MU120: Finished!

Last night I had a tutorial and was able to hand my completed TMA04 over to my tutor, just under 3 months ahead of the course schedule.  This means that I have finally finished MU120 and I can now fully concentrate on M450.

Phorm - Family friendly?

Over the last week there has been a lot of talk about Phorm.

A system that matches users' web surfing habits to adverts must ensure sensitive sites are black-listed from tracking, a privacy report has said.

Phorm's online technology is set to be rolled out by three of the UK's biggest ISPs, BT, Virgin and Talk Talk.

ref: BBC News

Even Sir Tim Berners-Lee has concerns about it.

The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the internet.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee told BBC News he would change his Internet provider if it introduced such a system.

ref:  BBC News

Now I am wondering if such a system is family friendly.  What I mean by this is that my home PC / Internet connection is used by the whole family, and I visit sites, such as adult humour, that I do not allow my daughter to go to, for example b3ta.com.  So if my ISP was to implement Phorm could it distinguish between different users going over the same Internet connection.  Would my daughter start to see adverts relating to my surfing habits?  Like any responsible parent I monitor and guide my daughter on what she watches on television and what she sees on the Internet, yet it appears to me that an ISP using  Phorm could well take some of this control away from me.

Off to travel the stars

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

 

ref: BBC News

Happy St Patrick's Day

Team Fortress 2

TF2 is a truly addictive multi-player online game, and someone has recreated a scene using LEGO.  Also click here.

CMAs and TMAs

On Tuesday I got the results back for my MU120 CMA43.  I got a very pleasing 96% and lost a couple of marks due to silly mistakes.  These mistakes I believe are due to the nature of CMA's in that being multiple choice I tend to go through them a lot quicker than I would a TMA thus resulting in not studying a question as thoroughly as perhaps I should.

Yesterday morning I got the results for my first TMA for M450.  Even though I got 80% I was disappointed in my tutor's comments, in that they were very brief and in some instances cryptic.  This left me feeling frustrated and confused, but after a lengthy telephone conversation with him last night I feel a lot better.  He enlightened me to what he actually meant, thus I now understand where my TMA was lacking and how it could have been improved.  I now realise that one of my biggest problems with my project is that I have had tunnel vision, in that I knew what the problem was (difficulty in sending bank statements) and how I wanted to solve it.  This has meant that when I was looking for research I was basing my investigation on the solution rather than the problem and finding alternative solutions to it.  In fact I now appreciate that my whole project is based around my solution, even it's title "Automated archiving and electronic transmission (via SMTP) of customer bank statements", as opposed to describing the problem, followed by looking for any solutions, discussing their strengthens and weaknesses, and then selecting a viable one.  With this in mind I now feel more confident that for my next TMA I should be able to produce a superior paper.

MU120: All that is remaining...

All that I have remaining for MU120 if TMA04 as I have just submitted CMA45.  It took a bit longer to complete than the other CMA's as it went through the whole course and on a number of occasions I had to refer back to my notes.  Rather annoyed with myself though, as after submitting the CMA I had a look at my submitted answers and realised that I have done a typo on one of the them.  It's a shame that submitted CMA's cannot be amended.

Knight Rider

Testing is currently underway at the Losail Circuit Qatar in preparation for the first MotoGP race of the 2008 season.

The March 9 race will be the first Grand Prix, two or four wheeled, to be held at night when it starts at 23:00 local (20:00GMT). Formula One will hold a night race in Singapore in September.

MotoGP organisers have said their race would be the biggest sporting event to be staged under floodlights with the area involved at Losail equivalent to 70 FIFA regulation soccer pitches, with 3,500 lighting units installed.

ref: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65378

MU120: CMA44

Having put MU120 on hold for a month (except for attending my local tutorials) due to starting M450 and completing the first TMA, I can now go back to it.  I have outstanding 2 CMA's and the ECA.  With this in mind I ploughed through and submitted CMA44 this afternoon.  It was not so bad although I did have to refer back to my notes on a couple of occasions.  The biggest problem was remembering where all the relevant functions are in the calculator.  Now onto CMA45.

Bradley Smith Interview

MCN caught up with Polaris World Aprilia rider Bradley Smith at the teams official launch in London yesterday.

M450: TMA01

Last night I finally managed to submit my first TMA for M450, 5 hours before cut-off.  The course started on February 2nd and it has been a long hard slog during these past 24 days to get the TMA completed, even though the course team say in the assessment guide

completing each TMA could take as little as five or six hours

There are 2 reasons for this TMA taking so long, the first being that I dived straight into the TMA and although I have started tasks such as a project schedule and an E-R model, I did them as part of the TMA.  The second reason is that I have experienced a lot of difficulty in finding any research papers in relation to my project.  This become a frustrating exercise and started to make finishing the TMA feel tedious.  And I don't believe that I am alone in these sentiments.

Anyway I can now get down to some real practical work, starting with the statement of requirements, and the database analysis and design.  With this in mind hopefully TMA02 wont take so long to complete when I come around to doing it.

Vote for Dustin

This Saturday the Irish decided on their entry for this years Eurovision Song Contest and the winner was Dustin The Turkey singing Douze Pointe. 

It reminds me of the episode of Father Ted where Father's Ted and Dougal are Irelands entry for the annual European contest with their song My Lovely Horse.  The Irish don't want to winner the contest anymore as it is proving to expensive to host, so they pick the one song that is guaranteed to loose.

MU120: TMA02

Got home last night to find my marked TMA02 had been delivered.  This came as a surprise as having handed in the TMA about a month and a half before the deadline, I had completely forgotten about it.  The surprise was made very pleasant when I discovered that I had scored 98%.

