I Must be Mad

Downstairs I have a copy of GTA4. Nico has been out on a date, taken my cousin bowling and killed a few times ("But they were all bad people"). And today, in my so called leisure time, I've spent a few hours writing C#. And having at least as much fun as I did with the video game.

Perhaps it is a control thing. When I'm writing code I not only have complete knowledge of what I'm doing, but I also created the thing I'm working within. I don't know, I'll leave the finer points of character analysis to those who already think I'm a bit strange, and move on.

Anyhoo, the code is coming along nicely. I'm finishing off (or at least moving on a bit) a thing I started ages ago. It uses a Tablet PC to help you mark class work. You fill in a form with comments, grades and suggestions and the program stores all this (including ink) in an XML file. You can then use this to generate a custom web page or set of report images you can send to the students. I've got all the storage and editing story sorted and I'm just finishing off the reporting.

When I've got the system working I'll post it for anyone to play with.

In the meantime I'm having a bunch of fun making it.

Cold Marking

Got a code in the node. I feel kind of bad because I've spent the last couple of days in the labs looking at student work and presumably breathing germs on everyone who has shown me their software. Oh well. According to a study (always the prelude to some enormous whopper or other) young folk today fall prey to all kinds of nasties because they aren't exposed to enough things to challenge their immune system as they grow up. So now I see my sneezing as a kind of social service.

Anyhoo, I really enjoyed the marking. The general standard was excellent. Students could either make a bank application or a game, and the split was around 50:50 over the cohort. I saw some "production quality" banks, with excellent code and some highly playable games.

Good work folks, and I hope I haven't made you too ill.

Down in the mouth

Last night I either dreamed I had toothache or I laid awake with toothache for some time and then woke up with no toothache. Most confusing.

Fighting Fit

I feel terrible. Today I bunked off using the Wii fit (which is excellent by the way) so that I could play Grand Theft Auto IV instead. Now I know that the fitness program is going to give me a hard time when I next use it. Mind you, I'd back Nico against a weighing machine in any kind of fight. Oh yes.

Video Rob

I'm doing two sessions at DevDays in Holland next month. They asked me to make a video about them.

So I did.

http://www.devdays.nl/Nieuws/Default.aspx