Protest / Campaign - lost marks - lost team members

4th Post
Howdy All - well that is the week over - Started with Java this morning - was up nice and early and in for 09h00 - bought a coffee on the way @ Roland Butter as they have a special at the moment - Made Java and had hoped that Ian would spend some time with me also Christian was coming in so we could work on AI together . . . Mostly uneventful - hung around for a while changing code tinkering and fine tuning and I was rewarded eventually - not before Christian had already showed up - to start work on AI - I had to tell him I was not available, yet. Lab was empty to start with . . .when I arrived it was only Colin & Rory . . .and had I not stopped for coffee - we would have arrived at the same time.

Well, received the dreaded AI exam on web at about 10h30 - but couldn't look at it until after Colin had had a look at my work was roughly 11h05 - it was everything I had feared and some - had to leave whole sections out as I did not know what they wanted - I can't hope for more than about 40% and as for the exam which is still - I reserve judgement - but it will still take a major amount of work - before I am able to say I am on top of it . . . . .

3rd Post - Thursday
Well I had decided t go into Uni this morning as I needed to get my Java material as I had made changes but not replicated my work to my home PC - such that I was now running different versions of this new Practical . . . .never a good idea - always somehow get things mixed up or confused . . . so even although I had no classes needed to go in.

Was up bright and early and the idea was get into the gym before 09h00 - all went according to plan was a wee bit late but still on target . . . got down to the gym only to see 'Closed for staff training - sorry for any inconvenience -reopen @ 10h00' - I could have screamed - anyway no problem - I thought I'll just shift everything around - I'll go to uni first - now my monthly ticket expired during the week - so I had to buy a ticket before boarding the train . . . So they announced the train was arriving when I started buying a ticket by machine - do you think I could conclude my transaction in time to catch that train - You guessed 'No' I was still getting my change when the train was already pulling out of the station . . . I could have screamed - it was onyl later that I realised I had spent more than I should have as I had bought a standard ticket instead of the cheap day return???? So it was not a good start to the day - it got better - it could hardly go down now could it . . . .lol. Got into uni and downloaded my Java material - Mission accomplished - left went to gym and spent the rest of the day studying . . . I have to admit I am now in a panic as there is literally just so much to do - we break up for 2 weeks for tomorrow 30 March - but in the week we come back I have my Java project to hand in; eCommerce presentation to make; A research paper on handheld and mobile browsers to both write up and present; as well as rounding of Designing Usable Systems . . .so lots to do and not much time to do it in. I plan to take a break and holiday and then climb back in with a vengenace . . .hope it works - we are so close to finishing with this next round - on the home street so to speak.

2nd Post
All photo's - went up Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh Holyrood park - above is the logo for our eCommerce idea - and lovely building which I'd buy at the drop of a hat is Pollock Residence - part of university of Edinburgh . . . Oh correct me if I'm wrong . . lol

Wow - the week has kicked off with a bang - had an eCommerce group meeting - guess what? Not a soul turned up? I have some problems here - methinkest - need to get the work done as marks are group marks - Nicole sick (although rumour has it she has gone on holiday) Murv had some other work; Ratna - not sure where he was - Pelagia never turned up . . . a waste of time . . . - I wasn't there last week because Iw as sick so wanted to make sure what we had to do for the next class - Lesley asked us to present and I nearly died - other group presented and there presentation was excellent - so we really have tons of work to do just to catch up. (designed the logo above) . . . . Now Sonia - who has been missing for the last 9 weeks of the course suddenly turned up - and she is in our group - the more the merrier . . .tra la la la la . . .lol.

Maria lectured up a storm - pity I was falling asleep - she was telling us what is happening research wise at Strathclyde - looks like they are world leaders in the Planning arena - with a number of publications under the belt . . . its actually good to know that your studying with some of the best in this area . . . as I say I was falling asleep though, I am afraid - Maria may fall asleep when she marks my exam paper . . .lol - hope not - although I received the fright of my life when I saw the exam paper on line - which is this weeks practical - we are to complete it and hand it in for marks - I thought I had a cunning plan - work on it during the week and then hand in on Friday - only to hear there will be a different paper on Friday - damn - just when you thought you had it covered.

