Some People Shouldn’t Phone Radio Stations
May 13, 2004 – 18:47I heard this on EVE-Radio, and then spent half hour searching for it on Google.
Something Scarey
May 12, 2004 – 22:47I saw something scarey today, it was a man having his head sawn off by al-Queda militants… the mans name is Nick Berg, I know many people have seen this video, many people have told me different things about the video some thought it was faked some thought it was real. I wanted to see for my self. Through the shield the media places in front of us i saw what happens when people get so enraged they kill another human being.
Everyone I spoke to, saw one condemed man in that video, I saw five condemed men! I have spoken to people who feel that the whole of the Iraqi people should be rounded up and shot, then there would be thousands more condemed soldiers, who would have the blood of inocent Iraqi’s on their hands.
Catherine said something so true to me today, She said: “I wouldn’t be suprised if we never get to bring up children”, “I wouldn’t be suprised if we never die”, every Christian knows that He is comming again, but none know how soon… and that scares me.
Provisional Exam Timetable Released
May 12, 2004 – 13:15A 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…
May 11, 2004 – 8:50I 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!
March 15, 2004 – 18:45My 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.
Microsoft Word Viewer
March 4, 2004 – 15:21Because of the way that the Microsoft website is arranged it is near on impossable to find the download for the Word Viewer for Windows XP, so here it is for anyone who googles for it…
Word 97 / 2000 Viewer (Windows XP / 2000 / NT / 98 / 98SE / 95)
Finished Dissertation / EVE
March 2, 2004 – 0:02I 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.
Integers, EVE and Medical Issues
February 25, 2004 – 1:12PHP Integers are really getting on my nerves at the moment, it seems that anything more than 32-bits is just plain not supported in PHP… to be honest that is awful… that is the most apauling degree of accuracy I have come across since BASIC. Oh well never mind rant over.
I am having lots of fun playing EVE and writing my dissertation, it is quite interesting researching the history of MMOGs, something that facinates me while being technical and worthy of a dissertation. Need to crack on with the dissertation bit though 5 days to go… should be fine, pleanty of time.
My stomach seems to be a lot better recently, I havnt had the same acid indegestion problems that I have been having the last week or so, I am still going to talk to the doctor see if there is anything that they can do by way of investigating what the problem might be. I am petrified it might be something serious or not even something serous… just something that would cause me to have to go onto a special diet… its hard enough work not eating meat products and still making interesting food without having to avoid other ingredients too… we will see.
EVE:The Second Genesis
February 18, 2004 – 22:11OK… so all of my old planetside chums have defected to this new MMORPG called EVE Online: The Second Genesis… so here I am writeing a dissertation about the future of MMOGs, thinking I wander what this game is all about… and I wish I could have a go just to see what it is like… so I did, got a 3 day trial of Dreeder (cheers matey) and started playing today… the tutorial was less than clear and I gave up after fiddeling trying to get it to work for a couple of hours, then I just spent some time mining stuff for seemingly no point oh well never mind… from what I see of the game so far it looks vast… there are a huge number of systems in the EVE universe and they all seem quite big in themselves. From a design perspective I imagine it is largely an illusion as there is little between each asteroid/station/planet and so on… the theory behind the game is very simple. However a huge amount of work has gone into the economy, which is a really good thing as it ads layers and layers of complexity to the game, anyway if you are interested in EVE take a look at this affilliate link you can then look round the website and if you sign up CCP (the makers of EVE) will give OC-PS.co.uk $7, which isnt bad at all.
On the Dissertation front
February 18, 2004 – 10:13On 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.