richard-slater.co.uk » University

Ooops! I Did It Again

Richard Slater — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:20:37 +0000

Yes, it has come to that time of the year again that I remember that I was meant to be blogging more, in fact I made it a New Year’s resolution to blog more often, and that came to absolutely nothing and here we are almost 9 months later.

It has been a busy day, I have installed WordPress 2.2 both on here and on I Married You and removed almost all of the old site for storage space reasons, the only part of my website that is still there is my CS335 – Dissertation which several people link to, so I thought it only fair not to move that one. I will look through my University Stuff and see if any of it is worth bringing across to WordPress.

Work is going well, getting really stuck in to some cool stuff this year, commissioned a couple of new servers over the summer break which whilst mundane to most, to Systems Administrators it marks a progression in your environment, think of it as something akin to building another floor on your house or office block.

Now I remember why I don’t blog, I can’t think of what to say! Well, not at the moment at least hopefully WordPress will make it easier to blog more regularly as I have the tools to do so without having to worry about phpBB and my hacked together blog script… oh and look RSS!

Exam Results

Richard Slater — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 04:55:54 +0000

Got my results for my final year through in the post today, forwarded from home, which is why it took so long to find out about it.

Object Oriented Design and Architecture 48% (D)
Computing Engineering Concepts 44% (D)
Computing Dissertation 65% (B)
Comparative Programming Languages 56% (C)
Design of Communitcation Protocols 36% (Fail)
Client Server Technologies 34% (Fail)
Network Management 42% (D)

In summary a Third Class degree, which is a bit rubbish… they are asking me to retake the Design of Communitaction Protocals exam at the end of august (the week before I get married) and re-submit my Client Server technologies coursework.

On top of that the project which is due in at the end of august as well is not going as fast as it should be by any stretch of the imagination, I am struggling to convince myself that I should at least attempt to get something out of this degree.

Exam

Richard Slater — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:47:20 +0000

That has to be the most amusing exam in the world, I answered half of three questions, the maxium number of marks I can obtain is about 25 out of 100, ergo I need to get a fairly high grade for the courswork to even pass the module… FUN!

Exam Tomorrow and Tuesday

Richard Slater — Sun, 13 Jun 2004 20:46:10 +0000

I have an exam tomorrow, Design of Communication Protocols (room W623), I have done little or no revision for it, because I have only turned up to three lectures because I have been ill, Saeed the lecturer failed repetedly to put the lecture notes up on the Internet… I don’t know how he expects me to pass the module when he has failed those of us on the module who have not been able to attend the lecutures due to the extreme workload of the final year at University.

There is nothing I can do now, except pray, but that has been distressing me as I am dwelling on the point. Todd Agnew – Grace Like Rain came on the Internet Radio and I just started praising God, there is nothing I can do now with the exam or the course or my degree as a whole… I trust everything to God’s greater plan however hopless I may feel now, I must just raise my hands to the heavans and praise him for all he has given me.

Todd Agnew – Grace Like Rain
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

Dissertation All Over

Richard Slater — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 10:40:27 +0000

Had my dissertation presentation today, went quite well nothing of note particuarly, but it does mark the waypoint of the end of the dissertation, you can see all my notes, critiques, hand ins and the presentation in the university section here

I also got an extention to the Client Server Technologies coursework, which I am going to work on after the weekend once Catheirne has gone home.

Provisional Exam Timetable Released

Richard Slater — Wed, 12 May 2004 12:15:51 +0000

A Provisional exam timetable has been released for my course:

IS345 – Network Management : 15th June 2004 : 0900 – 1200 : Watts 310 / Watts 502
CS333 – Design of Communication Protocols : 14th June 2004 : 0900 – 1200 : Watts 623

I also know what my hand in dates for my coursework:
CS333 – Design of Communication Protocols (Due 19th May)
Finite State Machine and Petri net are techniques for formally specifying protocols. Write an essay on the concept and introduction of the techniques. It is expected, the techniques are at least applied to two well known protocols commercially in use and form part of the argument for using formal specification and validation of protocols. [Reading: Holzmann, GJ Prentice Hall, Computer Networks Various]

CS346 – Client Server Computing (Due 3rd June)
Build a system to allow the playing of a game between co-operating users
over the internet. As a minimum your game should involve two players on different computers.

