Books and Placements

Uni was average today. A couple of lectures with a four hour gap between them meant I had to spend about two hours walking there and back, so am a little more tired than usual

The walks themselves were ok; gave me a chance to trial out the iPod, which is performing as amazingly as it looks. The second walk home was different to the usual, as it’s been a long time since I’ve walked home as the sun’s going down and it’s starting to get darker.

I responded to a couple of placement adverts from the e-mails sent by our placements administrator. Both sound interesting, are geared to what I am aspiring to become in the future, and one placement is even based in Swindon. which provides an added bonus. I’ve attached both the adverts to the bottom of this post.

I’ve just been searching Amazon for books and managed to empty £98.96 out of my account. I have bought six books – 4 are based directly on my course and the other two are personal purchases.
I have bought:
Mastering the Requirements Process

Operating System Concepts with Java [Hardcover] by Silberschatz, Abraham…

High Performance Java Computing: Multi-threaded and Networked Programming (Sun

Software Project Management [Paperback] by Hughes, Bob; Cotterell, Mike

for 4 of my course units, and:

French: How to Speak and Write It [Paperback] by Lemaitre, Joseph

Can I Change Your Mind?: The Craft and Art of Persuasive Writing

because they were cheap, had good reviews and I’m interested in reading them. I want to learn French again, because I love the language and want to visit there/live there for a while too. The persuasive writing book is so I can bribe people to do things for me, even if they probably don’t want to anyway, like getting a payrise, or getting your parents to ignore the mess on your bedroom floor. Books like that have their uses

The course books should help a lot with my studies, and even the other 2 as well, so I feel my expensive book purchase was necessary, most of it anyway. The extras were cheap though, so no guilt there.

I was looking at a website earlier today that had me cracking up. It’s called Doing it Wrong, and is basically an photo-illustrated guide of people and things to beware of in life. One of the more “closer to home” images was this one, which I added the text to:

3rd Year placement adverts:

TIBCO placement advert

Web Host Directory advert

Contacts and Ranking Up

Today was a pretty good day. A nice 10:30 start to kick off the day (always good to have Monday as your day off ), then a fun trip to Asda, well, maybe not fun, but y’know – typical shopping trip really. My iPod touch case arrived in the post this morning, which was pretty good timing considering that I’m back to uni tomorrow and I don’t have to be as paranoid with the iPod as much anymore (hoping I don’t scratch it in any way )

I think the main event today was my “promotion” in Halo 3 multiplayer from Private 2nd Grade to Sergeant 3rd Grade in two intensive evenings of extreme online action. I’m impressed with my progress; I’m not usually good at multiplayer games, but after completing the campaign on Legendary difficulty and playing about 64 matches, I’m starting to get a feel for the online experience, and kicking some ass on the way. I’ve played 34 ranked matches, most of them this evening, and I have gone up from skill level 1 to skill level 10, and moved up 6 ranks, which, although it may not seem it, is quite good. You can view my statistics at http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo3/CareerStats.aspx?player=ColonelChipmunk (May require a Windows Live ID).

I had my contact lens appointment today – walked to and from town (which took about 40 minutes each way) for an appointment that was 10-15 minutes long :/ Had a quick measure up and eye tests and I’m all good to have contacts again. Now I just have to wait for them to get in contact with me again, to do the fitting procedures to make sure I have no problems with them; putting them in and taking them out, using the solution, etc.

Still waiting on news of my job at Phones4U – I hope it goes well, I’d really like to work there and it will be good to see money coming into the bank again.

A Successful Day

Today went well. Was up at 8am this morning, showering and ironing, getting ready for my interview today at Phones4U. Was an interesting morning – Phones4U had an admin error regarding some stock that my interviewer, the assistant manager Mark, had to sort out, so my interview was delayed a little. I walked into town, leaving at about half nine. Last time I walked into town it took 40 minutes, so I was hurrying the walk a bit more this morning. I arrived at 10am on the dot (luckily), but due to the stock problem, I was asked to come back in about a quarter of an hour. I went to McDonald’s, bought a coke and sat down to think. Unfortunately the problem seemed bigger and it was about 11am before the interview started. I didn’t mind this, because I was able to listen to a few contract sales around me to give me an insight into the sales process.

