Dull University Ramblings

My courses this semester are as follows (as usual, TI stands for Technische Informatik, ALP stands for Algorithmen und Programmierung, and GTI stands for Grundlagen der Theoretischen Informatik):

TI III (Betriebs- und Kommunikationssysteme): All of the TI professors so far have been engaging lecturers. This semester, in particular, the professor seems really interested in the material (not that the others weren't), and tries to make it more relevant to us, which makes the lectures a pleasure to follow.

The main topics, as the name of the course suggests, are operating systems and computer networks. We began the computer networks portion a week or so before the winter holidays, and just recently dealt with the physical layer of the OSI model.

The tutorial is quite nice, because there are usually only about eight people in attendance and the tutor is competent and friendly. That said, in this course, I really have very little confidence in my abilities. We have, after all, been working a lot with Linux and with C, both of which are relatively new for me. If the other students seemed to be in the same boat, it wouldn't be a problem, but those in my tutorial all seem to know what they're doing (an understatement in some cases). As a result, asking questions is not so easy (I feel a bit "fehl am Platz", as the French say).

ALP III (Datenstrukturen und Datenabstraktion): During the first few weeks of this course, the professor elaborated on concepts from ALP II (e.g. interfaces, inheritance, polymorphism, and generics). Since then, important topics have been: the specification and implementation of abstract data types, and data structures (sequences, trees, sets, etc.). The programming languages used to illustrate these concepts have been mainly Java (object-oriented) and Haskell (functional).

The course has been agreeable so far. The assignments are enjoyable (mainly programming -- whee!), and the professor lectures at a good pace and makes an effort to teach (not just to lecture). The only unfortunate aspect (for various reasons) is that, because the professor was in the hospital at the beginning of the semester, the lectures began later than expected, rendering an extra two-hour block of lecture per week necessary. Because of this extra block, I've been chronically late for my Japanese course (usually by about a quarter of an hour). Well, such is life (the Japanese course is three hours long, so fifteen minutes isn't quite so terrible anyway).

Analysis I: This course is roughly equivalent to Calculus I, I think. So far we have learned about numbers (integers, natural, rational, and real numbers); sequences, series, and the convergence thereof; real functions, and the properties/convergence thereof; and, most recently, power series.

The course is rather a let-down after Lineare Algebra. The lectures and assignments aren't as nicely organized, consistent, and rigorous; the professor is the sort of lecturer that talks more to himself than the students; and the students, in turn, don't appear to be taking the course that seriously (as evidenced, for example, by considerable chatting during the lectures, which took many weeks to die down). As for the tutorials, one thing that bothers me is that the tutor prefers to present the solutions to all but the easiest problems himself (most other tutors encourage the students to present as many solutions as possible). That I am irritated by such things, and perceive them as patronization, may say more about my own conceit than it does about the tutor, but there it is.

Anyway, the subject itself hasn't much appealed to me this semester. It is likely that I simply lack experience and understanding, but solving problems often seems to involve more cleverness (or, conversely, brainless calculation) than logic. The need for cleverness, by the way, is due in part to the comparative prevalence of inequalities in Analysis (wretched inequalities!).

That said, I still think it would be good to take Analysis II at some point (since integration and other important concepts aren't covered in Analysis I), but I probably won't do so next semester.

Proseminar Theoretische Informatik: For this course, which has about thirteen participants, there are no regular meetings. At the beginning of the semester, we each chose a topic (mine is Post's Correspondence Problem), about which we will conduct a 45-50 minute presentation. The presentations will take place towards the end of February (the week after the exams). At that time, we will also have to hand in a 4-page write-up on the same topic.

I am quite content with my topic. It is familiar from the GTI course last semester, and it isn't particularly complicated to begin with. I have reference materials at my disposal, and I've already decided how I will structure my presentation. So, although there is still a lot of work to do, I am optimistic.

By the way, I forgot to mention that my ALP II mark ended up being 3,3. I think I actually failed the Nachklausur, but since I passed the original exam and participated regularly in the tutorials, my mark wasn't quite so dreadful in the end. Still, it's not a mark I hope to encounter often.

About the Nachklausur . . . It was rather a disaster. I had hoped that the style of the Nachklausur would be different from the original exam (as was the case for ALP I), but it was much the same. There was an awful lot of text, a fair bit of "programming on paper", and too little space for our answers. In short, even though it wasn't difficult in itself, it was intimidating and mildly frustrating, and I found it difficult to demonstrate what understanding I had. I gave up about half an hour before the time was up, and was very much inclined to just throw away my incomplete answers (embarrassing and useless as they were).

Anyway, I apologize for the negativity (especially about poor Analysis). My childish complaints notwithstanding, I have been enjoying this semester.

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By the by . . .
A new favourite German word: gepökelt (cured)
Also: anything with "zwie" (pronounced "tswee"), e.g. Zwielaut
A favourite English phrase (although it's not very nice): puling wretch
A favourite English word: wheedle
A favourite Spanish word: miércoles