The Atheist Blogger

There are, in my experience, two types of coursework. The first type is the one actually set by lecturers, which you hand in and get marked. Sometimes this coursework actually counts towards your degree, sometimes not. More often in Computer Science, the coursework counts for about 10% of the final grade, which I think is a ridiculous amount considering the amount of coding that goes into them. The second type of coursework is the one that isn’t specifically set by the lecturer, but which they hint at and make you think “holy shit, I’d better actually do try this out”.

Recently I’ve been doing a bit of both, and so I now present to you, second year “coursework” for Computer Science:

Robotics

Possibly my favourite part of the course is when I get to mess around for hours in labs with Lego NXT robots. Last year we had to get them to do simple things like collision detection (making them run around the room without banging into anything), but this year we are expanding into the realms of sensor calibration and maze-solving. Our current team robot is the most compact we’ve built so far,with a footprint of 130mm x 120mm. The maze walls are very low, so all three sensors had to be very low down on the robot, and the two wheels at the front are as close together as we can possibly get them. We went through several different methods when creating the rear pivot, first using a flywheel, then a small ball, before finally using a flexible prong that both supports the robot and gives it much needed suspension. The final robot looks like this:

Our robot, affectionately named "Cockmuncher"

The robot currently solves mazes using the Left Hand Rule, and will soon use Tremaux’s algorithm and the ever popular A*.

Algorithms & Complexity

“Algorithms: Yay! Complexity: Boo!” is how I sum up this course, because although we learn about the implementation of a load of useful algorithms for sorting and searching, we also learn about their complexity and the horrible calculations you have to do to find them. Eurgh.

Nevertheless, I decided it would be fun to program some of these algorithms in Java. I used a custom made random number generator to produce various files containing comma-separated unsorted random numbers. I then used various sorting algorithms to sort the numbers into numerical order. So far I’ve coded versions of Bubble Sort, Merge Sort 0, Insertion Sort, and Heap Sort. Once I’ve got the programs to a workable condition I’ll release the source code online for people to play about with. I also need to code Quick Sort and a few searching algorithms.

Update: Here is a screenshot of my implementation of Heap Sort, sorting a random array of 1,000,000 integers:

6.60 seconds...bitches.

Until I implement Quick Sort nothing else has even come close to beating (or indeed actually finishing within 10 minutes) Heap Sort in this test. It is legendary :D

Information Security

For my specialisation, I’m doing Information Security, which involves lots of cryptography (code breaking), and looking into security of systems. Currently we’re going through keystreams and hashing functions, and we’ll be programming implementations of those next term.

For now however, I need to get on with my work! :D

I’ve not talked about my family much on this blog, but I have mentioned a few things which I’ll clarify now:

My father is a recently remarried atheist (I found that out when he asked if he could borrow my copy of “The God Delusion”).

My sister calls herself an agnostic, but she cares little about religion so apatheist would probably be the correct term.

My mother is a Christian. My mother is now apparently an atheist as well.

I went home for the weekend to fix some computer stuff / set up internet for my mother’s boyfriend, and earlier today we went out for lunch. Over lunch, my mother started talking about her job (she works at Salisbury Cathedral) and how one of her clergy friends was going on a course with his wife where they are kept in separate rooms, not allowed to talk, and have to constantly study the Bible…for 7 days.

My mother expressed her horror with this situation, and commented how she could not “keep quiet for 7 minutes, let alone 7 days”. I then decided the press the religious issue, and said I could probably keep quiet for 7 days, but I wouldn’t be able to if I were reading the Bible. I’d be constantly saying “that’s just wrong” and crossing out stuff.

I then mentioned that the Bible was possibly the worst book ever written, what with it being sexist, illogical, and plain stupid. My mother questioned me, asking how it was sexist, and I reminded her of the Garden of Eden story; how it was a woman who was responsible for sin, and how Lot tried to give up his daughters for rape in Sodom. To my surprise, my mother had not heard of the Lot story, and hadn’t even heard of Leviticus (often used by Christians to incite hatred against homosexuals).

She then told me how the Bible was rather ridiculous, full of stories that made no sense, with people who lived to be 1000 years old. Then, out of the blue, “I don’t believe in God anyway”.

The conversation went a little like this for a few minutes:

Me: “You’re an atheist?”

Mother: “No.”

Me: “You just said you didn’t believe in God, that makes you an atheist.”

Mother: “I don’t like to use that word, I think religion is a good thing.”

Me: “Yeah, but atheists aren’t all anti-religious.”

I think she still feels a kind of spirituality in a way, some kind of force that people can tap into. A few years before her mother died, she tried some form of faith healing, and it worked wonders for my grandmother. She could walk without feeling any pain, and lived like that until she died. My mother used this as evidence that there was still some kind of force out there that we don’t understand. I pointed out that we tried the faith healer on me (I was 12 or so at the time) and nothing happened. The key difference? My gran was very religious, I was not. The “power” of prayer is not anything magical or mysterious, but simply mind over matter. In my gran’s case, her faith gave her the ability to put her mind over the pain.

I did the same thing a few years back, when I was going through a period of minor depression that slowly escalated to the point where I wanted to kill myself. Instead, I got over it by literally willing myself out, and I am a better person for it. I’m the general “happy go lucky” guy that doesn’t give a damn what people think of me. Of course, I love it when people like me (who doesn’t), but if a person expresses dislike, it is their problem, not mine.

So I guess my mother is the “Bill Maher” type of atheist. That makes my whole immediate family a lovely bunch of heathens; I’m so proud!

I was contacted a couple of days ago by a representative of Current TV:

I am writing from Current TV in the hopes of persuading you to record a quick Point of View webcam in regards to a half hour special we here at Current TV are producing on the topic of religion. We will be using webcam comments as interstitials in the show, in the hopes of gaining a real authentic look @ how people relate to religion today. Of course, your blog came up as a good resource for atheists, and we want to be sure you are represented.

When I queried further, they asked for a video of my “point of view on religion, in 30 seconds or less”. That is actually quite a challenge, and I’d much prefer to take up the entire half hour special explaining my complex opinions on religion. However, 30 seconds is all I’ve got, so I’ll have to somehow compress it down a bit.

No idea when I have until to do the video, or when the program runs on Current TV, but I’ll update you with more information when it comes, and also with my video.

Unrelated: Tomorrow marks the day we start to hand out leaflets for the Atheist & Agnostic Alliance, and hopefully we start getting somewhere towards ratification with the Student Union.