Christmas is fast approaching from all sides. This year, it really does seem to be sneaking up on me. Oh well... I will of course keep you up to date on all the happenings.
Since I got back from Computer Science 2008, I spent Thursday just relaxing around catching up on a few things, Friday organising what I need to get done and then tidying up the house a bit, then playing on EVE before going to watch a movie. Today I woke up late and have spent the morning playing with my younger brothers, Logan and Byron.
All in all, I've had quite a few unproductive days. So hopefully in the next coming week I can actually get some real work done. Anyway, until my next blog post!
Saturday 20 December 2008
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Computer Science 2008 - Day 3
Today was truely driven to research in the field, for everything we visited was trying to drive the field of computing forward. After waking up early once again, and having breakfast, we headed straight to the first talk, that of our chosen industrial challenge related to the future!
Some of these problems include developing technology to support airspace design (the design of airspace to be more efficient and 3D made); modelling airspace change for safety, environment and delay, and whole network modelling and management, among others. They also pointed to SESAR as a major european research group, and the fact that research delivers both business benefits and opportunities, alongside increasing relationships with the universities that are researched with.
The next speech was on industrial research from BT, labelled BT Innovate. BT have 100 years of innovation behind them, the infrastructure to show for it, and the ability to provide numerous services to customers. In fact, BT takes an extremely low proportion of it's profits from the standard telephone numbers, so it is suffice to say that BT is no longer just a telephone service company, but a whole lot more.
The technology that BT offer include the development of fibre optics, which make things go further and faster, and the design of the 21st century network with new service capabililities on one network (a single IP network). As such, BT have migrated to this new network infrastructure to be able to offer more, better. But they still need more improvements. They still want to offer more high value services utilising the ever growing Internet usage over the next few years.
After a short break, we moved on to interdisciplinary research challenges. These include computer use in other sciences (or even beyond sciences) and look at big questions. The different strands are below:
Track A started off with Engineering, which is said to be quite dependent on computing nowadays, in things such as CAD, solar-powered car's, satellites and modelling. We looked at how computers were utilised in real-world engineering environments, and particularly looked into agriculture, or precisely, "precision agriculture". This utilised computer vision (which enables computers to see) and the processing of digital images as signals for decisions, measurements and control. This is useful in agriculture to enable automated robots that are environmentally friendly and can look after, spray and de-weed the crops.
The robot used GIS/GPS to get the vehicle to the field, then would use the camera to locate individual plants. This would then enable real-time navigation and spraying. To detect the plants, a bandwidth detector is used (so dark colours would be the dirt, white colours the plants) and with a bit of processing (such as removing small objects and passing the results through a Kalman filter), the plants and their boundaries can be found and identified. Then, these plants can be checked whether they are weeds or not.
If you are interested more on this technology, you can view the Silsoe Research Institute and also view the Tillet and Hague Technology site (the robot we looked at was the Autonomous Crop Treatment Vehicle, which you can watch a video of there).
The next talk was on nanotechnology. This looked at technology that was being developed at nanometre size. To the layman, a nanometer is the length the fingernail grows in a second. Nanotechnology is the ability to measure and manipulate matter at submicron scales, and is applicable to Moore's Law.
With everything becoming more powerful and yet smaller, heat is an increasing problem. But there is also a problem with physics that can't be worked around. This is due to the limit of the size of atoms. The challenges for nanotechnology are to continue Moore's Law while going around current physical limits and keeping this all within a reasonable price range. This can be done using new devices and fabrication paradigms.
For example, the use of a single atom memory can be done using salts and not silicon, due to the increase in ions. Electronics can also be self-assembled, and the use of bio electronics can come together to help as well (using biological organisms to develop technology at a nanoscopic level). This could also be solved by rewriting software, but with increasingly complex systems this means increasingly complex software.
After lunch, we were presented with the final talk... on Quantum Computing. Unfortunately, I am not very good at mathematics or physics, and so this topic was way over my head. If you are a computer scientist who is interested in mathematics and/or physics and are good at it, then this subject may interest you more. And if you want to understand more on what was presented, then speak to Saqib. He understood it a lot more then most people there!
Before I close off this conference, I would like to provide a few more photo's of various locations around the college that I took at various times. First, a few of the external:
The main building at night
Then, I also took a few of the rooms that were offered to us. This of course is not representative in any way of the entire university rooms, but just gives a small insight into the rooms we stayed in:
A nice bed
The desk in the room (with more shelves going up)
The phone - it's an IP Phone!
En-Suite Bathroom! Each!
Overall, this entire experience has been wonderful! It has been extremely worth attending, and I have not been disappointed by anything presented to me during my time here. It was all completely awesome and fascinating at the same time! To also meet so many wonderful people who are fellow Computer Scientist's in the field (including so many cool professors and businessmen) was an honour indeed. I had a great time and, if asked, would most certainly go again!! Thanks to Goldsmiths College, London, for giving me the oppourtunity to go, and to the conference organisers for such a fabulous conference; you know who you all are! :)
And that's me signing off. Phew!
- Track A: Industrial Challenge Session 1
- Air Traffic Control
- The Changing Face of Industrial Research
- Track B:Industrial Challenge Session 2
- Finance
- Service Oriented Computing
- Track C: Panel - Research Careers
Some of these problems include developing technology to support airspace design (the design of airspace to be more efficient and 3D made); modelling airspace change for safety, environment and delay, and whole network modelling and management, among others. They also pointed to SESAR as a major european research group, and the fact that research delivers both business benefits and opportunities, alongside increasing relationships with the universities that are researched with.
The next speech was on industrial research from BT, labelled BT Innovate. BT have 100 years of innovation behind them, the infrastructure to show for it, and the ability to provide numerous services to customers. In fact, BT takes an extremely low proportion of it's profits from the standard telephone numbers, so it is suffice to say that BT is no longer just a telephone service company, but a whole lot more.
The technology that BT offer include the development of fibre optics, which make things go further and faster, and the design of the 21st century network with new service capabililities on one network (a single IP network). As such, BT have migrated to this new network infrastructure to be able to offer more, better. But they still need more improvements. They still want to offer more high value services utilising the ever growing Internet usage over the next few years.
After a short break, we moved on to interdisciplinary research challenges. These include computer use in other sciences (or even beyond sciences) and look at big questions. The different strands are below:
- Track A
- Engineering
- Nanosystems
- Track B
- Open Data in Science (Cancelled)
- Physics
- Track C
- Biosciences
- Medicine
- Track D
- Psychology
- Humanities
Track A started off with Engineering, which is said to be quite dependent on computing nowadays, in things such as CAD, solar-powered car's, satellites and modelling. We looked at how computers were utilised in real-world engineering environments, and particularly looked into agriculture, or precisely, "precision agriculture". This utilised computer vision (which enables computers to see) and the processing of digital images as signals for decisions, measurements and control. This is useful in agriculture to enable automated robots that are environmentally friendly and can look after, spray and de-weed the crops.
The robot used GIS/GPS to get the vehicle to the field, then would use the camera to locate individual plants. This would then enable real-time navigation and spraying. To detect the plants, a bandwidth detector is used (so dark colours would be the dirt, white colours the plants) and with a bit of processing (such as removing small objects and passing the results through a Kalman filter), the plants and their boundaries can be found and identified. Then, these plants can be checked whether they are weeds or not.
If you are interested more on this technology, you can view the Silsoe Research Institute and also view the Tillet and Hague Technology site (the robot we looked at was the Autonomous Crop Treatment Vehicle, which you can watch a video of there).
The next talk was on nanotechnology. This looked at technology that was being developed at nanometre size. To the layman, a nanometer is the length the fingernail grows in a second. Nanotechnology is the ability to measure and manipulate matter at submicron scales, and is applicable to Moore's Law.
With everything becoming more powerful and yet smaller, heat is an increasing problem. But there is also a problem with physics that can't be worked around. This is due to the limit of the size of atoms. The challenges for nanotechnology are to continue Moore's Law while going around current physical limits and keeping this all within a reasonable price range. This can be done using new devices and fabrication paradigms.
For example, the use of a single atom memory can be done using salts and not silicon, due to the increase in ions. Electronics can also be self-assembled, and the use of bio electronics can come together to help as well (using biological organisms to develop technology at a nanoscopic level). This could also be solved by rewriting software, but with increasingly complex systems this means increasingly complex software.
After lunch, we were presented with the final talk... on Quantum Computing. Unfortunately, I am not very good at mathematics or physics, and so this topic was way over my head. If you are a computer scientist who is interested in mathematics and/or physics and are good at it, then this subject may interest you more. And if you want to understand more on what was presented, then speak to Saqib. He understood it a lot more then most people there!
Before I close off this conference, I would like to provide a few more photo's of various locations around the college that I took at various times. First, a few of the external:
A view from my room
The main building at night
Then, I also took a few of the rooms that were offered to us. This of course is not representative in any way of the entire university rooms, but just gives a small insight into the rooms we stayed in:Our first impression
A nice bed
The desk in the room (with more shelves going up)
The phone - it's an IP Phone!
En-Suite Bathroom! Each!
Overall, this entire experience has been wonderful! It has been extremely worth attending, and I have not been disappointed by anything presented to me during my time here. It was all completely awesome and fascinating at the same time! To also meet so many wonderful people who are fellow Computer Scientist's in the field (including so many cool professors and businessmen) was an honour indeed. I had a great time and, if asked, would most certainly go again!! Thanks to Goldsmiths College, London, for giving me the oppourtunity to go, and to the conference organisers for such a fabulous conference; you know who you all are! :)
And that's me signing off. Phew!
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Computer Science 2008 - Day 2
I woke up at around 7:15 this morning, having set a few alarms to wake me up then. Breakfast was in the great hall, and was a nice buffet of stuff (pastries, and the full English breakfast). By 9am, we were all back in the auditorium for today's first speech on procrastination, called The Power of Procrastination. This was spoken to us by Jorge Cham, who is the same guy who has created the comic Piled Higher and Deeper.
The speech itself was extremely funny and well put together, and utilised Jorge's comic strip character's. All I will say regarding the speech is that procrastination is not like laziness. Laziness is not doing the things you have to do; where as procrastination is not doing the things we have to do, now! For the rest of the speech though, you really need the wit and charm of Jorge himself.
