After about three days of bursty activity I've just about finished de-junking my office. This picture shows the final result. I am sure that any students that may have visited me in my office recently won't recognise it in it's new, tidier, state.

Some may think that this was a displacement activity but the Procratinator's Handbook reckons that you need to declutter your life as part of the strategy to overcome procrastination. It's certainly the case that I no longer despair at the untidiness of my office and that I have a renewed energy when working there. I just hope I can keep it uncluttered.

I created a wee album of photos that document the progress I made during the dejunking. No doubt, I'll use these images as an incentive to keep things tidy from now on! Fingers crossed.

The Register: Transmeta blades power landmark supercomputer breakthrough

Los Alamos Labs in New Mexico has built a modest 240-node Beowulf cluster from RLX's Crusoe-powered blades, which is humble indeed compared to the vast ASCI showpieces. But according to the system's designer, Wu-chun Feng, it marks an inflection point for the microprocessor industry. And to prove the point VAX godfather Gordon Bell, and Linus Torvalds were present at the birth.

An interesting wee article. Not least because of the links to background material. Another reason is for some of the great quotes - for instance:

"The continued tracking of Moore's law will result in the microprocessor of 2010 having over one billion transistors and dissipating over one kilowatt of thermal energy; this is considerably more energy per square centimeter than even a nuclear reactor."

See also http://duncan.smeed.org/942

via SiT - The Chronicle: 5/24/2002: Mixing and Matching Distance-Education Software

Until recently, moving data among software made by different proprietary companies has often been an arduous process that involved the risk of not being able to use old content in the new system. And the proprietary nature of the software made by many companies made swapping content or capabilities among systems difficult.

As usual David C-T digs up another great link. The timing couldn't have been better as Strathclyde University is going through an evaluation of MLEs process at the moment. I arranged a meeting of interested staff in my department to discuss the recent consultant's report about MLEs. One of our conclusions was that supporting standards was a vital aspect of any MLE to avoid lock-in. The report cited above is very helpful in that respect.

The Doc asks:

"What do you call a blogger who won't link? We need a name for that."

My suggestions: BlogBlagger or WebBlagger

There are currently no Google hits for BlogBlagger or WebBlagger!

Rationale: 'Blag' is UK slang for theft and/or borrowing something with no intention of paying it back. A BlogBlagger - or even just a Blagger - is someone who steals/borrows content/ideas from other bloggers without paying (linking) them back.

Here are a couple of examples of 'Blag/Blagger' from the slang dictionaries:

From A dictionary of slang - "B" - Slang and colloquialisms of the UK.

blag:
Verb. To lie or use clever talk with profit as an objective.
Noun. 1. A con, a 'scam'.
2. A violent robbery or raid.

From The Online Dictionary of Playground Slang [warning: adult language]:

Blagger : used to describe someone who is a bit of a 'pickey'. they never have their own fags,crisps and will constantly harrass someone to give them theirs instead. A bit like a sponger. can also be used to describe an action ie can I blag a fag off you.

This article is permanently linked to http://duncan.smeed.org/blogblagger and http://duncan.smeed.org/webblagger so if you wish to blink me then please use one of those. Thanks.

ROTFLMAO at today's Google and Dilbert Doodle. Brilliant. Sheer genius.

Just a wee teaser from page 2 of Tim O'Reilly's WWDC Keynote Manuscript

There have been an amazing number of iBooks at recent O'Reilly conferences. The adoption by key OSS communities and leaders is also striking. For example: most of the Perl core team is now on OS X; James Gosling, Duncan Davidson, and a lot of other key Java developers; P2P developers; many of the key developers in bioinformatics (a very important new field involving the application of computer power to gene research and related areas). All are heavily into OS X.

And of course, it's not just hackers, but users who are taking up OS X in droves. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual is our fastest-selling new book since The Whole Internet User's Guide in 1992-1993, when the commercial Internet started to take off.

Why?... [read on]

I recently bought my copy of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual so I was particularly interested to hear that it's O'Reilly's fastest selling book.

[ANN] Conversant 1.0b1

After three years in development, Macrobyte Resources is pleased to announce the release of Conversant 1.0b1.

Excellent! Just heading over to http://conversant.macrobyte.net/ now to check it out...

Utterly brilliant. 15 minutes from (slow modem) download to having my first Conversant site up. The installation was a breeze!!

David Davies' Frontier Learning : Home Page

The Frontier Learning web site is a forum for educators, educational technologists and the just plain interested to meet and discuss e-learning. A specific theme of this web site is the use of UserLand's tools, Frontier, Manila and Radio in an educational setting.

