Goodbye Graham

Today we said goodbye to Graham Brookes, one of our professors who has been in Hull for a very long time and given great service to the university, as head of the Computer Science Department and also as Dean of Faculty.

Thinking of the next line...

I first met Graham many years ago, when as a young, fresh faced, programmer in the Computer Centre I was asked to show him around the department on his first visit to Hull. Unbeknownst to me the building had undergone some changes and things had moved around a bit since I graduated and so when I proudly opened the door to "Our main computing resource" we were all greeted with the sight of a mop and a couple of buckets in what was now the cleaner's cupboard. Ever since then I have been trying, perhaps vainly, to convince Graham that I am not in fact an idiot.

The good news is that in spite of this display of stupidity at Hull he managed to overcome any reservations that he might have had, and come to work with us anyway. Today, at a nice ceremony in Staff House we said our formal goodbyes and Graham gave a little speech peppered with dry wit and common sense, as is his style.

I'm sure he is going to keep involvement with the business at some level, Graham is active in the British Computer Society and I don't expect him to stop wanting to achieve things. He took the Computer Science Department at Hull and put it firmly on the track it is following today, and for that we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

Zero Marks

Ever tried to explain arrays, subscripts and addressing in a C# programming lecture where somebody seems to have swiped all the marker pens for the whiteboard?

I have. It is really hard. Never mind. At least I got a blog post out of it. (as I said I would...)

Wonderful Monday and Preparing for PDC 2008

There is quite simply no better way to start a working week than by delivering a 9:15 lecture on Visual Basic. Follow this up with a 1:15 lecture on C# and a 5:15 session on UML design (with a few gripping meetings and a tutorial in between) and you can probably understand why I've been hitting the Strawberry Milkshake (no - really) rather hard tonight.

The good news is that I'm presently preparing for a trip to PDC 2008 in LA. I told the second year that I would be going away and the response was "Wot, again..". The way I see it, if I further my knowledge about technology and gadgets and stuff this will all feed into my teaching and make my lectures even more better than they already are. Oh yes.

I actually feel terrible about leaving all my students in the lurch like this. Rest assured that all lectures have been re-allocated so no study time is to be lost. And I will be checking forum posts and responding to email. (probably faster than ever since I will have nothing else to do when I'm wide awake at 2:00 am) Also bear in mind that the trip will involve me cramming into an economy aircraft seat with my knees above my ears for around 12 hours on the trip out and back.

I'm deep into preparation for the trip. I've activated my emergency credit card and I'm presently packing gadgets, power supplies, cables, cameras and memory cards. Oh, and perhaps a few clothes. I'll be blogging and posting pictures of my misadventures and I'll keep you posted on any interesting new developments. The way I see it, you have a lecturer who doesn't just go the extra mile. He goes 5,500....

Mad Magazine Rocks

I did something today I've not done for a while. I bought a Mad Magazine. I've been buying Mad on and off for over forty years (gosh, that does make me sound old) and it has always been good for a laugh. The magazine I got a while back wasn't that funny, and seemed to be packed with dodgy lifestyle stuff and advertisements, but the latest one seems to be a return to old style satire and gross out humour.

Just right for me then.

I particularly liked this book advert, part of a solid swipe at the Staples office supplies catalogue.

Indeed.

Should Have Pressed F9.....

Just found out today that my beloved Yellow Book, which is the basis of our First Year programming course, has an insane table of contents. It is not wrong, it is wildly wrong, referring to a number of pages that don't actually exist. I've really no idea how this happened, I suspect a change of printers caught Word 2007 on the hop, causing it to kick back by inventing a page 253.

This is rather annoying as we've had loads of them printed. If you have got one of the hallowed tomes, then let me know and I'll send you a PDF with the right numbers in. The only good (if somewhat inexplicable) news, is that the index seems to be correct.

Have They Learnt Nothing?

Today, with the news full of stories about collapsing banks and financial meltdown, I get a letter from the bank that says they've just increased the limit on my credit card......

Postgrad Party

Another day, another party. This time it was the turn of the postgraduate students. So it was out with Rock Band and the rest, and another set of specially "Jon Purdy proof" quiz questions.

These folks came first, with a rather impressive score, in spite of the horrid questions.

One point behind came this crew.

..and we had three teams that tied for third.

Well done everyone. Great stuff. And I still managed to get away without singing. And managed two ace serves in a row at Wii Sports Tennis.

First Day of Teaching

Today was the first day of teaching and I got to kick off both of my First Year courses. I think the lectures were successful, if only in terms of managing to offend just about everyone at some point during the presentation.....

Open Day Fun and Games

What a great audience looks like...

Today was the first University Open Day of the season. Some people had journeyed from as far away as Plymouth just to see what Hull has to offer. I hope we were worth the trip.

