Michael’s Blog

Here we are, at last, in Germany. The last two months without an update has been an odd time really. In its duration I mainly spent time with family and friends and played a large amount of Computer Games, as during this next year I’m going to be mostly without them.

I had a small blunder half way through my two month vacation, in that my Steam account got hacked and some cheeky bugger out there ran off with a large amount of games (mostly new releases), luckily Valve, being the awesome company they are, fixed it right up and I havnt lost a thing… yay!

Today marks the start of my fourth week here in Germany and so far everything is going brilliantly, with the exception of the Internet connection, but then that’s a story for another day. Ive been working at Eurocopter now for 2 weeks, alongside the previous Staffordshire students whom have now headed home. Its a really enjoyable job in a very nice atmosphere and enviroment. Myself and 2 other Students are sharing an office (Adam and Ken), which is great as it means there is always a familiar face around. As an addition, on the way to work we can see the alps as a backdrop, which really is something different!

We have quite a nice little flat over here, not very large but quite cozy. Im still living with Andy and Dave, and everything is great on that side of things.

Munich itself is a wonderful place. I’ve had a few problems with the language barrier, but they are mostly easily resolved. Unfortunately I have had neither the time nor the money to do many ‘touristy’ things as of yet, however I am really looking forward to when I can. The city itself is quite small when compared to London or Washington DC, but it is still such a vibrant place with a lot of stuff happening everywhere you look.

The weather over here is very erratic and can quickly go from hot 30 degree heat to torrential rain, all due to the proximity to the alps. Luckily the bad weather seems to be few and far between and is far outweighed by the glorious sunshine. Myself and Andy spent all Saturday by a huge lake, in the sun all day with beers and friends… das ist gud!

Speaking of which, my German is awful, we are currently looking into sorting out lessons, however so far I’m failing quite bad at learning, despite peoples constant attempts to try and teach me. Hopefully over the course of a year I should pick at least the key bits up!

Anyhow, im going to wrap this up for now, as I have to leave some stuff to write about in the future… when i get around to writing more!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Placement, University Eurocopter, Life, Placement, University

Exams are over, Assignments are finished and I am currently sat in my bedroom at home!

Our second year of University is now completely finished, no more exams for a good 18 months  . In 2 months we move off to Germany to begin our work placement and get the ball rolling with FYP ideas. I know the next year will be hectic. Trying to find time to both travel, relax, and work on University stuff will be a real hassle and one that will hopefully be overcome. But even so, I cannot wait!

This last weekend has been non-stop work. Saturday was spent packing everything and cleaning my room, with Sunday being spent unpacking, sorting and re-boxing. Then I shoved a-lot of my stuff into the loft, helped Dad sort out a few boxes up there, and went straight to wiring up my PC. 

It was then I encountered a terrifying error! One involving my PC, Windows Vista and the inability to get a simple wireless network adapter functioning. Now I’m hardly a tech-guru, but I know what I am doing and for 3 blasted hours I kept getting random Windows errors and faults in connecting to our network. Had to fix it in the end using a router as a bridge to let me wire up through Ethernet, which is more of a pain as I was supposed to be lending this fancy modded router to Andy back in Stafford, which wont be happening now… 

Oh well, its all working now! Time to relax…

Edit:  On another note, Andy is no-longer living below me which means I can finally make use of my Subwoofer again! Hurrah!!

Placement, University Eurocopter, Life, Placement, update

As I write this I am getting ready to start the second-to-last revision session for our exams. We have a Math’s exam tomorrow, which shouldn’t be to bad and after that finishes the AI revision begins for its exam on the 7th! 

On the bright side it does mean that there is only a small amount of time between now, and a 2 month vacation before the move to Germany.

Currently everything is going swimmingly; I remembered I already have European Heath Insurance (after reminding my mom we got it when we went to Tenerife, not Florida ) and to top things off, the Student Loan arrived the other week which was very nice to wake up to!

I am looking forward to moving home, and spending some actual time with family, over Easter I was working on assignments for most of it. I will however miss Stafford, more because of the people than the place. I have done quite a bit this year, while at the same time, not done much.

I have, however, moved forward so much in not only my knowledge of programming and computing. but also in my understand of life, and the world in general. Living with the friends I live with and in the environment we create has taught me a-lot and for this I owe so much to Dave, Emma and of-course Andy. We have our ups and our downs, but we all look out for each other and as housemates, I don’t think we have done half bad .

On another note, the Album section at the top is fully functional, only its full of stock photos currently!

Placement, University Life, University, update

Well, it does!

I’m currently writing a draft of this whist sat waiting to demo my last assignment for the year, and once this is through with I have 3 exams between myself and a 2 month holiday. This last week I have caught a bug that’s been going around, which is an absolute pain; Que Sera Sera, hey…

Today the dates for my placement in Eurocopter have been confirmed, which is nice as I can now start to plan things such as travel and how to get my stuff over there. The more I think about this placement, the more I cannot wait until July. Its true that friends and family will be missed dearly (who, if your reading this, are more than welcome to visit!), but the experience will be quite something. 

On a gaming front, the new Left4Dead Survival DLC is out. It really is such good fun, if you have the game I recommend you go and play it now, don’t worry, I will wait…

…fun? I told you it would be! For all those without L4D, rather than fighting to find a safe house, your goal now is to last for as long as you can, before the zombie armada becomes just to much. The best time myself and 3 friends managed was 11 minutes and 43 seconds, which considering that by ~15mins your getting a tank every 15 seconds, is quite something I think.

TV series are now coming to a close; one more episode of Heroes, five of 24 and not many more Scrubs left. Its all getting very good however, especially 24! “How will Jack get out of this one?” is a question asked a lot in our house, and it is so very true.

I will be adding a pictures section to the links at the top, don’t expect it to be fill up any time soon, I just want to have a play with some plug-ins

Placement, University Eurocopter, Placement, University

This last month has been quite a roller-coaster. I have had two exams, two assignments, three placement interviews, FIVE GOOOLD RINGS and a placement offered and accepted in Munich (Ok, I am still working on sorting out the rings, but its in the works).

I have, about two weeks ago, been accepted onto a 12-month placement with Eurocopter in Germany which I really cannot wait for. Adding the cherry on the cake, Andy has also been accepted to Eurocopter! Come July I will be jet-setting away to work for a year. I am really, really looking forward to this!!

Because of this new placement, when I am over there this website is going to under-go some changes. It will become much less about games and more about myself and my time in Munich. This will be mainly to keep friends and family updated, as it will be quite the adventure and I want somewhere to share it!

So now, I am sat on my couch at home typing this, having just last week finished my last lecture for the next 16 months and between myself and a 1 month holiday sits one assignment and three exams.

This last year has been an interesting one; friendships have been made, changed and tightened and I feel that as a programmer I have shot forward by a ton. I understand most, if not all, of the OpenGL concepts we have been taught and have learnt 2 new languages and at least one more framework. Sample of this years work can be found at the ‘My Applications’ link at the top.

This is the first post in another effort to keep this website more up-to-date and it will be successful this time!!

Placement, University Life, University, update, Work