University Life – Page 6

Sexually Explicit Entertainment May Offend

February 4, 2003 by HB

I’ve got an exam tomorrow – the final paper of BUS 3650 Business
Applications of Neural Networks. That’s my summer semester subject if
you’re wondering. Well, the subject is not as easy as I thought due to
several formulas that requires knowledge of DIFFENTIATION.

/me makes a gesture to ward off evil.

I never would have thought I’ll come across that word again after
Additional Math in high school. My thinly disguised attempt to solicit
specific hints didn’t go so well either:

I suggest you make sure you understand
the tutes and examples given in the lectures. If you don’t understand
something, come and see me during my consultation hours this week (see
web site for times) with very specific questions.
regards,
kate

Dr. Kate A. Smith
Deputy Head & Director of Research
School of Business Systems telephone: +61 3 9905 5800
Monash University    mobile: 0438 112912
Clayton, Victoria 3800    fax: +61 3 9905 9422
Australia email:
kate.smith@infotech.monash.edu.au

WWW:
http://www.bsys.monash.edu.au/staff/kate/kate.htm

A$20 million Powerball

January 30, 2003 by HB

I was having lunch at McDonald’s today when I noticed this large
poster at a newsagent advertising the Powerball draw for tomorrow
(well, technically today) which is for A$20 million. Powerball is a
national lottery which runs into the high millions about once a year. I
think. I’ve only bought it once, and that was about two years ago. A
couple of us went past the Tattslotto agent at the campus center after
finishing the final exam for the semester and saw the draw for A$30
million. We each bought one and we were discussing the things we could
do with that kind of money over dinner. Heh.

Well, I also got a ticket today, and in the unlikely event that I
win the A$20 million, well…hmm…well, I don’t know what I’ll do with the
money, but I’ll do something with it. Probably fly to Amsterdam and
have coffee in one of those coffee shops I keep on hearing about. I
think that’s what they do in coffee shops over there anyway. Drink
coffee, that is. I hear they have some really good coffee with unusual
names like White Widow, Purple Haze and Durban Poison. Nothing beats
having a good coffee and snacking on something healthy like mushrooms.

Anyway, today was a really warm day as well. There was a lot of
smoke too, from the bushfires still burning in country Victoria. This
photo was taken at Richmond station. The heat only dissipated an hour
ago, according to this
[theage.com.au]. Good thing I wasn’t planning on sleeping tonight to
finish up my Industrial Experience stuff for tomorrow. I wouldn’t have
been able to sleep anyway.

Oh God, Yes!!!

January 29, 2003 by HB

function get_max_or_weight_from_itemsubjid_and_criteria_id($conn,$itemsubjid,$criteria_id)
{
$sql = “SELECT max_or_weight FROM assessment_items_criteria WHERE itemsubjid=$itemsubjid AND criteria_id=$criteria_id”;
$stmt = ociparse($conn,$sql);
ociexecute($stmt,OCI_DEFAULT);
ocifetchinto($stmt, &$result_array);
if ( sizeof($result_array) > 0 )
return $result_array[0];
else
return 0;
}

Such exquisite beauty in such a simple function.
/me rubs tears of joy from eyes
Hmm…solving a coding problem that’s been bugging you for a long time
is very much like having a big fat line of coke. Not that I would know
of course.

Where there is smoke

January 24, 2003 by HB

Melbourne is covered with smoke again from the bushfires. The
visibility today is worse than the smog from a couple of days back
though. To top it of, it was pushing 40 degrees today and I was down
with heat exhaustion again. Come to think of it, it seems that I’ve
been very prone to heat exhaustion ever since I was young. It always
goes away after a packet of those ‘Chi Kit’ Teck Aun pills (or as I
like to call it, Poh Chi Kit pills :)) though, so all is good.
Wonderful stuff, those. Miraculous, even.

Anyway, about my mid-term exam, I didn’t do really well. I was
expecting a different question for the second part and yeah…It’s too
hot to write today.

That’s the view of the pond behind my hall if you’re wondering.

