for the inefficient but utterly simplistic string handling functions like LEFT$, RIGHT$, MID$, INSTR, STR$ and their ilk. Often, I'd like to be able to create functions with like functionality in C, but, well, the code gets in the way. At least strings are objects in C++ and Java, so + works like it should.

Anyways, have to remember to do some accounting later...

Urgh

I really am having trouble doing the solution to last week's dicitonary problem. I am starting to collect animosity towards pointers. Spent nearly 6 hours on it, and almost no progress. Urgh.

Loop Invariant... Whoops!

Nevermind not being able to sleep well or waking up badly. Goofing up while going through the steps of a proof is not one of the things a math teacher relishes. Students pick up a lot in terms of technique from their instructors, and I for one, notice that this is one area where being... uniquely tooled can make so much of a difference. Luckily, what I feel I excel in is purely computational, although I do have to think back and try to ficure out the telltale signs, and the appropriate logic that is applied when navigating the logical maze of a rigorous proof.

Thankfully, I'm still not bullheaded enough to (a) not admit that I am a little lost in the procedure or (b) inexperienced with the method. However, I should correct these mistakes early and often.

"Sa mata ng bata..."

3 Day Itch

It seems that the later half of the week always seems soaked in activity, but maybe just because of the preparation details that are being worked out. Checked the final exam form the CP1 Lecture session, taught a bit of bridge, got my Ateneo ID with a particularly fugly picture I'd never be showing if I had a chance, bought Mr Punch and a spindle of blue Sony CDs, had Mitch confirm that, yes, it was her phone line barring her from connecting to the Internets.

Riza and I still have to find some problems for tomorrow's CS 175 session. Maybe we'll have time to make test data - maybe not. Sounds like today will be fairly exciting.

Oh, and the Finals Game 7 is going on. Nevermind

Sitting In on a Full Plate

When once my plate seemed empty, now it is full. After talking with David about starting with several programming projects, one of which to help me algorithmically deploy bridge strategy for tutorial purposes, I am asked by one of my classmates to help with a paper, filling my urges to program for maybe half a year, if not a full year. Luckily, my focus on the paper I'm filling out to be my thesis will only be concerned with correctness proofs, for the moment.

My shoulders and pecs hurt a bit from yesterday's gym session. Maybe hyperextended? Too bad that Detroit did not pull out in OT in Game 5. Better for Tim Duncan - he wouldn't be too haunted by the free throws and putback he missed. Then again, I may just be suffering Robert Horry's pain. In his case, a sixth championship ring will help ease the aching.

Oops. This isn't a basketball blog.

Synchronicity I

Ah, not having all your classes of the same course on the same day always leads to some juggling. Today's class is bleary-eyed from the instant Problem Set, as well as suddenly thrust into the world of me not quite remembering where I had left off. Hopefully, second half of the week will be all seatworks, and I won't have to worry to much on whether or not they are ahead or not.

Sigh. Then again, it used to be worse when the schedules weren't as clear cut as MTh and TF. Coordinating a MWF, a MTF and a TWF class was also mind-consuming.

Let's just hope nothing suffers, shall we? Also, Riza and I talked about when we'll update the CS 175 for problems (Friday after gym) and what day the five-hour Mock Competitions will be (Wednesday, so we'll have to coordinate with Sir Pros with regard to his thesis students using the lab on Wednesday).

Busy, busy, busy. Let's see how my MS Math class for the sem will begin later today.

Story's End

As today's lecture ends, I am anxious to know of my short-time student's performance on the final examination that Becca and I made, I too am anxious as to the evaluation that I will receive. Did I help or hinder? That is the new question each self-styled instructor must put to him- or herself in this age of information. Everything is available online to a person who has the knowhow and the tenacity for searching - why spend money to sit in with people and listen to this appointed expert?

Then again, there's always the people you sit in with...

Laptops, Wi-Fi Projectors and Hoping for the Best

Greetings from the Network Security Laboratory in the Computational Science Research Center, under the aegis of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center, on the start of the third day of the Computer Programming 1 short course that I am handling (class 2). I'm on the laptop which was provided for the instructor to sit in front of while projecting the course slide show (provided by yours truly's cameo for the work done by Florence and Riza) through the LCD projector on through Wi-Fi. Here's hoping that my students, taking an examination on the topics of the first two days' worth of lessons, are doing well. They'll have an early lunch, and then they will have more lessons.

Think of CS11 in four days; ten days, including the workshop for the next week plus next next Monday. Sorry, Lyn! Have to meet Ma'am Banjo sometime so that she knows I'm actually taking her class. Also have to get momentum going for the CS135 classes, since Riza can ably nudge the CS175 class for the week. I have to remember to prepare the problems for Saturday, after creating the final exam for the lecture series we're conducting.

Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

PS: I got my University ID quickly yesterday morning (no more haggling with college security) and I secured my enrollment at Ateneo this morning, before picking up some Sprite Ice (now with mint?) and some menthol candy to combat throat fatigue. If I can work out my semestral schedule and prepare for next week;s lectures, I'm all set.

Edit: I mistook the Network System Lab for a Security lab. A thousand pardons.

Mid-week Madness

Apparently, I do have a propensity of picking up a sore throat. Anyways, the second day of my CSRC exile is today. I have to remember to make replacement exercises for the workshop portion of the Computer Programming I short course Becca and I are teaching (at 1000 pesos/day/student tuition!), because I made a boo-boo in distributing the student manual, as well as an examination to give at the end of the week. Will they make it? Find out!

