Andrew Wilkinson

I was in York today on one of my bi-weekly trips up North (it's cold up there!). While on the bus back to the station I overheard the ticket collector say that the fancy barcode-scanning, ticket printing, why would anyone want change? machines are to be removed next week. Has anyone heard anything about this? Please keep me informed of any developments.

I might live 230ish miles away but for some reason I'm still interested in the busses in York...

Yesterday was one year to the day since mine and cailin_ciuin's first date. To celebrate we went for a trip round the York Wheel*. To be fair it was never, ever going to compare to the London Eye, but even so it still disappointed. Rather than having one long trip round the wheel you have three at high speed. The fact the wheel is quite small also means that the other cars get in the way of the view quite quickly. I'm not entirely convinced that it was worth £6, but at least I got to look at some trains as well.

Photos can be found here.

_{* this wasn't actually all we did to celebrate.}

Last night I went to City Screen to see the frankly pretty bad 'A Cock And Bull Story'. What was considerably more interesting than the film was the fact that Screen 2 now features a DLP Digital Cinema Projector. I have previously seen a film projected digitally in screen 2, but that was using a normal projector and what looked like a dvd as the source. There were artifacts on the screen and it really didn't look that good. Last night was different though: a crisp, clear picture that was brighter than a normal 35mm projector and not a scratch or blemish to be seen. The edges of the picture were also razor sharp which made a nice change for the blurriness you get normally.

I wonder if the other screens will be following suit?

In my five and a half years at York there aren't many buildings that I haven't been into. Last night I managed to cross another one off my list by seeing a play in the Drama Barn. I was expecting it to be a bit less barn like, but it was a very nice venue for a small production.

The play was called Loot, and while I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it - especially as I haven't seen a play since year 10 - it was really excellent, and very funny too. The play was a farce focusing on a pair of bank robbers who hid their ill gotten gains inside their recently deceased mother's coffin. Combine that with a nurse who has murdered her last seven husbands and a policeman who was pretending to be from the water board and you've got a fun way to spend 90 minutes.

On Saturday I went to an art gallery, last night the theatre - it's almost like I'm becoming cultured!

Today I was demonstrating for CGV and one person had a very strange problem; they couldn't get the colour of text drawn by glutBitmapCharacter to change. It turns out the colour is not set by glColor, it's instead set by the GL_CURRENT_RASTER_COLOR parameter. And how do you set this parameter? By calling glRasterPos which as a side effect takes the current colour set by glColor.

Ummm, intuitive...

My evil plan to laugh at people as they sit their exams in central hall has failed, I shall be invigilating for a single person in the Computer Science hardware labs for two hours.

Serves me right I suppose, still £19.10 is not to be sniffed at.

Last night I went to The Ice Factor, the ice rink that has been set up by Cliffords Tower. It was actually surprisingly good fun - ok so the rink is not that big, and sure it was full of chavs but it's not so small that it was over crowded, nor did the chavs cause much hassle. I was quite surprised how quickly I picked up skating again, given that it's been two years since I last went. I never achieved the elegant gliding motion that some people manage, mine is more of a stumbling-but-not-quite-falling motion. It was so much fun that we're (as in me and the missus) are going again next week.

Tonight it's the Badminton Club Christmas Dinner so I get to dress up in my Tuxedo and dance like a loony again, then tomorrow I'm off to see the Editors at Fibbers. Not a bad three days I feel...

Hurrah, not only do I get to watch the poor students struggle with their work during practicals but I'll also get to watch them squirm in fear as they take their January exams. Mwhahaha!

As I write this my supervisor is giving a lecture on the PyLinda software I wrote. He asked a rather worringly basic question about how to use it just before he left... and he's demonstrating the software live in front of the students.

I sooooo hope it doesn't break!

Today is the first day of my sixth year at the University of York. I've now been here longer than I have ever been at a single educational establishment before...

York is the 17^th most cost effective city to study for a degree in. Researchers compared the cost of living with the average student wages in 24 UK cities to find those that it is most cost effective to study and work in. Surprisingly London comes top of the table as the high wages there offset the high cost of living.

What they fail to take into account is the fact that once you have to start earning money yourself your degree suffers.

I went to the new look Vanbrugh for lunch today with a friend, and it certainly is different to the old place. Gone is the manky carpet and muck to be replaced with brand new shiny furniture and floors. It now serves Chinese food, a selection of random other foods and Langwith roasts have made the transition, but not entirely unscathed. They also appeared to have a terrible selection of desserts (or maybe I'm just blind), which is of course the most important part of lunch. The roast itself was ok, if a little dry and the potatoes and veg were pretty bland. I didn't even get any choice of veg!

As well as the bar area, the dining hall is now being used properly with new tables and chairs. There was plenty of space, but that doesn't explain why a couple of loud guys decided to sit on our table when there were obviously others that were free, but I can hardly blame that on Vanbrugh. What I can blame on Vanbrugh is the crazy modern art style walls - large squares of red, blue and yellow complete with chunky black lines now surround you. Hummm, I'll need some convincing that doing that was a good idea.

Overall I'd rather be in Langwith, but then I would say that as I'm incredibly biased. Vanbrugh is not bad though and I can see myself going there again.

(scaryjeff and whoatherepickle: Hope you don't mind me taking your picture as a logo!)

Edit: update to correct the spelling mistakes pointed out by CompSci's resident pedant. :-p

Today is the first day since December 2000 that I haven't held a named position on the YSC committee. Not that that'll stop me from interfering mind you!

So, I get into work as usual at about 9.15am this morning and switch on my computer.... and nothing happens. Grr. It seems my work computer has died over the weekend. It's a good job there is only myself and one other person in my area - I have plenty of other computers to choose from while I wait for support to come and fix it.

Get a move on djomp^*!

Update: Thanks to a shiny new power supply it's all working again!

_{^*For those who are going "Eh? What has djomp go to do with anything?" - djomp works in Computer Science support.}

Today I shared the last ever Langwith Lunch with scaryjeff and whoatherepickle. It was a truly somber occasion, but I was cheered to see so many people came to show their support!

The only question remaining is "Where will I get my vegetables from now?"

This Friday is the last ever Langwith Lunch. This will be a sad day indeed as I have been going to Langwith for my lunch two or three times a week for over four and a half years.

Next term the staff in Langwith will be moved to Vanburgh and the dining hall changed into a 'state of the art' lecture theatre.

Would any fellow Langwithians (or non-Langwithians) care to join me at 12.15pm on Friday for one final roast dinner?

Campus rag Vision has once again shown it's intention to be a waste-of-paper tabloid. Today's headline read "Campus Hit By KILLER VIRUS". Two paragraphs later we discover that the student in question was infected by meningitis bacteria. How can they so blatantly contradict themselves?

In fact there isn't actually a meningitis bacteria, meningitis has a range or causes, both viral and bacterial.

Why does the computer science vending machine stock Love Hearts?

Who would a computer scientist give them to?

The fire alarm has just gone off in Computer Science, fire engine, firemen, flashing lights, very exciting!

If you go looking for one of the first 1000 volumes of Lecture Notes In Computer Science, don't believe the library catalog! They're not in North Room 2, they're in fact with the normal SK collection on the first floor. I've just had a 20 minute journey through the library with two librarians looking for 1989's Volume 389 - Category Theory and Computer Science. Silly librarians, moving books and not updating the catalog!

I hope the paper I was looking for is useful...