Next up was the first set of mini tutorials for that day. We had a wide range of different tutorials on offer, as listed below:
The systems themselves should change/update their behaviour dynamically in response to changes, without a human's aid. Such as self-configuring themselves, self-healing and self-tuning. This would follow the basic architecture of Collect -> Analyse -> Decide -> Act -- Feedback Loop (although this was the early model and later models compressed this into Controller, Sequencer and Deliberator) with the three-layer architecture model.
There were a few examples with the cat and mouse game (where the cat and mouse can't be in the same room, and the controller must manage this without human intervention) and the Koala example (with a robot that had to take a ball from one location to another). This really was a most fascinating and enjoyable tutorial; creating a networked community of self-autonomous robot's (even virtual robots) would be so enjoyable!
After lunch, we got another wide multiple choice, this time in a group of workshops:
Basically, Google works off decades of Computer Science research, most of which is intertwined with engineering. The user's view of Google is to organise the world's information to make it more accessible and organisable. However, there are large design challenges for that, including the vast scale, huge data growth, wide geographical distribution and the huge latency challenge that Google has set themselves (getting search results and the like delivered to the user "in a blink of an eye".
Google has a vast number of highly efficient servers in highly efficent data centres (they use huge water cooling). These data centres (which are actually warehouse-scale computers) off extremely fast responses and are highly managed. Google is extremely efficient in whatever they do; trying to keep waste to a minimum and recycling all waste they produce.
They also have fast moving applications, good OS System design (using Linux), loosely-coupled distributed systems, distributed data storage, processing and interpretation, and use a wide variety of programming languages (including but not limited to, C++, Java, Python and Javascript). But it's the way they do software development that fascinates me...
They have small teams that use an agile "launch and iterate" philosophy (that is launch internally). Once a product is launched, any engineer across the entire codebase (that is any engineer in Google!) can work on the code. This may seem completely chaotic, as with people working in small teams all editing each other's work, there are going to be variations; but there are strict style guides (and I mean strict) with automated code tests and constant code reviews. Engineers are also given the tools they want. If you want Eclipse, sure! If you prefer Notepad++, sure!
Overall, Google has an integrated tech platform and offers tools on high-quality output with continous agile improvement methodologies. Fantastic! There are also a lot of open research issues within Google; improving distributed systems and information extraction being two (contact me for a full list).
After a short break (Google sort of overran a little) we had our second half of mini tutorials, out of:
Virtual environments are where you movements are tracked and the display and audio are changed along with you. The kit is often also voice activated. A few examples of virtual environments include Twinity, Neer and of course, Second Life.
However, they also offer some virtual tools, such as the historic Nintendo series (the Nintendo VirtualBoy, the Nintendo Power Glove, the Nintendo Wii).
However, the research tools used were the UCL ReaCTor, a Virtual Reality (VR) "Cave" system. This system is used because head-mounted displays often cause motion sickness due to high latency (ie, you move your head quickly, and the display updates too slowly, seconds afterwards). This is due to the primitive OS and the low screen refresh rate.
By using the Caves, people are able to immerse themselves more fully in a VR system. This provides a tool, a high-bandwidth human-computer interface, it exploits proprioception and participants treat VR differently from desktop graphics. This is evident from the fact that users behave as if VR was real. As such, reactions are usually appropriate for the situation (they treat virtual characters as real people, react to explosions and projectiles, and also to large drops).
The avatars themselves obviously make an important part in the creation of VR systems; the more realistic they look, the more realistic people expect them to behave, and therefore the less believable they are if they don't behave that realistically at all (if they look realistic that is). Therefore, if you have a stupid AI, make it cartoony and it's more believable.
I'll finish off once again with information on the dinner. We went to Girton College, a 5-10 minute drive from Homerton College. The Gala dinner was officially sponsored by Microsoft Research, and it was very nice of them to do so. At Girton, we entered a nice hall and was offered a Christmassy lunch. To start was pumpkin soup. There was turkey, with sausage wrapped in bacon, and veg. And for desert, was homemade christmas pudding, followed by coffee and tea.
As can be seen by the pictures, we all had lots of fun blowing up balloons (presented in little christmas boxes along with poppers, tape and a horn) and then letting them go to whizz around the room making noise! Overall, a fun evening to end another amazing day at this wonderful conference!
The speech itself was extremely funny and well put together, and utilised Jorge's comic strip character's. All I will say regarding the speech is that procrastination is not like laziness. Laziness is not doing the things you have to do; where as procrastination is not doing the things we have to do, now! For the rest of the speech though, you really need the wit and charm of Jorge himself.
Next up was the first set of mini tutorials for that day. We had a wide range of different tutorials on offer, as listed below:
- Track A - Natural Language Processing and Text Mining (Cancelled)
- Track B - Self-Adaptive Systems (Creating systems that manage themselves)
- Track C - Designing Technology for Human Values (Human-Computer Interaction)
- Track D - Realistic Imagery (Cancelled)
- Track E - Web Science (from Wendy Hall, who has worked with Tim Berners-Lee himself, on how we can't predict how the web will grow)
- Track F - Computer Vision (Microsoft Research on Graphics and Maths)
- Track G - Design for the Future Internet (BT Research on the new technology for the future of the Internet)
The systems themselves should change/update their behaviour dynamically in response to changes, without a human's aid. Such as self-configuring themselves, self-healing and self-tuning. This would follow the basic architecture of Collect -> Analyse -> Decide -> Act -- Feedback Loop (although this was the early model and later models compressed this into Controller, Sequencer and Deliberator) with the three-layer architecture model.
There were a few examples with the cat and mouse game (where the cat and mouse can't be in the same room, and the controller must manage this without human intervention) and the Koala example (with a robot that had to take a ball from one location to another). This really was a most fascinating and enjoyable tutorial; creating a networked community of self-autonomous robot's (even virtual robots) would be so enjoyable!
After lunch, we got another wide multiple choice, this time in a group of workshops:
- Track A: Tech Briefing: Infrastructure at Google
- Track B: Research Methods
- Track C: Intellectual Property
- Track D: Changing the World
- Track E: Getting your Paper Published in Journals
- Track F: Digital Divide
- Track G: Future of Science Publishing
Basically, Google works off decades of Computer Science research, most of which is intertwined with engineering. The user's view of Google is to organise the world's information to make it more accessible and organisable. However, there are large design challenges for that, including the vast scale, huge data growth, wide geographical distribution and the huge latency challenge that Google has set themselves (getting search results and the like delivered to the user "in a blink of an eye".
Google has a vast number of highly efficient servers in highly efficent data centres (they use huge water cooling). These data centres (which are actually warehouse-scale computers) off extremely fast responses and are highly managed. Google is extremely efficient in whatever they do; trying to keep waste to a minimum and recycling all waste they produce.
They also have fast moving applications, good OS System design (using Linux), loosely-coupled distributed systems, distributed data storage, processing and interpretation, and use a wide variety of programming languages (including but not limited to, C++, Java, Python and Javascript). But it's the way they do software development that fascinates me...
They have small teams that use an agile "launch and iterate" philosophy (that is launch internally). Once a product is launched, any engineer across the entire codebase (that is any engineer in Google!) can work on the code. This may seem completely chaotic, as with people working in small teams all editing each other's work, there are going to be variations; but there are strict style guides (and I mean strict) with automated code tests and constant code reviews. Engineers are also given the tools they want. If you want Eclipse, sure! If you prefer Notepad++, sure!
Overall, Google has an integrated tech platform and offers tools on high-quality output with continous agile improvement methodologies. Fantastic! There are also a lot of open research issues within Google; improving distributed systems and information extraction being two (contact me for a full list).
After a short break (Google sort of overran a little) we had our second half of mini tutorials, out of:
- Track A: Interaction Design
- Track B: Immersive Environments
- Track C: Programming Language Semantics
- Track D: AI for the Web
- Track E: Sensor Nets
- Track F: Computer Gaming
- Track G: Human-Centred and Affective Computing
Virtual environments are where you movements are tracked and the display and audio are changed along with you. The kit is often also voice activated. A few examples of virtual environments include Twinity, Neer and of course, Second Life.
However, they also offer some virtual tools, such as the historic Nintendo series (the Nintendo VirtualBoy, the Nintendo Power Glove, the Nintendo Wii).
However, the research tools used were the UCL ReaCTor, a Virtual Reality (VR) "Cave" system. This system is used because head-mounted displays often cause motion sickness due to high latency (ie, you move your head quickly, and the display updates too slowly, seconds afterwards). This is due to the primitive OS and the low screen refresh rate.
By using the Caves, people are able to immerse themselves more fully in a VR system. This provides a tool, a high-bandwidth human-computer interface, it exploits proprioception and participants treat VR differently from desktop graphics. This is evident from the fact that users behave as if VR was real. As such, reactions are usually appropriate for the situation (they treat virtual characters as real people, react to explosions and projectiles, and also to large drops).
The avatars themselves obviously make an important part in the creation of VR systems; the more realistic they look, the more realistic people expect them to behave, and therefore the less believable they are if they don't behave that realistically at all (if they look realistic that is). Therefore, if you have a stupid AI, make it cartoony and it's more believable.
I'll finish off once again with information on the dinner. We went to Girton College, a 5-10 minute drive from Homerton College. The Gala dinner was officially sponsored by Microsoft Research, and it was very nice of them to do so. At Girton, we entered a nice hall and was offered a Christmassy lunch. To start was pumpkin soup. There was turkey, with sausage wrapped in bacon, and veg. And for desert, was homemade christmas pudding, followed by coffee and tea.
As can be seen by the pictures, we all had lots of fun blowing up balloons (presented in little christmas boxes along with poppers, tape and a horn) and then letting them go to whizz around the room making noise! Overall, a fun evening to end another amazing day at this wonderful conference!
Monday 15 December 2008
Computer Science 2008 - Day 1
Heya all! So, here is my blog post on the Computer Science 2008 conference I am attending in Homerton College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge. You can see more on this on the Facebook page, or on the official website, including a list of all the major sponsors that sponsor the event.
It took Saqib and I about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to Cambridge. When we arrived, we were registered and given a badge registering our name, and our College name (Goldsmiths). Before we proceeded to hand in our bags to the Porter, we got given another bag (provided by Microsoft Research) filled with wonderful goodies. The images shown here only show some of what was being offered to us.
Oh, and the small things in the image on the left, from left to right, are mints (which Saqib didn't get), two usb sticks, a calculator, and a funky notebook from Google with the front page being a representation of Google Earth zooming in on what is (supposedly) Google's headquarters. Simply awesome!
