Happy Birthday Martin

Martin one of my mates from roleplaying has his 20th birthday today, that makes me feel old, though not as old as lil stu feels having a little brother the same age as Martin. So woo!

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-08-29 15:04:58

Job searching ongoing

The applications with the Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland were unsuccessful which is a little annoying. Today I had an interview with Graduates for growth for a web developer position which will be more to my tastes, and actually make use of my skills. All I have to do is update my CV and do a little more research on the company and we'll see.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-08-29 15:02:02

Going Offline

Tomorrow the Telewest guy is coming round to collect the modem and other kit so I'll be going offline until the internet gets set up in the new flat which I am moving my stuff over to tomorrow. The packing has been going well just a few more things to get and have to dismantle the table but other than that all is well. It's a bit chaotic with everything in the air at the moment, I have created a new account for the hosting of this site but probably won't be able to move it over to the new server until the internet connection is set up in the new flat and hopefully Calum won't be too presumptuous and delete the files before I've copied them over.

I am still a bit miffed by the landlord's complete turn around when I was told the lease could be easily extended to the end of the month then a few days later being told it was completely impossible and I would have to leave the flat 10 days before I originally intended to. Unfortunately there is not a lot I can do about that.

Oh yeah before I go, I had an interview with the Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday which I think went quite well and I hope to hear from them sometime next week to see if my application will be taken forward. It's not a particularly well paid job but I will get to meet a lot of people which should make it fun and it gives me the stepping stone to go further in the company. I have also applied for a number of other jobs through various recruitment agencies and we'll see how that goes.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-08-17 01:36:20

Media violence myth

I must state that I am biased in this. I believe that media, be it video game or film does not create violent crimes that would not have happened without them. I bring this up with the revelation that the British Board of Film Classification has banned the game Manhunt 2 in the UK. With games and films being classified with age restriction why is this still an issue.

There may be a link between the growing mind of a child and outside stimulus but children are not stupid and in most cases they have a concept of right and wrong but in this instance a game being given an 18 rating should not be being played by someone under that age if the fear is that they will be trained towards violent acts. Also may I note here that the link between violent crime and violent media is in dispute, some social studies have proved inconclusive, others that it lessened violent behaviour by safely releasing it in a virtual environment, and some though they did show a link with aggression responses could show no link to violent crime.

It is the responsibility of the parents and stores to ensure that classified media is viewed by a responsible audience. Having played the first manhunt game myself I have to agree it is a horrifically violent game, but do I suddenly want to crack open a persons head with a crowbar, the answer unsurprisingly is NO. I have common sense and can distinguish the difference between the real world and the digital world.

I would also like to mention with this in mind that it seems that much of the bad press that has arisen from this game seems to be from people who have only played the first few levels of the game, later on in the game you have to navigate through a large complex and save your family members who you are told at the beginning of the level will kill them if they see you. How is this any different from John McClane in the Die Hard movies? Obviously in the movies John McClane is a police officer and James Earl Cash is a convicted criminal but they both kill a lot of bad people and save their family and pedestrians. In the first die hard movie John McClane drops high explosive down an elevator shaft to kill 2 terrorists and in the most recent movie he douses one in Liquid Nitrogen and the terrorist then falls through a cooling fan. Yet in this situation it does not cause such a social uprising. See the quote below.

Matt Farrell: What're you gonna do?
John McClane: I'm gonna go kill this guy and get my daughter. Or go get my daughter and kill this guy. Or kill all of 'em!

Banning media stifles the creator's right to free expression and our rights as consumers to make the choice for ourselves, it is not aimed at children, we are not children, let us have the choice. As the saying goes 'any publicity is good publicity' by banning the game you make it more well known than if you ignored it, stamped an 18 certificate on it and left it be.

