Now, if only I could find the time to get going on S186…

In the end, I solved the issue myself and the ECA is now away – but the prospect of being unable to complete an ECA, and therefore failing the course, through no fault of my own has left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again.

- Wrote to my MP for the first time over the ELQ funding issue – which affects me, as it would knock short courses on the head, along with the idea I’ve been toying with of doing a BSc(Hons) Physical Science once my current degree is out of the way. Positive reply form her, and she’s signed the Early Day Motion, so I’m fairly happy with that. For all the good it’ll do, knowing this Government…

- T224 complete & results are out – Pass 2, which I’m a little disappointed but not surprised about, as I was caught out by a number of exam questions around Block 3 of the course (Bluetooth, specifically). It doesn’t count towards my Honours classification, so I can live with it. More on that later…

- S199 – which I’ve complained about previously – ended up deferring to the January submission date. I ended up starting it from scratch again – fortunately, it’s made a lot more sense the second time around, so I’m a lot more confident about it now.

- M359 and S186 kick off in February. Since they overlap with the end of M257, it’s going to be a busy few months…

- …which will also coincide with the arrival of our 2nd child, due in June. So is the M257 exam. This could be a problem…

- along with all the OU stuff, I’ve also been taking work-related exams. I now hold Certified Ethical Hacker and Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator certifications. If I ever get to use them, work’s going to get a lot more interesting…

Busy few months passed. Busier few months coming. One word: eek…

I’m not sure what the problem is – my mind’s much happier dealing with things scientific, and studying weather systems in Geography class at school didn’t give me any problems, so I wasn’t expecting this course to present any issues. Perhaps it’s the lack of motivation from knowing I’m not going to get a score out of it, perhaps it’s the little part of me that’s still a climate change sceptic – whatever it is, it’s hugely frustrating.

Come next week I’ll be into revision mode for T224 and things climate-related will be forgotten about until more important, degree-related matters are out of the way. Hopefully the brain-freeze isn’t a general thing…

T224 Exam: 16th October
S199 ECA deadline: 31st October
M257 TMA01 deadline: 15th November

I think my one-month break is about to come back and bite me. The original plan had been to have S199 completed by the end of September – that would have given me 2 weeks to revise for the T224 exam, then into M257 with plenty of time to meet the TMA deadline.

Unfortunately, S199 is proving to be the trickiest 10-pointer I’ve done so far, and it looks like I won’t be finished with it by the end of the month. The revision time for T224 is non-negotiable, so I’ll have to finish S199 after the exam – which then leaves me very short on time to complete the first few M257 units & TMA01. Argh.

Should’ve started M257 when the books arrived, I guess…

You’re probably thinking the obvious solution is to just ask on the cpdn forums, and yes, they do have an apparently very helpful support forum – but you need to be a registered user before you can post queries. The only way you can register is through the cpdn application – which won’t work under Vista, so you can’t register to post your query. A wonderfully vicious circle. ::headdesk::

Fortunately, I have copy of an older version of Windows on hand, and Parallels lets you install as many ‘virtual’ OSs as you like – I just could have done without the bother of spending the time installing Windows 2000. Frustrated? Oh yes.

UPDATE: So after spending the time to get Win2K up & running, I found it still wasn’t working, which makes me suspect a problem at cpdn’s end. Same result on a native Windows box, too, so that rules out Parallels being the cause. Of course, since the app won’t register, I still can’t post to their support forums to ask about it. Ah well – wait a few days & try again…

UPDATE 2: And lo, it was a fault at cpdn’s end. Tried again last night and the client connected & registered with no problems. Here endeth a few days’ frustration…

A thought about S199. This involves using a distributed processing tool (climateprediction.net) for the duration of the course – my “general use” PC is an old G4 Mac mini, which doesn’t meet the system requirements for BOINC CPDN, so I’ll have to fire up The Beast: my Windows XP gaming PC. The problem with this is that The Beast generates so much heat (and chews through so much electricity) that it’s almost a climate change factor in its own right. Somehow this doesn’t seem quite right…!