Then we had the introductory speech. The conference was stated to "open doors to research", with many opportunities for research being offered. This was clearly so as the conference is being hosted by the UK CRC (UK Computer Research Committee).
The keynote speech for today was on Security Messages, and it was given by Lorrie Faith Cranor from Carnegie Mellon University, all the way in the US!! It was a fantastic speech that covered how approximately 64% of all people ignore most of the warnings they are shown, how this is, and what we can do to improve on it.
Most people ignore warnings because they don't understand what they mean, or what to do about them, or they are too similar to each other. As such, most security breaches are due to human error. Therefore, there is a significant human threat to security from not only malicious humans, but also unmotivated or incapable humans.
A "human-in-the-loop" framework was presented, which listed ways for communication to be effectively. This leads to the human threat identification and mitigation process, a way of identifying a task, automating it as much as possible, and then finding out when that task as failed and mitigating any failures as much as possible. By automating as much as possible, and improving warnings, people should pay more attention to the less frequent warning messages that are shown.
To find out more about this subject, visit the offical CUPS website.
After a lunch break came the Grand Challenges. There were 9 Grand Challenges overall in Computer Science, and you can find out more about them by viewing the PDFs available here (although they miss out GC8 which is Learning for Life (how to use technology to help us learn) and GC9 which is Bringing the Past for the Citizen (using technology to review the past)).
We picked two of the Grand Challenge's to look at, and the two we saw was GC6 (Dependable Systems Evolution) and GC9 (Bringing the Past to Life for the Citizen).
GC6, hosted by John Fitzgerald from the University of Newcastle, was all about using automated verification to deliver warrantable software; that is, software that we can trust not to continually give us blue screen's of death. This is down by producing design languages that can be rigorously analysed by humans and by machines, and having formal methods that offer in "hidden" push-button tools that perform these analyses.
For example, Microsoft's Device Driver Verification, as device drivers caused 85% of Windows XP crashes. Doing this helped improve the stability immensely. Another case is the Pacemaker challenge, making complex software that is guaranteed to work in a cardiac pacemaker.
By using formal methods to verify software, it offers a larger stage in design and less testing and bug fixing. The area is wide open, and if you are interested in this area of expertise I have contact information.
GC9, hosted by David Arnold from the University of Brighton, was all about reconstructing the past using technology. It was designed to be a cross between Time Team, Laura Croft and the European Digital Library. Among offering both economic and social benefits, it would enable architect's, historians and archaeologists to work together to show off history.
There were different ways to communicate this history. Through Avatars, Bluescreens, an RFID game, and a virtual reality overlay. There is also a lot to do in this challenge; the sheer scale of data capture as everyone has their own cultural heritage, views and interpretations; there is the simulation vs artificial life; there are digitalisation issues; semantics issues (what to record and what are their significance); how to tell the stories of the past; using images to tell stories; and the challenges of using legacy data.
The final talk was on the Rough Guide to Entrepreneurship. It was hosted by Jack Lang, an entrepreneur from Cambridge. He stated that an entrepreneur is someone who starts a project without having the full resources or knowledge. There are many reasons to become an entrepreneur, either because you can see an opportunity, because you have a good idea, or simply because you just can. You must obviously know why you are doing it, and that will be either for fun or profit.
Now is a good time to start, because everyone is providing the money and support to get you (and the rest of the economy) started. There are also a lot of eager people out there to help you, the Government included, and of course if you can "dare to begin" then there is the adventure. You do need to have a good investor criteria (if you are going to get someone to invest in you), and for that you need to know your market, your technical advantages, your people and the finance available to you (with the market being the most important criteria for high-tech... who needs a fooglefarg?) Oh, and by clicking that link, you can see the slide notes for this lecture.
Finally, I just want to bring you up to date on what happened over dinner (the welcome dinner and icebreaker). The dinner was lamb (lovely!) with potato, carrots and broccoli in a candlelit (quite dark) atmosphere. Desert was chocolate orange tart. Then, things began to light up for the icebreaker, which was none other then Caribbean drum kits!
And yes, we played the drums!
It is hard to summarise the four lectures (and the evening) we had today in a simple blog post, but I hope I did my best in trying to give you a taster of exactly what we experienced. It truly is an amazing conference and I am once again honoured to be part of it. More pictures and information to come in the future blog posts!! Until next time :)
It took Saqib and I about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to Cambridge. When we arrived, we were registered and given a badge registering our name, and our College name (Goldsmiths). Before we proceeded to hand in our bags to the Porter, we got given another bag (provided by Microsoft Research) filled with wonderful goodies. The images shown here only show some of what was being offered to us.
Oh, and the small things in the image on the left, from left to right, are mints (which Saqib didn't get), two usb sticks, a calculator, and a funky notebook from Google with the front page being a representation of Google Earth zooming in on what is (supposedly) Google's headquarters. Simply awesome!
Then we had the introductory speech. The conference was stated to "open doors to research", with many opportunities for research being offered. This was clearly so as the conference is being hosted by the UK CRC (UK Computer Research Committee).
The keynote speech for today was on Security Messages, and it was given by Lorrie Faith Cranor from Carnegie Mellon University, all the way in the US!! It was a fantastic speech that covered how approximately 64% of all people ignore most of the warnings they are shown, how this is, and what we can do to improve on it.
Most people ignore warnings because they don't understand what they mean, or what to do about them, or they are too similar to each other. As such, most security breaches are due to human error. Therefore, there is a significant human threat to security from not only malicious humans, but also unmotivated or incapable humans.A "human-in-the-loop" framework was presented, which listed ways for communication to be effectively. This leads to the human threat identification and mitigation process, a way of identifying a task, automating it as much as possible, and then finding out when that task as failed and mitigating any failures as much as possible. By automating as much as possible, and improving warnings, people should pay more attention to the less frequent warning messages that are shown.
To find out more about this subject, visit the offical CUPS website.
After a lunch break came the Grand Challenges. There were 9 Grand Challenges overall in Computer Science, and you can find out more about them by viewing the PDFs available here (although they miss out GC8 which is Learning for Life (how to use technology to help us learn) and GC9 which is Bringing the Past for the Citizen (using technology to review the past)).
We picked two of the Grand Challenge's to look at, and the two we saw was GC6 (Dependable Systems Evolution) and GC9 (Bringing the Past to Life for the Citizen).
GC6, hosted by John Fitzgerald from the University of Newcastle, was all about using automated verification to deliver warrantable software; that is, software that we can trust not to continually give us blue screen's of death. This is down by producing design languages that can be rigorously analysed by humans and by machines, and having formal methods that offer in "hidden" push-button tools that perform these analyses.
For example, Microsoft's Device Driver Verification, as device drivers caused 85% of Windows XP crashes. Doing this helped improve the stability immensely. Another case is the Pacemaker challenge, making complex software that is guaranteed to work in a cardiac pacemaker.
By using formal methods to verify software, it offers a larger stage in design and less testing and bug fixing. The area is wide open, and if you are interested in this area of expertise I have contact information.
GC9, hosted by David Arnold from the University of Brighton, was all about reconstructing the past using technology. It was designed to be a cross between Time Team, Laura Croft and the European Digital Library. Among offering both economic and social benefits, it would enable architect's, historians and archaeologists to work together to show off history.
There were different ways to communicate this history. Through Avatars, Bluescreens, an RFID game, and a virtual reality overlay. There is also a lot to do in this challenge; the sheer scale of data capture as everyone has their own cultural heritage, views and interpretations; there is the simulation vs artificial life; there are digitalisation issues; semantics issues (what to record and what are their significance); how to tell the stories of the past; using images to tell stories; and the challenges of using legacy data.
The final talk was on the Rough Guide to Entrepreneurship. It was hosted by Jack Lang, an entrepreneur from Cambridge. He stated that an entrepreneur is someone who starts a project without having the full resources or knowledge. There are many reasons to become an entrepreneur, either because you can see an opportunity, because you have a good idea, or simply because you just can. You must obviously know why you are doing it, and that will be either for fun or profit.
Now is a good time to start, because everyone is providing the money and support to get you (and the rest of the economy) started. There are also a lot of eager people out there to help you, the Government included, and of course if you can "dare to begin" then there is the adventure. You do need to have a good investor criteria (if you are going to get someone to invest in you), and for that you need to know your market, your technical advantages, your people and the finance available to you (with the market being the most important criteria for high-tech... who needs a fooglefarg?) Oh, and by clicking that link, you can see the slide notes for this lecture.
Finally, I just want to bring you up to date on what happened over dinner (the welcome dinner and icebreaker). The dinner was lamb (lovely!) with potato, carrots and broccoli in a candlelit (quite dark) atmosphere. Desert was chocolate orange tart. Then, things began to light up for the icebreaker, which was none other then Caribbean drum kits!
And yes, we played the drums!
It is hard to summarise the four lectures (and the evening) we had today in a simple blog post, but I hope I did my best in trying to give you a taster of exactly what we experienced. It truly is an amazing conference and I am once again honoured to be part of it. More pictures and information to come in the future blog posts!! Until next time :)
Sunday 14 December 2008
Computer Science 2008
Right, it's extremely late and I don't have much time, so I am just writing a short blog entry this week to say that I will be attending Computer Science 2008 conference in Cambridge from tomorrow. I will of course be keeping you all up to date, both via Twitter and this blog.
If I know you, and you wish to access my protected Twitter stream, and you have a Twitter account, then look me up by visiting my Twitter feed (see link on right). If not, don't worry as I will be posting nightly posts on this blog with updates on all that has happened.
Right, night all!
If I know you, and you wish to access my protected Twitter stream, and you have a Twitter account, then look me up by visiting my Twitter feed (see link on right). If not, don't worry as I will be posting nightly posts on this blog with updates on all that has happened.
Right, night all!
Thursday 11 December 2008
Twitter is now Protected
Just a quick note to let everyone know that my Twitter account is now protected. What that means is, if you want to view my Twitter updates, you have to have your own Twitter account and you have to be a known friend. If you match those two statements, then speak to me :)
Sunday 7 December 2008
Have a Happy Twittery Holiday!
Welcome to December! Another year almost up, another year looming on the other side, another year older. Time seems to pass so fast!
Sorry I haven't updated for two weeks, but last weekend (and this one just past) I was quite busy doing other stuff. Suffice to say I haven't had the time. However... I have found a wonderful new way to keep you all informed during my long absences of blogging!
Twitter!
