Open University A BSc for me!

M257 Final Exam

2009-06-17T21:10:00.002+01:00

I had the final exam for M257 today, I feel that it went well as everything I revised seemed to appear in the exam, including Aglets (which I read about this morning!!).

What an experience though, I left my house an hour before the exam, headed into bristol and parked near the Wills memorial building (Bristol University) and arrived with about 20 minutes spare, only to find I was at the completely wrong building and I should be at Wills hall which is about 3 miles away. My heart sunk as I really thought I was going to miss the exam, all my previous exams had been in this building and when I saw the phrase wills again I wrongly assumed thats where it meant.

Luckily I had some money on me and I caught a cab, arriving in the exam literally as the announcer called "3 hours, begin now". Not the best way to start an exam but its over now! I also had to walk the 3 and a bit miles back to my car an unnecessary opportunity to reflect.

There is one lesson I will not be forgetting in a hurry, assume nothing!

M253 Milestone 0

2009-06-11T18:53:00.002+01:00

M253

Well what can I say, it's certainly different from anything else I have studied with the Open University. The course ultimately revolves around a team of 6-7 people spread out across the UK coming together online to work through tasks following a weekly schedule towards each milestone.

The first 4 weeks leading to Milestone 0 were a bit strange. Picture 7 people turning up in a FirstClass forum, with the goal of evaluating a selection of websites which sell flights and deciding on a team standard to come to an overall ranking for these sites. You have the keen person kicking up a bit of a fuss from day one because they want to do all 4 weeks work by the first week so they don't get behind, you have the people who turn up in week 4 when the first milestone is due with their introductory posting about themselves and then you have everyone else sort of in the middle. Its err entertaining to watch! I'm not sure about anyone else out their studying this course, but I thought there would be some personality clashes judging by some of the posting that were flying around.

Fortunately it all seemed to calm itself down, with the exception of the people who just don't bother to do anything of course! We managed to get the work done and get our milestone submitted but purely because a few people put in extra work. I think it was because nobody thought to take the time to decide on roles and responsibilities for team members from the outset, however we have agreed on this now with a bit of democracy and a little less coup d'etat than I was expecting. Each member is taking turns as team leader to ensure everyone gets a chance to develop this skill and also so that nobody gets the unfortunate job of e-mailing the people who aren't bothering all the time.

To be fair the course has not been as bad as the reviews on the OU website however I don't know what to expect going forward. I'll try my best to keep you updated.

P.S. It does seem to take a lot of time for a 10 point course, so bare this in mind if you intend to study it at the same time as other courses.

M256 TMA02 Submitted

2009-06-11T18:46:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the lack of postings and replies to comments, I have been hard at work revising for M257 Exam and getting my M256 TMA02 submitted as well as keeping on top of M253. This TMA looked at Object Oriented Design principles and in particular design solutions for a hotel system and some of its use cases. It was a bit of a tricky one and I think some of the design methods covered could be used in various ways, therefore leaving TMA answers open to interpretation. Fingers crossed it comes in as a reasonable mark though!

I have been finding the study materials a little tedious to say the least, and sometimes I have re-read sections as the clarity has just not been there for me. Looking at the forums on FirstClass i'm not the only person to feel this way, hopefully it improves in the second half of the course. We appear to be taking the most drawn out approach to deciding which way something should be implemented in a design, and I completely appreciate that for large scale systems it may be more than necessary to take this approach but it feels a little drawn out for the examples we are using.

The exam for M257 is next Wednesday and I have taken a week off work to study and have a few days break afterwards. It should be an interesting one and I'm actually looking forward to the challenge... (now that is worrying!)

M253 TMA03 results

2009-06-05T08:00:00.002+01:00

I received my results for TMA03 last week and acheived a respectable 94%. The exam is coming up on 17th June and I really need to get studying for it but M256 TMA 02 and M253 is taking up a fair bit of time aswell. I've taken a week off work to revise for the exam so hopefully this will leave me good stead!

I recently attended a day school to cover the exam and this was really good ably pointing out areas of strength and areas for improvement. I'd recommend attending a day school if the opportunity is there for any OU course.

