Jeffrey Aho

Yesterday (actually I think it was early this morning) I learned of the existence of a petition to cancel PDEng.

PDEng and I have not had a very good history so far, but I’ve come to accept it and it’s intent. Despite having many flaws, the administration seems now to be trying to mend some of them. It’s a work in progress, and being the first class to complete it was bound to run into them. My main concern with this latest attack is that it won’t gain any credibility (just like asimilar one that was recently hatched). When you look at the petition there are many glaring problems with it. First of all, the page title, “PDEng Sucks”. When I first viewed the page, at the end of the petition it said “Sincerely, The Engineering Class of 2009″. I’m happy it is now changed to “Sincerely, The Undersigned” as the old conclusion was misleading and unfair to my Class. Not everyone in my class is opposed to PDEng, and it is unfair to misrepresent us. The webmaster has set up a blog on the site discussing the progress.

“The Undersigned” doesn’t add much credibility either. When you view the signatures (which in less than a day have went from 31 to 142) you see many comments that are going to make the petition not be taken seriously. Comments range from “I like cheese… and cheese is good” to “I HATE PDENG!!!!!!!!!!!” to even more vulgar comments. (Note some of the comments are noteworthy, though have been brought up countless times before) I will predict (as I did in the past attempts) that this latest attack will fail. The credibility of the petition does not exist, and the concerns that it brings up are not new. The administration has already responded to these specific points in the past and will act the same way that they have done then. Sure…it will give the illusion that people are accomplishing things, but it will not happen. The University of Waterloo will not cancel PDEng. It is here to stay.

The real question that came into my head after I viewed this was “Who is spearheading this latest attack?”. In fact, it is a Software Engineering student from the graduating class of 2009. (same graduation year as me) I find it interesting how easy it is to find out who is behind these websites. On the actual petition signing page, he has his name, but I never saw it until later. So when I didn’t know who the person was, I did what any webmaster would do: I ran a domain inquiry on GoDaddy and pulled up the domain that the petition is hosted on’s information. After I found out his name (and home address, phone number and personal email) I then ran a UWDir search on him to find out his program and university email. Next to Google: where I found his website (hosted off the university), along with all his local contact info, career history, UW ID and even his personal interests! (French Horn…it actually made me gain a little respect for him) This may seem a little creepy, but in reality it only took me 2 minutes to learn a great deal about the person. And this is information that is widely available to anyone who knows how to do a search.

With all this info about people just waiting to be accessed by anyone who feels the need to put in a few minutes of scanning search results. This kind of flow of information leads to fraud, crime and future embarrassment for some people. This individual just recently purchased the domain the petition is hosted on. Soon, when you google the site, the PDEng petition will come up before his main site (when you currently google it you find his blog). He just scarred his whole domain . Many employers will look at the petition and draw conclusions about the individual. No one wants an employee that is prone to protesting. You have to watch what you post on your website, because anyone can find it once it’s out. A recent example (read:mistake on my part) was when I posted my resume with my contact info and university ID. Google picked it up and then anyone could see my info. It was just too easy! The real pain was Google Cache which held the old page for a while after I changed the web page. Not until Google spidered through the site again that the cache updated with the new info.

Exam wise, Algorithms went good. It was an interesting exam. Two more, and a whole weekend to learn the material

Edit: Please note that many of the problems I identified have been addressed since this entry’s initial posting.

Currently Listening to: “Black Balloon” – Goo Goo Dolls

Today was my third exam. Statics. I really worked hard on trying to learn it all. In the end it didn’t matter. After the exam I came home and our forum was abuzz with discussion about the exam. I’m going to be quoting many people but leaving their names off (for obvious reasons once you read them). Here are some from the forum:

“bunch of us talked to the TA (light skinned) and we were like, u gonna fix the marks? and hes like yeah, u needed 2.5hrs to read the exam… that was insane, my ass is still feeling it” [Last year had 3 hours for the same length]

“wow. that exam {Statics} was wrong…. just… no.”

