An Open Road

M362 TMA02

2011-07-07T11:15:00.000Z

Too busy to update my blog very often - and it's only when something like a TMA result comes in that my mind goes into 'blog-mode'. So you have probably guessed now that I have a TMA result - and you would be correct.

I suppose the first thing to say is that I have not been able to devote the time to M362 that I would wish - there is a major non-OU worry that I have (and that's all I will say) but it is diverting my attention and concentration away from my studying (as it has to, and as it should). So I submitted my TMA with a couple of sub-questions left incomplete. I know that I could have answered them but my mind just could not concentrate and I figured that it would be better to just submit the damn thing as it was, rather than write a load of coblers and have my tutor wondering what I was on about.

I'm waffling. It's a habit.

So, knowing that I had submitted a less than satisfactory TMA I braced myself for a low score. I figured that 70% would be about right (I hadn't calculated that - it just 'felt' that's what it should be). So I was a bit surprised to find that I had scored 85%. Then I kicked myself - if only I had written that load of coblers then I might have managed another point or two (or perhaps not ... if it really was coblers). But hang on a minute ... 85% is great - where has my sense of perspective gone? I'm happy with 85. In fact I'm very happy with 85.

And as for the course - I'm enjoying it. The first block was pretty much all Concurrency and was very interesting but a bit dry and academic [Ed: This is a University you know - it's supposed to be academic], but the second block is full on multi-tier application development. And I have to say that I am finding it very interesting - even my rusty Java has been dusted off and put to good use.

Got to start on TMA 03 now - and I am already two weeks behind.

OU - An Update

2011-04-26T12:08:00.000Z

Well, no updates from me since January - but I'm not slacking - I'm just very busy! I'm just over halfway through S197 (which is a really interesting course, and has got me interested in taking this particle physics and cosmology stuff further ... one day), and I have also just reached the TMA01 stage on M362. In fact I submitted the TMA a couple of weeks ago and decided this morning to bring this blog up-to-date - and then found that my marked TMA had been returned this morning.

M362 has been interesting so far. Some of the ground that we have covered has been quite familiar to me, some of it less so, and the level of detail has been worthwhile (mainly because I like to really get to grips with stuff). The coding exercises have been fairly easy - although I'm expecting them to become more challenging as the course progresses, so that will be good. One or two of the TMA questions were a little wishy-washy - you know the thing - you read the question and then realise that it can be interpretted in a number of different ways, so half the problem is not figuring out how to answer the question but trying to figure out what the questioner was after. I guess that's level 3 for you.

Anyway, I read through the marked transcript this morning and found that I made a couple of stupid mistakes (careless oversight - seems to be a habit of mine), a part of one question that I managed to miss out (not the first time thats happened either!). But I still managed a very respectable 86% and I'm more than happy with that.

Biggest problem at present it trying to find the time to fit all the studying in. Work has become very busy over the last month and looks to be continuing that way (which is good), I'm helping my son revise for his Maths, Physics, and Chemistry GCSE's that are coming up, and we might be moving house this summer too. So, busy time.

I'll try and get another post in before the year ends!

S197 Has entered the building

2011-01-26T21:37:00.000Z

Two days ago the course book for S197 arrived - so now I have two very interesting courses sitting waiting for my attention. The topics on this one include:
Redshift calculations, Hubble constant, CMB, EMR, Quantum electrodynamics, Quarks and Feynman diagrams, Quantum chromodynamics, bosons, Curved Space, Gravitational radiation, the quark-lepton era, hadrons, nucleosynthesis, geometry of space, and many other interesting areas. I can't wait to get cracking on this pot of ideas.
But - it will have to wait - I have to make reasonable headway on M362 first.

M362 A familiar start

2011-01-26T21:27:00.001Z

I started reading through Unit 1 of M362 the other day and felt immediately at home (and Unit 2 to boot). All those years as a Systems Programmer on IBM boxes and reading through much of the assembly source code of the Operating System (VM/SP, VM/ESA) means that I am on home ground when it comes to processes, context switching, interrupt handlers, various process states, user mode and supervisor mode, the fetch-execute cycle, and loads more. I know the course is going to move away from these topics eventually, but right now it feels good.

I am registered

2011-01-05T12:09:00.000Z

Yesterday I still didn't know if I had successfully registered for M362 in time or not. Today I received a package containing all the course books and software.

I guess that means that I have my place on the course!

Major Tom to Ground Control

2011-01-04T21:29:00.001Z

S194 is just about finished - a month ahead of schedule. The ECA was completed last night after a few hours trying to figure how the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation supports the Big Bang theory.

And today I registered for S197 "How the Universe Works" which is more cosmology and physics. I am expecting this to me a more challenging course that S194 - not because of the maths - but because of some of the concepts such as string theory, and 11-dimensional space. And then having to write a few thousands words that explains it in a coherent and intelligible manner. I have trouble explaining what I had for breakfast in a coherent and intelligible manner sometimes (not that I'm often asked - but since you did - it was porridge today).

So that's S197 and M362 starting in February. A jolly combination.

And now panic!

2010-12-22T11:00:00.001Z

I thought that registering and sorting out the payment last night meant that I had a place on M362. And then I checked my StudentHome page this morning - they are waiting for the return of the registration documents before I have a place on the course. Except that obviously I haven't received the registration documents, and even if I had, there is no way that I could get them returned by the end of today.

Panic.

I phoned the Regional Office for guidance. They gave me the phone number of the OU Registration Services. I telephoned and explained my predicament. It looks like I am going to be OK because I have at least registered before the cut-off date (today), but my application is not yet complete. I am not going to know for sure until after Christmas.

I have to wonder why that is not made clear when registering online. Even the email that the OU sent out November simply states that the closing date for enrolment is 22nd December for all students and nothing about allowing several days after registering for the application to complete. If we assume (dangerous!) that it takes one week for the letter to come out, get signed, and then returned, then the OU should close the online registration on 15th December at the latest and not the 22nd.

Oh well, fingers crossed.

Quandry - leads to positive action!

2010-12-21T22:54:00.000Z

Well, from a night of indicision and quandry has sprung forth some positive action. I decided to listen to the uncertainty that was filling my head and have acted on instinct - along with some helpful advice - and just registered for the February 2011 presentation of M362. And just in the nick of time.

Old Java books now dusted off and ready!

Quandry

2010-12-21T14:34:00.000Z

I have found myself in a big whirlpool of uncertainty. Until yesterday I thought I had my course plans all worked out for the next two years. And just in time because the closing date for February course applications is tomorrow. But last night I hardly slept at all - something was bothering me and I had this sence that M363, which I was about to sign up for, was not the right course to do next. That surprised me because I hadn't really thought about it. But all night I had this running through my mind - almost to the point where I was questioning whether I should even sign up for another Level 3 course just yet.

But come the morning, and after a little sleep, it suddenly struck me that I should do M362 next. And when I thought that, I found that I felt relaxed again. From what I understand, M363 is a lot of theory (nothing wrong in that) and a little programming, whereas M362 has a greater programming content. And I think that is what has swung it for me - because I have been away from studying for a couple of years (apart from S194 - which I have really enjoyed!) I need something that I can do well, really get into, and if it isn't programming that does that then nothing will do it. After that is out of the way then it will be time for M363.

Unless I change my mind again tonight. Last chance though - tomorrow is decision day!

Astronomy Domine

2010-09-08T08:53:00.003Z

NOT a reference to the Syd Barrett penned Pink Floyd song – the first track from their first album, but to the fact that I have just signed up for S194 – “Introducing Astronomy”. I am making tentative steps back to studying and thought a short 10-pointer would be a good way to start. Having been out of the studying zone for so long I find that I have managed to fill all the time that I once spent studying with other activities.

However, time passes, and the 60-point M206 that I did back in ‘05 will cease to be countable towards a degree by 2013, so if I don’t get my arse in gear now then it will be too late and a shame to lose those points.

My two year hiatus from studying has also given me time to think about the direction that my studies take. I have been questioning whether a named degree “IT and Computing” is really what I want to achieve. The ‘problem’ is that my interests are far wider than just computing and the more I think about it, the more I find myself drawn to going for an ‘Open’ degree with a high computing content but also drawing in other strands such as some of the science modules. My current thinking is that a wider ranging degree will be more useful.

So S194 fulfills two functions – it acts a gentle re-introduction to study, and a door-way into the science modules.

But what comes next? Well, if S194 goes as well as I hope it might (time-wise) then I think that S104 will follow on. S104 is a 60-point deeper introduction to general science and ticks so many of the ‘interest’ boxes that I have. In fact, when I took my first steps towards a degree in 2003, the S104 predecessor (cunningly called S103) was an optional course for the IT and Computing degree and was on my list of ‘must-haves’. Alas, when S104 came along it was not included as an option, so by doing that course (and S194) I am already veering off in a different direction. Then it’s Level-3’s all the way.

Anyway, I have to say that I am really looking forwards to starting again. I have selected the November start-date for the Astronomy course – that should give me time to get my other activities in order.

And because this is going to be seperate from my main Computing modules I have decided to create a seperate blog for it, so if you are in the need of some astrocomical ramblings then...

To infinity and beyond….

Processing

2010-04-01T11:19:00.001Z

‘Processing’ looks very interesting programming environment - I have been aware of it for some time but not really paid it any attention. Until now, that is.

The reason for my new interest is really down to my son. He had his 15th birthday last week and, like many teenagers (and us older ones), he is really into computers, games consoles (he can talk all day about PS3 and XBOX), and cars. But he has never shown any interest in programming. Which is a shame because I think he could be quite good at it – he is good at maths (much better than I was at his age), and is careful and logical (well, sometimes).

So, with all that in mind, I went searching for a birthday present for him. And I found this thing called an 'Arduino' - a microprocessor based I/O board that can be connected to a PC (or Mac), can be programmed, and interacts with the physical environment by means of various sensors, motors, bluetooth, ethernet, and so on.

To begin with, he did not appear to be that interested – it was the one birthday present that was left on the side, unlooked at. His other gifts were much more exciting. I wasn’t disappointed and I figured it would just be a matter of time before his curiosity got the better of him. And I was right. A couple of days later I noticed that the box had been moved. It’s contents had been layed out on his desk. I had a chat with him and, as expected, he said he was curious but really didn’t know what it was or what he should do with it. So, with my help/guidance, it was quickly set up, the Processing environment installed on his computer, the Arduino connected, and a few LED’s wired up. Within minutes we had a short program written that did nothing more exotic that flash the LED’s once a second. I then asked him what he would do to make the LED’s light up for 1 second but go out for just half a second. He soon had that figured and tested. His first computer program.

And I left it at that. There’s nothing more uncool when you are a teenager than having your dad show you everything.

The next day when I got home from work, he showed me how he had rewired the Arduino board to include a Light Dependant Resistor. And he has changed the program to to read the analog input from the LDR and use that value for the delay time in the LED flashing – so now he has a variable flash rate dependant on the ambient light in the surround environment. How good is that!

I think his next idea is to add a Heat Sensor, and he has already told me that he want to get hold of a accelerometer and a tilt sensor. Perhaps he is hooked. What have I done?