M253 Late Registration

2009-05-13T21:55:00.003+01:00

Just had confirmation today that my late registration application for this course was accepted, enrolment ended on Saturday the 9th which I missed as I was away for a few days. I phoned 1st thing Monday so I'm glad I made it, it means I will be getting my Diploma this year!

I managed to get TMA03 off this evening, all present and correct, after battling with aa hang in my code on the last part of question 3. Ends up just printing the words +Ok solved it, which will mean nothing to anyone but I don't want to give away anything as the deadline isn't until tomorrow.

Its always the way with these things though, debugging code and not being able to spot the simplest of problems for a rediculous amount of time yet the 'complicated' code works straight away. The funny thing is I had my realisation just as I was putting a Jacket Patatoe in the oven (I had almost given up at that point) so I ran back up stairs and tried it out and all worked. Thank god!

Deadlines!! M257 TMA03, Windows 7 RC and Day Schools

2009-05-11T16:23:00.005+01:00

I've just made the upgrade to the Windows 7 RC and I have 4 days to the deadline of TMA03 of M257 so I am frantically trying to install the old app that is netbeans 4.1. The upgrade took about 4.5 hours which is unbelievable but I wanted to keep all my Windows Vista config so it was worth it.

Everything seems to be working fine under the RC but the Open University netbeans install cd looks a little shocking. No checkboxes, or cool graphics for that matter, but I'll put that down to the new underpinnings of Windows 7. I couldn't install the mobility pack for netbeans 4 as it couldn't work out where the current install was in my hard drive. Great! (I don't really need though, why the OU can't let us use netbeans 6.5 is beyond me).

I'll keep you posted on the progress but so far everything seems to be working fine including firstclass v9.1 which is good to know.

This Saturday I have a day school for M257 then it will be revising time until the exam day. Unfortunately my M256 tutorial clashes with this so it will have to be missed.

P.s I've added a few blogs to the blogs of note section so take a look at them if you get a chance.

UPDATE: I spent a good 20 minutes trying to install netbeans 4.1 but Windows 7 was having none of it. I did manage to get it installed though by doing the following. Right click on the netbeans installation file and click troubleshoot compatability settings near the top. Once it tries and detects problems click "Troubleshoot Program". You will be presented with 4 checkboxes check the top one labelled "The program worked in an earlier version of Windows but won't install or run now". Then click next. You are now presented with a list of Operating systems, I tried these sequentially and the first one that worked was Windows 2000, which suprised me as windows xp sp2 and sp3 didn't work?? Hope this helps with netbeans or any other programs you have trouble installing on Windows 7.

M526 TMA01 results and M257 Telnet and Windows Vista

2009-04-17T18:16:00.002+01:00

I received the results for TMA01 of M256 and scored 84%. I'm dissapointed with this as I seemed to completely misunderstand Q4 and lost quite a few marks. It wasn't anything difficult just looking for Class Descriptions and variable names but I was on a completely different tangent. I'll have to pull the old socks up for the next TMA's to get my TMA average above 85%.

On a different note, for anybody trying to do Telnet work on M257 running windows Vista please see below. Microsoft removed Hyperterminal from Windows so in order to use telnet the following instructions need to be followed.

Start > Control Panel > Windows Programs and Features. On the left menu click Turn Windows features on or off. A list of features comes up, select Telnet Client and then click install. It may take a few minutes. Once its installed you can run it from C:\system32\telnet.exe

I hope this helps, its not obvious from the activity instructions what you need to do.

M256 TMA 01 Part 1

2009-03-25T16:59:00.004Z

I received the results back for this a few days ago and scored 27%.... that's out of a possible 30% so not a bad start and with the rest of the TMA due in on 2nd of April I'm starting to wonder when I'm going to find the time to tackle it. This weekend seems to be a good option but fitting it around all my work commitments at the moment is a bit of a chore to be honest.

I tried to read some of the course material during my lunch breaks this week and I'm finding it all a bit dull. I'm not sure if its because M257 is so fast paced and engaging and M256 just seems to be reams and reams of text or because I just have so many other commitments at the moment that any free time I get I don't want to be studying.

I seem to be constantly having those day dream moments when you read a page about conceptual modelling and then realise when you get to the bottom of it you haven't taken any of it in at all. What you've actually been doing is thinking about whether you should have bolognese or lasagne for dinner. You then have to go all the way back to the top and re-read it, egging yourself on line by line to concentrate and take it in.