Designing User systems was interesting - David who was supposed to hand in on Friday - asked for an extension - as he was not finished yet - Nicole handed her portion in - even although David said to keep it back until his was finished - Nicole & I took one look at each other and we said we'd hand that portion in so long - just as well because it turns out David never got round to handing anything in - with the result that we lost 50% of the marks before we even started this week - when I asked if we could hand in still - I was told for feedback but not for marks . . . so myself and Murv (as previously stated Nicole not around) - were not impressed - I have completed the documents that should have been handed in, this evening and will forward it in anyway. Murv built a very fancy prototype of our project using an emulator - which allows you to manipulate a mobile phone on the PC as if it were a fully operational mobile phone and show how our program would work - we have even downloaded it and it works fine on various mobile phones - not mine though because I am with Orange - it won't allow me to just download a file - it needs an authenticated file which tells it what the file is and what it does before it will allow its installation on my phone an added layer of security - Murv says it is a good thing . . ..
Emulator works like this - have a look at link mini Opera . . . so Murv is a clever lad . . .

Seems like may be off tomorrow and Thursday and then Friday last day before a 2 week break - Yippeee! thereafter it will be 2 weeks of classes and then EXAMS . . . Judi & I are booked up for a short break in week in Rome after the exams end of May . . .another Yipppeee! but lots of hard work in between . . everything to be handed in after Easter break so not all holidays I can assure you.

1st Post
Just spent a lovely weekend with Judi in Edinburgh and after having tried the bus - which is soooo much cheaper I still prefer the train - half the time and a lot more comfortable and convenient - not dependant on traffic etc., - whoosh and your there - yes that's whoosh . . .Ok, here's the thing though - I can go online and buy a bus ticket return for £3.50 . . . . just have to let them know exactly which bus your going to use - fair enough only so many budget tickets . . . .the train however is £9.20 yes £9.20 a single and £9.30 yep 10p more for a return - except that I can't buy a return - because its only valid for same day return - personally (these are off-peak times) I don't think £9.30 for a return is unreasonable but I never return on the same day so I have to buy 2 singles = £18.40 . . .now this does my head in because I feel it is a rip-off . . .So what I now do is I always buy a return and give the return portion away to someone when I arrive on the other side . . . . I keep a careful eye on Scotrail staff - I don't ask for anything in return although on Friday last week the guy insisted I take £2 as he was only going to Linlithgow it would have cost him £4 one way . . . .

When I came home on Sunday I waited ages or someone to come along so I could give them the ticket - eventually gave up and left the return part on the machine that you have to buy your ticket from - when I was almost at the other end of the station saw someone rushing towards machine - saw him stop in front of it - glance down - pick the ticket up - look around - then looked at ticket again and walked off towards barrier - he hesitantly inserted the ticket and was probably both relieved and pleased and he was on his way. Mission accomplished.

I intend doing this every time I travel . . . . for the extra 10p someone else saves £9 - that's a bargain . . . I explain to people why I am doing it - and say that if they give me 10p I am not out of pocket - but I don't really want anything.



This week from "What the world knows about South Africa online journal"

Q: Can you give me some information about Koala Bear racing in South Africa? (USA)

A: Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific. A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the Koala Bear racing is every Tuesday night in Hillbrow. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in South Africa? (USA)

A: Face south and then turn 90 degrees. Contact us when you get there and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into South Africa? (UK)

A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Week 2 - make it so . . . the work starts

Well its week two - how goes things with you?

I'm up to my ears with AI; Loads of work and feel a bit let down by fellow team members for DUS and SC proves frustrating . . . need to start the ole Java fingers a going again . . . . IT in Business marks . .

Came across this series of photos by a Dutch lady on web shots which Judi pointed me to - which I thought were really interesting - enjoyed the B&W format as well. The rest of my photos have a Transport theme as we were asked to build up our portfolio for Designing Usable Systems (DUS) All photo's taken in Glasgow, Queen Street, Central, Buchanan Street Bus & Tube stations. And of course John Martyn right at top of page.

On Monday evening - went to watch a long standing musical icon for me - Judi had given me tickets as a Christmas present - he has been going for many years - He was great he performed the Solid Air album - hence the title of his current tour - this album was recorded all fo 25 years ago - and in my opinion has stood the test of time . . . thoroughly enjoyed it . . . could help wonder what he must have been like 10 years ago.

