The biggest news of the week is obviously that allrite.net is open for business! It’s taken quite a few months, although very little of that time has been spent working on this site. Other priorities, such as an upcoming wedding and my day job have taken precedence over this site.
Site Changes
I have had little sleep this week due to designing the site administration tools. Right now, I’m attempting to add a facility to upload images and automatically generate thumbnails. It doesn’t look too difficult, as PHP has a wonderful range of functions for this, and many other, tasks.
Further Studies
I am finally trying to make a move on continuing my science studies. Up to 20 percent of my work hours may be spent on research projects, and I hoping to use this time working towards a Masters by Research and eventually a PhD. I contacted two universities this week, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University and received two very different replies.
The first reply, from Sydney, basically said that there was a lot of competition for places in their research programs and seemed to say that they were after students with great marks. I gained a similar impression from their admission literature, which, unlike several other large universities, did not appear to offer much leeway for those without honours degrees. The ANU was a lot more supportive, even mentioning that a University can choose to admit whoever they like!
There’s a lot more research to be done on my part before I proceed with an application to either university. I have not ruled out other universities either. One possible obstacle is that the ANU is located in Canberra, whereas I am based in Sydney. Hopefully the facilities and resources of the ATNF will mean that I will be able to do most of my research in Sydney. Not that I would mind visiting Canberra more often, as it is one my two favourite cities.
I greatly enjoyed the three years I spent as an undergraduate at the ANU (I eventually graduated from the University of Wollongong). To help focus my mind on my future studies I think I’ll write a series of articles on my undergraduate years. Maybe it will be of some value to others interested in science and mathematics at an Australian university.
Saying No
One of the more difficult tasks of wedding planning has been informing a supplier of a service that you do not wish to proceed any further. In the case of our honeymoon travel and stationery arrangements we found alternative suppliers that offered a better deal or product than the original. It is not pleasant telling the first supplier that, despite the hard work they have placed into chasing up hotels or designing a card, that you do not want them to continue. I guess it is part of business – It’s been done to me and I understood their reasons – but that still doesn’t make it fun.
Cricket
I’ll end this piece by talking about my favourite sport – cricket. It’s the fifth Ashes test, Australia versus England, and I’m just waiting now to see if our injured captain Steve Waugh will make his century. I hope so! I haven’t been watching the TV coverage on Channel 7 (what a sacrilege!). Instead I log on to Cricinfo or tune into ABC radio. Some of those English commentators are a real hoot!
Goodnight!
It’s 11:56pm. Friday’s almost over, Steve Waugh got his century, so I’ll bid you goodnight. Avagoodweegend!