Only 2 films this month in what turns out to be a sci-fi showdown. First up is Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Now the purists have already started complaining about the inconsistencies with the book. As has been pointed out, none of the separate versions (radio, tv, and book) actually fit together, so why should the films be any different? Judged on their its own merit, it does have some lacklustre points: the emphasis on the somewhat forced love story, the finale that isn’t very much of a crescendo, and the narrated moments from the Guide that are awkwardly shoe-horned into a universe that is visual enough already. Other than that, it’s a reasonable interpretation of Adams’ world. In fact, it features one moment of absolute genius, not seen in any previous incarnation of the series. Worth watching, but a cumbersome in places.

This months other film is (deep breath): Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith. It can be summed up as follows. Good bits: lightsabre fights, Natalie Portman, space battle. Bad Bits: Hayden Christensen (oh dear), the clumsy handling of Palpatine’s turning of Anakin, Mace Windu’s bizarre and unfounded change half way through, Grevious being a coward (when he spends most of the Clone Wars murdering Jedi), did I mention Hayden Christensen yet?

Episode 3 is probably exactly what you expect, Hitchhiker’s is too. Hard to pick one this month, so I’ll go with Hitchhiker’s.

No entirely sure of what has been happening in music for the last month or so because my head has been in the books, but here are a few snippets regardless.

To complement their tour, Idlewild released the latest single from their new album. The track, “I Understand It”, is decent enough on its own but sits in a mire of mediocrity in the album. Unlike the B-Sides for the previous album (which were stunning), the cover, live track and bonus track on offer here are not worth getting. Shame they never included their cover of “I Wanna Be Sedated”.

Glasgow rockers Dead Fly Buchowski released their debut album through Beggar’s Banquet. Though I haven’t heard it, on the basis of the preceeding singles, it’s bound to be decent enough.

The Sparta/Mars Volta divide took an interesting twist this month. Both bands forming from the ashes of post-hardcore legends At The Drive-In after seminal album “Relationship Of Command”, it seems that Sparta guitarist has defected to the other side to replace the late Jeremy Ward. This means that the Mars Volta now have more members of the original band. We can only hope that someone sits Omar, Jim, Cedric and co down to convince them to patch things up and make the At The Drive-In revival dream a reality.

While I’m sure a lot more happened, that’s all I know.

Up until six months ago, I wasn’t living the dream that every Internet-savvy person with the slightest hint of narcissism has wanted. That’s right: I wasn’t the top result on Google for my own name. A brief and pointless tale as to why follows.

As Solitude came together, I was looking at different techniques to ensure that search engines got the right content from it. It seemed that from my past experiences of searching on other peoples blogs, the front page inevitably turned up, with the post in question have long scrolled off of it. Many sources suggested that the solution to this was to use the "noindex,follow" setting in your robots meta tag directive. And so I did.

That was fine, except for the fact that people link to your homepage when using your name. Because the homepage was set as "noindex" it didn’t get a Google PageRank associated with it (rightly). Rather a problem. In the end, the solution was simple. Just switch it back to allow indexing of the main page. Google is smart enough now to either show a permalinked page in results, or have the permalinked page as a sub-entry of the front page link.

This post, of course, means that my site will inevitably disappear from a search for my name. Such is life.

Via an indirect link, I came across an old (2002) post someone made about Holy Shit moments and got to wondering what constituted my list. While this is nowhere near comprehensive, I stand by it.

• Napster – I don’t recall exactly who first told me about Napster, but I remember I had spent the previous few weeks trying to find mp3s that worked and were of decent quality. The selection available was poor and the amount of searching needed was silly. Then Napster happened. You typed in the name of whatever you wanted and it would appear, ready to download. Wow.
• Pipes (Unix) – It took a while for this to hit home, but the really rather simple idea of pipes was a definite Holy Shit. That one command could be used as the input for another, and that used as an argument for another (and so on) was a very useful realisation.
• Design Patterns – I admit that I was extremely sceptical about the usefulness of patterns, and I also admit that it usually takes me a while to really get any given pattern but when I finally see the light, it’s a Holy Shit moment.
• Super Mario 64 – I remember going into Glasgow on the N64 launch day and playing the latest Mario iteration for an hour. It was stunning from the start: the world seemed so complete and well realised, the goals so clear, and the controls were perfect (yet to be beaten). You were Mario. If you edged the analogue stick, he tip-toed passed piranha plants. If you hammered forward, snapped backwards and pressed jump, he’d do a backflip. For the first time, a character did exactly what you expected. Still stunning/
• Broadcatching – Stupid fucking name, but a bloody good idea. RSS and Bittorent almost made my list on their own, but this has got to be the smartest bit of fusion I’ve seen on the net. You pick a torrent site, you get a decent client, and you tell it what you like watching. It downloads any new episodes that appear. This is the way that TV should work in the future, but likely won’t because of copyright fear.
• The Usual Suspects – If you have seen it, you know why. If you haven’t, I’m not telling you.
• The Matrix – Regardless of what you think of the wooden Mr. Reeves or the somewhat lacking sequels, the opening sequence of this alone changed the cinematic world. From the call to Trinity, the arrival of the agents, the first bit of bullettime, the rooftop chase, all the way to the escape through the phone line: wow!

