I was pretty impressed when we opened tonight. Folks started walking calmly into the store. They were walking fast, but I didn't see anyone doing an all out sprint.
I can see wanting to work remotely if you want either a flex schedule (though remote does not necessarily equate to that), or if you live somewhere where your desired profession is not. For RoR, you may want to remotely work for a Valley company if you live in flyover country.
I'm not sure what you'd do with the data itself, but if you want to build some interactive charts to show off your project, Highcharts[1] is a good way to go.
If you want to go that route, I would recommend picking an assignment you are very interested in, and going all out on it. Even if you get A's on your assignments, they're still probably not that impressive until you can put a few months of extra work into them. Also, if you discuss it with your professor, you have the added potential of building a good relationship with him/her.
Looking back, I really wish I had done something like this because I was in the same boat as you - a lot of motivation to build something, but not knowing what to build.
Well I meant in addition to any non-school related projects I do. :P The tasks we are asked to perform here are a joke. I recall a problem set last year that went something like this: "You have a Door object that has a state which can be 'open' or 'closed'. Write a mutator method to change the state of the door." What the hell? That was about 2/3 of the way through the course too. I know its a first year course but come one ...
I definitely get the point of MIT and Stanford having amazing entrepreneurial cultures, which is something that we don't have here in Newfoundland.
I'd love to be able to tell people about something that I've made -- but I haven't made anything. I have no idea what to make and no clue where to start.
Option b: pick a non-technology related hobby (for instance, I like sailing). Go find some forums related to the hobby, and say "I'm a university student and a software developer, and I want to make some software. What do you guys need? What would make your life better? What bugs you about any hobby related software you buy?"
Read 40-200 pages of responses. Pick one that seems dead-simple to implement. Do it.
This is an interesting answer because I wasn't expecting anyone to tell me that business is easier than MIT. Then again, you owned the majority of a business that had more than $1m in revenue. I have trouble finding money to spend on lunch.
I'm a CS major now and I'm strongly considering switching to an Applied Math/Computer Science double major. Are you a developer? If so, what about your math degree helped you most? Did you focus on pure or applied math?
Well, in college, I lived on one meal a day for some time. Meeting Street Café sandwiches at 3pm for the win.. : )
I was a pure math major. Getting a math degree from any major university (applied or pure) guarantees that almost nobody will wonder if you're intelligent.
Past that, applied math -> finance seems to have been the most lucrative path for people in the '90s. I'm not sure what the current situation is.
I wouldn't bother with a StackOverflow account, at least not in the sense of 'the more I actively participate, the more Karma I build up there". Ditto with HN and GitHub. Posting code there to show off/try to impress just doesn't work and is a waste of time.
Do it only because you WANT to/have fun doing it, otherwise you won't be able to sustain it in the long run anyway.
