End of Semester Update
Mon, 2006-05-01 00:23 — jrearick
So, I happened to fall off the face of the earth for a while. This can be expected during the last part of a semester, especially the spring semester. I'll try to go through some updates quickly.
AmesMUG
The AmesMUG server died on April 1st. Both the drives in the mirror set died and there were no backups. Currently the AmesMUG web site is hosted on this server and there are no mailing lists. I will be creating a form to collect email address for when we do bring back the list. In the mean-time, AmesMUG is looking for donations to either repair the server or buy a new one.
LANFEST also happened. It was just as good as usual despite not having a mailing list to announce it.
VEISHEA
VEISHEA was a bunch of work. Gaila and I rode our bikes (I got a bike btw) to campus by 8 AM that Saturday to setup the MUG tent. We were able to show off a dual booting MacBook Pro and kids played LEGO StarWars most of the day. We broadcasted the parade off the delayed FOX broadcast and had to edit out commercials, even-thoough I was told there would be no commercials. After the initial broadcast, Sheng and I had to figure out how to stream the final edit which resulted in re-encoding. During the re-encoding Sheng, Gaila, and I stayed around in the computer lab to watch the TV show House and the original Blues Brothers movie. After all was done, Gaila and I grabbed our stuff out of my office and we managed to catch the beginning of the midnight fireworks. Pictures of VEISHEA.
School
AmInd had another 20 minute group presentation project that was done. English 302 had a 12 page research report due this past Friday. Monday was the presentation for MIS 432 semester long group project, and things are wrapping up for the MIS 434 project which can be seen at kopeckydesigns.com.
Microsoft
I had my phone interview with Microsoft on Wednesday, April 12th. It appears that they were still looking for interns for the summer. I believe the interview went well, and I took it seriously. I totally forgot what the C# project last semester was all about when I was asked about it. Further reflection found that the C# project was a boring project anyway using flat files to store customer information. There were no really technical questions asked. After two weeks of no response I had to ask them what the status was and was informed that I was not going any further. I read an interesting line in the response that lead me to believe they don't hire skilled people.
Personal Stuff
With all the stuff above over with, finally, I actually had enough time to have a life. This Saturday Gaila helped me clean my apartment, which had seen the effects of neglect for the past month or so. For the first time in quite a while I don't have any projects looming over my head and was able to actually relax in a clean apartment. Today was a meeting in Marshalltown for the Mexico trip. Gaila and I will be leaving early Saturday morning the 6th and will be back on the 12th late at night. The week after the trip starts my summer class in MIS 435 (Business Telecommunications). I will also set aside some time every day or two for studying Cocoa and Mac programming. Don't let me forget this!
Anyway, I hope people's semesters have been good and I hope this summer will be a good one.
AmesMUG
The AmesMUG server died on April 1st. Both the drives in the mirror set died and there were no backups. Currently the AmesMUG web site is hosted on this server and there are no mailing lists. I will be creating a form to collect email address for when we do bring back the list. In the mean-time, AmesMUG is looking for donations to either repair the server or buy a new one.
LANFEST also happened. It was just as good as usual despite not having a mailing list to announce it.
VEISHEA
VEISHEA was a bunch of work. Gaila and I rode our bikes (I got a bike btw) to campus by 8 AM that Saturday to setup the MUG tent. We were able to show off a dual booting MacBook Pro and kids played LEGO StarWars most of the day. We broadcasted the parade off the delayed FOX broadcast and had to edit out commercials, even-thoough I was told there would be no commercials. After the initial broadcast, Sheng and I had to figure out how to stream the final edit which resulted in re-encoding. During the re-encoding Sheng, Gaila, and I stayed around in the computer lab to watch the TV show House and the original Blues Brothers movie. After all was done, Gaila and I grabbed our stuff out of my office and we managed to catch the beginning of the midnight fireworks. Pictures of VEISHEA.
School
AmInd had another 20 minute group presentation project that was done. English 302 had a 12 page research report due this past Friday. Monday was the presentation for MIS 432 semester long group project, and things are wrapping up for the MIS 434 project which can be seen at kopeckydesigns.com.
Microsoft
I had my phone interview with Microsoft on Wednesday, April 12th. It appears that they were still looking for interns for the summer. I believe the interview went well, and I took it seriously. I totally forgot what the C# project last semester was all about when I was asked about it. Further reflection found that the C# project was a boring project anyway using flat files to store customer information. There were no really technical questions asked. After two weeks of no response I had to ask them what the status was and was informed that I was not going any further. I read an interesting line in the response that lead me to believe they don't hire skilled people.
Please understand that while I enjoyed speaking with you and learning about your talents, we encounter an extremely competitive market and have to make some very difficult choices often regardless of our candidates' skills.
Personal Stuff
With all the stuff above over with, finally, I actually had enough time to have a life. This Saturday Gaila helped me clean my apartment, which had seen the effects of neglect for the past month or so. For the first time in quite a while I don't have any projects looming over my head and was able to actually relax in a clean apartment. Today was a meeting in Marshalltown for the Mexico trip. Gaila and I will be leaving early Saturday morning the 6th and will be back on the 12th late at night. The week after the trip starts my summer class in MIS 435 (Business Telecommunications). I will also set aside some time every day or two for studying Cocoa and Mac programming. Don't let me forget this!
Anyway, I hope people's semesters have been good and I hope this summer will be a good one.
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