The interview went well. I felt I was able to answer Mark’s questions and wasn’t nervous. I don’t seem to get nervous about interviews, however, ask me to do a presentation (powerpoint and such) and my knees quake and I freeze
I asked a few questions about how contract phones are sold, and some of the things behind the scenes – It was straightforward and I now understand how things work in this kind of industry a little more. I was told that they’d get in touch over the coming week – either the store manager or their HR department will give me a call. Hopefully, I will have a job either starting next week or the week after.

My iPod arrived today, and in all honesty, I was overjoyed / relieved that it had finally been delivered. It’s been a while since I bought it, although it was the Royal Mail strikes and backlog that left it ending up in an East London sorting office :/ The iPod itself is gorgeous. It’s sleek, very thin (0.39in / 8mm) and the overall product is worth the hefty price tag. I bought the 16GB version, as it will give me plenty of room for my music, and then some extra room for TV shows or DVD’s that I can convert to mp4 format. I won’t be paying the £1.89 per show price tag per TV show episode off iTunes. I don’t see why you should pay for something I could record of the TV anyway. The iPod has a built in Internet Browser called Safari, a specialised Youtube portal (which is more handy than I thought ), music player (of course), video player and photo slideshows. Other applications include World clock, Timer, Stopwatch, Alarm and Calculator. I uploaded some of my music and converted some of The Simpsons series 16 into mp4 format, so they could play on my iPod. I watched a couple of episodes earlier. Overall verdict is that this nifty little device is awesome. I’ll probably write a longer, more detailed review in a separate post later.

With this last purchase, it means that my eBay feedback rating is now 10 (Yay!) and I have a lovely yellow star next to my name to show how good I am at buying things

By request This is me ready this morning

Possible Job and Possible Delivery

Today was an interesting day, yet only a couple of things to note. I am understanding how to use UNIX on Solaris machines fine, in my Internet Software Applications lessons, and I decided I would go forward a week with my Entertainment Systems programming workbook and do Lab session 4 instead of 3, because I like to have a challenge and I got bored of the conversion MIDlet we kept having to modify. To most people the last paragraph was completely odd – That is fine.

Tomorrow could be more interesting, however. If all goes well tomorrow, from what I understand, I could have a new job at Phones4U, which would be good as I would start seeing the figure in my bank account increase for a change (On a side note it did increase today, because I received my refund money from Paypal – wooo!). If I am very lucky, my iPod Touch will arrive from courier on time tomorrow as well, although I hope that they do not decide to deliver it while I am out or I will be annoyed… very annoyed (-__-).

Anyway, tomorrow will be a good day and everything will go fine

I hope.

Delays and Deliveries

Today was a good day at uni, albeit only one lesson long. It was an OOP (programming) lesson today and we were set a few tasks to be getting on with. I completed the first one (with surprising ease) and wrote it from memory, which is a good sign for the way things are heading with programming. I managed to get about a tenth of the way in to the next task before the lesson was over, but to be honest, it may have taken me a while to sort out all the probability stuff in my head – hate that topic.

Back home, iPod still not arrived and an e-mail from my seller to tell me that he is having it sent back to him, and a second one sent to me via courier. He said that it should arrive by Saturday and that he will refund my postage costs, which is a bonus. In some ways I am fed up with the wait, but I can understand why there’s been such a delay. I received a delivery from UPS today. It is a Christmas present I ordered 2 days ago and was shipped that night – now that’s a fast delivery.

Completed Halo 3 today on legendary, because I am awesome Now I’m just going back through the campaign searching for the “gold skulls” – things that, when collected, have crazy effects on your game and also offer points modifiers for playing the campaign. Basically trying to rack up the achievement points. You can track my Xbox 360 gaming progress here: http://profile.mygamercard.net/ColonelChipmunk

I really, really, really want to buy myself that camera I mentioned earlier this week. I’m keen to start photography, especially knowing that I can produce some awesome photos with that camera. Then I can photoshop it up in all sorts of ways to achieve something that looks professional / artistic / just plain great. Once I earn my self a bit of cash, from the job I hope I have with Phones4U, I will begin to save for that and in general. It’s quite expensive, but a good and long-term investment. I have found it is about £233 with delivery, so by the time I have the money ready, I may find it cheaper. I have been keeping an eye on some on eBay too. Now and again something pops up that is a good price from someone with very good 98%+ feedback.

I’m thinking that I will get in contact with Webhost Automation again and talk with Adam Saunders about my work placement year and see if I can possibly have a year working there. I remembered what he said about working with the larger companies and the inter-departmental politics and thought I’d send him an e-mail or something. It may be more beneficial for me to work within a smaller company and the other benefit is that it’s not too far away from Swindon.

