has the lhc destroyed the earth?

http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

The website contains everything I want to say about the subject really…

(the comments in the page source are funny too lol)

wagamama!

My leaving do for CSC was last night, I had a good time =D

Went to wagamama’s and had Ramen with seafood and a prawn starter I don’t remember the name of. Very nice and healthy food indeed, i used chopsticks too, which is an achievement for me! The wooden ladle I got with the soupy noodle based dish was an interesting contraption haha!

We then went for some drinks in the slug and lettuce across the road, I had strawberry beer mmmmm. I had so many tastes I don’t usually partake in, all in one evening. It was nice to see people at work, outside of work. the general conversation topic stayed with geekyness though lol, I will miss the development team at CSC!

A good night, thanks to everyone that attended!

finishing at CSC

Hi all,

It has been a while since my last post I know, for that i apologise. But enough of the apology’s… actions speak louder than words so they say, so i shall try and make it up through words which are actions rather than words… yes confusing lol.

My life has changed quite a bit in the last couple of months! I have moved out of Thornville Court, the student flat with a loada geeky mates staying over constantly playing games and bumming around in the living room, who i have grown to love lol.

And I now live in a cute homely 2 bedroom flat in the more established residential suburbia of Horsforth, with my girlfriend. As expected nearly every aspect of life id different! I am enjoying the experience so far though, it’s nice to eat properly, have a general similar routine day after day, have more time for myself – I can’t imagine what life would be like seeing my gf a couple of times a week now, which is what our relationship was like only a couple of months prior to this post being written. We have got quite close, I am hearing my readers awwwww’s here lol.

The last 3 weeks though I have dedicated my energy, mind and time to work though. I finish here at CSC tomorrow, after a 12 months industrial placement. I have definitely enjoyed my time here, learnt an unquantifiable amount, both hard & soft skills, and have some great contacts and experiences to talk about in later interviews. Communication skills, organisation & time management skills, confidence as a software engineer and general ‘profecionalism’ have all increased. I really do feel part of the IT industry now, it feels like a career rather than an interest.

All these skills (and money *cough*) I have picked up this year will help me in my final year at university, i have no doubt.

What are my plans now? Well i have 4 weeks off, and a to-do list the size of an A4 page. It is amazing how much things you don’t get round to doing when working full time!

I’m going to think about my FYP and talk to tutors to get some ideas, see friends I have generally ignored by accident since moving house, have a general rest and get ready for my final yr at university! I’m going to Scotland with the Mrs for a few days which will be nice too =D

more posts to come!

Children learning Computing

Just read an interesting article on BBC News pointing out that in the UK less and less children are learning how to programme computers and more and more children though are learning to be end users, I slightly disagree from what i have seen in all honesty. When I twas a child i hadn’t even heard of such things like computer code etc. I had no idea at all with the exception of what a word processor was maybe.

Today children seem a LOT more educated in subjects related to computing, even if these subjects are not in detail, the concept of what a computer does and there importance is a message well received.

News article here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7324556.stm

working and learning

When working nine til six five days a week I find it really hard to sit myself down and read or code in my spare time, and I have loads of ideas and little jobs to code as well as loads of subjects I want to read up on, i miss being a student!

Keyword Map

I came across an interesting website just now called Keyword Map.

You type in a key word and the ‘engine’ spits out many related words to the word you specified that are on the web. The site has a back-end database holding loads and loads of website addresses etc… like a search engine, except instead of giving just results of your search as web-pages themselves, it gives you some words that can help you refine your search with further, or give more accurate results.

Clever idea, except it is only based on websites kwmap ‘knows’ about which is not entirely accurate… but a Nobel idea nonetheless.

human thinking via paper or computer?

Throughout the last hour at work i have been designing an extension to an existing web application, what pages link to each other, what values are passed on the query string, where post-backs must occur and database connections are opened close – that sort of thing. I have found several times now that it is far easier to think and ‘brainstorm’ on paper and with peers away from the computer than it is using MS Visio or word to write your thoughts, ideas, diagrams etc…

I don’t think it is the software at fault, is it more a psychological thing?

Why is it far easier to think and express your thoughts on paper than it is when on a computer? I know others who feel the same too including old tutors at college as well as some Maths lecturers I have spoken too…

Do we associate computers with remedial tasks and this is blocking the left side of our brain? Does pointing & clicking a mouse interfere with thinking?

I just thought i would place a seed for thoughts to spring from with this post…..

‘Screen Shot’

Why does everyone call this something different? Screen Capture, Screen Dump, Screen Flash, Screen Save, Print Screen, Frame Capture….

Is there a definitive REAL definition for this function of a personal computer?

Why does everyone call it something different? It’s like an accent of IT literate speech. Well my accent is ’screen shot’ hence the title… whats yours?

Two Camps. Open Source vs M$

I had an interesting debate in the office this morning about different database types and the pros and cons of both, a subject i knew little about so i listened in for some information. MySQL came into the debate which turned the conversation towards the title of this post: Open Source vs M$.

I was very shocked to hear that several developers in the office are AGAINST open source, they say that allowing all to update a piece of software provides it with instability, little support and errors that are annoying to fix.

Some people in the office actually prefer M$ dominating software development technologies as everything would be ‘the same’ and ‘easy to use and find answers to questions’.

Some other developers argued for open source saying that support is plentiful, updates are quicker and bugs are easily fixed or avoided due to a massive community of developers updating the software continually.

So it seems from my limited time in the IT industry you are either FOR or AGAINST open source, there seems to be none without an opinion in IT.

facebook extended profile

Went onto facebook this lunchtime as I usually do for a break and noticed something revolutionary… (well kinda :p) People have been complaining that the introduction of facebook applications has ruined the simplicity of facebook (Kieron has also talked about this here). And I agree.

The simplicity is what made facebook so appealing and IMO what ’stole’ users from the top social networking site at the time: yes MySpace. 

Some applications are beneficial and fun to use, and as these applications can be developed by all, this makes facebook a true web 2.0 experience, so i see why Mark didn’t want to get rid of them! What they have done to keep the users happy is have the option to put unused or irrelevant ‘profile boxes’ belonging to third party facebook applications within an extended profile which can be accessed via a link at the bottom of what i am labelling the ‘primary’ profile. What a wonderful idea! It keeps all happy, as the application profile boxes are still accessible without scrolling to the bottom of the page via the ‘quick links’ below a users profile picture.

Bravo Facebook, Bravo! For listening to your users wants. impressive.