Archive for November, 2009
21 pages of waffle
Today, i had to submit a report for a project. The project itself is based over 2 semesters so it’s nowhere near complete (this is just end of semester 1), but i still had to do the paperwork to get the marks. Whilst writing isn’t a problem for me, i do feel this particular job is pretty unrewarding.
Whilst i can stand over everything i wrote and could easily have added more in, it’s just not interesting or rewarding enough to get the best out of me. That said, this is business and i’ll never just not complete assignments or reports just because i don’t agree with them or don’t think they’re beneficial.
Anyway, 21 pages of waffle is how i view this report. It will be marked, i’ll pass the subject, the same thing will happen in May next year and everyone goes away happy they’ve done their job. But is doing a job good enough? No.
Now if this was a project designed to profit or designed to go live in the real world, that would be a completely different ball game. It would give everyone (i should hope) much more motivation. Why not make it a group project with zero restrictions and just release a general marking scheme?
I’d expect at least a few quality projects that could actually make a difference in the real world. Individual projects, like my own are by in large of rubbish quality, let’s not kid ourselves (my own included). Maybe i’m asking for too much, but i can’t help but feel an awful lot of talent and time is wasted doing projects that will never see the light of day and realistically are just done to get marks… not done to create value, improve lives etc…
It makes sense to pool all that wasted time and skill together and create something of real value. No restrictions + group work = a much more interesting / higher quality project for both students and examiners. Plus it might actually go somewhere beyond a virtual shelf 
This week will be my last full week at college this year. In fact might even be off on Thursday because of that planned strike. Next week (Monday 7th – Friday 11th December) i’ll have to go in on the Friday for an exam and possibly on the Thursday too. It’s supposed to be a study week (which would imply studying), but ‘supposed to’s’ and ‘should be’s’ regularly appear in posts when i’m talking about College.
photo credit: Kris *Thirty6Red*
Anyway, this week is the last real hurdle before the finish line (which is the final exams). I’ve one or two projects due and after that, i’ll slowly begin to get more time to myself each week. My final exams end on December 22nd and from then on i’m a free agent until at least mid-January.
During that free time last year i spent most of it working on BeerChief and ironically i’ll probably be doing the same this year. BeerChief of course has been a real disappointment so far, but i haven’t forgotten about it and once it’s up this time, it’ll be up for good.
I also have a revamp planned for theleavingcert.com (about 50% through that) and although i could put that live this year, i’ll probably wait until early January now. This time last year i was struggling to do anything thanks to a bout of pneumonia, but so far this winter i’m safe & well and not nearly as tired as i thought i’d be.
Last winter all i can remember is dark days, tiredness, extreme cold and exhaustion. So far this winter, i’ve been working hard but not at the stuff i enjoy… once i finish up in college, i’ll be able to work on my online projects and that’s when i’m happiest / most productive.
Usually coming up to every set of exams i’ll estimate what i’ll get and i’m normally pretty accurate. Overall this Christmas, i expect to average about 59% in my exams. So we’ll see if i’m right in late January when the results come out.
Right now, i don’t have official marks for any of my subjects and i still have to complete CA work in some, so these estimations are pretty blind (also i’m predicting my own score in final exams which isn’t easy when i haven’t seen the papers!) – i’m marking myself probably using some very complex system going on in my mind (i really do think about scores and look at past exam papers and guesstimate what i would have gotten etc..) but i’ll just call it ‘judgement’ for now 
As you can see, i’m not expecting to fail anything (a fail is anything under 35%). If i get through everything without failing, it’s job done. That will then be a total of 30 different subjects taken and passed over a 2 and half year period. I needed a second crack at one way back in first year but apart from that, there’ve been no problems.
The downside to being bombarded with exams and assignments and different subjects is that subjects you might love become ‘business’. You can’t get too involved with any subject because it’ll impact on your ability to pass another weaker subject.
So you then switch in to business mode and view subjects and exams as a profit and loss situations. If you’re not performing in one area, you slash spending (time) on one subject you are profiting in. All in a bid to balance the books and keep the business afloat (i.e. keep progressing for another semester).
It’s ruthless and almost a communism-like approach (sharing the wealth across all subjects evenly), but that’s what is required to pass in my opinion. I don’t think it’s a healthy thing, as it can limit productivity in your best areas, but that’s just me… others will disagree and say if you enjoyed everything you were learning you’d be living in a fairytale.
Thanks largely to Google, the Muppets are back with force (online). The video below has gotten almost 5m view in 3 days, with an average rating of 5 stars (from 29,000 votes cast).
Although it’s their 40 year anniversary, they could well go on to become more popular than ever before if that video is anything to go by.
The world’s most popular torrent search engine – Mininova – has died today. They’ve removed all copyright infringing torrents which basically means they’ve shut down to you and I 
In a nutshell they were forced in to taking down all content, or face a €5m fine. Rather than take the financial risk, they pulled the content.
This is of course an ongoing bloody war between torrent sites (supported by millions of users) and the big bad companies who are trying to protect their profits and control distribution.
Anyway, kill a torrent site and more will appear – that’s just how it rolls online. Another one bites the dust today but here’s a list of some alternatives 
(thanks to torrentfreak).
1. Vertor
2. SeedPeer
3. Torrentreactor
4. Alive Torrents
5. KickassTorrents
6. BTjunkie
7. isoHunt
8. yourBitTorrent
9. The Pirate Bay
10. Fulldls
11. Bitsnoop
