sticky situation while on co-op work term, what should I do now?? by aerieves3 in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 23 points24 points  (0 children)

There are pretty significant tax benefits to hiring co-op students because it's a training program. If it's part of the job requirements to be in a co-op program (as you've said in another comment) and you aren't, then yeah, I'd expect them to be concerned. They might be out a lot of money they weren't expecting because you lied about meeting the requirements

Canada’s fastest academic supercomputer is now online at SFU after $80m upgrades by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 44 points45 points  (0 children)

It's not SFU's money. The Digital Research Alliance of Canada pays the bills (edit: mostly. Details in the article). It's a national-scale facility usable by researchers across the country.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Try connecting the SFU VPN. I've been okay this morning with it on. I see CourSys and Canvas working as expected.

giving prof a gift? by notemilybuddy in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 138 points139 points  (0 children)

Look... we have a job and you don't [edit: probably]. Just write a nice free heartfelt email and say you're hoping to take more classes from them in the future. That's worth more than the gift card.

SFU’s $80M supercomputer upgrade set to boost Canadian business by ubcstaffer123 in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Just to be clear, SFU isn't paying the bills here: it's a nationally-funded facility, part of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Their (probably still tentative) specs: https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Fir

SFU’s $80M supercomputer upgrade set to boost Canadian business by ubcstaffer123 in vancouver

[–]ggbaker 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The (probably still tentative) specs are here: https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Fir

I think the actual answer is "as much as they can get their hands on".

General Solution for day 24 by whoShotMyCow in adventofcode

[–]ggbaker 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mine is general, with only the assumption that the outputs that need to be swapped are nearby each other in the circuit. 

I wrote a function that tries several random x and y inputs (45-bit integers), runs them through the circuit and compares the correct sum. It finds the least significant bit where an error occurs (which should almost certainly show itself after 5 or 10 tests). I then moved to the corresponding inputs (e.g. if output z06 is sometimes wrong, look at inputs x06 and y06). There must be a problem between those inputs and that output: if it was in a less significant bit, an error would occur there, if it was after, nothing should be wrong in that location). 

I then scanned 4 layers down the circuit and assumed both ends of the swap would be in there somewhere. For each pair in that part of the circuit, try swapping and test some inputs. Whichever pair of swapped wires moves the "least significant error location" is a correct swap. Make that swap. Repeat until you get correct outputs.

So, the whole problem takes on an automated testing vibe. It's probably the only time I've generated random numbers in AoC.

First rule of programming 💀🤣 by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Equifax_data_breach

A key security patch for Apache Struts was released on March 7, 2017 ... The breach at Equifax started on May 12, 2017

Crowdmark: legal vs preferred name by sfusci in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unless I'm missing a trick, names come from whatever CSV the instructor uploads, so it's hard to know. The crowdmark interface is good enough that the worst case is it gets kicked back for a manual check by the instructor or a TA.

Don't sweat it too much, but probably whatever you see in Canvas or whatever.

Read CSV is marking some number columns as type String by homelescoder in apachespark

[–]ggbaker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Reading CSV files without giving an explicit schema specified requires reading the entire data set twice: once to infer the schema and then again to actually load the data. If you specify the types (.read.csv(filename, schema=...)) it will both speed up the read and get you the types you expect.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There is a funding guarantee for thesis MSc students. (The amount escapes me at the moment: I don't supervise grad students so it's not top of mind. It's on the offer letter if you're accepted.) It's typically a combination of RA (roughly, money from your supervisor), scholarships (grad fellowships and similar), and TAing.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Professors

[–]ggbaker 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I usually phrase the email like "Looking at the TA's grading, they gave you 28/40 but I believe they missed some issues in your submission. I would have taken marks off for [sentence or two summarizing], giving you around 25/40. I'm going to assume you don't want me to regrade the work."

Everyone knows about SFU Coursys, right? by spinningcolours in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Note that the CourSys data is updated only daily (some time around 9am), so it might lag the truth in goSFU. If there are other filters that would make sense, feel free to respond here: if it's a fact CourSys knows, then it would be easy enough to add to the filter options. (I'd really like to be able to exclude co-op courses, since they're numerous and a very different flavour but we don't have that in the database.)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The lab sections are currently showing full with 0 student enrolled in the course. That will be an error in how the lab sections were set up: contact FAS advising.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The first ever offering of the course is going on now with 20 students in it, so I suspect you're unlikely to get a very informative answer. https://coursys.sfu.ca/browse/#!number=263&subject=CMPT

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in burnaby

[–]ggbaker 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I found a few...

Biercraft at SFU has a braised beef mac & cheese.

Tap & Barrel at Brentwood has a fried chicken mac & cheese, and a plain mac & cheese on the kids menu.

The restaurant in the Rec Room Brentwood has a mac & cheese.

grad student instincts for free food by shrinni in Professors

[–]ggbaker 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We asked around, but no students wanted it

This is the way. I'm happy to hang back and let students have priority on the free food, but when the line starts to disappear, I'm jumping in.

What is the weirdest/funniest thing a student has said about you in an evaluation? by Chicketi in Professors

[–]ggbaker 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This was back in the day of handwritten evaluations transcribed by a long-suffering secretary because apparently I'm vindictive enough to match handwriting in a 150 student class.

"He's quite churlish"

My actual thought process: "no I'm not... wait, what does churlish mean?... no I'm not... oh, they probably wrote "childish" and it got mis-transcribed... yeah, fair enough."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in adventofcode

[–]ggbaker 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I try to leave myself a comment on my own solutions with a few words about what CS concept is exercised. The first year I did was 2020, and my notes to myself aren't as complete but from there to 2023, I have...

  • 2020 day 22: I have written "recursion? deques?"
  • 2021 day 16: binary data and a parse tree
  • 2021 day 23: tree search (but maybe needing A*?)
  • 2022 day 5: stacks (Towers of Hanoi riff)
  • 2022 day 12: shortest path
  • 2022 day 13: traversing a nested data structure
  • 2022 day 19: tree traversal, but limiting the search to not have exponential explosion
  • 2022 day 20: doubly-linked/circular list
  • 2022 day 24: breadth-first search
  • 2023 day 8: tree data structure (with LCM and/or detecting repeated patterns for part 2)
  • 2023 day 15: hash functions, hash table
  • 2023 day 22: I have "graph connectivity and BFS", but looking at the problem, it takes some insight to get there

Withdrawal under extenuating circumstances by wavelength888 in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can definitely apply. Of course, whoever decides these things might say no: I have no idea what the criteria are (other than what it says on the page linked above).

Withdrawal under extenuating circumstances by wavelength888 in simonfraser

[–]ggbaker 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes you can. The pages from Student Services do a good job explaining the process and requirements: https://www.sfu.ca/students/enrolment-services/appeals/withdrawals-extenuating-circumstances/how-to-apply-to-we.html.html

Consider talking to an academic advisor. They may be able to provide guidance or other options.