CS371p Spring 2020: Harrison Gross (Entry 13)

What did you do this past week?

Most of the past week was spent working on my CS361 lab with my partner where we performed AES encryption and decryption. I also began to create necessary files and think about the structure of the Life project. I’m having a difficult time conceptualizing some of the abstract classes, but Professor Downing said he would cover that in class this week. Aside from that, I worked on the normal weekly assignments for my other classes.

What’s in your way?

I don’t necessarily have anything in my way at the moment. However, the next week I’ll be hit with a barrage of tests and project deadlines, so the most important thing for me right now is to manage my time wisely so I don’t get bogged down with everything. If I can finish this lab this week, everything should be alright.

What will you do next week?

I will definitely put a lot of time into the Life project. Along with completing my normal weekly assignments, I plan on diving full force into this project in an attempt to finish it relatively quickly. I plan on attending office hours and asking questions when I inevitably get stuck.

What was your experience of allocator?

I did a similar assignment in my OS class when I programmed the heap. I actually ended up not finishing the assignment because I knew very little about pointer arithmetic. I am happy to say that my pointer arithmetic has improved since then and allowed me to build a working allocator. However, I was not able to optimize my allocator and ended up failing the majority of the tests provided due to timeout. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

What made you happy this week?

I finally forced myself to go to the grocery store and now I finally have food. Although I loved getting Cabo Bob’s three times a week, there is nothing like eating what you prepared yourself and saving money.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My pick is a crockpot or any slow cooker. If you’re not the biggest fan of cooking like me, I think a crockpot is essential. You can wake up, toss a couple of things into the pot, wait 8 hours, and suddenly you have like three days worth of food for 15 minutes of effort.