Perceptrons, my dear Watson

January 23, 2003 by HB

I’ll be having my mid semester exam for BUS3650 – Business
Applications of Neural Networks (my summer subject) tomorrow. I was
chagrined to find out that the subject requires a rather extensive
knowledge of equations and other math type stuff. I overcompensated by
raiding the library and checking out a stack of books related to neural
networks. I only need one though; the book that was written by my
lecturer, but having all those books does give one a certain sense of
security during the preparation phase. :)

Hmm…why do all library books have this st and greasy feel to their covers?

It is now my duty to completely drain you

January 21, 2003 by HB

I missed my supervisor meeting today. It was all good though,
because the supervisor wasn’t there too, due to some miscommunication
regarding the meeting. The only guy that turned up was one of my group
mates, the other one was sick. Heh.

Anyway, the reason I missed the meeting was due to the strange phenomenon where a USB cell phone charger will drain
the battery instead of charging it when the computer is off. How
interesting, I’ve only see this once, I haven’t replicated it, so I
don’t know if it works all the time or under certain circumstances only.

Well, I did set my alarm clock (I use my cell phone as my alarm)
before I went to sleep last night, but neglected to pull out the USB
charger (which connects to the USB port). When I woke up, the cell
phone battery was completely drained and I couldn’t even turn it on
until I recharged it. Strange huh?

Anyway, no harm done, we’ve rescheduled the meeting to Thursday instead.

Oh, I overheard two people conversing in Heng Hua while I was
walking from the Clayton train station today. I’m Heng Hua and I’ve
never heard that language used much over here.

Spin!

January 20, 2003 by HB

My small but trusty SunAir dual speed personal fan is losing the
battle against the 35 degree heat today. I was woken up in the morning
by the MRS staff who wanted to change the fire evacuation procedures
map at the back of every resident’s door. They blacked out some stuff
with a felt tip pen and stuck some new stickers and then were off. I
could not go back to sleep though, courtesy of the extreme heat that
was apparent even in the morning.

Anyway, I watched Amelie
[amelie-lefilm.com] today. I’ve seen it around the network but I didn’t
bother to watch it because I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I’m glad I
gave it a chance because it’s a very sweet and endearing movie. Very
nice indeed.

I’m very scattered today.

sushi sushi

January 18, 2003 by HB

I was craving for some sushi last night so I went down to Chadstone today to get some at sushi sushi. I wanted to feel the texture of salmon roe sushi, can’t beat that millions-of-eggs-breaking-on-your-tongue feeling.

One Love

January 14, 2003 by HB

Guess where I’m going tomorrow? Okay, you don’t have to guess, just click here
[ausopen.org]. I got the tickets on a whim today after seeing that Anna
Kournikova will be playing tomorrow. She’ll be up against Justine
Henin-Hardenne and honestly, I don’t expect her to win, but it’ll be
fun to watch anyway. The tournament schedule hasn’t been posted as of
now, so I don’t know when she’ll be playing. I hope it’s not late as I
don’t want to camp there the whole day. I have recharged my digicam’s
batteries and I hope I’ll be able to get some good pics posted by
tomorrow. 😉

Anyway, my walkthrough went pretty well. I didn’t sleep yesterday to
finish my stuff for the walkthrough, so I’m feeling pretty tired right
about now. Which is okay I guess, I’m planning to go to sleep at 6 pm
and wake up at 6 am (gotta compensate for last night) and that will
give me enough time to be at the gates when they open at 9 am. I don’t
have my usual summer semester class today because the subject I’m
taking runs for 3 weeks, which gives a total of 15 days, and a usual
semester only runs for 13 lectures and tutes. Thus, I have today, next
Tuesday and next Thursday free. Hooray for that, because even though
I’m not sleepy yet (had enough caffeine to kill a small horse) I don’t
think I’ll be raring to go to class anyway.

The Gauntlet

January 13, 2003 by HB

I had to run the gauntlet today while getting my clothes from the
laundry room. The sprinklers were on, and they rotate 360 degrees while
spraying an arc of water all around the base. It is possible to get
through without getting wet though, because they don’t all rotate at
the same time. However, it does require a certain amount of dexterity
and timing on my part so that my dry clothes do not get wet again. 😉

Anyway, I have a walkthrough for my Industrial Experience tomorrow. Wish me luck.