Done the Damn Thing... Now back to you Black Dilbert

So... I had my thesis defense on Monday afternoon. I was pretty nervous and I don't think my mouth has ever been more dry in my life. I did my best to stay calm and talk slowly, which is a bit of a struggle, and methodically make my way through my slides. I made it through them and then was able to answer all of the questions the professors asked. Then, the professors sent me out in the hallway so they could deliberate. I thought I was going to pass out while I waited the long 5 minutes while they decided, but they opened the door and all shook my hand and congratulated me on a job well done.

I took a few seconds for it to sink in, but I was finally finished with school. I am graduating!! So now I can get back to being the nice and nerdy Black Dilbert instead of poking through research papers night after night.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!

D Day Is Coming

So Monday is the day of truth. I finally present my thesis work at 4:00pm on Monday afternoon. I'm getting a little nervous, but I think I will do well enough to get this thing completed and approved. I have my slides done, but tomorrow I will spend the day rehearsing and getting all the points I want to make down to the 'T'.

As soon as I finish this thing I am going to head right over to the bookstore to get my graduation stuff. This has been a long time coming...

SE Tip of the Day

Note: I'm going to try and start giving a SW Engineering tip that I find useful every so often. I know I'm no expert, but I'd like to think I am good at what I do.

Today's tip goes along with the maintenance phases of a project.

Tip:	When using third-party tools and libraries in your application, be sure to keep them up-to-date in your code base.

When you initially decide to use a certain version of a programming language or a third-party library package you are doing so to get the current product out the door and into use. In most cases, as soon the product is shipped newer versions of these technologies have been put into release. Often you are faced with a decision of whether to assign levels of effort to try to incorporate the new technologies with your product or to simply move forward with the status quo. I believe it would be a mistake to attempt to constantly update your code base as new versions of technologies are released. However, I believe that the discussion of upgrading to new versions of technologies should occur at least once a year. Otherwise, prolonged use of technologies that become out of date will create maintenance problems as those technologies will begin to lose the amount of support needed when having problems associated with them. So take the time to carefully upgrade your tools and libraries so your product stays with the current technologies.

Mission: Complete... well for the most part anyway

So I actually completed a draft of my thesis so it looks like I am going to make that walk across the stage in December. This is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. It took so much time doing research, writing simulations, and writing the final paper. Even though I know I have another round of edits and a presentation to do I am satisfied that I was able to bust out the 60+ pages I put down on paper.

Now I have to figure out what I want to do next. I know I will take a month to study for my Java certification exam and start thinking about going for the certified developer exam, but other than that I don't have much else planned. Who knows, maybe I'll find some hobbies!

Time....

I'm still going hard on the thesis, but I'm running out of time. I really want to get this thing done this semester so this next week is going to have to be the hardest working week I have ever had. The thought of having to drag this thing out until the Spring is something I want no part of at all!! Wish me luck!!