qw0ntum (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} qw0ntum) wrote,@ 2008-02-28 00:29:00 |
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...and we're back
Seeing as several friends have taken up posting on here again, I figure I'll give it a start. To paraphrase one of you, "If (insert friend's name here) has time to post, then surely I can manage one or two."
My life this semester has been dominated by Palestine, class, and mesh networking. Let's start from the beginning.
A couple weeks ago SPEAC (Solidarity with Palestine through Education and Action at Carolina, phew) put on our first Palestine Week. It was the work of probably no more than 7 or 8 of us, yet as far as I can tell we were able to engage a good part of campus through our events. We had some item in the Daily Tar Heel every day of the week, which was really great. I feel like we introduced a lot of people to Palestinian issues - all our events were heavily attended. I mean, to the point of standing room only, people crowding out in the hallway to hear a talk. It was great. We had our share of Zionist reactionaries, of course (got mentioned on Little Green Footballs, a pretty big ultraconservative blog), but we concluded the week with a letter to the editor from a campus Jewish group supporting Palestine Week. It was just a great experience overall. Lots of work, sleep lost, money spent (out of pocket), but worth it. We had a kickass "Hip-hop for Palestine" event Saturday night too.
My classes this semester are relatively light but all very difficult. I'm only in 13 hours. I'm taking differential equations, which is just really hard, for me (and apparently most of the class; our first exam average was about 26/50). My professor is very demanding but I have to say probably the most fair professor I've ever had. I'm in three CS classes. Two are really closely related: the first is an automata theory class, and the second is computer organization. Automata theory is basically the first course in theoretical computer science, and touches on a lot of the work that underpins the entire field, stuff that they were doing in the 1940's when computers were still abstract mathematical concepts. Computer organization is basically how computers are built, starting with transistors and working our way up. What's really cool is the overlap between the two classes. We talk about abstract CS theory and theoretical machines in my automata theory class, and then talk about how to implement those concepts in silicon in my computer organization class. It's definitely filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
The last class I'm taking is Software Engineering. I'm working on a wireless mesh network management tool for community networks. Check out our project page. I'm really loving this class, although so far it's been the most time consuming and frustrating. It's been a really cool experience working on an open source project. We're coordinating with a guy in Italy and another in Portland on this. The goal is to create a system for non-technical community groups to deploy and maintain wireless networks quickly, easily, and cheaply. We're working with an NGO around here, Orange Networking, to develop this. They're going to actually take our work and deploy around here, hopefully. There's talk that the Town of Chapel Hill might take our system and deploy it in some of the housing projects around as part of a project with the school system to provide internet connectivity to more area students. But that's in really early stages, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
Well, that's about all I'm doing. I have slept maybe an hour and a half since 8.00am Tuesday, so I'm going to get to bed now. :)
Seeing as several friends have taken up posting on here again, I figure I'll give it a start. To paraphrase one of you, "If (insert friend's name here) has time to post, then surely I can manage one or two."
My life this semester has been dominated by Palestine, class, and mesh networking. Let's start from the beginning.
A couple weeks ago SPEAC (Solidarity with Palestine through Education and Action at Carolina, phew) put on our first Palestine Week. It was the work of probably no more than 7 or 8 of us, yet as far as I can tell we were able to engage a good part of campus through our events. We had some item in the Daily Tar Heel every day of the week, which was really great. I feel like we introduced a lot of people to Palestinian issues - all our events were heavily attended. I mean, to the point of standing room only, people crowding out in the hallway to hear a talk. It was great. We had our share of Zionist reactionaries, of course (got mentioned on Little Green Footballs, a pretty big ultraconservative blog), but we concluded the week with a letter to the editor from a campus Jewish group supporting Palestine Week. It was just a great experience overall. Lots of work, sleep lost, money spent (out of pocket), but worth it. We had a kickass "Hip-hop for Palestine" event Saturday night too.
My classes this semester are relatively light but all very difficult. I'm only in 13 hours. I'm taking differential equations, which is just really hard, for me (and apparently most of the class; our first exam average was about 26/50). My professor is very demanding but I have to say probably the most fair professor I've ever had. I'm in three CS classes. Two are really closely related: the first is an automata theory class, and the second is computer organization. Automata theory is basically the first course in theoretical computer science, and touches on a lot of the work that underpins the entire field, stuff that they were doing in the 1940's when computers were still abstract mathematical concepts. Computer organization is basically how computers are built, starting with transistors and working our way up. What's really cool is the overlap between the two classes. We talk about abstract CS theory and theoretical machines in my automata theory class, and then talk about how to implement those concepts in silicon in my computer organization class. It's definitely filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
The last class I'm taking is Software Engineering. I'm working on a wireless mesh network management tool for community networks. Check out our project page. I'm really loving this class, although so far it's been the most time consuming and frustrating. It's been a really cool experience working on an open source project. We're coordinating with a guy in Italy and another in Portland on this. The goal is to create a system for non-technical community groups to deploy and maintain wireless networks quickly, easily, and cheaply. We're working with an NGO around here, Orange Networking, to develop this. They're going to actually take our work and deploy around here, hopefully. There's talk that the Town of Chapel Hill might take our system and deploy it in some of the housing projects around as part of a project with the school system to provide internet connectivity to more area students. But that's in really early stages, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
Well, that's about all I'm doing. I have slept maybe an hour and a half since 8.00am Tuesday, so I'm going to get to bed now. :)