Here is one I prepared earlier

2009-11-26T11:34:00.001Z

When I was a kid growing up in the 1960’s I always looked forwards to watching Blue Peter on BBC1. Some of my friends were ‘Rainbow’ fans, but for me it was Blue Peter. And every week they would make something that, nine times out of ten, was pretty useless and pretty crappy. But what was interesting is that whatever they made, they always used items and materials that you could generally find around the house (except, perhaps, for ‘sticky backed plastic’ but since that was used almost every week I suspect that most household with young children already had a stash of that ‘just in case’). Anyway, these days I guess we would think of that as being very ‘green’ and ‘recycling-minded’ (which I am in full agreement with, bye the way!).

So, this morning I had a ‘Blue Peter Moment’. This is what happened…

I have this Lenovo laptop (it’s a T500 should you ask), but whenever I start typing (a document, an email, some program code) the cursor suddenly and without warning jumps. Sometimes it jumps to the beginning of the line, sometimes it jumps several lines up. And always without warning. The first I know of it is when I see a load of gobble-de-gook on the screen (no comments about my coding style please). It is really frustrating, and the number of times I have cursed Vista in beyond count. Vista does get the blame for a number of things. Anyway, this has been going on for weeks and by this morning I had had enough – either the laptop goes out the window - or I do. But, never one to do things in a hurry, I delayed opening the window and did a google search instead – after all this is a computer, and software, and there must be a reason that it behaves like this – and if I can find out that reason then I am half-way to finding the solution.

It became apparent quite quickly that this is typical ‘touch pad’ behaviour – what? – I don’t use the touch-pad. Actually, it turns out that I do – it’s just that I didn’t realise it. I found that when I type I occasionally let my thumb drag on the touch-pad and that cause the cursor to move. How stupid is that. But what is the solution? There should be a way of disabling the touch-pad, but it appears that on the T500 there isn’t (yes, I know, it is hard to believe). Perhaps there is some software that will disable the touch-pad but just while you type, and when it detects that there is no typing then it enables it – sounds like a neat solution but I can’t find any software to do that.

And then I had my Blue Peter moment!

If I can’t disable the touch-pad then there must be a way to de-sensitize it. Simple really (and better than the obvious alternative of having my thumb amputated), a piece of card cut from a 5*3 Index Card and taped over the touch-pad. And that’s it. I won’t claim that it looks very professional, I won’t claim that it won’t eventually fall off, and it certainly doesn’t look cool. But it works.

A simple solution to a simple problem.

Still here!

2009-07-22T11:02:00.002Z

Yes, I am still here! This is my first post this year - and its already past the middle of July. My break from studying has been going really well, so much so that I can't figure out how I managed to fit any studying in previously. It seems that life, rather like my waistline, has a habit of filling all available space.

I received a phone call from the OU last week - wanting to know whether I had received their prospectus and whether I had considered studying with them. Ahem, I thought, and then explained that well actually I have been studying with you for the past few years and that I had taken time out because of a serious illness in the family. "Oh" said the lady and then checked on her computer - "perhaps you would like to know what your OU id number is?". I explained that I didn't need to know it and that it is carved out, mirror like, on the inside of my skull.

I am thinking about a return to studying though. Perhaps a gentle 10 pointer just to get me in the mood. But then where am I going to find the time from? All that thinking and writing - I'm quite out of the habit. Remembering too - that's the hard bit.

Its been a great time for reading though!

OU - Dip Comp!

2008-12-16T21:24:00.001Z

Hmm, well its not quite the BSc(Hons) that I’m going after but getting the Diploma is a welcome step. And I do seem to have gone the long way around to get it – out of the seven courses that I have completed, only three of them have counted towards this qualification. Actually, if it hadn’t been for the fact that M206 ceases to be countable towards the Diploma from 31st December this year, then I may well have taken even longer to achieve it!

It was only when reviewing all my courses at the beginning of this year that I realised that the clock was ticking – and M206 would have been an expensive 60pts to lose.

Anyway, that’s the Certificate and the Diploma out of the way – now all I need is another 130 pts to reach my goal.

Incidentally, I bumped into one of my friends in Canterbury Cathedral the other evening (hows that for a location for the kids school carol service!) and he mentioned that he achieved his Degree last year and was now studying for his Masters. I asked how he managed a full time job and to get all that studying done – he replied that he only needs three hours sleep each night! I’m sure that it was him that I heard snoring during “Hark the Herald Angels”! (Only kidding Nick). To be honest I don’t know how he does it – perhaps in his spare hours he plays the part of Clark Kent.

And my other chum, Ian, is awaiting the result of his M450 project, I am way behind!

So, as the end of the year fast approaches and I contemplate cracking open another bottle of port (okay, that must be why the studying takes so damn long), ambling over the fields to Bishopsbourne (excellent village pub there), and generally feeling that I must take the next set of New Year resolutions more seriously than hitherto, I am thinking about wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

OU - Distinctly Good

2008-12-09T14:14:00.005Z

Well, not been thinking much about studying and the OU for the past few weeks - to much else to do. But today is Results Day So I'll cut straight to the chase:

Two exams...Two Distinctions. Well I'll be damned!

I'm running around hollering right now (you'll just have to take my word for that - its not a pleasant sight I can tell you).

Actually, as nearly always, there's a curious side to this: on one of the courses only 4% of students who sat that exam got a Distinction, on the other course it was 27% - that is a marked and surprising difference. I wonder what the explanation is.

OU – Send me your TMA’s !!

2008-11-03T15:23:00.001Z

Ok, this isn’t really a request for anyone to send me their TMA’s – and if anyone did then they would be deleted.

But over the weekend I received an email from an OU student telling me that they had recently failed a course and that they were going to sit it again – and that they had seen that I had also done the same course so could I send them all my TMA’s because it would help them! Huh?

The answer was an emphatic NO. Two reasons – the first because these TMA’s were all hand-written and not in electronic form, so I couldn’t send them anyway. The second reason being that I don’t show my TMA’s to anyone. And that is a hard and fast rule.

I tried to be helpful and suggest that they should speak to their tutor if they are having problems – and if that didn’t help then talk to their OU Regional Office. Asking other students for their TMA’s isn’t really the right way to go about it.

OU – There’s always someone worse of than you!

2008-10-15T12:06:00.002Z

Having now got over my petty gripes about exam questions being wrong, I came across the following statement in one of the OU FirstClass conferences yesterday:

Jenny Bull, the Head of Exams and Assessment, writes:

U216 Examination on 10 October 2008
Following the examination on Friday it has been reported that some students who attended the September Day School were provided with a revision question paper which turned out to be the actual examination question paper set for the examination.

All of a sudden I’m not feeling so hard done by. But I feel really sorry for those students who have studied U216 so hard during the year. This is a 60pt 2nd Level course on the Environment – I really hope that they don’t end up voiding the exam and having to do a resit. I can’t help wondering how on earth that situation arose. Questions will be asked.

OU - T224

2008-10-10T09:13:00.003Z

Just a follow-up to my assertion that there was an error in the exam paper. It turns out that many other students thought the same thing - and it was reassuring to see a post from the Chair of the T224 Exam Board confirming that there was indeed an error - and that the marking scheme will be amended accordingly so that no students are disadvantaged by it. The problem with errors in exams is not just restricted to the fact that the question is wrong - but its the amount of time spent during the exam trying to answer a question that is either obviously wrong (in which case you answer what you can and make a comment to the side), or just much more complex than it was intended to be (because of incorrect maths). This particular error fell into the first category.

But a while later there was another post from the Chair of the T224 Exam Board saying that in fact there was an error in another question too (which quite a few of us had thought was probably an error). The trouble with this one was that the maths made for a more complex question - so finding the answer took a lot longer. Again, the marking scheme is being amended.

But it does beg the question - "How do these errors get through?". And I guess the obvious answer is insufficient testing! I know that if I write some software, I will test it. But a much better approach is get someone else to test it. The reason is that if you test your own code you are likely to make the same error in testing that you did in writing. Get someone else to do it and the chances are that they will find the error. I wonder if it is the same with exam writing. The Course Team write the exam, but someone else should then test the exam by actually doing it (and I'm not talking about proof-reading, I mean actually sitting the exam and then having it marked).

And as with all these things, its the border line results that will be affected most - and I'm sure the OU will take that into account.

Well, how about that

2008-10-08T21:21:00.001Z

Just visited my OU homepage - and there on the left is a link to a 'Personal Blog' what wonderful timing!

OU – Thats all folks!

2008-10-08T20:58:00.001Z

Well, two days and two exams…and now a chance to unwind.

Kicked off with the MT262 exam yesterday afternoon and quite enjoyed it – made a flying start and was about 45 minutes ahead of my schedule by the end of Part 1…and just as well because I found my memory and thought processes failing midway through Part 2. In the end I finished with just 5 minutes to spare. I know that I made a few mistakes, fluffed a bit here and there, but that’s okay and pretty much what I expect.

Today it was a chance to have a bash at T224. Another 3 hour exam – and it kicked off with something that I should know – should have known for years in fact – hadn’t revised it and it completely threw me – not bad for question one. Anyway I gave it my best shot and progressed – feeling rather unsure of myself after that shocking start. But it got better. Question involved completing a flow-chart, so no problems there…except I am convinced that there was an error in the question (not the first OU exam I have done that had an error). Anyway, a quick check on FirstClass a while ago showed that several other students had made the same observation.

I recall one question that I thought was quite interesting (about BlueTooth – Hopping Channels, Frequencies, Hop rate and the like) and I wrote what I thought was a good half page on the details – and then discovered that it was only worth 2-points – so probably all they wanted was a brief one-liner. Oh well, that’s life.

So, to the future. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am putting my OU studies on hold for at least a year, but do intend to return and complete my degree (still need another 100 points or so). This means that my entries in this blog are almost done for now – although I will update the details when the results come through before Christmas.

And here is a chance for me to reflect on this blogging stuff. My main thought is how much I have enjoyed rambling on. But what I have really enjoyed is the contacts that I have made with other students – this has been really valuable – as well as providing me with a number of other blogs to read regularly (thanks guys!) – I’ll keep reading so please keep posting.

What’s in a name

2008-10-01T15:10:00.001Z

Yet again I have managed to find another displacement activity – just when I thought I was finally concentrating properly on revision. The thing that has got me interested this time is Blogging. Ah ha! you might think – blogging about blogging (meta-blogging) – what an interesting way to while away these precious hours.

In fact its a good deal more mundane than that. I realised the other day that my entries on this blog are going to be diminishing soon. I’m taking a year or so out from studying with the OU and so my contributions to my OU blog are bound to be few and infrequent.

