Physical labour

I thought I was supposed to be on holiday!!

Dad: Do you want to day's work on Tuesday? Terry [project manager] is on
holiday and I can't get the guys

Me: I'd really rather not, but if you can't get anyone else...

-- Tuesday --
Dad: So I've quoted for 6 man-days. That means 3 of us for 2 days
Me: ...

-- Wednesday --
Dad: Don't worry. We're on schedule
Me: No we're not. We're never going to finish by tonight.
Dad: I know. I'm not coming back tomorrow, but you guys are.

-- Thursday --
Me: Dad. Have you got a new annor T-shirt? I've been wearing this sweaty one
two days already.
...
- Later -
Dad: We've got a job in london tomorrow. It's only half a day, but Tom can't
do it on his own.
Me: Fuck off. I'm going dancing tonight. I'm not going to be up for working
tomorrow... And anyway: If it's only half a day, there's no point in all 3 of
us wasting time travelling.
Dad: Then I'll pay you for a whole day's work... Well make up your mind. I've
got to call the client now to tell him what time we'll be there.
Me: Well if you can get me a T-shirt, I will go (secretly knowing that there's
not a chance in hell that he will have an annor t-shirt washed.)
Dad(on phone to client): We'll be there between 9 and 10
Me: *rushes out to the bus stop, and buys a sandwich for dinner on the way to
dancing*
- 20:15-11:30 -
Dancing was... It's a different experience to cambridge: A lot more
performance than social, and no Matt and Lotte :'( (we love our Matt and
Lotte *hugs*). Also, the teaching is more of a one-way process, mostly
general derision of the entire class. No questions there (even though we
loooooove questions) because the class is so much bigger.

[babble] Also, there was a lot of really shit lead-follow: Early on, I noticed
a lot of guys stopping their partners and forcing them to do a move in a
certain way. Then later (when all those "advanced" guys left) I had a dance
with with some (possibly drunk) girl who kept forcing moves upon me. I knew
it was going to be a bad dance from the way she clamped my arm under hers. I
ducked out pretty quickly, and she said something like "I've taken way too
many lessons to just do the basic stuff: It's too boring".
If anyone says that to me again, I think my response will be "If following is
boring, DON'T DO IT! and save the rest of us the pain of dancing with you,
you back-leading bitch!"
Note that I quite enjoy trying to follow (though I will complain quite loudly
about not being able to do it). The problem is that when I'm leading, I will
always start off simple to get a feel for how the girl moves (and if she
struggles with the basic steps, I'm happy to just dance basic for a song or
two). If she does something un-expected(like back-leading) then I can't get
an idea of what she can follow, and it all goes to shit. Of course, if I've
led something already with someone, and the second or third time results in
something un-expected, I enjoy the variation.[/babble]
-- Friday --
- 00:30 am -
Me(silently, after missing the last W16 bus without realising, and letting all
other even remotely useful busses pass him, then desperately getting on the
next bus going along the road): This is why I don't use the busses.
*walks from <a
href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html?mlat=51.5815&mlon=0.002&zoom=16">Whipps
cross round about</a> to <a
href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=51.6079612627822&zoom=14&mlon=0.01">home,
which is... erm... about here (*makes a note to update that*)</a> * (google
maps seems to say 2.6 miles, but I doubt I took the shortest route)
- 01:30 -
*dies*
- ~07:30 -
*gets woken up by neighbour mowing lawn, and parents aren't here*
Me (silently): Oh wow: My dad must have left without me.
*prods mouse to get computer to display the time*
*curses and curls up in bed*
- 08:30 -
Dad: You getting up?
- ~09:15 -
Me (staggering into shower): You got that T-shirt then? Didn't think so. [note
for future reference: should have used that excuse as soon as it presented
itself]
- 09:45 -
Me(through a breakfast of chocolate cake): Dad, can you phone Tomasz and tell
him we're going to be late?
Dad: Whose fault is it that we're late? You ring him.
Me: You know, I'm doing this as a favour for you. The more you piss me off,
the less likely I am to *ever* do this again
- 10:00 -
Tom(on the phone to me): Where are you?
- 13:00 -
*has the first non-[sandwich/cake] meal out of the last 5*
- 18:00 -
*leaves the site, after doing a really shit job of a frustrating install
between two equipment cabinates (why can't the English just use Hubbel
I-Frames like the rest of the civilised world)?

-- Saturday --
*punts among the tourists, and gets sunburn and cam-water in his cable-tie cit
from yesterday*

Windows vista progress

Linux/Windows Vista drivel

Okay, so if anyone wants to submit useful bug reports, I found the "ubuntu"
way of doing things:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash
This was originally because amarok was getting stuck in busy loops, and I
wanted to find out why.