Well as far as studies go - we ease into the week with Artificial Intelligence and I was impressed with Maria's example - Portia and the 3 caskets - each with a slogan and the suitor has to decide which one has the portrait - made it more concrete realistic for me as an example until I tried to formulate the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) out of the whole story - what we did know was that there were 3 messages of which only one could be true - so that was 3 caskets gold, silver and lead each with a message inscribed on it - gold said - 'the portrait is inside' - silver said 'the portrait is not in here' and lead said 'the portrait is not in the gold casket' - Domain: Boolean (True / False); Casket (gold, silver, lead) - - variables: (message - G,S & L [Boolean] and Portrait casket) - have to determine the constraints and then look at Arc consistency and by now you'll be saying enough already - I am - even considered switching subjects - but I am hanging in there and praying that it all starts to make more sense as we go along. Wednesday we looked a the classic 8 queens on a chess board - no queen is allowed to be on same row, column or diagonal - how many variations do you think there are - well actually well over 3m.

Tuesday was designing usable systems - looking at MCSS - a Glasgow based transport information services company which makes travel information available via mobile devices. We are split up into groups - I have Murv; Nicole and David in my group - we spent quite a bit of time discussing things in class but bottom line I left with not too much information but volunteered to collate our information and submit it on Friday - Murv suggested we make use of collaborative Google document - i.e. we could all work on it as we are all in the same group - just means instead of multiple copies of the same file being emailed all over the place - we have a single instance of the document and as long as you have Internet access you can edit the document - it was thought this would save time . . . except very little input was made by the rest of my team members - Murv was on the ball with his scenario; Nicole had not yet purchased the text book so had not prepared anything; David was supposed to upload his scenario but by 23h59 on Thursday evening had still done nothing . . .and I had said I needed to email at about that time - bottom line I ended up writing 4 of the 5 scenario's - creating and copying photo's from the web - even spent quite some time browsing on my mobile phone to see what type of information you could access . . . I emailed our so-called group documentation @ about 02h30 Friday morning and was not impressed - as I say . . . I am enjoying the work though and have to interview a number of people this weekend about their travel habits / preferences etc., - so careful if you bump into me you may have to answer some questions . . . . lol

Other than this Lord Linlithgow gives us Software Construction (my nickname for him) gave us a lecture on Thursday . . . I timed him it took him all of 50 minutes before he started in on the work we were supposed to cover - he spent approximately 35 minutes discussing the lab we might be in and the fact that we would be using Unix machines and he proceeded to go through every Unix command (all command line stuff) he could think of - I had used the lab earlier in the week for Artificial Intelligence so I was aware that it uses a KDE interface which is actually very similar to Windows - intuitively anyway - you didn't need to use commands at all . . . so we got about 10 minutes out of Thursday's lecture - Friday morning was the lab and its amazing how much Java I have forgotten since last year (so long ago - December, when I handed my project in . .) - and also I am no longer allowed to use BlueJ - book and software we were informed to purchase in 1st semester - I was told to migrate to another development tool - we are now using Eclipse - so played around with that just to get the feel and then wrote (borrowed) part of a programme to get a users integer input . . . so plenty to be done / revised here. Straight after this we had a theory class - so once again with his lordship - can't even get the overhead projector to display properly - half the text is on the wall half on the screen . . .this of course, I am convinced, is to use up some of the time - as an inordinate amount of time is spent lining everything up - instead of just moving the table forward so that everything that goes on the overhead projector is on the screen - he never fails to bring at least 2 boxes of slides and goes through an elaborate process of using some from each - today he needed a third box - but that was in his office so he left the class to fetch them - some more time - how much time was actually spent on material - he wanted to cover well I estimate it to be no more than 1/2 an hour . . . an improvement on Thursday and the week before - bearing in mind he has told us that we should be finished the theory by the 6th week - well guess what that is two weeks down and I doubt we have done more than 1 period out of 4 of actual work. All the material covered in class is taken from 2 different courses and different chapters at that . . . . even some special reading for me being an ex-BlueJ user . . .

What else happened this week - IT in Business marks - I somehow managed to get 80% . . .very pleased - Started the ball rolling on Wednesday - formed the Graduate Informatics Society . . .we need 20 members - I have signed about 11 myself thus far - this will enable us to access funds from the university to host various activities - career; alumni; business involvement etc., and some social events . . . Attended a careers session Thursday morning except no one turned up to present it to us . . .lol - organised - who had arranged it the head of our overall course ???? Even had a double booking for the lecture room . . . Oh and I joined the local gym here in Dumbarton - Leisure centre - Judi has encouraged me and I am keen with studies and all to get myself fitter - for better balance and health reasons . . .

That is about it folks . . . more adventures from Strathclyde land next week . . . lol - Haste ye back!






Black and White world