City Spaceship?
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Doesn't this make you want to go and find out what might be inside? Even though it might be a Starbucks....
Back to Normal
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Well, the blog's back up and the heating is working. I never thought I'd be so pleased to be back where I was eight days ago....
Blogging about a Broken Blog
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It's one of those existential questions on a par with "How do you throw away an old dustbin?". My blog has been a bit broken over the last few days and I'm not sure how to write about it.
Having given this some consideration I think the answer to the question "How do you blog about a broken blog?" is that you do it afterwards.....
Anther Big Exam
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Another big exam today. Another two or so hours walking back and forth looking stern. I suppose it's quite good exercise though...
Going bananas with passwords
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We had our big First Year exam this morning. Around 250 students took the exam at the same time. Thanks to Septa, Amadou, Kevin, Nicholas, Xinhui and David for helping to run the affair.
Before the exam I carefully wrote a briefing document and made sure that everyone knew the username and password to unlock the test. Bearing in mind the Yellow Book theme this year I thought a username of "bananas" and a password of "custard" would work well.
Thing is, that's not what I typed in the briefing document. I missed the s off bananas, and so people were tying to start the exam with a single banana. Which didn't work. Fortunately I'd also put my phone number in the briefing document, so as soon as the exam started my phone lit up with folks ringing through from the exam locations around camps. We sorted out the problem in double quick time and everyone was able to get on and answer the 50 questions.
Central eating tips
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Home hints for the handyman: What to do if your central heating breaks.
Go out somewhere nice and warm for lunch. Stay there as long as possible.
It worked for us.
Boiler Busted
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Pretty much all of these parts are worn out in our boiler
What is it with gas boilers? You buy one and then, twenty years later, you have to buy one again. The plumber who was kind enough to turn out today took one look at the bits of bent metal stuck on the wall of our garage and, after a sharp intake of breath (always an expensive sound in my experience) told us that it was pretty much worn out. We could replace the bit that might be broken and then find that it either works for a while or something else, that can't be replaced, is also broken. It looks like it might be new boiler time. This could put on hold any camera upgrades for a while.
Cold Home
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Came back to a cold home tonight. No heating. At the moment the only difference between our house and a fridge is that with a fridge a light comes on when you open the door.
Mobile Phone Holograms
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I've not tried viewing any of these holograms yet, but I'm definitely going to have a try. Find out more here.
Things To Remember not to Forget
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Don't forget there are a couple of things coming up soon....
Global Gamejam and Platform Expo: The next Global GameJam is at the end of this month. Sign up at the registration site. This is a great way to get experience coding and is also part of the Platform Expo running in Hull.
FameLab: Famelab is a chance to get noticed, and also a chance to practice speaking in front of an audience. The pitches are very short - what could go wrong in Five Minutes? Find out more here.
For Hull students we've had a meeting today (I do love meetings) to sort out the Seminar plans for the next semester. There's some interesting things coming down the tracks....
First Day Back at Work
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Back to work today. The sky first thing was especially dark, just to celebrate....
Happy New Year at the C4DI
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What with today having really quite nice weather we went out for a walk. I took number one son to show him the new C4DI headquarters down at the waterfront. I think it is a stunning looking building, and a great visual compliment for "The Deep" which is just across the river. I'd like to think of this as a metaphor for all the great things which are happening in Hull just at the moment, with a burgeoning local software scene and some fascinating trajectories for developers who want to live and work in lovely Hull.
Oh, and I'd like to wish all my readers a happy and prosperous New Year. I hope you have a happy, healthy, fun-filled and prosperous 2016.
Merry Christmas from me and the Robot
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To be continued.....
So I spent a very happy chunk of today making a drawing robot that very nearly works. I got the kit as my big Christmas present. This drawing robot needs a bit of calibration and I need to stop the paper wandering around the desk, But it was all lovely.
I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Space Cheese Miner Awards
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Here are the finished awards, along with the super-rare "Blue Cheese" edition.....
Meanwhile....
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... at a secret rocket and cheese production facility in the North of England....
... I'm making special "Space Cheese Mining" marker awards for all the folks who helped out with the First Year marking this year. I'm going to give them to Kevin, David, Phininder, John, Bailin and Brian to say thanks for their assistance in giving all of our students a great assessment experience and some splendid feedback. Guys, I'll have them for you for Monday.
Why I do my job
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For me, there's nothing quite like marking a nice looking, well structured piece of code, giving a good grade and then asking the student "So, when did you start programming?" and then having them tell you that they started in September this year.
Cottingham Food Festival and Hull Pie
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Not a bad way to spend a Sunday lunchtime. Wander round Cottinham Food Festival, buy a pie from the Hull Pie stand and then go home and eat it.
Lovely.
Day of Rest
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What, with today being Sunday, I'm not going to do a blog post.
Oh.
Suits me
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Went to Bristol today to one of the few shops in the country that sells clothes that fit me. Bought another suit. I think I may be getting ideas above my station; which is worrying.
Printer Bashing
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This had better keep working...
You should never try and do anything when you have jetlag. Especially print things. Today was the day I needed to print up all the materials for the Three Thing competition. Like I did for the last few years I fired up my printer and, like it did for the last few years, it promptly proceeded to jam up with paper.
Some things about the modern world confuse me. We can put men on the moon (although that was a long time ago). We can fathom out the deepest mysteries of science. We can create vast and powerful networks that span the globe. But we can't make a device that reliably feeds paper into itself.
Up until now I've just fixed all the paper jams and carried on, repeatedly printing until I get all the copies I need. But today I had jetlag, which reduced my tolerance of such foibles to avery bare minimum. So that, and the realisation that I'd have to do exactly the same thing next year, and the year after that, made me pick the printer up, throw it in the car and take it to the tip.
Then I went on to Staples and picked up a replacement printer. I think I may have annoyed the staff by the way that I went along the row, typing product numbers into Amazon and looking for a device with a set of good reviews. Turns out that there aren't that many in that situation. Which confuses me. (see above)
Anyhoo, the HP Envy device that I selected was well reviewed and comparatively cheap. It will cost a huge amount to keep going - of course - but I'm hoping that it will print reliably for a year or two.