Lets be honest, learning shouldn't be this arduous and to date it hasn't been, hopefully when we move on to units later in the course it perks up a bit. It will definitely be all go next year with these level 3 courses kicking in.

A few good books....

2009-03-16T16:47:00.007Z

I have recently bought some books to help me with Java and programming in general and thought I would write a brief description of each here on the blog, something that I can add to as I acquire new books and hopefully others studying this degree will find them useful.

The first book is Java In a Nutshell 5th Edition published by O'Reilly.

This book is big, don't get me wrong, but already it has proved a loyal desktop reference. It contains the full Java API documentation and the author has descriptive chapters covering all the key parts of Java from the basics through to Threading and Security. I think its one of those books that will stick with me well beyond my degree and came highly recommended by my tutor and half of the Internet according to google.

The second book is Head First: Design Patterns also published by O'Reilly.

Don't judge a book by its cover! This book is incredible and I am only a few chapters in. It takes everything I've learnt about Object Oriented Programming and shows me how best to apply it in differing circumstances. The great thing about this book is the way it is written. It uses lots of pictures and activities to reinforce you learning and I personally think the OU could take a leaf out of the authors book (no pun intended) and apply it to some of there course materials.

Head First is a whole series created by leading technical authors aimed at flipping technical texts on there head. I really feel like the learning is sticking without too much effort and I am sure I will read this cover to cover. Once I'm finished I think I will pick up the Head First: SQL book as looking at the sample on Amazon it looks as good as design patterns (and I can hopefully skip the dreaded M359!! or at least make it less painful!)

Take a look at the preview of any of the Head First books and I'm sure you will agree that they are good, if you don't want to buy them try and get them from your local library as they are not worth missing out on.

M257 TMA02

2009-03-16T11:57:00.005Z

I received the results for TMA02 on Friday, they came in at 98% which is a great score and I'm very pleased with it.

I'm finding the course really interesting and it suits me as it is heavy on the programming front which is something I thoroughly enjoy. In this assignment I was able to make use of the Swing package of the Java platform to write some pretty interesting GUI's and simple animations. The more familiar I get with Java the more I enjoy using it and in addition it is extremely similar to C# which I think will be of great benefit for cross training in the future.

The course is on the final stretch to the Exam now and I am studying the remaining core units on Threads before submitting TMA03 and prepping for the exam. Looking at the test paper its going to be a challenging one!

Simon

TutorHunt.com

2009-02-02T16:04:00.004Z

I was approached by Mark of TutorHunt.com recently to see if I would link to his site as he felt it may be appropriate for readers of the blog.

After looking at the website I had to agree. Mark has developed a great free service where prospective students who would like to find a tutor can freely search for tutors local to them. Also tutors who want to offer their services are able to list their contact details and the subjects they tutor on the website, which will hopefully provide them with a bit of extra work.

I thought this may be of benefit to OU students and OU tutors and I encourage you to take a look at the site.

For more information visit the website or contact Mark

M257 TMA01

2009-01-19T17:59:00.002Z

Happy new year,

So I had to nurse the new years hangover and get to grips with the first TMA of M257 due in on the 8th of January. Fortunately it went quite well, 94% is a reasonable enough start to a course as any.

The course seems to be flying by, I'm almost half way through according to the course plan and it seems like it only began yesterday. Fortunately the pace of the materials hasn't been too heavy to date, although we have moved on to more interesting Java like the swing library, and with M256 due to kick off next week I'm sure the study hours will pile back on.

I am looking forward to M256, we'll get to properly study development life cycles and design classes on paper first and then convert those designs into working software. Learning UML and making the most of the Java IDE's. I'm enjoying the progression of the B29 degree and finding the material is covering everything in enough detail yet travelling at enough pace to keep me engaged. Hopefully it continues!

That's it for now, I have a date with the Windows 7 Beta and my better half has the Jamie Oliver cookbook out, so I wish everyone all the best for 2009.

M255 Results

2008-12-14T18:18:00.009Z

Hi all

Apologies for the lack of blog posts, nothing really has been going on with my OU studies for a few months as the first 5 units of M257 have been revisiting topics I have covered in previous study. I di receive my M256 course materials though and I am readying myself for more involved study in the new year.

