Data Mining class driving me crazy

Ninjaneer · 02-07-2007, 12:55 PM

Well this is my 2nd semester into my Masters in Comp. Sci. @ Auburn University. I got 2 As last semester (Database 1, and Software Process). This semester I'm taking Data Mining and Human-Computer Interaction.

The Data Mining class is taught by the same professor who taught DB 1, but the class itself is 10 times harder. I understand the concepts so far, but I got my first assignment due by midnight tonight and having tackled so many hurdles I'm finally at the point where I can implement the main algorithm.

In short this assignment is to implement the PRISM classification using Java and an MS Access database. So apart from working on the assignment I've had to overcome an extra learning curve since my Java's a little rusty, and I had to deal with some MS Access quirks

I tried looking around Google and other code search engines for SOMETHING usable but there weren't many, and the ones that I did find were too involved (multiple files being imported with over the top functions and classes) to pick at. On top of that none of the implementations use a database backend so that's an extra curve ball to implement in the pseudo-code we got. Pseudo-code looks so simple; the actual code is huge.

ANYWAY just venting to fellow computer geeks. It doesn't look like the rest of the assignments are gonna be any easier so I better get this or I'll be in a bad position. Oh well, back to work

Juggs · 02-07-2007, 01:06 PM

whenever i got fed up with my programming assignments i would take a short break and hit the gym or something, come back an hour later and suddenly it was like someone had opened up the block in my brain.

take a break and then get back to it

Ninjaneer · 02-07-2007, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juggs

whenever i got fed up with my programming assignments i would take a short break and hit the gym or something, come back an hour later and suddenly it was like someone had opened up the block in my brain.

take a break and then get back to it

You're absolutely right

When I reach the point where I can't "get it" and the code stops making sense a break definitely helps...

I took a small break and got myself an iced coffee drink... in my Bimmer

And I gotta stop checking E90Post lol

Corey · 02-07-2007, 01:21 PM

Reading your post made me really happy I switched out of comp sci last year.

Ninjaneer · 02-07-2007, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey

Reading your post made me really happy I switched out of comp sci last year.

lol what did you switch to instead?

Zirenz2006 · 02-07-2007, 01:34 PM

Reading your post makes me glad I'm out of school. Good luck!

Corey · 02-07-2007, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjaneer

lol what did you switch to instead?

International affairs

konichi wa!

Juggs · 02-07-2007, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zirenz2006

Reading your post makes me glad I'm out of school. Good luck!

+1

although now im getting my masters so its much more reading but at least im not programming any more!!! :rocks:

txusa03 · 02-07-2007, 02:05 PM

Wait till you get out in the real world with your computer science, database, and data mining skill. Real world databases have massive amount of rows and columns. Your headdache will be 100X magnified

.

Then if you are lucky, your company has a data warehouse. Try data mining for a data warehouse. You be bombarded with star schema, snow flakes, normalized, denormalized, ETL (Extracts, Transformations, & Loads).

Nah, just pulling your legs, its not that bad once you get more experience with it. Data Warehouse is very much in demand. Every large company need one to forcast business spending, possible short fall, budgetting to survive.

Ninjaneer · 02-07-2007, 06:02 PM

Thanks tx, lol... definitely not gonna pursue a career in that after your post!

Actually I took the class since search is a hot topic nowadays and it's interesting. I don't think I'd want to restrict myself to being a DBA or something along those lines though; I'd rather make apps/websites with DB interaction. Although I've seen some great salaries posted for ORACLE DBAs... but again it's too restricted and you'd probably be on call in case of some minor glitch.

Nikki · 02-07-2007, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corey

International affairs

konichi wa!

Konban wa!!!!!!!!!

txusa03 · 02-07-2007, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjaneer

Although I've seen some great salaries posted for ORACLE DBAs... but again it's too restricted and you'd probably be on call in case of some minor glitch.

Not just on call but this world is saturated with Oracle's DBA to the point where Oracle DBA are constantly certified on the lastest release to stay competitive. You need to keep up with Oracle's latest releases and be certified to get that high end salary. And Oracle come out with lots of releases (they're on 11g now).

This is only my personal observation.

Ninjaneer · 02-08-2007, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txusa03

Not just on call but this world is saturated with Oracle's DBA to the point where Oracle DBA are constantly certified on the lastest release to stay competitive. You need to keep up with Oracle's latest releases and be certified to get that high end salary. And Oracle come out with lots of releases (they're on 11g now).

This is only my personal observation.

That's almost like anything in the field though eh? Tons of competition and many people with MS certificates for example. I'd probably try to get a few choice certificates, but I don't think I'd overdo it. Experience is valued over having a certificate without experience to back it up on the resume.

