Of Moving and New Bosses

For those readers who found this article looking for Ubuntu related things, please skip to the last paragraph. However, please read everything! You might enjoy readying about me bitch about my day!

Today I've found out that I am to move office. In some ways it's quite sad. I've grown accustom to being surrounded by archive boxes... kind of. I can hope that my new office will be slightly bigger, but that is really only a hope.

Not everything is peachy with this however. I have also found out that Andy is no longer my boss. I have a new one. I'll be honest, I'm pretty annoyed about this. I only have a few months left of my placement and so I feel that, really, what is the point? Again, I can only hope that it won't make my placement crap and have a completely pointless end to it. And again, this probably really is only a hope. I get the feeling that I will end up doing mostly admin work with the odd project thrown in because Andy has already bought my time. If it does turn out that they want me as an admin monkey, needless to say I will be going to my placement advisor and kicking up some good old fashioned shite.

Some of you may think that this is slightly immature and I have to accept that at some point all jobs have crap parts. While this is true. This isn't my "job" per say. This is work placement and I should be doing something (and this is a quote from our tutors) "relevant to the course". Correct me if I am wrong but making sure that unit handbooks are uploaded under the correct area doesn't exactly have much in common with, say, Java.

So my small collection of faithful readers, I am pissed off. I will find out tomorrow what is to be done.

On a side note, I seem to be getting a lot of hits from search strings to do with Ubuntu. Namely something along the lines of "whats better; gutsy gibbon or feisty fawn?" To answer this question, gibbon is the better. The latest build of Ubuntu is excellent and I highly recommend it. It really is a pleasure to see interest in Linux building.

Of New Rooms and New Sites

Well today, and the rest of this week, I have been (and will be) creating new rooms for mySC. It's time to get it all linked up and ready to do. I'm tempted to create a whole new floor plan that's a little better than the current one. I'll have to see how much work that could be! Might not be worth it if it's going to take me a day to re-script the Flash side of it. Still, once we have rooms it's only a matter of filling them with the content that is every so slowly appearing. It's like watching a glacier move. You can't see it happening but when you take your eyes off it and look back, you can see the difference.

So over the next few weeks I'm hoping to almost get it wrapped up and push it out into a beta test with students! Now that I think about it, that's kinda scary. I mean it will basically be an internet application/game that I have created, on my own, being used by what is essentially "the public". Scary. Yet, it's also a good scary. That even if it doesn't go past the Beta, that's still a pretty good accomplishment. Would be great to have some feedback from students as well. Defiantly something to look forward to!

And on to the personal notes. Been looking at what phone to get next. Again. Last time I looked I got it down to either the SE K850i or the LG Viewty. However. SE have no brought out some new Cyber-Shot phones. Namely the C902. I think I might as well forget about the LG, the camera isn't supposed to be good. Where as the K850i sounds like a pretty solid phone, typical of SE. I love my current SE (K810i) so another SE is a good choice... I hope. But the C902 looks pretty wicked. Almost exactly what I want. Bloody good camera phone with a touch screen. Still a few more months before I can upgrade, so one can only hope.

Finally, I've been working on version 4 of WindFall Designs. I haven't blogged about this before, but WindFall is my ever so tiny venture into web design. I love doing it and it's what I would like to do as a career. It can be found at;

http://www.windfalldesigns.co.uk

Version 4 is looking much better than the current version 3 and it will have a lot more functionality as well. This being a CMS backend to manage it and a customer area... not that I have any at the moment. Anyone want a bespoke website and extremely completive prices? Email admin@windfalldesigns.co.uk NOW!

Another project I have started with a friend of mine, it was his idea... I sharn't take credit for it, is Another Bored Night (.I don't know the extension at the moment). Basically it's going to be a mash up website of places to go and things to do when you are bored. I'm currently designing the look of it, so keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks. I really hope it takes off, should be some fun.

And so... comment on me post or go read another or bugger off and reading someone elses. Enjoy!

Of Waiting and Overness

Well the wait seems to be finally over! Content for mySC has begun to come through at least. It may just be a few pictures for the moment but it's a start. I've even had an idea for an Olympics room!

I'm thinking of doing a 3D render of the Olympic rings, maybe try for a wide angle shot looking up at them. Then have hot spots on the rings to link to different areas of sports, etc. Maybe a link or two to a blog or three. I'll have to crack out a copy of Cinema 4D or borrow a machine at uni and use 3DS Max. Yeah... my pants are liking this idea...

Of Reflection and Growth, Part Deux

I thought I'd take another look back and what I've done so far on my placement. I know for definite that my technical skills have grown a lot. I can do more in Flash than I could before placement. But I have also learned how to forge better people relations and how to work better with people. An odd statement... but something that I imagine will go well in the logbook!

I've said it before but doing the logbook in this blog formate has, in my opinion, helped with reviewing and reflecting on not only what I've done but also how I've changed.

I guess the point of placement is to give you an insight and experience in the work world. And this placement has certainly given me that. As I've said, working at the uni has forced me to interact with a lot people than I have had to in the past. Even working at somewhere like Tesco's isn't the same sort of interaction because here people are asking you to do things for them that are essential for them to do their job as well as the other way round for me asking people to do things. A Tesco manager asking you to restock a shelve isn't exactly essential, except for making sure he/she gets their bonus.

So my skills have improved across the board really. People skills and technical skills. And coffee drinking skills. Bloody important them. But seriously, most of my technical skills have increased. At least the important ones to me. Web related stuff for example.

Well, enough self analysing. It's getting depressing. Enjoy analysing me!

Of Boxers and Pants

A war started at skittles Monday night. A war between men. A war between boxers and pants. What was better? What gave better airflow? What gave better skittling skills? These were questions that were asked. Questions that were fought over.

The battle raged intensely for several hours. Insults were thrown as skittles were torn asunder by big, wooden balls. Cheers went up from respective sides when spares were made. Cries of despair were heard when floppers were narrowly missed.

However, there was one man who stood alone. Apart from the rest of us. A lone commando. He declared that being a commando allowed everything to breath. The flow freely. He faired well for his efforts.

In the end no one was certain of the outcome. Who had won? Who was the champion of the under garment or lack there of?

To this day we do not know. All we do know is... the war is not over!

So we put the question out to you - what is your chosen side?

Of Presents and Putty

Well done even more admin work this week. Starting to suck pretty bad now. Gonna try and get a move on with more project work next week. However we are still waiting on content which is holding us up a little.

On the personal side though, I ordered Claire's Valentines present the other day and recieved it today. Hopefully she'll like it! I also ordered some of that Silly Putty. I used to have it when I was little. Tis kewl. Theres a magnetic version of it now. However I couldn't get my hands on it! :(

Of Rebuilding and *insert second topic here*

Well it's been slow for me last few days of work. Nothing really going on except the never ending admin work. Still waiting to get content for mySC so we can start populating it. I think we want to start a proper beta test at the end of the month. So while we wait for that I spent some time last week rebuilding Andy's old computer that he has passed on to me. I've not set up a computer to log on to a domain before. Along with setting up networked drives, etc. it's been a good learning experience. While I'm not saying I didn't know how to map a network drive, setting it all up to fit in with the uni procedures is the different part.

Because it's been a bit slow at the moment I was unable to fill my second topic list! I've always been able to think of something, even if it was a personal note. However my personal life has even slowed up for the moment. Still winning skittles, in case you wanted to know. Still going to the pub! So, with this small addition I shall leave you. Hopefully something will happen for me to write about. Like a small sub-atomic explosion caused by some weird reasons all happening at the same time that would normally be completely missed but instead vaporises part of the library.