[lacker]

I have many fond memories of Mindstorms...

In college I started out a math major. The first CS class I took was a robotics class based on Mindstorms, as a sophomore. I remember it was restricted to only juniors and seniors, but it sounded cool, and I found a bug in the course registration system that let me sign up anyway.

It was a great class. It's fun that in computer science there are so many different ways to solve your problems. Within the year I was getting bored of mathematics, and all I really wanted to do was take more CS classes....

[mwint]

> I found a bug in the course registration system that let me sign up anyway.

Hah, that’s an awesome filter… if I ever start a college, signing up for any 200+ level CS class will require spoofing a POST request.

[lacker]

The bug here was more mundane, that the registration process went like:

1. Choose your individual classes, which reserves a spot for you

2. Click the overall "Finalize your class selection"

3. All validations run, including both things like "are you taking the right number of credits" and "do you meet the prerequisites for each class"

Classes that were restricted to juniors and seniors opened up to everyone if they didn't fill up by the start of the semester. So I chose my classes and didn't finalize until the semester started. Muahaha.

In the modern era this is typically solved via these "your cart will only reserve your items for 15 minutes" type warnings, but back in the olden days when I was an undergrad, that level of technology wasn't widespread yet.