interface cobalt

The first month of my second year as a university student has been, for the most part, interesting and fun. I’ve learnt a lot of useful stuff in both Data Communications and Computer Networks, and Mathematical Statistics. And I certainly don’t mind playing with that awfully expensive Cisco equipment.

Well, the new programming course is, so far, a disappointment. I’ve tried hard to learn something worthwhile in that course, but so far, there hasn’t been any of that to learn. We’re using the Mozart Programming System for it, which I don’t like at all. Of course, sometimes, there are less interesting things to learn that will make other things much easier to learn in the future… and this course is probably meant to be like that, but somehow I really doubt that it will make anything easier, and even if it does, there’s probably a much better way of doing it.

My note-taking in Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 has been going very well. In particular, the ability to insert screen clippings has been very useful. It makes copying figures from the lecture PDFs into my notes as well as inserting figures from Matlab a breeze.

I’m now past the first week of my second year at the university. Everything has been quite interesting so far.

Currently, my courses are Data Communications and Computer Networks, Computer Science II (previously known as Programming Concepts and Techniques, Advanced Course) and Mathematical Statistics, Basic Course.

I used to type my lecture notes into OpenOffice.org Writer documents. Well, now, I’m doing all of my lecture note-taking in Microsoft Office OneNote 2003. I like the way OneNote organizes notes, and being able to set Note Flags, such as To Do, Important and Question.

If I’m told to read a certain chapter of the course literature, I just type in what to read and select the To Do flag, which puts a checkbox next to the paragraph and also makes the paragraph part of the Note Flags summary, along with all other flagged paragraphs. (For any of my classmates reading this: You can get OneNote from the IT University MSDNAA website. If you’ve lost or didn’t get your password, try asking for a reminder.)

This week, I have three exams. The first one (Digital Electronics) was yesterday, so there are two more to go (Computer Hardware Basics, and Analytical Methods and Linear Algebra II). I’m very much looking forward to having completed them all (and thereby having more time for blogging, of course).

Right now, I’m at the university in Kista. More specifically, I’m in the room of the IT section, sitting in a very comfortable couch and typing this on my laptop being connected to the university WiFi network. Why? I am… or was waiting for a classmate to show up, and he just did. Now we’re leaving for lunch.