FIFA World Cup Trophy

FIFA World Cup Trophy
Originally uploaded by warrenski

Just imagine Stevie G lifting this beauty.

Download Speeds and Gaming with Awomo

I am currently trying out a new service from Awomo which claims to be the world's fastest game download service. They are giving away a free download of Tomb Raider: Legend while they are in Beta (isn't everybody?) so thought I would give it a try.

Meanwhile I have just tested my download speed at Speedtest and found that my 10mb Virgin Media cable service is running at 2.7mb. Not overly impressive then.

Anyway, the nifty thing about this Awomo service is that users can start playing their chosen game while the rest downloads so I'm gonna give it a try now.

[several hours later]

So it didn't quite work as hoped. My Samsung 26" TV claimed to not like the 'mode' and just went black. This must be a video card thing?

I'll get back to this later on. Jobs first, play second.

[i]Stevieboy...The Return

Okay, okay its been ages since I've written anything here. My excuses are many but not really good enough.

I want to redesign my website with a CSS changer so that I can use it to show off my style sheet skills by adding new designs to it. Then I started reading Wordpress tutorials in Web Designer and fancied a bit of that. I though it would finally get me going with PHP and that I can all be in one place on the web. My standard web hosting package with Heart doesn't want me to do this and will not support Wordpress. For this I need to upgrade to 100 MySQL databases from none. Why not offer a blogging package with one database? This package is three times the price of my current one so I though I would change web hosts...

...But then I would have two hosting packages. The other thing is I host my friends website for their small holding where they breed free-range pigs, ducks and chickens and I would have to redirect their domain. The excuses can be never ending if I let them.

I have also nearly finished a re-coding (as opposed to re-design) of the Pinnacle Lofts website which I decided to do after it required an update to the content. This site was written a long time ago when I didn't know any better and uses tables with a bit of CSS for styling. To revisit such messy code after a couple of years was nothing short of a pain in the ass so I decided to bite the bullet and redo it. Some things have been shifted about a bit and a general tarting up has been achieved. The code will be much more accessible (more about this in future posts I expect) and overall, easier to manage. There are a couple of things left to do such as find an email matching script for the form and test it out and maybe a new banner which looks more grown up...I need inspiration for that.

I've also joined Twitter as iStevieboy and will have to make sure that I am not so lax. This post has only taken me 10 minutes so it's not a major chunk out of my day!

Back sooner than last time...

The Results are in...

Finally got my results this morning. Apparently there had been some delay from Lancaster but alls well that ends well and I'll graduate next Wednesday with a First Class BSc Honours Degree in IT.

My overall weighted percentage was 76.78%, so pretty good if you ask me!! This would have been better but for one module which I only scored a 58% for. This was a single piece of work and I thought it was OK. The relevant tutor has been emailed for feedback! Is this typical of me to be so picky and to immediately zone in on the negative aspect?

On closer inspection though, I'm 'well chuffed' with the 88% for Distributed Systems, especially as that module included exam, written assesment and presentation. This was the subject I struggled with most so maybe I over compensated by putting in more effort (and worry).

Other highlights are an 86% overall for Corporate Technology Strategies and an overall 75.40% for the dissertation work. So over 70% in 9 out of 10 modules of 2 years is pretty good but that 58% tried to drag my average down right at the end.

What next then?

CV updating needs to be done and I can stop putting expected grades on job applications but for now it's roll on Wednesday...

The Longest Wait

Waiting for my final results makes time go really slow. I know I've done OK but then the doubt kicks in. You think that your course tutor would tell you if something has gone wrong...but what if they haven't...I'm too old to spend a year resitting a module!

I'm busy applying for work but I'm not sure about my status. I'm not a graduate until July 9th so am I still a student but with nothing to do? Or am I just out of work? Looking at some person specifications for jobs it seems ECDL is often cited as an essential qualification so I might actually be under qualified for some positions that I'm over qualified for! [Sigh]

So this is a time to catch up with things that I haven't had time for like updating websites, mine included, writing in this blog and brushing up on skills which I am out of practice with after a year of theory only study.

Roll on next week and results day...

...and the sun's gone in after a glorious day yesterday.