Sources
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.13143&changeNav=9370
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_violence_research
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/newsbeat/070418_computer_games.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3104892.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/chat/your_comments/newsid_1747000/1747249.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6943835.stm

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-08-11 01:54:46

Back online and graduated

The router in the flat had been overheating and the network card had been failing intermittently so I invested in a new router for the flat (which would have also been necessary for the new flat as well) got it configured then the network cable going between the rooms was cut by a door being closed too hard so if I wanted to be online I had to get another cable which I have just finished installing so I am back online at last.

Also on Thursday I was graduated at last, I was so full of energy when I went up to the stage I almost bounced across the stage. My 20 seconds of fame. It was good fun and the reception afterwards was fantastic got loads of photos taken and I really enjoyed being in my robes, just a shame I could only wear them for a few hours as I had rented them but really the only time I could warrant actually buying the robes would be when I go for my Doctorate in a few years time as I could feasibly go for a double doctorate and it would be the same robes.

I don't think I will go as far as a professorship but when I make it to the point where I will be able to make that decision I will see if I have some more motivation to go further. I quite liked the goblet of fire-esq moment in the ceremony where the vice chancellor described this as our moment of glory I felt like I should have been brandishing a bronze sword at the head of a vast battle force in ancient times. Truly it was a momentous occasion for me. It was fantastic to have mum there I could only have wished that Dad could have been there. W00T for me!

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-07-14 18:49:46

IBM

Went down last Wednesday to London for a second round interview with IBM in their assessment centre in southbank where we did a few group and presentation exercises, followed by two interviews, one of which was a bit disconcerting as I had not investigated the software solutions as well as I had for the hardware and services that IBM offer. So when my interviewer asked specific questions about the software I did not have much to say. As for the rest of the day I thought it went quite well, I certainly think I did get the good way of doing it by having the nice get to know you interview last, so I left the IBM office in good spirits. Also while I was there I chatted with the other candidates one of which was named David Storme (such a cool name) and Krzysztof Kostienko who I have been emailing, annoyingly everyone else finished their interviews earlier than me Krzysztof so I didn't get the chance to ask them for their email addresses.

Unfortunately it didn't work out as I received an email this morning saying that I didn't get the placement which is a shame. I actually was gearing myself up for moving and working with IBM, I did far more research than I have ever done on a company and actually wanted this job. Or at least a job in the company, as from the minute I arrived I enjoyed being there. Yet it was not meant to be this time, I will have to try the non-graduate placement route next time.

Not to leave off on a sour note, I had an interesting trip and a lot of walking, I arrived in at Gatwick airport early on Wednesday morning which was the cheapest flight down, made my way to Waterloo changing at Clapham Junction getting me in at around lunchtime which meant I only had to entertain myself for a few hours until I could check in to the hotel. I wandered around for a while trying to find a Tesco where I could buy breakfast for tomorrow morning, toothpaste, and a razor as I could not take these things on the aircraft. The first two things were fairly easy to find but for neither love nor money could I find a razor, luckily I had shaved earlier that morning.

I went for a walk along the themes river, walked past the British Film Institute and made the mistake of turning right, I was trying to get to the London eye because IBM's offices are nearby it would make life easier if I knew more than one way to get there. I continued walking up past the Tate gallery which was swamped with school children so I decided not to go in. I kept on walking checking the skyline to see if I could see the London eye which I should be able to, and realising that I had walked a lot further than I should have I decided to go back only to find if I had looked the other way when I was at the BFI building I could have saved a long walk, however I would have missed out on the various scenes of comedy I witnessed on my travels.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-07-09 13:46:22

Hangman fixed

The hangman feature on this site has not been working for a while due to a Globals problem which I have fixed and it is now working as it should, also I have sorted the roleplaying section so that the Don't Rest Your Head game can be filtered and the list on the front page is listed alphabetically. Amazing how much work you get done when I'm bored.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-05-26 02:28:46

Booked and Ready to go

I have so far 3 interviews lined up over the next 3 weeks, a trip down to London booked (it's going to be hectic but we'll see what happens). I also have 20 days to work on my revision for my driving theory test which I just booked. It has been annoying me for a while that I have never gotten around to doing this, not any more.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-05-26 02:24:45