Uni life – Page 4 – sixthseal.com

The Third Peak

February 19, 2003 by HB

*puuuushuuuuuuuuu* (sound of a balloon deflating) I just got back
from the code review. I’ve got a list of 23 odd things to fix with my
code before Monday. It’s mostly minor stuff though, so it’s still okay.
Our supervisor has selflessly sacrificed a good chunk of his after work
time to go through our code and my group mates and I spent several
hours in his office while he went through the code with a fine tooth
comb.

Anyway, I’m pretty tired now so I’m going to sleep early tonight.
I’ve gotta wake up early tomorrow coz it’s the last day I’ll be able to
work on my Neural Networks assignment. It’s due by Friday 12 noon. The
above picture was taken tonight on the Pakenham train I take to get
home. It’s not very clear, take a train in Melbourne and you’ll know
why. It’s not exactly smooth sailing.

I took two photos actually, and the second one was when the train
was stationary so it should be clearer. Unfortunately, the second one
mysteriously disappeared from the memory card. I’m going to file that
under mysterious mysteries. I think I may very well be the only one
that finds myself funny. =D Anyway, I’ve noticed that there are three
peak hours for trains. The first two are logical – the hour before
office hours and the hour after office hours.

However the carriages are always full from 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm too.
I’ve thought about this and the best reason I could come out with is
that the passengers are people who went out for a drink and to catch up
with friends after office hours instead of going straight home. The
fact that night trains are truncated might have something to do with it
as well. The trains after 7:30 pm are not full length ie some carriages
are removed because it’s supposed to be off peak hours. Truncated
trains. 🙂 I alliterate.

Will write help files for marks

February 17, 2003 by HB

I’ve been writing the help files for the WIER project my group is doing for Industrial Experience. Here’s a snippet:

Adding Times

Adding times to the Task/Time Tracker is done by clicking on the subtask you want to add to.

The first button in the upper right hand corner is then clicked.
You’ll know you have the right button when you hover the mouse over the
button as “Log Time Under This Task” shows up.

When you click on the button, the Log A Work Session screen comes up.
Here is where you add the times and descriptions. The date can also be
changed by clicking on the Select Date link and selecting a date from
the pop up calendar.

After everything is filled in, clicking on Log Time will enter the times into the database.

Editing Tasks

The tasks should be updated periodically as the project goes on to
reflect the correct initial estimated hours and current estimated
hours. This is done by clicking on Edit This Task in the Task/Time
tracker upper right hand corner.

Clicking on the button will navigate you to the Edit a Task screen.

The Edit a Task screen is where you can update the Current and
Initial Estimated Hours. In this screen, the Current Estimated is being
updated to 50 hours instead of the original 150 hours after finding out
that the task is nearing completion and would not require as much hours
as previously estimated.

What do you think? I know I got confusing at times, but oh well…

I’ll be free-er (if there’s such a word) this Friday. The summer
subject I’m taking finishes for good on Friday 12 noon after I hand in
the last assignment. I don’t know why the assignment due date is after
the final exam but it just is. These couple of days are gonna be busy.
I’ve got to go to the Clayton labs tomorrow to work on the Neural
Networks assignment because the program we need to use is only
installed in the labs. Then we’re going to have our IE presentation on
Tuesday 2:30 pm and then we’re going to move all our code to the live
server on 5 pm on the same day and then we have a code review (also for
IE) on Wednesday 5 pm onwards till God knows when and then I’ll have
one last day to finish up my summer assignment and hand it in on Friday
12 noon. Phew, someone pass me the meth…no sleep for the wicked.

WIER

February 13, 2003 by HB

This is the Industrial Experience project my team is working on.
It’s nearing the end and the coding part is basically done, except for
some bits and pieces. The project is coded mainly using PHP (with a
tiny bit of Javascript) and it uses an Oracle database that is located
on a different campus, which requires us to be frugal in making
database calls. WIER stands for Web Industrial Experience Resources and
it’s a project management system that’s going to go live in 2 weeks.
Crunch time, baby!

Someone please wipe the drool off my chin

February 10, 2003 by HB

I’ve just watched this NTU (Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore) Halls of Residence cheerleading video from last year that
Daniel kindly FTPed to me. The pictures are pretty blur because I had
to photograph the monitor. I can’t seem to grab screenshots of MPEGs in
Windows XP. It’s some kind of interhalls competition and I was
surprised that some of the routines are really good. There was one that
particularly stood out, I can’t remember which stairway it was but they
had the Moulin Rouge Can Can snippet which lead into Offspring’s
Original Prankster. I liked the intro where they lifted this girl high
up and she waves and did the arms-folded-trust-drop that cheerleaders
do. It’s a really good video, if you’re inside the Monash network I’ve
got it shared under killuminati in Direct Connect (Hub: davo).
Otherwise, bug Daniel [mailto:] to send a copy to you. 🙂

Anyway, as I was walking to the dining hall today, I passed by a
possum rummaging around in a rubbish bin. I didn’t see the little guy
until I was right beside him and in a caffeine induced jitter, I jumped
a little. Well, I think I scared the possum more than he did me,
because he jumped even higher and scrambled over several rubbish bins
and flinged himself into a wall! Ouch.

Link of the Day: A Frightened Boy [rathergood.com]

I’ll have two of whatever he’s having. Oh, and if anyone knows the
title of the song used in the flash animation, give me a holler. Thanks!

Curious George

February 5, 2003 by HB

I didn’t do too well in the exam today, but I should be able to
pass. *fingers crossed* I only got 1 hour of sleep last night. Wanted
to sleep at 2:30 am but couldn’t so I laid in bed doing jack shit until
5:30 am before I finally decided against sleeping and got up and
studied some more. I thought about crunching up a couple of Valiums
(legally prescribed) and getting some sleep, but that would not be such
a good idea considering there’s no way I would be getting 8 hours of
sleep. Diazepam makes me feel really scattered if I don’t sleep for a
decent amount of time after taking it.

Anyway, I did finally sleep for slightly more than an hour at 8 am.
Woke up feeling strangely refreshed and got some serious studying done.
I always tend to cram a few hours before the exam. George picked up the
shovel and started digging into the ground. The tree has been there for
more than 7 decades, but good things must come to an end. He digs, one
shovel at a time, one rock at a time, one pebble at a time. The
children crowded around him, peering curiously at George. Curious
George.

Sleep beckons me.

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?