I’ve purposefully left a few out for relative brevity (and because I can’t remember everything), but what are your holy shit moments?

Yesterday was the day of my final exam and, thus, the last piece of work for my degree. After four years, a lot of headaches and heartaches, strange days and late nights in the lab, it’s finally over. With the exception of various administrative matters and the obligatory celebrations (starting yesterday and ongoing for quite some time), there is no more university for me. This is the first time in four years when I’ve had absolutely no obligation to get on with something, and the first in two when I’ve felt that I’ve really had time to do stuff for myself.

First of all, a brief retrospective of the best moments of university life. While the list is far from comprehensive (being focussed on the last year, drawn entirely from university related matters, and blinkered by tiredness), it should do. In no particular order:

• DBIT talk. Three of us (myself, Mark and Derek were supposed to give a short demonstration of a system we finished a day or two earlier (a fantasy football web app). We hadn’t prepared a single word of the demo but, by a combination of luck and some top quality bullshitting, we not only did a sterling job, we won 25 of drinks vouchers. Sometimes reading blogs and knowing about web stuff actually pays. In drinks.
• Which leads us nicely into the bullshit. There is nothing quite like pulling a piece of coursework out of your arse at the last minute and making it look squeaky clean, despite absurdly stinky patches. Time to end that metaphor.
• Peter Dickman. There is a fairly mixed opinion of Peter, the lecturer who taught us Unix/Linux, the C course, Operating Systems 3, and Distributed Algorithms and Systems 4. On one hand, his lectures and explanations are excellent, with a logical progression like no others and an understanding of the material that is matched by few. On the other hand, there is an almost sadistic elements to his courses. The assessed exercises (and exams) full of sting after sting after sting, the spartan lecture notes (filling in the details as you go), the malicious (but deserved) handling of mobile phone incidents, and many more things tell you that his course won’t be easy. That’s not the point. It’s a “no pain, no gain” ethos and it works. You will learn the course inside and out so long as you put in reasonable time.
• Another lecturer, who shall remain unnamed but is the number 1 lecturer on the Glasgow DCS wank list (compiled years ago by a former student). He largely maintained his stature as the biggest arse in the department by saying that the web really wasn’t very good (Gopherspace is better apparently), PageRank was a joke, and other statements that he would refuse to back up with evidence. Good job!
• My projects. Both my team project last year, and my individual project this year (more of which at a later date). Proud of them, and glad to have undertaken them.
• Pub Friday. A simple concept built around a water tight axiom (“Is it Friday? Are there pubs? I don’t see how we can get out of it…”). Many a good night in Jim’s were had. If you ever came along to one, then kudos. If you didn’t get your round in, shame on you!
• The people. Obligatory entry, but definitely meant. Without my friends, I may have cracked a long time ago. The good times, bad times, and lab times (where there is neither good nor bad, just lack of sleep); the people were what it was really all about.
• Myself. I realised yesterday that I’m a better person for having done this degree. I don’t just mean I’m a better computing scientist (which is also true), I’m better as a whole. The changes since 2001 (spanning beyond my 18th and 21st birthdays in both directions), and in particular the last year, are apparent in retrospect. I can evaluate and appreciate things better than I ever could, my outlook and understanding has broadened, my sense of perspective has sharpened, and I’ve got a stronger character (the strength of my convictions and self-confidence without, hopefully, being brash). These are some of the ways in which I think university life has changed me for the better. Plus I do have a goatee now.

Like I said, that in no way, makes up the sum of my experiences, representing just a few things that I enjoyed.

What now? I’m not sure. There is the mandatory celebration period for the next while, a period of taking it easy for the first time in years, and then I don’t know. I know that if I do well enough I should have a graduate job lined up, but given my exam experience this year (not good) I have strong doubts about that.

I will, however, be clearing out my lists. I’ve got a backlog of lists for various things that I’m going to work through. Projects that will appear here, plans for VKPS that have been on hold for a while now, and clearing out my backlog of new music (my “new music” playlist is supposed to be a rating buffer but currently has over 2000 entries) are just a few.

Good luck to all those who did this course with me in whatever they do. We’ve worked harder than most these last years, we all deserve a little recreation and a fruitful life.