Average Achievements

Update: turns out class average for the project was 53%.

At least I won’t have much competition for employment at the end of this…

First-Class Ass

Got the first of the results in today, Objects & Algorithms (C++) coursework: 86%

Quite happy with that, puts me in the “1st Class” bracket, not that it counts this year towards any grade (that starts next year). Pleased not least because C programming (in pure, ++, or # variants) will be the course of most potential employment/earning benefit. Other scores I know who did all parts of the coursework, whose code worked, etc., are 60% and 63%.

That’s just the coursework (which will be 70% of overall mark). I checked my answers for the O&A exam, I utterly knobbed-up one of the four questions. Was a “trace the code” question, I went lunatic in an early step, which fed through much of the rest of the answer. Bah! It’ll cost me a good few percent. Nothing to REALLY worry about (wasn’t a conceptual failure, should still get a good grade), but I’m annoyed because I was debating answering a different question instead of that one & should’ve got near-enough full marks for it. Something to bear in mind.

Am in the process of moving. Packing boxes for storage (handily enough there’s a new facility next-door to the University) and moving to Edinburgh for the summer. Have been (very, very kindly) offered rent-free accommodation. It’ll provide a mechanism to get out of my (modest) overdrafts and hoard-in some cash for next term. That’s if I don’t drink, smoke, pop, snort & blow it first.

How to celebrate, though? Mmm. I know. Let’s have some unrelated Sexy Star Wars!!

One of the ladies. And the Spartans.

To Lose, a Carcass Zone

You don’t wait for ages then two posts happen in the same year. Having met Britinla recently on his trip back to the motherland (or the land adjacent to the motherland) I suggested a game of Carcassonne. Unfortunately I picked up the wrong satchel, instead of a mellow & interesting Eurogame of tile-laying I had my homework and lunchbox.

There are various implementations of Carcassonne, notably on Xbox360 Live, but more in keeping with the original game is a Dutch-made online Java variant: Toulouse (double-geddit?). Registration is free, doesn’t even need your email, and the site is without adverts or sales. The implementation is superb, from lobby to play. The first two expansions are included (and optional) and you can play against AIs too. The site also has a Settlers of Catan variant, Xplorers, and some others. It’s a fan site, donations are welcome and it’ll be closed the moment the owners of Carcassonne or Catan decide to close it. But that’s not in their favour, the site keeps interest in the games without profiteering from them.

See you there. I’ll be the one called “viberunner”…

Coursework & Exams – Semester 2 Diet 1

The coursework is in. UML diagrams for a supermarket were functional, but nothing really exciting in that. UML itself is interesting, it’s handy to sketch out parts of an OO system, but I don’t really care about it. Enjoyed coding C++ a lot. Wished the coursework was harder, so I did more: put in file handling and made the project work with real-world data and the like (I did check beforehand it was okay to do this). Had a lot of fun making various Linked Lists, Hash Tables and Sorting routines; I’ll be playing with C++ over the summer. The Director coursework was a struggle. The teaching was inexistent and I left it quite late to start the project. I scraped it together quickly (you hurl Darwin’s Eyeball in 3D at various religious symbols) and in the process started to learn & enjoy Director. As a 3D engine it’s surprisingly good, very poor compared to a games engine, or even Dark Basic, but it’s very light and works on all platforms from a browser; and it’s 2D engine is quite exciting. Having decided I disliked Director (a common position amongst the classmates) I’ve changed my mind completely & quite want to do some more (a common position amongst the classmates).

The exams are on. Had the Director-module exams this morning. It’s a weird three-stream module, the soft side of games (impact on society, ratings, etc.), the technical elements of gameplay (lighting, cameras, colour theory, etc.), and some tech (Macrosoft Director). Unlike all past papers there wasn’t a coding question, only soft and technical questions (I suspect retaliation, most of the soft-subject tutorials were poorly attended – I know, I was sometimes there). Two more exams next week…