I received my M255 results on Tuesday last week, I scored a Pass 2 with 79% in the exam. I am really gutted as I had a TMA average of 92% and seemed to have slipped up on the exam.

Here is a breakdown
Overall examinable score (OES) :
79
Overall continuous assessment score (OCAS) :
92

Your performance on particular aspects
Part 1
Performance
Scale: 85-100%, 70-84%, 55-69%, 40-54%, 30-39%, 15-29%, 0-14%
Questions 01 to 20
70-84%

Part 2
Scale: 85-100%, 70-84%, 55-69%, 40-54%, 30-39%, 15-29%, 0-14%
Question 21
70-84%
Question 22
85-100%
Question 23
55-69%
Question 24
85-100%

Its fairly obvious that question 23 let me down. I have attached the scores of all students below.
Scale: A = 85-100%, B = 70-84%, C = 55-69%, D = 40-54%, E = 30-39%, F = 15-29%, G = 0-14%

It looks like I wasn't the only person to struggle with the question, with over half of students acheiving 54% or less. The question revolved around Sets and I'd be interested to see the mark scheme as it must have been fairly strict for so many people to get it wrong.
Anyway, whats done is done, all I can do is give the rest of my studies my all and hope I achieve my potential.

I hope all is well and everyone who had results in December achieved what they wanted to achieve!

Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! (I've got to get my assignement head on for TMAo1 M257!)

Simon

A long time since the last post!

2008-10-08T20:56:00.003+01:00

Its been a long time since my last post. I haven't been given a minute to write anything!

I have just finished M255 and sat my exam. The exam went well, everything I revised seemed to come up so I was very pleased. I have to wait until December for the results but TMA04 scored 97% so if I can get over 85% in the exam I will have scored my first distinction. I'm just going to have to wait and see though!

I have started M257 which is going fine, I have mainly been focusing on my M255 exam so I will need to redirect my attention to this course and get up to speed. I expect it will be more of the same though. This is my only course until I pick up M256 in January, so it should lead me up to Christmas nicely.

Plenty of first time OU students have been in touch and I'm glad to see some of the old posts are being visited and are of some use. I hope everyone's studies have kicked off to a good start and look forward to hearing how everyone is progressing.

MU120 and M263 course results!

2008-08-24T10:06:00.002+01:00

This is the first opportunity I have had to get my results up so apologies for the delay as they came out about 3 weeks ago!!

MU120 came in at 88% overall as I was a little lazy on the last TMA/CMA but its a more than comfortable pass and goes down as 30 credits towards my degree (slowly getting there).

M263 results were a little frustrating, I scored 83% in my exam and 83% in my overall continuous assessment (TMA average) scores which is 2% off a distinction on both counts! I'm obviously extremely pleased to have passed this course as it was a lot more difficult that I was expecting a level 2 course to be, but the knowledge that I got so close to a distinction makes me wonder if I could have just put that little bit more effort in.

Either way a pass is a pass and I am glad to put another years worth of study behind me!

Hope everyone else got the results they wanted....

M255 TMA03 Results and response from OU

2008-07-24T16:44:00.006+01:00

These came through yesterday and I scored 97%! which I am more than happy with! I dropped 3 marks in total which wasn't that bad, still, there is room for improvement though.

I received a reply from the powers at be over at the OU computing help desk (particularly Sue) regarding my query about syncing the OU personal calendar with Outlook or iCal. Apparently there is a small icon at the bottom of the personal calendar that allows you to sync it with iCal (I haven't checked yet) which is great news! Sue also said that they are working on getting all the course teams to have there TMA and Tutorial dates up on the personal calendar asap, although this may take a while, so keep your eyes peeled!! Hopefully by next year all our course info will be on there and we will get those prompts in student home reminding us a deadline or a tutorial is approaching for all of our courses.

I'm off to the continent for 3 weeks by car on 1st August but I will get on top of the blog as soon as I get back. I had an e-mail from a fellow M255 Student, Tim, who made some suggestions about possible useful things to have on the blog and I am going to try and incorporate them. I was also thinking of putting some of my past TMA's up for previous courses but I am not sure if this will annoy the OU?? Anyone know their stance on this?? I assume they change the questions each year, and I figure it might be a useful way for prospective students to get an idea of the work involved. I'll stew on that one over the summer break and decide when I get back.

