Over at my other blog, I talk about the importance of owning a domain even if you don’t plan on having a website.
Here’s a quote from the post:
The most important use you can make with your own domain is having access to an infinity of email addresses. You probably already have at least one @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, @whatever-free-email-service.com address, probably 2 or more, everyone does. However, none of these gives you as much freedom as having your own domain does.
Back in 2007, when I was about to complete my undergraduate degree in software engineering, I applied for a position at Google. They had just opened an office in Montreal and since I had excellent grades I thought I had a chance.
My friend Simon also applied at the same time and we both received emails informing us that we would be going through a few interviews, starting with the phone interview.
The phone interview
The interviewer kept asking me about network related stuff and heavy performance oriented problems. After the interview (which didn’t go well since I couldn’t answer most of the questions because they were all about things I don’t like doing), they informed me that I would not be doing more interviews because I was not a good fit for the position they were considering me for. I’m glad I didn’t go for that job, I would’ve hated it though I would have liked to be considered for a position where my skills were useful. I prefer working on the front-end part of applications, creating features and working on improving the usability. I asked them about other positions, but they wouldn’t reply to my emails (not because I was harassing them, just because my emails seemed to get lost in my contact’s inbox).
Letting go
In the end, I found a great opportunity at Oracle (what seemed like a great opportunity) and decided to focus on that instead. Since that didn’t work out I finally landed a great job at Hint Innovation.
I’m glad I failed that interview: at the time, Google seemed like the ultimate workplace, but I would have missed on something even better.
That’s the name given to a special program at the Polytechnique de Montréal. I haven’t been able to track down the exact meaning of the acronym because all the references to this program have been deleted. The best approximation I can get is “Apprentissage Assisté par Portable de Polytechnique” which roughly translates to “laptop assisted learning”.
I got into the program when I started Polytechnique because it just made sense. I was studying software engineering and having a laptop with me at all times would help me do my homework anywhere I want. However, Polytechnique didn’t handle the program too well so it fell apart after the first year. This was their second attempt at such a program. Lucky for me, this time the failure of the program did not affect us as much as it did for the students of the previous trial.
Impact
Having a laptop with us at all times meant we could see the notes the teacher put online for us and we could experience the code snippets the teachers were showing. However, we also had access to the Internet and all its distractions. A lot of people from the group couldn’t handle the distractions and more than a few failed and dropped while others had trouble getting passing grades. There is so much that can be done online that is way more entertaining than listening to a boring teacher. Only the best teachers had the luck of having our attention.
Errors
Most teachers didn’t adapt their class to make use of the laptop. Most of them just released their notes online and allowed the students to open the laptop in their class. Furthermore, the group was a merge of students from many fields: some were studying computer and software engineering while others were studying civil or industrial engineering. Usually, the classes are grouped by domain to encourage the students to participate in their student committee. The year of A2P2 was the worst year for participation, only 3 or 4 of us were ever active in the committee instead of the usual 10 to 15 (I’m not talking about having a position in the committee, I’m talking about going to the events and helping the committee organize the said events).
Program termination
Fortunately for us, unlike the guinea pigs from the previous program, we bought our own laptops so when the program got canceled we were stuck with whatever laptop we had decided to buy instead of the one chosen by the school. We could still bring them to class and use them instead of the computers in the computer laboratories which were always full of students near the end of the semester. It was very helpful to always have access to a computer from anywhere in the school.
Lesson
Having a laptop during class can be beneficial so long as the teacher and the students are aware of the impact it can have. If the teacher is just a note reading machine then the students won’t pay attention and will either waste time on the Internet or work on their school projects. So long as the student doesn’t waste too much time, having a laptop can help, especially near the end of the semesters.