"What is twitter?", you may ask, and a good question too! Twitter is a service that lets me update what I am up to as easily as sending a free text message. This will allow you to keep up to what I really am up to, rather then relying on my sketchy blog posts.
Anyway, to summarise these past two weeks, I'll simply talk about what I can remember... which is only stuff from the past week it seems (especially considering the hour I am writing this blog post at). To start with, this past week has seen me working on both my Design report for my project, my Logic assignment, and an E-Commerce assignment, at Uni. I have also been doing various things for the companies I work for.
On Friday, we hosted a surprise party for my brother Andrew, to celebrate that he turned 18 in early November. Quite a few of his friends turned up, and we had a nice dinner followed by a late evening. Then the past two days have been spent finishing off both my E-Commerce and Design report assignments; luckily both have been completed for now!
In the future, I am going to Computer Science 2008 from the 15th-17th of December, up in Cambridge University. Looks to be a good programme of entertaining computer science stuff. Really looking forward to it and going to be sure to keep you all updated with extremely regular Twitter and Blog posts, complete with photos!
I also break up this Friday. So this is my last week at Uni before the Christmas holidays really start. And you can see my personal countdown to Christmas day over on the right (under my Twitter Updates section).
Right! I will finish this post by wishing you all a Happy Twittery Holiday!! Yeehar!! :)
Sorry I haven't updated for two weeks, but last weekend (and this one just past) I was quite busy doing other stuff. Suffice to say I haven't had the time. However... I have found a wonderful new way to keep you all informed during my long absences of blogging!
Twitter!
"What is twitter?", you may ask, and a good question too! Twitter is a service that lets me update what I am up to as easily as sending a free text message. This will allow you to keep up to what I really am up to, rather then relying on my sketchy blog posts.
Anyway, to summarise these past two weeks, I'll simply talk about what I can remember... which is only stuff from the past week it seems (especially considering the hour I am writing this blog post at). To start with, this past week has seen me working on both my Design report for my project, my Logic assignment, and an E-Commerce assignment, at Uni. I have also been doing various things for the companies I work for.
On Friday, we hosted a surprise party for my brother Andrew, to celebrate that he turned 18 in early November. Quite a few of his friends turned up, and we had a nice dinner followed by a late evening. Then the past two days have been spent finishing off both my E-Commerce and Design report assignments; luckily both have been completed for now!
In the future, I am going to Computer Science 2008 from the 15th-17th of December, up in Cambridge University. Looks to be a good programme of entertaining computer science stuff. Really looking forward to it and going to be sure to keep you all updated with extremely regular Twitter and Blog posts, complete with photos!
I also break up this Friday. So this is my last week at Uni before the Christmas holidays really start. And you can see my personal countdown to Christmas day over on the right (under my Twitter Updates section).
Right! I will finish this post by wishing you all a Happy Twittery Holiday!! Yeehar!! :)
Sunday 23 November 2008
Mirages
So, what have I been getting up to in the past week? Well... at Uni, we've been getting on with learning again, except in my project where we have switched to designing the system. We've got a few assignments back and will continue to get them back this week as well. I've also been given a bursary which will allow me to go to Cambridge for a research conference labelled "Computer Science 2008" sometime in December.
I've also been working on various projects outside of Uni, a few for a couple of companies I work for. This has helped, as always, to provide me with real-life work experience which works alongside my University's given work; allowing me to strengthen each side with the other.
In EVE Online, I recently decided to purchase a GTC and sell it for in-game ISK (the games currency), making me richer then I could ever imagine being. Now I need to sit down and plot... after all, in EVE, you really can do anything if you have the means to do it.
I've also been watching Robin Hood, the BBC's recent version, Series 2. It's getting quite interesting with a lot of twists and turns in the story. And I've just finished off a book series called "The Mirage Makers". The book series follows quite an adult storyline and at times was quite depressing, but I read it all and witnessed the triumphant conclusion which really does make it all worthwhile. It is based in a fantasy world where an evil empire rules and tries to take over the world, and the fantastic path of how one person and her son can change the course of everything. Fantastic read! (Which is why the title is what it is)
Finally, I'll finish off this blog post by saying that I've got App Store mad! That's right... I just love to spend a few hours browsing the App Store for new and exciting applications that I could install on my iPhone. Perhaps one of these days I'll get my website into order and get it so I can show you some of these things!
Until next week then!
I've also been working on various projects outside of Uni, a few for a couple of companies I work for. This has helped, as always, to provide me with real-life work experience which works alongside my University's given work; allowing me to strengthen each side with the other.
In EVE Online, I recently decided to purchase a GTC and sell it for in-game ISK (the games currency), making me richer then I could ever imagine being. Now I need to sit down and plot... after all, in EVE, you really can do anything if you have the means to do it.
I've also been watching Robin Hood, the BBC's recent version, Series 2. It's getting quite interesting with a lot of twists and turns in the story. And I've just finished off a book series called "The Mirage Makers". The book series follows quite an adult storyline and at times was quite depressing, but I read it all and witnessed the triumphant conclusion which really does make it all worthwhile. It is based in a fantasy world where an evil empire rules and tries to take over the world, and the fantastic path of how one person and her son can change the course of everything. Fantastic read! (Which is why the title is what it is)
Finally, I'll finish off this blog post by saying that I've got App Store mad! That's right... I just love to spend a few hours browsing the App Store for new and exciting applications that I could install on my iPhone. Perhaps one of these days I'll get my website into order and get it so I can show you some of these things!
Until next week then!
Sunday 16 November 2008
A Fresh Start
Hello everyone!
Through my wonderful use of OmniFocus, the great tool for both my Mac and iPhone that I'm starting to use more and more to keep track of things, I am planning to update my blog on a far more regular (weekly) basis, and hearby name Friday "Blog Day". I will use the evening on Friday for posting a blog entry representing the past week.
I will also be looking into updating my website as there are various parts of my website that are really out of date. I've just been so busy doing other things that I haven't had the time. Especially with my third year at uni, and all the other projects going on in the sidelines.
Finally, I may very well be posting up more pictures like the one I did on the 1st November. That was a great game!
Anyway, let's move off what I plan to do and move into what I have done. Well, the last few weeks have been the busiest weeks possible at University. This was because it was assignment season. I had four projects I had to do, one for each of my courses; and some of them were quite difficult. I should be getting my results for each of them over the next coming weeks.
I'm also getting back into finding time for EVE Online. I plan to get up to 65 mil on the game and then finish off my trading spree. I also intend to revamp the Media Center, not that anyone uses it mind; and that includes replacing the video tutorials with written tutorials (and screenshots) at some point.
Well, I am going to finish there. So until next week, have a good time!
Through my wonderful use of OmniFocus, the great tool for both my Mac and iPhone that I'm starting to use more and more to keep track of things, I am planning to update my blog on a far more regular (weekly) basis, and hearby name Friday "Blog Day". I will use the evening on Friday for posting a blog entry representing the past week.
I will also be looking into updating my website as there are various parts of my website that are really out of date. I've just been so busy doing other things that I haven't had the time. Especially with my third year at uni, and all the other projects going on in the sidelines.
Finally, I may very well be posting up more pictures like the one I did on the 1st November. That was a great game!
Anyway, let's move off what I plan to do and move into what I have done. Well, the last few weeks have been the busiest weeks possible at University. This was because it was assignment season. I had four projects I had to do, one for each of my courses; and some of them were quite difficult. I should be getting my results for each of them over the next coming weeks.
I'm also getting back into finding time for EVE Online. I plan to get up to 65 mil on the game and then finish off my trading spree. I also intend to revamp the Media Center, not that anyone uses it mind; and that includes replacing the video tutorials with written tutorials (and screenshots) at some point.
Well, I am going to finish there. So until next week, have a good time!
Saturday 1 November 2008
Saturday 11 October 2008
My New Gaming Rig
Heya all!! Just want to bring you up with the latest development from my life: my new Gaming Desktop!! Here are the specs and pictures of my latest and greatest (nicknamed jDiablo)!
Case: NZXT Lexa (Black)
[1st and 2nd pictures]
Hard Disk Drive: 500GB Caviar SE16 SATA 300
Memory: 2GB Corsair DDR2 800MHz C5 TwinX
Graphics Card: BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB PCI Express
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 550W
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Golden Orb Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock P43Twins1600 Socket 775
Optical Drive: BTC DVD-Rom x16
Speakers: Nimzy Vibro Max [5th picture]
Headset: Advent PC Headset
Monitor: Samsung - Syncmaster 226CW - (LS22MEXSFV) 22'' [7th and 9th Pictures]
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse Gaming Keyboard [3rd Picture]
Mouse: Razer Deathadder, with Kensington Duo Gel Wave Mouse Wristrest Black/Blue [4th Picture]
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home
EVE Online: Already installed! [Last Picture]
Case: NZXT Lexa (Black)
[1st and 2nd pictures]
Hard Disk Drive: 500GB Caviar SE16 SATA 300
Memory: 2GB Corsair DDR2 800MHz C5 TwinX
Graphics Card: BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB PCI ExpressPower Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 550W
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Golden Orb Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock P43Twins1600 Socket 775
Optical Drive: BTC DVD-Rom x16
Speakers: Nimzy Vibro Max [5th picture]
Headset: Advent PC Headset
Monitor: Samsung - Syncmaster 226CW - (LS22MEXSFV) 22'' [7th and 9th Pictures]
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse Gaming Keyboard [3rd Picture]
Mouse: Razer Deathadder, with Kensington Duo Gel Wave Mouse Wristrest Black/Blue [4th Picture]
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home
EVE Online: Already installed! [Last Picture]
Friday 26 September 2008
Back at University
For my third year! Once again, I will be studying the sacred art of Internet Computing; working out how to make programs that can run successfully over a Wide Area Network; how businesses use these programs to further their own means; and how a good clear, clean-cut user interface benefits everyone in the end.
The third year is full of surprises! Not only do we have our third year project, which we are asked to spend no less then ten hours a week on, but we also have to choose four of our subjects out of a list. So I will of course be thinking a lot over the next week as to what subjects I am going to take.
As for concentrating my next blog post on my holiday... I have recently looked over my very descriptive review of Valencia and decided I am unable to meet that at all. Therefore, I am hoping for better success in my next holidays. Perhaps then I might actually right a diary instead of ignoring it!
Anyway, moving back to the present, I want to point out that following the complete and utter failure of my Sony Vaio's motherboard, I am dumping Sony and going for a Desktop computer. It should arrive within the next few weeks and then I'll post screenies and info on it and all it's glory! It will be grand!! More on that to come.