Hopefully, Conversant would be a contender too.

My copy of the Procrastinator's Handbook was delivered Friday. So far I'm halfway through reading it and like Jim have found it to be entertaining, thought-provoking, and inspirational. I certainly fit the profile of certain types of procrastinator. I'm taking heart froom the fact that there are simple techniques that can be used to overcome the 'affliction'. I'm far from being the world's worst procrastinator but there's certainly room for improvement. The book's confirmation that most people procrastinate to some degree or another is a comfort. But there's no room for complacency. I'm looking forward to finishing the book and putting into action the steps necessary to become an anticrastinator. No doubt I'll mention some of the steps here - that'll help focus my attention on them. I'll even document some of my procrastinations as I overcome them as I think this will help me focus.

It's likely that I would have finished the book today had it not been for the fact that my normal train service has been resumed. Last week was pretty unproductive during the commute to/from work since the need to switch to a ScotRail service between Edinburgh and Glasgow is not conducive for work. This service is so cramped and over-busy that I can't bring myself to use the iBook on the journey. Now that the GNER service is back, I have sufficient space and quiet to use the iBook. Hence catching up on the backlog of news for the Jotter.

The Register: Nintendo drops GameCube price pants:

"Nintendo is ratcheting up the console price war by dropping the GameCube's recommended retail price in North America to $149. "

Several important meetings today.

This morning saw the Departmental Duties Meeting which is the annual event at which we divvie up the departmental teaching and admin duties. Nothing much changed for me as none of my colleagues were clamouring to teach what I teach or administrate what I administrate ;-)

I was about 15 minutes late for this meeting since the train I was travelling to work in broke down temporarily. As there's currently an emergency timetable in place due to the knock-on effect of the Potters Bar accident I have to change trains. I missed the first connection by 30 minutes and 10 seconds, the second connection by 10 seconds. So I was running an hour late. The only consolation is that I had time to buy the Millie's Classic Coffee special offer of a muffin (I chose blueberry) and a coffee for £1.30. Mmmm!

The 2nd meeting today was this afternoon at Glasgow University. As Undergarduae Admissions Selector for the Department I'll be going along. Here's the programme:

Computing across the interface:
Supporting student transition from school and college to university.

1.30 Arrival and coffee

 

1.45 Welcome.

Professor Ray Welland, Head of Department, University of Glasgow

2.00 Key issues at the interface. 

Phil Gray, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow

2.15 What is happening in schools.

David Bethune, Development Officer, SQA

2.45 Discussion: What universities are looking for?

Chair: Alison Mitchell, Student Recruitment Officer, University of Glasgow.

3.30 Break

 

3.45 Breakout Discussion Groups

• What is good preparation for further study in Computing?
• How can a student's pre-university experience best be developed at university?
• How can we effectively communicate across the interface
• (These are possible topics. We will agree on relevant topics at the meeting)

4.30 Plenary/ next steps

 

5.15 Cheese and wine

 

6.00 End of meeting

 

[Note: I wrote the following on the train and in the future tense assuming that I would have time to post it before the meeting. As you can see I didn't ;-)]:

This looks like it'll be an interesting meeting/discussion. Apparently, there has been an excellent response to the original call for participation with at least one representative from each Scottish university along with teachers from different parts of the country. There will be about 25 participants altogether.

I wonder if there'll be any students there? If not then I think that's a missed opportunity. If any of my students are reading this then feel free to contribute your opionions/experiences of your transition from school to university and what support you (would have liked to have) had.

I'll write a follow-up about the meeting later but here are some initial thoughts prompted by the above programme:

What universities are looking for?

I can't speak for the others but at Strathclyde (UoS) incoming students need a good grounding in maths. I guess this will be the same for the 'old' universities. UoS does not require a formal computing subject - such as a Higher in Computing - for entry. UoS entry standards are amongst the highest in Scotland. I get a lot of applications from HNC/HND students in FE but invariably they don't have a maths background. The assessment regime in FE - mostly continual assessment - is also at odds with the regime - traditional exam with some coursework contribution - in most(?) HE institutions.

What is good preparation for further study in Computing?

At UoS the only absolute requirement entry qualification is maths. I am sure this is going to be a bone of contention and I suspect will split the universities into two camps: "Yes - a must have for Computer Science", and "No - we teach IT rather than Computer Science".

Of course, we expect our students to have the necessary study skills and the self motivation. We would like them to have an interest in the subject. 1 in 4 don't according to a survey we did some years ago. Have others surveyed their intake(s)?

[At this point the thrain pulled into the station. I'll add more thoughts to the follow-up.]