I am definately anti-clique!

http://anticliquemovement.blogspot.com/

Reminds me of spitalfields

Walking through the laines…..

Servers, Virtualisation, cuts at Sussex University and a proud person…

It’s been a while. It’s been a long while. A lot has happened since I last blogged on here -including a great new job working for the University of Sussex Student Union, (USSU) – http://ussu.info as the IT & Web Manager.

I’ve been there 6 months now- seems a lot longer….:)

My head is stuck in HP Servers/Virtualisation licenses and how our new server room is going to be kitted out. With the help of some lovely people over at ITS -I am nearly there. All this has been going on whilst a lot of activity is taking place on campus about the Cuts that the University are going to make. It’s a difficult time for a lot of people and it makes it hard to see these sorts of things take place where you are right in the middle.

I love my job and I love the people I work with. Such a wide spectrum of people and a place where you can truly express different ideas and feel comfortable in the knowledge that people will listen to you . Supporting people on a daily basis by assisting them with their IT woes is a fantastic opportunity and a wonderful way to gain an understanding of what different people are doing and how they are doing it within the Union. The technology is simply the toolkit -but it is about finding more innovative ways in which to help people in their daily work life.

I am a proud person today. I saw a few things that made me feel good and almost humbled….

I feel that my artistic thoughts and feelings are returning whereby I can now reach for my camera, dust it off and get that 35mm film working again. I also sense a need to reinvigorate a number of really interesting web projects that have been on hold for far too long.!

To see what has been happening at Sussex University -see our friendly Welfare Officer, Ciaran Whitehead here on Facebook and an interesting blog here by Tabitha over at the SPLASH site.

I would also suggest you take a peek at my our Education Officer’s blog site: Josh Jones, Photography without Borders. He has a lot to talk about and a lot of great imagery too.

The Moon is looking beautiful this evening. It calms me to stare at it….

The Moon out tonight from my window....

today is a day of contemplation

I hope all of you are enjoying the weekend. For me, it is the first weekend that marks a change in me and my life. I will never forget it..

i did have a headache, but now…

I don’t. Handy that.

My support network is important to me, and over the last week I have been using it. I don’t know what I would do without it. I am definately thankful to know so many nice people, both close and far away.

Drinking tomato soup right now – actually cup a soup. It feels so comfortable drinking one of those.. OR a GREAT BIG HUG IN A MUG

I need lots of hugs at the moment.

Well, the last week and a half has been the hardest…

I don’t know, these things must come in two’s, three’s and more. Over the last week, I have been ill as a dog and my personal life has been the baddest I can ever imagine. We all go through hard times once in a while and of course it is normal in the life of us humans – full of peaks and troughs and it never stays asymptotic.

There is good news though. I have just recently been invited for an interview at the University of Sussex which I am really looking forward to. I don’t want to say too much on here, as I have already done so on good old twitter! In hindsight, that may have been a bit silly, but I enjoy being honest and open.

If I was to get this position, I would be the happiest man alive…. A job that is challenging, in areas that I truly love and enjoy and in an environment I adore and have come to love. We’ll have to wait and see

Today, at thes sussex uni, inqbate space, there is the Formula 1 Mobil University of Sussex Team who are showcasing their car this evening in an event taking place from 7pm. Lots to do and a lot of things to get through. I am looking forward to it. Take a look at the team here too..

In the meantime, a nice friend from twitter suggested FeedMingle – great idea of pooling all your feeds into one and then creating a widget out of it. Check out FeedMingle here.

A day of visual basic, group policy, dvi matrix, bing and beer

OK, so today, Eric and I at the University of Sussex within the InQbate space set to install a newly mirrored workstation on the system. Last week, having installed the OS via group policy management, (via remote installation services) onto the spare machine, the new PodPC was ready to go. Installing it on the network within the InQbate space is a whole different ball game however.

The system is highly intriguing and I absolutely love it. If I had my way, I would tinker away at so many things, I would probably end up bringing a sleeping bag to work So, taking into consideration the DVI Matrix, group policy objects, domain controllers, system controller and the session maker, (or Mr Session Maker, another of Phil’s creations – what a guy!) we moved to integrate the new workstation.

