Sultana Sandwich

At what point in time does a corporation stop following policy and procedure, and start thinking about the customer?

How long can it possibly take to close a bank account?

Sure if the bank account has a large sum of money owing, it's in the banks best interest in reclaim that debt, but today the bank manager wouldn't let me close my savings account because it had a $5 monthly fee owing. Which I though was bizarre because I had just paid a $5 monthly fee. She said it was for the current month of June, hence forth it would not be charged until the end of the month, but because I was leaving them, they wanted the fee now.

Little did she know I had the trump card (aka my student card), pulling it out and stating that I am a student and that the bank shouldn't be charging the $5 monthly fee in the first place.

She was on a mission to make me pay the fee, she obviously doesn't deal with students too often, if it's one thing that students are good at, it's not paying fees!

How much do bank managers get paid?

Bank managers must be cheap these days, if they can spend 30 minutes tracking down paperwork, so as to prove that I owe them $5. Wow that's $10AUD per hour. After 30 minutes she realised this and said I was free to leave with out payment, I'm glad she realised that she's worth more than $10 p/hour.

The New South Wales ski season has finally started with a 20cm fall last night. From the pic looks like some nice fluffy snow. All I can say is sweeeet. Can't wait to get the boots on and start riding. Keep up the good weather!!

The hyundi excel has served me well for the past 3~4 years. In what was a valiant effort the engine seized up on Anzac Bridge some 2 weeks ago, and now the verdict is in, a new engine is required to get her back in the game. Some $2200, not sure if it's worth it though!

Sorry they're so small, but the algorithm to make them seems to have a memory leak, which causes the machine to swap excessively and then eventually crash (with anything larger than 120x120).

While the subject was pretty crap, the assignment had good results, and genetic programming is pretty cool.

I may get some time later on to optimise the code and then generate some decent sized movies, but then again, I have a life.

So we're down to the last few ours of my university life, well sort of.. If you don't count the unfinished assignments and my last two finals.

This last week has been pretty hectic as I scramble together my genetic programming assignment (due in less than 24 hours), which I must say is pretty cool (despite my dislike for the subject). I should have some genetic art posted on the sandwich sometime this weekend.

My Gen-Ed Marketing and the Consumer finished today with its final exam, it's a fairly decent gen-education, the lecturer Peter Drinkwater is quite amusing to say the least.

23 hours 30 minutes until it all begins!

On another note, I thought it would be nice to hear about a subject that I strongly recommend those who are at cse or those who just want to learn user interface design.

Comp 4511 was one of the most enjoyable subjects that I have taken at UNSW even with the unusually high amount of contact hours (6 hpw), and excessive work load, I found the subject extremly challenging and informative.

topics covered were

• user centered design
  • paper-based prototyping
  • electronic prototyping
  • usability testing
  • speech and accessibility
• cocoa development
• objective-c
• design patterns
• object-orientated principles

absolute hightlights of User interface design & implementation would have to be the use of the usability testing lab, an absolutely awesome set up allowing the usability testers to capture every conceivable angle of the user, providing vital information for the development team, not to mention the v.cool movie style one-way mirror!

overall an excellent class run by Daniel Woo and it has been a pleasure being one of his students.

This is an email i decided to send to one of my lecturers regarding his subject.

How are we meant to complete our assignment when QT Designer crashes when ever we try to use it?

here is the error

File::open: No file name specified designer: relocation error: designer: undefined symbol: _ZN15QComboTableItemD2Ev

this one particular error is when we press CANCEL in the slots menu.

not only does it happen on my account but it also happens on my lab partners account.

While I'm hear i may as well have a rant.

Also a little feedback on earlier assignments, Student don't need extensions, What they need is a specification that is clear and concise. They also need one place to look for updates, they should NOT have to wade through 500 forum threads to see if some obscure statement has now become a part of the specification.

Also after speaking with other CSE lecturers, changing a mid-session time to start 30 ~ 45 minutes earlier, at midnight the night before the exam is not acceptable at all.

Oh and the website!!

Seriously, have you ever tried to find anything on there, How are we meant to differentiate between links when everything is a link!! There is no point actually going to the 3141 site, instead most 3141 students just goto google and search the site for the relevant material. Seriously naming lecture slides "8b.pdf" is not very meaningful.

anyway thats my rant. This is my last subject at university and i guess i'm just disappointed that my university career has had to end with such a crap subject.

Your sincerely, James Hill

oh and I'd still like an answer to the error above.

Cheers

Has anyone ever taken a subject at uni, and towards the end of the session (semester) you've just thought WTF have I learnt? Felt that the Australian government has loaned you good money and then you've pissed it all away on some bull shite subject.. Why is there no satisfaction guarantee for subjects.. Sure you can un-enroll from the subject, but that doesn't replace you with all the time that you have spent doing assignments and attending bullshit lectures.

Anyway long story short (as i now have a head ache) if you're a cse student @ unsw then don't EVER take Comp 3141. It's far from what its title suggests!

Thanks to katrina hill for whipping up an awesome illustration of a sultana sandwich in no time at all. Many kudos indeed.

Congrats to Tim Lucas for being added to the Web essentials ‘05 bill of presenters. He will be speaking on AJAX and it’s use with user centered development.