For now though, I've not got much else to say. Hopefully this year at Uni will be just as successful as the previous years!!
The third year is full of surprises! Not only do we have our third year project, which we are asked to spend no less then ten hours a week on, but we also have to choose four of our subjects out of a list. So I will of course be thinking a lot over the next week as to what subjects I am going to take.
As for concentrating my next blog post on my holiday... I have recently looked over my very descriptive review of Valencia and decided I am unable to meet that at all. Therefore, I am hoping for better success in my next holidays. Perhaps then I might actually right a diary instead of ignoring it!
Anyway, moving back to the present, I want to point out that following the complete and utter failure of my Sony Vaio's motherboard, I am dumping Sony and going for a Desktop computer. It should arrive within the next few weeks and then I'll post screenies and info on it and all it's glory! It will be grand!! More on that to come.
For now though, I've not got much else to say. Hopefully this year at Uni will be just as successful as the previous years!!
Friday 5 September 2008
Website Into PHP
Just a quick blog post to announce my Jarada Productions website's move into PHP! Not only does this mean that my entire website has entered the wonderful world of Object Oriented gooiness, it also means that it will make editing my website a whole lot easier and more fun! So look out for increased updates to my website in the near future!
I've also introduced a reCaptcha on my contact page which will help push off any spam email that some people have been sending my way. I only want real people getting in contact with me who actually want to speak some sense...
Anyhow, that's it for now. Speak to you soon!
I've also introduced a reCaptcha on my contact page which will help push off any spam email that some people have been sending my way. I only want real people getting in contact with me who actually want to speak some sense...
Anyhow, that's it for now. Speak to you soon!
Thursday 4 September 2008
Into September
OK, so the thing about that offline diary I said in my last blog post... is that we were actually very, very busy. I didn't really get very much time off at all, far too little to write a diary. So for now, I think I will simply get round to posting a one-post review of my holiday, and posting up some pictures of it all.
Anyway, since I've got back I've been quite busy doing quite a few other things, including sorting out a replacement for my iPhone (which I stupidly and accidentally dropped in a lake in Disneyland Paris off the top of a boat), trying to fix my Sony Vaio (which has decided it doesn't like working anymore and has gone on strike), and catching up with various online websites which I neglected over the holiday (such as this one).
That said, at the time of writing, I only have around 17 days left until the end of my holiday. You can see the countdown timer on my main blog page to the right; it's slowly counting down to zero! As such, I have been preparing vigoursly to ensure that I am ready for my Uni when that day comes. I will need to re-enrol, and have my project analysed and informally designed. I know what it's going to contain now at least, it's just getting that down from the disorganised mess in my brain to an organised list on some paper somewhere (be that electronic or otherwise).
I am of course hoping (still) to get into far more regular posting, and to that degree I will be looking for an iPhone-based app or similar in order to allow me to think up blog posts while I am on the move. This will hopefully provide me with a platform from which I can create these blog posts while I am on the train to and from Uni, for example.
Anyway, I will leave this blog for now so I can concentrate my next blog post on my holiday to Paris/Barcelona that I have just gone past. So, until then!
Anyway, since I've got back I've been quite busy doing quite a few other things, including sorting out a replacement for my iPhone (which I stupidly and accidentally dropped in a lake in Disneyland Paris off the top of a boat), trying to fix my Sony Vaio (which has decided it doesn't like working anymore and has gone on strike), and catching up with various online websites which I neglected over the holiday (such as this one).
That said, at the time of writing, I only have around 17 days left until the end of my holiday. You can see the countdown timer on my main blog page to the right; it's slowly counting down to zero! As such, I have been preparing vigoursly to ensure that I am ready for my Uni when that day comes. I will need to re-enrol, and have my project analysed and informally designed. I know what it's going to contain now at least, it's just getting that down from the disorganised mess in my brain to an organised list on some paper somewhere (be that electronic or otherwise).
I am of course hoping (still) to get into far more regular posting, and to that degree I will be looking for an iPhone-based app or similar in order to allow me to think up blog posts while I am on the move. This will hopefully provide me with a platform from which I can create these blog posts while I am on the train to and from Uni, for example.
Anyway, I will leave this blog for now so I can concentrate my next blog post on my holiday to Paris/Barcelona that I have just gone past. So, until then!
Wednesday 13 August 2008
Into August
Right! Time to post a catchup on a few things I hadn't got round to posting about yet. Once again! Well you should all know by now that I am probably one of the web's most irregular posters...
Birthday Weekend
Hehe, anyway, my birthday weekend sometime ago started on Friday 25th July. My birthday was littered with preparing for Saturday, which I shall explain about shortly, but we did take some time out to provide me with a selection of presents, most noteworthy being quite a lot of PSP-based games. I was also promised a new iPhone, although O2 stocks were low and so I was unable to get one on the day.
Saturday was our Jarrett Family's Summer Party, representing our celebration of Summer, and my Dad and my Birthdays. It started at 12:30 and finished around the same time 12 hours later. And it was awesome! We had our usual large bouncy slide, and smaller bouncy castle. In addition, we also had a large marquee which housed the food that our lovely caterers offered. And we had near perfect weather. There wasn't much else we could ask for!! Thank you to everyone who attended and I hope you enjoyed yourselves!!
Sunday was our day of cleaning up, followed by rest. The party on Sunday left a lot of mess, and so the morning was spent tidying and dealing with the recycling, while the afternoon and evening spent in relaxation.
Monday 28th July dawned early, as it was my Dad's birthday. His presents included a new BBQ, delivered to him before the party started, and a few other things of course. He also managed to get his new BMW M3 delivered on the same day! So all around, it was a pretty awesome weekend.
Past Weeks
As promised, a review of the past weeks is in order. Work has generally been the same, with a few new websites being brought into the mix. I may post more about that in a later blog entry. As for my room, the carpet has been laid, the lights installed, and all that needs to be completed now is a few paint jobs, the curtains (the last thing on my list now) and the LCARS accessories. I may soon post a few pictures up onto the web to show you what my room looks like now!
Then, there is the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale! Oh, awesome was an understatement. I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect ending, as there was only one slight niggle from my point of view (that being Zuko's mother... what was the point of bringing up that question moments before the end?) But other then that, it was brilliant! And the way Aang defeated the Firelord I thought was perfectly fitting, despite some criticism I read on the forums.
Anyway, I'll post more about my University and other matters in another post.
The Present
Right now, I am on holiday in Paris, France. I will be starting to write an offline diary (unlike my previous holidays and more like my first real recorded holiday) and posting them as and when I get Internet time. So until then... au revoir!
Birthday Weekend
Hehe, anyway, my birthday weekend sometime ago started on Friday 25th July. My birthday was littered with preparing for Saturday, which I shall explain about shortly, but we did take some time out to provide me with a selection of presents, most noteworthy being quite a lot of PSP-based games. I was also promised a new iPhone, although O2 stocks were low and so I was unable to get one on the day.
Saturday was our Jarrett Family's Summer Party, representing our celebration of Summer, and my Dad and my Birthdays. It started at 12:30 and finished around the same time 12 hours later. And it was awesome! We had our usual large bouncy slide, and smaller bouncy castle. In addition, we also had a large marquee which housed the food that our lovely caterers offered. And we had near perfect weather. There wasn't much else we could ask for!! Thank you to everyone who attended and I hope you enjoyed yourselves!!
Sunday was our day of cleaning up, followed by rest. The party on Sunday left a lot of mess, and so the morning was spent tidying and dealing with the recycling, while the afternoon and evening spent in relaxation.
Monday 28th July dawned early, as it was my Dad's birthday. His presents included a new BBQ, delivered to him before the party started, and a few other things of course. He also managed to get his new BMW M3 delivered on the same day! So all around, it was a pretty awesome weekend.
Past Weeks
As promised, a review of the past weeks is in order. Work has generally been the same, with a few new websites being brought into the mix. I may post more about that in a later blog entry. As for my room, the carpet has been laid, the lights installed, and all that needs to be completed now is a few paint jobs, the curtains (the last thing on my list now) and the LCARS accessories. I may soon post a few pictures up onto the web to show you what my room looks like now!
Then, there is the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale! Oh, awesome was an understatement. I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect ending, as there was only one slight niggle from my point of view (that being Zuko's mother... what was the point of bringing up that question moments before the end?) But other then that, it was brilliant! And the way Aang defeated the Firelord I thought was perfectly fitting, despite some criticism I read on the forums.
Anyway, I'll post more about my University and other matters in another post.
The Present
Right now, I am on holiday in Paris, France. I will be starting to write an offline diary (unlike my previous holidays and more like my first real recorded holiday) and posting them as and when I get Internet time. So until then... au revoir!
Friday 25 July 2008
Happy Birthday
I am 20 today!! No longer a teenager, and no longer able to use that excuse for things!
Feel free to leave any comments you wish to, and when I find an ounce of time, I will blog a full report of this weekend (and past weeks) onto here.
Until then then...
Feel free to leave any comments you wish to, and when I find an ounce of time, I will blog a full report of this weekend (and past weeks) onto here.
Until then then...
Sunday 6 July 2008
Into July
6th July! 6th July!!
Well, this is probably the longest time I haven't posted since I started posting. Heh. So I guess I'll bring you all up to date on the latest happenings.
Home
At home, I've been busy sorting out my room. The lighting is being organised as we speak, and the carpet has already been ordered. The curtains will be next, and then the accessories, such as LCARS Posters, will finish the room off. So not long to go.
As I said in my previous post, the summer party in July is approaching fast, as well as my birthday on the 25th. Preparations for that have already been put into motion as well.
Finally, my brothers have joined me and have broken up from school. So we are now all no-longer attending educational classes...
Uni
And with that, I move onto my University. I have recently received news of preliminary results stating that I have passed the second year. Which is awesome! As for work on GooLife, I am trying to move forward on that in my spare time but it is proving difficult to. My aim at current is to see if I can get a prototype of JXTA, the P2P Java networking tool. However, it requires ANT to work, so I need to get that configured first.
And finally, I am going to re-kick start my 3rd year project as we need to begin to move that forward as well. Hopefully both these projects can be pushed forward.
Work
At work, I've been working on two tasks. Firstly, I'm continuing to program my demo-app for the iPhone. It is getting there... slowly. Soon, I will be able to show people what I have done on it. The second task I'm working on is the Digital Vega website. The reorganisation and restructure of the CSS of the site is almost complete, just a few more images to change and then I can present it again.
