Sophomore Year at University of Toronto, St. George Campus
ECE - APSE Software Computer Engineering (2002-2003)
- last updated June 12th, 2003 -

HPS284H1-F : The History of North American Technology

I always considered history to be my forte. I always thought that even though I've always known that I sucked at engineering, that at least I'll always have a skill at looking at history and just picking it up instinctively on the spot... but alas, the University of Toronto really likes to prove me wrong and ridiculously stupid on every single occasion and ccount possible, as this wonderful History of North American Technology course of mine proved to me with the greatest of satisfactions... It sucked enough when my professor spouted out so much damn, bloody useless knowledge that I couldn't even jot it all down in time... but it especially sucked when I got about a bloody 57% on my mid-term or some crap like that. And that scared me.

And oh, the memories! All the joys I've felt! How they pain me so! I remember trying to ignore every damn tutorial I was forced to be in, considering the TA was treating us engineers like a bunch of elementary school students (which we did act like for most of the time, but that's besides the point). And of course, by the end of the term, when I finally did get the confidence to speak out in front of the tutorial class, I ended up making the stupidest comments that I still slap myself silly on the head for to this day. I tried to mix and remix my own Y2kk rants that you find on my websites with the crap that we learned in the lectures... but take it from me. Combining no-name, embarrassing plot points with absolutely no historical points whatsoever, doesn't exactly work wonders for your complexion in the end...

But in the end? I did manage an 81% in this course, and considering I went into the final exam with about a 75% (thanks to my essays bolstering up my mid-term mark), I guess I did pretty decent... Of course, that wasn't the real story of the day. Besides my elbow crapping and cramping up on me during the exam, I really could've care less about whatever the hell I wrote on my exam sheets. But the thing that got to me was... well... For those one or two people who actually care out there, my typed out HPS284 notes are available directly below. The thing was... I sent these very notes out to some of my friends over e-mail a week before the exam, and by the time the final exam finally rolled around?... I was talking with one of the friends that I didn't send my notes to, but I guess it didn't matter, considering he was holding up a printed out copy of them anyhew. And when I asked him how he got them, he said he got them from a friend of a friend of a friend... and that literally everyone in the class was now using my notes for crash course studying... and, well...

I was flattered. Simply put, I was smirking with a lesion of a smile. I had attained attention without ever once noticing that something I had did finally got noticed... I had finally gotten attention, without being attentive of the fact that I had attention... I have achieved my fifteen minutes of fame, without even noticing that I was famous... and of course, people just threw my work into the trash right after they left that exam room. I saw three copies of it in the garbage by the time I left... but still, for one day, just for one day... I was special... it was just too bad somebody couldn't have told me that they sold my damn notes on the black market or something a little damn earlier, so that I could've gotten a full week's worth of gloating in glory, but that's besides the point...

- IvanF's No-Name Brand Notes for HPS284: The History of North American Technology (December 2002) -
- IvanF's No-Name Brand Notes for HPS284: The History of North American Technology (html format - December 2002) -

- IvanF's HPS284 Assignment #1 -
- IvanF's HPS284 Assignment #2 -
- IvanF's HPS284 Assignment #3 -
- IvanF's HPS284 Assignment #4 -
- IvanF's HPS284 Assignment #5 -

HPS280H1-S : The History of Science

I had always considered history to be my forte... then of course, my HPS284 course proved to me that in the eyes of PhD TAs at least, I really do suck when it comes to essays and crap like that. Either that, or they just refuse to give any marks over an 80, no matter how good of a student you are, but that's besides the point... especially considering I saw a few nineties given to students who couldn't even speak English properly, but that's also besides the point... and, well... the thing was, after finishing HPS284 with an 81%, I was convinced that I could learn off of my lessons and fare even better in HPS280: The History of Science, in hope that I could boost up my term mark which I knew was going to absolutely suck in second term (thanks to the two worst electrical courses I had ever taken)...

The problem was, even though I paid more attention in lectures, and even though I studied much harder for the History of Science mid-terms, my mark ended up being lower than my HPS284 one anyhew. I ended The History of Science with a 77%, which is respectable considering I entered the final exam room with a 74%, but still... I just could never, ever figure out why the hell my friends kept doing better than me on every single damn mid-term that we had... I got a 64% on the first one, when my friend managed a 72% or something. I then pulled a 74% on the second mid-term or some crap like that, only to bugged by his 79% a minute later... and the thing that really bugged me? My friend just kept on recanting and reciting, almost as if it were his mantra, that he wouldn't do well on his mid-terms, because he wasn't sure of his answers... he kept repeating like a parrot that he probably failed both of them, and of course, I kept reassuring him that he did well, when secretly I was hoping that he actually did fail... and in the end, what I had said to him ended up being right, and what I had hoped for, longed for, always ended up wrong... but at least, I beat him on the final exam. He might still be bitter at me for that...

