I went to my friend's house last Thursday between a long break between classes and plan to do the same tomorrow. I played him and his wife. So fun. I'm still getting familiar with the controller, but I can't get enough! Looks like they're adding a couple of new multiplayer modes that should be fun.
We're planning to have a Guitar Hero contest in the computer science lab next week. We're calling it an ACM activity (to raise awareness haha) since my friend and I are president and vice president of the local ACM chapter respectively. If there are any pics showing us acting like tards I might post them.
In school news we're learning Perl for our first language in Programming Languages. So far I like it. It's powerful for pattern matching, but a couple of things seem quirky about it. I setup ActivePerl while in class and was able to run the examples as the professor went over them which is helpful. I'm hoping we'll learn either Python or LISP in the class as well, both languages looks cool in their own rights.
For Operating Systems it seems we'll get to do something cool. We were tasked with installing Virtual PC 2004 (which is now free from Microsoft if you didn't know) and install a flavor of Linux we choose. I'm going with Fedora Core 5. Anyway, after having done this I think we're going to be writing a custom system call and recompiling the kernel to get it working. I didn't know doing all of this would be possible under Virtual PC, but if so that's cool. I'm pretty unfamiliar with Linux so all of this is pretty new to me, but it seems cool.
For Electronics we've been building small, simple circuits (voltage dividers, LED turning on when a photoresistor is covered and the like) which is cool because it makes you feel like you've accomplished something when you're done, but I really hope we get to build some more interesting circuits. On the theory side Thevenin equivalents seem a bit confusing at the moment, but I'm getting there.
For Software Design we haven't done a whole lot yet, he just goes over PowerPoint presentations which is kind of boring, but he's pretty cool overall (he's the one I've mentioned that does Genetic Programming research). We just got our team list and we're supposed to start a project proposal soon as the first phase of a semester long project (where we'll later implement the design and such).
So far the school year's fun. The summer bored the crap out of me, and I think I have to be in school to be any good. Lately i've been thinking about what I'm going to do when I'm done with my BS. Right now it's been a relatively free ride (except books) as i'm on a state based (money from the lottery) scholarship for performance in High School. The prospect of work scares the hell out of me at the moment. I think i'm going to get a masters after my BS, but I can't be sure. If I did, i'd definitely want to find a scholarship or something because I just couldn't pay for it. I still have my parents who would put out the money, but I don't really want that burden.
The upcoming months will be busy. October especially.
Camping with friends, concert, midterms, Phreaknic, Programming contest
All of this should be fun, hope I'm sane through it all.