But I do quite like blogging so I thought I would set up a new blog to write about programming, programming paradigms, tools, techniques, and so on. [Ed: yawn…if you must]. So I came up with a list of what I thought were good names for a blog – and for each one I found that the name was already in use. But here’s the rub, I thought I would visit each of these blogs to see what they were like, and every one of them, except one, had been registered 6 to 8 years ago and hardly ever used since. One of them, created by a Professor at a notable US university, stated in its introduction all the good and useful things that he was going to write about – and then wrote nothing, not one single entry. I’m sure he’s forgotten all about it. But he still has the name registered. Another one that I found had been created in 2000. The blogger had helpfully added in his first entry that he was too tired to be bothered to write anything and was going to bed. I can only assume that he never woke up.

So, many of the good blog names have been taken and that’s it. Of course, if I was really intelligent I should put my mind to good use by being creative and inventive and coming up with some even better alternative names, but really, I’m too tired and I’m going to bed.

MT262 and T224 Revision

2008-09-29T19:16:00.001Z

At last I seem to be getting my act together and doing some reasonably serious revision. I find it so easy to be distracted – and even easier to find things to distract myself with. Crazy. But the deadline of exams looming over the horizon called ‘nextweek’ has finally shocked my weary brain into some kind of frenzied activity.

It also helps if I don’t revise late at night – generally works out to be wasted time – anything I read just seems to evaporate. The problem is that its only late at night that I usually get the chance to study. So what to do.

This weekend just past, I revised for three hours late afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday – and it was time well spent – productive and reassuring. Next weekend the plan is to do similar. And then Monday shall be a day of rest [Ed: no it won’t – you’ll be working, you fool].

Hmm. Time passes.

Test of Live Writer.

2008-09-24T20:46:00.001Z

Tony Roberts wrote about Microsoft Live Writer on his blog today – and since I’m in desperate need of some displacement activity I have decided to download and try it out. It has to be said that this is less productive than the revision that I should be doing…but is more fun.

It might just be me, but I have always had difficulty in adding pictures to my blog. Always seemed very convoluted and the result was rarely satisfactory. So just to see how easy it is in Live Writer I have decided to add in a picture of the cover of the book that I am currently reading:

Well, that was easy!

I could grow to like Live Writer.

{Incidentally, the book is thoroughly researched – as you would expect from William Dalrymple - and very, very readable}

Google Chrome - the saga continues.

2008-09-18T20:29:00.006Z

I had another dalliance with Google Chrome today. Having fallen head-over-heals out-of-love with it the other day I thought that perhaps I ought to try and make up (and Tony Roberts sort of prompted me to give it another go). But in a kind of 'your place, or mine?' scenario I decided that there was no way that Google Chrome was going to get its silk gloves on my machine. So I knocked up a XP Virtual Machine and downloaded GC (thats amusing - it usually refers to Garbage Collection in OO languages) zipped through the installation and bingo - it works - and its actually quite good.

Now, do I risk trying to reinstall it on my top-level machine? Nope. Not with exams coming up.

OU - Only use what they teach you!

2008-09-18T20:29:00.003Z

I learned a useful lesson today. I received back my marked TMA04 for MT262 - I'd been expecting this for a few days - I already knew that my mark was going to be low on account of the fact that I had only answered one question. I decided before doing the TMA that I would rather spend time revising for the exam than spend time on the TMA and I was in the fortunate position of having done well enough on the previous three that I didn't need to do TMA04 at all. But I'm a sucker for punishment but also enjoy reading the comments that my tutor makes about my work [Ed: are you sure thats not the same thing?] - so it was a trade off! I'm rambling now, but I got 46 marks out of a possible 50. Thats good enough for me.

Anyway, thats not the point of this post - and nothing to do with what the lesson was. It turns out that I had used some bitwise operators in my C++ code (nothing wrong on that normally). The problem was that we haven't been taught about bitwise operators so must not use them. Oh, thats a shame - I use things like that a lot in my day-to-day work. I lost 2 marks for that oversight. I seem to manage to do something like that on every course I do.

How to Program

2008-09-14T13:02:00.004Z

I was at an T224 Tutorial yesterday when one of my fellow students explained that he had already completed M150 ("Data, Information, and Computers" - or something akin to that) but he said that he found the programming aspects very difficult and realised that he wasn't a programmer. He asked what advice any of us would give him to help him get to grips with programming.

Various bits of advice were contributed. One student, who had been annoyingly vocal during the tutorial and had advice for everyone on every topic, said simply that he should learn Java - but that there was no point in learning how to program because all the programming jobs were going overseas. So, two bit of bad advice in one breath I thought. Another student recommended learning learning Visual Basic "because it what most databases use" (Good grief - where did he get that idea from?).

When I was able to get a word in I explained that, in my opinion, there were two aspects to this. One was 'How do I learn to program in language xyz" and the other is "how do I learn to think like a programmer" (at which point the eyes of the chap who posed the question lit up). I said that I thought the best way to learn how to think like a programmer was to: A) Don't read books on a specific language, but find some generic books on programming - books that talk about ideas, or the general approach that programmers take. B) Read code written by experienced programmers, talk to them about it, get them to explain why they do something in a particular way. When you 'think' programming' then solutions evolve which are not language specific but can be implemented in a number of languages. Once you are comfortable with the ideas of Arrays, or Hashes, or different types of iteration, of functions, and so on then learning a specific language seems to make much more sence.

In the end the questioner said that he wished he hadn't asked the question! - Oh! I didn't mean to put him off - I'm dead keen on people learning to program and I wish that I knew more people who did.

Google Chrome

2008-09-06T19:58:00.002Z

Google Chrome - oh how interesting you sounded at first hearing, how attracted I was to the lure of your promises; your elegance, the way you would deftly deliver web pages to my screen. I was smitten and acted on impulse without thought and threw my cares to the wind.

So imagine my bleeding surprise when I downloaded you and installed you on my XP box and Blue Screen after Blue Screen. System Restore after System Restore.

Playing hard to get I thought, so I pursued you and found myself still intoxicated by your promises, still desiring your presence here on my desktop.

So imagine my bleeding surprise as we cavorted around the Blue Screen again, as we serenaded each other around the System Restore, as the milk turned to cheese, and the garden wilted without my care as I rebuilt my system, as I laboured long into the night, as a wrestled with you until at last I was free of you, free from your grabbing, free from your damage.

Oh, Google Chrome, how foolish I have been.

Its fixed Jim, but not as we know it.

2008-09-06T19:51:00.003Z

The blog entry below this (If it ain't broke...don't fix it) now appears meaningless because the horrendous (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) style that I had applied to it is now history. I never did find the exact backup of the original style, but a bit more looking around produced this rather black style - and I'm happy with that.

Perhaps its in keeping with my mood right now, perhaps thats the effect of exams looming over the horizon (which reminds me - I'm supposed to be revising right now. How easily distracted I am). Perhaps is a reaction to the strands of silver hair I found, contrasted against my otherwise black tonsorial attire (ok, ok, I'm lying - its brown - and mostly gone).

If it ain't broke...don't fix it

2008-09-05T20:02:00.003Z

If only.

I had a play around with styles for this blog - and have ended up with one I don't particularly care for! How?...Why?...who knows. Of course, I have been careful and saved a backup of the previous style haven't I. Yup, its just here......., no, wait a minute....ah yes, its over there..... I know, silly me, I've put in the......no, that can't be right. Umm. Err...

The eyes have it!

2008-08-22T09:27:00.002Z

This is a non-OU post but comes as way of explanation. You may have noticed that the picture of me in my profile isn't really me [Ed; you're kidding surely!]. In fact it is a composite picture - the main face is a large metal construction that sits outside the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury (Incidentally, the Marlowe Theatre is named after Christopher Marlowe, tragic contemporary fellow playwright of one William Shakespeare. Marlowe was born in Canterbury but left it. Geoffrey Chaucer, on the other-hand, was born in London and, rather famously, wrote about Canterbury. But we don't have a Chaucer Theatre - just Chaucer Hotel).

But the eyes are real - but not mine. In fact they are taken from a photo that I took of my daughter a few years ago - thats kind of spooky I know - and I haven't yet owned up to her about that!

Its not too dissimilar from how I really look - although I don't have the crinkly top to my head [Ed: have you looked at your self in the mirror recently?].

One day, when the world is ready for it, I might put a picture of the real me there instead. You have been warned!

Dono Treply

2008-08-07T21:01:00.002Z

I was reading an article in 'Computer Weekly' this week about Somerset County Council that has entered into partnership with IBM to provide all sorts of useful services. One of the targets that has been set - and that IBM must meet - is to reduce the amount of acronyms that they use. That really is rather telling I think. We all know that the world of IT is full of acronyms - and they do have their use as a form of shorthand for those in the know. Its not just IT of course - my wife is a nurse and her work is full of acronyms and specialist words - we can sometimes have conversations in which neither of us knows what the other is talking about [Ed: doesn't that also apply to normal everyday conversations that you two have?].

Today, I was showing my son (13 years old and car-mad) an email that I had just received confirming that I had bought two tickets for the MPH Show in London - which includes a Live Top Gear show. The email had a return address of donotreply@seezz3.com. My son said to me 'Look dad, its come from someone called Dono Treply). I looked puzzled and then realised what he meant. And a quick google shows that he's not the only one to have made that mistake.

MT262 - TMA03

2008-08-07T20:24:00.002Z

Really getting into the swing of this course, and quite enjoying it. Results for TMA03 are back and I got a rather cool 97% - not bad for an uncool-nerd such as me. Now, regular readers (all two of you - you know who you are!) may remember that I prattled on a while back about how to lose marks - well, 'consistency' is my middle name [Ed: what foolish parents you must have] ..... two of the three marks I lost because the TMA said 'create a button and and put "Cancel" on it' (or words to that effect)...so what did I do...I put the word "Quit" on them instead. What a stupid, half-numbskulledvomitprovoking mistake to make. My tutor, quite correctly, docked me a point for each error.

But how did I manage to do that? It was there in black-and-white no-thinking-required [Ed: perhaps thats the problem Simon, no-thinking-required...no-thinking-performed].

TMA04 is underway is a great fun already!

MT262 - TMA02, Going well

2008-05-29T14:58:00.002Z

Just the filip I needed - 94% for TMA02. The funny thing is that it is so long since I did the actual TMA that I couldn't recall what any of the questions were. Anyway, things are going in the right direction on this course.
Right now I am whizzing through Block 3 so that I can get back to T224 (which requires more time and concentration because the subject matter is one that I am not quite so familiar with). But Block 3 of MT262 has us writing software that produces plots of data-values that have been collected by a thermometer (not a real thermometer, but a simulated one). And its great fun.
And already paying dividends - I was asked at work yesterday if it was possible to write some software that will check the availability of a database on a networked server. The method simply involves connecting to the database over the network (it could be SQL/Server, Oracle, MySQL etc) and then performing an SQL select for a known number of rows and logging the duration.
As soon as I was given the request the phrase 'simulated thermometer' popped into my head [Ed; you lead a sad life Simon]. So now, a few hours later, I have an application that monitors a remote database and logs the transaction time - it writes it to a log files and plots the data on a graph in real time.

All I have to do now is to persuade my employers to contribute financially to my OU studies [Ed; the words 'pigs' and 'flying' come to mind].

T224 - How to lose point - part 254.

