zm. the poor bloke.: blog is back to normal

after unwittingly advertising my blog to ~~hundreds~~ thousands (7,000 to be exact) of viewers in Google and SGForums, it's time to close the NSF series and continue on.

the past week has been torturing. I was in campus for all 7 days, yes including Saturday and Sunday.

CH's expectations of my CS3214 group is good for us, although it has came to a mini climax (read: nightmare) this week. I learnt that

1. Having poly exemptions are no-nos. Initially we thought it was fortunate that database design (CS2102) and software engineering (CS2103) were exempted. Now these would have been helpful - because we did our use cases, class, ERD and sequence diagrams back in 2003-2004. The process of coordination was excruciating because everyone has a different format and is not very sure of what they're drawing.

2. CS2261 should be taken just before CS3214. It provides the foundation. And more important, if you plan to take them far apart, think twice. What is learnt in CS2261 may be useless by the time you bid for CS3214 in >1 semester. Although i would very much want to suggest that the CS2261's assignment can be done in JSP/Servlet instead of AWT. I lost my AWT knowledge even longer back, in 2000 =x

3. Project coordination is extremely difficult. Never in past projects i met so many obstacles in getting all 6 brainpower, 6 pairs of hands and legs working towards a single approach. Everyone has their personal views, and the underlying desire to do well personally for the module. I understand - after all, if one gets A for this module it means 2 As because of the 8 credits. I also want an A, humans are greedy beings.

however the consequence of pursuing own goals will sink the team - i urge my own team (and those who are going to take this soon) to rethink the objective. It's not about getting gold for yourself, or about whose shoes shine the most. It's about a combined aim to construct a working system that satisfy the business usage.

maybe my style of leadership is not top-down, so it became a double-edged sword. I prefer everyone to air their views in a comfortable setting. While i believe this has been a great combo, i'm too quiet sometimes, especially after the army. This certainly needs some polishing on my part.

i was so stressed up with the class and sequence diagrams that i had headaches for 3 continuous days. We were supposed to meet CH on friday, however i had a TERRIBLE headache that i was practically reeling on the chairs in the tutorial room. Went toilet and threw up whatever i had 3-4 times. In the end, i had no choice but to tell them to go ahead without me. I looked unpresentable in that state too.