Quandry - leads to positive action!

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

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

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

‘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

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!

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!

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

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 !!

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!

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

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

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

OU – Thats all folks!

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.