Easter came early this year, more so in fact than in the 90 odd years easter that preceded it. Still it was the end of term and for that a short break was called for.

At the start of the vacation period I spent a few days in Middlesbrough with Heather where we spent time chilling out, going on day visits to local areas, practicing our cooking skills in the evening and solving a murder mystery puzzle (its amazing how engrossing they can be once you get started!). It was nice to really chill out for once and also properly enjoy days out and relaxed evenings which although we very much enjoy we hadn’t been able to do for quite a while due to work commitments.

Another thing that occupied some of our time while away was Heather’s Victorian dolls house that she is building from scratch. I spent a few hours with her helping to get the painting right, fix some of the hinges and ensure the house all fitted together. This is a really special project as it isn’t just a normal dolls house but one of considerable size. It has 10 rooms with an attic, basement and traditional frontage. It’s going to be fantastic when its finished. I don’t have a picture of it but I found one on the web to give you an idea of the kind of thing I’m talking about.

During the holiday I also got a chance to get my camera out and take a few shots of the places we visited. Most of these involved boats of some description but there were a few others, in particular some spectacular shots of stormy weather at Whitby. We climbed a lighthouse to get a better view and were nearly blown off. It was one of our best days out for a while.

After my break with Heather I spent some time with my family over the Easter weekend. I got to see my sister which, now she is at university, is a rare occurrence. We all went out for a meal together on Easter day which was a very nice affair. During the rest of my stay with my family I spent time fixing things around the house, relaxing, having the odd drink, and meeting up with James to catch up. When I wasn’t doing all that I chilled out on the computer throwing radiators at people.

Sadly all good things must come to an end and I had to return to Leeds to continue work on my project which is pretty much all I have been doing since. Still as I keep reassuring myself it will all be over soon and hopefully the standard will be good enough to clinch the mark I want.

Over the weekend I stayed with Heather and her family at their house in Middlesbrough. It was a special occasion for two reasons. Mainly because Heather’s sister Claire is soon to travel to Australia for the year and so was having a farewell party, but an added bonus of the weekend was that I got to meet the rest of Heather’s family who I had not yet had the fortune to meet.

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend and while I now have a huge quantity of work to catch up on I had a great time and look forward to staying with Heather’s family again soon (hopefully during the Easter vacation).

This weekend has meant that I’ve now met all of Heather’s immediate family and she has met all of mine. Considering we’ve been going out for well over a year now, its taken quite a while!

I got my semester 1 exam results today and I was pleased with the outcome. I continue to do well in Leeds School of Computing and obtained a 1st average in the latest round of exams. Its suddenly become very plain to me how close I am to graduation and how very close I am to obtaining a first overall. It motivates me very much to think that I could be standing in the degree ceremony at the end of the year with a first grade piece of paper with my name on it.

While this is a great result, it was slightly tinged by a particularly poor grade in one of my modules. While this didn’t affect the average too much it did leave me the closest to the 1st grade boundary I have ever been and it woke me up to the idea that one single bad module grade in the next round of exams could tip the balance. While I don’t feel I could have done any better in the module it makes me more resolved than ever to work extra hard so I don’t risk letting slip what is nearly in my grasp.

Thats how it feels for me anyway, I haven’t blogged in quite a while. Initially this was due to revision and the resulting exams and then afterwards it was due to work on other things that had slipped as a result of revision and exams. Still, I now feel like I’m back on top of things, including my blog and will be posting more things in the coming days that I’ve been wanting to discuss for quite a while and just haven’t had the time for.

I woke up this morning to find the ground outside carpeted with white. I know its only snow but it does make everything look very beautiful and serene, especially as when I looked at it no one had walked on it. Heres hoping for more of the stuff later today so that us folks revising in the School of Computing can take a short break and go out and play snowballs.

So its the start of a new year, and already I’m hard at work and thinking many months ahead. Still, a new year is always an opportunity to look forward in a fresh and unbiased way, and realise that it is a year of as yet untapped opportunity rather than a year of missed chances. That is not of course to say I felt I missed chances in 2007, rather that you have no excuse for feeling blue when there is a whole year ahead of you to make a difference.

