The exams this semester were mixed. The first exam, for Data Structures and Patterns, was suspiciously easy. It was exactly the same format as the mid-semester test, except it mostly covered the second half of the course content. Surprisingly, the questions were worded in a way that it practically gave you the answer. Here’s an example, in a question where you had to write an algorithm to traverse a….hold on second.

WARNING: The following paragraphs contain computer science concepts, which may not be suitable for liberal arts, English or communications students. If you happen to be paying money to study a pointless university degree with no employment prospects, please kindly ignore the next few paragraphs on important concepts which may hurt your overly-creative mind.

Now that the legalities are out of the way, I can continue. One of the questions on the exam involved an algorithm to traverse every node in a tree, using a simple depth-first traversal. Firstly, I was surprised the exam didn’t test the breadth-first traversal instead, which is a bit more involved than just recursively going through the tree. Secondly, the question actually told us how to implement the algorithm. It asked us to write a depth-first traversal algorithm by first calling PreVisit (in the given Visitor object) on the current tree’s key, then calling the depth-first traversal on each of the subtrees, then calling PostVisit. So, essentially, the question told us exactly how to answer the question.

Another example was earlier, where there was a partial implementation of a tree which has three subtrees, which funnily enough were referred to in the code as the Left, Middle and Right subtrees. Our goal was to fill in the blanks in the code, things like writing a copy constructor to ensure proper copy control. It also had a functions for attaching/detaching trees. Interestingly, it had the code to detach the left and middle subtrees, and asked us for the code to detach the right subtree. So, literally all we had to do was copy the code from the statement just above the question, and change “middle” to “right”. This is why I really enjoyed this exam.

The next exam was Software Development Practices. It was a fairly average exam … it was long and fairly hard (that’s what she said). The case study was all about an ice-cream shop. Personally I’m against food being used in case studies in exams, because it’s always distracting. I wonder how many people included the different flavours in their UML class diagram? I’m sure there would have been a few.

My last two exams fell on the same day. In the morning was Database Management Systems, which was a fairly unpleasant exam but nonetheless it seemed easier than I thought it would be. It’s probably because most of the questions are multiple-choice, and the multiple-choice are able to jog your memory for the short-answer questions. Unfortunately, I spent a disproportionate amount of time studying for DBMS in comparison to Data Communications and Security, which was in the afternoon. The exam was quite long and hard (that’s what she said), and contained a few questions which somewhat tripped me. I know of a few questions which I didn’t explain very well. Things like the intricacies BGP routing, which I couldn’t really explain properly.

My results seemed to somewhat reflect my perceived performance in my exams. Surprisingly Data Comms and Security was one of my better subjects, even though I thought I did quite badly on the exam. Overall, I received three High Distinctions and one Distinction for DBMS. So, this does break my consistent string of HDs. Damnit. Meh, I kinda expected it, since I always disliked my Database class.

Now that the first semester is over, it looks like it’s time for seven weeks of solid holidays. Or is it? Well, not for me. At the start of the year I was offered a vacation research scholarship at Swinburne’s Centre for Complex Software Systems and Services (CS3). While usually this runs over the summer, I decided to undertake this over the winter to give me some time between second semester and IBL. Basically it means that for the holidays, I’m going to be working at Swinburne helping with research projects. The project I’m working on right now is an interesting peer-to-peer simulation system using Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework). Interesting stuff.

Another interesting thing that happened, I finally received my Unicomp Customizer 104 keyboard. I’ll write a full review of it next week, but to summarise it in a word … Nice. Over the past few weeks I’ve become a bit of a keyboard hobbyist. I’m choosing my words carefully here. My friends have accused me of becoming a keyboard enthusiast since now I know things such as the difference between a scissor-switch and a buckling-spring, and who Topre Corporation are. However, I dispute this, because a real enthusiast would own two really awesome quality keyboards, not one. Still, while many seem to think that spending A$180 on a keyboard which doesn’t have a wrist wrest, multimedia buttons, full n-key rollover, an aesthetically-pleasing bezel, macro keys, or a pointless LCD display, the point is I use my keyboard for easily more than eight hours a day, and if it breaks down it will be a huge inconvenience to my life. So, why not get a good one? Typing on this keyboard is like driving a Cadillac. You know it’s nice. A little impractical sometimes, but comfortable to drive.

Apart from this, not a whole lot else is happening in my life. I’m getting into the pretty standard cycle of wake, go to work, work, go home, procrastinate on the internets, sleep. It doesn’t sound that interesting, but it’s not too bad. To pass the extra time I have I might start a holiday project, like get into tinkering with an Arduino or finally get my jukebox system running. The world’s my oyster. Or at least my McNugget.

–Ben

I just can’t seem to get the energy to blog. I don’t know why. Yet I have the energy to post things to Twitter. Meh. I thought since I had a spare half-hour in my Data Communications and Security class I’d write some kind of half-arsed post, as it’s better than letting my blog stagnate, like a packet of crisps on the roof.

