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.

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!

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.

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.

Why am I being so anal about this? I read last night that you need 85% plus for both coursework and exam to get the top grade, so I can’t afford to be slack or drop points.

The first is a module giving me a good foundation in the Object Oriented progamming style which, even though I know a lot of it, is proving very useful in improving the quality of my code. Please don’t look at any of what I wrote to support the Access databases I designed! Some of it was good, and some of it was only good because it worked & could have been loads better.

I’ve also taken a module in software design. This was mainly inspired by my boss at my previous role  not being keen on getting me to design and build an application that would be used throughout the business, due to him wanting it to go through a formal design process. Well, after this, I should have a good grasp of UML and that should also improve the quality of my programming.

The other two modules are one that covers relational databases and one that covers the design of user interfaces. Whilst I’ve got some understanding of relational databases, I’m hoping to learn more about best practice when it comes to design and implementation. The user interface course is a whole new area for me and, although I’m sure I will benefit, I’m not entirely sure how. I’m quite excited about that, though, because I know that good user interface design is important.

My Python & GTK experiments will continue, but my DVD project has changed somewhat. A picture tells a 1,000 words, so here’s a picture. The project has morphed into a new one. I decided that I wanted to burn a DVD video from the gnome desktop in the same way you can already burn a VCD. This means, I can just right-click on a film file and choose “burn to DVD”, and it will burn a dvd video disc for me. Even better, a beta release is almost complete. The only thing I need to work on is how to package it into a .deb and make it available to all users.

After that, I want to blog about the the packages that enabled me to make this great tool really easily. I’m sure they can help me do other nice things.

My python & GTK work still goes on, because I believe that getting better with that is going to help me build better programs and tools.

I have pretty much done the first step when I was working out how to use dbus/hal, the second step should be easy as it’s just choosing a file to put on DVD using a file chooser, and the third step is just running through a sequence of shell commands and indicating on the GUI when each one is done. The closest to a “hard part” left is grabbing some of the shell output saying what % complete each step is and displaying that using a progress bar on the GUI.

Once the first working example of this project has been completed, I intend to put up more detailed information and examples of what I’ve been up to, along with a list of what rough edges I need to work on. It may be my first project, but I intend to do it properly and not cut any corners!

Today ended with me writing “pseudo-code” detailing what functions I need and what each one should do. It’s incomplete, but it’s enough to get started with the real coding once I re-do the GUI how I now think it should be done.
I take comfort from the fact that the next project should be completed a fair bit faster than this one.