The marks for the second coursework from last term’s information systems engineering module were released yesterday. The headline is I scored 92%. In the previous coursework, I scored 91%, so I guess I have passed this module. (The marks are provisional: they need to be confirmed or amended by the programme board.)

The ugly details of this coursework are:

1. requirements
2. my written submission
3. my database (MS Access)
4. screenshots
5. an Access report that’s a products catalogue
6. my mark breakdown
7. my marks so far (87% of available marks)

I’m happier with this submission than I was with the earlier, written coursework. However, I recall being in an utter panic, just not understanding ‘relationalism’ about 3 weeks before the submission deadline. Thanks to some patient teaching from the lecturer, I began to get it, and some of my SQL lessons from last year fought their way back into my consciousness. (There was a case for a query using a intersection with the union of two sets – I forget exactly why – for one of the reports I wanted to create. I didn’t get this to work but, given the lecturer’s comments, this wouldn’t have been necessary.)

As usual, I can see where I’d improve the product: there’s no clue as to what to do once you’ve entered an order. There should be a ‘print’ button and/or some way of sending the completed order to dispatch (or holding the order if the customer is held.) However, I can see how to do this, and this database was meant to be only a prototype to show a customer what software could do for him or her. I’ve succeeded at that. And I wasn’t one of the drongos who caused the lecturer to remark

‘I have to say I have been getting increasingly annoyed at (and delayed by) students who ignored the simple, clear submission instructions. I have just marked 3 courseworks that supplied NO printed outputs (so I have had to print them myself). Despite my specific instructions NOT to print the full table details I have just marked 2 who had 25 pages and 18 pages respectively of output from the documenter tool.

This ignoring of instructions is unacceptable at this level and I am deducting marks.

p.s. I have just marked the fourth assessment that did not supply the password used….’

Even better, I’ve created another access database to track my freelance work – and found that payment was overdue for one bit. That situation was speedily rectified – thanks to both this lecturer and my client!

Now it’s time to park this learning until I next need it and concentrate on my two current modules: management of software projects and web design and development. In the former, I’ve learnt so far that to be a good IT project manager, I’d need to be younger, have a personality transplant and gender-reassignment. In the latter, I’ve learnt what divs and stylesheets are.

A large mirror that was on the wall of the stairs leading down to our front door has fallen and shattered. It’ll be hard to clear it enough to be sure our bike tyres are safe – and I’m not looking forward to trying.

It was probably due to age and the current weather but I can’t rule out attack-by-neds: there were some voices outside at the time. If you happened to be near where I live around 11pm and saw anything dodgy, please let me know.

Thanks indeed.

So I had a few days before term 2 starts and was able to arrange a little tour to visit old friends in north-east Fife.

On Thursday I cycled from Edinburgh to Crail. Lev was carrying 2 full panniers – spare clothing and waterproofs, MacBook Air, various chargers, sandals, Marianne the cuddly pig, various unguents, etc – and so I wasn’t fast. A bumpy ramp on the Fife end of the Forth road bridge affected Lev’s recently reset brakes so that I was pushing against resistance for the next 30 miles.

Last night I cycled from St Andrews to Leuchars using the cycle-path. This confirmed my strong aversion to using cycle-paths at night – they just don’t work. I cycle at night with more than adequate lights for unlit roads (see here for a list) and am a fairly experienced commuter-cyclist. I’m usually not afraid to take on any situation where it’s legal to cycle but this short trip was scary and inefficient. Here’s why:

For a start, joining the path involves using a roundabout properly to turn right and hence go past the university playing fields. If a cyclist can handle a roundabout, her or she can handle most other road conditions. (I am qualified to teach cycle-skills so I’m sure I know what I’m talking about here.) A cyclist without these skills is scuppered.