Things have been fairly average over the past … three months or so since I blogged last. The coursework has piled up. Data Structures and Patterns has been quite demanding, with a new assignment every week for the past five weeks. It’s interesting stuff though. However, it’d be good if we could do the interesting stuff that our lecturer does with the other C++ class, like looking at how Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression works. In Software Development Practices we had to design a software system, which could have been great but instead turned out to be tedious. Data Comms and Security has been pretty interesting, right now we’re building a stolen laptop tracker in Java, without having known Java previously. It kinda sucks that we have to pick up Java as we go, but it’s not too bad given the amount of sample code we have been given. Database Management Systems sucks, I regret choosing it now. I know it will probably be useful later, especially if I suddenly find myself developing enterprise applications, but the subject is just so droll and uninteresting … and this is combined with the frustration of working with Oracle Forms Builder. Blehh.

On a positive note, I’m turning 19 very soon, and to celebrate I decided to buy a keyboard. Why? Because, this is a perfectly valid thing for a true geek to buy. Considering I spend a good 8-hours or more each day on a keyboard, it makes sense for me to buy a decent keyboard. This means a keyboard with buckling springs. Most keyboards these days use either a rubber dome or a scissor switching mechanism, mainly because they’re cheap, quiet, durable-enough, and cheap. In the old days (20 years ago), IBM built their own keyboards, a class of keyboards called the Model M. These keyboards used a buckling spring for the switching mechanism, which made them very clacky but excellent to type on. In the mid-90’s, IBM decided to stop making their own keyboards and instead outsource the production to China. A few of the workers at the IBM plant bought all of the patents and manufacturing equipment and formed their own company, Unicomp, which is still making these really nice keyboards. Each keyboard is built by hand in Lexington, Kentucky. Their keyboards have received uniformly-positive reviews. They come at a fairly hefty price, since they’re not focused on making them cheaply, but from what I’ve heard they are definitely worth it. I’m looking forward to getting an email with the shipping details so I can start constantly refreshing the FedEx shipping page.

Apart from that, not a whole lot else is happening in my life. I’ve got a cold man flu. That’s about it.

–Ben

The other classes I have are Data Structures and Patterns, which sounds like it will be very interesting (C++ and memory management and data structures, sounds geektastic), Software Development Practices which sounds a bit waffley but quite important, and Database Management Systems, which as far as I know is stored procedures in SQL and things like that. I’m also doing the compulsory Careers in the Curriculum unit, which by the sound of it is a glorified TAFE course on resume writing. Meh, best to get it over and done with than having it hanging over me when I go to graduate.

I’ve spent the last week or so settling back into Melbourne. This year I’m back at the Swinburne Residences. The first question I’m asked when I tell people this is “why didn’t you go into the apartments?” … well, I dunno really. The Res was pretty good last year. The apartments didn’t really phase me. UniLodge is amazingly expensive. Meh.

The Res hasn’t changed a whole lot since last year. Well, there’s new RAs, both of the TV rooms now have DVD players (one of them still had a VHS player … in 2008 … c’mon), and there’s now a lot more fines for things like forgetting your keys and removing the flyscreen from the window (which is a $100 fine .. what?!). Also, the cost of it has gone up $15/month. Apart from that, it’s about the same. There’s still an amazing sense that it isn’t good value for money, especially in comparison to residences at other universities. In fact, I think we have the most expensive residences out of nearly every university in Melbourne, given we don’t get a meal service or anything*, however I probably should go and do a bit of research before I say that. I’m just going by informal discussions with other friends who are at other universities.

This week I haven’t done much, apart from vegetate reclimatise to the wonderful world of Melbourne. It’s been a pretty lazy week. I did join the SwinDrinkClub though, so that should be good. The first event is next Thursday: The staff bar on level 3 of the UN building is reopening for SwinDrinkClub members, which is a great thing. Not that there’s any immediate shortage of watering holes around the Hawthorn area, but it’s nice to have one on campus.

Another good thing that happened this week was The Ama-swin Race, the orientation scavenger hunt exclusive to PSD students. While I missed the race, I caught up with everyone at the finish line, which this year was The Hawthorn. It was an enjoyable night.

Anyway, hopefully this second year of university is as good as the first, or even better!

–Ben

* – with regards to meal service, we get a “continental” breakfast which consists of toast, cereal, fruit, and terrible orange-flavoured juice (not orange juice, there’s an important distinction. Maybe this is just a by-product of growing up in a citrus-growing area where we had real orange juice all the time, I dunno.).

The cause of the problem is libxml2 version 2.7.0 and newer, which for some reason changes the way that some bits of text are stripped. Libxml2 is used by PHP to handle XML parsing.

There are a few ways to fix this, wait for the new version of PHP (it’s fixed in 5.2.9), downgrade your copy of libxml2 to a version before 2.7.0, or hack WordPress so it won’t get libxml2 to parse angle brackets. The third option is the easiest.

This patch will fix your XMLRPC issues. The only thing is you will need to update the code to check for libxml version 2.7.3 as well. This can be done by adding || to the end of the lines ending with 2.7.2 and adding a line underneath, "LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == ‘2.7.3′ ". Re-upload the new class-ixr.php and rss.php and you’ll be good to go.

–Ben