Enjoy your summer!

P.S I'll be chucking a mint condition Ti-83 Calculator on eBay in the next few days which is required for MU120 so keep a look out!

M255 TMA03 and iPhone3G

2008-07-16T20:05:00.003+01:00

I spent today out of the office working on TMA03 for M255. I got through the 3 questions in around 6 hours, I really shouldn't have left it so late before the deadline but at least it is done and submitted.

The first question was worth 40 marks saw me coding up a soundex class using arrays, which is a form of algorithm dreamt up during the late 19th century to help account for all the different spellings of names during the censuses. A soundex basically generates a code which begins with a letter followed by 3 numbers, and words which sound similar have soundex's which are very similar. E.g. Robert and roburt would have the same soundex R163. A web implementation of a soundex can be found here and more information can be found here.

The second question was worth 25 marks and revolved around building an implementation of a coin game called Nim, this was fairly straight forward and took the least amount of time.

The third question was worth 30 marks and required me to work on a fanbase using Sets and Maps to group information and determine the most popular bands. This was definitely the hardest to get my head around although found that if I took 10 minutes to think through the problems I could structure the solution in my head and get it down in BlueJ, but it took longer than I would have liked.

Hopefully I have done enough to keep the marks up!

I went into Carphone Warehouse on Friday 11th July (iPhone 3G launch day) and bought an iPhone 3G, unfortunately they were out of stock but I was assured it would be delivered Monday as they reserved one from the warehouse. Well Its getting onto Thursday and still no news, hopefully they get some customer service together and sort this out, I know I'm not the only one waiting.

I didn't post this as a moan though.... I posted because I am interested to see if there is anyway I can get the OU to sync all the course calendars with outlook or iCal so I can sync them with my iPhone without having to manually write them all in. It can't be that hard to put a file on the course website and let the students download it to there PC/mac/mobile so it can sync up with their calendars, I know it would help me out a lot. Does anyone know if this is possible? I don't even know who in the OU to pitch this too but I will send an e-mail off shortly and see what they come back with.

I'm also looking forward to blogger releasing an iPhone app so I can update the blog on the move!

M263 Finished!! and other updates....

2008-06-16T14:29:00.002+01:00

I have just got home after my M263 exam, and finally I am relieved to say I have finished the course! The exam actually went well, I took Thursday and Friday off to work through past papers, using the weekend to consolidate any areas I struggled on, and hand write full examples into the course handbook. One thing I did notice was that the past papers got progressively harder from 2004 - 2007, with 2007 being a lot more difficult than 2004. Needless to say the 2008 paper seemed to be a step up again, with the first 14 questions seeming more difficult than any of the past papers I had attempted. Either way it is all done now and it will be a case of awaiting my result.

I scored 74% on TMA04 for M263, which is a good result as at one point I was debating submitting it at all, fortunately that idea didn't last long! So hopefully through substitution and a good exam score I should achieve a 2.1, I'm not holding my breath though.

I also recently received my M255 TMA02 result, 89%, which is a 2 percent improvement on last time, however I did lose marks for not including some code in my submission document (it was it the java files). I basically coded everything only placing code into the word document when the tma stated to, after reading the from of the assignment booklet it said everything needs to be in there, so i copied and pasted it all and obviously missed some. Tough luck though, second time its happened in my OU career, hopefully it won't happen again.

The Fog Clears....

2008-05-20T21:50:00.003+01:00

First of all I'd like to thank Simon Knights for his e-mail last week regarding my last blog entry, and in particular the AI course.

Simon made a very valid point which I hadn't considered. Whilst thinking about my future study path I was proposing to study all my level two courses up front leaving the last 2 and a half years of my degree as back to back level 3 courses. This got me thinking, is it wise to leave all the hard work until the end, or should I intersperse the level 2 and level 3 courses??

Unfortunately the choice was/is out of my control. There is a lot of uncertainty/rumours surrounding jobs at the moment and I need to get all my Java learning up together ASAP in case the worst happens and I find myself looking for work (Java seems to be a fairly employable skill set). As a result I have registered for M256 (30 points) and M257 (20 points) commencing January 2009 and October 2008 respectively.