As it is right now, studying for my M.S., I won't have time to get any certificates... by the time I'm done they'll have new certificates to get

I barely have time to go to the gym... I'm paying "fat tax" by not going

Anyway I submitted the assignment. I'm a little bummed out about it but I tried as much as I could. It's not that I didn't know how to code it, but we sort of eye-balled the PRISM classification in class from the book, and that was easy, but the psedo-code and its implementation seems to be somewhat different and it made me question the appropriate logic... unfortunately I have no one to ask about it. I'm taking classes online and for some dumb reason we don't get a discussion board (the resources are there, just unused or not setup by the prof.) so I can't even reach other distance learning students.

Oh well... hopefully this effort sets me up for a better performance in the future assignments. Soon enough I'll know if everyone else had probs with it too.

Hawkshaw · 02-08-2007, 07:27 AM

you should have been an actuary

Kalin · 02-08-2007, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikki

Konban wa!!!!!!!!!

Wasurete shimaimashita.

txusa03 · 02-08-2007, 08:35 AM

Ninja, i think you have the right concept there. What you learn in school is only like the basic theory. In the real world, your end users/customers and business processes, compatibility in hardware and software, and other factors come into play and it is just a whole new playing field. If you are in programming, understanding logic is all you need everything else is from experience. Web design, you need creativities and vision (i think).

Ninjaneer · 02-08-2007, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawkshaw

you should have been an actuary

haha... you never know

Quote:

Originally Posted by txusa03

Ninja, i think you have the right concept there. What you learn in school is only like the basic theory. In the real world, your end users/customers and business processes, compatibility in hardware and software, and other factors come into play and it is just a whole new playing field. If you are in programming, understanding logic is all you need everything else is from experience. Web design, you need creativities and vision (i think).

Definitely, well said. Thanks!

flush01 · 02-08-2007, 11:58 AM

man, when I was in college, i remmeber database class was the hardest one for me, I REALLLY hated it... good luck with that

mds82 · 02-08-2007, 12:04 PM

o man i took a data mining class 2 years ago and i hated it soo much. it was like everything you learned from databases, but complely backwards

Corey · 02-08-2007, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikki

Konban wa!!!!!!!!!

daisuki da yo!

gmcwv · 02-08-2007, 03:38 PM

I've been a Oracle and MS SQL DBA for over 7 years and I like it. However I don't just do databases anymore. I also do a bunch of web management/design windows admin, and network admin. Being just a DBA was a good start for my career however it has lead to what I do now and I like it a lot. Though if all I did was deal with databases...I might go a little insane. -Good Luck with it

