It's exciting to go back through my mind and remind myself where I was two months ago, before I started here. I've spent a lot of time frustrated--bored and feeling like I've got nothing done. And while I definitely didn't get the chance to complete my project, it's pretty remarkable the progress I've made. What's the best I think is the new-found confidence I have in my abilities and a computer-type-person.
What have I learned? I've learned about web services and databases and using the former to get information from the latter. I've learned about how information is stored and displayed by combining different techniques that I may have already known--like using HTML to display information retrieved using Java. While it might sound like crazy-talk to most of the people who read this, it's really re-affirming to me that I'm actually able to apply and use the knowledge I've been acquiring through my classes and time spent (occasionally wasted) building websites. It makes me eager to use what I've learned and I've already begun.
<break for="computer speak">
The goal I then created for myself is to build a website that is easily editable by people who don't know much about websites. And I found myself fearlessly trudging through the territory of AJAX and dabbling with PHP to make an information from an XML document appear on my HTML-based website. And even change, with no refreshing necessary. And the next goal is to let people log in and change that information that is displayed. How cool this is, working to achieve something I've always thought was really nifty but never knew how to work my way into. The load with no refresh or iframes is big for me, especially because iframes aren't really standardly used anymore.
</break>
Okay, sorry for that computer-talk-ramble, but for the few (ie Dave) of you that will understand this, you'll know where I'm coming from, and for the most of you that don't--here's a translation: I've learned how to do something that I've always been impressed by. It's a nice feeling.
the schedule
June 1 - July 3: Brandeis
Taking Physics & working in admissions
July 4 - August 29th: Washington DC
Working at the NIH Center of Child Health & Human Development in the Unit of Computer Support
September 9 - December 24th: Edinburgh, UK
Studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh
Firstly, your blog is very well-written. It doesn't sound like you at all :)
That being said, a while back I discovered a game online called Forumwarz. It's very offensive and rude and such, but the entire game was written using Ruby On Rails, which allows the game to run without reloading pages, and with all these cool features (like an integrated fake iChat client as part of the webpage). The game itself is good, but the programming done on it is fantastic. Every time I see a site that I can browse without reloading the page, I'm always very impressed. Like Facebook's updates, usually.