Project Suggestions

Robbo

Right lads, I need some advice here about furthering my programming skillz. I've just got through 2nd year of a CS-ish degree and I have a reasonable footing in C. By this I mean, I know about program structure, data types and algorithms.

What I want to start doing over the summer is get a jump over the rest of the class and actual make some useful programs. I know nothing outside of a few standard C libs and I want to start on some "real world" type stuff in prep for work placement next year.

Suggestions, calls and comments?

The Corinthian

An RC4 document encryption application.

Hobbes

Try to innovate something yourself, best to pick something that "Scratches an itch" for you. It will make you more intrested in doing and finishing the program.

seamus

Writing a script that'll crack shadowed passwords in under an hour would instantly raise you to 'Programming God', but it's not really realistic (and quite sinister). As Hobbes said, think about something you'd like to do, normally something which fills a gap on your computer - for example I wrote myself a small proggy which locked Win98, and wouldn't allow anyone use it again without a password. It was completely uncustomizable, and the password was physically embedded in the code, but it served it's function perfectly for me - I was the only user anyway, and didn't have the money to download or buy any similar progs, or upgrade to Win2k. It did help me learn all the windows stuff though.

photty

tbh standard C libs wont let you do a whole lot. Get yourself a book on windows programming. Using the OS libs is really the only way to do any funky stuff. I like networking myself. How about trying to write a TFTP server/client library and a demo application. Or a basic telnet server for windows perhaps.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by seamus
Writing a script that'll crack shadowed passwords in under an hour would instantly raise you to 'Programming God', but it's not really realistic (and quite sinister).

Who said anything about doing something like that?

I suggested a prog that simply encrypts/decrypts a local document - I said nothing about cracking passwords. Just some simple cryptography (you'll find various RC4 functions on-line) and the FS. That's all.

seamus

Originally posted by The Corinthian

Who said anything about doing something like that?

I suggested a prog that simply encrypts/decrypts a local document - I said nothing about cracking passwords. Just some simple cryptography (you'll find various RC4 functions on-line) and the FS. That's all.

I know. I was just suggesting another possibility. I reckon your is a good idea though, especially if many people have all file access to his machine.

rob1891

If your trying to get one up on your fellow students for next year then have a look at what's on the course for the current 3rd years. Granted it will change a little every year, but if AI is there and you haven't done AI yet you might like to try something from that area.

At the moment all I can think of are content recommenders (good for backend driven websites) and case based reasoning systems which are good for nuttin But you get my drift, if there's networks maybe implement a pop mail client via sockets or if there's databases try getting on top of your sql with a .... well, anything can be database driven, even your email client!

If you are looking to be more appealing to companies taking on interns then I'd learn a language!

I've got into Sun Microsystems for a year internship just recently and the languages for two of the jobs that I was applying for were perl and unix shell scripting. (Ouch, I have neither, only poor java, which neither of the interviewers were interested in, SUN!! The makers of java!)

Perhaps with Sun, the fact that they are a very unix based company dictated the languages they are most interested in, I have no doubt that Microsoft would be looking for vb scripting or something similar.

Making yourself familiar with a few languages will look very good on your application/cv, it will show you have a genuine interest and enthusiasm for computing.

Undertaking a project is a good idea too, and something I am always meaning to do, but I don't know if it is something I'd put down on my cv, and it may never come to the attention of an interviewer.

If you insist on the project (so much easier than making yourself learn a language, which is oh so boring) then here's a link to our software engineering project course work page. They were three man projects, so they might be a little too much, but they could also give you ideas.

oh oh, maybe look at sourceforge and see if there is anything at an early stage of development that you could get in on, though possibly the standard of programming is quite high there, you again would get some ideas from them.

rob

Bosco

Alright Rob,

I'm trying to find some kind of work experience/internship at the moment myself Rob. I have a few questions to ask you if you don't mind.

Did you just send in your CV to Sun out of the blue or were you responding to an advert/website posting or whatever?

Do they take on anyone without a degree?

Does it pay well? (If you don't mind me asking? )

Any pointers you could give me?

