I’m raging right now. Absolutely RAGING. I’ve spent literally days working on my current lab for CS, and I’ve gotten no where. After at least 20 hours of actual work, I was so tired and frustrated I was laughing and crying at the same time over the pointlessness of it all and how it just. wouldn’t. work. At this point, it was 2 AM Tuesday night, or Wednesday morning. I couldn’t sleep well because I was stressed over failing it,  I woke up at 11, skipped all my classes to work on it, took a 5 hour break for work, came back, worked until midnight last night, and now after all that, I think I have some of the test cases for the program correct, but unless I get the Gradescript to work with my program, I get no credit.

For our labs, the professor wrote a Gradescript which tests 100 cases. It uses my  file with files in his directory, and compares the output. If it’s correct, it tells you so. If its not, it creates files of the output so you can see what the difference is between your solution and the correct one. It’s good for us because we know what he’s looking for, and good for him because it’s super easy to grade.

With that in mind, I tried to test the first case on my program. I copied Gradescript to my directory and ran it on the first case, and nothing happened, even though I’ve done this with every other lab. The program never printed anything out, or terminated. If you’ve ever heard of an infinite loop, it’s bad. You program never stops. I had to make it crash. However, the weird thing is, when I copied the files that Gradescript 1 uses over to my directory, it worked fine. So, the program works when all the files are in my directory, but not when they’re in his. WHY?!?!?! I have absolutely no idea. I emailed the teacher’s assistant for help, and the asshole never responds. So, even though I know the first case works when the files are in my directory, I’m getting a big fat 0 if I can’t get it to work when the files are in his. &!&@#$*(#&!@(&$!

I’m so SICK OF DEBUGGING!

I’m ready for the semester to be over. I don’t even care anymore. I’m submitting it, and embracing my 0. I think this is the WORST assignment I’ve had in my CS career. And there have been some bad ones. Sorry if that rant got a little nerdy.

I feel a little better now

With a little happier topic…

Netbooks. Yes, no? Do you even know what they are? At first I thought they were silly, these tiny little laptops. What’s wrong with a regular old laptop? But as time goes on, they’re becoming more and more popular. And I suppose it’s cool to be small and very portable. Eamon has even considered getting one. So now I’ve got to actually look into it to see if it’s worth it. Really the only point of a netbook, in my opinion, is to surf the web. That’s about all you can do with them really, they’re not built for processing. But if you just want to surf the web, why not get an iphone or the new Motorola Droid? You pay a little extra each month, but it’s one less piece of technology to drag around.

What’s your thoughts on netbooks? How do you react when you’re angry or stressed? Do you rage like me? What’s the worst homework assignment you’ve ever had?