Whats the word involving CS414. Is it a real tough course for most students?
It's the same that goes for any other CS class, it just depends. How'd you do in all of your other classes? I personally have found it not to be a problem (have the final in ~1 hour actually). While I can't say it has been my favorite class I can definatley say it wasn't my least favorite class. I don't think it matters that much actualy, you have to take it after all ;-)
I didn't think it was all that tough, either. It would have been much easier if I would have studied in some fashion throughout the course of the semester. If you are someone that actually studies, you should have no problem.
I had Fujinoki. He seems a little hyped up on coke or caffiene or something, but overall I thought he did a pretty good job. I don't know what instructors are doing it now or in the future.
I had Dr. Dooly personally. While his lecturing style is rather dull and dry he did seem to know his material and if you were willing to listen he was always willing to help you understand something. Overall I felt his programming assignments helped me understand some concepts I found a tad confusing. The only thing I DID NOT like was the fact that he gave us a lot of "example" code that made the programming assignments easier. Oddly enough though it didn't seem to help the majority of the people. At any rate Dooly is ok in my book.
I've had Dr. Dooly for 1 class before. I'm sure he's really a nice guy and he probably has more CS knowledge in his little finger than I've got in my whole head. But, IMO he can't teach well and I would never recommend him to a friend. Maybe he did a better job with CS414, but my policy ever since has been to avoid any class he is teaching. If a teacher is going to be boring they should at least help you pass the time by saying crazy quotable nonsense type things from time to time (not that I'm going to name any names).
I had him for another class sometime back and definately had my reservations about taking him again (especially when the class started at 7:30pm) however I must say he has improved since I had him the first time.
I had Dr. Stephen for this class way back in 2001 and it was my favorite class out of the entire CS curriculum. Rather than developing programs with trivial behavior, you write programs that model operating system functions. I'm not sure how profs since Dr. Stephen teach the class, but he used Windows as the development platform. Overall the class was fun and challenging and I'm disappointed I didn't have the opportunity to take the subsequent class he taught on the same topic.
everything I heard about Dr. Stephen makes me wish he hadn't retired. Everyone I know (and respect) said he was absolutely brilliant (if a little quiet). Oh well, what's done is done!
I also had Dr. Stephen for 414 the last semester (summer) before he "retired" and I would agree that it was the best CS class I ever had.
I also took the CS 514 graduate-level Operating Systems. Despite the name, it was a course on distributed programming--mostly involving middleware such as CORBA and Java's RMI. I didn't think it was as good a course as 414, but I think it was still my favorite course of the semester.
I also recommend CS 550, Object Oriented Programming and Design (assuming Dr. Stephen is still teaching it). In fact, I recommend anything he teaches. Just be prepared for a little bit of a challenge. 8-)