OMG! Can you believe there's MORE!

Right...

So I just started my next course, Database Architecture, paying $106 for a very large, thick paper-back text book called Introduction to SQL Server 2005 which included a CD with a 180-Day trail installation of the Enterprise version of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005.  "Cool," I think to myself, "installing this shouldn't be to difficult - I had to install SQL all the time to work with NCompass Resolution/Microsoft Content Management Server and there are instructions in the first chapter of the text."

So, I start reading the text where the SQL Express 2005 version of the server is mentioned. I actually happened to have this installed - it's done automatically when you install the Visual C# Express developer's tools - and the text did say that while the full Enterprise version is preferable the Express version will work in a pinch - there are a few reporting features that the book covers in later chapters that the Express version does not include but it is otherwise sufficient. Still, I decided I should really install the "full meal deal" and went about uninstalling SQL Express 2005 to avoid the possibility of conflicts.

Then, of course, I took the CD from the package, inserted it in my computer and prepared to install the program... only the link on the HTML-based Splash Screen gives me a "scripting error" when I click it!

"Huh?"

"Maybe," I think, "It's having problems because my default browser is FireFox and not IE." So I go into the Control Panel and change the default browser and restart the installation process.  Nope.  Still getting a scripting error. Okay, so now I open the file explorer, navigate to the CD, find the "setup.exe" file in the "Servers" directory and try to launch it directly...

"Arrrrgggg!"

What am I going to do now?  I decide to bring the CD to the instructor and let him know that I can't install the software. He takes the disk, looks at it for a moment and then points to some text on the label: "This disc contains x64 software only."

"WTF...!?"

The text book and the folder that the CD came in clearly state that it includes software suitable for both 32-bit AND 64-bit platforms. According to the instructor there should have been TWO discs in the CD folder, but he admits that one of his students who took and completed this same course a couple of months ago had a similar problem - only in his case he got two CDs but they both contained x64 software.

So, of course, now I'm wishing I hadn't been so concerned about potential conflict issues and hadn't uninstalled SQL Express 2005. After all, I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall it if I want to get going on this course and I know that Microsoft doesn't offer the 2005 Express version for download any more, now that SQL 2008 is available, so I'm going to have to wait until I get home where I have saved copies of all the Microsoft 2005 Express developer platforms (C#, VB.NET, J#, etc.) on our file server. But then I call Ron so I can rant about being in yet another textbook related mess and he says to see if Microsoft still has the SQL 2005 180-day trial available for download.

I'll be honest, I was doubtful but I did check and found that it is still available.  As it was only around 11:00AM at this point, and as I have a land line connection to the Internet at school whereas I'm usually on wireless at home, I decided to download it right then. I figured it would still take a while, even with the direct connection, but I'm usually at school until around 1:30PM and I could get started on reading chapter 1 while the download was in progress.

In the end the download took almost 2 hours and 15 minutes (it finished around 1:15PM) but now I have the installer I need and should be able to get serious about the course over the weekend.

:-j(enni)

PS: One last thing - please cross your fingers for me and hope I won't need a "part seven" on this topic!
:-j

So, there is this one course in the Programmer Analyst/Web Developer diploma program at CDI that I knew I really didn't need to take, and really didn't want to take, but that I couldn't claim I had credit for via my Computer Engineering degree: Data Exchange.  This course is all about all using XML (Extensible Markup Language) and the many specifications that you must also be familiar with to use it correctly such as DTD (Document Type Definition), XSD (XML Schema Definition), and XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). And while I've certainly worked with XML in the past, the first edition of the official W3C recommendation for XML 1.0 wasn't published until Feb 10, 1998 - one year AFTER my 1997 graduation from SFU.

In any case, I knew I could easily challenge the course, so I ponied up the $50 examination challenge fee, spent two days reviewing online - I looked over the XML 1.0 W3C recommendation (4th edition) and also walked through the XML-related tutorials at www.w3schools.com - and wrote the 25-question multiple-choice exam this morning.

I pulled off 76% - I only needed 60% to earn credit for the course - which I think is pretty good for a two day cram session.

