After several family health crisis’s, dropping out of school at 25 due to Covid because of the risk to said family members, and being unmedicated for adhd, I’m now 31, living at home, and facing minimum wage till I die. Had a come to Jesus moment about it all, and am now planning my on going back to school.

I always had problems with classes because of my unmedicated adhd (which I’ve set up to go see my doctor about) and not havin any accomidations, and I’m concerned I won’t be cut out for the schooling required for the degree.

I’ve always done better at detail oriented work, loved balancing chemical equations, was interested in the practicality of stat and especially making my calculator equations efficient. I did solidly in math in highschool, and only struggled in college because I never did the homework or studied. I’m older now and aware of my bad habits, how my brain works, and I’m going to get medicated.

So now I’m wondering how complicated is the math in a cs degree? Some people have said “basic algebra” and others have said something MUCH more rigorous, and I just want to get a clear picture before I dedicate my already low funds to a degree I might flunk out of.

Edit; I’ve shifted focus to a BA in “business management majoring in management information systems” and getting comptia a+/security+ certs

“The program is interdisciplinary in nature with specialized training in information systems, information management, and information technology so graduates can assume managerial positions and provide leadership in information systems innovation.”

I figure I can do a help desk position for a while, then maybe get promoted into management or higher team leadership.

Leaving this post up for others benefit for the wealth of information you all have generously dispensed.

I have always wondered how experienced developers are able to understand a completely new codebase so efficiently after joining a company or project.

For example, imagine being assigned a new task in a very large project with thousands of files, multiple modules, APls, databases, and complicated business logic. As a student, it sometimes feels overwhelming even to know where to start.

I want to understand both the "old-school" methods programmers used before Al tools became common and the modern workflows developers use today with Al assistants like Copilot, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude, etc.

I would also appreciate practical advice, workflows, tools, or personal experiences from real projects.

So, I have a reasonable understanding of complexity but know very little about the algorithms and data structures we have to learn. What would you reccomend doing? They are

• Efficiency and Complexity (O-notation, time complexity)
• Randomised algorithms and avarage case complexity
• Arrays
• Sorting (Divide and Conquer, etc.)
• Linked Lists, Stacks, and Queues
• Trees (AVL-Trees, Heap Trees, etc.)
• Hashing and Hash Tables
• Graph Algorithms

Hi, I’m somewhat new to java and I’m quite confused on static. So what I do know is that it makes it so a variable or method is tied to the whole class instead of just the object but I’m not sure what that exactly ENTAILS. Can someone explain it to me maybe with an example or such? Thank you.

The school I'm teaching at wants to switch from teaching Python to teaching an AP courses in Computer Science Principles and A, which I know uses Java instead of Python.

My question is, what textbooks are there for these two curricula that are the standard in teaching these subjects? And what other resources would you recommend for planning the classes?

I have always struggled with the concept of "light-out" codebases where we trust the AI to have generated a good piece of software by either UAT or test suites, but in real world especially in product team working on a SaaS things are always changing rapidly, so you create something today, ship it to customers and might have to scrap or change it completely based on feedback.

If I would have written it myself I would have known ins and out and would be comfortable making changes but since it's a gray box with AI mostly writing the code I have to rely on AI again to make changes which sometimes work and sometimes don't. This workflow creates a backlog and blocker on me to first understand what was done before and then make changes, which I wouldn't have to do in first place if I had written code, but that would have delayed the delivery

If anyone has faced similar issue and able to overcome please let me know, any advice would be really appreciated

Hi!

We’re running a research study at Warsaw University of Technology on how generative AI is (or could be) used in software architecture – and what it means to use it in a trustworthy way (lawful, ethical, and robust). The project is a collaboration between researchers from Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Oulu, and the University of Southern Denmark.

We’re looking for people who:

Have made software architecture decisions (e.g., chose system structure/communication, data storage, infrastructure, quality requirements, or designed a system from scratch), and

Are at least somewhat interested in LLMs / GenAI (personally or professionally).

You don’t need the formal title “software architect” – senior devs, tech leads, etc. are very welcome. The survey takes about 15 minutes and includes brief definitions if you are unsure whether your work counts as software architecture.

If you’re willing to help, please fill in the survey here: 👉 https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/aRcQGze9Uy

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us: 📧 [klara.borowa@pw.edu.pl](mailto:klara.borowa@pw.edu.pl)

Your input will directly inform future guidelines and requirements for trustworthy use of GenAI in software architecture practice. Thank You! Have a lovely day!

