In support of Madeline McCann on her 4th Birthday

Sorry it isn't a lot but I decided to support the search for Madeline McCann the only way I seem to be able to at the moment. I changed my blog to sort of green. Green is the Portuguese colour of hope, and I am still hoping and praying for Madeline's safe return and I urge you all to do the same.
Thanks

Slide 7 Student Conference Registration Open

On June 17-18 I will be going down to Reading for the Microsoft Slide 7 Student conference, as organised by my lecturer Rob Miles. The conference is about web development. There are two tracks running, an introductory one, and an advanced one. I will be going to the introductory one as I know very little about web development. It seems like it will be a really good day out, so I'm really looking forward to it. If you would like to sign up for the conference, please click here.

If you would like to find out more from Rob Miles, click here

Happy 50th Helvetica

I just wanted to say

 

    Happy 50^th Birthday, Helvetica

I didn't realise just how old the concept of typefaces was. I wrote "Happy 50^th Birthday, Helvetica" in Verdana because I am too much of a cheapskate to buy a font. I may do so one day however, and use it in my JayWakefield.co.uk logo. Unfortunately you can't download the Swiss font anywhere legally for free.

Offerings of Support

I would like to support the parents of three-year old Madeline McCann who went missing on Thursday, May 3^rd. I hope that the police find her alive. If we keep hoping and praying then maybe she will be found, alive and safe.

In the name of Rebecca Love

Over the weekend, a student, studying for a foundation year in Marine Biology was found deceased at The Lawns halls of residence. Although I never knew Rebecca, I just felt saddened when I heard the news about what had happened. My sincere condolences go to her family, friends and fellow students.

Vista Users getting Royal Screw Job - Again

Ai Squared has brought out Zoom Text 9.1, with support for Dual Monitors and, of course, Windows Vista. Anyone getting a new Vista PC need not worry – you will be able to install Zoom Text 9.1 and access your new investment – that is if you have been able to buy the Extended Support Plan – or you have got around $600 to spare. Now I have just got myself well into the red buying my new PC so I cannot afford ZT 9.1. Why does Ai Squared think they can charge users just to be able to use Vista? That is like saying "You're blind – therefore you cannot use Vista!" Is it any wonder people want to download pirate software and circumvent product activation when companies play tricks like that?

Please note that I do not condone the circumvention of copyright protection technologies. Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted software is illegal and can incur civil and criminal penalties to the maximum extent possible under US and International law.

I'm sure however there's something about a Disability Discrimination act in there, too though.

New PC

I got my new PC on Friday. I built it myself. Finally, (hopefully) I can run Windows Vista at the same speed I could run Windows XP a year ago. It is absolutely fantastic. It features a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor and SLI-Ready RAM that has a 1GHz Front-Side Bus. It's nice to see Windows Flip-3D run without jerking. More importantly, I will be able to complete my Programming 2 Friendly Bank assignment now.

I treat myself to a new speaker system to go with my new PC, and it sounds absolutely fantastic.

The Hungry Snake

My Hungry Snake game is now available from download. You can download it from my downloads page. I wrote this game in C# for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 as part of my Programming 1 module at University. Click here to go to JayWakefield.co.uk Downloads.

Cast Ne’er clout ‘till May be out

We have only one lecture today at 4.15 which follows a group meeting our group have got at 3.15 to work on the group coursework for Software Engineering and HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) which was launched last Friday. In the run up to the meeting I thought I'd do something constructive, so I looked for a Nokia 6280 on eBay and found one for £62 including postage and packaging that is locked to T-Mobile. I am writing this blog post on the sun terrace in Sanctuary, the Student Union bar at Hull. Hull University are rolling out a new wireless network called EuroRoam or Eduroam, the computer centre can't decide exactly what it is called. Anyhoo, I took my faithful Ergo Ensis 211 in to have it setup to access the network, whatever it's called, and I can pick it up in Sanctuary while I'm enjoying a beer and a burger. (No, Olga, I will not turn up to Rob's lecture drunk – I promise!!!).

I think it's a good idea because sometimes it's hard do motivate myself to revise or study if I'm sat inside on a nice day like today, so to be able to come down to Sanctuary and sit on the sun terrace is absolutely fantastic, especially if I have the Internet at my disposal. I remember a time when the Internet was on one PC which was tied to a phone line. I even remember when there was just the one computer at my old school, Temple Bank, that had Internet access. Interestingly enough, at one time it was the only PC that ran Microsoft Windows® 95. It just boggles the mind now to think that you can sit in a bar and access the 'net on your laptop or PDA.

Seeing old Friends

I was watching Young Blind Things on Channel 4 tonight. It is a documentary about blind students at the RNIB College RNC. My old schoolmate Daniel was attending and he starred in the show. I had seen adverts of it and when I saw the program It felt fantastic to see Dan on TV, getting up to student activities such as lectures, socialising and not least, getting drunk with all his friends. When drunk, he seems to apolagize as much as me! I'll have to contact everyone again because it's just under a year since I saw all my friends who used to attend Temple Bank School for the Visually Impaired with me. As I write this blog entry (in Word 2007 I hasten to add) Windows Media Center (yes I went back to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 – again) is burning the show onto a DVD. It should have completed by the time we all graduate.

