A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

This morning we're off. In order to get the cruise deal, we have to fly out of Seattle. Getting down to Seatac is a slight hassle but as the flight is late in the day, we will be arrive in plenty of time by getting on the 9:00 am bus that leaves from downtown Vancouver. As we've a lot to do, I shall enter some information that I typed yesterday while my students were taking the course final examination.



Can I be doing this again, already? It doesn’t seem very long ago that I had my laptop in class during a previous final examination. I suppose it really wasn’t long ago for these intensive courses fly past like greased pigs. Have pigs learned to fly? I’d suggest that perhaps only the slippery ones have.

I find myself sitting in front of a classroom. I’ve already corrected the listening part of the final exam. I administer that separately, so I can keep busy while they are completing the writing section.

As I want to get these grades turned in a soon as possible, I have also opened a copy of the course marks in an Excel spreadsheet. All the columns have been filled in. The only free spaces are those where the final exam scores will go. Then, there’ll be an instant numerical grade in the last column. The weightings of the activities and assignments create a rather lengthy formula:

=(Q10*0.45)+((R10*2)*0.15)+((S10*16.667)*0.1)+((T10*16.667)*0.1/2)+(U10*0.25).

Basically, it all adds up to a single decision. The result helps me decide if a particular student is ready to go on to the next COMM course. I suppose there are numbers that contribute to more far-reaching choices. Numbers used by structural engineers might help design a part which is capable of handling the lives of thousands of people. A number may allow the pinpoint accuracy needed for a spacecraft to hit the surface of another planet. Still, I think the ramifications of my formula are significant. The number in my last column has the ability to determine the future actions of twenty-two people.

Labels: cruise, places, Seattle

The title doesn't matter as either way, I have to travel to campus via the Deer Lake Parkway. I'll be heading on this road again, today.



This makes the fifth time this week, I've driven to the Burnaby Campus of BCIT. Today the dynamics will be a bit different as it's our final day of class. We will do one last activity as a wrap up to COMM 0004, then the students will complete the course evaluations, and lastly, they'll write the final examination.

I'll be correcting and turning in the marks this evening. I need to correct promptly as we'll be leaving early tomorrow to catch a bus down I-5 to the Seatac airport.

Labels: BCIT, driving

Yesterday, half of my class completed their oral presentations. Today, the other half will do the same. When I teach this level, I always demand an 8 to 10 minute presentation on a business in Vancouver. Primary and secondary research is mandatory. The students must choose a focus that is related to their career and interview someone. They must consider the needs of the audience too.

This class is a nice mix of international students and Canadian immigrants. One student is currently working in a firm that creates DVDs. He used a PowerPoint presentation that he kindly sent to me by email. I thought it was interesting and I'd like to take the opportunity to let my readers take a look too.

Labels: BCIT, sharing

About a month ago, I blogged a bit about the how I'm using Discovery Channel Canada's Daily Planet in my classroom.



I mentioned how the 4-to-8 minute segments work perfectly in my technical communication classes. The fast-paced show delves into many areas of science and technology. It's a perfect way to begin a language lesson at BCIT. I've burnt a few DVD's containing a variety of topics. I've shown a segment to my present group during each day of class. The time we've spent has seemed beneficial.

Nobody said things had to be boring, did they?

Labels: BCIT, television

I like it when I find some free piece of software that is so useful that I cannot imagine living without it. I discovered one of these the other day on a website. This site was actually microsoft.com!

It's a little program is called synctoy.

I've always been fairly good about backing up data. I've never had a catastrophe either. Once it was easy enough using CD's. Then, I needed the extra heft of a blank DVD in order to keep backup data. Not long ago, however, I've found that even 4.7 gigabytes isn't enough. For example, my digital picture folder is larger than that.

Additionally, I was never a fan of keeping data in a proprietary format. The OneCare Live solution, in which Microsoft is getting its feet wet for subscription services, can do backups. Yet it keeps everything deep inside of a large unreadable file format. I want to keep access to a group of usable files.

Keeping data consistent between my backup external drive, my main PC, and notebook has become a snap with synctoy. It works like xcopy used to in DOS days but it roars along with an easy-to-use Windows interface. Click the thumbnail image to visit the synctoy download page.

(The only reason that might keep anyone from quickly jumping on the bandwagon, is the fact it requires the microsoft.NET framework ver 1.1 on the PC. Some people with dial up could find that 22 megabyte upgrade difficult even though it's also free.)

Labels: software

Sometime over the weekend, unexpectedly,the photos in my Flickr collection reached a minor milestone. I think it's quite amazing that other people have viewed these images 10,000 times. Isn't that what pictures are for?

I cannot imagine owning a digital camera if the resulting files were to merely sit in a folder on my hard disc. Simply emailing a copy or two wouldn't satisfy me. I've especially appreciated how 'My Daily Picture Parade' has forced me to carry around a camera. Pictures shouldn't just be for special occasions. When was the last time you took a picture of last night's dinner.


Did it really all start with this back in June of last year?

Labels: Daily Picture Parade, Flickr

As a follow up to yesterday's entry, I rolled another three tapes through an old 8mm analog camcorder and onto my hard disk via a capture card. I selected a trio of tapes from 1991. It was a spring vacation from Bahrain. We first flew into Sri Lanka and spent a few days with the family; subsequently, we went on to Thailand. We, of course, landed in Bangkok. Next, we made our way up to Changmai. We met colleague Don Richardson there. We also made it south to see both Pattaya and Phuket.

It was interesting pulling up these images on my computer and television screens. Although a far cry from HDTV, they are more than sufficient to bring back forgotten memories. Movement and sound add a lot. Why doesn't my present digital camcorder ever leave the drawer, I wonder? I couldn't help but notice how much thinner I was fifteen years ago. Jay's the same size, he just had a lot of hair then. Small conversations were interesting. For example, I mentioned to a tourist that we were beginning to notice the black clouds from the Kuwaiti oil fires, down on our little island of residence. Those were the days of Gulf War I.

Getting this information burnt to DVDs is a long and boring process. It becomes so much more accessible when it is the new format though. I didn't even want to cut out the long sequences we shot when we were new to shooting video. With the remote that comes with the DVD player, it is very easy to rush through boring patches at 16X or greater.

The creative side of me thought about using editing software to remove mistakes and add music and transitions. Yet the archivist in me contends that capturing exactly what was on the tapes is a purer rendition of history.

Labels: Don, Thailand, world