Eager Anticipation and a Refund

First things first, Paypal refunded me for the non-delivery of an item from an eBay seller, so it’ll be good to see the money deposited back in my account. I’ve made a firm decision to always pay with Paypal, unless I’m collecting an item in person. That way I can be sure I see my money refunded in case anything goes wrong.

I’m looking forward to the [possible] delivery of my iPod tomorrow. I have always wanted a good mp3 player – that has a decent amount of space too, but to have one with touch screen and video playback too is just plain awesome and rates highly on my gadget loving meter. Oh yeah and the wi-fi is definitely a plus too! All in all, if it doesn’t come tomorrow, I’ll be disappointed, but I can feel confident that I am dealing with a seller that cares about customer satisfaction and isn’t just trying to make a quick profit. If it comes tomorrow, I’ll play around with it for a while and after I may begin to plan a review.

I got onto the seventh level of Halo 3 today… and got stuck. Not in a “This is too difficult to solve way”, but a “I keep getting my ass kicked by hundreds of ugly looking monsters” way. Kinda annoying. Once I’ve finished, I am going to play through on “normal” difficulty and try to get the achievements – finding… skulls? and scoring points in meta games for each level. Thinking about it, I may play the next level up from normal as it will be more likely that you get more points per kill, goal completion, etc. I think the target is 15, 000 points per level, and if my performance on “legendary” is anything to go by, I should be fine

Went to Asda again today, picked up a couple of things and had a look at the black shoes, but there wasn’t anything I was really happy with, so I’ll probably go to town from uni tomorrow. Then I can just walk back after – takes about 40 minutes. I have a contact lens appointment next week on Monday, so I’ll be in town again – might have a look for some more clothes, but will have to be strategic with my purchases as my money will not last forever. I’ll have to at least make it last till December (Only 6 weeks now :O ), however my interest-free overdraft provides a comfortable safety net in case I do go over.

Speaking of Christmas, because you have to these days. I need to think about presents and things. I have one sorted, but need to think of ideas for others – and I need to think about what I am actually doing over Christmas, and find out how many days I can go home for. It’s annoying that we’ll be paying rent for a month that most of us won’t be living there, although I probably will be there for most of the month due to work – in some form or another, even if I don’t have a job at Phones4U (~_~)

A 2nd Chance

Today was the day of my job interview, so I was up early at 7am, showered, dressed, fed and out the door by 9am. I’d planned the route and decided what I’d wear the night before, so I was pretty much ready. I was in town by about 9.40am or so, so I had plenty of time to wander round – I looked out for Specsavers and a place to get a hair cut. Unfortunately, I really needed one before the interview, or at least somewhere to do my hair – it was really windy this morning and I looked a mess It was a shame, because I was all prepared, but all I could do with it was try to flatten it down. So I went in and was taken upstairs to take a seat to wait until ten. When ten o’clock came, I was told to come back next Saturday at the same time bearing a shirt and tie – so I don’t think I was looking that smart :’(

After that slight disappointment, as I hate making bad impressions – especially to employers, I went straight to a barbers (Mane Man) to get a hair cut. It cost £19, but he did a good job and I didn’t feel like I’ll have to be back within a couple of weeks time to have it done again, which is what happened the last time I went to a barbers shop. Anyway, am pleased with the hair cut, and even though it was expensive, I will probably return again, but make sure I don’t walk in and book an appointment – that way I will be able to get a 20% student discount too.

The iPod Touch is on its way, albeit slowly. It’s now almost a month since I bought I think, maybe three weeks, but the seller has tracked it down to a sorting office in East London and it should arrive to my doorstep by Wednesday. If not, then he will send me a replacement via a courier at no extra cost to me.

My Halo 3 progression is getting there – still on legendary difficulty and now on level 6 or 7. I got stuck at one point in level 2 for 3-4 hours, which was annoying at the time, but it’s those delays that make the game seem a lot longer and give you a greater sense of satisfaction at the end. I think I shall write a review in the coming days, once I’ve completed it. The multiplayer aspect is promising too – I actually feel quite good at multiplayer Halo, which is a big difference compared to my usual sucky performance on multiplayer games. I’m getting a lot of practice in for when the time comes to own all my friends (Now I just hope I am good enough to really kick their asses ) I didn’t play Halo 1 and 2 singleplayer, but if Halo 3 is anything to go by, this has been an awesome series. I’m very impressed with the quality of the third instalment.