But what I personally am bitter at?... it has nothing to do with the above mentioned friend of mine, but rather that girl I've talked so much about on my websites throughout second year... the thing was, she always tries extra hard to be humble. She doesn't realize how damn much it hurts me every single time I find and figure out that she lies... I guess my friends just can't comprehend the fact that I actually like to be told the truth. I don't want them to comfort me, that I'll pass so-and-so test or so-and-so course, when I know that I failed. I hate it when they don't take my claims seriously, when I claim that I know something went wrong on an exam or whatnot... I hate it when they assume that I'm not being honest... but really, I would never get pissed at my friends for this sort of thing if the girl I talk too much about would just give me a little more credit than she does from time to time... Instead of taking what I say at face value, God knows how many times I had to put up with her not putting up with me. She would just wave my opinions off as if I were bragging (bragging about failing, of course), and then claim that she knows that I did or will do so much better than her in all our courses... which rarely, ever came true... and although I did get a better mark than her in HPS284, I never lied or claimed in that course that I did poorly on any exam, essay, or test... well, except for one thing... I only told her that I thought I did badly on the mid-term, because, quite frankly, I did... I got 57% on that mid-term, and she still never believed my ravings and rantings whenever I knew I did something wrong. And the pattern just continued on and on in our HPS280 course second term... I would know that I screwed up something on a test, and she'd simply screw and scoff me off and claim that she definitely did horribly in comparison to perfect me... and honestly, what planet is she on? What is she getting these references of hers? Because we would then find out that her test scores were ten or more percent higher than mine on pretty much every occasion... and yet she still never believed a word I ever said to her when I told her I did something wrong... I know she was probably just sick of me always whining, but if that was the case, then there was no hope for me in the first place afterall...

For is it really that hard to believe a man for what he says?... I messed up questions on both mid-terms, and I pretty much got exactly the marks I expected (hell, I even told her that I would get less than 70% on the first exam and 75% on the second mid-term before we got our marks in, which I was about proven right on... yet she just kept believing that I would score eighties or nineties or some crap like that, for no apparent reason whatsoever...)... and, well... I don't know how what mark she got in the course. She hasn't spoken to me since... go figure... And whenever she does turn up, it'll be on my download and msn pages... but chances are, by the time I ever read this Y2kk message of mine again, she probably would've moved completely on from me, and probably won't even bother listening to my complaints anymore... she would just assume they're all lies... because it's funny... the more honest a man tries to be, the more dishonest everyone claims him to be...

Well, actually, it's not funny. It's just plain dismal to me... because it all sounds like so much damn fun, doesn't it?...

- IvanF's No-Name Brand Notes for HPS280: The History of Science (April 2003) -
- IvanF's No-Name Brand Notes for HPS280: The History of Science (html format - April 2003) -

- IvanF's Presentation Paper on Rene Descartes' "Treatise on Light" 2003 -

ECE242H1-F : Algorithms and Data Structures (C Software Programming)

- IvanF's Crap Tutorial to Introductory Java Programming (APS105 2001) -
- IvanF's Crap Crash Course (iCCC) Tutorial in Introductory Java Programming 2002 -
- IvanF's Crappy First Year Java Programming Assignments (APS105 2001) -
- IvanF's Extremely Crappy, First Year Final Java Programming Project (APS105 2001) -

- IvanF's Crap Crash Course (iCCC) Tutorial in Introductory C Programming 2002 -
- IvanF's Final Exam Notes for ECE242 C Software Programming 2002 -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 0 -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 1 -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 2 -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 3: Array and Linked List Sorting Efficiency -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 4: Mock Linux Command Prompt -
- IvanF's C Programming Assignment 5: Prim and Dike's Algorithms -

ECE241H1-S : Introduction to Digital Systems (Verilog Hardware Programming)

... hmm... I really have no clue whatsoever anymore what's contained in these Digital Systems lab files of mine... all I know, is that they use a lot of that ALU adder and 7-segment decoder crap on the Altera boards in the Bahen Building at U of T... I can also tell you that I did all my programming in Max Plus II v10 or something, but besides that?... well... good luck decoding whatever the hell I programmed last year... tell me if you ever get anywhere with it...

- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #2 -
- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #3 -
- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #4 -
- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #5 -
- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #6 -
- IvanF's ECE241 Digital Systems Lab #7 -

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MAT290H1-F : Advanced Engineering Mathematics

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MAT291H1-F : Advanced Engineering Calculus III

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ECE212H1-F : Circuit Theory (Pspice Programming)

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ECE203-S : Discrete Mathematics (Probability)

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ECE221-S : Electricity and Magnetism ("E-n-M", or Eminem...  or, um, nevermind...)

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- IvanF's (and his friend, Salman's) ECE221 Writing Assignment: E Ink - The Future in the Palm of Your Hand:
"Size Does Matter"; 2003 -

ECE231-S : Introduction to Electronics

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- exam cheat sheet 1 -
- exam cheat sheet 2 -

IvanF, the no-name whiner, June 2003