CS371p Fall 2020 Week 2: Darshan Bhatta

What did you do this past week?

After going through a full week of school, I think I got my school work schedule settled in terms of knowing what times to work on school and getting used to working on homework assignments again. As I started looking into the Collatz lab, I had to learn C++ syntax along the way. I thought it would be hard to get used to a new language, however, C++ was pretty similar to Java, so it wasn’t that hard to get used to the flow. I got the basic part of the lab done, just need to optimize it and write the test cases.

What’s in your way?

Nothing is in my way at the moment, I am just going to get more used to writing in C++ so I can increase my productivity in the future as well.

What will you do next week?

I will be finishing up the Collatz. More specifically, the caching mechanism and the test cases. In addition, I will be practicing more C++ to get used to the language more.

What was your experience of assertions, Google Test, and gcov? (this question will vary, week to week)

I have used assertions before in Java but never used them in C++, however the concept is the same. I wanted to get into unit testing more and I’m glad in this class we are incorporating that. I had never heard of Google test before, but looking more into it in class and on my own, it seems very powerful for unit testing. Gcov I also had not heard of before, in addition, to the concept of code coverage, it was interesting learning more about that and knowing why it is needed in testing.

How are you doing and holding up? What’s been most helpful for you in terms of support at this time?

I have been holding up great. Thanks to the internet, it’s still easy to keep in touch with friends and hang out with them by playing video-games. While it’s not the same as meeting in person and hanging out, meeting virtually has been fun.

What made you happy this week?

I got the Vive index VR controllers this week and it was amazing playing in VR with finger tracking. While most games do not support it, the games that made it very immersive. My favorite game was Boneworks, a VR action game that has super-realistic physics. It's by far the most immersive VR game I have played so far.

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

My pick-of-the-week is Pi-hole, a network-level advertisement and internet tracking blocker. Under the hood, it has a DNS server that blocks ad and tracking domains unlike the adblocker on your computer that removes the HTML elements on the page. I configured it so that it runs in the cloud, so it lets me block ads at home and on the go. I recommend it to anyone that wants to have a hassle-free adblocking and tracking solution for any device.