I also contacted the OU regarding M253, the 10 point course which has the tag line of being the worst course people have ever studied (if you believe the reviews that is). The OU suggested I studied the May 2009 Presentation of M253 which would keep workloads down to a minimum over the academic year and mean that by September 2009 I will have my Diploma in computing. I haven't actually got around to registering for this course but I think it is inevitable that I will follow the OU's recommendations.

Obviously this is going to leave me with a whole load of level 3 work to tackle at the back end of my degree, I can only assume this is how traditional degrees pan out anyway??

M263 TMA04 is still being a real pain in the backside and is due in on Thursday, I have had to take some time off work tomorrow to really try and tackle these proof questions (work commitments have really limited the amount of time I can spend on these). I have managed to answer all the recursion and efficiency questions though, so worst comes to worst, the score will count towards substitution which will hopefully help out. I do plan on getting some marks out of these proof questions, whether or not it happens is a different question.

The next 4 weeks are stacking up with an assignment due in every Thursday for the next 3 weeks followed by an end of course examination. Couple that with normal study time of M255 and revision and I'd say I've waived goodbye to my social life for a month.

90 Credits really is not a good idea unless you have plenty of spare time!

Results for MU120 TMA03, M263 TMA03 and how much I hate proof

2008-05-11T17:06:00.005+01:00

I got these results a few weeks ago, MU120 came in at 92%, which was a bit unexpected to be honest as my work rate on the units for this TMA was very low. If I had studied harder it probably wouldn't have taken so long to complete though!

M263 came in at 78% which is my lowest grade so far, however this course is getting TOUGH!! I really am having THE toughest time getting my head around proof. I checked in to the forums on FirstClass the other day and fortunately I don't appear to be the only person finding it hard. On looking at previous exam papers it has barely featured, and where it has you can choose an alternate question so I am not stressing too much..... well enough to spend £5 on passed papers!

(There was a tutorial yesterday to go over proof and recursion, however I was unable to attend, but to be honest I haven't found tutorials that great, we basically sit there and go through examples, and if you don't grasp the concept in the first place it isn't much help!)

I really don't want to throw this course away on the exam, I am determined to get a reasonable score, although I'm not sure if I have done enough assignment wise to get a distinction?? can anyone enlighten me??

On a separate note, my employers have been asking how much they need to budget for 2008/2009 studies and this has got me into the mindset of picking next years courses. I definitely don't plan on studying 90 credits in a year again! But I do find it exciting deciding what to study next. I think it will end up being Java Courses M256 and M257 but the interesting stuff seems to be at level 3 with courses such as Artificial Intelligence really catching my eye.

I'd be interested to hear what others have planned for next year?? For now though I am back to the books..... finish off these Java Classes on M255, which I will say over and over again is the most interesting and enjoyable course I have studied so far!

Yaldex Tutorial M150

2008-04-22T19:23:00.006+01:00

Alrighty

So I have been banging on about this Yaldex video.....

Here it is!

Specifically aimed at M150 students for the debugging features which will save hours during M150 TMA's.

Apologies for the audio, recorded on a laptop with a mic built into the screen, did my best with what I had. The video is a little small so an alternative copy can be found HERE.

Software can be found HERE

Simon

MU120 TMA03 and M255 TMA01 results

2008-04-22T17:16:00.004+01:00

I have had the results back for MU120 TMA03 and M255 TMA01;

MU120 TMA03 = 92%
M255 TMA01 = 87%

I am pleased with the MU120 score but was hoping for a higher score in M255. I left my marks slip in the last question, which involved an implementation of a piece of software to handle video rentals and asked you to improve it. I missed marks for my lack of accessor statements, which is my own fault and fairly obvious on retrospect.

The blog has seen a rise in hits since the OU published the Microsoft Dreamspark offer on Student home, seems people are benefiting from the info which is great!

I recorded the video for the Yaldex tutorial but I am not happy with the sound quality, I will try and remove some of the noise etc and get it up this week.

1 Year old

2008-04-11T12:07:00.002+01:00

So i'm currently at the gym waiting for the better half to shower and thought I'd update the blog. I am glad to say the last week is over, which saw three assignment deadlines all come together and required some serious last minute time management (never again!). I can hopefully work on those Yaldex videos this weekend which will hopefully help a number of students study some of the level 1 OU Computing courses.

