Weekend Coverage, Internet and Laptop

Finally back after a rather long weekend. Was rather enjoyable none the less.

Interestingly enough I got up on stage twice for public speaking, both of which were rather large audiences, one was about a room the size of one of the lecture rooms in DB17, the other room was probably comparable to CLT. Strangely though, I found that getting up there and talking was far easier than the debate.

Internet access where I am currently is rather.. painful. In a black spot simply put so the internet is very temperamental, making it difficult to open basic things such as Gmail or even download file attachments. I haven't even bothered to try and upload a file yet, seeing as I couldn't even get a steady enough connection to actually check my account balance for online banking.

The biggest issue by far though is that my VAIO laptop just crashed. It doesn't seem to want to stay on and keeps powering itself off. At one point it flat out refused to turn on. I managed to get it to power on long enough to get my files for my thesis off as well as a few other files I needed. Right now though, I'm really glad for purchasing the netbook. I had expected the laptop to crash so I'm glad I took that into consideration. When I get back to Townsville I'll have to get it dropped off for repair and figure out whether I try and salvage it, replace it completely, or leave a desktop on campus with remote access from my netbook. Will figure it out when I get back anyway.

During the week, I'll be going up to O'Reiley's and hopefully might talk to some people there to get their views on the before and after of tourist development.

I'm also looking at going up to Paluma sometime during lecture recess to get some photos as a backing to help out with starting my modelling for the project. I really want to get that part of my project started and a fair amount of it done before the end of the semester.

For this week, I've got to finish my BU4061 assessment and also get in contact with Bruce (again) to find out what is happening with the presentations. I've still yet to receive confirmation on where I'm to present. Or even when. I also have to find out if Ian did manage to get an example of a Thesis Proposal for me to look at as well... Hm.

Definitely a lot of work to accomplish over the week. Shall see how I go.

Paper Presentations, Maths and Thought Trails

Ah, we just had the presentation example given to us by Bruce earlier for CP5090, and damn... The paper is well... pretty full on.

The paper is about parallel Prefix Composition, basically doing things in parallel rather then sequential and the principles behind it.

I have not properly looked at anything maths related since... Oh, about grade 11? 12? I dropped out of Maths C and switched to account in grade 11 because I didn't enjoy it. And that was some 4-5 years ago, so trying to wrap my head around the concepts being talked about in the paper - just straight over my head.

Regardless though, it was interesting to get an idea of what kind of presentations we have to do for our own in week 7 onwards.

Main points to look at for presentations:

• What is the idea of the paper? Or ideas?
• What is the author trying to achieve?
• What is the motivation for the paper?
• Looking at the relationships amongst the results, what is the core element?
• How to convey the information to the audience?

"A good presenter should allow the audience to gain enough knowledge from the presentation to read the paper profitably. It should read as a map of the presentation and of the paper."

Now, here's hoping the papers that I get assigned I can at least read. If I can avoid anything maths related (kinda hard if its computer science) then that'd be alright. I'm not exactly sure what type of papers we have to look at. A tourism one probably wouldn't be so bad as it ties in to the project, impacts and what not. Then a gaming one with how people interact in virtual environments (seeing as we haven't got the gaming virtual reality stuff completely down pat yet - but the technology is there) and maybe something else... I dunno. I'll have to find out anyway.

Note to self: See if there are recordings of people doing a critical literature review at all, and see how one plays out in reality rather then as an example.

Found out about CP4100 as well. Tis a thesis subject. Placeholder if you will. In other words, more free time! Hurray! Currently I'm sitting in the computer labs in the uni, and I think I'm going to have to get into the habit of coming out here and working at least until I can get some office space. As stated earlier, distractions at home = very time consuming. The labs are good in the late afternoons, but during the day, hectic, especially when students are clambering around looking for computers to use. Particularly the first years. Library may be an option. *ponders*

I think I may have to invest in a second computer/laptop when I get back from Brisbane. My current laptop I think is slowly dying and I need to take it in for repair but still using it for uni. Keeps making funny sounds and I think the DVD drive may not work. That and it randomly freezes up on me, despite doing a full clean a week or so ago. PC at home I'm paranoid about it crashing. Got backups and what not, but still paranoid.

Must invest in a blu-ray burner for this project. External harddrives are good and all for backup purposes but past experience has taught me that harddrives are not 100% reliable. Subject to crashes, data corruption and loss. At least blu-rays, like DVDs and CDs are hard copies where you only really loose the data if it a) scratches (very hard to scratch a blu-ray, I've only seen two scratched PS3 discs before, and they were stepped on), b) cracks or c) becomes lost. I checked the pricing, it's not too bad. Should be able to pick one up for under $200. Plus the discs get a good 25GB out of them, without Dual-Layer, so perfect to keep full HD renders and models on.

Ah, I think there may be a class coming in soon. People keep slowly weeding their way into the room. So shall leave it at that for now.