Unlike last year when I went to a jazz club with Heather, we spent new years eve at my house. It was actually a really nice thing to do as it gave us a chance to unwind, play a few card games and such, enjoy some good wine and reflect on the past year. We were also treated to a huge firework display when standing at the window on the top floor of our house at the stroke of midnight as because our house is atop a hill, we could see practically every firework display in Leeds. It was a spectacular show and went on for a good 20 minutes. You can’t beat enjoying a glass of champagne and watching fireworks while staying warm at the same time.

New years day was remarkably uneventful, mainly because we had a huge lie in and wasted a good 60% of the day. Still it was good to relax and breakfast in bed made it complete. We got some work done during the afternoon and then went out to the cinema in the evening to see I Am Legend. This was an excellent film but I shan’t bother reviewing it as Raby has done an excellent review on his blog, which most certainly does the film justice.

I’m looking forward to the opportunities that 2008 will bring and wish everyone who knows me a very happy and prosperous new year. I’d also like to reflect on the year gone by with some links to things I’ve done or accomplished, which, at the time, I decided to write about on my blog. Sadly there are many interesting things that I have remembered doing as I went through my past posts but realised that I didn’t have time to write about them. Still that can be something to improve upon in 2008.

• RouterTech reached its first major milestone that was attracting over 1000 users to the site. RouterTech continues to go from strength to strength.
• I received one of many coursework prizes for outstanding work in my modules. I continue to be both happy and pleased with my academic performance here at Leeds School of Computing.
• Jazz and Blues society became a reality and an instant success at the University of Leeds when we signed up over 100 members at the first opportunity
• I receive an excellent set of January exam results
• I write my first application using the facebook API
• I saw a spectacular lunar eclipse from right outside my house.
• I enjoyed a superb classical concert of Holst’s planets, my favorite suite of classical music. This was also Heather’s first classical concert and I was delighted to be able to take her along.
• My photography techniques improve and I have many images to show for it
• I read a book called Tuesdays with Morrie that I think changed my life
• RouterTech reached its 1 year birthday and remained as much a success as the day it started
• I achieve success in many pieces of work to tight deadlines
• I have a wonderful time at the computing ball
• My first WordPress plugin that I release to the public is a resounding success
• I land a summer internship, working with Microsoft technologies
• I achieve excellent summer exam results
• I enjoy a cracking summer holiday with much to report on the blog
• Jazz and Blues Leeds is successful yet again in recruiting huge numbers of new members at the freshers fair
• I took part in the IBM thinkpad challenge as part of a team of students from the School of Computing
• Jazz and Blues Leeds makes a huge success of its first major event in the union
• I make good inroads into my final year project and start a blog about it
• I run a successful Linux install fest in Leeds School of Computing
• I manage to smash my phone by accident but recover it using a wide array of technical methods
• I achieve the highest mark in the year for AI coursework
• I enjoy a pleasant family Christmas and remember to take some photos

After the end of term I had a short break from work as things had been a little hectic with all the coursework. As of today though I’m back to the grindstone and I’ll be working right up to my first exam in January with a large revision timetable. I have five exams in the new year and while this isn’t the most I’ve ever had at this time of year, its certainly not the smallest batch I’ve ever sat in one go.

My final year project project won’t be neglected though and I’ll be working on this throughout the festive period. I’ve setup remote working so I can access Matlab from home so hopefully I’ll have some interesting results to talk about by the new year.

If I can find time I hope to bring a few sites up to date, release a new version of Calendar, and hopefully open my new business site. The Jazz and Blues Leeds website may also get a look in although all of that is already a tall order for the festive period

It was with great delight that we noticed a new air hockey table had been installed in the union Old Bar last night and after fetching our drinks and the paddles for the table from the bar, set about having a few games between us.

I thought no more of my worse than average performance in the game of air hockey until I returned home and removed my phone from my pocket to call Heather. It was then that I noticed the smashed screen and the deep murky but still back-lit mass that now resided there. It immediately dawned on me what must have happened. With my phone in my pocket and my leaning across the table at great speed to get to the puck, I had no doubt given the phone quite a belting as I impacted with the edge of the table.