“Gonna need to alter my shirt to 2010″ [Our Class T-Shirts say "MTE '09"]

“Great! So now we have 2 courses to do during the work term…
(*grumble grumble* fucking PDEng *grumble* )”

Another thread opened and people began to post “Theme songs” for exams that went through their heads during the exam:

“the flight of the bumblebee – rimsky-korsakov
holy shit, what an adrenaline rush”

“”Unnh Unnh Unnh Unnh A-nother one bites the dust” – Queen”

“”Bodies” by Drowning Pool”

“And after my fragile mind cracks from the pressure:
“I AM THE WALRUS! I AM THE WALRUS! GOO GOO G’JOOB!”"

“I’d say a combination between “White Christmas” (it was cold in there) and “It’s not me it’s you” by Prozak. Oh, and “It’s the end of the world as we know it” by… I forget who.”

“I’m gonna go with “The Good Times are Killing Me” by Modest Mouse.”

“”Try a Little Tenderness”, by Otis Redding”

Yet another thread opened with a poll asking people what they thought the class average was (I voted for 57% and 30-40% range was winning at the time of this post). The most intriguing thing to watch though were the MSN names, the thing people change right away. I’ll post some from people in my class. (I have at least half of my class on my MSN list):

“This term was going alright…not so much anymore”

“And Hell Week continues…”

“That was not fun”

“It will all be over soon”

“3 more…my ass hurts”

“2.3/6….worst exam ever” [2.3 when we've had three, indicating he never finished]

“Statics the Almighty Power/Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal/With hidious ruine and combustion”

“Statics was impossible to finish…”

“I want a 12% on that exam, just like my class”

“STATICS: TOUGHEST EXAM OF MY LIFE!! -This will leave a scar…”

*sigh*

“owned by calc and statics”
“statics ownage”

“got raped…”

“See you guys in 1B…again” [Implying he failed and will be returning...with us all]

“There goes my scholarship” [I feel really bad for him]

“Climbing Algorithms Trees ~ I don’t want to FALL!!” [tomorrows exam has things called Trees, programming]

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT”

“yeah, I’m walking funny for a reason, just got back from another final”

“Drawn and Quartered by the Statics Exam” [Tron and Quartered was a possible class name]

“So I just failed Statics”

Lots of the comments are sort of inside jokes so I added some explanation to some, but you get the point. It was not a good day. There was quite a few comments about being “raped” by the exam, a common way to say that they did very poorly. People even brought sink plugs to the exam, sort of a good luck charm (you can fill in the reference…).

My point in posting these was not to complain (necessarily…) about the exam. I think I passed the course, so I’m fine. Why I posted them is an example of how the Internet has created an entirely new social culture. Be it through our Forums or through MSN names, people are able to instantly connected and can voice off about whatever they want. MSN aliases/nicknames are a good way for people to be able to emote their current mood through the Internet. I didn’t need to actually be talking to the people to see the varies moods of anger, to disappointment, to fear, to defeat.

Another example of something similar was with the current declaration of Adrienne Clarkson’s successor to the position of Governor General. The Globe and Mail reported on their website before an official announcement was made. They have a talk back section on their website. Furthermore, Wikipedia (which most people know I love and always use for information) started an article on Michaëlle Jean, the person who was named for the position. When I first read the Globe article, I ran to Wikipedia and searched her. There was very little information. I then chatted with a few friend over it, and sent them the Wikipedia link. When I went back to view it new content was there, a picture, and links. Today it is twice the size of the original one I viewed. I read a blog a few weeks ago about the article on the London Bombings on Wikipedia. Hundreds of additions were made within hours of the bombing. (Sorry I can’t find the link)

The Internet has created an entire generation of people who are connected in a very new and developing way. I’ve been reading articles on social software, and even the experts can’t figure out how the population is going to use the software they produce. One of my podcasts talked about an archive of Bulletin Boards from the past. The evolution of the Internet and it’s software are fascinating topics. Whether connecting people to complain about their latest exam, or discussing the latest edition of Harry Potter, we have no become closer to the Global Community that people have been working towards. The Internet has really helped us to get where we are today.