2008-05-25T20:40:00.003Z

Just received back my marked TMA02. 89% so I'm happy with that but, you know what.....it could have been higher. Could have been, that is, if I hadn't made a couple of elementary mistakes!

Mistake number 1 - Only answered part of a question. I manage to do this on almost every course that I do - just completely miss a subquestion. When I saw my tutors comments ( "Simon, I think you must have missed the question...") I thought, "No, there is a mistake, there was no part of the question like that.....", and then, just to make sure, I re-read the TMA paper. And there it was, as plain as the nose on my face. And the bit that I missed out was so easy to implement - it would have been two minutes work. How daft is that.

Mistake number 2 - only using 12 bits for a memory address instead of 16. Now this is just so obvious, and I really can't believe that I wrote what I did. At least I was consistent about it - and my tutor did pick me up on it (although didn't penalise me for it). This is what it is about: Suppose that some data is written to memory location F02. When writing that down one should really write 0F02 (ie, use a leading zero). Its pernickety, but it is correct....and its something I have always done in the past. So why didn't I do that it the TMA?

Mistake number 3 - Now this is the one that I am really going to learn from - when a TMA question uses the word 'find' it means show the workings out and write down the answer. All I did was write down the answer (which I did get correct). The question was to do with ANDing and ORing hex values. I do these in my head and just write the answers down - I've done it this way for years - and it never occurred to me to show the workings. I did raise this with my tutor and he explained that there had been some debate about this - but that the course team are insisting that this is what it means and that is how it should be done. Well, I can live with that. His advice is to always show the workings out.

But now I am wondering whether there are other 'code words' that have specific meanings when used in questions - there must be a list somewhere. If I find out what they are I will place them in a new blog entry - I'm sure I'll not be the only person caught out by these.

Well, thats it. I should get the TMA for MT262 back soon.

Nerd?

2008-04-14T09:05:00.003Z

Just for fun (either that or I'm just a sad person.....) I followed a link to a website that asks a few questions and then comes up with a Nerd Score. Here is mine:

So, depending on your definition of Nerd, I'm either a dull person with almost no social skills, or I'm a person that would rather study than party [ed: I think that sums you up quite well], or that I show a pronounced interest in subjects which others find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend - particularly in areas of science, mathematics and technology [ed: are you sure this relates to you?].

Well, any or all of the above may be true. But what I want to know is how to they come up with that score with so few questions? Its not enough I tell you. And, of course, the test is self selecting - only people who think they are nerds will actually take the test...and they then hope that they get a good Nerd Score. So I am now going to go away and redo the test - but this time answer in such a way that I should (I think) get a low Nerd Score. Here goes.....

Time passes....

Well, thats interesting - I had thought that it was biased towards giving high nerd scores - but perhaps it isn't.

So now I want to know what is the minimum number of questions required to determine whether someone is a nerd or not - and what those questions are - and clearly these are determined by how the questioner defines the term 'nerd'.

I have my own ideas......any suggestions?

ps: And who cares anyway?[Ed: not me, thats for sure].

MT262 - TMA01

2008-04-14T08:53:00.002Z

My marked TMA01 received back a couple of days ago. I had almost forgotten what it covered having completed it in early February and submitted it in early March. So reading it again was interesting. A couple of errors that I had allowed through - which is annoying considering that I wasn't exactly short of time. But a 90% score is above the 85% that I set myself as targets so I'm happy with that. And this time I have no issue with the marking scheme (see T224).

I completed TMA02 in late March but won't be submitting it until mid-May. Which is just as well - because I decided to have a final read through of it this weekend and found some much simpler ways of writing some of the C++ code (and I like to keep my code clean and simple). And one question where I hadn't read the descriptions of one of the functions correctly. So tonight I must finish going through TMA02 and the set it aside ready for submission.

Meanwhile I am progressing through Block 3. Slight problem here because the OU are not shipping the Block 3 books until May (actually, according to the Material Dispatch page for MT262 there are no Blocks 3 and 4 - but thats wrong). But hoorah for pdf's - so I can make headway by printing out what I need - and printing 2-up double-sided means that I get 4 pages on one sheet of A4 - so not quite as environmentally disastrous as it might have been.

T224 - Must be clear!

2008-03-17T21:18:00.004Z

Good news! Got my first TMA back for T224. Grumpy news - lost points for not being clear. Well, when I say 'not being clear' what I really mean is that 'it was not clear enough for the OU marking scheme'. See what you make of this - and if you think it isn't clear then please tell me. The question told us that we had a display panel with three 7-segment LED's on board. We had to write out the bit pattern that would be held in the 3 bytes that represent the pattern that will be displayed on the LED's. The pattern we were asked to use was '-05'. Note: This is not asking for the binary representation of -05, but for the representation that causes the correct segments in a 7-segment display to light up to display -05.

So in my answer I put: 00010000 11101110 11010110

Now, as it happens, that is the correct answer (hoorah!) ... so you may be wondering why I lost marks...Well, believe it or not, its because I did not make it clear which of those bit patterns was the first byte, which was the second, and which was the third. I lost a mark for each.

The moral of this story is that its not good enough just to get the answer technically correct, you actually have to make it very, very clear.

Its easy to forget that Universities are not real life and that this kind of thing is a requirement. In my professional life I have written countless lines of assembler code, and have had to work with colleagues doing the same - and I can guarantee that every one of those people would have understood that the first 8 bits referred to the first byte, the second 8 bits to the second byte, and the third 8 bits to the third byte.

If I am wrong, then you can call me Aunt Madge.

Bits, Bytes, Megabytes and the rest

2008-02-18T14:44:00.002Z

An interesting thread appeared on one of the T224 OUSA conferences today. The question came up about how many bits there are in a byte, and how many bytes make a word. Now, you might look at that and think '...thats easy, everyone knows how many...' but do they?

Curiously, only last night night I was think about a dialogue I had with some technical people at IBM around 1990. In that discussion I had queried their (IBM) term for MBytes. They were using the value of 10 to the 6th (1,000,000) and I had always used 2 to the 20th (1048576). The problem that I had was that there documentation said that I should format the paging areas (this is on an IBM Mainframe) in 1MB blocks - but they were using the wrong definition of a megabyte! Anyway, I argued my case and they agreed (IBM's phrase for such things used to be 'A non documented restriction' - in other words: 'oh right yeah, we didn't know it worked that way - and we haven't documented it - but thats how we say it works from now on....').

So, back to T224: The word from the OU is that there are always 8 bits in a byte. They didn't qualify that statement in any way. Now, I know for a fact that on some systems (1970's) there were 6 bits in a byte - I know that because I had to write some conversion software for them - so its NOT TRUE to say that there are always 8 bits in a byte. Mind you I can't imagine anyone now designing a processor that did't use 8 bits per byte - so its pretty unlikely that anyone need worry about that (unless, perhaps, you work at the Science Museum and are involved in conserving such machines).

Then the question went to how many bits there are in a word. Now, this is more complicated - because it all depends on the architecture of the processor, the bus size etc. On an 8-bit processor then word size would be 8-bits, on a 16-bit processor the word size would be 16 bits, 32 bits on a 32-bit processor, and so on. And even then its not so straight forwards. I seem to recall that on the Zilog Z80 chip (anyone remember CP/M?) you had an 8-bit processor with a 16-bit address bus - and, if I remember correctly, a 16-bit word size.

Anyone know what the word-size is on the 64-bit processors?

OU - M366 Intelligence

2008-01-18T14:58:00.000Z

One of the courses that I like the idea of doing (perhaps next year) is M366 (Natural and Artificial Intelligence). It is currently part way through its first presentation and yesterday I exchanged a couple of emails with some who is presently a student on that course. I wanted to know from them what the course was like, what it covered, did it live up to expectations etc.

The answer is that...its quite hard, many people have dropped out because of the programming, but that it is interesting. The programming environment is NetLogo - a new name to me - which is a modelling/simulation environment that can be programmed in what looks like a version of Logo (in much the same way that Scheme is a descendant of Lisp, I guess). This environment allows you to simulate all sorts of dynamic systems - from groups of people interacting at a party and their levels of group happiness, to biological systems, physical systems (moelecules interacting) etc.

Really sounds like a lot of fun and very interesting.

OU - T224 -

2008-01-18T14:48:00.000Z

The Student website for T224 opened yesterday and this is a great relief - at last I have some idea of the flavour of the course. According to my Student Homepage, the printed materials for the course have still not yet been sent.

But, from what I can see, we kick off gently with an introduction to number base systems, what a processor is (and not just the PC on your desk, but the 100 processors in a BMW 7-Series - and I don't know many academics who have been anywhere near a 7-Series!, processors in kitchen scales (not the old type!), washing machines, and so on), what IO-Systems are (and, of course, some are just I, and some are just O, and some are both).

A quick run around binary and hexadecimal (an old favourite of mine) and why/how it is easy to convert from one to the other (and yes, it is easy). Years ago I used to play darts in our local with a few colleagues. Just for the fun of it we would play 501 but do the scoring in hex instead of decimal - and somewhere I know that I have a photo from those days to prove it. How mad is that?

Lectures

2008-01-09T22:21:00.000Z

Simon McClive has a posting on his blog about iTunesU (or uTunes as I keep thinking of it). If you want to download and listen to some lectures on all kinds of academic subjects (Computer Science, Psychology, Art, and many more) then visit Simon's blog and follow his links. Its a wonderful resource - and its free.

OU - MT262 - Progress so far

2008-01-07T21:51:00.000Z

It might seem odd to be posting a progress report before a course has even started, but I find that I have just finished Unit 3 of Block 1. Unit 4 claims to be 6 hours work, which if its anything like the previous 3 units means that I will complete it in about 90 minutes. No kidding.

Why started already and why so quickly? Two questions, two answers. First off, I want to get as much done before I start on T224 (materials haven't arrived yet anyway), and the reason that I am making good headway is that it appears to assume no previous programming experience so spends some time telling us what an Integer is; what a String is; this is how you repeat blocks of code, etc. etc.

So all I have to do is to note down the terminology that they use (because I'll be expected to use it in TMA answers) and then do the practical work which, so far, requires very little thought.

Still, the more I get ahead the more time I will have when it gets challenging!

Smart Toys?

2008-01-07T08:00:00.000Z

On BBC1 this morning there was an interview with some trade exhibitors at the Consumer (don't you just detest that word?) Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Every electronic gadget you can think of, and some you would never have thought of, are 'on show' - which really means that the hyped-up sales-people are full of hype and convinced that they can persuade you that their's is best.

But what really caught my attention was a throw-away comment by one of the traders spokespeople. Talking about toys, they claimed, and probably rightly so, that toys are getting smarter. I'm sure they are (although its probably a loose definition of 'smart' - I'm not sure that there is much intelligence involved, not yet anyway). But is that a good thing?

My kids have had all sorts of toys, some of the 'smart' kind, and some not. But what I have noticed, with the obvious exception of games consoles, is that they generally prefer the non-smart toys. It seems to me that the smart toys may have instant appeal and grab the attention of the kids (who are as much susceptible to instant-gratification as the rest of us) but after the novelty factor has worn off there is very little left to hold their interest. But give the kids a simple toy (and by that I mean anything that requires a bit of imagination and input) and they happily play for hours.