A Microsoft Presentation vs. A crap presentation

Today Ed Gibson from Microsoft came to lecture us on Computer Security. I was able to meet him. We also had someone called Alan come in from a firm in Bradford called Marble. I sat in the presentation for a while and it was very interesting, talking about responsibilities of IT administrators and software developers about security. This was all organised by rob Miles™. I had to leave early though because I had to present our presentation for the group coursework in ICT and professional skills, but not before I was able to take a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate™. I'd like to formally thank Microsoft for my gift. I like Microsoft Office Word 2007's blog feature.

I sold my T-Mobile SDA on eBay. It went in under two hours of me putting it up. I'm going to try and find a Nokia 6280 for around £50 Buy It Now™.

eBay Auctions

I have decided to sell my Windows phone. Trouble is when I've put it up, you have to be James Bond or Sherlock Holmes to be able to find it as it doesn't come up in any searches I do. If you use the search tool to search for T-Mobile/MDA smartphones locked to T-Mobile you might just find it. If you are interested in the auction please click here to be taken to the listing. As with all my auctions, 20% of the price goes to Cancer Research UK which is kind of nice.

I am going to try and get hold of a Nokia 6280 or something similar. I want a Nokia 3G phone so I can take advantage of the increased Internet speeds on Web & Walk, when I travel, and when the University Internet Connection goes down, although I don't think I can actually get a 3G T-Mobile signal at Chez Student come to think of it.

This Week on ISA Hull – Part 2

The elections for the committee for the International Students Association for the 2007/2008 session took place last night. Unfortunately I didn't get voted in, but I've never felt so much support. The current committee were voting me in apparently! They told me to try again in September. I'm also going to app[ly to be a volunteer for International Students week, which is a week before Freshers' week. Being there to welcome the new International Students is something I'd like to be a part of.

Ball Tickets

I got 'em. I was sat in the library in front of an Internet Exploder Window pressing F5 repeatedly at 3:59PM. It finally came to 4PM and I was able to actually click the link that took me to the page where I punched in my plastic details and I have now got tickets to the end-of-year ball with the buffet option (coz I'm a fat boy that ought to slim). I hope it's a lot better than Asylum was on Saturday. I'm sort of hoping all the International students come to the ball because then it will be a ticket worth buying. I am wishing it was ISA Hull presents End Of Year ball though ……

Ball Tickets and Rob Miles' Friendly Bank

At the moment, I'm sat in the library waiting to buy ball tickets online. So far my timnetable had not been in my favour for such frivolities, but I have a free at 3:15 so I'm sat in the library with a (switches to other window to refresh page) (not ready to click yet) fast internet connection waiting to try and buy a ball ticket. £42 I won't get one? anyone?

I will go home after Quantitative Methods and finally try and make head or tail of this program that we lovingly know as Friendly Bank as i've not done anything on it y8et because it's very difficult. My desktop PC at home should be installing Visual Studio Service Pack 1 so that I can install the Windows Vista fix.

My Sincere Condolences

I would like to offer my condolences to those people who died in the Virginia Tech Massacre which took place on Monday. This tragedy has affected us all, which ever part of the world we come from. May God bless the families of the victims.

This Week on ISA Hull

I have sent the International Students' Association an e-mail through my faithful Gmail account stating that I would like to stand in the Elections for the position of General Comittee Member. The elections take place on Friday, 27th April. I will keep you posted on what happens!

I didn't let on did I?

Remember that post I left nearly a month back saying that I was spending the Easter Hols with my folks? Well I've actually been back at Chez Student for a week now. I forgot to let on to my none-university readers.

I did a psychology test as part of a third year psychology prject and the person conducting the experiment was really interesting. She wanted to know about my Asperger Syndrome and we got chatting. For those of you who wish to know about Asperger Syndrome, navigate back to my homepage at www.jaywakefield.co.uk and there are links to official pages about both conditions

Windows Vista Media Center

I have applied to Beta test, wait for it, Windows Vista Media Center! Yes, Microsoft, it would seem, want to release a Media Center-specific version of Vista, even though Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate already have it built-in. In my personal opinion, but stop me if I am wrong, is that Microsoft want to make some sort release of Windows Vista which is a superset of Home Premium with some features of Ultimate, but without the Business-related features that come as part of Vista Business. Another theory is that Microsoft may be releasing an updated version of Media Center that will feature either as an update or as part of Fiji, which is release of updates for Vista that Microsoft hope will include WinFS (Windows Future Storage) that has a feature called Virtual Folders, which in some way should enable quicker searching of data. Please don't take any of this that I'm saying as Gospel as I don't know Microsoft's future plans for Vista.

It's interesting to note however now that Microsoft has just released Windows Vista and that the wait begins for hardened XP users to make the switch, computer enthusiasts are tucking into the speculation of Windows codename "Vienna". Microsoft, once again, are saying that they are hoping to break the 12-year old mould of the Start Menu and Taskbar. Some are saying that Microsoft are hoping to use a "Pie Menu" which is a circular menu that is drawn around the mouse pointer. This reduces the effort needed to select menu options that are at the extremes of a menu. In my opinion this would also make it for disabled users who have limited movement to use computers, but there is the big problem on what to do with large menus. Microsoft eliminated the trademark huge menus in World and some other Office applications by replacing them with the new Ribbon but this still requires a lot of mouse movement. I eagerly await news of Vienna but at the same time, am slightly disappointed as I'm still trying to place my mitts on a shiny new box that has a dual-core processor and that exceeds the requires to run Vista by (hopefully) quite a way.

Jay Wakefield's World has a new home today. Unfortunately, I seem to be having a few teething troubles, but hopefully soon, this blog will officially become part of jaywakefield.co.uk. If you are reading this then the blog is online and the teething problems are hopefully sorted.