IS345 – Network Management (Due 3rd June)
You will produce a case study, which will be a work of fact or fiction (or a combination of the two) of around 1,500-2000 words describing a situation where the five functional areas of network management (FCAPS) are not adhered to.

Dissertation Presentations
The presentations have not yet been confirmed with Richard Bosworth

Long Time…

Richard Slater — Tue, 11 May 2004 07:50:56 +0000

I can only say that I am sorry, that is of course if anyone is still reading this, which I dont expect for a second. I have been mega stressed recently, from my past posts you can probably see that there has been a lot going on with my course. I have got some stuff sorted out, Dissertation is all but over and done with, I have got my project defered until the end of the summer (if the course office and Saeed can communicate clearly with me regarding which forms they want me to fill in). the rest of the work is moving at an acceptable yet not brisk pace.

The situation with my current house has gone from bad to worse, I have taken to locking my cupboard with a cable tie and lock, and locking my chilled stuff in the fridge inside a plastic box which seems to of worked, which at least restores my faith in humanity that they are not mean enough to break in to get my food.

Last night on the other hand, some person in the house decided to throw eggs at the wall and cupbards, covering a good portion of the ajoining wall to my room with egg, this on top of the soluale vitamin tablets that were being thrown arround last week, makes me think that certain people cant be bothered with looking after the house any more. I am so going to loose my damage deposit.

Oh Dear! Oh Dear!

Richard Slater — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:45:46 +0000

My degree isnt going to well, I got my transcript through for the most recent exams I took… I was dissapointed to say the least.
- Comparative Programming Languages (56%)
- Computer Enginering Concepts (43%)
- Object Oriented Design and Implementation (48%)

I have spent most of the afternoon figuring out what I need to get to be able to get which grades:

Average 85% on all remaining exams and assessments to get a First
Average 70% on all remaining exams and assessments to get a Upper Second
Average 50% on all remaining exams and assessments to get a Lower Second
Average 32% on all remaining exams and assessments to get a Third
Average less than 32% on all remaining exams and assessments to Fail

My point average for this year is 49.3% it was 51% for last year so I have to pull my grades up just to get a 2:2… and to get a 2:1 i have to pretty much ace everything else… I have got a long two months ahead of me.

I want to cry.

Finished Dissertation / EVE

Richard Slater — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 23:02:08 +0000

I have totaly neglected this blog over the weekend, Catherine came to stay with me for the weekend which was great we had a really great time at both of the wedding shows we went to, we also spent quite a lot of time talking about stuff. I have been feeling quite ill, I have been having all sorts of problems with acid reflux over the last week, the doctor has put me on various things to help calm it down, but we will see.

I finaly got round to finishing my dissertation, it went quite well in the end got a good 300 words over the minimum, any more than that and I would be waffeling about stuff, which dosn’t really make for a good dissertation. In hind-sight I would do much more research and probably work a fair bit harder at it earlier on… the rush to the deadline was far too much strain for me, I only got 12 hours sleep in 5 days which dosnt make for a happy Richard. If you are interested in “The Future of Massivly Multiplayer Online Games” then take a look at my dissertation

… finaly now I have been playing EVE:Online for over a week (I have reviewed it at dooyou.co.uk). I have decided to reset my character to start from scratch and build it up as a miner/refiner.

On the Dissertation front

Richard Slater — Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:13:50 +0000

On the Dissertation front I have got some work done today, I am fairly pleased with myself… could of done more though, you can see the fruits of my labor in the university section.