CS3216

First, I'd like to say that CS3216 is a really wonderful class. It teaches so much in so many areas. We learn about technical stuff, get to meet successful people and most importantly, we get free, valuable life lessons. The last fact alone makes this class worth every moment.

Technical stuff:
Theres just so so much prospects for web developers, and this class really embraces this fact. I'm really grateful for the opportunities to learn the new web dev technologies available out there such as HTML5 Ajax and stuff. To be honest, I'd had some prior experience, but never this extensive. The 3 assignments really put to test these skills, and through that we have practiced, improved and learnt new things with every feature we implemented. Some stuff that i really learnt from this class were RESTful, FB app integration etc. I'd wanted to explore them myself before, but wasnt successful, until we received help from the manuals and some of the TAs, (thanks Eldwin). Some of the stuff were too technical, lol, like the lecture given by Zit Seng. Good for general knowledge though :). Thats what i liked about this class, theres so much exposure.

Meeting successful people:
Really, how many opportunities do you get to meet and talk with a millionaire?  Its not everday that we get to see one, much less interact with them. On top of that, these successful people are all willing to share their success stories and tried methods about what they did, how did they do it etc. Most importantly, they also shared what they did wrong. So that we may avoid walking into the same traps. People pay lots for opportunities like that, and they are given free here. right in this class. You cant get them anywhere else. Key takeaway: Perseverance goes a long way.

Life Lessons:
From the prof himself. I've always liked listening to life stories. No matter who it is talking, you can always get somethin out of it. Well i can't say I agree totally with him about everything, but I'd definitely keep them in mind. I do agree that life, on the whole, seems to be getting better, but really isnt. Because of technology, life has improved, but also because of that life becomes more complicated- theres much more competition and theres so much more to do just to catchup to times. Gone are the good ole days where we can sit back and relax and gaze at the stars. Cavemen didnt have to slog through a rat race just to get food on the table. BUT, cavemen didnt have cars, and cavemen didnt have medicine. Theres always the good and the bad. And i know its going to get worse too. There might be a shortage of jobs because of too many qualified people. There might be a day when oil runs out and technology dies. But theres so many new TYPES of jobs appearing. And theres so many breakthroughs on energy technologies that people are rumouring that its being hidden and tabooed by the oil dealers for fear of going out of business. It just might be true. No matter what, things WILL happen and things WILL change. We just gotta learn to embrace it.

Key takeaway:
I'd have to say its definitely the chance of having worked in what I believe to be an ace team. We had the best marketer(JH), best designer(YS) and the best coder(XY). Me? Hmm.. just a mediocre i guess - i did some coding. It was really great working with these guys. I know every team has communication problems, but this team had none. Everyone was always willing to compromise. The team just synergised. And everyone was really good at what they do! To be honest, I was a little apprehensive of having a designer on the team. I couldnt see any value - I've never been more wrong lol. Our app is where it is because of him, because of his designs. And i believe the other 2 would agree that YS was the one that contributed the most.

Afterthoughts:
My first thoughts when taking this class was - Its called "Software Engineering on evolving platforms" so i should be expecting alot of technical stuff, like Obj-C, C#, JS lessons etc. Thats how Engineering classes usually are. The content is heavy and we get examined on that. So in the first few weeks when all we got were like workshops and talks from various people - no content lectures - i was disappointed. Now i know i'm wrong. I've come to realise that its not so much the technicalities in Software Engineering. Theres so much more involved Blah i dunno how to put it, but technical stuff is barely 10% of it, and this class is really explaining the other 90%. It was a paradigm shift for me, and I am thankful for it.