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Computing - why bother? - 00:15 GMT March 15, 2008

What a rarity, a second post in a space of 24 hours. Now that does not happen so often every now and then given the current situation I am in. Anyway, it is not that I am really bothered about that.

Since I am going to write something and I am pretty much running out of ideas about what to write on life in general nowadays I thought I might just write an article on my opinion on computing.

Firstly, quite a number of people fail to see the point of doing computing in the first place. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean, for instance, someone sees some other person playing a game, and goes "Wow, that game is so good, I am going to study computing so that I can make that game.".

Point number one is: If you think of computing that way, then cool. But if you are not prepared to deal with things such as C++, Prolog(Yes that language deserves a mention due to A.I., not that I am a big fan of it having struggled with it...) then I am sorry, you might as well consider not taking computing at the first place. Seriously, programming is a key part of software development like it or not, if you do not like it, then too bad, nothing will ever be achieved through computing.

Yeah, I know, they say that computer science deals with the fundamentals of computers, which is true to a certain extent. What I have to say here is, as much as it is mostly theory, it usually boils down to the student over his or her willingness to learn the practicalities(Programming comes into mind) in order to compete in the field of computing. Obviously, PhDs with superior fundamentals are the antitheses of what I have just said, but let's face it, these people are pretty rare. Put it this way, majority(if not all) of PhDs in computing knows more than the average person in programming.

Before this gets redundant, stop dissing the subject unless you took it yourself, or you know it inside out. Seriously, comments like "Computing students are all over the streets" without any real justification is not just lame, but shows what an ignorant moron you are. I have read pretty good articles as to why computing is bad, and they had good reasons. Pretty good ones too may I say. I mean, is it not pitiful if you try to diss the subject, and then when I ask around if you know any of this [insert code here] and you do not understand it eh? Having taken the subject itself, I know the exact reason why computing can be bad. But I rather not list them here, most of you will never get the technical jargon.

At least I never go around dissing people with their courses, such as law, medicine and so on. The reason is simple; I have no clue on what their courses actually do, so I do not make myself look stupid. In fact, I respect people who do these subjects because of their interest in it.

Of course, I also respect those who chose the Research Stream of my current course. It may not be the hardest path in life, but it still takes some real guts and determination to do it. That is about it on my take on computing.
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March update! - 00:20 GMT March 14, 2008

I skipped entire February it seems. The reason could not be any simpler: I was really busy, and there was nothing much to say every now and then apart from "I went to university, went back home in the evening and then ate dinner, and sleep" ad infinitum. Sounds like a typical routine is it not.

Until today that is, I decided to write something. Write what, I really do not know where to begin with. Let us see, start off with Chinese New Year shall we? There were lion dances, both in the local Chinese restaurant I went to as well as the celebrations in London Chinatown. There was also a lion dance at the temple which I went to too.

Nothing much of a great deal there, except that in Chinatown, the lion dance was originally called off halfway through for no apparent reason(I am guessing health and safety issues or so). The crowd who were there were disappointed and started booing the performers. After that, they decided to resume somehow, and cheers followed after they performed. As much as that was strange, it at least had a good ending.

British people keep thinking "lion dance" as "dragon dance". I will put the record straight. It is lion dance, not dragon dance.

Well, that is about it, I cannot really think of what else to write here since the days that followed were pretty blank. Academia dominated almost my entire 2008 so far(and probably will in the future with the current state of things), that is all I can say. Revision period begins till May.

This course is no joke my friend. The greatest struggle(yet) begins... get up and face the challenge!
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Pitiful service... - 22:49 GMT January 25, 2008

Second term has already gone underway for a few weeks now, almost through to the mid way point of this term. Been pretty busy, but not quite compared to last term when there was programming being thrown into the mix.

Anyway, I am putting this entry up because, like the entry title suggests, I am pretty frustrated by the support that I have been getting from my Internet Service Provider(ISP) recently.

To keep it minimal, this is what happened: My Internet connection has been intermittent(cutting off now and then) and my phone line has been crackling, so I called my ISP up. One of the questions I was asked was "What is your wireless setting?". Wow. Quite clearly, the problem now is with the line, so clearly I can see the connection between wireless and the problem. Yeah right as if there was any relevance between wireless setting and the problem with phone line!

I understand that these people(support team) were under instructions to follow some set of guidelines to eliminate the causes of the problem, but come on, who are you kidding?

This is not my first time I had such a bad experience with them. I have had worse times. Anyway, that has to be the end of the rant right? No, I still have another thing to say.

A few years back my PC had a problem. It got infected by a virus which ravaged through the BIOS(the black and white screen that you start your PC up with), therefore I knew that the problem was with the motherboard. I sent them to repairs. Guess what, those "qualified" repair people said that the hard disk was faulty and it needs to be formatted.

Try as I could, they never wanted to listen and formatted my hard disk. After that, they only realised that I was right. Oh great, you just destroyed the data on my disk you idiots. Not to mention that when they returned the PC there was only one stick of memory in there when there was supposed to be two. The LED indicators were not even connected at all. To top it all off they even charged money for labour on the bill!

I fix my friends' computers for free, and the most important thing is that for most cases I identified the problem correctly and get it done as quickly as possible. Even though some of my friends are computer illiterate, I do not ask much stupid questions as I feel that there is no need to patronise people. Common sense should prevail.

That is all for now. End of rant. I hope that those who were involved in helping me out trying to solve my problems(i.e. the support team) read this and realise how stupid they have been. But it will never happen.
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End of 2007 - 17:59 GMT December 31, 2007

It has been two and a half months now since I wrote anything here. Not a great deal of stuff has happened really, hence lacking updates.

Today marks the end of 2007, one year just flies by like that. Nothing much to say about this year, it has been pretty uneventful apart from the fact that I graduated earlier this summer, no comments otherwise.

My new term is about to start soon. 2008, a new challenge is up ahead, and an even mightier one compared to 2007.

Pretty short and meaningless post for most of you I know, but it might bear some meaning for me in the months to come.
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Onto my third week of university - 16:52 BST October 17, 2007

It has been almost a month since I last updated. Yeah, it has been a busy month since I came back. Hectic really, that is all I have to say to sum up life so far. Now that with university started a few weeks ago, I am pretty much occupied with academic life for the twelve months to come.

I fell ill last week, suffering from fever, which is rare, since I can hardly recall when I last had fever. It happened during one of those days when I was in university and I felt extreme tiredness. I tried to keep up with the lectures, but in the end I had to concede and go back home instead, to stop from further aggravating my illness. Never had I felt so ill before in my years of living here. Thankfully, I recovered soon enough the day after.

So far, Masters has been pretty cool, it is indeed a demanding course, as it was clearly shown during my first week, where I was given loads of work to do. The work does come in thick and fast, so I will have to be on my toes to keep up with things going on around me. Otherwise, it will get ugly come next year.

As for the students, majority of them are foreigners, with a significant amount of them being Chinese. In fact, the university itself does have a substantial amount of Chinese students around, as I can listen to some of them speaking in Mandarin(with that typical Chinese accent) whenever I walked around the university. Some of the Chinese students in my class saw me and the very first question was "Are you from China?". I could have answered "Yes" for the fun of it, but better not haha. If only my Mandarin was much better than its current state...

I did meet(and surprise) a few known faces in Imperial. One of them is now my classmate even. That is all I have to say for now, updates will come in less frequent as I will be busier(need to dedicate time to commitments) in time to come. I suppose some of my friends were right to say that I will end up as a no-lifer...
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