It’s time for a revamped blog! First, an intro:
My name is James Maddux. I’ve been working in electronics repair for a while, after earning an associate degree in electrical engineering from Tulsa Community College. That degree (and my hobby experience) got me into some great positions. Stuff I’ve worked on includes clinical proton accelerators, self-checkout machines, fracking equipment (yes, I know) and data centers. I enjoyed that life, but a couple things bothered me.
One, I didn’t have a four-year degree. This was the original intent of the ASEE degree – to transfer into a state university and earn a BSEE. Because of costs and class schedules, that plan didn’t line up. But this was fine, because my ASEE was marketable enough to get me into some great jobs. Over time, I stretched that degree to its limit.
And two, I couldn’t code beyond some copy-pasted stuff into the Arduino IDE. I had spent a while listening to podcasts like Embedded.fm. Also, a lot of my past electronics experience could have been augmented by a bit more coding.
So when I found out about WGU, and learned how affordable and practical the degrees are, I looked into what programs they had. My experience would have transferred over to the IT degrees more easily, but the CS degree intrigued me. I signed up for Harvard edx’s CS50, which confirmed to me that yes, I want to work on coding. Plus, the WGU CS program is now ABET-accredited, which feels nice as someone who used to be in the engineering side.
Alright, Enough History, Why Blog?
So, fast forward to the present (January 2024). I’ve been at this for about a year, I took some time off from working to accelerate the degree a bit, and hope to be done within the next year. I really enjoy sharing tips and resources for other WGU students, so I’m going to assemble a nice list of links for that.
Ideally, I’ll have some nice projects to share as well.
But generally, I think that blogs are part of what made the early web excellent. We’re in a weird era where search engines are globbing together AI responses from uncited sources, and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. A good way to counteract this is by making posts, making actual web links, and bypassing the silly stuff. Hopefully this blog can contribute to that cause.
See you around!