Dan Rooke’s Blog

After four years of studying towards my BSc (Hons) Computing Science at the University of Huddersfield, I have now graduated!

The graduation ceremony was held in Huddersfield Town Hall on Tuesday 14th November. It was great to see everybody from my course and to find out what they are doing now. We’ve all got jobs of varying sorts which is always good news! Unfortunately we didn’t get Patrick Stewart, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the University, which I think the person with the Patrick Stewart Star Trek tie on was a bit disappointed about

As reported by Jess, Chris‘ better half, we now have our degree results. I received a 2-2 which is equivalent to a C grade overall for my degree.

I am pleased with this result as my final year, which holds double weighting, has seen a few difficulties along the way. Although not as high as I would have hoped for, I am pleased to have completed the final year and to be moving on with things.

I’ve had a great four years at the University of Huddersfield and have learnt an awful lot about my field and life in general. It has been a thouroughly worth while experience and I’d recommend it to anybody. Thanks go to Chris and Jess, Andy and Sarah and of course my wife to be (in less than four weeks!) Becca.

I’ll spare you all any more of my acceptance speech! For everyone else yet to receive their results, good luck!

It’s been a very busy few weeks since I last posted. I have now completed my coursework and my final year project investigating the use of agile software development methodologies for web development. I had my first exam yesterday leaving me with three more in the space of just over a week. I shall have finished my degree on 16th May ‘06.

Depending on how the rest of my exams go, I think that I should be on track for a 2:2 or with any luck a 2:1. My courseworks which have been marked have been at 87 and 84 percent. These are well into first territory but after yesterday’s exam I feel that the exams will be my weakpoint. I still don’t think I’ll be doing bad to come through this year in tact, let alone with a degree.

On a lighter note, it was my birthday on Monday. I’ve reached the grand old age of 22 - now I genuinely can be called a grumpy old man! I had a good weekend recouperating after my project was in on Friday. I got a few things done which had been left due to coursework deadlines and actually managed to venture outside to tidy the garden up and get some fresh air.

On Sunday, Becca and I went for a meal at Sole Mio. The set menu which was our favourite has now been increased to £10 for just the starter and main. This isn’t great considering we used to get this as well as a desert for £8.95. The food is good though and the prices are more inline with other restaurants.

On the Monday, we visited the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. We saw a showing of Sharks 3D at the IMAX cinema there which was rather impressive on the whole. The actual museum was also impressive with booths showing TV programme classics of your choice as well as many interactive displays and actual sets used in animation films such as Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers. After our visit, we met up with Becca’s parents in Harrogate for some lunch. Good weather + bank holiday = busy! In the evening, Becca invited several friends round for drinks and pizza and I think a good time was had by all. All in all a good birthday

It’s been a fairly quiet news couple of weeks. Here’s a few noteworthies.

Becca’s graduation
This was a big occassion for all, except Becca. It was great to finally see all the hard work which she has put in over the last three years being recognised officially.

A rather shaky photo of Rebecca Elizabeth Parnaby BMus (Hons) shaking Patrick Stewart’s hand.

The University’s chancellor, Patrick Stewart, was in attendance awarding the graduates along with some cheap jokes about X-Men III and his one man stand up show in London!

Work
This week I finished my first project working for the University’s School of Education and Professional Development. A simple PHP web application to list and manage notices for students of the summer school held by the department. I used some new features to PHP5 such as the try catch structure as well as experimenting with PEAR DB_DataObject package.

Honeymoon
Becca has now booked the honeymoon! We’re off to Patterdale in the lake district. Next weekend we shall be visitng the Registry Office as well as our Vicar.

Christmas
It’s that time of year again! Well that’s what the retailers would have us believe anyway. Preperations are well under way here, we have even bought our very first tree together. Don’t worry though, it’s not up…yet!

Well maybe it hasn’t been such a quiet couple of weeks. It’s certainly kept me busy enough to not be able to post on this here blog! Hopefully the next post will be sooner, see you next time!

Uni
I have now started my second week back at University. All has gone well sofar and I’ve even managed to get a final year project proposal down onpaper, all I need to do now is polish it up and submit it.

Job
I’ve applied for several part-time jobs in the search for money. I tookpart in a traffic survey on Saturday in Huddersfield town centre. Thiswas a couple of hours standing in a very windy and cold street markingdown registration numbers and the type of vehicle. Not overly exciting,but money none the less. I will also be joining Black Cat FireworksLtd. in Crossland Moor in the run up bonfire night. This should be abit more enjoyable and will also keep me busy for three weeks.

ISPs
We are now connected to the W3 via Freedom 2 Surf’s services. Thetransition went smoothly, however I am having a little trouble gettinga refund off Pipex for services not rendered - no surprises here. Ihave found that Mozilla Thunderbird’s read receipt notification to beparticularly handy as it reports back exactly who has read an email andwhen, lots of lovely evidence to throw at Pipex which may hurry them up.

Cheaper Calls
And finally, the prospect of phoning Pipex up again on an 0845 numberwas not too enticing. Luckily, I came across a great website whichessentially provides geographical alternatives to these more expensivenumbers. The website is SayNoTo0870.com and comes highly recommended.