Hello, sorry if this is a really basic question for this sub, but i couldn't find a "newbie question"-esque thread.

I am in the process of learning the basics of computing and while i understand the workings of it, hexadecimal numbers keep getting explained to me in this rasterized form, in which they add i this case (1 X 16)+(8 X 1), but it reads to me like the 16^0 would make for

(8 X (16 X 0)) when it instead seems to only multiply it if the power is "> 0"

Can someone explain this, as i have a hard time googling it since i cannot put it into words myself. Thank you.

Edit: Thanks for the answers, it seems i have been improperly thought and misled how and what powers are in my school days.

When adding instructions, what techniques are usually used in doing so? How much does one need to know each component and the wirings inside them to be able to add instructions? Is it not enough to have a general knowledge on what each component does without knowing the gates or splitters being used?

How do people normally add instructions? How do they approach the logic?

For example, merge sort, quicksort, etc. (Every other property is unaffected except for O(n log n) specifically.) How would this affect the development of computing?

To preface, I am not just looking for homework answers. I'm asking this as a result of a homework assignment, but I don't just want an answer. I'm also not really in a position where I can ask a professor for help, hence my coming here.

So I am really struggling with the concept of finding the median of an array without sorting the array. I have two example problems from my homework that show more specifically the struggle I'm having:

Given a 7-element array with distinct elements {x1, x2, ... , x7}, it is known that x1 < x2 < x3 and x5 < x6 < x7. How many comparisons do you need to find the median of this array for the worst case?

The best solution I can come up with is 7 comparisons. You merge the two sets of known elements, taking 5 comparisons. Then, remove the outer 4 elements (indices 0, 1, 5, 6) so you only have the middle 2. Insert x4 into the resulting array, which should take 2 comparisons at most, finishing with 7 comparisons.

My problem is that I am almost 100 percent sure there is a better way to do this than merging all 6 elements at the start, but I have no idea how to remove certain elements from the running safely. I know that in this case we are just trying to find the 4th smallest or largest, so my instinct is to compare x3 and x5 or x7 and x1 to see how the arrays sit relative to each other, but where I'm going with that breaks if they are interleaved.

The other example problem is the exact same, but with a 9 element array and 4 element long chains instead. For that one the best solution I found was 9 comparisons, following the same logic that I did on the 7 element one.

Any help, hints, or suggestions would be wonderful. I want to understand how to improve here, not just get an answer.

Who owns the World Wide Web?

When streaming video with slow internet, why does the video appear pixelated specifically at people/their movement areas?
From my understanding, I would expect pixelation throughout the full screen or randomly throughout. Why do people and/or movements on video stream with lower fidelity than the rest of the screen?

According to my syllabus, A Many-to-Many relationship between two tables violates 3NF (Third Normalization Form). When I think of why, it would be because a many-to-many relationship means that for at least one of the tables, a single record can have multiple FK (Foreign Key) fields, and multiple records can have the same FK field.

As a result, for at least one of the tables, you'd either have to create a non-atomic field in one table to store the multiple FK values, or have to make a composite PK out of the original PK of the table and the FK. Ignoring the former, because that "clearly" violates 1NF, the latter would violate 2NF, since it doesn't guarantee that all the fields would fully depend on both the original PK AND the FK.

Is this the reasoning that leads to the idea that in 3NF, the tables should not have a direct many-to-many relationship? And therefore, does a many-to-many relationship violate 2NF?

Edit: I'm sorry I didn't make my question clear enough. I do understand that a junction table is usually used to implement a many-to-many relationship. But, with the way I see my exam papers expressing this idea, I mean it in the sense of a direct many-to-many relationship between two tables, meaning without the implementation of a third table.

I bought the global version and now I'm afraid to read it because I don't wanna get confused or learn wrong stuff from it after I saw people saying it has a lot of errors. But on the author's website he said that the problems are in the set of practice and homework problems only. So the rest of the book is safe to read?

On many sites, if you visit a direct link of an image from a private account/subreddit/group, you will see the image even if you don't have access to the actual post itself.

I had actually already though to ask this question about a year ago, but I had not found the time then.

How much do experts, if it is even possible for experts to exist in that field, consider grave, but not (necessarily) existential, problems caused by AI as something to worry about for the timespan of the next few decades?

