[9fans] Independent study topic

[9fans] Independent study topic

[Justin Jackson]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?

I'm not very good at coming up with creative topics, so any thoughts
or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Justin

P.S. In what seems to be a grave injustice, the textbook only mentions
Plan 9 on one page, and only points out the per-process namespaces and
the ability to merge directories with bind. Absolutely nothing on 9P.
Argh!

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Patrick Kelly]

On Jan 19, 2010, at 11:44 PM, Justin Jackson <jjackson385@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
> reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
> advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
> science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
> enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
> material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
> and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
> would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
> with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
> other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?
>
> I'm not very good at coming up with creative topics, so any thoughts
> or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I tend to think quite a bit less on the computational and server side
of things than everyone else, but might I suggest dabbling in Audio IO?

>
> -Justin
>
> P.S. In what seems to be a grave injustice, the textbook only mentions
> Plan 9 on one page, and only points out the per-process namespaces and
> the ability to merge directories with bind. Absolutely nothing on 9P.
> Argh!
Blasphemy!.. Well, at least you had material that mentioned anything
other than Microsoft and Apple... Not even IBM, wtf is up with that?
>

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Jorden Mauro]

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On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:44 PM, Justin Jackson <jjackson385@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
> reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
> advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
> science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
> enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
> material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
> and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
> would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
> with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
> other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?

Is there anyone at your university doing a big (computationally) project? Like a large artificial neural network, or something that could be easily decomposed or pipelined?

If so, you might be able to get some interest in finding a way to make (cheap) distributed computing available to those people right at home who need it. Maybe you could revive old hardware and save the department money.

I know that doesn't sound groundbreaking at all, but it could go over well for you and introduce you to some interesting problems.

>
> I'm not very good at coming up with creative topics, so any thoughts
> or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> -Justin
>
> P.S. In what seems to be a grave injustice, the textbook only mentions
> Plan 9 on one page, and only points out the per-process namespaces and
> the ability to merge directories with bind. Absolutely nothing on 9P.
> Argh!
>
>


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Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[maht]

>> I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
>> reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
>> advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
>> science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
>> enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
>> material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
>> and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
>> would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
>> with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
>> other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?
Hi Justin,

I'm going to quote a fellow 9fan to you, it gets upvotes whenever I post
it on reddit / slashdot / ycombinator so it must be true :)

You want to make your way in the CS field? Simple. Calculate rough time
of amnesia (hell, 10 years is plenty, probably 10 months is plenty), go
to the dusty archives, dig out something fun, and go for it. It's worked
for many people, and it can work for you.

         — Ron Minnich

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Justin Jackson]

> I'm going to quote a fellow 9fan to you, it gets upvotes whenever I post it
> on reddit / slashdot / ycombinator so it must be true :)
>
> You want to make your way in the CS field? Simple. Calculate rough time of
> amnesia (hell, 10 years is plenty, probably 10 months is plenty), go to the
> dusty archives, dig out something fun, and go for it. It's worked for many
> people, and it can work for you.
>
>        — Ron Minnich
>


That's great. I'm keeping that one.

I've actually been following the "dataflow programming from shell
interpreter" thread on the list with great interest...I think there's
a glimmer of hope there.

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Frederik Caulier]

Hello Justin

You might pick-up something interesting from [0].

Best regards,
F. Caulier

[0] http://gsoc.cat-v.org/ideas/

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Tim Newsham]

> Hello Justin
>
> You might pick-up something interesting from [0].

Also general advice: use the system, find out what you like
an don't like, pick something about the system you wish was
different and make it so.  Make sure its something you actually
want to use.  If its useful to you, chance are it is useful
and interesting to someone else, too.

Tim Newsham | www.thenewsh.com/~newsham | thenewsh.blogspot.com

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Peter A. Cejchan]

I agree.
++pac

> want to use.  If its useful to you, chance are it is useful
> and interesting to someone else, too.
>
> Tim Newsham | www.thenewsh.com/~newsham | thenewsh.blogspot.com
>
>

Re: [9fans] Independent study topic

[Justin Jackson]

Frederik: Thanks! I hadn't seen the list of gsoc ideas before.

Tim: That is excellent advice indeed.


-Justin

[9fans] Independent Study Topic

[Justin Jackson]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?

I'm not very good at coming up with creative topics, so any thoughts
or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Justin

P.S. In what seems to be a grave injustice, the textbook only mentions
Plan 9 on one page, and only points out the per-process namespaces and
the ability to merge directories with bind. Absolutely nothing on 9P.
Argh!