Now, it might be that I'm just too old and curmudgeonly, or that a grew up in a rural Kentish area where our toys where the fields, trees, and streams, an old bicycle, and our mates down the lane. I don't know. But I have seen the benefits of technology and used them for years so its not that I am technophobic (otherwise I would be blogless amongst other things!).

My daughter is 11 years old. Give her a book of blank paper and some pencils and she is happy for hours, drawing, writing, whatever. But give her something that will do the drawing for her - initial amazement then not interested.

But I'm not sure that this is a modern phenomena. I remember being given a spirograph one Christmas. Brilliant, I could make shapes and patterns. And then boredom - very quickly. It was a clever idea (and pretty low-tech to boot), but pointless. There was very little imagination required.

So, 'smart toys': as toys, I'm not convinced. As ways exploring and advancing technology then yes, this is probably their place.

OU - Blog Readers!

2008-01-04T09:19:00.000Z

I have received a few emails recently from other OU students who have stumbled (or googled, if I can turn a noun into a verb - a process called 'verbing' I understand , which is pleasantly self-referential!) upon this blog.

I must say that it is always a thrill to receive these emails, firstly it proves to me that this is not just a 'write only' blog (cathartic though that may be) but is a 'read/write' blog. Secondly, its great to hear from people studying the same, or similar, courses and being able to share experiences etc.

I had one email from someone working and studying in Malta - no chance of tutorials and very little chance even meeting up with other students. I think that this must take great motivation and dedication, so I doff my hat to all students studying in such circumstances. To cap it all, the course fees are much higher for overseas students.

I might even start to create a map showing the spread of readers (whoa, getting a bit ahead of myself there!) - more of a personal challenge really but I have a GoogleMaps API key, so might incorporate that into a Rails app at some point.

That reminds me of the time when, as kids, we set off gas-filled balloons at the village fete. The balloons had a label attached and there was a prize for who ever had the balloon that went furthest and was returned. Some of my friends had balloons that travelled to continental Europe, my brother once had a balloon that ended up in Germany. His prize was an orange (okay, it was a small village with no money!). My balloons generally ended up in the nearest tree although one did make it as far as Tonbridge (a distance of some 7 miles) before being dashed to the ground. I consoled myself with the thought that I didn't have to have an orange!

OU - MT262

2008-01-04T09:11:00.000Z

Subtitled "Putting computers to work" this course covers the art of writing computer software in C++. I have been looking forwards to this course for some while. Not because I want to find out how to make computers do some work (I've been doing that for more years than I care to think about) but because I love writing software and want to get to grips with C++.

The official start date of the course is late January, but I thought I would make a head start and am currently up to Unit 3 of Block 1. So far, it has to be said, its been a stroll in the park - just covering some basic syntax and clearly aimed at people who have very little programming experience. I am assured that as the course progresses it does become more challenging. Well, lets hope so!

I have another course running in parallel with this and am still waiting for the course material to turn up. I only registered on 1st January and the start date is not until February 2nd, so plenty of time to get further ahead with MT262.

OU - M359 - A result, sort of.

2007-12-19T12:13:00.000Z

Well, there we have it. The results for the first presentation of M359 are out. And they are disappointing as expected. TMA wise I was at distinction level although I knew that there was no way that I would achieve the marks needed in the exam to sustain that. However, as documented elsewhere, the exam was a real pigs-ear (and I speak as a vegetarian - I have nothing against pigs-ears per se). The questions were vague, three of the questions required constant referral to some tables that had been added as an appendix - which meant that it was not possible to read the questions and view the tables at the same time - the constant flapping of papers reminded me of a flock of seagulls alarmed by a marauding dog on the beach (but with out the piercing screech - which I tried to keep to a minimum so that I didn't disturb the MSc students in the next row).

All the course text need re-writing into English (I wonder it would score on the blog-readability test).

And I feel fed-up that I am forced into criticizing the OU - because I think that it is a fantastic institution.

Still, a pass is a pass is a pass. No resit required. Phew!

OU - M359 - One final errata

2007-12-13T14:51:00.000Z

I didn't really expect to be commenting on an errata for M359 - mainly because the course finished back in October. But, as was the case many times during the course, an errata has been issued - and without explanation!

The website has been stating that the exam results will be available by 14th December. And now, on the 13th December, this has suddenly changed to 21st December! Okay, no big deal for me - its not as if they have told me that I have failed (for that will surely come later), but I know of one other student who needed to know the result on the 14th because it greatly influenced what they did next.

So one wonders why the M359 results have been delayed - many other courses have had their results released on time - you only have to look on the OUSA conferences to see and hear the hats being thrown into the air in delight, and all the whooping and hollering. So what has happened with M359?........I'm sure all will be revealed....

Readability - just how smart are you.

2007-12-06T10:11:00.001Z

My friend, Ian Macey, has an interesting comment about 'blog readability'. This is something that I had not previously heard about or thought about. He came across a link, via John Naughton's blog, that referred to a website that will assess a blog in term of the level of education required by the reader (not the level of education required by the writer).

Intrigued by this idea, and wondering just how I measure up, I thought I'd give this a go. According to 'The Blog Readability Test' the required education level for my blog is "High School". Slightly disheartened by this (Ian's, by the way, is "Genius") I thought I would try this on a few other blogs.

So the first that I picked was the blog of Joel Spolsky . Joel is a very regular blog writer and book author, and is a key thinker and doer with the IT industry. His blog comes out as "Junior High School".

Okay - what about some politicians: Well, how about David Cameron - "Junior High School", Gordon Brown comes out as "Genius Level". Interesting.

I'll try one more: Boris Johnson - couldn't compute this one - Alright, only joking - his comes out as "College - Undergrad".

So what does all this mean? Well, probably not very much because we don't how the 'Readability Test' works. Is it looking at the structure of sentences, is it looking at the length of words (longer words score higher?), is it looking at the number of external references. The thing is, we don't know but it is a bit of fun - and it does make you think about what, and how, you write.

One thing that it has revealed to me is that many of the people that you think would have blogs, in fact don't have blogs - perhaps they are just too busy doing the things that make them (in)famous to actually have the time. Perhaps it is still a geeky thing to do (and that would certainly explain the high proportion of IT related blogs).

So thanks Ian, for putting that on your blog - I'm just off to check my readability score know that its got this one to do as well!

Here is the rating for this blog:

OU - Materials materialize

2007-12-03T13:45:00.000Z

So here I am, ploughing through all my Java revision and new work with a SCJP firmly in my sights when a package arrives from the OU. Yes, MT262 has landed on the doormat. Now, a quandry, I'm inquisitive, I want to know what is in the package, I want to make a start. But I don't want to be distracted from my Java work. And anyway, MT262 doesn't kick off until late Jan - so I still have 6 weeks.

But its there on the shelf. Staring at me. Making odd sounds. I'm convinced that one side of the package says 'Eat Me'. I'm sure I wont sleep well tonight, I'll be restless and thinking about that damn package. I might have to sneak down in the early hours and take a peek and then, and then I'll feel that I have let my self down - just like I do when have that bar of Cadbury's chocolate when I know I shouldn't. And of course by then its too late, the deed will be done.

I should, I shouldn't, I should, I shouldn't. Of course there is the packing list - I really ought to check that the package contains what it ought. I should, I shouldn't. Oh hell.

See, already this has distracted me. Time for a cup of tea....now where did I put that chocolate bar...

To infinity ... and beyond

2007-11-01T11:46:00.000Z

[Silence]
To begin at the beginning:

Well, thats enough of Dylan Thomas for the moment. He resorted to alcohol when it got tough, but he produced some great poetry through it. But for an M359'er alcohol was the last thing on the mind. Cramming it full of every fact, every technique, every thing that I could so that I might stand a chance in the exam ... and now waiting. Waiting for the long nights and short days of December. And a result.

One thing is certain - there's no distinction this time! But will it be a 2 or a 3? Or will it be a fail? Almost impossible to fathom and I dare not think about it.

So now am in this gap, this place of limbo, between M359 and MT262. But the time is not being wasted. Instead, I am deep into restudying Java - not from the M254 books, but from other published work. Getting to grips again with Object Orientation and learning to 'do it properly'. What fun! So much better that those dark, sloe-black, slow black (note to self; stop this Dylan Thomas stuff) days and nights spent studying databases.

OU - Its full of Stars

2007-09-06T15:23:00.000Z

Err, well actually it won't be. Having persuaded myself that a 10pt filler over Christmas was a good idea, and that I would like to pursue a curiosity that I have for Astronomy, I thought that I would sign up for S194.

But, I have now decided that I would rather spend the time working towards some non-OU Java qualifications - such as those from Sun. It would be good to think that my employer might chip on the money side (since I work for an IT firm) but, alas, they don't think that I should be learning Java! Thats right, I work for an IT company that would rather not help their employees further their IT skills (thats why they don't financially help with my OU studies either).

So, as soon as M359 is out of the way (and I can't wait) I'll be heavily into Java up until late January when MT262 (which is C++) kicks off.

Must brush up the old CV!

OU - MT262

2007-08-18T20:16:00.000Z

Well, just signed up for MT262 starting in January. My reason for doing this, apart from the fact that it sound quite interesting an involves a fair bit of C++, is that I need to complete my D50 Diploma (the Computing Diploma) before December 2008 otherwise I won't be able to count my M206 pass against it - and that will mean that I'll have to find another 60 points from somewhere.

And because M359 finishes in early October, I need to find something to do between then and January - so I might sign up for S197 Astronomy as a 12 week 10 point course. Just because it will be interesting - no other reason.

OU - Study Techniques

2007-08-09T13:45:00.000Z

Having another play around with "Mind Mapping" tools. Something that I looked at last year but did not really take up. So today I downloaded a free Mind Mapping tool called "FreeMind" (I guess they thought long and hard before arriving at that name!). But you know what? I think it might be useful as a note taking tool. I tried an (admittedly non-scientific) experiment today - I read a few pages from the current M359 Block and, instead of scribbling loads of notes in my book, I just added a few nodes to the mind-map, and a few annotations - I managed to record the info that I wanted quite quickly. But the longer term question is "Will it help my learning and revision?". Well, there's only one way to find out!

Freemind can be found at http://freemind.sourceforge.net/

M359 - What I have learned

2007-08-09T10:02:00.000Z

I was sitting down cogitating the other evening, and thinking about M359. The biggest thing that I think that I have learned during this course - is to make sure that I don't do any more courses on their first presentation. I have been amazed at the number of corrections that have had to be made to the course texts - and to the solutions to the exercises. It did not occur to me that a new course (or even a replacement course, such as M359) would have so many issues but, thinking about it now, I can see that it must be inevitable.

The OU seem to be over-hauling their Computing courses at the moment - several courses have completed their cycle and, for some of them, there is not yet a replacement. Clearly, it is a good thing that these courses are updated/replaced, but it does mean that there are several courses just about to have their first presentation - and I am going to avoid those like the plague - and that limits my choice. However, I think that I am sorted for the next 12 to 18 months...by which time I hope these courses will be on their second presentation!

