Student Comments

As part of my duties as a teacher's assistant in graduate school, I taught several sub-classes a week. I took attendance for these, and, on a whim, decided to add some optional-response questions to the roll sheets. Here are some of my students' responses:

Winter 2003

Favorite aspect of ECS30?
"I love typing return."
"[ for me."
"Watching people sleep in lecture."
"You, Jon."
"You too, Jon." (With little hearts around it. -Ed)

Favorite sandwich?
"BLT\0" (The "\0" is inside joke. -Ed)
"Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger with 3 chicken nuggets and 7 fries on top of it, with optional BBQ sauce."
"I enjoy ham (not spam) a top of a hamburger bun w/miracle whip salad dressing. But you gotta use real honey ham, not coldcuts or stuff."

Favorite aspect of Midterm II?
"Leaving class."
"It's over."
"Problem 4 was nice, I liked the 5th page."

Fall 2002

What is your quest?
"To seek 'The Frozen Flame.'"
"Discover a lost civilization."
"To get some sleep." (Note: this was an 8am class. -Ed.)
"Find the Golden Fleece."
"To find a decent quest."
"To find all the lost socks."
"To kill the white rabbit."
"The end of homework."
"To find the muffin eating koalas." (Huh? -Ed.)
"To find the Holy Grail."
"Get out college."
"Be w/ someone I've felt for awhile (forever)"
"Succeed in life and fall in love."

If you were a Unix utility, which would you be and why?
"rm ... because I can erase things I don't like."
"ls ... because I like lists."
"vi ... because I like to edit stuff."
"man ... because then I can know it all!"
"cd ... I could move around quickly?"
"chmod ... because I like my privacy."
"cp ... what would we do without it?"
"ls ... I prefer things that are in ordered fashion."
"gcc ... Cuz I just do my job, but only if I have all the info."

What would you buy with $1M?
"Hamburgers. Lots and lots of hamburgers."
"The greatest DVD collection ever."
"1. A bunch of guitars. 2. A 'laser' to puncture the 'ozone layer.'"
"Games."
"A brain."
"A car."
"A parking permit for a car."

Reason you like programming in C
"Semi-colons! My English teacher would croak if she saw all the semi-colons!" (And, perhaps, if she saw you hyphenating the word "semicolon." - Ed.)
"Most of it is logical."
"It makes more sense than FORTRAN."
"Fixing parse errors is FUN!"
"It's not SCHEME!"
"Because it makes me go crazy."
"I remind myself of Neo in 'The Matrix' although I am not a hacker."

Favorite aspect of ECS 30
"Writing the programs in the basement."
"Spending 20+ hours in the computer lab."
"Writing in C."
"Probably the final."
"8am discussion -- the best way to wake up on Tuesdays."
"'GDB is your friend.'" (Note: I had said that phrase a few times. -Ed.)
"How I think I know what to do, but the test says I don't."

Question you would ask the president
"What time is it?"
"Can't you do something about your ears?"
"Is strategery really important?"
"Do you have a fear of peanuts?"
"Why don't you quit already?"
"Who is Kilroy?"

What you'll be doing with your free time [after this class]
"Shopping."
"Free time -- whats that?"
"Movie time."
"Throwing wild, wild parties. Maybe."
"Working on Program 5."
"100 hours of Metroid Prime."