freeg131: Philip Gamble

Computers play a vital part in our everyday lives. However, I believe there are still many important advances to be made in the field of computing which is why I have decided to study Computer Science. Even as technology develops there are always further challenges that can be overcome, and by studying Computer Science I believe I will be in a position to help people solve problems and ultimately improve quality of life.

Studying Computing at school has given me the opportunity to learn programming first-hand and has introduced me to the languages of Pascal, Delphi and Assembly Language. In addition to class and coursework, I have completed extra programs including a prime number generator and several simple games.

In year 11 I completed work experience at Casewise Systems Ltd, where I helped to test business modelling software in the days prior to its release. As all departments of the company were housed on a single floor this enabled me to gain an insight into the different stages of software design within a software development business.
Earlier this year I organised an additional week of work experience with Imagination Technologies where I helped test the performance of graphic chips which would be embedded into future mobile phones and other handheld devices when completed. This was of particular interest to me as it helped improve my awareness of the close relationships that must exist between hardware and software components of a computer system.

In 2004 I developed a web-based fantasy football league competition which I ran for two years. This led me to discover some of the more advanced capabilities of spreadsheets which I then used to automatically generate league updates. Organising the competition was also an opportunity I took advantage of to improve my HTML skills and showed that I could be relied upon to provide weekly updates. To enhance the site I gained experience of coding for websites using basic php and CSS.
For the past six months I have been a regular contributor to the “MarkUp” game development magazine (http://markup.gmking.org). This has helped improve the quality of my written work and communication skills whilst working on features and keeping in touch with other writers. My organisational and time-keeping skills have developed as I have been given responsibility to conduct interviews, research and then present news and review books on my own. I have used my initiative to ensure that articles are ready for publication on time and are of sufficient quality. In recent months I have also become more involved in editing the magazine, expressing my views to the Senior Editor about article content and layout and having an influence on the final look of the magazine.

At school I participated in the Young Enterprise scheme where I was a member of a successful ‘company’ which organised two discos and designed and produced souvenirs for a school song and dance performance. This gave me experience of working as part of a team to produce a final product; skills which I will be able apply to future projects.
Table tennis is a sport which I enjoy and play frequently and I have been skiing regularly since the age of 5 and am now a competent skier. I enjoy filming and use my computer skills to edit my creations.

I am looking forward to continuing my studies in a subject that I have a real enthusiasm for.

The latest disease to sweep the world is the H1N1 strain of Swine Flu. It started in Mexico and could turn into a global pandemic. But just how many people will be infected with swine flu and how many will die? No one knows, but various estimates have revealed frighteningly high figures. Bet on swine flu is a website where your prediction of the final figures could win you a prize.

Incidentally if you wondered why I am no longer posting here it is because I have been using Twitter instead. Follow me!

All stats below are for the period from 1st- 31st January 2009. Incredibly I don’t appear to have done this since August last year.

Game Maker Affiliation Service
Unique visitors: 11,966
Pageviews: 100,299
Both figures are up on 5 months ago and I am glad. It is important that new sites continue to join the network.

Game Maker Blog
Unique visitors: 3,311
Pageviews: 11,866
Have spent far less time on the site this calendar year than I did previously. I really should spend more time on it considering its success.

Game Maker 8
Unique visitors: 622
Pageviews: 710
Almost entirely (85%) from Google searches for information about the next version of Game Maker.

Stencyl
Unique visitors: 443
Pageviews: 777
Pretty similar traffic levels to 5 months ago, despite the fact that I have not been updating the blog and the software has still not been released.

Here
Unique visitors: 227
Pageviews: 300
Blog is very rarely updated anymore.

Aidy Boothroyd
Unique visitors: 188
Pageviews: 291
Rather bizarrely considering he is no longer active in football traffic is up. This could of course be because the last stats were taken from an off-season period. I posted a graph showing how traffic varied based on BBC appearances and after he left the club.

Cassiobury Park
Unique visitors: 151
Pageviews: 447
Shockingly bad search rankings. Not sure why. Clearly I need more links in, but the site was ranking much higher half a year back. Figures are about half of what they were last summer.

Brendan Rodgers
Unique visitors: 30
Pageviews: 98
A failed attempt to replicate the success of my Aidy Boothroyd site. Okay, there isn’t a nice flash “You are mighty” animation. I’m not convinced that Rodgers is a football genius either.

• People who queue to buy tickets at stations blocking the entrance from the intelligent minority who buy tickets for periods longer than one day.
• Not knowing what the purpose of Lint Filters are and why they are always full of fluff before I use a dryer, but after I have cleaned it and used the drier used the filter is clean.
• People who pay extortionate prices for refreshments at Cinemas and try to justify it by claiming it is not such a rip off as it blatantly is.
• Tesco’s policy of letting someone who doesn’t know how to pass bananas through a till work at one when there are huge queues.  It isn’t hard to place them on the scales and press the banana button.
• Queuing anywhere.

So, Brendan Rodgers has been appointed as the new manager of Watford FC, replacing Adrian Boothroyd. AidyBoothroyd.com remains much the same except I changed the now defunct “You are Mighty” video with an article from the SkySports website announcing Aidy’s departure from the club.

When Aidy left traffic levels at the site increased, but not as high as either of the two previous spikes when the site was featured on several Crystal Palace forums and then on the BBC’s 606.

Revenue at around $2.50 CPM is higher than I am achieving elsewhere, but even so is still a loss.

So far BrendanRodgers.com just has a simple poll on it.  Don’t know enough about him to develop it futher at this stage.

Today I listened, for the first time, to all the songs on the three albums by the Killers.  Until now I hadn’t realised just how many great songs they had written/sung.  Wow.

I feel embarrassed to mention that I also listened through the Avril Lavigne albums.

On Tuesday I went to see Quantum of Solace and found it disappointing - seemed to just be a load of action sequences bundled one after another between multiple Ford and Sony products.  Then we had a US election coffee party and celebrated Obama’s historic win with a McDonalds breakfast at 5:30am.

Tonight I went to see Fireworks at the Vale - the first time I have seen fireworks set to music.  Not as good as the ones in Cassiobury though, although there was a surprise interruption when some people entered the exclusion zone and the fireworks were stopped.  Also I met and chatted to Rob West from Ricky, the first time I have seen him at Birmingham.

Apparently 25,000 people in Argentina do.
Meanwhile, e-mails in the UK get lost in translation.

Just your typical spam then, want to buy a 2261 tonne oil tanker?