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Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 00:47 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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Semester 7 Post Mortem

changelog v1.07e
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* RSS feed generation for new posts fixed - previously had a bug with published dates.

First blog software update in months, this mainly for efficiency purposes - thanks to the RSS Feeds Toolbar, there need be no manual checking of blogs to determine if there are any juicy new posts. Just add the feed (comes by default with Blogger at http://[blogname].blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default), and it'll alert you of any new entries within five minutes.

Results are out, and there is good news and not so good news. Good news is, it's one of my better semesters towards the computing degree, CAP-wise. Not so good news is, It didn't pull my overall CAP as much as I had hoped.

Below Expectations:

CS3216 Software Development on Evolving Platforms - B+. Probably could have done better, but at least I had a valuable lesson drummed into me, the specifics which I shall not divulge so cheaply. It's really not a module for everybody, so those who are concerned with the effort-to-grade ratio should probably stay away. At least it got me to partially deploy that MMORPG, though a real-time AJAX framework likely isn't scalable as of now.

Met Expectations:

CS3208/3209 Undergraduate Research in Programming (8MC) - A-. Well, it didn't exactly meet my initial hopes, but since there was no great breakthrough I suppose it's fair. Guess the RTS AI dream will have to wait just a bit longer.

CS3265 Economics of E-Business - A+. A module in which for once I had both eyes on the final grade when I signed up. Oh, the interest is there too (I do have a second degree in economics underway), but the idea here was at least as much as to score as to learn new stuff. As expected, topics and concepts covered in actual microeconomics popped up liberally, which suited me just fine. Did well in the tutorials and midterms, felt I did well in the finals, and was lucky enough to get landed with a very good project group (second of about a dozen in the group work component). Cold calling for project mates pays!

SAP for computing: 4.50 (like last semester, sad)

No Real Expectations:

Okay lah, since my economics degree isn't honours (not with just half a year more and no real overlap as with CS/Maths for instance), and its CAP was (and barely remains) higher than my computing degree, it seemed logical to devote more time to computing pursuits...

GE1101E Place, Environment, Society - B+. Probably slightly less than expected, but the project wasn't that well done.

SN1101E South Asia: People, Culture, Development - B. Would have been more than a little upset about this had it actually counted, since I went to the trouble of actually going through all the suggested readings.

EC3303 Econometrics I - B-. Got reminded that I was never that into statistics. Probably could have put much more effort into it, too. Perhaps I should rethink going for Econometrics II and III...

This reminds me, I have to get about contacting my FYP professor. Really need an A from that now.



Continuing on from the last post, I forgot to mention possible alternatives to penalty kicks, which do seem too much of a roulette. Major League Soccer used a shootout format where the player starts with the ball about thirty-odd metres from goal, and has five seconds to dribble and score, which probably involves a little more skill on both ends. Myself, I rather like the idea to progressively reduce the number of players - say, withdraw two players from each team every ten minutes of extra time, until it becomes a five-a-side game on a full-length pitch. Surely somebody must score then? One objection is that the players could get dangerously exhausted, but I suppose this could be implemented right from the start of extra time, instead of waiting for thirty minutes to pass.

And about the S60 class gathering at Duanli's place. Didn't catch the exact directions the first time and ended up getting some unintended exercise walking to the house. There was a barbeque, where mistakes were made :P Should attend a course on how to cook food over barbeques someday. Usual chatter as might be expected at such gatherings, but also a few games. There was Dork Tower and Citadels, but they were not tried.

Instead we went for Cutthroat Caverns first, which attempts to balance community and self interest for the players. Personally I thought that there was a little too much randomness, as sometimes one just doesn't have the cards in hand to deploy much strategy, and a little too much complexity to be played out-of-the-box. Illustrations were top-notch, that I have to say.

Next was Bang!, a simpler Murderer-style card game. The player roles are randomly assigned (and secret, other than the Sheriff) at the start. As stated on the Wikipedia page, "...Generally, a person's role is implied if he tries to shoot, or otherwise harm, the sheriff. Others' role can be implied if they try to harm those who harmed the Sheriff." What I am not certain about is how far these roles can be hidden, since I generally do not see much benefit from pretending to be of a different role (would a Deputy go so far as to shoot the Sheriff, and even if he does, would the deception matter much?)

As a bonus at the end, the 4O peeps got a lift home from a very special young lady.



Had a little D.I.Y project at the back of my mind for some time now, which was to make a simple frame for keeping my modem off my router to prevent overheating. Thus far a gap had been opened between them with a used tablet blister packaging, and a computer fan used to supply circulation. Obviously this wasn't a satisfactory long-term solution, and therefore I put in a request with my grandfather to procure the necessary material to make a frame. After months, he got a good aluminum strip, which looked plenty good enough.


Resident uncivil hamgineer swears and disapproves, goes on strike

It remained to cut the metal to the desired specifications with shears, bend the parts with pliers, drill and insert nuts and bolts, and finally file away the rough edges. One leg was a little off, but nothing a bit more bending couldn't fix. Ta-da:


Alrighty, all done, ready for inspection!



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