:-j(enni)

I finally finished my Systems Analysis and Design course last Friday (Nov 20). Due to a number of factors[*] this was officially eight school days late. Which sucked. Big time.

Although the school is willing to let students who need just a few more days to wrap up loose ends to do so without cost generally that's limited to about a week - i.e., five days - and this meant I was officially three days over that and who knows how my future courses will progress!

That said, my instructor told me he didn't think I'd have nearly as much trouble with the next course, Database Concepts, as the text, Microsoft Access 2003 Step by Step, was pretty straightforward and many of his previous students had finished the lessons in less than the assigned 45 in-school hours (that's nine school days).  Knowing this, and wanting to make up as much time as possible, I started reading and doing the in-chapter and homework exercises over the weekend even though I wouldn't officially start the class until Monday.

Well, he wasn't kidding about the book being straightforward and me not having trouble! I was already onto the fourth chapter out of the nine I had to read by Sunday night.  By the time I left the computer lab on Tuesday afternoon I had just one chapter of reading and assignments left and by Wednesday morning I was ready to do my 2.5 hour project (which ultimately only took me 1hr 15 min).  Ergo, I finished a nine day course in just THREE days!

W00t!  Now I'm "down" by only two days.

:-j(enni)

[*] These are the three main reasons I finished the course so late:

1. Mismatched between edition of text book and school developed "learning guide" (For details see these posts: #1, #2, #3).
   (As an update I found out why they hadn't updated the learning guide book - the computer of the person who was working on the update crashed fatally and all the data on his hard drive had to be recovered from back up.  That was done and things looked to be getting back on track when his new hard drive also crashed, only this time there was some other problems and they were unable to recover everything! An understandable excuse, but it doesn't change the fact that the discrepancy required extra work on my part!)
   
2. Incompatibilities between the UML Diagram templates in the MS Visio version installed on the school computers (2000) and my own computer (2003). This lead to subtle corruptions of the diagrams I'd already completed as I was switching back and forth between the versions which, unfortunately, resulted in a need to completely re-do eight or nine rather complex diagrams.
   
3. The amount of time actually allocated to complete the exercises for each "module" within the course was generally insufficient to complete them, even if I hadn't had software incompatibility problems to deal with. Imagine trying to complete two problems requiring a total of about eight complex UML Diagrams in just 40 minutes!  That's just 5 minutes allocated per diagram! Preposterous!

Even though I'm managing to "catch up", the whole situation is ridiculous and, being my father's daughter, I intend to write a formal letter of complaint about these issues. For one thing, I want a formal record in case something happens that causes the original delay to become an issue again. On the second point the school should not be using software that is technically obsolete - Microsoft does not officially provide support for software that is more than seven years old.  And the third point has, I've been told, affected other students in the past and the school really needs to know it should evaluate the course plan to fix this.

:-j

(and you thought I was done with this topic!)

Back in Textbook Follies, part two I noted the outrageous cost of my text books for Student Success Strategies [SSS].  Well it gets better - last Sunday (Nov 9th) I was going through the paperwork for the request I made to HRDC for the training grant I received and happened across the list of book costs that came from the school.  Well, what do I see but the text book for SSS was listed as only $57!  Even with the 5% GST there's no way that should equal $84!

So, I went to the financial advisor (who takes payment for books) on Monday and showed her my paperwork. She told me she was sorry but the price had gone up and whoever wrote up the school acceptance letter for me shouldn't have used last year's prices.

Well I'm sorry, but that just wasn't good enough - after all, this information was sent to the government and they used that to determine how much they would award me for my grant and we really don't have any extra cash to spare these days.  Being my father's daughter I said as much, intimating that I didn't think I should have to pay more than the quoted price, even if the actual cost had gone up. The financial adviser's response was that I would have to bring it up with my admissions officer (a lovely lady named Kris Scott who is actually at the Coquitlam campus of Vancouver Career College - VCC recently acquired CDI and I'm attending the Burnaby CDI campus) and she would then have to bring it up with the director of the CDI Burnaby campus "... if she agrees with you." :-P

{sigh}

Well I phoned Kris that afternoon and she was completely on my side.  She said that the prices included in the letter were faxed to her from the CDI Burnaby Campus and they had to honour it. She said she'd talk to her director who would then talk to my director and work everything out. Yay! Problem solved, right? I should have a credit for my "overpayment" in a few days...