I also installed qemu (and kqemu, which is now Free, contrary to all the
out-of-date articles I found on the net) so that I can run
vista/gutsy/freebsd without rebooting. It's actually surprisingly simple
(especially when you have 3GB of RAM), but freebsd's "tar" is a bit slow
under qemu. I expect this is something to do with disk access. There is also
a problem with the liveCD of Kubuntu gutsy, so it stops working before it
reaches the desktop. I will get the alternative CD shortly and try again.

I'm still looking for a *legal* version of windows vista that I can use for
free. I don't see why I should have to pay for an operating system that I'm
not even running on real hardware, and which will only be used for testing
Free software.

Ideally, I would like a 30 day trial that I can keep re-installing, and a
little powershell script that I can use to get the system how I need it each
time. For now, I guess I'll have to make do with my copy of Vista Ultimate
that "fell off the back of that truck" :P.

I also want to install MPX now ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MUOn_nJmRA ),
because I have 2 mice (one left handed, and one right handed(currently both
set up as left handed)) and two screens (one of which is a bit temperamental,
but didn't cost me anything(give me a multimeter and a power supply and I'll
soon fix that)). I will also have a HUGE room next year, so having two
[keyboard/mouse/screen]s could be useful at parties if someone wants amarok
and someone else wants to check emails (or if we have a film running on one
screen, etc.)

Much love.

The Craft

What more could you want from a film?

I wonder if Mel has seen it.

Computer Geekery

So I *may* have upgraded my computer to 3GB of RAM.

This is so that I can run Vista.

...in VMware.

Cambs Memes

Friday night:
I walked into the bar to the sounds of MC Hammer. How to make a geek feel at home in one easy step?

Saturday morning:
Got a hug from Aaron. Awwwww! :D

Mess-ups regarding dinner meant that we had dinner in an interesting,

No network until after lunch on sunday (right in the middle of the keynote speech)... Caused lots of interesting problems, and geeks with withdrawal symptoms. Also caused a cheer to go up.

I will do a proper review later, but for now, I'm just happy to be on the net.

CupsAndString

No relation to either CUPS or std::string

It would seem that I have written an MSN client in about 150 lines of code.

I say about, because I'm currently counting blank lines and comments and $HOME/cupsandstringrc as 'code'.

Check out voip/cupsandstring on my srcf home for the most current version. I'm making the effort to keep the source revision controlled, and publicly available.

Exams

So it would appear that I got a 2:1.

Not too bad. I'm happy with that result.

( http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/exams/results/2007/pt1b.html for those members of the engineering dept that can remember their PINs )

It seems that Peterhouse got the same number of each class of degree as last year, but with different people getting different things.

Now time to get on with my holiday plans.

*signs into Alex's computer to test MSN*

pymsn

So it seems I've started hacking on pymsn.

It's quite cool, because I'm kinda working in parallel with alexreg's VB.NET client library. Both attempting to implement the newest version of the protocols, but in different languages.

He said he had problems getting the server to remember his username. I have discovered that I am too, but my test client had client.profile.display_name = "Alsuren" , so it tricked me into thinking it was working. I might take a look at the kopete code, if I'm feeling suicidal. See how it does it. (who's betting that it just store it locally? :P )

xkcd

Things I hate about windows mobile:

* mouse-over text doesn't show... because you have no mouse. I now have an
urge to re-read xkcd in konq.

In other news, I only have 2 ethernet cables, so I can't have both working
wifi and a working computer at the same time. (yes: I have a really
disgusting cascade of linksys devices in the corner of my room)

Luckily, I have borrowed Phil's wifi card for testing, so I can neatly
sidestep the problem, and get phone and computer working at the same time :D

Computer

Okay, so I don't think my computer has ever been (or should ever be again) off for that long.

When I switched it on, it got a cmos checksum error. What had happened is it run out of backup power and forgotten everything it was told. Annoyingly, not only did this include the clock, it also included the fact that my 3 disks are *not* in raid, and I would quite like to boot to one of them if that's not too much trouble kthxbi.

