CS 4753

Not a terribly difficult class but the professor is boring and the information is useless. We spent over a week discussing how outdated fingerprinting techniques work. The final project is easy if you follow the milestones and the tests are easy as well, but I wouldn't recommend this class to a CS major. It could be useful to a non-cs major who wants to gain web experience, but there is nothing in this class that isn't covered in cs 3240 or soffa's web apps class.

Weaver is a character. He's super chill, but the class itself is kind of dry. I'd say the most interesting units were the science of information and encryption units. There's an Ecommerce Website project consisting of html/css/php on your own and a technical tutorial, which is basically a research project. It's honestly not that bad. The exams are open note and basically tests you on how fast you can Ctrl-F. That being said, you should still probably study. The averages usually range between 76-80. Weaver has some really cool friends to guest lecture and those were very interesting.
Not the most interesting class nor the most difficult... I wouldn't really recommend it if you took Web PL or Database Systems. (if you did, this class will be a breeze) It was definitely a chill class though. You could probably pull an A/A- if you only show up for half the lectures.

If you're thinking of taking this as a CS elective, I highly recommend you take literally any other CS course. It's a pretty easy A-/B+ if you do well on the projects (which is manageable). And if you pay really good attention in class, it's also a pretty easy A (because his test questions are basically just random things he said in lecture; slides are useless). However, the material we learned is so so dry and 0% useful in any regard of the word. Please spare yourself and take something else.

I really enjoyed this class. There are two projects which account for 50% of your grade; one project is to create your own business and build a website for it using PHP, MySQL, HTML, and CSS. The other project is to choose a technical topic (such as QR codes, RFID, iris recognition, etc.) and create a 20-minute presentation about it. The projects are great experiences, and I talked about the business project in many interviews. The lectures are mostly guest speakers and topics about eCommerce such as patents, cryptography, and infrastructure. As someone who has only had computer science experience from the required CS major courses, this class was great for me, as it gave me a taste of other types of programming but wasn’t too intensive. If you already have a lot of programming knowledge, this class might not be for you. If you’re like me and you want to dabble in other types of programming, definitely take this class. It was also great as a double CS/Econ major because it was interdisciplinary. Weaver is also incredibly knowledgeable and experienced. Read the DES homework handout!

If you're going to take this class, take it for the project and not the lecture. As people have said below, the lecture portion is dry and pretty useless. Most of the stuff is hardly relevant to ecommerce (ex. the history of the internet, how bluetooth works, and other crap you don't care about). There are a few interesting guest lectures but they don't nearly make up for it. Think you can just skip lecture? Nope, Weaver makes you do extra credit quizzes most lectures and you have to be present to take it. It's a mixed blessing: you can get up to 5% extra credit (yes, you read that correctly) and the quizzes are easy af, but you gotta sit through lecture. Most people don't listen and just do other crap on their laptop. The tests (2 + final) are open notes and ask really specific BS questions you have to search through the slides to find the answer to (i.e. you'll be using CTRL + f a lot). Test average is usually around 80% (no curve) so I wouldn't call it easy. THE PROJECT: create an ecommerce website with functioning backend over the course of the semester in groups of 3. As far as projects go, this is pretty cool and definitely something you could talk about in an interview, for example. HOWEVER, you really need some PHP or mysql experience before taking this class (it is assumed you understand HTML too). Weaver claims this is not the case but all he does is give you the manual for PHP and mysql and tells you to learn it on your own. Lecture and project are entirely separate. Imaging taking 2150 but they never attempted to teach you C++ in class and you started with lab 6. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it still sucks. I didn't have PHP or mysql experience going in and if it hadn't been for one of my group mates who took Web PL helping us out a lot in the beginning, we would've been screwed. I eventually got used to it but still had to get carried by the TAs plenty of times. Even with PHP and mysql experience, this project is not easy. There are 5 parts and each one takes probably around 10-20 hours depending on how fast you work. The upside is that there is a checklist of things to do for each part and if you do everything you'll probably get 100% (and lots of people do). Some people have mentioned the separate technical tutorial mini-project, which isn't really relevant and is basically just there to be annoying but isn't too hard and is good presentation practice. THE CONCLUSION: I wouldn't call this class easy and the material is dry. Project is a ton of work but rewarding. If you really like the sound of the project and have taken Web PL (or otherwise know PHP, mysql, and HTML), go for it but know that the lecture and tests still suck. You're probably better off taking just about any other CS elective. I'll probably get a B+ btw.