Well, of course, nothing ever goes as planned, does it?

On Friday, I hadn't heard anything from the management at school, so I gave my admissions officer another call. She said she'd talked to her director and that everything should be all ticketey-boo, but when I went down to the main office to talk to the director, Jane, she said she hadn't heard from the VCC Coquitlam Director!  [insert eye roll here].  Anyway, I told Jane the full story and my opinion about the prices, gave her and the receptionist (who distributes text books when they are requested) a copy of the book list and prices in my paperwork, and told her I'd call my admissions officer back to let her know that her director hadn't called yet.

I did that, but I still don't know if the necessary calls have been made. I guess I'll find out on Monday when I try to purchase my books for the next class (Database Concepts). Hopefully I'll have a credit of about $24 on file that I can put towards the $34 + GST cost of the text book for that course.

:-j(enni)

Update - 2008/11/26: I did got my credit in the end and CDI will be selling me all future textbooks for the price listed in my documentation (or less, if the current price is lower).  Yay!
-j

Owwwie. I think I have sprained or strained my foot, all because I was running late this morning and, in my haste, I tripped and fell getting on my bus this morning.

The B97 bus was crossing the intersection just as I came up the block, so I ran to catch it - crossing against the light - and managed to arrive beside the front door at the very moment the driver started inching forward to re-join traffic. He, did, however, see me almost immediately and stopped to let me board. Not wanting to delay his departure too much I rushed to get on board, "jumping up" into the doorway with my left foot first. Unfortunately, because the bus had moved slightly the gap between curb and the doorway had widened by perhaps four to six inches and this was also one of those "kneeling" buses with a level floor that sits a bit higher than a normal step when it isn't "kneeling" in my haste to board I misjudged where I needed to put my foot and failed to lift my foot high enough to completely clear the edge of the step.  This caused me to catch the bottom edge of my runner at the toe and, as I had "jumped" up, my momentum pitched me forward and landed on both knees on the floor of the bus. The situation was worsened by the fact that my hands were full with an umbrella and my purse (which I was trying to open to retrieve my wallet and bus pass) and I had a backpack with my text books on my back. 

The driver was very solicitous, asking several times if I was okay and I assured him I was and he even waited for me to get myself back together before eventually pulling away as I went to find a seat. As I rode the bus all the way to the end of the route at Lougheed Mall he took advantage of this to call me aside as I left the bus stop asking for additional information for his incident report. Together we went over what had happened and he took my name and phone number. He also asked me to make an official claim with Translink, which I did. 

Although my knees appear to be no worse for wear, after the adrenalin had left my system I realized my left foot - the one that caught on the edge of the floor - was in worse shape than I'd initially assumed. The discomfort was minor to start with but did worsen as the day went on (while sitting still there is a dull throbbing pain across the front part of my foot, directly above the arch and the pain sharpens a little when I point or flex the foot and gets quite bad if I twist it left or right) so I've arranged to see my doctor tomorrow morning and I've been icing it every half hour since I got home this afternoon.

Anyway, here's hoping the throbbing dies down by tomorrow morning and my doctor's appointment is more or less unnecessary.

:-j(enni)

Update: It's a good thing that I'm going in to see my doctor as I received a response to the "incident report" I filed with Translink that indicates that they will be informing ICBC who will determine where the fault lies. If ICBC will be involved then it's almost a necessity to have a doctor's opinion on the full extent of the injury. Personally, I ascribe no fault to the driver for this - the driver had barely moved forward when he stopped to let me on and the increased gap between curb and step was certainly narrow enough that any passenger taking just slightly more care would not have had a problem, but I suppose official processes must be followed. I just hope that this doesn't lead to the driver being punished in any way for letting me on after starting to pull out - if there's one thing I can't stand is bus drivers who just drive away even though they've seen you standing right there.  :P
:-j

Update 2: (12:45p, Nov 6): Just saw the doctor and he called it a "hyperflexion injury" and described it as basically having tendonitis across the top of my foot. He said it should get better on it's own over the next ten days to two weeks as it's a tendon injury vs. the ligament injury that is typical of a sprained ankle (tendon's, being muscle-to-muscle connectors, apparently heal faster than their muscle-to-bone cousins the ligaments). I'm to keep off it when possible, ice it frequently and otherwise hobble along to get about.