OU - Study Techniques

2007-08-01T13:50:00.000Z

Well, two months to go on my current course so time to revisit my thoughts on studying techniques. I stated, in an earlier post, that I was using MS Word to write all my notes but that I found that I wrote too much - and spent too much time doing it. Now, several months later, I can confirm that what I said then still holds true today. To give you an idea, my current word document has 120 pages, and something like 15,000 words. And I think to my self, "whats the point"!

The other disadvantage of using software for note taking is that it can only be done sitting in front of the bloody computer (much as I like them!). And you can only read the notes away from the computer if you print the stuff out and carry it around.

So, I can either upgrade my brain to Brain V2.0.23.1, as a replacement for my aging birth brain, or - as seems more likely - I can revert to pen and A4 book. At least with the book I can draw diagrams quickly, make notes in the margins (so that I can find things easily) and draw arrows and addendums quickly and accurately.

And I also have to say that I find the A4 size better to use than the A5 size. A5 is too small for diagrams, networks, spider charts, and the like - although it is easier to carry around. But I think it will be A4 for the future!

OU - More thoughts about the future

2007-07-22T21:05:00.000Z

As I indicated on 13th July, I think MT262 is a definite for next year. But S194 "Introducing Astronomy" caught my eye this evening. Its only a 10pt course and lasts just 12 weeks during the winter - seems like a useful thing to while away the cold, dark, crystal clear, winter evenings! (Well, that and walking over the fields to the Mermaid at Bishopsbourne for a pint or five!)

But why do it, and why only for 10pts - isn't there something more useful you could be doing, Simon? Well, yes...and no. I could, for example, catch up on all the non-OU reading that I want to do. I could get around to fixing the hole where the rain gets in - the one my wife keeps telling me about - in fact I think I'll do that anyway. But actually, astronomy interests me, but I have never had the time to study it properly - so this is a good opportunity. It will also give me an excuse to get my refracting telescope out again - you never know...my son might even be interested (although, if you can't control it by waving a mouse around his interest wanes rapidly). But only 10pts - why all that effort? Well, I did M254 last year - enjoyed it, did very well in it, but it was only 20pts, so I need a 10pointer to go with it (and I ain't doing M253 - no way!). So there you have it - and it can count towards an 'Open' degree...which is maybe where I am heading anyway.

Ah, plans! All put up just to be blown over!

M359 - TMA03 - Result

2007-07-22T20:42:00.000Z

Well, I did moan back on Friday 13th July about how badly I thought I had done in TMA03 - I really felt quite hacked off about it. I am now making headway into TMA04 and ploughing, full-steam, through Block 4. But tonight, just for the hell of it, I thought I would check to see if my TMA had been marked. It has - and it was not quite as depressing as I thought it was going to be. I would have liked a higher mark...who wouldn't, but I'm happy that it was not the doom and gloom that I had convinced my self it would be.

Perhaps there is hope for me after all.

M359 - Oh no - its back to front!

2007-07-15T07:23:00.000Z

I have just made a startling discovery....all through this course I have been mis-reading E-R Diagrams with regards to participation. I just don't believe it. Take a diagram that has two entities and lets call them Teacher and Student. Now, suppose there is a relationship between them such that a Teacher can teach many students and a Student can be taught by many teachers. Seams reasonable. Lets also assume that not all teachers are always teaching - sometimes that will take time out to research (I have a friend who is a Professor of Law. Sometimes he has PhD Students to supervise, othertimes he is researching and writing books and has no students). So there is a many-to-many relationship but the participation is different at each end - for Teacher it is optional but for Students it is mandatory (otherwise they are not students). So far, so good. The error that I have made to date is to think that the symbols for participation, which on this course is an open or closed circle, went at the end of the relationship that also give the degree of participation. What I have done in the past is to place the symbol at the end that also shows the degree of participation - but what I really should have been doing is placing it at the end adjacent to the entity type that it relates to. Thus, if the Teacher entity type has an optional participation, then the open circle goes at the Teacher end. It seems so &%**"~ obvious now that I find it hard to believe that I thought it was different from that.

(Yes, I know that Students sometimes take a gap-year, so in that period they don't have a teacher - but I guess that they are still students. But that doesn't alter the main point of me realisation!)

OU - What next?

2007-07-13T22:27:00.001Z

After my previous post (earlier today) moaning about my (lack of) progress I thought I had better check when the courses that I have already taken expire. It turns out that M206 ceases to be usable for my DipComp at the end of 2008. Now, a few months ago I realised that, assuming I pass M359, I will be left with 10 point needed to get the Diploma. But I don't really want to spend months and months just to get 10 points - and the only 10 point course that is eligible is M253 'Team Working' and I have been tipped-off that this is a complete bastard of a course (thanks for the heads-up on that one, Ian). So M253 is not an option in my eyes.

So what to do? The obvious solution, I think, is to remove M254 (Java) from the list of courses to use against the Diploma - this means that I need 30 points now (because M254 is a 20 point course).

That means that to get the DipComp I need to complete it by the end of next year, and I need to find a 30 point course that I can use. And my inclination right now is to go for MT262 which is a courses that uses C++ for getting computers to do things. The other benefit of this is that it looks like a programming course (as opposed to anything else) and programming is my favourite computing based activity.

So MT262 is probably on the cards. After that I'll have to do some more 60 points courses - assuming that there are some left and they haven't all been converted into 30 point courses.

M359 - TMA03 Done - and so am I.

2007-07-13T10:39:00.000Z

Well, it has been a long, long time. M359 has taken up more time that I thought it would - and TMA03 in particular has been a real pain. In the end I ran out of time to make a proper job of it, and have had to submit it in what I think is a less than satisfactory state.

The net result of all this is that I am really going to have to work at being motivated - and that is going to be a struggle. Oh, yippy.

On the positive side, there is only one more TMA to do and then the exam. And then I am going to take a break from my studies - I need time to recharge, and my family need time from me.

Programming and Kids - A followup...

2007-05-25T21:29:00.000Z

Well, after my delight last week at finding out about 'Scratch' and 'HacketyHack' and thinking what a great way to get kids involved in programming, I showed them my 12 year old son. Imagine the look on his face when he could see how interesting and fascinating this all is!

OK, you'll just have to imagine it, the same that I had to imagine it. What really happened was that his eyes glazed over, his top lip curled up, and he gave me that look that I think meant 'you poor old git, what are you showing me this for', and then he uttered those words that any almost-teenager would utter...'Uh', 'Wot', 'have you seen my iPod'.

Well, there is still time - I didn't set eyes on a computer until I was 18 years old.

Meanwhile, I rather like HacketyHack and might just play around with it. Scratch is a clever idea, has a great UI, but I'd rather see the code that it generates behind the scenes as well as the UI.

Programming and Kids

2007-05-16T11:17:00.000Z

I have son - he's 12 years old. A few years ago I showed him the Logo environment - showed him how he could get it to draw boxes, repeating shapes, etc. He was curious - but not that curious.

At school he has ICT lessons - but these are all about how to use Microsoft type applications such as Word or Powerpoint. The teachers clearly think that these are the skills that kids need these days. Perhaps they do, I'm not sure. But these skills can be picked up easily enough anyway. I once asked the head of ICT at his school at what age they start teaching them about programming - how to change what a computer can do, about how computers really work. His answer was that they don't teach that stuff! Its not part of the National Curriculum.

Now, my son has a computer, he can download music, play games, keep in touch with his friends (much in the same way that I would have used a telephone, or met up in the playground back in my day!). And he knows (because I have shown him) that a computer has a motherboard, and processor chips, and memory, and disks, etc, but he still doesn't know how a computer works (though he's a dab hand at PowerPoint for his homework assignments!).

Then yesterday on the BBC Website was an article about some research that MIT have been doing in the area of programming and getting kids interested. They have this environment called 'Scratch' (http://scratch.mit.edu) that uses visual elements to create sounds, animated sprites etc. It has conditional logic, looping constructs and the like. Yesterday their website was down due to the high amount of traffic but they quickly got a tempory site up. Its quite interesting - I've had a play around with it, and I'm hoping to get my son looking at it and having a play around too. We'll see what happens.

And, like buses, another website has just come to my attention that it also aimed at getting kids (and adults) interested in programming. This one is called 'hacketyhack' (http://hacketyhack.net) and provides an introduction to programming this time using the Ruby language (one of my favourites) so, in a sense, it takes a more traditional approach but in a way that makes it useful and fun. I'm not sure that a 12 year old will be quite so interested in this one but, again, we'll see.

M359 - TMA02 Submitted

2007-05-16T10:24:00.000Z

Well, thats it. TMA02 is submitted, all done and dusted. I had problems with parts of this TMA - Question seemed to be too easy (so now I'm worrying that I have mis-read, or misunderstood, what what really required). Question 2 was an interesting challenge - particularly all the constraints that we had to write - and this is the question on which I spent most of the time and effort. Question 3 was fairly straight-forward, and question 4 was just great fun (yup, really).

And so now the waiting begins. Main hope is that I do better than the rather poor 75% I received last time. Main worry is that I will do worse that the rather poor 75% I received last time!

M359 - Thats Another Fine Book I've Got Myself Into

2007-04-15T20:53:00.000Z

I recently bought another book to help with the M359 studying. This one is by Thomas Connolly and Carolyn Begg and takes a similary approach to database theory and design that the M359 Course Team have taken. A few differences - including the way the doing their E-R Diagrams (they use standard UML - no problem). Its quite a hefty book running in, as it does, at 1300+ pages but I am finding a usful adjunct to the course materials. I'm still refering to Chris Date's 'Database in Depth' that I mentioned in a previous post (which also has the benefit of being quite easy to carry around - unlike Connolly and Beggs paving-slab of a book).

M359 - TMA01 Result

2007-04-15T20:44:00.000Z

Well, a bit disappointed with my result for TMA01 - just 75% - which is the lowest TMA mark I have ever received. But no matter - onwards and upwards - the key thing is to learn from it.

But the mad thing is that I lost most of the marks for stupid, piddling, little mistakes - like forgetting to name a relationship, even though I had correctly worked it out. I'm not complaining - I know its important to get these thing right, but if I could kick myself up the backside, I would (no, don't try and picture that). I also missed one of the attributes of a compound primary key - why? haven't the foggiest. It was all down in black and white in front of me (even my scribbled notes show that I did the work correctly) but when it came to typing up the TMA I just missed it out. Foolish me. And, worse still, missing out that attribute had a knock on effect on the remainder of the answers.

Oh well, at least I have a target for the next one that I know is beatable!

M359 - TMA01

2007-04-02T12:51:00.000Z

Well, thats it. TMA 01 is submitted, for better or worse. I try and not submit TMA's until almost the last minute just in case something occurs to me (along the lines of: "So thats what the question meant! I'll have to redo all that bit"). But I found that for the last week or so I have just been fiddling and tinkering with it but not really making it any better. So the time has come to put it to rest and see what comes.

