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COBOL is Cool

This is the letter I just sent to my course coordinator. Some sensitive information has been removed.

[name censored], BIT Course Coordinator, [university].

I am writing to express my concern with the nature, content and current staff involved with the [subject code] Online Multimedia subject.

The first two modules of the subject were spent on history, planning, issues, and technical considerations in relation to web development. All of these concept areas were comprehensively covered in two first year subjects (Online Publishing and Introduction to the Information Superhighway). I feel I have been taught this two times too many to be truthful I find this somewhat of an insult to my ability.

The third module was HTML. I have many problems with this. Firstly HTML4.01 is completely out of date. It is no longer accepted or used as a valid online markup language. XHTML was introduced in 2000 – four years ago! XHTML is the currently used markup, the recommended option as per the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and is the stepping stone to the future XML. Our class has been instructed to use frames in our web design, despite the fact frames cause serious issues in the areas of bookmarking, search engine indexing, content / presentation separation, printing, useability, download time, and linking and copyright all this when a simple (and extremely easy to do!) combination of XHTML/CSS and PHP can achieve a much more seamless result. Our class was also instructed to use table-based layouts for web design. Tables are for tabular data its as simple as that. Proper, semantically correct page structure decreases HTML/body text ratio, is entirely flexible, increases accessibility one hundred fold, and is more aesthetically pleasing (the main reason for layout in the first place).

The third module also covered the area of incorporating multimedia in web design. This is all very well, but the methods the class was taught were out of date and invalid. When developers were first able to incorporate multimedia in web design, it became the cool thing to do for a while. However with only about 15% of Australians having access to broadband Internet connections and about 50% of Americans, the realisation has sunk in (a fair while ago) that for the moment at least, the Internet is still based on hyperTEXT, not hyperGRAPHICS.

Not only were we not taught about XHTML, XML, and proper CSS, but we were also taught nothing of webstandards, browsers, or aggregators / RSS / XML, nor were website backends even given a passing mention. I can safely say that after completing this subject I hadnt learnt anything I didnt cover in two hours of a class in year nine.

At one point the class was told to use table-based layouts in design, and then was shown an example of a table-based layout. The example we were shown was another lecturers contact details that is, tabular data. I wasnt sure if my intelligence was being insulted, if the lecturer didnt know the different between tabular and non-tabular data, or if they really did still believe it was 1996.

My second main area of concern was the staff that taught during the Autumn 2004 session of the subject. The exam was a fiasco some questions had diagrams that werent labelled correctly (a fair bit of guesswork was required), two of the multiple choice questions were duplicated later on in the paper, and there was even a question that had no correct answer. I realise that some multiple choice questions have a most correct answer but this question really had no correct answer. If I remember correctly the example markup defined heading 1 as being colour red, and the question asking what colour the text within the >h1< tags would contain did not have red as an option. I find ridiculous blunders such as this unacceptable in a professional organisation such as a university.

the following may be biased as it pertains directly to my assignment, but please bear with me. My assignment was penalised marks for being late, when it was handed in on well and truly on time. I was also penalised marks for not having included a 2D animation (one of the requirements). I had clearly indicated in my documentation where this component was located, with a second alternate location and file format provided in case the .exe file could not be downloaded for security reasons. Upon emailing the lecturer, they could still not find the animation. The instructions appear on my documentation plain as day, but they seem to have gone unread. Not only this but I included a note saying I had used up all my disk quota on the server and to please contact me should there be a problem accessing any multimedia components on my assignment. This did not turn out to be the reason for the access problem but still I was not contacted at any stage. The third criteria I lost marks for was unavailability of software required to view the assignment correctly. The only software required outside the browser was Windows Media Player which I know is easily available on all the university computers. On contacting the lecturer about this (via email) they only answered half of my queries (seemingly without checking my assignment to see if it backed up what I was saying), and dodged around my questions by refusing to say more than, come and make an appointment. I was under the impression email was a perfectly valid way to communicate for someone living so far away from the university campus at least it seems no problem for other lecturers.

I apologise for my scathing approach to these issues, but it honestly hits me as something that drastically needs to be addressed. I feel as if I have wasted time and money and I do not wish others in future to feel the same.

Sincerely thanking you,
Tristan

Dumb Clusters

Vivisimo is a search engine with a bit of a difference. It clusters your search results into categories, and enables you to perform multiple queries on the fly. Almost good. But why people persist in using frames? (Via The Hor$e’s Mouth).

Quake has recently turned eight years old. Still my favourie game. Ever.

I recently stumbled across this bunch of guys who managed to make themselves look completely stupid in an arguement about weblogs that somehow managed to involve attacks on each other’s respective mothers. I know retards who are less retarded than these people.

I recieved a spam email offering me a ‘fair-dinkum alien diet bread recipe’. True story. Only twenty dollars too. Bargain.

Postage Paid by Australia

T for ‘Trigonometry’

Everyone’s favourite maths genious and funnyman Adam Spencer appeared on the Wheel of Fortune game show this evening. At the beginning of the year Adam and Wil set themselves ten challenges each, of things they had always dreamt of doing. Not only did Adam appear on Wheel of Fortune, he blitzed it too. The best and funniest episode of Wheel of Fortune I’ve seen. Admittedly one of the only episodes I’ve seen, but you know what I mean.

It happens every exam time. I’ve been all kinds of sick this past week. Started with a sore throat and feeling like I’d swallowed a raw fish. I’ve had enough snot pour out my nose to fill a really big aquarium. And I’m talking free-willy-at-seaworld big. My eyes are watering too. I used to take breathing for granted. And sleep. the two nights per year that I can’t sleep at all have to be the nights before exams. Not to worry, most of my exams don’t deserve much more than to be used to wipe my nose on anyway.

The Only Difference

I’ve been using Mozilla Firefox for a long time now, and last week I upgraded to version zero point nine. It’s everything I expected, and I am liking the Firefox experience more by the minute. I also moved up to Mozilla Thunderbird zero point seven which, again is brilliant.

The debate is raging over at Metafilter. As is pointed out, if it’s not already time to dump Internet Explorer, that time is getting damn close.

The difference between me and you is that I’m not on fire.

Scored myself a Gmail account. Yeah, it is old news. Don’t care if you’re over it. I’m excited.

And check out my comic drawing skills (mine is the one – strangely enough – with my name next to it).

Ann Disaster

Take me back when you think that it’s good, it feels worse than they said it would. You’re gone but not forever…

So I’m listening to Ben Kweller’s new album for the eight hundredth time. I would tell you about it’s highlights, but I like the whole lot.

On a side note and on the topic of customer service, the staff at music stores hate me. They always have to scrounge through the independent labels section looking for the label and artist I want. Takes them ages. Add that to the ten minutes the overweight middle aged ladies in front of me take to buy their six destiny’s child cds and it makes for a tedious process.

On My Way

Show me all the rules girl, I just want to get ‘em wrong…

Me: Got an alternative section?

Sanity Chick: What?

Me: I’m looking for Gyroscope and Ben Kweller’s new albums.

Sanity Chick: Hang on I’ll check on the computer.

…

Sanity Chick: How do you spell Kweller?

Me: K-w-e-l-l-e-r.

Sanity Chick: Oh. I was spelling it with a Q.

…

Sanity Chick: I’m sorry we don’t seem to have either of those artists on our system.

Silly girl. They are on her system. She can’t spell. So I went to Leading Edge Music. They were sold out of Gyroscope but had Ben Kweller. So now I’m on my way.

The Table

We all start with such good intentions.

Exam at one fifty tomorrow.

I’ll study tomorrow morning.