Monday, December 27, 2004

Why I love Computer Science?

I was having a look at some old files in an old CD-ROM when I hit the following note. The file modification time is Feb 13, 2003, and I was still in college at that time. Oh, needless to say, I still feel the same way!

If you think you have a new idea and you wanna do it, all you need to do is - sit down and do it – a computer with the required software installed is all you need.

I would compare software to the resources a chemical engineer needs, like say, some chemicals or apparatus, or some ICs or chips an electronics engineer needs. A chemical engineer may need a particular chemical to realize his idea. The chemical he needs may be available with someone else. That person may not want to share it with him because then his work would be stalled. Can the chemical engineer create a copy of the chemical like we can create a copy of software? Or can an electronics engineer create a copy of the IC he needs? Can they create copies as easily as we can – All that needs to be done for software is copying of the ones and zeros that make up the software!

So if I realize that I need, say, DevC++ to implement my idea, all I need to do is make a copy of DevC++ available with someone else. And start working on my idea.

You don’t even need some super-fundoo professors around to implement your ideas. If you get stuck with something, then you can post your questions to experts via the Internet. There are people always ready to help you. Hence for the successful realization of your ideas, the critical factors are all internal like: dedication and commitment on your part.

Since implementing new ideas in Computer Science is not affected to a great extent by external factors, if you really have got something inside yourself, you would be recognized sooner that you would have been, had you been in some other branch.