02-07-2007, 12:55 PM	#1
Ninjaneer Shadow Warrior 151 Rep 2,095 Posts Drives: '07 335i Sedan Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Florida iTrader: (0)	Data Mining class driving me crazy Well this is my 2nd semester into my Masters in Comp. Sci. @ Auburn University. I got 2 As last semester (Database 1, and Software Process). This semester I'm taking Data Mining and Human-Computer Interaction. The Data Mining class is taught by the same professor who taught DB 1, but the class itself is 10 times harder. I understand the concepts so far, but I got my first assignment due by midnight tonight and having tackled so many hurdles I'm finally at the point where I can implement the main algorithm. In short this assignment is to implement the PRISM classification using Java and an MS Access database. So apart from working on the assignment I've had to overcome an extra learning curve since my Java's a little rusty, and I had to deal with some MS Access quirks I tried looking around Google and other code search engines for SOMETHING usable but there weren't many, and the ones that I did find were too involved (multiple files being imported with over the top functions and classes) to pick at. On top of that none of the implementations use a database backend so that's an extra curve ball to implement in the pseudo-code we got. Pseudo-code looks so simple; the actual code is huge. ANYWAY just venting to fellow computer geeks. It doesn't look like the rest of the assignments are gonna be any easier so I better get this or I'll be in a bad position. Oh well, back to work __________________ 335i E90 / Arctic / Gray / Burl Walnut / Steptronic / ZPP / ZSP / Paddles / CA / Nav / PDC / OEM Spoiler Mods: PIAA Angel Eyes, Rear Fog Switch, Escort X50 Blue hardwire, 30% Charcoal Llumar Installing soon: Rear Power Outlets (Happy Robot mod!) Last edited by Ninjaneer; 02-07-2007 at 01:20 PM..
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02-07-2007, 01:06 PM	#2
Juggs Bavarian Motor Werks Fanatic 154 Rep 245 Posts Drives: BMW 325i sport Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Dallas iTrader: (1)	whenever i got fed up with my programming assignments i would take a short break and hit the gym or something, come back an hour later and suddenly it was like someone had opened up the block in my brain. take a break and then get back to it
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02-07-2007, 01:21 PM	#4
Corey Private First Class 24 Rep 163 Posts Drives: '92 240SX Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Boston iTrader: (0)	Reading your post made me really happy I switched out of comp sci last year. __________________ "You're going to have your heart broken, and you're gonna repair it with zipties."
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02-07-2007, 01:34 PM	#6
Zirenz2006 Brigadier General 1758 Rep 4,664 Posts Drives: G80 M3 Comp IOMG Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: US - NE iTrader: (0)	Reading your post makes me glad I'm out of school. Good luck! __________________ Current: 2024 ///M2 Zandvoort Blue Past: 2021 ///M3 Competition IOMG \| 2018 X3 ///M40i \| 2012 *328i* \| 2009 *335i* \| 2007 *335i Coupe* \| 2005 *545i* \| 2001 *325i*
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02-07-2007, 02:05 PM	#9
txusa03 Major General 566 Rep 6,563 Posts Drives: TS330iPPSP6MT Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Planet Earth iTrader: (3)	Wait till you get out in the real world with your computer science, database, and data mining skill. Real world databases have massive amount of rows and columns. Your headdache will be 100X magnified . Then if you are lucky, your company has a data warehouse. Try data mining for a data warehouse. You be bombarded with star schema, snow flakes, normalized, denormalized, ETL (Extracts, Transformations, & Loads). Nah, just pulling your legs, its not that bad once you get more experience with it. Data Warehouse is very much in demand. Every large company need one to forcast business spending, possible short fall, budgetting to survive. __________________ under construction!
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02-07-2007, 06:02 PM	#10
Ninjaneer Shadow Warrior 151 Rep 2,095 Posts Drives: '07 335i Sedan Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Florida iTrader: (0)	Thanks tx, lol... definitely not gonna pursue a career in that after your post! Actually I took the class since search is a hot topic nowadays and it's interesting. I don't think I'd want to restrict myself to being a DBA or something along those lines though; I'd rather make apps/websites with DB interaction. Although I've seen some great salaries posted for ORACLE DBAs... but again it's too restricted and you'd probably be on call in case of some minor glitch. __________________ 335i E90 / Arctic / Gray / Burl Walnut / Steptronic / ZPP / ZSP / Paddles / CA / Nav / PDC / OEM Spoiler Mods: PIAA Angel Eyes, Rear Fog Switch, Escort X50 Blue hardwire, 30% Charcoal Llumar Installing soon: Rear Power Outlets (Happy Robot mod!)
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02-08-2007, 07:27 AM	#14
Hawkshaw Major 105 Rep 1,013 Posts Drives: X3 xDrive28i Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Fredericton, NB, Canada iTrader: (1) Garage List 2006 330i [0.00]	you should have been an actuary __________________ Paul
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02-08-2007, 08:35 AM	#16
txusa03 Major General 566 Rep 6,563 Posts Drives: TS330iPPSP6MT Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Planet Earth iTrader: (3)	Ninja, i think you have the right concept there. What you learn in school is only like the basic theory. In the real world, your end users/customers and business processes, compatibility in hardware and software, and other factors come into play and it is just a whole new playing field. If you are in programming, understanding logic is all you need everything else is from experience. Web design, you need creativities and vision (i think). __________________ under construction!
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02-08-2007, 11:58 AM	#18
flush01 Major 47 Rep 1,419 Posts Drives: 33m@%#ing5 Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: toronto iTrader: (0)	man, when I was in college, i remmeber database class was the hardest one for me, I REALLLY hated it... good luck with that
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02-08-2007, 12:04 PM	#19
mds82 Major General 372 Rep 5,842 Posts Drives: 2006 325xi Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: South Central Connecticut iTrader: (40) Garage List 2006 325xi Snow Pics [0.00] 2006 BMW 325xi [0.00]	o man i took a data mining class 2 years ago and i hated it soo much. it was like everything you learned from databases, but complely backwards
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02-08-2007, 03:38 PM	#21
gmcwv Private First Class 7 Rep 112 Posts Drives: '06 330i Sport Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Northern WV iTrader: (0)	I've been a Oracle and MS SQL DBA for over 7 years and I like it. However I don't just do databases anymore. I also do a bunch of web management/design windows admin, and network admin. Being just a DBA was a good start for my career however it has lead to what I do now and I like it a lot. Though if all I did was deal with databases...I might go a little insane. -Good Luck with it
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