Alrighty

So I have been banging on about this Yaldex video.....

Here it is!

Specifically aimed at M150 students for the debugging features which will save hours during M150 TMA's.

Apologies for the audio, recorded on a laptop with a mic built into the screen, did my best with what I had. The video is a little small so an alternative copy can be found HERE.

Software can be found HERE

Simon

I have had the results back for MU120 TMA03 and M255 TMA01;

MU120 TMA03 = 92%
M255 TMA01 = 87%

I am pleased with the MU120 score but was hoping for a higher score in M255. I left my marks slip in the last question, which involved an implementation of a piece of software to handle video rentals and asked you to improve it. I missed marks for my lack of accessor statements, which is my own fault and fairly obvious on retrospect.

The blog has seen a rise in hits since the OU published the Microsoft Dreamspark offer on Student home, seems people are benefiting from the info which is great!

I recorded the video for the Yaldex tutorial but I am not happy with the sound quality, I will try and remove some of the noise etc and get it up this week.

So i'm currently at the gym waiting for the better half to shower and thought I'd update the blog. I am glad to say the last week is over, which saw three assignment deadlines all come together and required some serious last minute time management (never again!). I can hopefully work on those Yaldex videos this weekend which will hopefully help a number of students study some of the level 1 OU Computing courses.

Whilst starting this blog i realised that it has been almost a year since it was first set up (13th April 2007) and I started to realise how much has changed in a year, both inside and outside my OU life, i'm quickly approaching my third year of a 5 year degree (fingers crossed) and I really do wonder where the time goes, answers on the back of a postcard......

Thats enough reminicing for today, i'm off home to indulge in some mario kart wii.

Its been almost a month to the day since my last blog post, which is very poor on my part, but is due to a combination of life and work and 3 assignments all falling at the same time.

I worked hard on Mu120, which although only being a level one course, I seem to be spending plenty of time on the questions come assignment time (maths never was my strong point). Coupled with the fact that my priorities are definitely toward getting high marks in M263 and M255 my actual study of the MU120 modules has slipped a lot in the last 6 weeks, meaning a lot of catch up and skimming during the assignment period.

The other two assignments are almost at completion, and even though I am only one assignment deep I have come to the conclusion already that M255 is definitely my favourite course so far, one which I recommend to any one interested in studying computing with the OU.

I'll post the scores when I know them.

Due to the popularity of my post about the Yaldex 1st Javascript Editor last year (it has been my most hit page for the last few months) I am going to record some very basic video tutorials about using the software, particularly for debugging for all the M150 students bashing there head against a brick wall come assignment time. This should be done within the next week and will be posted on the blog.

A very interesting topic came up today in the M263 Student Cafe on FirstClass. This was Microsoft's new programme called Dreamspark which basically is an extension to the Microsoft Academic Alliance programme which Microsoft runs for universities. 

The Dreamspark programme is aimed specifically at developers and provides free fully licensed copies of Microsoft products such as Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, SQL Server Developer Edition and lots, lots more. Many of these products cost upwards of £500.00+ and as I'm sure many of you will be aware these are products that companies run s there development environments (mine certainly does). So whether its to learn to use the software, get a heads up on the environment or just get a license to a great piece of software make sure you take a look.

Below is a quick guide about how I went about getting my copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition.

Visit the Dreamspark site HERE.

You will be greeted by the site above. Have a little look around at what is on offer and then click the get started button at the bottom of the page.

The following image will appear. As you can see it shows you all the products available for download, these range from Windows Server 2003 and Game Development, to copies of Visual Studio Professional, SQL Developer and Microsoft's Expression Studio Suite of Graphics and Web Design Products. Click on the product that you would like to download by selecting its image.

In this example I have chosen to download Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. I am then asked to begin the verification process to confirm I am actually entitled to download the software (prove I'm a student).

Click the Sign In button and log in with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one then just click where it says Sign up for a Windows Live ID.

Once you are signed in you will have to select your Country from the download list and select your University. As the OU does not appear to be registered for the programme at the moment (they may choose to in future) we are going to select ISIC from the drop down list of universities ( You must have an ISIC Card or an Open University NUS EXTRA card see my entries HERE and HERE if you need to get one).

When you have clicked Select and Continue you will be presented with this screen which will ask you to enter your ISIC Card number or your NUS Extra Card Number (Last 12 Digits). Input this data and click verify. (Please note that at the time of writing there is a validation issue with NUS Extra Card numbers which I have contacted Microsoft about, I will update the blog when this has been corrected.)

Now all you need to do is download your software, tick to accept the terms (read them first of course) and then click to download.  Click the Get Key button in order to obtain your License of the product, which as far as I am aware is yours to keep. Once you have downloaded install the products and away you go.

Good luck! I hope you benefit from and enjoy using the software.

Simon

UPDATE: 06/03/2008

Response received from the Dreamspark Team. 

Dear Student:

Thank you for contacting ISIC. We are thrilled that you are taking action with DreamSpark!

If you are a current NUS ISIC holde, please make sure to prefix an S before your last 12 digits.

For Example, if your NUS last 12 digits are 8010 1234 5678, make sure that you write the number like S801012345678...........

Results are in, I scored 83% on this TMA which I am a bit disappointed with, mainly because I lost marks for misreading questions. I also went along to my first tutorial for M255 last Wednesday which I enjoyed, we covered the usual introductions and went through some OO ideas making our own definitions etc, working with members of the Tutor group along the way which was a good way to get to know people.

My tutor did comment on the course picking up speed after unit three so it will be interesting to see how I manage to cope with it all..

Received this over the weekend which was a surprise as I had forgotten about it to be honest. I scored 96% which I am more than happy with.

I've taken this week off work to do some decorating etc but I'm hoping to get TMA03 and TMA04 completed and in the post so I can forget about this course for a while and concentrate on M263 and M255. Whether or not it happens though is a different thing altogether. I'll let you know how it goes...