Gaming
There are a few games I am playing on recently, both website-based and installed on my computer. They are the USS Andromeda, LCARS Terminal Forum RPG, a game on Facebook, EVE Online, Guild Wars, and of course the legendary Sims 2.
As you can probably tell, the majority of these games are multiplayer-based; ie, you play online with real people. Hey, I love MMORPGs!
Lastly, the Avatar: The Last Airbender is reairing from July 14th and airing new episodes every day until the finale on the 19th. Care to say I will be hooked when that happens... can't wait!
Final Note
Well, I hope this has shown you that I've been busy both working and enjoying my summer holiday so far. We have a plan to go to France and then Spain in August, so perhaps I will be able to post about that a little better then my last vacation...
So, until my next blog post, farewell!
Well, this is probably the longest time I haven't posted since I started posting. Heh. So I guess I'll bring you all up to date on the latest happenings.
Home
At home, I've been busy sorting out my room. The lighting is being organised as we speak, and the carpet has already been ordered. The curtains will be next, and then the accessories, such as LCARS Posters, will finish the room off. So not long to go.
As I said in my previous post, the summer party in July is approaching fast, as well as my birthday on the 25th. Preparations for that have already been put into motion as well.
Finally, my brothers have joined me and have broken up from school. So we are now all no-longer attending educational classes...
Uni
And with that, I move onto my University. I have recently received news of preliminary results stating that I have passed the second year. Which is awesome! As for work on GooLife, I am trying to move forward on that in my spare time but it is proving difficult to. My aim at current is to see if I can get a prototype of JXTA, the P2P Java networking tool. However, it requires ANT to work, so I need to get that configured first.
And finally, I am going to re-kick start my 3rd year project as we need to begin to move that forward as well. Hopefully both these projects can be pushed forward.
Work
At work, I've been working on two tasks. Firstly, I'm continuing to program my demo-app for the iPhone. It is getting there... slowly. Soon, I will be able to show people what I have done on it. The second task I'm working on is the Digital Vega website. The reorganisation and restructure of the CSS of the site is almost complete, just a few more images to change and then I can present it again.
Gaming
There are a few games I am playing on recently, both website-based and installed on my computer. They are the USS Andromeda, LCARS Terminal Forum RPG, a game on Facebook, EVE Online, Guild Wars, and of course the legendary Sims 2.
As you can probably tell, the majority of these games are multiplayer-based; ie, you play online with real people. Hey, I love MMORPGs!
Lastly, the Avatar: The Last Airbender is reairing from July 14th and airing new episodes every day until the finale on the 19th. Care to say I will be hooked when that happens... can't wait!
Final Note
Well, I hope this has shown you that I've been busy both working and enjoying my summer holiday so far. We have a plan to go to France and then Spain in August, so perhaps I will be able to post about that a little better then my last vacation...
So, until my next blog post, farewell!
Saturday 31 May 2008
Talent
Well, it certainly hasn't been too long since my last blog post, but I wouldn't say it has been regular. That's because I've been busy doing other things and whenever I think about posting blog entries it's usually just gone midnight.
I am currently writing in my bedroom, which is even messier then before we started cleaning it out, and my brothers room next door is only just being put together. So his room is completely empty. I wonder where all the messy stuff came from?
Anyway, this past week has mainly been filled with working during the day and watching Britains Got Talent during the evening. Yes, I watch that show; it's quite funny to see what the three judges are going to say.
Last week I spent the day working and the evening playing games. I just really have too many things to do at the moment, so I am hoping for some productive work today to get things that I have been avoiding or not achieving out the way; such as this blog post.
As my room and my evening gets clearer, I hope I will get into the habit of posting these blog posts on a daily basis. Of course we all know that will take a little while before I get to that stage, but that's my aim for this blog. It really is annoying to try and remember the past 7/14/28 days past and summarise it all in a single blog post.
Now, for the future, I have something I want to point out. I will be sending invites to a select few people, but I just want to post this here for those lucky people who read my blog post. The thing is this: my family will be hosting a summer party in July, complete with food, drink, bouncy castles, and everyone and anyone we can invite. Of course we do have limited space, so I can't invite everyone I know, but if you are interested, and you would like to know more, feel free to contact me and if I can fit you in I'll send you an invite.
Right, with that out the way have a good weekend and hopefully I will post a blog soon!
I am currently writing in my bedroom, which is even messier then before we started cleaning it out, and my brothers room next door is only just being put together. So his room is completely empty. I wonder where all the messy stuff came from?
Anyway, this past week has mainly been filled with working during the day and watching Britains Got Talent during the evening. Yes, I watch that show; it's quite funny to see what the three judges are going to say.
Last week I spent the day working and the evening playing games. I just really have too many things to do at the moment, so I am hoping for some productive work today to get things that I have been avoiding or not achieving out the way; such as this blog post.
As my room and my evening gets clearer, I hope I will get into the habit of posting these blog posts on a daily basis. Of course we all know that will take a little while before I get to that stage, but that's my aim for this blog. It really is annoying to try and remember the past 7/14/28 days past and summarise it all in a single blog post.
Now, for the future, I have something I want to point out. I will be sending invites to a select few people, but I just want to post this here for those lucky people who read my blog post. The thing is this: my family will be hosting a summer party in July, complete with food, drink, bouncy castles, and everyone and anyone we can invite. Of course we do have limited space, so I can't invite everyone I know, but if you are interested, and you would like to know more, feel free to contact me and if I can fit you in I'll send you an invite.
Right, with that out the way have a good weekend and hopefully I will post a blog soon!
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Back to the Net
Well! It's been just under a month since my last blog post, so I thought I would update you all and hopefully go back into regular blog posting. So, here's what I have to say (once again split into sections...)
University
My second year is over! Exams are outta the way and I've now got four whole juicy months ahead of doing things other then University work. Does that mean I am not going to do anything for Uni? Nope, of course not!
I still have the development of GooLife to continue, and re-spark back into life. And I have recently released the Project Presentation and Project Report's for my third year Uni project, that is the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander. Just click that if you want to see them (apologies for the poor sound in the presentation, but there's not much I can do at the moment to fix that).
But other then these two projects, that's it for Uni work until my third and final year kicks in mid-september. Just check the number of days I have left on the time shown on the right... yeehar!!
My Room
I have pictures! Although my room is quite messy, I can point you to my web album that is holding the latest pictures of my room, including my new Sliding Door Wardrobe, and soon my new Desk and Chair! The album will be updated as and when I get new pictures, but my room is far from finished yet and there's still a way to go.
Gaming
Recently, I have been playing quite light games on my Mac and Windows PC during the free moments I've had, as I've been quite busy catching up on things (such as Blogging!)
Hopefully soon though I will be back in the game that I really want to return to... EVE Online. I want to celebrate my summer holidays by going online for an entire day and trading throughout that day non-stop, making lots of money. So I will look out for a day that's relatively free to do that sometime in the future.
And of course, now I'm on Summer holidays, I can get to play other games too!
Online
I also have to sort out my website at some point, and I'm still planning on moving away from basic XHTML to PHP produced XHTML. But that is a big project so I haven't had time to take part in it yet.
Final Notes
So, as you can see, even when I'm off from Uni I still have a lot of things I want to do! So I will be just as busy throughout the Summer holidays, also owing to the fact that I will be working on iPhone development throughout the holidays as well.
Until the next blog post then!
University
My second year is over! Exams are outta the way and I've now got four whole juicy months ahead of doing things other then University work. Does that mean I am not going to do anything for Uni? Nope, of course not!
I still have the development of GooLife to continue, and re-spark back into life. And I have recently released the Project Presentation and Project Report's for my third year Uni project, that is the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander. Just click that if you want to see them (apologies for the poor sound in the presentation, but there's not much I can do at the moment to fix that).
But other then these two projects, that's it for Uni work until my third and final year kicks in mid-september. Just check the number of days I have left on the time shown on the right... yeehar!!
My Room
I have pictures! Although my room is quite messy, I can point you to my web album that is holding the latest pictures of my room, including my new Sliding Door Wardrobe, and soon my new Desk and Chair! The album will be updated as and when I get new pictures, but my room is far from finished yet and there's still a way to go.
Gaming
Recently, I have been playing quite light games on my Mac and Windows PC during the free moments I've had, as I've been quite busy catching up on things (such as Blogging!)
Hopefully soon though I will be back in the game that I really want to return to... EVE Online. I want to celebrate my summer holidays by going online for an entire day and trading throughout that day non-stop, making lots of money. So I will look out for a day that's relatively free to do that sometime in the future.
And of course, now I'm on Summer holidays, I can get to play other games too!
Online
I also have to sort out my website at some point, and I'm still planning on moving away from basic XHTML to PHP produced XHTML. But that is a big project so I haven't had time to take part in it yet.
Final Notes
So, as you can see, even when I'm off from Uni I still have a lot of things I want to do! So I will be just as busy throughout the Summer holidays, also owing to the fact that I will be working on iPhone development throughout the holidays as well.
Until the next blog post then!
Thursday 24 April 2008
Exam Season & Catchup on Stuff
Yeah, I know. I haven't posted another Blog entry for quite a while. So, I guess I've been too busy doing some other stuff, right? Well, I guess it's time I bring you up to date.
In this blog entry:
So, let's start off with my new Mac. Yes. Let me repeat that for all out there: I have a new MacBook. So, why am I brandishing a lavish new MacBook? Well, the official reason is that I am now creating applications for the iPhone/iTouch. That's right! I get to learn the wonderful language of Objective-C.
For those who are interested, let me tell you that (from a newly-become Java developer) that Objective-C, apart from it's annoying memory management process (where's the garbage collector?), and the fact the interface and implementation is split, it is not a bad language. I love the Smalltalk-style syntax it uses for messaging; it just so beats everything hands down. And of course, it has all the benefits of Object-Oriented Programming.
What I don't like, is XCode. Apples programming tool. Sure, I have to use it, because at the moment Eclipse does not support Objective-C. But, compared to Eclipse, XCode just doesn't pull it. It is like going back in time; because it feels like I'm using some clunky old machine. Sure, it may do things Eclipse can't, as well as a few things that Eclipse can do, but it's just so difficult to use compared to Eclipse that those things don't matter much.
My advice to Apple: have a look at Eclipse and get into gear. It's time you caught up with how the rest of the world develops.
