Happy New Year! FYP is finally over (for now). Time for a break before following up with Poster and presentation preparations etc. Prob have to do some follow up discussions after as my report is being validated by interested parties who might actual attempt to use the results.

Anyway, my FYP was a computational one, and so yes, it did not involve the iconic student stuck in the lab wearing a labcoat and playing with testubes and cylinders all the time and with some elaborate set-up of glassware and coloured liquids.

Well, having said that my 'lab' can be pretty impressive also (although it may be due to my disorgnisation). here's a look and some description:



As is pretty obvious this is my desktop. The icons and objects literally grow and grow. For the sake of convenience, My simulation codes are readily accesible on the desktop. And so are the key reference files, their dependecies and their subsequently generated data files. Old data is archived, but still....

Anyway I'm running on Ubuntu, a version of linux. It allows to have multiple interfaces at one go. I set my up to have 4 interfaces:

- Interface 1: My FYP report + Firefox + KolourPaint+Online reference+Rhythmbox music player
-Interface 2: 10 terminals simulating 10 programs simultaneously + 1 the program code editor
-Interface 3: GNU Octave (a linux version of Matlab) + various data txt files + data plots from Octave
-Interface 4: Emesene (linux version of MSN) + 1 terminal + 2 or 3 other program codes open for editing




Yup the computer doesn't explode, and I've pretty much left it on for days. just setting up the the above interfaces is a chore, especially navigating the commands in each terminal. And as usual, programming wears the brain because you're just staring at code, and have to force yourself to adopt logical thinking in the midst of careless mistakes. And repeated trial and error attempts to debug errors, especially those which allow you to compile the program. Basically error in logic. File I/O is another cumbersome aspect trying to get the data or stored as desired. Sometimes its fast, sometimes it takes forever.

Anyway the majority of my FYP was not actually spent on the experiment proper. In my opinion it was spent on salvaging my computer after I destroyed windows vista while attempting to install a 2nd OS which to allow for a more convenient programming interface, and installing Ubuntu and getting the wireless card to work, and figuring out that the Fortran codes I was using could only work with an OLD edition of compiler, and not the latest one, and, yah actually figuring out Fortran syntax and recaping some C and looking at some non relevant part of the project that my sup later told me to drop, and then putting FYP on hold before realising my sup ran off to India for 4 weeks uncontactable, and then exams and not a single program working with no results whilst other friends say they are about done...

Phew.

Alright, now it's time to tidy up the mess. clear the desktop, CLEAN up the impromptu edits of the code. organise and keep track of relevant codes and banish obsolete ones. and perhaps think about the poster?

And yes, get down to backing up my hard disk and the portions stored on the crashed windows vista, format that partition and install windows xp. perhaps i should buy a new hard disk and revive my old laptop too. argh! school is starting. so much for my very last school holidays of my life...