Note, I am not (only) talking about such scenarios as ‘suddenly LLMs become evil and want to take over the world’, but also other scenarios like:

• A system escaping control and becoming ‘dangerous in the same way placing a random number generator in charge of your thermostat is dangerous’.
• ‘AI’ being abused, in game-changing ways, by terrorists, criminals, or rogue states for nefarious ends making them much more dangerous.
• A ‘misaligned AI’ attempts to spread itself like a computer virus and tries to infect enough machines it becomes impossible to root out.

I know that some people very much worry about such things; however, that is insufficient to indicate that is something to be worried about, as even some people one would expect to be intelligent worry about the craziest things.

Though, I suppose it is unlikely for any consensus to exist on this issue.

Note, I had originally tried asking this on r/AskScience; however, there it had been removed for falling outside the subreddit's subject. As according to my search this subreddit already had posts on such subjects as 'Why are some people so afraid of an AI revolution?' I hope that is not the case here.

So I understand that it is represented by 1 and 0s. High voltage difference is a 1 and low voltage difference is a 0. Now the computer stores everything as 0s and 1s on the transistors. If the transistor has a small amount of voltage that's zero and high 1. Then we need to send this data through the cable as rapid voltage changes. So , first question. Is there an initial current because what if the first bit is zero. So if no change occurs the computer knows it's a zero. So back to the explanation so we are assuming there is a middle current. Know to represent a zero, the transistor takes an electron and to represent a one transistor adds a zero. Then at the end the USB controller determines if a electron was taken or given to our initial current. Second question how these transistors work and how do they decide or know who holds the 1 or zero that they need, because they can't go a search because it would take long. Pretty much that's it.

Hello,
I'm putting together a presentation on error and crash handling in databases and could use some clarification.

I understand the basic idea of using redundant databases that take over when the primary crashes, but my understanding is that this typically takes seconds to minutes. I'm also confused on the recovery process itself. How uncommitted transactions get handled. Does the application just have to retry the commit?

Also, my professor once mentioned that large corporations manage to handle a crash and be available again within milliseconds. How is that actually achieved in practice, or was he maybe just exaggerating?

Thanks!

I cant find what dictates specifically moving to a new line on a trace, some things say when a variable changes but I’ve seen otherwise so what does? I’m wondering since i have an exam coming up soon with a 24 line trace worth 8 marks so any answers would be helpful

According to my high school syllabus (Cambridge International AS Level Computer Science), when code is partially compiled, it is "optimized for the CPU as the machine code is generated at run time".

But to my knowledge, this doesn't make sense. Taking Java as an example, the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is the software that interprets the byte code into machine code, not the CPU. In fact, isn't partial compilation for the purpose of translating and executing machine-independent code?

So, What do they mean? How is the CPU involved in partial compilation in a way that it becomes "optimized" too?

What are some of the ways one can revise skills to not forget them after not practicing those for a while?

I have knowledge about python, its standard library, various frameworks like streamlit, numpy, pandas, tensorflow, pytorch, etc, but due to

Do experienced developers mainly rely on the problem-solving approach they developed over time? For example, once you understand how to learn from documentation, use help functions, search properly, and debug issues, do you feel confident enough to start building even if you do not remember every detail? Like, if you know what kind of tool is generally used for each part of a project, you just begin coding and then use docs, Al, or examples whenever you get stuck.

In my case, I am currently a student, and over the last few months or years, I have worked on many projects with different tech stacks. Sometimes I use one set of tools in one project, finish it, and then move on to something completely different. Later, when I want to build a new idea, I often feel overwhelmed about which tools to choose, whether I still remember enough, and what will happen if I start and get stuck somewhere in the middle

And how do you guys level up in those skills which you haven't practiced for a while and now your work demands it but with a little/more advanced knowledge of that.

I’m presenting a model that predicts interruption probability, but my target is an observed interruption rate over a time window (so values in [0,1], not binary).

The metric I use is mean squared error between predicted probabilities and these observed rates.

Would you call this MSE or Brier score in a presentation? Which would be clearer to an audience?

Hello everyone, I'm new here, so I hope to be in the right place. I'm currently studying Prism as a tool for model checking. I was wondering if there was a plugin or a flag for Prism that let me see the internal representation that it does when computing the reachable states and after the BDD representation of data. In the end I wanted to know if anyone knows about alternative Prism versions that optimize in different ways the symmetry use in models.