Went to Asda today with the housemates to get the weeks food. We have a nice selection of meals, and after much browsing of the George section, I have 3 new shirts and 3 ties, ready for my interview next week. I think I may have to replace one of the shirts with one that has a bigger collar (accidentally picked up a 15″ instead of a 15½”). The shirts suit me well, and I’m impressed with my purchasing and fashion sense

A final note; I am now on the lookout for a new digital camera and I think I’ve found it. The one in my sights is a Fuji FinePix S9600. It is a 10x optical zoom, 9 megapixel camera, and judging by sample photos, picture quality and the reviews I’ve read, it’s a very good camera to own. It’s not too expensive for a high quality camera, although it does stretch the budget at about £230, so I won’t be buying it straight away. It’s one of the best that I can afford, before trundling into the land of SLR cameras, which start at £400 at rapidly work their way up in price. There is a good review of the S9600, here, at Trusted Reviews: http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/01/31/Fujifilm-FinePix-S9600/p1 I’ve always had a eye for photography – I know what would make a good photograph, and what affects how a photograph is portrayed once it’s taken. Maybe it’s time to poke at the inner photographer and start a new hobby

All in all a good day. The weekend wasn’t much to talk about really – just a large amount of Xbox 360 and PC Hopefully next weekend will be a successful interview and the start of a new job!!

P.s. I know I use the word ‘pretty’ too much

Uni-ness, Phones4u and Halo 3

Today was a pretty good day; Uni wasn’t too bad and overall, the day went well and I learned a few things. I won’t talk about all the lessons, as there were about five, but to summarise, we went through a few Unix commands in the Solaris labs today, worked on a Java MIDlet for temperature conversions, had a couple of lectures and talked about project planning. One thing that preyed on my mind slightly, was the fact that about 3 or 4 of my friends had some kind of illness or cold. Being surrounded by diseased people isn’t usually a good idea – let’s just hope my immune system is good to me over the weekend.

I think the worst thing about today was the way my hair went, although it probably wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it went incredibly fluffy (-__-) The best thing was the final delivery of Halo 3 (after about 3 weeks of waiting overall, and claiming against a previous seller), although even that wasn’t straight forward. Unfortunately, no-one was in when they delivered the package, and it wouldn’t fit through the letter box (our letterbox is abnormally small). They left me a card and I had to plan a trip to the local sorting office. Luckily, it’s only a ten minute or so walk there, so it wasn’t that much of a hassle. Looked up and planned a route at Windows Live Maps (they’ve recently updated the mapping with a couple new features and a new user interface) and, after writing it down, headed out. While I was there I asked if they had any other packages, as I’m still waiting for my iPod (not worried about the Seller, just the delivery). It wasn’t there :-/

I opened my package on the way home – don’t really like to wait – and lo’ and behold, Halo 3 Collector’s Edition. A bit happier to have it finally delivered, after all the previous problems. Played a couple of hours or so on the 4th (Legendary Difficulty) – I felt like a challenge – and so far, I’ve only completed the first level out of about 9, so there’s a long way to go yet! I haven’t actually played Halo 1 or 2, as I didn’t have an Xbox around at the time they were released – still need to try and find the story to read up on what’s happened so far (shouldn’t be too hard with Google ). Not only is the singleplayer pretty awesome so far, the multiplayer is definately something to look forward too – used to play multiplayer Halo 2 a lot with my mates from Wiltshire – and I know they will be buying this game (Simon already has).

On a penultimate note, Phones4u called me today about my job application and asked if I could come in on Monday at 10 o’clock, so it’s looking good. They asked me to bring my passport, NI card and a bank statement, so I may have a job from Monday, woooo! It’ll be good to have money coming in again. Talking about money going in and out, Allan and Bath still haven’t taken our rent, and BT still haven’t taken the phone bill money. It’s odd, they go to all this effort to try and get your money, and then don’t take it (O_o). The BT bill is 157.99 and 66.29 – a £124.99 reconnection charge, 3 months phone bill, and 3 months broadband bill. To be honest, once it’s split by five people, it’s not too bad.

After the talk with Intel, I’ve been thinking more and more about placements and I’m starting to lean towards working for a smaller company, although there are definitely offers from large companies coming in that do intrigue me. I think that means that I’m undecided I’m going to sign up for the IBM and HP talks – They may offer more insight into the workings of larger companies and help me make my decision.