Everything went well in the first part. Got it up and running, installed a few extra bits of software, brought across some startup scripts from the fileserver, (visual basic scripts that are imperative to run, so that the PC can communicate to projector/plasma and vice-versa) and connected the DVI matrix connections. The IP address of the workstation was set up properly via DHCP reserved and we were looking good.

THEN > Our System Controller was giving us a nightmare: Where could we set the new MAC address of the workstation to replace the old one? It was imperative to do this because without it, running scripts to start the system, reboot it or shut it down would not work otherwise. We ploughed away and eventually agreed that the Phil Watten, (original designer of the system) would be able to bail us out. I should point out that this was after a long time of sifting through countless visual studio files!

With that in hand, we found out the appropriate config file and changed the mac address accordingly. We were up and running and I then set about amending registry settings to allow automatic login on the domain. Tomorrow is the day to physically put the new workstation up in the ceiling -that will be fun! Knew I should of gone to the gym sooner

Played around with Microsoft’s new Search engine: Bing. Thus far it’s not bad, but far too early to say for sure as to whether it has the intelligence in comparison to Google, my best friend and most other’s I’m sure, (google currently have something like 85% of the market share of online searches).

On a final note, I was googling myself this evening, (I do this regularly to ensure my prior work, online articles, blogs etc are all still online) and came across Inspire Research. It looks like Dr. Rachel Harris was kind enough to mention me regarding a presentation I gave at a JISC Conference in Edinburgh earlier this year, entitled: Opening Digital Doors.

Dr. Harris mentions me in her post here. Inspire Research looks like a team, (with Alison Muirhead) who are a consultancy in research and evaluation.. They look as if they are doing some very interesting work with educational institutions and government organisations.

It was in relation to my prior work within the SPLASH project that is currently in use at sussex uni. I very much appreciate the mention. It was a really enjoyable conference and took place at the EICC, a wonderfully large and circular space. As illustrated here in my earlier SPLASH blog about it.

Righty then. Awfully quiet on the twitter front right now.. I rode home earlier and this is what I saw:

Contemplation of time to come…

So, it was a fairly good day today at the #sussexuni #inqbate space. Life Sciences conference brought up some interesting discussions surrounding historical data, the idea of memory and narrative and how humans think of events past and present that involve tragedy.

There were anaolgies with September 11/the Holocaust and the Iraq War. The speakers had very varied papers to present, so I had a chance to listen in and that was nice.

I was thinking about something else today. Well actually a couple of things. Firstly: Wireless Projectors (for the inqbate space) , Secondly: theatrical lighting to rig in the same space, Moveable rigs for current data projectors and thirdly: my job situation.

Things are really great at the moment and my time has been extended at the #inqbate space. I love working there, the team are all lovely and the space is really enjoyable, and at times, technically challenging. The space can be customised in so many ways and what is great is that rather than just using the space for ‘space’ sake; it’s about stressing that the space should be used in a creative way that is suited to the subject.

It gives me so many ideas regarding my photography work and potentiality for research into 3D spatial design. Anyway, thats another blog. It also pushes a few buttons in my head about social media – in fact I have a few ideas to run some workshops in that space……

I’m going to go and drink some more Peroni beer. Always loved drinking that since I went to Italy years back.

wow, it’s been an interesting day..

So, at the #inqbate space setting up for a Life Sciences conference tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. Meanwhile, went for a seriously long bicycle ride up and down the seafront of Brighton. Must of been out for at least 2 hours and it was fantastic.

I have candles burning and it’s my time for contemplation right now.

the #sussexuni #inqbate space today

Hey folks, just to remind you all that the 2nd year Sussex University Product Design students are showcasing their prototypes to do with the experimentation of light in the #inqbate space today.

Videos of this can be found at my qik feed: http://www.qik.com/athemiya 

Also, in response to the Sussex Uni Protest Camp outside Sussex House, who are protesting at the closure of the linguistics department, I think it is rather awful in which they have been threatened by form of an official letter giving them until 5pm to disperse and leave. This simply shows how there is no right to protest – and of all places – you would expect a university student to be able to air their views accordingly and peacefully.

From what I have seen at the guys and girls camped outside Sussex House, they are peaceful, welcoming and totally calm. 

Anyone interested in seeing this, can visit this excellent link from IndyMedia here.

Also, see the protest camps own blog here.

I say good luck to them and I fully support them. I met some of the great people there a few days ago and I welcome their presence and voice.