Having never destroyed a phone before I was initially in some shock at the damage. Then I realised that the phone did still work, and remembering who was in my recent calls list and how to get there on the menus, I could make a call. The problem was that the menu structure is complex and I couldn’t remember everything, nor could I see the details of contacts or read text messages.

Unlike many people I have taken backups of my phone contents, but unfortunately I hadn’t done this for some time because my method of doing so on Linux long since ceased to function for one reason or another and I’d never found the time to fix it. Boy did I regret that now.

In untangling the mess I decided the first issue was to get a working phone, so I dug around in my box of computer parts and cables and found one of my old Nokia phones. This comes with a number of bits and pieces, including a software CD. Not much use, but it got me thinking. What if my newer phone came with a software CD too, and possibly a cable? If it did I might be able to do some impromptu backing up on Windows and get all the data off my new phone onto my old one.

It turns out that I did in fact have a software CD and a USB cable so after 2 hours of tinkering with software, drivers and failed hardware installs I had my smashed screen phone talking to Windows. I ran the software utility and grabbed a full backup from the phone. Of course the utility saved the data in a proprietary format so if the file to old phone phases didn’t work I was still screwed.

Turns out that the cable wouldn’t allow my old phone to talk to Windows. I didn’t have a cable for the old phone, I don’t think I ever had done. but the phone did come with an IrDA port and as the utility supported IrDA all I had to do was get an IR port on my Windows box and I could make the two play.

This was easier said than done. I quickly found my IrDA dongle, and downloaded the drivers, only to find they wouldn’t install. This was now getting beyond a joke. In desperation I now began to ferret around in storage boxes, looking for the original CD. No surprise that it took me so long because the damn drivers were on a floppy disk! Still, I got them installed, got the dongle working and got the phone talking to Windows.

The restore should have been easy, after all the Nokia application supported both phones, and also supported backwards compatibility of phone model backup files. Unfortunately my old phone still had old contacts on it so it didn’t have enough space. I had to purge these one by one (the phone had an option for a mass delete but required a security code I couldn’t remember).

When I freed up the memory I got the contacts transferred over, all of them, perfectly. I don’t think I’ve felt happier solving a technical challenge for a long time. After purging the rest of the old data from my phone I got my bookmarks, calendar and text messages moved from the file to the phone with ease.

So the lessons in all of this:

• Enjoy air hockey responsibly
• Keep your phone out of harms way
• Back the damn thing up in a non-proprietary format regularly even if it does take a bit of time. You can be sure doing so in a proprietary format with no preparation and without a screen will take longer and be many times more stressful.

On 5th November I headed out to the Hyde Park public bonfire and firework display with Heather. It was a really enjoyable evening and the heat from the fire made it almost feel like it was a summer day - I certainly didn’t need my full winter coat! It seems amazing that over a year has gone by since I was last at the display, but its still as good as I remember.

The smell of bonfires and the thick air that comes with firework smoke always remind me of growing up in St. Albans and the huge firework display laid on in Verulamium park every year. Its amazing how vivid a memory such smells can conjure up.

I decided to take my camera along and setting the ISO up high I tried to take some night time shots of the bonfire and the fireworks afterwards. I was rather impressed with the results considering I wasn’t taking all that much care with my photography (I was too busy watching things with the naked eye!) and have thusly shared them with the world in my gallery.

I really am back in the swing of “proper” work now, having enjoyed a jaunt to IBM in Hursley, Winchester, where we took part in the student challenge (sadly not winning for Leeds but having a great time in the process), and having spent an enjoyable Saturday in York with Heather.

Although I’m certainly ready to get back into the academic work cycle it feels odd to say the least. I’ve grown almost accustomed to rushing around the country to different business and socials engagements and now that I’ve got my two feet back on the ground with no where to go except lectures and the library I’m almost at a loss of what to do (except of course I have plenty of reading etc. already!

Luckily along with a new term comes many student gatherings and nights out to complement the drive to work hard and true to form my time spent in the pub is most certainly on the high side. Who said the start of term had to be all bad?