God of the small things.

After an investment in 2GB RAM and a 160GB hard disk the laptop is currently my primary PC at my house. It wasn’t without problems, though, because things almost went wrong again! This time it was discovering that the internal SATA connector for the hard disk was damaged. Although I had already spotted this, because SATA connectors, generally, are relatively new to me I didn’t realise just how damaged it was! Luckily, though, with the help of a knife, very small screwdriver heads and a fear of having either wasted my time or depending on an external case … I fixed it!

Next up … fixing the screen. Should that go to plan, the simple purchase of a battery will complete the laptop. Meanwhile, a new project has emerged. Now that I have a 64bit desktop and laptop, it’s time to explore the world of 64bit operating systems!

You might even see some pictures and videos in the next update if I manage to dust down my youTube and Flickr accounts.

Another small project I’ve got on the go is repairing a laptop I found in a skip on a public road (quite legally retrieved after checking out the law on this sort of thing.)

After being “conned” into buying an inappropiate PSU for it, I almost gave up on this project, but thankfully I didn’t and made a second attempt to buy the correct type. Then, on Friday 15th May … I tested it … and it worked! I now own a 3.4ghz laptop with 512MB ram that cost me a grand total of £16! There are some “caveats”, though. It has no battery, no hard disk, missing covers for the HD and RAM slots and a broken screen. I still have a lot of uses for it, though, and I can boot it off a USB memory stick (running Linux of course). I’m now on a quest to get a replacement screen as cheaply as possible! So long as my total costs don’t exceed £150 or so quid, it’s still a bargain With patience, luck and research .. I’m hoping to get it fixed for as far below that figure as possible!

I’m coming to the end of my studies for my first module now, which is the M255 course called Object Oriented Programming with Java. All of my coursework is now done, and I’ve averaged 93% overall for that, which is the top grade. Now all I have to do is try to repeat that performance in the exam on June 15th.

The coursework for the other 2 modules I’m currently studying are not going quite so well, though. I’m currently averaging 82% for the software development with Java coursework, and  83% forRelational databases: theory and practice. I’m still hoping to raise my overall score for those, though, and continue my ambition of getting a 1:1/distinction for my Computing diploma.

Finally, I managed to make some use of my Wii homebrew development virtual machine

It’s far from the biggest deal in the world, but I’ve part way through porting this simple SDL based game to the wii:

http://airpong.sourceforge.net/

Currently, it loads up but can’t be played until I’ve figured out how to modify the controls so it’s playing via a wiimote. My next challenge is making the game playable. Once I’ve mastered that, I’d like to make some modifications to the menu system so it’s more intuitive to navigate with a wiimote. Should I manage all that, I’d like to then port a few more games before looking for a harder challenge, such as a game that needs an additional library ported.

Should I finish airpong, I’ll post a video or some pictures to show my achievements.