{sigh}  Just what I need with a post-Hallowe'en house mess and friends scheduled to come hang out this weekend. :P

Going back to the textbook related trials and tribulations I have previously discussed here and here, I have recently been given a reason for why CDI has not revised the Learning Guide materials for my Systems Analysis and Design course to match the 4th edition of the textbook.  My instructor believes that the college is seriously considering producing their own text for the course rather than continuing to use the current text.

Apparently, a majority of the students in the program are immigrants with English as a second language and, as the text is written for a university level, many often find themselves taking two or three times longer to grasp the concepts than is expected for the course.  By preparing their own materials CDI can tailor it in a way that would help these students succeed.

This is, I think, a shame.  First of all, the textbook is actually very well crafted and it would be a lot of work to create something new with a similar level of coverage.  Second of all, by crafting a text that catered to the ESL crowd the course material would be simplified so much that students more like me would probably be bored out of their collective trees. :P

:-j(enni)

So, this past week (Oct 27-31) I took a brief break from Systems Analysis and Design to take Student Success Strategies as this one-week course is only offered once a month.

Having been a post secondary student for 11 years, I didn't expect to gain much from taking the course except the extra hours of credit needed to ensure that my 100 hours of practicum wasn't more than 20% of my total training (a requirement of the government grant I received). However, I vowed to go in with a positive attitude and figured I could at least offer the other incoming students the benefit of my prior knowledge about such things.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the content of the course which, in addition to techniques and strategies for taking notes and preparing for tests, covered communication, conflict resolution and self confidence building skills.  And although I have taken the occasional seminar, attended talks or read books on these topics, it's always nice to get a refresher.

The class of 27 was mainly women (there was one man) with ages ranging from 19 to mid 40's. Most were starting a new program at CDI for Medical Lab Technicians, with two or three starting the Medical Office Assistant program, one Legal Assistant, one Network Admin (the man), one Web Designer and me (Web Developer). It was a great bunch of people and the course was very enjoyable as a result.  It also helped that the instructor was very entertaining young man who had also just started at CDI, having been hired as the Employment Specialist, and was teaching the course for the first time. We all had great fun effectively learning together.

As expected, I did have a lot to offer and, with my usual style and aplomb, I won over the class. In fact, just before break on the first day the instructor asked if anyone could comment on the topic at hand or had our brains all already left for coffee when several people in the class spontaneously said "nominated" me to do so!  We all laughed and then I did make a few points before we went to coffee.  After break, I did make a point of "zipping my lip" or otherwise officially bowing out of responding to a question on a few occasions just to keep the rest of the class aware that they would still have to step up and participate.

The week ended with a short day and a school-wide Hallowe'en party with a costume contest, a pumpkin carving contest and pot-luck goodies. Since I've lost so much weight since last year I was able to get into my classic "Retro 50's Martian" costume and ended up in the top four for the morning class along with a "molar" (one of the students in the Dental Assistant program), an Armoured Samurai and a "Beautiful Lady with Mask" (she had her hair done up with curls and dangling gewgaws and was wearing a fitted sequined dress that had an East Indian vibe topped off with a gorgeous golden mask).  There was another party planned for the afternoon classes and they will be picking the top four there and then announcing the top four overall on Monday.

They also used the party to make the school's monthly announcements and "Student of the Month" awards.  Most were for individuals with perfect attendance and/or top marks for the month, so I was nicely surprised when I was awarded one by the SSS teacher for all my contributions there.

All in all, it was a good week.

:-j(enni)