Journal

Don't even think the 'b' word. I hate it, I don't really know why, but I do. This is an 'online journal', ok? Just somewhere to share some random thoughts about what's going on in my life (ok, and possibly a few rants too).

Speaking of the 'b' word, here's a few of my friends': Anton, Chris, James, Iain, Lewis, Matt, Paul.
Old journal posts can be found here. If you're looking for my Sun b***, it's at blogs.sun.com/lamsey.

To add this journal to your newsfeed reader or website, use this address: http://www.lamsey.co.uk/journal.xml

One down, three to go
Mon 12/5/08 (Link to this entry)

Around this time yesterday, I was having a minor panic as I started looking at the past papers for today's AI exam and realised I hadn't a clue how to answer most of the questions. Happily, however, this was because the course material has changed significantly, so today's paper was actually pretty straightforward. I was particularly pleased that all the theoretical guff was in one question while the other two questions were largely based around demonstrating practical knowledge. I only had to attempt two questions out of the three, so I got to avoid all the boring rubbish :-D

Thankfully, today's was my only morning exam this year. It started at 9.30, while the other three will all start at the much more palatable hour of 2pm. This is rather pleasing to me since I find my brain doesn't work too well in the mornings. Sadly, the next exam is on Wednesday so I can't rest easy just yet. Here's hoping it turns out to be as straightforward as today's did...

Green with envy
Mon 5/5/08 (Link to this entry)

Lately I've been keeping up with what's been happening at the world snooker championships at the Crucible in Sheffield. There's nothing as good at making you feel useless as watching the best people in the world at a sport you enjoy and think you're not bad at. I would accuse Ronnie O'Sullivan of being a robot were it not for the fact that robots typically aren't annoying wee chavs.

However, having just slagged off the man who's almost certain to win his third title tonight, I have to praise his play because he's great to watch, especially when he gets in about the black. One thing I've really enjoyed about the BBC coverage this year is the high-quality online videos using the new iPlayer. There's a great page with all the 147s (maximum breaks) ever recorded at the Crucible. Great watching, particularly the 1997 one. One thing that has annoyed me, though, is the crappy remix of the classic BBC snooker theme tune as immortalised by Bill Bailey. If it ain't broke, don't bloody fix it!

Edit: for those who are wondering what I'm on about, see here for the original BBC title credits, and here for the complete track. I can't find a link for the new travesty.

This is my one free week before my exams start, so I'm going to be taking it easy and doing the odd bit of revision intermixed with some part-time development work for the lab team. I want to make sure I can chill out a bit this week before the exams really kick in, especially since the period after the exams looks like being quite busy - I've got to fit in a camping trip before heading down south for a short summer contract with Sun.

Speaking of which, if anyone reading this would like to let me a room in the Camberley / Farnborough / Fleet area between late June and mid September, just gimme a shout :-D . Furnished or unfurnished is fine, though internet access is a must - I'll need it for my home SunRay (as well as the fact that, as a computer geek, I'm not sure I could survive three months without 'net access!).

Sun SPOT demo
Thurs 1/5/08 (Link to this entry)

I held my second tech demo for the Sun@Strathclyde program today. This one was all about SunSPOTs, which are clever little wireless devices with sensors built in for all sorts of interesting applications. Sadly, I got hit with the low attendance that is typical of end-of-semester lectures, with only 12 people coming along. Those who did come seemed to enjoy the demo though, and the lecturers seemed interested in using the technology :-)

Despite what it looks like, I'm not actually telling the SunSPOT off in the picture above - even if it does look a bit like I'm chastising it for some unspecified naughtiness. The demo involved using some fun sample code which made use of the built-in accelerometer to simulate bouncing balls and draw text in the air. There's a short video clip on the Sun@Strathclyde blog, complete with audience participation and me hitting my head on the furniture!

Now that the two demos are out of the way, there won't be much more I'll be doing on the program until the next academic year, since this is the last week of semester and students are now going on exam leave. That includes me, happily, so for the next few weeks it'll just be exams and some part-time work for the lab team. That'll be a welcome change of pace from the last two weeks, which have been somewhat hectic :-)

No rest for the weary
Sat 26/4/08 (Link to this entry)

Lately it's seemed like as soon as I get one thing out of the way, another two crop up. I got up this morning with the rather unpleasant realisation that if I'm going to go to the second event in the Scottish Clout Series tomorrow, I've got a fair bit of work to do today. After having to spend much more time than I had planned to get my group's coursework for my AI class finished yesterday, I've now got to get some work done on another piece of coursework which is due next week.

On top of that, I have a fair bit of work to do on the Sun side of things - more bug investigations, and some work reviewing some feedback on a project proposal I made last week (I'm not even thinking about preparing for next week's tech demo yet). And just to add insult to injury, it would appear that a bomb exploded in my parents' kitchen last night.

My mother's cooking skills are fantastic - she's capable of producing really tasty food that's actually healthy too - but when she really gets going on the catering for a big shoot (which the parents are at today), the cleanup afterwards can be a bit of an operation. Suppose I'd better stop wasting time typing here and get on with it...

Tech demo!
Thurs 24/4/08 (Link to this entry)

Two days ago, I finally got the information I needed to organise my first tech demo for the Sun Campus Ambassador program at Strathclyde Uni. 48 frantic hours of planning, promotion and preparation later, I presented a one-hour talk on Sun's open-source technologies to 51 assorted undergrads and postgrads (including one staff member!). I'm really pleased with how well it went, especially since it's been such a long time coming.

There are more pictures on my Sun blog, along with my semi-official take on the day's proceedings. Many thanks to TC who kindly came along and played photographer with his new iPhone (the one thing I forgot was my bloody camera). I'll be holding another demo next week on SunSPOTs, so no rest for the weary - though after two days of frantic work getting all of this sorted out, I'm glad of the chance to sit back for a couple of hours tonight!

Oh bugger I haven't written anything for ages
Mon 21/4/08 (Link to this entry)

It was brought to my attention recently that I hadn't written anything here for more than a month. This was both embarrassing (since they thought I'd given it up) and encouraging (since it means that someone actually bothers to read my deathless prose). Sorry 'bout that folks :-D

The long break is down to two things: firstly, I haven't had a lot of interesting stuff to write about, and secondly I've been utterly sick of the sight of an HTML tag. This is due to the amount of time I've been spending lately on my archery club's website, which now sports a shiny new interactive members-only section coded in utterly horrible self-taught PHP (to go with the horrible self-taught HTML throughout the rest of the site).

Other than that, I've mainly been doing university coursework and some part-time coding for Sun lately. I'm most of the way through the coursework bits for uni now, with just a few bits and pieces left to do over the next two weeks. I actually won an award today for my submission for one of our AI practicals, which was pretty unexpected since it was supposed to be a group practical but I ended up having to do almost all of the work. We've got some more submissions due this week, so hopefully that'll work better now that the others' final-year projects are out of the way.

The ultra-prestigious 1st Place Medal for Satisfycing Planning (I'm getting an Amazon gift voucher too :-D )

On the Sun front, things are looking positive too. Although the campus ambassador thing is still dragging on (seriously, how hard is it for people to answer a bloody email within two weeks), I've been getting some good work done for my old boss Paul on the lab team's booking tool, JLT. I've managed to squish a number of bugs which have been quite problematic lately, and I've been making some design proposals for some interesting projects. On top of that, it's looking like I might well be getting some summer work down south, which is really good news :-)

Past entries archive

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