Well…I guess I will try to shake off this defeat and move on to the next exam. I hope it will be better…

Currently Listening to: “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” – Weezer

Exams are coming along…yeah…just coming along. Music went good. Calc went average. Today is Statics and tomorrow is Algorithms. I don’t know how I could feel any better about them. I don’t feel like I can learn anything else. I’ll just have to hope I understand the questions that I get. Once the weekend hits, cram for Circuits, then after Monday’s circuits, cram for Wednesday’s Materials. Then I’ll be free…to pack and fly home. Not going to be the easiest week to get through, but then I get to take a break.

One more week then I get to see Lyle, April, Tim, Kas, Kyle, Andrea, Clint, Lukie, Natalie, and rest of NFO gang…

I was talking to my cousin last night and complaining about my studying to my calculus final to him. He’s a very bright guy, who is very interested in new topics, so I sent him one of the PDFs prepared for my class, one on Differential Equations and Newtonian Mechanics. I sent it to him with the hopes of scaring him a little, but he was interested and started asking questions. He first identified the parts that he could follow, then asked me about the topics and symbols he didn’t know. First was Leibniz notation, which he misinterpreted the d’s as distance instead of differentials (a word he probably never knew existed) and then second was Integral notation, which he said was a “forte minus the cross on the f”. He connected a topic he was familiar with, music, with mathematics in an attempt to interpret the symbols. I thought that was noteworthy. After I explained that is was an elongated ‘S’ for “sum” he seemed to have noted it in his mind for later. He made quite valid connections to mathematics from someone who’s never seen it before.

This continued for the sigma in Sigma notation, which he called an ‘E’ and complained how no one ever explained it to him (resulting in my just linking him to an article on MathWorld). The most curious of the questions he asked me went something like this “What is that small R beside that F? Is that some kind of subscript?” As I was answering, (“Yes it’s a subscript”) he asked “What do you do for that? Just multiply them?”. I had never even considered that question before. It’s so set in my mind that subscripts are just used to denote a different variable, usually of the same type or family, as the larger letter (which I explained to him). It’s interesting though to consider things that you’ve never known. If you see something for the first time, you try to associate it with something else you are familiar with. It’s all in the process of how the brain tries to make sense of the information that it is receiving. For my cousin, who had never seen subscripts really, he made a connection with similar mathematical operations in an attempt to try to extrapolate that purpose and operation that the foreign symbol had.

This leads into a bigger discussion that I’ve mentioned many times to my friends. I usually start by complaining about a specific detail of my past education that whenever I think of it, I just feel cheated. It’s in regards to integers. When you were in elementary school, in lower grades, you learned basic arithmetic. They told you then that you couldn’t subtract 4 from 3. you just couldn’t. Then one day they said “We lied. There are these new things called integers. Now just pretend they existed all along.” For years you learned that you couldn’t do something, and now you can. Same thing happens with square roots of negative numbers. Before you couldn’t do it, the mid high school…BAM…little ‘i’ comes along and you have complex numbers. You never knew about them before, but now they start popping up everywhere, like in circuits, and trigonometry. You were oblivious to their existence, and now that you know them, they open up new doors, and with the new door brings new concepts you are expected to learn. Ignorance really is Bliss!

This concept can be extended to any aspect of your life. You learn new things every day and expected to use them as if they had been there all along. Even if they don’t make physical sense (damn moments of inertia!). Frequently (and mostly because he forgets he’s told me about it many times), Mike brings up the topic of programming, software and languages. He talks about how you don’t know you want a functionality until you actually learn it. An example he used was howMaddox uses outdated scripts for his site, when he could be using one of the newer CMSs (like what I use). You don’t know you want, or even need the functionality until you go and actually get it. The other example he uses is with programming languages. People didn’t need the extra features of C++, and were content with C, until it came out. It happens often in the field.Paul Graham (who’s book I need to read…) has an essay called “Beating the Averages” in which he talks about a fictional language called Blub. He uses it to explain this ignorance to functionality of higher languages quite well. I suggest you read it.

Well, that’s just a thought that crossed my mind in the last day. Tomorrow brings another exam, so wish me luck.

Currently Listening to: “Just Like You” – Three Days Grace