Never quite sure with a new course just how the marking is going to go, so all I hope at present is that I haven't fluffed it and have taken the correct approach and level in answering the questions. What I would like is to achieve above the 85% line (and generally, in previous courses, I do). But ...

M359 - Self-Help Session

2007-03-19T15:26:00.000Z

We had our first 'self-help' session at Saturday. These sessions are rather like the chat you might have over a canteen table at a bricks and mortar university. We get the chance to meet up, talk about what we find difficult on the course, encourage each other and generally help each other out. I find these really useful, especially when I feel that I am stuck. It always useful to get someone else's take on something - perhaps they have a different point of view, perhaps they interpretted something differently. It all helps to widen out the way we think about problems and how we tackle them.

The only problem with these sessions is that so few fellow students turn up. On Saturday there were just three of us. Don't get me wrong, we covered a great deal of ground and it was very useful - but I am sure that other students would benefit too, and the more voices that chime in, the more we all learn.

But it is odd. When I did M206 a couple of years ago we held regular self-help sessions and only three or four people ever turned up for those too. And here's the really odd thing - on previous courses, the people that needed the help and advice the most where the ones who didn't turn up. Explain that!

OU Future Courses

2007-03-05T21:37:00.000Z

Although I am working towards a Computing Degree, one of the modules that I have been wanting to do was S103 "Introducing Science". I heard towards the end of last year that S103 was being withdrawn and replaced by S104. I thought that I would wait for S104 on the assumption that it would be more up-to-date.

So I was surprised this morning to learn that S104 can not be counted towards my B13 Degree. A dilema! Do I enrol for the last run of S103 starting this September - which screws up my schedule, or do I wait until I have completed my B13 degree by other means (iem by NOT including S103) and then do S104 in a few years time?

Well, if you don't the answer to a question, ask someone who does know! So I contacted the OU this morning. The answer is that S104 CAN be counted towards B13 as the free-choice 60 points because the B13 already has 300 pts of compulsory modules. So it was worth asking! I can do S104 next year as planned after all.

M359 - Conceptual Data Model - problems

2007-03-02T14:36:00.000Z

Its been a frustrating week. In the course materials we are given a scenario for a University (well, what a surprise!) and a Conceptual Data Model that goes with it. The problem that I have had is that the Entity-Relationship Diagram shows an entity called Staff and another called Course (there are many other entities too). These two entities are linked by a one-to-many 'TelephoneTutoredBy' relationship with the 'one' being at the Course end and the 'many' at the Staff end. My reading of this is that each Course must have one, or more, staff members who do TelephoneTutoring for it. There is also a constraint that says that the staff member doing the telephone tutoring must also tutor at least one enrolment on that course. All pretty straight-forwards.

But the course text then went on to say that a staff member could ONLY telephone tutor on ONE course - and I couldn't see where this was stated in the Conceptual Data Model - there didn't appear to be any constraint anywhere saying that. I raised this as a question on FirstClass. Some responses said that the phrase "...staff member can only be a telephone tutor for a course if they are..." really meant "...a staff member can only tutor for ONE course if they are...". I don't buy the idea that 'a' really means 'one' - its ambiguous. If they had meant 'one' then they would have written 'one', surely. Another respondent suggested that it didn't matter and that I should just ignore the ambiguity (really!). After several days of pondering over this, there was a posting by the conference moderator who had written a guide to interpretting CDM's that went some way towards explaining the situation - but I still felt uneasy.

In the end I think the penny has finally dropped - the Entity-Relationship Diagram is only part of the model. Following the ERD is a list of 'Additional Constraints' that go on to clarify, or complement, the ERD. I think my problem was that I had glossed over the word 'Additional' and had interpretted it as being the textual representation of the diagram (ie; two facets of the same thing - they are not).

Having said that, I still don't see anywhere in the whole Conceptual Data Model where it says that staff can only TelephoneTutor on one course - but I am going to let it lie - the course text clearly make the assumption that it is.

Time to worry about the TMA!

Someone has read my blog at last!

2007-02-22T09:01:00.000Z

Had an email from my fellow student, Ian Macey, to say that he found this blog while googling. Ian, to my knowledge, you are the first and only person to read this blog! For a long while I had considered this to be a 'write only store' - a place where I just dump out an opinion or thought and that never gets read. Actually, the act of writing it is rather cathartic. I also have this picture in my mind of that lonely late -night radio DJ speaking into his microphone not knowing whether anyone is actually listening - but somehow enjoying the experience.

M359 - Constraint Checking

2007-02-22T08:49:00.000Z

Just had an interesting, but inconclusive, FirstClass conversation regarding turning off Constraint Checking while performing a bulk load of data into a database. My view was that we have constraint checking for a very good reason: ensuring that the database remains consistent - because as soon as the data is inconsistent it then become unreliable, and if its unreliable then people will not use or trust it. So its pretty important!.

So the idea of turning off constraint checking during a bulk load sounds almost like suicide to me. But, it was pointed out that during a bulk load you are probably populating one table at a time, and if the table that a constraint depends upon is currently empty then the import will fail. So you HAVE to turn off constraint checking. A side effect is that it speeds up the import - well, to me that would be a side effect, but it has been suggested elsewhere that it might be considered to be a primary motive (!?).

But what really bothers me here, and so far no one has been able to convince me otherwise, is that if the data you are importing comes from another source over which you have no control, how do you know that the data is already consistent? And if it isn't consistent, and you have constraint checking turned off, you now have an inconsistent database! That can't be right.

One of the contributers to the discussion said that when constraint checking is turn back on after the import, error messages will be issued for any constraint that fails. I guess this is some help.

I'm still not convinced - there must be more to this.

M359 - Books

2007-02-13T20:31:00.000Z

I have been reading this book by Chris Date. I have often found that reading the course books supplied by the university is not enough - not that I think that the university books are bad, they're not - its just that sometimes I need to see things written differently before they sink into my dense numbskull of a brain that I have.

Anyway, I like this book. There's no doubting that Date knows his field. And he worked alongside Ted Codd. Its also clear from the outset that Date's view of SQL is, how shall we say, not very favourable. In fact, on Page 2, he states "SQL /= The Relational Model" and goes on to say that if your only knowledge of the Relational Model comes from your knowledge of SQL then you don't know the Relational Model!. He couldn't really be any ore clear than that.

I like his writing style. Quite short and succinct. A little bit of humour - but just enough - not like one computing book I started to read, where the author dribbled on advising his readers to go and get a coffee while they thought about some stunning statement he had just made. He lost me as a reader almost immediately! Strangely enough, I can't remember the name of the book, or the author - thats the kind of impact it made upon me. Anyway, I digress.

But its early days - I'm still only on chapter 1. But my gut feeling right now is that I will last out until the end of the book and that it will help me with this course.

M359 - Studying Technique

2007-02-11T20:27:00.000Z

I prevaricated earlier about which note taking technique to use. On previous courses I have taken copious hand-written notes and found that I very rarely ever went back to them, although the process of note taking seemed to help some of the information sink in.

This time I have forsaken the pen and paper approach and have been making notes in Microsft Word. Trouble is, I have realised that I am making even more notes than ever. This is going to make life harder than it need be I fear - so I have to find a way around this. I have also started to create my own glossary of terms (since one is not supplied as part of the course). For this I am using a good and trusty text editor. I can then use the sort command in the editor so that my glossary stays in alphbetical order. And in case you are wondering which text editor can sort lines, the anser is 'Kedit'. Kedit is based upon, and very similar to, Xedit that is used on IBM VM/CMS systems. I started using Xedit back in 1983 (when, for me, it replaced 'Edgar' its fore-runner). Xedit has always been a favourite of mine - very flexible, a decent language for writing macros (that language being REXX). So the editor is fully extendible, provides all kinds of sorting, manipulation and so on.

M359 - Making a Start

2007-02-11T20:11:00.000Z

At last I am under way with M359. One week in and I have just finished chapter two of the first course book - which means that I am a week ahead of schedule. But there is to be no let up - I know that if I let it slip then it won't take long for me to be behind schedule, and catching up is always hard to do.
So, we have covered the usual sort of stuff for the beginning of a course - what is data, what is information, what happened with data historically - Mesopotamian tablets, 15th Century Tally Sticks, 16th Century Parish Registers. How computerised databases came about, why was there a need, what types, how they have evolved.
Now we have getting down to the three-schema model, seperation of concerns, and all that stuff.
First TMA is also available and due to be started yesterday but covers subject matter that, officially, we don't cover on the course for another two weeks!

Keep it comming.

M359 - Some progress

2007-02-02T09:25:00.000Z

Still worried. I have access to the M359 Course Website as of yesterday, and to the M359 First Class Conference as from this morning - but still no sign of any course materials. That's nine days now since they were dispatched. I wonder which company they use for their deliveries.

In the meantime, I am puzzled as to why there is only one conference for M359. With other OU courses that I have studied there have always been several conferences - a general social chit-chat conference, a general course conference, a tutor-group conference, and then a seperate conference for each TMA. I hope that these other conferences will start to appear soon - the OU must have know that M359 was starting in February!

M359 - Still nothing

2007-02-01T16:50:00.000Z

Well, two days to go until the course officially starts and still no sign of any course materials, access to the course website, or to the Course Conference on First Class. So, being slightly worried about this I telephoned the OU Computing Help Desk and explained the situation. A few checks by the man on the phone and his response was 'oh yes, you do seem to have some services missing' (which is fine, but I had already guessed that bit!). He said he will forward the request on to the appropriate team at the OU so that they can give me access. The good (I hope) news is that their records show that the course materials where dispatched by land-snail on 24th January.

So.....I'll just keep waiting and hoping.

Also today, I had an letter from the course Tutor, Dorothy Carrier (or, Dot Carrier, as she prefers to be called), just welcoming us all to the course and giving us some of her background. A useful letter I thought. I have responded by email and relayed some of my background to her.

M359 - Study Techniques

2007-01-25T15:23:00.000Z

For each of the courses that I have done so far, I have used slightly differeing techniques for studying - and I was reviewing some of these yesterday. One thing I noticed that was common to all the techniques is that I tend to write down far to many things. I was looking at my notes for M206 that I did a couple of years ago and see that I managed to fill two A4 hardbound books with everything you could think of (and more). But I am not sure that it helped - especially at revision time - too much to take in, drowning in data but lacking in concise and clear information. In fact, when I studied MU120 I definitely found it hard to use my notes.

So, what to do? Two choices I guess. I could really cut down on my note taking, or, I could produce some kind of index to all my notes.

I think I favour the former approach for two reasons - one is that it takes so long to make all these notes, and thats time that could be better spent doing practical work and, secondly, having spent so much time making notes, I'm not sure that I want to spend even more time creating indexes. Unless I can find some good note taking software that will doing my indexing for me.

Watch this space....

M359 - Dispatch update

2007-01-25T15:16:00.000Z

Good news according to my StudentHome page at the OU. It now says that I registered for the course on 23rd January (correct) and that the course materials for blocks 1 and 2 where dispatched yesterday. Hoorah!
Looks like my fear of starting the course without any course materials was unfounded - so just waiting for my friendly postman to deliver the package.