Whilst starting this blog i realised that it has been almost a year since it was first set up (13th April 2007) and I started to realise how much has changed in a year, both inside and outside my OU life, i'm quickly approaching my third year of a 5 year degree (fingers crossed) and I really do wonder where the time goes, answers on the back of a postcard......

Thats enough reminicing for today, i'm off home to indulge in some mario kart wii.

MU120 TMA03, M263 TMA03, M255 TMA01 and Javascript video tutorials!

2008-04-03T19:27:00.003+01:00

Its been almost a month to the day since my last blog post, which is very poor on my part, but is due to a combination of life and work and 3 assignments all falling at the same time.

I worked hard on Mu120, which although only being a level one course, I seem to be spending plenty of time on the questions come assignment time (maths never was my strong point). Coupled with the fact that my priorities are definitely toward getting high marks in M263 and M255 my actual study of the MU120 modules has slipped a lot in the last 6 weeks, meaning a lot of catch up and skimming during the assignment period.

The other two assignments are almost at completion, and even though I am only one assignment deep I have come to the conclusion already that M255 is definitely my favourite course so far, one which I recommend to any one interested in studying computing with the OU.

I'll post the scores when I know them.

Due to the popularity of my post about the Yaldex 1st Javascript Editor last year (it has been my most hit page for the last few months) I am going to record some very basic video tutorials about using the software, particularly for debugging for all the M150 students bashing there head against a brick wall come assignment time. This should be done within the next week and will be posted on the blog.

Microsoft Dreamspark for Students! (Free Software!!)

2008-03-04T17:08:00.019Z

A very interesting topic came up today in the M263 Student Cafe on FirstClass. This was Microsoft's new programme called Dreamspark which basically is an extension to the Microsoft Academic Alliance programme which Microsoft runs for universities.

The Dreamspark programme is aimed specifically at developers and provides free fully licensed copies of Microsoft products such as Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, SQL Server Developer Edition and lots, lots more. Many of these products cost upwards of £500.00+ and as I'm sure many of you will be aware these are products that companies run s there development environments (mine certainly does). So whether its to learn to use the software, get a heads up on the environment or just get a license to a great piece of software make sure you take a look.

Below is a quick guide about how I went about getting my copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition.

Visit the Dreamspark site HERE.

You will be greeted by the site above. Have a little look around at what is on offer and then click the get started button at the bottom of the page.

The following image will appear. As you can see it shows you all the products available for download, these range from Windows Server 2003 and Game Development, to copies of Visual Studio Professional, SQL Developer and Microsoft's Expression Studio Suite of Graphics and Web Design Products. Click on the product that you would like to download by selecting its image.

In this example I have chosen to download Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. I am then asked to begin the verification process to confirm I am actually entitled to download the software (prove I'm a student).

Click the Sign In button and log in with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one then just click where it says Sign up for a Windows Live ID.

Once you are signed in you will have to select your Country from the download list and select your University. As the OU does not appear to be registered for the programme at the moment (they may choose to in future) we are going to select ISIC from the drop down list of universities ( You must have an ISIC Card or an Open University NUS EXTRA card see my entries HERE and HERE if you need to get one).

When you have clicked Select and Continue you will be presented with this screen which will ask you to enter your ISIC Card number or your NUS Extra Card Number (Last 12 Digits). Input this data and click verify. (Please note that at the time of writing there is a validation issue with NUS Extra Card numbers which I have contacted Microsoft about, I will update the blog when this has been corrected.)

Now all you need to do is download your software, tick to accept the terms (read them first of course) and then click to download. Click the Get Key button in order to obtain your License of the product, which as far as I am aware is yours to keep. Once you have downloaded install the products and away you go.

Good luck! I hope you benefit from and enjoy using the software.

Simon

UPDATE: 06/03/2008

Response received from the Dreamspark Team.

Dear Student:

Thank you for contacting ISIC. We are thrilled that you are taking action with DreamSpark!

If you are a current NUS ISIC holde, please make sure to prefix an S before your last 12 digits.

For Example, if your NUS last 12 digits are 8010 1234 5678, make sure that you write the number like S801012345678...........