T224 - Must be clear!

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

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

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 -

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

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

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?

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

[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

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

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

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

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

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

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!