Thanks for your time.

Mutz

Try something Web-based using langauges like ASP,JSP or PHP. (DB Usage). More than likely your 3rd year course will be heavily Web-oriented (If you havent done so already).

For my Second Year Project, my project TEam made an online tracker for Vehicles (sounds complicated, but We didnt get to develop it as much as planned). It was ideal cause it gives ya your primary key straight away (Reg Number)

ANother one would be an online Human Resources Page (Job Finder).

Just lashing a few ideas out there, but I Really Recommend you to start with small projects and work up to somit practical

Also, if u really want a headstart, start doin object Oriented Languages Java & C++.

VB is a nice program, but there is limited scope for VB programmers

The Corinthian

Originally posted by rob1891
At the moment all I can think of are content recommenders (good for backend driven websites) and case based reasoning systems which are good for nuttin

ROFL

To be honest both are snake oil in the real World - universities are noted for coming out with the algorythims used in either CBR or collaberative filtering apps, which are then quetly tweaked by developers when they realize they don't actually come even close to working in real scenarios...

If you are looking to be more appealing to companies taking on interns then I'd learn a language!

Good point.

rob1891

Hi Bosco,

the Sun jobs were advertised to us (UCD) internally (I presume in other Universities as well) back in January, I didn't apply back then cause they are all 12 month contracts and at the time I wasn't interested. However after UCD shunned my application to their summer internship programs I decided to email Sun's HR department to see if they were still taking on people. All I sent was a short cover, saying that I'd like to apply and my cv.

Apparently they don't have any fixed time at which they take on interns and they will give people interviews whenever a position opens up (mostly in summer I assume), so email them your cv and be a little forceful when it comes to getting a response. I was left a few weeks not knowing what was going on before I got pissed off enough to email them politely enquiring

The program that I applied under was student internship. So, I don't have a degree yet. I'm a third year degree student, and I think that is they level of student they are looking for. I presume they also take diploma graduates, but whether that is part of graduate recruitment or internships I don't know. I'm sure they are quite flexible. If you think you'd be discriminated against before the interview stage I can only suggest you write an excellent cover letter.

The pay is okay if you are living from home as I am, €333 a week, paid monthly (grrr), in fact I can't imagine what I am gonna do with all that money!! If the pay dissuades you though, I have heard universally that the experience is great. That they ask a lot of you, but at the same time understand you limitations and let you work at your own pace so long as you push yourself.

Pointers ... hmmm, well if you get an interview give me a PM, I did 2 of them and 2 of my friends also did interviews so there are a few questions they always ask. As far as advice on getting jobs, I have none! Prior to this all I ever did was data entry which I got through me mam. I was pretty feckin surprised they gave me a job at all, my first interview went great or so I thought, I got nothing from it, and the second it thought was pretty bad and they offered me a job.

As far as job hunting goes, I am useless. All my work prior to this has been data entry that has been passed on to me by me mam. Though her contacts have brought up a couple of other better opportunities in the last month. I presume she put the word out that I was looking for something, despite me asking her not to (mothers, sheesh!). So look about you, parents, their friends, relatives etc. University Faculties sometimes have a little money left over from some budget that they'd like to spend rather than give back to the man, and one of the jobs she put me in contact with was just that. You could write to the faculties yourself, medicine, engineering, em ... whoever you think use computers a lot!

Just noticed your looking for 6 months, if it's part of your course I'd seriously think of asking for a deferral of the full year to accommodate a 12 month internship.

Hope this helps, Rob

that was a little offtopic so I shall balance it with: What about a simple game? Teach you the 3d/2d api of your chosen language and everyone loves a game! You can get your AI algorithms in there for play against the computer and networks for play against other people, **** you can even get your finite state automatons in there when you design the network protocol!

timod

I did my internship in Sun. It was very good. Really enjoyed it. (finished college now, looking for a job... hint, hint...)

Bosco

Thanks for the reply Rob,

I have to say that €333 pw for 12 months solid unix/scripting experience sounds pretty damn good to me. If I could only find a similar deal working with databases in Galway I'd be laughin'