Q

As I returned from the SPAR having obtained fresh fruit and some pitta breads to go with the curry I made for lunch that there’s still enough of for dinner, it occurred to me that I’m perhaps not the lazy unhealthy useless slob that I thought I was. Then I remembered that I’d spent all day playing Guitar Hero III… Still, it’s the weekend, I’ve been doing useful things all week, because I have a proper job that I have to actually do work at, with Computational Biology making a program that facilitates the annotation of research papers. Yes, I’m sure you’ve all nodded off by now, but I find it interesting. Also, I get to play with Ajax, which is remarkably fun despite a few annoying setbacks.

So Guitar Hero III… is eating my life and I love it. It’s surprisingly close to playing the actual guitar, although obviously a lot less complicated. It does let you do hammer-on and pull-off though, which impressed me, and you can strum up and down, which is necessary for some of the fast bits. 5 buttons is just right because it’s one more than you have fingers, so you have to move your hand around, but not much, so it’s still fun. I’m not completely convinced by the battle mode or the star power thingy where you tilt the guitar up to get more points — it seems kinda gimmicky, but neither is compulsory (unless you’re chasing completion) so it’s not really a problem. Also, it has taught me the name of Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist, which is probably something I should have known. Oh well. I’ve completed Easy and Medium and am working my way through Hard mode. The first 5 songs at this level I had to practice quite hard to even get through them, but after that I seem to be doing ok, finishing the song first time at least even if it’s only 3 stars out of 5.

Hmm, must eat, it turns out it’s geek night. Things have moved, I’m easily confused!

Than a “The Weakest Link” special involving puppets as contestants? The leprechauns were voted off by (among others) Soo of Sooty fame, and Zippy and George argue every time they get a question.

WTF?

In about a month’s time I will graduate as Claire Q, MEng Software Engineering. Up until this point, I have felt that title to be mostly inappropriate. The parts of Computer Science which I have found most interesting have always been the more theoretical, conceptual or scientific bits, to the extent that I had assumed I was no good at the actual engineering and presumed I was simply so able at examinations that I had passed the relevant modules on that strength alone.

However, I currently have 2 jobs that are highly software engineering involved. Both are in academic departments, but in both cases I have been brought in as the “coding familiar” party to a more research-based set of colleagues. Finally, I have found use for all those modules that didn’t interest me much at the time.

As it turns out, I’m actually good at this. I know how to avoid security holes, how network layer interaction happens, how to properly specify, design, implement, test and maintain software, how client-server architecture works, how to design a database, how to implement many software design and architecture patterns, how to use a programming reference book, how to plan a project and use an established development process… And what’s better, is that I have actually applied this knowledge to real-world, used systems.

What’s worse is that I’m starting to find engineering interesting for its own sake. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always considered it useful, and certainly more important than science in the short-to-medium term, it’s just that I never really wanted to do it myself, until now.

My dissertation was very research heavy, and that has taught me a lot about how my PhD “understanding the beauty of music through machine learning computation” is going to be. I really do enjoy research and I expect it will be interesting and fulfilling. It’s just that lately, just sometimes, fully controllable, you understand, I have this urge to create a really well designed and documented program that will be truly useful to actual people in my lifetime. I know, I know. I try to keep these wrong thoughts at bay, and strive for the purity and safety of theoretical discovery. It seems, though, that despite my best efforts to ignore them, the principles and practices of software engineering have imprinted themselves in my brain. I can delude myself no longer.

Since high school I have considered myself a scientist. Today I am proud to say I am also an engineer.