Next, the path hadn’t been gritted or cleared. Cars, for all their many faults, do a reasonable job of clearing roads. I skidded at least 3 times in the first quarter mile. I’m quite glad I had fairly heavy rear panniers because I believe their weight helped my bike push down through the  snow and slush onto tarmac, thus preventing me from skimming over the snow, ice and slush and skidding more often and worse. Also the weight helped ensure I cycled much more slowly than usual, so I had time to control skids.

Lights from oncoming traffic were blinding, even through the hedge on my left. (For those that don’t know, the path is on the right of the road when traveling from St Andrews to Leuchars, so cyclists are next to oncoming traffic.) I believe the hedge prevented motorists from seeing my lights and hence dipping theirs. In any case I frequently couldn’t see either edge of the path due to being dazzled. From past experience, this would not have happened if I’d cycled on the road – most drivers would have dipped their headlights. Even if they did not, their lights would have illuminated the left edge of my carriageway and shown me where their carriageway was. Vehicles coming from behind me would also have helped illuminate where I was to go.

There was no visible sign for where the path moves away from the road to go through Guardbridge. I had to stop suddenly to avoid hitting a raised kerb. Had I done so and there had been oncoming traffic, I might well have fallen into its path. No thanks.

And all along I was conscious of a ridge down the middle of the path where a cable had been laid. As well as being an obstruction of itself, the ridge from the cable also trapped snow in areas that were otherwise clear.

So, Fife Council, this effort gets 2 out of 10 from me. It would have been much better if the space used for the path had instead been used to widen both carriageways, hence allowing cycle-lanes on both carriageways. In future I’ll use the road – I’ll be able to see oncoming traffic, it will be able to see me and both of us will be able to see potholes! And I’ll be able to cycle at greater than crawling speed and so not miss my train.

I should also mention here ScotRail’s lack of cycle-space information. The ticket-person at Leuchars couldn’t tell me whether there would be a cycle-space free on the trains and that I’d just have to ask the guard. Surely it’s not impossible for guards to note when cycle-spaces have been occupied and forward that information to stations. Bah!

I was at a social media surgery on Monday evening, and met the driving force behind The VAT Run, a mountain bike trail that’s being created in South Queensferry. I understand some of the trail is ready to roll, but that much more is planned. I’m told it’s called The VAT Run because it’s partly on the site where VAT69 was produced.

It all depends upon a team of volunteers – so if you want to invest in some muddy fun futures, get yourself along to the trail’s Facebook page and find out how you can help.

Personally, I’m quite excited. I’ve only mountain-biked once, at Glentress (near Peebles). That’s an hour away by car – no use to me. (There isn’t even a train service to Peebles.) But South Queensferry is well within cycling distance – so I’m definitely going to try it. Who’s with me?

I should have posted this days ago … To see out 2012, Lifescycle had organised a 2-hour session from 10pm to the bells. A lot of fun, if you’re inclined that way – and at least 30 of us were! Here’s Elly and me, sweating our way into the new year:

Ah well, it turned out that my dream of four spinning highs in a row was a fantasy too far. I’d not slept well on Tuesday night: despite not finishing freelance work until 2am, I woke up ravenous and bathed in sweat about 4:30 and stayed awake for at least an hour. Not a good foundation for a full day of grinding out a research publication!

Anyway, I started the spinning session in a mixture of hope and trepidation. The session was so full that even the old Schwinn bikes on the stage were being pressed into service. (Stewart thought riding one was like driving an old classic car.)

After about 15 minutes, my left lower left thigh (just above the knee) started grumbling. I swore at it sotto voce, rubbed in some analgesic cream, reduced the resistance and carried on: I’ve found such niggles often disappear after a few minutes and indeed this one did. However, it was replaced by my right thigh grumbling in the same way. This too responded to swearing and analgesic but about halfway through the session my right upper thigh and hip began moaning loudly. The only way to shut them up was to reduce the resistance to almost nothing.

