The blog of Dave Ingram
Well this has been a bit of a saga so far. I’ve been working on Linux support for the CoolerMaster CoolDrive 6 (CD6 henceforth) which I currently have in my computer. It has a USB connection, and an inbuilt Prolific PL2303X USB-Serial converter. Sadly, I’ve been struggling with uncooperative C code that I’d found which supposedly allows me to control a serial port. Yeah, right.
Well today was my first day at my 6-month work placement. I was pleasantly surprised by how quick the admin stuff was to sort out. I got all my passwords and usernames and everything (aside from a few hiccups). I’d even been receiving email since February, which I thought was quite impressive. Add to this my shiny brand-new computer, just for me to set up exactly the way I want, and I’m happy. Oh, and I can even use Linux if I wish. Hurrah for a corporation that understands these things 🙂
Well that’s it: exams are over. For better or for worse. Now off to do some drinking, I think…
Revision officially sucks. Well, I suppose it’s ok; I just wish I had more time in which to do it. There just isn’t enough time to revise all three courses for tomorrow today. Argh. At least I have 5hrs or so tomorrow, 8am-12:30pm. Then it’s solid exams for the next three hours, and then it really will all be over. Scary thought! Anyway, to bed for the next 5 hours or so, then off to study again.
Noise-cancelling headphones are bliss.
Well that was nowhere near as bad as I’d expected. In fact, it was almost good (and I finished 30min early)! Turns out that Derren Brown’s memory techniques actually work, if you apply them 😉 Well done to Motti for predicting Oticon coming up. I’m just waiting for others to finish so we can go to the pub and drown our collective sorrows… and rejoice that we never have to deal with this subject again. Then it’s back to work for me… need to obtain payment from a client and then work for another client and help out in the labs for the last time this year. And buy tickets for the cinema all-nighter on Tuesday. Oh, and revise.
This is mainly for my own reference, so I can actually find it. My exams are in red.
I now have something to distract me when I should be preparing for exams (although, naturally, it won’t). Retiarius has just purchased a dedicated server from FastHosts (on which server this blog is now running) and so I’ve been spending time setting it up. So far, it has Apache, BIND, MySQL, PHP4 and PHP5 in parallel, and the beginnings of the RageControl backend. I’ll slowly be adding more and more features and software over the coming weeks, including FTP and email… and maybe more bits of RageControl.
Well I got fed up with email filter rules last week, and this is the rather bizarre result: autoforward, a Perl script and configuration file that will automatically generate Exim filter files (.forward files), mainly to be used on my University account. My email processing rules have become pretty complex and messy, making them difficult to control, and there’s a lack of uniformity about them. I decided there had to be a better way, so set about writing a configuration format and parser… and I think I succeeded.
So, what am I working on at the moment?
Wow. It’s amazing to think that the day just gone has marked three and a half years together with my wonderful girlfriend. Obviously, nobody can say it has always been easy, but it really has been the most wonderful three and a half years of my life. It’s amazing how everything else seems to fade into insignificance compared to her… so I just want to say “thank you” for being the most wonderful person I know, and for loving me and putting up with me for so long.