On 5 Apr 2002, Matthew Walton wrote:
> * points at e-mail address *
I don't use that horrible horrible thing, because Nottingham give a
transient address which will expire (no grace period at all). I have to
break headers on mails I send to student mailing lists to look like they
came from the only address I use. When I leave (either at the end of next
year or when I finally get utterly fed up) I'll loose all interaction with
the University because that's pretty much what happens it seems. :-(
<snip lab sessions>
> It's spelled "paid".
That's a valid point. I don't particularly have anything against the idea
of paying students to offer support, but it's all done slightly oddly.
When they end up teaching basic concepts to those they're "supporting",
then you know something very odd is up - I've heard some great utter shite
- "they made us write a program to print an address and it was *so* hard".
> And I don't go to lab sessions, except the ones I have to go to in order
> to use the commercial software they force on us sometimes
I mailed about that coursework you're referring to (and several others)
pointing out the immoral and unethical nature of forcing the use of such
products and was told that I could use, e.g. dia if I wanted to. I did. I
don't think it's so much being forced as not being given a decent choice.
> I'm doing CFJ next year, but I've given advice to some people
Yeah, me too :-)
> for one thing, it's made trivial by proper use of the STL
I used an STL sort for an array of pointers to objects only because of the
"nicities" of the way C++ handles pointers to objects in general.
Otherwise I managed to avoid using STL in favour of wheel re-invention.
I modelled mine on task_struct and a silly "JOAF" I knocked up entirely
for the entertainmenty sadist value of doing it in that kind of way.
> Like, oh, I don't know, teaching them a decent language to start with?
This is all wonderful dreaming though isn't it :-) You and I both know
it'll take an earthquake to shake that level of sense in to things.
> But as Jon said, there are some lectures I just don't want to go to.
:-) "Anyone want to learn Mickysoft SQL today?". Why deal with
SQL92/98/whatever when you can deal with useless shite instead.
> I can do things with greater efficiency and more chocolate consumption
Let us not forget the irrational extent of the anti-everything
policies. Open a drink in the labs, get banned for incrementally stupid
periods of time, it's a safety issue yes, it's hardly a crime against
humanity :-) The reason this annoys me is I suppose because it's one of
the many many policies that exist simply because they might as well do so,
common sense would be a silly thing to rely on really - and let's also not
forget turning off student webspace and banning music files in the name of
the holy copyright infringement prevention dictorship/Hollywood, citizen.
> Hey, it could be a hell of a lot worse, right?
Oh yay! It could be worse so everything's peachy :-)
> Or maybe I'm just floating about because I have a job and a nice
> third-year project.
I have several jobs and a third year project signed up, form and all. Am I
happy with the way things are here? nope. What's your project then?
Jon.
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