So instead of an exercise high, I felt quite depressed. Rationally, I knew this was due to tiredness, self-inflicted pain and overblown expectations. Before this week, such exercise highs have come my way about once every 6 weeks, so 4 consecutive highs was asking far too much.

There were some good moments though:

• About 5 minutes into the session, we had been running on the pedals. I’d had my eyes closed so I could concentrate on my cadence and form, and so didn’t notice the rest of the class sitting down. Andy eventually called out ‘you can sit down now Bruce!’, much to everyone’s amusement. (I was laughing too.)
• Elly got to try some SPD bike shoes – she was buzzing slightly from the extra power they gave her.

So overall I’m happy about that session and looking forward to our next session – the Sunday Sundowner!

I’ve just ensured Lev’s full complement of lights is working:

• front: 2 scullies* on each handle-bar drop, a knog** on the front of the pannier rack, a skully and a blinder*** on the head-tube
• back: a blinder on the seat-post, 2 skullies and 2 knogs on the rear of the pannier rack
• helmet: 1 white no-brand flashing LED light dangling from the chin-strap and two red ‘no-brands’ on the rear chines.

So that’s 8 front lights and 7 rear lights. I’m pretty sure that they won’t all stop working at once and I’m damn sure no driver will have any excuse not to see me!

*skull-shaped LED lights powered by 2 CR2302 coin-batteries each. The LEDs are where the eyes would be. Skullies are either off, flashing or continually on.

*LED lights powered by 2 CR2302 coin-batteries each. Knogs are either off, slowly flashing, flash-flash-pause-(repeat), rapidly flashing or continually on.

***very bright LED lights, powered by USB-rechargable built-in batteries. Blinders are either off, slowly flashing, pattern-flashing, rapidly flashing or continually on. I plan to get a hub-dynamo and rectifier/accumulator to keep these lights and jPhone charged en-route.

OK, I’m still buzzing from tonight’s spinning, so this may be gibberish. However, I wanted to celebrate in words a chain of three highly enjoyable sessions.

Spinning the IT blues away 

• Elly and I did the Sunday Sundowner, naturally enough on Sunday 13th. The regular instructor, Martino, was away in Basel with some of the other instructors, taking part in a 12-hour spinning marathon, so his place was amply filled by Alan. (There’s some mug-shots here.) Because this class isn’t as fully-booked as others and we arrived at Lifescycle in plenty of time, we got our two favourite bikes (left end of the front row). These bikes’ resistance controls work well – around 3 full turns from zero resistance to ‘the pedals won’t move!’, so it’s easy to set resistance that’s appropriate to the current activity.We had a giggle moment when we both thought Alan said, about 45 minutes into the session, that we were on the final working track. We looked at each other, communicating ‘Is that it? We’ve not worked enough!’ However, there were 2 more tracks to go, so we bashed on to an enjoyably sweaty finish.
• We then did Andy’s Monday evening session. Andy was just back from the Basel bash: despite his claim to be wiped out from 6 continuous hours in a Swiss saddle, followed by an amount of socialising, he appeared to be more effervescent than ever. (If he wasn’t, then he’s a bloody good actor!) Again, we were on our favourite bikes and so the session sped by. Every track was a challenge – but an achievable challenge, rather than the clock-watching torture spinning can be. (That usually happens when I arrive late and so am in the wrong mood to start with.)
• Tonight was Josh and Zara’s sportive training session. This is usually very hard – I feel utterly drained by the time it’s over. However, tonight it was a refreshing change from today’s freelance work problems.* Despite arriving late, I was on a bike that had great resistance control**, and was in the mood to pump my frustration out through my pedals. OK, I know I’m nowhere near a match for the real roadents and triathletes who do this session, but it felt great to me. Again, everything felt just about achievable, and the mix of music, instruction and activities worked very well for me.