Moving out of development, and my MacBook is an awesome machine. You heard it from me: Mac OS beats Windows hands down! So, does that mean I'm a convert and am going to switch over to only using Mac? ... No. I still think Windows has a lot of huge advantages to it's OS. Not mentioning the wide use of the OS, the biggest advantage it has is the PC Game market. The amount of games on sale for PC just completely outstrips that of Mac: most major games developers who ship on anything but consoles ship to PC over Mac. Not to mention my Mac lacks a graphics card...
So no, I'm not ditching my Windows. But I do think Mac is better. Kapeesh? Oh, and perhaps when I get my website sorted out, you may see a few good Mac Apps that I like appearing there.
My New Bedroom
My bedroom is coming along nicely. The walls are done, the bed is in, and the wardrobe and carpet and soon to follow. And that's all I really have to say on the matter (yay! I love king-sized beds!)
End of the Second Year at Uni
As I said earlier, it's exam season. That means, for the next one and a half weeks, I will be revising hard! And for the next one and a half weeks after that, I will be revising hard and taking exams too! After the 14th May, I break up. That's when it's all over!
I can't wait!
But I must concentrate on getting past these exams and doing well. Remembering all the little things that matter in each subject. Practicing past papers. And doing work over playing with my Mac (and any related games).
Then I can concentrate on things like LCARS Terminal (RPG and Starship Commander), EVE Online (my trading), my various projects (such as my website), and the last thing to talk about, Avatar...
The End of Avatar: The Last Airbender
This July, the two-hour four-part finale of my first and by far favorite Anime series that I've really taken a heart to takes place. Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to a close.
For those of you who haven't started watching it yet: I suggest you watch the first few episodes (and I mean watch episodes 1, 2 and 3) to see if you like it as much as I do. It may look childish, but it has a lot of adult themes running through it, it's well animated with an absolutely delightful story.
There are whole websites and forums dedicated to the Anime, and a huge fan base (compared to similar titles), as well as my family and a few of my friends (who maybe aren't as big a fan as I am). But anyway, I leave you with the trailer, as well as a way to watch the series online if you're interested.
Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes
In this blog entry:
- My New Mac (and why)
- My New Bedroom (and progress)
- The end of the second year at Uni
- The end of a wonderful Anime series
So, let's start off with my new Mac. Yes. Let me repeat that for all out there: I have a new MacBook. So, why am I brandishing a lavish new MacBook? Well, the official reason is that I am now creating applications for the iPhone/iTouch. That's right! I get to learn the wonderful language of Objective-C.
For those who are interested, let me tell you that (from a newly-become Java developer) that Objective-C, apart from it's annoying memory management process (where's the garbage collector?), and the fact the interface and implementation is split, it is not a bad language. I love the Smalltalk-style syntax it uses for messaging; it just so beats everything hands down. And of course, it has all the benefits of Object-Oriented Programming.
What I don't like, is XCode. Apples programming tool. Sure, I have to use it, because at the moment Eclipse does not support Objective-C. But, compared to Eclipse, XCode just doesn't pull it. It is like going back in time; because it feels like I'm using some clunky old machine. Sure, it may do things Eclipse can't, as well as a few things that Eclipse can do, but it's just so difficult to use compared to Eclipse that those things don't matter much.
My advice to Apple: have a look at Eclipse and get into gear. It's time you caught up with how the rest of the world develops.
Moving out of development, and my MacBook is an awesome machine. You heard it from me: Mac OS beats Windows hands down! So, does that mean I'm a convert and am going to switch over to only using Mac? ... No. I still think Windows has a lot of huge advantages to it's OS. Not mentioning the wide use of the OS, the biggest advantage it has is the PC Game market. The amount of games on sale for PC just completely outstrips that of Mac: most major games developers who ship on anything but consoles ship to PC over Mac. Not to mention my Mac lacks a graphics card...
So no, I'm not ditching my Windows. But I do think Mac is better. Kapeesh? Oh, and perhaps when I get my website sorted out, you may see a few good Mac Apps that I like appearing there.
My New Bedroom
My bedroom is coming along nicely. The walls are done, the bed is in, and the wardrobe and carpet and soon to follow. And that's all I really have to say on the matter (yay! I love king-sized beds!)
End of the Second Year at Uni
As I said earlier, it's exam season. That means, for the next one and a half weeks, I will be revising hard! And for the next one and a half weeks after that, I will be revising hard and taking exams too! After the 14th May, I break up. That's when it's all over!
I can't wait!
But I must concentrate on getting past these exams and doing well. Remembering all the little things that matter in each subject. Practicing past papers. And doing work over playing with my Mac (and any related games).
Then I can concentrate on things like LCARS Terminal (RPG and Starship Commander), EVE Online (my trading), my various projects (such as my website), and the last thing to talk about, Avatar...
The End of Avatar: The Last Airbender
This July, the two-hour four-part finale of my first and by far favorite Anime series that I've really taken a heart to takes place. Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to a close.
For those of you who haven't started watching it yet: I suggest you watch the first few episodes (and I mean watch episodes 1, 2 and 3) to see if you like it as much as I do. It may look childish, but it has a lot of adult themes running through it, it's well animated with an absolutely delightful story.
There are whole websites and forums dedicated to the Anime, and a huge fan base (compared to similar titles), as well as my family and a few of my friends (who maybe aren't as big a fan as I am). But anyway, I leave you with the trailer, as well as a way to watch the series online if you're interested.
Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes
Sunday 23 March 2008
Happy Easter plus My Catchup on Stuff
For all who support and follow Easter: Happy Easter to you all! For all who do not follow this festival: Happy Chocolate Giving and Receiving Day to you all! Go out and buy lots of chocolate anyway!
This is going to be one long post. So I'm going to divide it up into sections.
Goldsmiths
So, what is going on at my university? Well, as you may or may not know: I'm on Easter holidays until the 21st April! So what you should be asking is: what has happened at my university?
And in fact, the last two weeks of Term (in fact the past two weeks) were so busy there were times that I thought I wouldn't have time to finish all that I had to do. Late nights and early mornings had ensued and it was only on the Wednesday just gone that everything came to a climax and then quickly fell again when deadline extensions thankfully came in for my two remaining projects. So what did I have to achieve?
Well, in Java we have put together, successfully, GooLife. In fact, it's so good I've even produced a YouTube video that shows off this fantastic application. This group project was fantastic; and it wouldn't have been the program it is today without all the contributions that people have made to it. From a personal point of view; it wouldn't have happened without them. Congrats to you all! It is of course going to still be in development, so who knows where it will go now?
In Website Design, I have built an PHP\MySQL\XSLT\XHTML based RSS News Aggregator that supports a backend database with a frontend PHP interface to allow for multiple users to register; choose from a variety of BBC feeds; and most importantly, filter, sort through, limit and hide chosen feeds.
In Software Engineering, I had to hand in a Project Report in regards to the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander. This report specified exactly what my plan was going to be in designing and building the program. I will, in due time of course, post up both this report and my presentation for private viewers who are related to this project (most specifically, LCARS Terminal themselves).
Finally, in Databases, which was a smaller group project, we have built a DVD and Video Game purchase and rental store. Although this project is the only project that is still ongoing (without being marked yet), it is nearly all finished. I intend to hand it in on Wednesday this week at the very latest, as this weekend has been extremely busy at home (as will be explained next).
Home
As said before, I have been extremely busy at home during this weekend. This is due to a very exciting change that is taking place before my very eyes: the redesign of my room. I first intended it to be a Star Trek bedroom as close to that from the USS Voyager as possible; but now I think it will more be a Star Trek 'themed' bedroom rather then an exact or even close to exact copy. This is due to three main reasons:
Website
My personal website will also be going another redesign. As I have learnt more at University, I intend to simplify and enhance my website by converting all of the current files from basic XHTML into PHP enhanced XHTML. This will allow me to not only have a single web page for navigation links (rather then at current having to edit each individual HTML page to change a single link appearing on all those pages) as well as to add in extensions that only PHP can provide.
In the present, I have just upgraded my Web Portal to that provided by Netvibes. This again will allow my Web Portal to become more then what it is, propelling it out of a webpage and into a miniature website in a single webpage. It will still be the centre of my web existence, but it will be greater then what it is now by a long way.
Of course this blog will adapt to service the new Web Portal, but don't worry, it's position in my web empire is to stay! I have no intentions of removing or replacing this blog anytime soon.
Final Note
As you may have noticed, I am extremely busy at the moment. And during the holidays, I get to take on more work! So I am perhaps even more busy now then I was during the University term. Anyhow, I want to inform all EVE Online people that my return to full-time gaming on EVE is imminent and won't be affected by my current amount of work that I have been given. See you soon in space!
This is going to be one long post. So I'm going to divide it up into sections.
Goldsmiths
So, what is going on at my university? Well, as you may or may not know: I'm on Easter holidays until the 21st April! So what you should be asking is: what has happened at my university?
And in fact, the last two weeks of Term (in fact the past two weeks) were so busy there were times that I thought I wouldn't have time to finish all that I had to do. Late nights and early mornings had ensued and it was only on the Wednesday just gone that everything came to a climax and then quickly fell again when deadline extensions thankfully came in for my two remaining projects. So what did I have to achieve?
Well, in Java we have put together, successfully, GooLife. In fact, it's so good I've even produced a YouTube video that shows off this fantastic application. This group project was fantastic; and it wouldn't have been the program it is today without all the contributions that people have made to it. From a personal point of view; it wouldn't have happened without them. Congrats to you all! It is of course going to still be in development, so who knows where it will go now?
In Website Design, I have built an PHP\MySQL\XSLT\XHTML based RSS News Aggregator that supports a backend database with a frontend PHP interface to allow for multiple users to register; choose from a variety of BBC feeds; and most importantly, filter, sort through, limit and hide chosen feeds.
In Software Engineering, I had to hand in a Project Report in regards to the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander. This report specified exactly what my plan was going to be in designing and building the program. I will, in due time of course, post up both this report and my presentation for private viewers who are related to this project (most specifically, LCARS Terminal themselves).
Finally, in Databases, which was a smaller group project, we have built a DVD and Video Game purchase and rental store. Although this project is the only project that is still ongoing (without being marked yet), it is nearly all finished. I intend to hand it in on Wednesday this week at the very latest, as this weekend has been extremely busy at home (as will be explained next).