Took a while to fix (for some reason, I booted to my kubuntu liveCD and used date to check whether clock had reset rather than just checking the bios settings) and in the process, I discovered how to enable USB keyboard in the bios. I might also try wake-up-on-alarm at some point. Get it to wake up at 7 in the morning and put a cron job to play music at 7:30 :D

*huggles his computer*

*gets a sharp aluminium corner in his ribs*

*vows never to do that again*

Something I didn't do last year

*collects exam papers, like a mighty warrior collecting the heads of fallen generals*

I'm *definitely going to fail my exams*

http://www.xkcd.com/c241.html
--best thing is that if you think you got the joke less than 2 seconds after reading it, you *really* didn't get the joke.

http://www.xkcd.com/c230.html
-- is it just me that wouldn't have left the room in the first place if someone was describing a routing algorithm that was provably optimal in all cases?

http://www.xkcd.com/c184.html
-- only maths revision I'm doing for tomorrow

Electronics(*kicks himself*)

That exam could have been considerably better than it was if I had committed Phil's proof to memory. If I had, that question would have been a 10 minute gift question. As it was, I decided to avoid it, and messed up my timing like I did in yesterday's thermo exam.

As it was, I only had 1 gift question (maximum torque), and I was a bit pushed for time.

Yoga

Went last night. There are a few deceptively simple exercises that really need you to be in control of your body. I'm going more to learn how to move with precision than anything. Cambridge Lindy teaches you how to have fun, and the Tai Chi I did was way too martial and not precise enough.

I think I'll go to the one next week, then at the start of next year, I'll go, and get her to clarify *everything* she says. I might even force her to get everyone doing ['inner thigh back', 'hips level in all 3 planes'(and not level in all 3 planes), 'lumb[ae]r spine [collapsed|engaged],...]

Dream

Had a dream in which we were sitting in a circle learning a game (which involved people going round the circle kissing everyone, and stealing razors) when the leader asked "Okay, so who here thinks they're dreaming?". Stu put his hand up, and was told that it was not a dream, to which he responded "Oh: I should youtube this then" or something. Then they turned to me, as I had absently raised my hand. "Oh no. I changed my mind."

It would seem that controlling (or recognising) dreams is not a skill I always possess.

First two exams

Yeah, so the first one wasn't so bad, but the second one was tres gash. I was considering dropping my structures supervisor an email, and giving him advanced warning that my mark would be crap.

I just can't wait for it to be over.

Now annoyingly, I'm not actually tired, but I want to get an early night, so I can be up for tomorrow.

What's interesting is that I've not really done any written work in the morning all term. I expect my 3 morning exams will be of a comparable magnitude to the sum total of all other work.

I also need to tune my body. I expect I could perform better mentally if I got myself in shape a bit more. I might take yoga or something next year, and get a rigid routine put together. Could even do it over the summer, weaving hacking and learning German into the mix.

We'll see.

*prepares to fail*

Yeah... so I'm going to fail these exams. I don't know any of the stuff, and I'm not awake enough to blag it from first principles like I did last year. I think that's the most dangerous thing this year: I'm not in the routine of working in the mornings, so I might not be able to think properly. This way, I fail Mechanics, Materials and Maths, wich are my 3 Morning exams.

It also feels like I've not done enough past papers (I've not been able to concentrate this year. Even worse than last year), and I've not gone through enough cribs to absorb the correct methods. This might have something to do with the fact that we have 8 exams this year rather than 4, so I would need to have done twice as many papers as last year to feel like I've done enough.

Hopefully, I'll be able to scrape together at least a third (yes: I know I was looking to punish, but that's obviousy not going to happen), and carry on to do some interesting subjects next year, with exams at the end of each term. I'm not in as dire a situation as some, because I managed a 2:1 last year, which will earn me some grace, and I've revised the subjects that I enjoy, so I should be able to pick up marks in some papers. Also, it seems like Jacqui and Rob are less prepared than me (somehow). Digby won't be too pleased with me though, because it's structures and mechanics that will be worst.

*will be jumping his blues away tomorrow (sunday) on jesus green to savoy jazz*

(8)Don't drink no whiskey
Just jump your blues away(8)

*needs to organise something for next weekend on parker's piece*

(8)Spring cleanin'
Gettin' ready for love(8)

Neighbours on Thursday

They faded to white at the end of Thursday's episode. I think if there were any self-respecting geeks in the production team they would have re-defined the term "Blue screen of Death".

*Such* a missed opportunity!

Dance

"Jack-and-Jack-off" for the win

Seems we have more petrean dancers (Mike's girl and her friend)

We learnt to switch lead/follow in Lindy today. I want to do swing-outs as a follow now too.

Gill didn't seem too happy tonight. I asked her about it after, and she said it was that she doesn't like steal dances, or dancing as a lead. I hope that's all it was, but... *shrugs*. She asked me for a hug, and said she was going in search of beer. I would have joined her for one, but I have a supervision tomorrow at nine... so I spend until midnight on facebook instead. It's really odd when I hug her, because we almost feel like a couple. I quite like it.

I'll do something with my life after exams. I promise.