Anyhoo, we had a really good turnout and thanks to all who came along. I mentioned some good links for those that want to get on and write some games. Take a look at:

http://creators.xna.com/ - free stuff for writing games for PC and Xbox 360

http://verysillygames.com/ - a site of mine for budding programmers and games writers

..and to find out more about our department and student life:

http://www.wherewouldyouthink.com/

Lab Time

After the fun and games, the work starts. I was in the labs for pretty much the whole day giving out memory sticks, C# books (bright yellow this year) and advice in almost equal measure. The new students are an excellent bunch. We start lectures next week and I'm quite looking forward to them.

Party Time

Today was the day we had our welcome party for the new first year students. Seemed to go OK, in spite of my quiz. I promise never, ever, to have any more "Simpsons" questions.

This team managed to win the quiz. Jon Purdy is wearing the "Departmental Happy Lights".

We had free beer and food, Rock Band, Wii Sports and Xbox 360 action. I think it is fair to say a good time was had by all.

Not So Splendid Isolation

Came in to work today and none of the machines in my office had a network connection. Wah. Anyone walking past my office and glancing in through the window in the door will have seen me sitting scratching my head and looking forlorn. It looked like my little box had broken.

The little box in question provides a nicely isolated link to the campus LAN. It is how I manage to connect my varied and disparate systems to the outside world. I love the idea of a physical firewall between my stuff and everyone else's. Except when it breaks.

Essentially, the lights came on but there was nobody at home. All the network ports were lit up, but not showing any traffic. Trying to ping the device didn't work, and neither did the web configuration. So I tried to reset it. That didn't work either. Double wah.

I was all set to bin the thing, and try to get by with actual links to the real network (which scared me a bit), when it occurred to me that this was a DLink device, and therefore it had a lousy power supply. I opened my "magic cupboard of bits" and, what do you know, there was a spare 5 volt 2 amp power adapter which I'd put aside for no good reason ages ago.

And it works. And I can type this. And you can read it.  Go me.

The New Session

Today brings the start of a new Academic Year at Hull. There are of course lots of things to worry about. Sorting out all the paperwork that a new session brings, Finding all the lectures on the sprawling campus. Getting on with all the new people that are bound to be there. Keeping up with the material in the courses.  And worrying about fitting in.

But that's enough of my problems.

Welcome to all our new (and returning) students.

Abseil in London

Today was the day for number one's daughter to dangle from a rope in a good cause (actually the day was a few weeks back, but it was cancelled due to inclement weather). I was actually quite pleased when it was put off, it gave us another excuse for a trip to London.

Today the weather seemed anxious to pay us back for last time, it was the best we've had in ages. After the early morning mist the day was an absolute belter. We had a walk round Oxford Street before the off.

I liked these reflections.

Then it was time to go up to Guy's Hospital and the main event. The building looked even higher than last time we were there, but daughter gamely went off to do the deed.

Well, would you abseil down this?

This time there were no hitches, and they even had a height immune cameraman at the top to record things properly.

View from the top

If you want to sponsor number one daughter retrospectively, (and after seeing this picture you must think she has earned it) then visit here.

Loud Music as a Cold Cure

I've got a cold. A rotten one. I'm surrounded by used tissues and I'm hoping I've got enough clean ones to last the day. I've fallen back on the usual treatment. Loud Music.

One the way to work I had Beautiful Garbage on pretty much full blast all the way. Great stuff, although some of the cyclists did look a bit surprised as a somewhat distorted rock band seemed to be sat next to them at the traffic lights...

And the best bit? The track ended just as I pulled up in the parking space. I love it when that happens.

Money for Old Rope

We were in the pub, putting the world to rights, and were talking about the recent turmoil in the stock markets where people who don't actually produce anything have just discovered that you can't do this indefinitely without something bad happening.

Anyhoo, conversation turned to the way that it seemed to be possible to earn vast sums of money by not actually doing anything. I mentioned that I would feel kind of uncomfortable in this situation, in that I would have got paid for no reason.

"But you still collect your paypacket from the university at the end of each month..." said Ian.

Thanks for that.

Heading Home

Came home today. To the land of working networks and big monitors. I've not done much with computers, honest, and it has been nice. But I like coming back too.

A Walk in the Woods

Went for a walk in the woods today.

This is what you seen when you look down.

This is what you seen when you look up.

First BBQ of the Year

We had our second barbeque of the year today. This is a bit late (the first one was on Monday. Snag is, we have just not had the weather for standing outside admiring the miracle that is fire. Anyhoo, it went well enough.

Firelighter power

In the field next day they were getting in the harvest.

I wanted to complain, because according to all the research I performed at the age of five, a combine harvester is red. Not camouflaged. I had a play with the macro lens whilst the burgers cooked.

I think this is a thistle.

And this isn't.

Ho for Holidays

We set off this morning for our week away. I'm only taking two computers, which must count as some kind of a break. Hopes are high for the weather, in spite of the disaster that was last week.

Not a bad view from the bedroom window