But I took the opportunity to read through the pdf course guide that I was sent yesterday (full of useful info about the course - what each block covers, how long it is expected to take etc) and noticed that Block 5 (out of 5) covers such topics as using Java and JDBC for connecting to databases and executing either SQL directly, or running Stored Procedures. This is great - and just what I have been doing at work this week. It's always comforting to know that a course is not going to be completely alien to me!

M359 - Course books

2007-01-24T13:17:00.000Z

Well, having signed up for M359 at the last minute I am now in the situation of being on a course for which I do not have any course books!

Luckily, Ian Macey has emailed me the pdf's of the first block so that I can keep up-to-date (don't worry OU People, these pdf's aren't going anywhere, its just until you send me the real things in the post!).

So thanks Ian, at least I can see what we are all in for!!

M359 - Registered at last!

2007-01-23T22:14:00.000Z

Aha! Good News - Email from the OU Student Registration dept to confirm that I have been successfully re-registered for M359. A relief - I was half convinced that my email would be at the back of a stack of others and not be acted upon until after the closing date for the course. I needn't have worried.

All I have to do is to worry about the course!

OU reply to my question

2007-01-22T21:27:00.000Z

Received a reply from the Open University to my question about whether they had any information regarding the M358 and whether students had found it beneficial in a commercial environment. The answer from the OU is that it is a hard question to answer! Essentially what they are saying is that they don't know - and that they don't monitor the course from that perspective.
The reason that I posed the question is that I couldn't make up my mind whether studying M359 (the successor to M358) would be useful from a career point of view. As it turns out, the reply from the OU is pretty much what I anticipated, but have decided to register for the course - I think it will be useful - maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly.
And that brings me onto a curious incident that occured this evening......Having decided to register for M359 (and knowing that as a current student the registration is open until 26th January) I went to the online registering pages only to find that you can only register online for the 2008 course!. So I telephoned the Student Registration number only to be told that I had to apply in writing (Fax or Email will do, apparently). An email was sent off immediately and now I just have to hope that the email is seen and acted upon before Friday - the closing date for applications! More stress!

M359 - here we come!

2007-01-18T21:57:00.000Z

Well, after enjoying the result from my last course, and taking it easy over Christmas and the New Year, have finally decided to do what I said I would and sign up for M359 "Relational Database Theory and Practice" with the Open University. I promised myself that if I managed to get a Distinction in M254 that I would do this course next, so now I am keep my promise.

Registration for the course closes on 26th January. Today is 18th so I phone the OU Registration Desk just to check - they confirm that I have until 26th and that there are some places left. All I need to do now is wait until Monday (because I need some confirmation on another matter before I know for sure that I can proceed witht this) and then enroll.

It turns out that the course has a start date of 3rd February, so I'm not sure that my course books and materials are going to arrive in time - but thats the penalty you pay for a late registration - just means that I'll have some catching up to do - and I'd rather have to catch up at the beginning of a course before it gets too difficult than half way through!

I had an email chat with Ian, who studied M206 in 2005 att he same time that I did, and he is also doing M359 so at least there will be a friendly, and helpful, face. I think that Nick A is also doing it, so that will be two friendly faces!

Lets see how it goes.

A man of Distinction!

2006-12-14T14:18:00.000Z

Forgot to say what the result was: Distinction!

So you see, all that self-doubt was wrong, all that hard work paid off.

The problem now is what to do next. I had enrolled for M359, a top level course in Relational Database Design and Use (or whatever the correct title is), but then pulled out. I needed some time to myself, to catch up on family life, to catch up on a few good books (and if you are into travel books then I highly recommend William Dalrymple as a writer. I read his first book "In Xanadu" when it was first published - 1989 I think, and only got around to reading another of his books this year - "White Mughals". I was so enchanted and thrilled by this book that I then read "City of Djinns" and already have "From the Holy Mountain" lined up to read. Of course its wrong to think of Dalrymple as a 'travel writer' - though thats the bookshop section he usually ends up in - what he writes is more about people, culture, history, and place..and has the most fantastic eye and ear for wit, detail, smell, and colour).

I digress. What I was meaning to say is that I enrolled and then un-enrolled from M359 and decided to wait for the result of M254. I figured that if I got a Grade 2 then I would postpone further study for the year - just to take a well-earned break. But I also figured that if I gained a Distinction then I might plough ahead to jump into M359 and get it out of the way before the end of next year. I'll then be one step nearer my Diploma in Computing and another step nearer my BSc.

So watch this space!

M254 - Exams

2006-12-14T14:07:00.000Z

Well, some while since the last posting! In fact, just after my previous ramblings I sat a 3 -Hour exam for the M254 course (October 11th 2006) and have been waiting until December 15th for the results to be posted. So today is December 14th but the results are now available. I was very confident that I had passed the course but not too sure how well I had fared in the exam. I really needed to achive at least 85% in the exam to get the Distinction that I really wanted, but had figured that a Grade 2 was the more likely outcome. Course work had been fine - a couple of 98% and a couple of 89% gave me a comfortable 94% overall on the marked course work. But the exam - well thats another matter altogether, no notes allowed, no reference sheets, no nothing, just a head full of half-remembered facts. I'm alright recalling concepts, knowing how things work, how things fit together (so to speak), but details and isolated facts present a problem sometimes. And that, I was sure, would be my Achilles Heel in the 3 hour chamber of hell.
I managed to complete all the questions in the given time and actually had 15 minutes spare in which to ponder and prevaricate over some answers I had given. One small flash of inspiration during that period help make a better answer for one of the questions. And that was it.
Finished, complete, consigned to history.

M254 - Tic-Tac-Toe

2006-10-12T19:46:00.000Z

Well, long overdue for an update. And the reason for my silence, I hear you wondering, is that I had my head burried deep in TMA04 for M254. The task given was to create a client/server system that could be used for playing board games. Specifically, we were asked to write one for playing "Noughts and Crosses" (or "Tic-Tac-Toe" if you're American, which I'm not). There was no game logic required because this wasn't a case of man versus machine (at least, not in the game playing sence - although it felt like it times in the programming sence!). All that was required was that a game-server would be able to manage concurrent games being played by pairs of players who were connect over TCP from their client machines. The server would have to maintain the state of the each game, announce whose turn it was, and advise of interesting situations - like winning or drawing. The client side code had to create a game interface and send messages to, and receive messages from, the server.

Nothing too challenging or strenuous really. Once the server was working for managing a single game between two players, it had to be extended to handle multiple concurrent games - ie by using threads.

Good news - I wrote it all in time - and it worked. Not perfect code - even I could see that but a score of 89%, although my lowest of the course, is still satisfactory and means that, depending on how I do in the exam (!), I could still get a Distinction for this course.

We'll see.

M254 - Not quite 100, but not out yet.

2006-06-25T21:06:00.000Z

After the panic last week in trying to get my M254 TMA03 ready (and being convinced that I would have to miss some questions), I had put the thought of it to the back of my mind and not expected anything back from my tutor for a couple of weeks. I figure it would take that long because he has a sudden glut of TMA's arriving at the same time.

So imagine my surprise when an auto-generated email arrive in my inbox on 24th June (just less than two whole days after submission) telling me that my work had been marked and returned. I downloaded the returned documents and opened them with some trepidation - had I fluffed some of the hurried answers? Had I picked up the wrong end of the stick and mis-understood what some of the programming requirements were? I knew that my code worked - but was the quality of the code good enough? Could I have made the code more concise? Had I made some almighty screw-up?
OK, do I look at my overall score or do I read through each question along with my tutor's comments? Oh heck, I can't wait - lets just look at the final score and then disect where I have gone wrong...

Ah, it says 98%. Perhaps I misread that - I'll double check - no, it does say 98%. So my code is OK, I had interpretted the requirements correctly and I hadn't made screw-up. There is hope for me yet.

Of course, deep-down inside, I am really satisfied with that score, and so is my tutor - but he has set me a challenge I think. He pointed out that it was still not quite 100% - how can I resist? I'll just have to try harder next time!

M254 - Not resting but not fretting either.

2006-06-22T11:20:00.000Z

M254 TMA03 - Submitted!

I had to race a bit to get this one ready in time and for quite a while I thought I was going to end up leaving some questions unanswered - and then I suddendly had inspiration and knew how to answer the remaining questions - and that was quite a relief. And the funny thing is that I wasn't even working on the TMA when these ideas came to me. A few hurried scribbles on the back of an envelope (very traditional you know!) was enough to backup my intermittent memory. Soon had the lot commited to paper and software writing.

So thats it for now. Just have to wait the results of this one.

But, no rest allowed. I am still about one month behind schedule and am about to start Unit 6 when really I should be starting Unit 7. But at least there is no Maths course to be fretting about anymore!

OU - Just rambling really.

2006-06-08T13:14:00.000Z

I am partway through my studies with the Open University here i the UK. I am working towards a degree in Computing, which I figure is well overdue having spent the last 30 years working in the industry programming (Fortran, IBM Assembler, REXX) with the last 25 years spent as a Senior Systems Programmer supporting IBM's VM Operating System.

But, alas, my mainframe days are over.

But to Uni - Last year I studued Object Oriented Programming and Design (M206) which I thoroughly enjoyed (so much so, that I managed to get a Distinction). This course was a real eye-opener, all the talk of O-O that I had heard previously was all fairly dismissive and the people that I had spoken to about it (all non O-O practitioners) considered it to be nothing more that the flavour of the month (albeit, a very LONG month!). But studying O-O seriously showed me just how useful and fully formed O-O really is.

Of course, not all O-O languages are fully Object Oriented (Java, for instance), but the language that we used for studying purposes was Smalltalk (which is fully O-O as far as I can tell - even numbers are objects (whereas is Java they are not)).

Anyway, this year I decided that I ought to get my maths up to speed and so studied MU120 which is really an introduction to maths and is worth 30 points - but I had to work much harder to get 30 points from this first level course (I'm tempting fate here - although I have finished the course, I don't actually have my results yet - perhaps I have failed!), than I did to get 60 points from M206!.
Suffice to say that I found MU120 a real slog and have really learned that maths is not really my thing - I also couldn't believe just how much writing there was to do!

Buts thats all behind me now.

My current course is M254 (Java). I'm about half way through and really enjoying it (I really do mean 'really'!). Its a funny thing, but I get a real kick out of writing software - always have and find it quite a natural sort of thing to do. Anyway, managed a 98% on my last TMA submission (TMA02) and am currently working on TMA03. In fact I am several weeks behind on this couse due to the amount of time I had to spend on MU120, but I seem to be making up for lost time quite quickly - which I what I figured would happen anyway.

This course finished in October 2006 and then I shall tae a break from studying until Jan 2007 when I think I will enroll for M359 (Relational Database - Theory and Practice) which sounds fairly interesting and useful. And then I will switch to doing a Science module for 60 points - probably S104 - just because I have an interest in science - and it will count towards my Computing degree.

More updates later...