MU120: On Hold.

Having read all 16 units and now only having CMA44, CMA45 and TMA04 left to do I have decided to put MU120 on hold.  My reason for this is that M450 officially started on Saturday (02.Feb) and its first TMA is due on 26.Feb.  I therefore want to concentrate on the M450 TMA01 and will resume MU120 after 26.Feb.

M450: A slight change of direction

Having been allocated my tutor I e-mailed him yesterday with a description of my proposed project and saying that the scope would be the back-end process and database.

In his reply to me he said...

it might be prudent to plan the whole and implement a prototype

I have always appreciated that for the project you don't need to produce a fully working system, even though it has been my intention to do so as it will be used by my employer on a daily basis.  Therefore I now potentially have a conflict of interest between what I need to do for my project and what my employer requires, with regards to time.  It's going to be interesting to see if I can keep both parties happy.

M450: A bit chewy?

Although I have not yet started looking through the course materials, I have had for some time an idea as to what to do for my project.

I plan to develop a system for the "archiving and electronic transmission (via SMTP) of statements" for the bank that I work for.

This system will comprise of 2 areas:

1.  A database and a back-end module to import the raw statement data into the database, plus identify those statements that need to be transmitted.

2.  A front-end client module which will allow users to:
2.a.  Release those statements ready for transmission;
2.b.  Select, display, and re-transmit selected statements upon request;
2.c.  Update customer control data (i.e. e-mail address).

There are a number of different areas that I will have to investigate, such as the connection between Java and MS SQL Server, as although I know that this is possible, it is not something that I have done in the past.

Now I am in the fortunate position that I can work on this full time, yet I am starting to wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew, time wise.  Normally I would say that it is possible, but I get the impression from some of the postings in FirstClass that how the OU want us to approach the project and how we would actually do it in real life does differ.  Plus a quick search (via Google) threw up the following:

About 40 per cent of the work develops and assesses skills for project scoping and specification, self-monitoring of progress and presentation. The remaining 60 per cent concerns the technical detail of the project and is project specific. Course materials will be made available online. Students are expected to retain the material associated with the courses on which they build for their project.

Students will develop a project topic, specification and plan, carry it out, and then write it up. A tutor will advise and guide students, but they will be expected to produce their work independently, without close supervision. They must also keep a project log and use it for an assessed critical review of their work. The emphasis is on students being reflective practitioners, developing not only the technical aspects of their project but also reviewing and thinking about what they have learnt from doing the work, to further improve their skills. Tutor-marked assignments provide milestones and feedback to help them monitor their progress. Guidance notes, study calendar and other supporting material will be made available on the web.

ref: http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/associate-lecturers/courses/M450.shtm

I am therefore wondering whether I should just concentrate on the first area (the database and back-end module) as opposed to the whole system, and complete the second area in my own time.  I think I will have to consult with my tutor once I know who he / she is.

MU120: CMA42

Yesterday, apart from getting my result for M359, I got the result for my MU120 CMA42 (computer marked assignment).  I scored 88% but today it is 92%.  It looks as though for one question there are 2 answers, not 1, and I have gained marks for correctly answering the question when previously it was marked incorrect.

Perhaps they can re-score my M359 exam, as an extra 4% will bump me up a grade.  LOL

M359: Was it worth it?

The results for M359 have just been released and I got a grade 3 (67%), this being my lowest grade over the 4 years that I have studied with the OU so far.  To say I am disappointed would be an understatement especially as I obtained an overall score for my assignments of 94% and spent a month revising for the exam.

I know I have an issue with exams but I strongly feel that the layout for the M359 exam had a detrimental effect on my final result.  This appears to be the opinion of a number of other students who also got high assignment scores but were let down by the exam.

With only 2 courses remaining I am still in with a chance of getting a 1st for my degree (according to the online degree classification calculator, Leningrad), it just means that I am going to have to work extra hard as I will require distinctions for both of the courses.  If I slip up on either I will probably end up with a 2.1 classification.

M359: Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

The course result for M359 should by available by the 14th Dec, and for previous years results have sometimes been released 1 or 2 days earlier.  So there I' am checking my student home page every hour to see if the result for M359 has been released when I notice "Your course result should be available by Friday 21 December 2007".  No explanations as to why, and I now have to wait an extra week.  As a fellow student pointed out, perhaps this is the final errata for the course, with the final results placed in an appendix at the end of our course record page.

MU120: Useful Links

Whilst studying MU120 I have visited a number of web sites in the hunt for further and useful information.  So here is my list so far:

TI-83/84

Finding Your Way Around the TI-83+/84+ Graphing Calculator
Quick-and-Dirty Guide to the TI-83, TI-83+, TI-84, and TI-84+
Graphing Calculator Instructions
T³ FREE Online Courses
TI-83/84 Tutorial by Topic
Introduction to the TI-83/TI-84 Graphing Calculators and Mathematical Modeling via Regression

Programs for Texas Instruments Calculators
TI-83 PLUS BASIC PROGRAMMING TUTORIAL: A BEGINNERS' GUIDE v2.5
Math Tools for TI-83/84

 

Information

Measures of Spread
Sine curve visualization tool
Welcome to mathcentre
10 Easy Arithmetic Tricks
The Physics Classroom - Speed and Velocity

 

MS-Excel

Box and Whisker Plots
Box and Whisker Diagrams: getting Microsoft Excel to plot them for you
Boxplots in Excel
Excel Box Plots - Group and Trend

 

MU120 Students

Vicki Andersen's MU120 Page

 

Misc

MathCast - the open source equation editor
Virtual TI v2.5 beta 5
File utili. Bios image