Entries in "Computing"
KeyServer Strikes Again
Dear Software Center,
All I wanted to do was some simple data analysis in Matlab on the data I spent seven hours collecting on Saturday. Is that so much to ask? According to your website, Matlab users need only have a network connection to use the program. My laptop is currently hardwired into the Case network, and, yet, I am getting nasty error messages from KeyServer, which isn't supposed to have anything to do with Matlab anyway.
Do you want me to download a newer version? Is that it? I'm supposed to spend my afternoon downloading a 1.18 GB file and reinstalling one of the largest programs on my computer, am I? I'm a busy person, Software Center, and this is not at all funny. It still won't be funny tomorrow morning when I have to go tell my advisor that I don't have results for him because Matlab refuses to load.
So do you think we can possibly move things along? This doesn't have to be difficult or painful.
Thanks!
Nicole Sharp
ETA: The KeyServer server hiccuped and Matlab blew up on me. The new installation involved infinite loops. I had to go into safe mode to fix things. But all is now well because Matlab works again.
GRE Practice Test Frustrations
I purposefully got up early this morning (for a college student, at least) so that I would have time to take one of the full length computer-based practice tests they have on the GRE website. I download the software, install, and open it, only to discover that it's worthless to me. Their PowerPrep software requires that the moniter be set to 640 x 480 pixels, and the lowest resolution my laptop's moniter is capable of is 800 x 600. This means that, when I, say, open the practice test, I can see the first half a line of both of the writing questions, but I can't get the gist of either of them, nor can I see any way to navigate so that I can answer the question or escape the test I'm not capable of answering.
This is entirely too frustrating. I'm going to have to go do something like install this program in Nord and sit there for four hours just to take a practice exam and get an idea of what my scores are likely to be. Not that I have five hours laying around to just go do that...
Research Reflections, Web Sites, and Camping, Oh My!
It's been several months since I started working on a new personal site to put on home.cwru.edu, and though I had a design that I liked and most of the content written, I hadn't uploaded it. Today I was supposed to spend some time explaining my research at a SOURCE luncheon, and I decided to put together a web page that gave an overview of my project, my work so far, my problems, my accomplishments and so forth. I didn't quite get everything I wanted done before lunchtime, but I got quite a lot, including pictures. While I was at it, I uploaded the rest of the site. Here it is.
Continue reading "Research Reflections, Web Sites, and Camping, Oh My!"
Can't Resist The (IT) Meme
Sometimes there are memes worth following, and I think people have the right idea with the top IT services meme (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) So here are the aspects I love and hate about computing at Case: