Ok, here we go

So I'm taking another course at CMU this year. The course used to be called "Computer Graphics 2", but they're now calling it "Computational Photography" which, depending on your taste, makes it artsy and hip, fake and boring or somewhere in between. The content does seem to have become much more 2D image manipulation and extraction oriented, though. When I was in school, it used to be half 2D image stuff and half 3D (ya know, the usual sub-division surfaces and other crap) The shift sort of bummed me out because now the class uses Matlab as opposed to just hacking straight OpenGL. I guess from the point of view of the material, it makes more sense to concentrate on the algorithms rather than the hacking sensation you get out of OpenGL...

Well, regardless of the title of the course or the programming language used, I knew I wanted to take it before I took the next course on my list, so I didn't really care too much. Although... I really wanted to take the course when Professor Heckbert was teaching, but I have obviously missed that opportunity for good as all great Graphics professors continue to get snagged by korporate America. =( I'm sure Professor Efros will do fine, so I'm not too worried. =)

At any rate, the classes have begun this past Tuesday and the first assignment is out. I'm going to try and make this blog take the form of semi-stream of consciousness, in the sense that I'll put posts up talking mostly about me trying to make sense out of the material. Hopefully if other people take the course and go through similar struggles as I do, they'll reap some benefit out of it. Plus I find that it helps me really understand the material when I try to inform others of what I've learned. I don't claim that I'm right in everything I say here, so if you find me spewing a load of crap out of my trap, be sure to tell me to shove it (correcting me would be really cool, too)

Alright, let's get hacking, shall we?