Start to take a data structure course today

I will start to take a data structure course today.  It comes with a company-reimbursed course from an extension school of a certain famous university.  I will call it "extension school" from now on because I really don't want to be confused as the students of that famous university.

The course in the extension school are quite rigorous.  It might not be as hard as the MIT 6.046J but it certainly requires some degree of programming. 

One interesting part is it is using Java instead of pseudocode. Not necessarily a good choice.  But I will treat as a chance of learning.  Java can be something very useful for future.

If this starts well, I will also take several hot topic courses in the school.  Such as mobile and web programming.  These skills start to be essential if I want to find a better job.

Recurrence and its definition in CLRS

I started to realize why I am a bit more lost than I thought in Chapter 4.

Part of the reasons is that CLRS doesn't always define precisely how the recursion equation was.  For example, is it floored or ceiling?  This always bring me a lot of confusion. 

I wish I can use the generating function method to solve some of the issues.  CMath is very good in this aspect. Though there are certainly technical problems : how do I handle terms such as T(n/2)?

This is a good path.  Because I start to connect several things in my head to resolve my stuckness. 

New strategy to unstuck myself

Get faster and skip some of the problems. 

It is sort of meaningless to stuck in the same type of the problems if I don't really learn any skills from it.  I am in the process of working on Chapter 4 for a while but I couldn't move on quickly from it.  So it is a moment to take some decisive actions.

Let's see how it works out. 

status 20110830(a)

Skipped 4-4.3

Browse reading: 505/1144
Exercises up to 4-4.4

Revisit : 4.2-{3-5}, 4-3.6, 4-4.3 after section 4.5

Checking up to P2.1

Needs write up: 2-3.7 (nice solution using merging), P2.1c, 3-2.4, 3-2.8, P3.1

Exercises checked: 2.1-2, 2.1-3, 2.2-{1,4}, 2.3-{3,7}

Exercises which are finished but not on paper: 1.1-2, 1.2-2, 1.2-3, P1-1, The whole Section 4.4 except 4.4-3, 4.5-{1,3}, P4.4(a-c), P4.6b, 5.1-{1,2}, whole Section 6.1, 6.2-{1,2,4,5,6}, 6.3-1, whole Section 7.1, 7.2-{1-3}, whole Section 7.3 and 7.4.3, 10.1-{1-4,6,7}, 10.2-{1,2,6,7}, 12.1-{1,2,3,4} 12.2-{1,2,3,6}, 12.4-4, P12.4(a), 15-1.1, 15.1-3, 15.3-3, 15.5, 17-1.1, A.1-{1,2,3,4,5,7},  C.1-{2,4,5,7,8,9,14}, C.2-{1,2,4,5}, C.3-{1,2,10}, all in D.1. and D.2-2.

Skipped 4.4-3

I still don't know how to resolve the issue of "constant within the bracket".  So I will go ahead to work on 4.4-4 first.

My recent stuckness

What is it this time? What makes me distracted? Nothing much, the turbulent nature of the stock market.

As many normal adults, I trade stocks amateurishly for fun.   So I am obviously affected by events happend during August and the lower credit rating of the States.

Those are also moments one will also easily distract because an event like that easily change the near term assumption of a person's life.

Money, generally is a gumption trap.  It makes one distracted from his purpose.  For the last 2 weeks, I saw the necessity of being distracted to take care of all money matters.  I promise myself though not to make this a thing to keep.

status 20110823(a)

Finished 4-4.2 on paper.  Not tough at all.

Browse reading: 505/1144
Exercises up to 4-4.3

Revisit : 4.2-{3-5}, 4-3.6 after section 4.5

Checking up to P2.1

Needs write up: 2-3.7 (nice solution using merging), P2.1c, 3-2.4, 3-2.8, P3.1

Exercises checked: 2.1-2, 2.1-3, 2.2-{1,4}, 2.3-{3,7}

Exercises which are finished but not on paper: 1.1-2, 1.2-2, 1.2-3, P1-1, The whole Section 4.4, 4.5-{1,3}, P4.4(a-c), P4.6b, 5.1-{1,2}, whole Section 6.1, 6.2-{1,2,4,5,6}, 6.3-1, whole Section 7.1, 7.2-{1-3}, whole Section 7.3 and 7.4.3, 10.1-{1-4,6,7}, 10.2-{1,2,6,7}, 12.1-{1,2,3,4} 12.2-{1,2,3,6}, 12.4-4, P12.4(a), 15-1.1, 15.1-3, 15.3-3, 15.5, 17-1.1, A.1-{1,2,3,4,5,7},  C.1-{2,4,5,7,8,9,14}, C.2-{1,2,4,5}, C.3-{1,2,10}, all in D.1. and D.2-2.