Home
As said before, I have been extremely busy at home during this weekend. This is due to a very exciting change that is taking place before my very eyes: the redesign of my room. I first intended it to be a Star Trek bedroom as close to that from the USS Voyager as possible; but now I think it will more be a Star Trek 'themed' bedroom rather then an exact or even close to exact copy. This is due to three main reasons:
- The fact that we are on a budget that doesn't support such a design
- The fact that at current we have or have ordered furniture that isn't exactly found on a starship
- And the fact that we live in the 21st Century; there really isn't that much demand for 24th Century designs
Website
My personal website will also be going another redesign. As I have learnt more at University, I intend to simplify and enhance my website by converting all of the current files from basic XHTML into PHP enhanced XHTML. This will allow me to not only have a single web page for navigation links (rather then at current having to edit each individual HTML page to change a single link appearing on all those pages) as well as to add in extensions that only PHP can provide.
In the present, I have just upgraded my Web Portal to that provided by Netvibes. This again will allow my Web Portal to become more then what it is, propelling it out of a webpage and into a miniature website in a single webpage. It will still be the centre of my web existence, but it will be greater then what it is now by a long way.
Of course this blog will adapt to service the new Web Portal, but don't worry, it's position in my web empire is to stay! I have no intentions of removing or replacing this blog anytime soon.
Final Note
As you may have noticed, I am extremely busy at the moment. And during the holidays, I get to take on more work! So I am perhaps even more busy now then I was during the University term. Anyhow, I want to inform all EVE Online people that my return to full-time gaming on EVE is imminent and won't be affected by my current amount of work that I have been given. See you soon in space!
Saturday 1 March 2008
Busy
Well, Reading Week has passed some two weeks ago. Hehe. So I've been extremely busy since then, as this is the half-term where assignments flood in thick and fast. And it's also a time that's busy for work as well.
I just wanted to say I've managed to find some time to update my website. The updates should be brought online later today, but don't expect too much: this update is really just laying the foundations for future updates, so to speak.
As for my gaming, I've found this wonderful new game called AudioSurf. You should check it out on YouTube as well. I've been playing it quite a bit during my free time.
I've also been doing some extensive Java Programming in designing the networking for our class Java Project, labelled GooLife. GooLife is about having these virtual tanks that have virtual creatures in them, and they connect to other virtual tanks on other computers over a network.
Anyhow, until next time...
I just wanted to say I've managed to find some time to update my website. The updates should be brought online later today, but don't expect too much: this update is really just laying the foundations for future updates, so to speak.
As for my gaming, I've found this wonderful new game called AudioSurf. You should check it out on YouTube as well. I've been playing it quite a bit during my free time.
I've also been doing some extensive Java Programming in designing the networking for our class Java Project, labelled GooLife. GooLife is about having these virtual tanks that have virtual creatures in them, and they connect to other virtual tanks on other computers over a network.
Anyhow, until next time...
Tuesday 12 February 2008
Reading Week (Again!)
Dear me! Look how long it's been since I've last posted! I haven't even got my diary sorted out from South Africa... hopefully I can get that sorted out soon.
So, let me bring you up to speed on what I've been doing since I've returned from the Cape. Well, it's been University as usual up until this week, which happens to be reading week. During the past few weeks, I have done some pretty neat networking Java programs, studied normalising databases, learnt how to do some pretty neat stuff with PHP, and decided my 9-month long 3rd year project: none other then the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander.
This game, based off Star Trek, will allow prospective Captain's around the Alpha Quadrant to take on the position of commanding a starship. They will be able to choose their crew and ship, and then go off on missions whose very ending is affected by the decisions they make. That's right! These missions will provide for multiple endings, all based on the players decisions they make as the proceed through the mission!
Of course, the game wouldn't be complete if it didn't also have a fully operational mission editor, allowing players with good enough imaginations to come up with some pretty interesting stories to put into play. However, it is still a long time in production, so we shall see how far this gets.
In other news, in my online MMORPG EVE Online, my corp has moved. They are now stationed as 7th Sense, to avoid any confusion the old name had with us. Apparently there was another corp called Chaos Industries who were some pretty tough pirates, or something like that. Anyhow, as we are a non-PvP corp, we decided to move away from the name as we don't want to be associated with PvP. At least... not at present.
Now we finally get to his week... Reading Week. As you might have guessed, a lot has been done this week, but they are all trivial things. I spent a busy weekend with my family... went to see The Water Horse which was fantastic (despite mixed reviews, I guess it's a "you either love it or hate it" kind of film). Monday was spent doing a few things around the house, as will be tomorrow (although I will fit some Java in as well). Today was spent at work; catching up, sorting out a few things, and upgrading Firefox with a new look and feel with a new theme and some extra Add-ons.
I have continued to provide updates to the various websites I own. I just want to add here that I will be adding some extra Addons to my recommended Addons page, and removing a few too. I will also be adding a new page: my recommended iTouch programs. I have quite a few!
Well, for now, I will bid you farewell. And hopefully I will have some diary entries soon as to what I got up to in Cape Town!
So, let me bring you up to speed on what I've been doing since I've returned from the Cape. Well, it's been University as usual up until this week, which happens to be reading week. During the past few weeks, I have done some pretty neat networking Java programs, studied normalising databases, learnt how to do some pretty neat stuff with PHP, and decided my 9-month long 3rd year project: none other then the LCARS Terminal Starship Commander.
This game, based off Star Trek, will allow prospective Captain's around the Alpha Quadrant to take on the position of commanding a starship. They will be able to choose their crew and ship, and then go off on missions whose very ending is affected by the decisions they make. That's right! These missions will provide for multiple endings, all based on the players decisions they make as the proceed through the mission!
Of course, the game wouldn't be complete if it didn't also have a fully operational mission editor, allowing players with good enough imaginations to come up with some pretty interesting stories to put into play. However, it is still a long time in production, so we shall see how far this gets.
In other news, in my online MMORPG EVE Online, my corp has moved. They are now stationed as 7th Sense, to avoid any confusion the old name had with us. Apparently there was another corp called Chaos Industries who were some pretty tough pirates, or something like that. Anyhow, as we are a non-PvP corp, we decided to move away from the name as we don't want to be associated with PvP. At least... not at present.
Now we finally get to his week... Reading Week. As you might have guessed, a lot has been done this week, but they are all trivial things. I spent a busy weekend with my family... went to see The Water Horse which was fantastic (despite mixed reviews, I guess it's a "you either love it or hate it" kind of film). Monday was spent doing a few things around the house, as will be tomorrow (although I will fit some Java in as well). Today was spent at work; catching up, sorting out a few things, and upgrading Firefox with a new look and feel with a new theme and some extra Add-ons.
I have continued to provide updates to the various websites I own. I just want to add here that I will be adding some extra Addons to my recommended Addons page, and removing a few too. I will also be adding a new page: my recommended iTouch programs. I have quite a few!
Well, for now, I will bid you farewell. And hopefully I will have some diary entries soon as to what I got up to in Cape Town!
Tuesday 15 January 2008
South Africa... here we come!
I have faced the inevitable and come out victorious!! I have a passport that is valid, working and doesn't need to be replaced until 2018. It's greeeat!
So, I can officially confirm that I am off to Cape Town, South Africa, this Thursday 17th January and returning next Thursday 24th!!
Bon Voyage all!!
So, I can officially confirm that I am off to Cape Town, South Africa, this Thursday 17th January and returning next Thursday 24th!!
Bon Voyage all!!
Monday 14 January 2008
Preparing for the Inevitable
Well, I recently posted this on my Facebook account as my status, and I thought it deserved a little bit more then I put. So, I will post this on my blog now, and make this as public as I can.
This Thursday, there is a 50:50 chance that I will be going to South Africa. Why a 50:50 chance? Why not 100%?
It all started sometime last week. With under one week to go until we need to go to South Africa, my brother and I find out that our passports had expired. Not only had they expired, but they were children passports and we were adults. Under new British law, it is required that those needing new adult British passports for the first time have to sit an interview and possibly wait up to 6 weeks for the new passport.
But what was extremely strange was that our passports should have still been valid. We had 4 and a half year passports, and we should have had 5 year passports. A short call to the passport office, and we had an appointment booked for Tuesday (tomorrow).
So, the inevitable is that we are going to fail to get our passports, not be allowed to fly to South Africa, and not turn up for the wedding we are invited to go to. All in all, that's something that needs to be prepared for.
Here's to the inevitable being obliterated!!
This Thursday, there is a 50:50 chance that I will be going to South Africa. Why a 50:50 chance? Why not 100%?
It all started sometime last week. With under one week to go until we need to go to South Africa, my brother and I find out that our passports had expired. Not only had they expired, but they were children passports and we were adults. Under new British law, it is required that those needing new adult British passports for the first time have to sit an interview and possibly wait up to 6 weeks for the new passport.
But what was extremely strange was that our passports should have still been valid. We had 4 and a half year passports, and we should have had 5 year passports. A short call to the passport office, and we had an appointment booked for Tuesday (tomorrow).
So, the inevitable is that we are going to fail to get our passports, not be allowed to fly to South Africa, and not turn up for the wedding we are invited to go to. All in all, that's something that needs to be prepared for.
Here's to the inevitable being obliterated!!
Wednesday 2 January 2008
Welcome to 2008!
Hello and welcome to 2008! A new year has arrived, a new time frame in the history of humanity, a new society driven time period for us to classify and enjoy!
So I wish you all a Happy New Year and good luck in 2008.
Now, I want to show you my pride and joy lying peacefully in my driveway: my new Honda Civic! Here are some wonderful pictures of my new car...
Some things to note before the pics are shown. Firstly, you have to press that nice shiny red button to start the engine, it's quite fun! There are two closed sunroofs in one of the pictures. The car comes with cruise control, a/c, a radio with CD Player, and various places to hide luggage and the like as standard; with blue underfloor lighting and really useful Bluetooth connectivity (with my mobile phone) added in. And finally, the number plates are digitally hidden ;)
So I wish you all a Happy New Year and good luck in 2008.
Now, I want to show you my pride and joy lying peacefully in my driveway: my new Honda Civic! Here are some wonderful pictures of my new car...
Some things to note before the pics are shown. Firstly, you have to press that nice shiny red button to start the engine, it's quite fun! There are two closed sunroofs in one of the pictures. The car comes with cruise control, a/c, a radio with CD Player, and various places to hide luggage and the like as standard; with blue underfloor lighting and really useful Bluetooth connectivity (with my mobile phone) added in. And finally, the number plates are digitally hidden ;)
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