There is something wrong in the world when a private company can't sell its printers to a private buyer simply because the seller is in the US and the buyer is in Iran. I understand the reason for sanctions (whether or not I agree with that reason), but I am pretty sure that some people's liberties are being infringed due to a political disagreement they have nothing to do with. Nothing new, I guess, for Iran or the US.

When I was younger my dad built a computer for me that ran great for about a year or so after he finished it. Then, slowly but surely I started getting BSOD's more and more often. I tried pretty much everything to resolve the issue, updated drivers, ran the machine in safe mode but still had the problem. I eventually got used to the computer just crashing on a fairly regular basis.

It wasn't until I tried to put Red Hat (pre-Fedora days) on it. Try as I may I couldn't get the installation to complete. I was about ready to give up and blame incompatible hardware when I decided to clean out the dust from the mainboard, including the memory module slots, with canned air. Lo and behold, I was able to complete installation and never had stability problems with that computer again.

I actually like being in school, and I'm going to graduate school next so I'm not in any rush. Also my scholarship provides for 8 semesters of funding so there is no financial incentive for me to leave just yet. Given the current state of the economy I think I've made a good decision; college is a good place to ride out a recession, I think.

I'm in a similar position to you, actually. For me, I realized that by working hard I could pretty much finish my degree requirements by the end of my third year of school (which I will do). So, that left me with two "open" semesters in my Senior year that I'm going to use to finish up general college requirements, take more advanced CS classes. While it seems like it's impossible to finish all of those requirements, it's actually not that difficult I think. The reason that this is important is that you probably shouldn't expect to get credit to transfer back for technical courses you do abroad and instead use it as an opportunity to fulfill those liberal arts requirements if you have any.

The next bit of advice I have is to talk with your professors in your department and ask for their recommendations. At my school, the director of undergraduate curricula is the one that was most helpful to me, so maybe you could try to talk to an equivalent at your school. He or she will not only be familiar with the undergraduate requirements for CS, they'll probably also be the one who will be able to approve or reject credit you receive abroad as it applies to filling your major requirements. Additionally, they will probably know about other students from your school who have studied abroad before.

Ok, to answer your question about actual programs abroad, here are some places. To be fair, in the end I decided (for the time being anyway) not to study abroad for personal reasons. Anyway, my school (UNC-Chapel Hill) has a study abroad program particularly for CS majors between us and UCL (University College of London). Oftentimes even if a study abroad program is not offered at your university, you can arrange to do a program through another university, so if you're interested in this particular one let me know and I can get you more information. Additionally, I was considering and know friends who have gone to National University of Singapore, which also has a strong CS college.

My bigger point is this: don't expect too much out of study abroad from an academic point of view. There's just so much complication between different teaching systems, credit transfers, and potentially different languages that you're better off approaching it as an opportunity to learn things completely different than your normal semester's fare in the CS dept. Good luck!

Yes, but paper production is also a very energy intensive process, and the byproducts of production are fairly polluting. Just because it is "renewable" doesn't mean using it can be done without limits. There is more to the equation than just "we can grow more of the primary raw material", there is an environmental, social, and economic balance that has to be considered.