   

  There was another amusing moment about half-way through when Josh shouted out ‘Are you with us?’. I guess he didn’t get the response he was hoping for: as far as I could hear, he said ‘that was rubbish’, yelled out again and got a much more enthusiastic response. (I don’t think that spinning or Lifescycle are in any way cults – this occasional exhortation is used to put spinners into a mood where they will test themselves as much as they can for their own benefit. The instructors don’t get paid more if we finish feeling happy, except that we’re more likely to come back next time. And since a session costs only £5, I’m sure the instructors won’t ever get Mararishi-rich on their earnings from Lifescycle.)

  * Wrestling with font issues, Quark-utter-shite-DTP-software-Express, my XServe’s dying power supply and needing to install QuankAbcess on my TiBook. (It’s half the speed of the XServe, with far less RAM – but its power supply isn’t dying [yet]! Oh, and then there was the fun of swapping authorisation for my copy of Quank from the XServe to the TiBook. The final joke was that this bout of freelance work will net me no more than £30. It should have taken under an hour but ended up taking over six hours and preventing me from doing a lot of other things.
  ** It’s at the back, in the right-hand corner. I think it’s bike 4.

  BTW, Josh, I was fine when you asked – I’d just slowed to crunch down a glucose tablet.

   

  I finished feeling very buzzed – perhaps I wasn’t working hard enough! However, I prefer to think I got it just right. I felt empowered when cycling home. I couldn’t accelerate up Orchard Brae but the rest of the 4-mile cycle zipped by in about 17 minutes or so.

So that’s three great sessions – with accompanying exercise highs – on three successive days. Prior to this week, such highs have come about once every 6 to 8 weeks. So I wonder whether tomorrow’s session (the final consecutive-day session for this week) will be the end or whether both Elly and I can come away glowing again. Here’s hoping for the latter!

Sacrilege?
It’s possible that my favourite CD ever is the Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible. It’s certainly one of my most-palyed pieces of music. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a stark, desperately painful glimpse into the depression and and metal illness that caused a young man (he was 27 – almost 20 years younger than me) to disappear, probably into suicide. For me, to listen to it is to feel simultaneously guilty for all of the complacency and luxury I’ve become used to, to relive catharsis from my own history and to realise that however ill I may have been, these episodes were nothing to what this bloke went through. It’s also, to me, bloody great music.

So I began wondering about a spinning session to the whole of this record. Obviously this will never happen, because spinning generally works by having contrasts and changes in the music, but if it did it might go something like this:
(Warning – there’s some swearing in the lyrics.)

1. Yes
   Warm-up, followed by medium-paced seated climb
2. Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart
   Seated sprint during verses, slow out of the saddle against very heavy resistance during choruses
3. Of walking abortion
   medium-paced seated climb during verses, slow out of the saddle against very heavy resistance during choruses
4. She is suffering
   very slow push against heavy resistance during verses, medium-pace against less resistance during choruses
5. Archives of pain
   medium pace out of saddle during verses, sprint out of saddle during choruses
6. Revol
   start slow for introduction, then ramp up during the verses, then sprint during choruses
7. 4st 7lb
   medium-paced out of saddle all the way through
8. Mausoleum
   faster-than-medium-pace in saddle during verses, same pace out of saddle during chorusesFaster would be here but I’m saving it to the end
9. This is yesterday
   slow in the saddle against heavy resistance (rising to very heavy by the end of the song)
10. Die in the summertime
    medium-fast out of saddle against moderate resistance during verses, against heavy resistance during choruses
11. The intense humming of evil 
    (Apologies for the advert at the beginning of the video)
    The tempo of this song is very slow, so it would have to be a seated climb with cadence at twice tempo
12. PCP
    The calm before the storm: standing but jogging, despite the faster tempo
13. Faster
    (Lyrics are here.)
    4 straight minutes of sprinting out of the saddle (hand position 3), giving it everything, letting the physical demands of spinning turn the emotional destruction in this song into a positive, glowing climax.

Like I say, fantasy and probably sacrilege!

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=420901831314393