Alongside this, I need to time getting the temporary ID from the college to give my application for a university ID from the registrar, and then I need to enlist my only MS class, under Ma'am Banjo. Hopefully she wouldn't be too annoyed that I am not going to attend this week's classes.

Then, now that the UP-ITTC workload is clear, I can begin fleshing out my schedule for the classes I'm conducting this week. I hope I start getting used to waking up at 6:30 in the morning EVERY SINGLE DAY, including Sunday, when I just turn back in.

Asymptotic Notation

Welcome to Computer Science... Mathematics. Focussing on what really counts when counting, and that's the rate of growth. In fact, functions with the same rates of growth form their own little families or orders of growth.

This lets you think about complexity in enough approximate terms that would heighten the concept of efficiency, outside technological improvements.

Sore Throat II

Hmmm... I have coughed out a chunk of this irritation, but there still seems to be a mucus build up. Ugh.

Anyway, today marks what could be some free time, the first in three days. I have met all my classes once, and will be ready tomorrow for the second meeting of two of the CS 135 classes. I will have to check on the ID today, and hopefully it will be done with no additional hassle.

Ugh. The modem at home has not been able to connect yet, and I'm hoping nothing semi-permanent has happened to my broadband. I do so miss home-browsing.

Sore Throat

After a completely busy day yesterday, today's business got interupted by fate. The gym run that was to come before the weekly sojourn to down south was stopped by traffic on both sides of Tandang Sora. Oh well, that means tomorrow is a normal workout day after my only class (and maybe I'll be going to Ateneo soon after) and then a light session on Friday.

Everything seems to be going well. Too bad it'll get messed up next week.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Much as I rarely appreciate the rainy season, it's doubly irritating to have it suddenly spring fangs and claws, attacking from the sky and the ground. Filipinos always seem to lack foresight when it comes to the rainy season and proper drainage management.

The Filipino race is not dumb - indeed, we seem hellbent on proving this assertion wrong time after time. We are, however, shortsighted and opportunistic, a combination that leads to corruption, poorly enforced traffic laws, lack of discipline and a sincere pride in all the wrong things. We know the government is crooked, and in my opinion a three-ring circus, and our only way to retailiate is to cheat the law whenever and wherever we can. Of course, there are laws that really do seem to do nothing but create red tape (customs laws involving educational and entertainment imports come to mind after some mind-sifting) and allow for more hands to open up for monetary lubrication. However, some laws, like traffic laws, and simple littering laws are in place in the eyes of cause and effect. If they aren't followed, we have what we have now - traffic jams and flooding.

Gunning Around

Finally, my first day of actually trying to be productive at the dep. Make that half-day, since I left Becca to advise since I left to go to the gym. Accomplishments for the day: making sure that CS 175 does not get dissolved, partly by Fate lending a hand to show one student that she should really join the class; cute-girl sandwich.

Riza showed me this link to a book that our group of program-competition enthusiasts was looking for for years now. Got to get Becca to bring home a copy. Actually, maybe I should get my mom to bring home a copy from Canada.

Gearing Up

Actually, not quite yet. I'm not too sure that I'm fully prepped for the coming semester, so I'll be brushing up on what I need to know. Also, my own enrollment is still a question mark. For those not me, and not in the know, I will try to enlist for the next 20% of the coursework I need for a Master's Degree in Mathematics from Ateneo de Manila University, going up to 60% of that.

To answer the question of why math, well, I'm a math major. I can't really call myself a programmer, so I defer Computer Science studies to those who practice. (Why I'm teaching it is coming full circle in CS 175.) To answer the question of why there, I usually say to expand my circle of professional contacts, which I increasingly believe is important for academicians. AdMU, I had believed for a while, had a more robust BS Math curriculum (which I doubt in sincerity), and believed until recently that it was more inclined to the algebras than to analysis, the latter of which I thought UP had been more heavily leaning into, until last year, when one of my instructors had apparently squared solidly into cryptography.

I wonder, when (and not if, I am hoping) I get my MS, will I be taking a PhD in La Salle?

Last Minute Cramming

As much as I'd want to have some work shuffled off, done weeks and months ahead of time, often I will be riding from the seat of my pants. I have a small whiteboard off to the right and above my computer, which often is full of to do lists and calendar reminders, for me and maybe for other people in the house (concerning me). Right now, it says:

check submissions - that's for the summer ACM training
study CS 135 - did a bit of that already
study CS 175 - this comes a bit along the CS 135 studying, but more of working out a curriculum
study Java - still reading the 1995 compendium

I do plan to get some work done today, and for the rest of the week prior to Day 0, i.e. 7 June. Wish me luck.

Welcome, Yet Again

Once again, I enter the internet. This time, though, there is less need for anonymity. This electronic avatar is no less an honest application of myself as any other persona. Anonymity may allow for honesty without repercussion, but representation allows for honesty with dignity.

I am looking forward to the fourth full semester I will be teaching in UP Diliman under the generous aegis of the Department of Computer Science. We are a department excited by the changes in the wind. I am personally anxious about handling CS 135 and the new CS 175 course, with Riza Batista. Better prepared than last year for CS 130, but in many ways less prepared than for teaching CS 11. Funny, since CS 175 marks a return to the earliest job listed in my resume, one I took eight years ago.

Why would a math major teach computer science? Because he/she can. Hopefully, this hypothesis will not be proved wrong.