I got a letter while I was away and it seems that the Me First & the Gimme Gimmes gig I was going to has been cancelled. I’d whinge, but seeing as it’s due to sever illness on part of the mother of one of the band members, it’d not be too fair. They’ll be back, I’m sure.
In the meantime, it saves me money. Partly on the ticket, partly beer and partly hotel as I’d be staying the night for the Hayseed Dixie gig the next evening. Also, it gives me another day to get coursework finished (or to stare at it and panic).
The aforementioned coursework is still affecting my blogging time (not to mention other things). Tonight I’m heading over to see a friend who’s good at maths, as she’s said she can do my… er… help with my final assignment. Is there anyone out there who fancies writing a 3000-word report on VPNs? Nah, didn’t think so.
I just found out that my old work have finally (after over 2 years) installed a VPN linking them to the Polish office. Only the guy who got it going and the Poles know about it. The Technical Director hasn’t been told, otherwise he’d a) throw a hissy fit that he didn’t get to install it, and b) tinker with it when nobody was looking and **** it up completely.
He reminds me of a lecturer I had at university who was ******* clueless. The guy was meant to be teaching us about hardware, and the students knew more than him. Mainly as he was working off notes that were about 4 years out of date, and otherwise out of sheer laziness and ignorance.
I recall one lecture about memory where he quoted some rough prices. Everyone looked at each other until one brave soul put their hand up and said that you could buy memory a lot cheaper than he quoted.
“I’ll believe that when I see it”, he snorted.
So we did, with about 25 different adverts in the current month’s PC Pro.
The handout we got was also unbelievable, including (from memory):
Modern memory often comes in SIMMs (I think this means Standard Integrated Memory Module)
“I think this means…”? In lecture notes? From the lecturer? And he was wrong (it’s “Single In-line…”). It’s with memories like that I’m glad I’m now studying with the Open University. I think we farmed him off to York uni or something. I also recall he looked like Hagrid and used a “utility belt”, essentially a clarty length of rope with tools on string hanging off it.
dcsun4/chris, old fellas – can you recall this man? I can’t remember his name.
I probably know exactly who you mean. I’m can picture him but can’t remember his name.
If it’s the guy I’m thinking of then he was constatnly off sick. I remember one time when he turned up for a lecture and said (and these are his exact words):
“I won’t be able to give the lecture today as I have injured my tounge”
We all just looked at each other and fell about laughing.
Ahh, fond memories.
Wey Hey! He’s still there!
Kevin Coplan (Dr Kevin P Coplan to be precise)
http://www.comp.brad.ac.uk/contact/contact.php/staff/p/coplan
Actually, just re-read your post.
If they passed him onto York uni he was called Andy something. I always thought he looked young for a lecturer. He can’t have been much older than I was at the time.
Chris – na, Copeland was the useless **** that did **** all work and ended up under scrutiny for being… well… ****. He was meant to be head of Uni Halls, but basically got his understudy to do all the work while he ****** off in his discounted accomodation or whatever. He’s also the ****** who lost one of my courseworks and failed me a module as a result. I wish him dead.
The guy I’m thinking of was quite large and had a big beard. Copeland’s a shortarse with an afro and a face that says “kick me – I’m a fuckwit”.
Just checked his page. He’s lost the afro, but he’s still a ******* ****.
A beard. Now I know who you nean. Was his last name Brown?
Yes! John Brown! That was the moron. What a waste of space (and a lot of it). As opposed to Coplan who’s a shortarse on a power trip. Kind of like Hitler with a gap tooth. Only lazier.
Drat. Beaten to it. I remember the name that is John Brown. His lecturing style consisted mainly of soliloquising to the ceiling while walking back and forth. An idiot, certainly, but relatively harmless because the tripe he spouted was easily identified as such.
Kevin Copeland on the other hand, could be very convincing even when he was wrong. I recall a lecture where some calculation came up in the conversation, and spod that I am, I’d seen it coming and worked it out on a calculator. After I’d provided the correct answer, he proceded to check the calculation using approximations, out loud, with not so much as his brain. He ended up out by a factor of ten, and then heavily implied that I was the one who was close but not right.
I was an interesting shade of vermilion for the next ten minutes as I supressed the urge to throttle him.
I still want to burn him alive for losing one of my courseworks. The fact I dropped off the course that year isn’t the point. The fact is that I spent hours on a Software Engineering report and he lost it so I got 0% for the module.
Yes it was definately John Brown. He was head of 2nd year for a while. I’ve got a couple of stories to tell.
1. He once lectured a student for over an hour about his abysmal work (He’d failed one module out of twelve), and ended up the tirade stating he would end up in the gutter contemplating suicide. The reason for him failing the one module. He’d lost both his parents the year before in an accident, and had suffered a very understandable sever depression, even contemplating suicide. So this nearly got John lynched. I remember three of us having to physically restrain another student from going to Johns office and beating the crap out of him.
John also had 2 PhD students. Then we found out his qualifications……. A Ph.D…… No, A thrid cl;ass degree in mechanical engineering. Thats why he went to York to get his Ph.D. Don’t know what happened to him after that!
As for Kevin Coplan, I did my final year coursework under him. What a waste of time, he never did any work. I even ended up lecturing in Unix Tools one year because he was too “ill” to teach.
Oh what a stroll down memory lane.
Dale – I remember you invigilating my UNIX tools exams after the stupid ****** forgot/couldn’t be ******* bothered to book the rooms. What a ****.
Whats really funny is I now know next to nothing about Unix tools, but occasionally have tp hack Linux kernels for work. At least I never have to put up with John Brown or Kevin Coplan.
Hey, I know knack all about Oracle but I blagged a job as an Oracle DB Admin. Wey-hey!
SIMMs went out in like 1996, man. With flared jeans! Um, er, last time around…
They’ll be back! Mark my words!