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    Georgia Tech's College of Computing is probably the worst thing about Tech.  Of course, most computing classes at Tech follow in the same automated, "I don't give a fuck about your grade" style that is common around here.  Let's take a look at all the great stuff the College of Computing has to offer:

•     CS1321 -  guess what language you get to code here?  No, not C++, not Visual Basic, HTML, or anything you've ever heard of in your life for that matter.  What the fuck is Dr. Scheme?  It's a completely useless fake ass language that has no application in the real world whatsoever.  It can't do shit and you have to ghetto code everything that you do in a bastardized format.  Even better is the 'Design Recipe' that you have to follow so that you can not only write this crap code, but also include your life story and any other tidbits of information you'd like to divulge to your TA.
   

•     CS1322 - finally, a real programming language!  Our troubles must be over, right?  HA!  You'll be dying to go back to coding Scheme once you take this class.  I have to admit though, it's a pretty smart move by the college to use Java as a programming language.  It's a TA's dream.  All you have to do is sit back and watch the kids run their files through the autograder, which of course knows nothing about partial credit.  You say your program almost works?  Too bad.  If it works, fine, you get a 100.  Kinda works?  Hmm, 70 or 75 points off seems reasonable.
  
      Also, if you end up taking Java, you'll be lucky enough to have the shittiest lecture slides in the world as your reference. Half of the code found on the lecture slides won't compile and won't execute for shit. You'll only find this out when you have to use the slides to help you write a program, and for some reason, you still got an F on the assignment.  You can always go talk to your TA, whose just as much a sack of shit as the slides are, and he'll probably go check the webpage for the slides you used to write your code. Luckily, the bigwigs up at College of Computing will have conveniently 'revised' the erroneous code from the slides by now, leaving you with no argument and a class average 10-15 points lower than before.
  
      Need help with something?  You can always post to the newsgroup and ask the TA's.  But why waste the precious time of the TA's?  The poor guys.  Why don't they just put up an announcement stating the following rather than having the TA's copy and paste it to you?:
                  "Read the API"
                  "Test your code better"
                  "Use better abstraction"
  
      So you're probably thinking that there's gotta be something about this class that isn't just plain bullshit?  Maybe it's the Program & Design assignments that they assign every two weeks - the code that you don't have to submit to the ruthless autograder - the code that a real human being looks at and grades.  WRONG.  The college is so smart that they make you submit the code to your TA, so his bitch ass can run it through the autograder for you.  Then he can take off up to 30 more points just because he doesn't like your programming 'style'.  The funny thing is, this is supposed to be the part of the course where you get to implement your own designs and coding genius.  Yet, if your TA is too stupid to actually try to execute your code (hey, that's a novel idea), then that's just tough shit.  Take your grade and get the hell on.
  
      So just face it, you can't beat the system.  You're going to get fucked over no matter how you play it.  But can't you see the beauty of it?  There's the autograder to get those of you that can't code to 100% perfection every time.  And for the ones that can make it past the autograder, your TA will just fuck you over on the Program & Design assignments.
   

•     I find it funny that the college can invest all of its resources into making a cheatfinder program that will catch students who copy code when they can't even maintain a server capable of handling the number of students who may be submitting at one time.  Instead, they just give themselves the benefit of the doubt and assume that all 500 of you will just conveniently submit your assignment at different times.
   

•     Is it the gay and lesbian club that sits in the first 3 rows of CS lecture and laughs at every stupid ass Mac and Linux joke that the professor makes or is that just some other group of faggots that go to Tech? Oh, and don't forget the pair of CS Theory Majors that never stop asking theoretical questions about program design, e.g. "What if I wanted to take a java applet and shove it up my ass?? Would it still compile or would it give me a run-time error??"
   

• The CS classes are taught with lecture slides that consist of almost nothing but pictures. Miraculously, you're supposed to be able to see these illustrations and automatically be able to translate that into 100 lines of code. And the slides that actually do contain code are so filled with errors that 9 times out of 10, it wouldn't compile, execute, or run for shit. Oh yeah, there's always the occasional slide with a note at the bottom saying "You are 100% guaranteed a test question over this." so you spend all your time studying those slides. Yet when the tests comes around, you'll see there won't be one question over that bullshit and you're shit out of luck because you spent your time memorizing the stuff that was "100% guaranteed to be on the test."
   

• What is up with the directions they give you to write these programs?  For example the directions for Minesweeper, A.K.A P6, A.K.A. Satan's little joke on humanity.  Is there any reason that we have to abstract the program into 8 or so different classes where you have to put this inside of this and that should contain this thing here, and basically amount to a whole heap of shit.  Also, I like how they say "We're gonna let you write this program however you want, as long as u can make it work.  Oh, but you HAVE to use this method here, and you HAVE to use this method too.  But we're not gonna tell you what they do.  But you HAVE to use them."
   

• So you submitted all the files.  You even pressed "Yes" I am sure I would like to continue, erase, all previous submission, and sell my soul to the College of Computing, etc, but wouldn't ya know, still got a zero.  Webwork is great. 
  
   

Now, I realize I've said a lot of mean things about TA's, but the truth is there are actually TA's out there who give a shit and we appreciate that. 

 

College Of Computing

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