I should skip through my Engineering undergraduate degree, and go straight into the Computer Science academia, as this programming and education blog is listed as the top computer science in canada accoding to Google. Beating out University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and 25 million other websites!
In fact, http://compsci.ca/ has made it’s way onto the first page of a much more general computer science canada list. It is the only website on that first page that is not a University. Is that a hint? Well starting a University is way too far-fetched, though I do enjoy teaching programming.
In Spring 2007 (my next co-op work term) I hope of getting a position as a TA for one of the programming courses at the University of Waterloo. I have talked to a couple of people who have done this already, and they both say it’s an amazing experience. Bonus points for actually enjoying this sort of stuff. As I keep on saying – you’ve got to do what you love. Google sure seems to pick up on that.
Very nice Tony. It’s really great that CompSci.ca has something more to add to it’s already amazing community. Keep it going!
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Very cool Tony. My only question is, why are you in Mechatronics and not in CS? Not that it matters really, but you obviously have something going with programming/CS. Of course, I say all this with very little knowledge of what Mechatronics courses actually cover. Chances are you see much of the same content. Come to think of it, CS has a ‘Digital Hardware’ stream, are you guys related to that?
On another note… I completely agree on TA positions. I’ve applied (holding my fingers crossed) to a number of CS grad schools and TA-ing is one thing I’m definitely looking forward to. Not the marking stuff, the communication with the students and the actual presentations! That is, assuming I get in.
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At times I don’t even know myself. I was accepted into both, but Mechatronics sounded cooler than CS at the time. We do just about the entire Engineering field – Mechanical, Electrical, Systems and, of course, Software. This includes Real-Time OS course this Fall.
Thank you for the feedback on the TA position, and good luck with your pursuit!
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Excellent. It’s always good to see people enthusiastic about teaching. Especially in CS.
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Nice, finally on the first page! Good work
Also, if you want for your side thingy, 250×50 pics!
(I was bored and I was looking at the side logos, I liked the 9Rule one, too bad I can’t get it right XD)
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/3333/compscilogoxw5.jpg
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/9445/dwitelogodg4.jpg
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4258/techlogokq5.jpg
Yes, I do read this blog.
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You know the reason why the CompSci blog comes out first in Google than the other Comp Sci university web sites? It’s because it’s a blog, and apparently in Google’s search engine, blogs get a higher PageRank than other web sites, due to the many referrals and links generated to and from blogs compared to web sites. So, this blog essentially has inflated its PageRank. This also goes to show you that when you’re searching for something, you still have to put the correct keywords in order for Google to give you what you’re looking for.
We’re not at that stage of semantic search where we say what we are looking for, and the search engine returns back something close to what we want. This is where the semantic web people and researchers are trying to do this but they’re wrestling with what’s the right ontology and stuff.
By the way, this is a great blog, it’s too bad I didn’t notice this earlier. All university CS programs should link to this blog, in fact, it’s through blogging, that people understand the real nature of the content, and not some biased figures. I’m teaching an undergrad course about Computer Science, and I want non-CS students to understand what Computer Science is and not be intimidated by programming, how it’s a tool and how to understand the computer and how it functions in society. Not just the technical elements but also the social and economic elements as well. Because computers are fueling the digital economy.
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@GadgetMan – blogging format does inherit some advantages for ranking, but this is still just an individual page, and same rules apply overall. Anyways, thank you for stopping by and commenting. You’re spot on with the ideas behind your computer science course! I hope it to be successful.
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Haha maybe I’ll get my tutorial site up there and then we can have Waterloo vs. Guelph I have a bunch of friends in CompSci @ Waterloo and say its a great program. It’s funny most of the classes we take are exactly the same.
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Heh, Adam – Waterloo vs Guelph SEO challenge! You’re right, most of the classes we take are the same, but professors, and other students make up a different school environment that might or might not affect the outcome of the program. I think I’m in the best computer science program in Canada, but it might be the best just for me.
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See I feel the same way (I feel my schools better) and it’ll never change. But hey I think one thing we can agree with is we probably have the two best CompSci schools in Canada .
I’d horribly loose the SEO challenge (I’ve been blogging for about 3 months)….I need to learn more
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I’m just finishing my workterm, and I’ve spend it with another developer who has done most of his Computer Science degree at Guelph (although graduated from the University of Toronto) – really great guy, writes good code too! So it kind of re-enforces my notion that a University is meant to be a personal trip for the experience, not an exact set of memorized knowledge. If you feel like your school is the best – kudos, you’ll come out ahead of the guy next to you!
Not to de-rail the topic, but have you gotten my email from yesterday?
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