Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Grrz Method... its about LEARNING

Here is a post from a programming blog I am required to keep up. I thought some of my readers might find it funny. I am discussing a rather difficult recent assignment. The Grrz method is supposed to be a great way to expand mental capability. I think its a way for the teacher to be lazy.

Sooooooo..... Four hours later I think I finally know what the Grrz method is. I think it is better put in comparison to the sink or swim method.

Take someone who cant swim. Put them in a helicopter, fly them out over the Marinas Trench, make sure there is no other form of rescue besides the helicopter, and push them in. Perhaps wieghts or restraints would be appropriate as well.Then from the air tell them to swim back to the helicopter.

That seems to be the Grrz method. At least with this latest assignment.

We are supposed to use the RandomAccessFile class to find an answer in little time... with no help other then the suggestion to search for dbf header format...

Well RAF can read and write. No document I could find could tell me exactly how this reading took place, only that it does. So I have no idea how it will parse...

Finally I figure out how to read the document in and make sure it splits correctly, readFully(byte[] b) but am still lost at the offsets so I hacked it...

Not really the coolest code to display... I hope we figure out a better solution soon!



On the bright side all the dbf files open and appear correct! So that is exciting. More on this as it develops.

Score 16 out of 100 (if the code reference counts :)

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Updated sometime this millenia...

WOW way too long since I have been here... I don't even have an excuse prepared this time... DARN!

Oh well I bet no one will even notice. :)

UPDATE: I am now at college again! After an excruciatingly long six months of waiting I have made it back to my beloved campus at BYUI. I am moved in and started the first week of school which had surprisingly little homework... must be preparing me for the death load soon to follow.

I am making the critical error of taking to many major classes. I have 4 200 level classes, one 300 level and one 400 level class. I might die. wish me luck.

On a bright note I am taking an art class and I am pretty excited about it. I need the supplies I ordered to show up soon though. Or else I will have nothing to draw on. Maybe I should stop being a cheapskate and just get the art kit the university supplies. NAH.

Well got to run, but more is on the way. So stay tuned.