alumni

Great CASA alumni / student social this evening hosted by the excellent Adam Dennett. We had 11 alumni who volunteered to share their experiences of life after CASA and the advice they would give to themselves if they were about to start the journey again. The room was full of students past and present. Here are a few of the comments that stuck with me.

  • Do something you enjoy. Sounds obvious but your work is som much better if you are engaged with the project you are working on vs doing it to complete an assessment.

  • Create an online presence; publish what you find interesting, others will also like it, it’s how you find your tribe. To the CE students in the room, this is what we mean when we talk about “Do Interesting” (https://lnkd.in/eFh9VGnR ). Also interesting to hear the views on twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, GitHub, instagram, Bluesky, blogs (and I managed to get a mention in for RSS https://aboutfeeds.com )

  • Invest time in understanding the so what, the technology is important but knowing why you are using it is key.

  • Don’t stress, remember to enjoy it (especially the dissertation!) - hear, hear, we want this to be the best most enlightening experience of your career!

In the spirit creating an online presence I spent several hours migrating away from some tradition web hosting (Dreamhost) since I was paying for services I no longer really needed to use. However this meant a few hours of migrating websites from old versions of Wordpress to static sites (www.cities.io), moving email forwarding services and updating DNS records.

We had Toby from UCL ACC presenting to the students this week - I always enjoy his free writing session. Just write and don’t stop for 10 minutes. It is amazing what you can come up with when you just let go and write without thinking.

toby-blog-2025

Did some checking on the cameras over in the Portakabins whilst over in Bloomsbury

321

331

There have been some lovely rides into work this week (although the rain is coming back…)

ally-pally

Backed this on Kickstarter - solar power shield for RPi. Looked like a really well designed shield.

Tried another new whisky this week, a new distillery on Isle of Arran that I had read were doing some interesting experimental peaty whiskys. I tried the Lagg Corriecravie. They say:

Welcome to the second of our core range Single Malts to be released from Lagg Distillery, the Lagg Single Malt Corriecravie Edition. The Corriecravie Edition is bottled in limited quantities once a year. The spirit for the Corriecravie Edition is matured initially in Bourbon Barrels before being finished for approximately 6 months in Oloroso Sherry Hogsheads sourced directly from producer Miguel Martin in Jerez, Spain. For this edition, we have used Concerto malted barley and water from our own borehole. Our chosen yeast and fermentation time allows us to create the full-bodied flavour we are looking for in this distillation. The taste profile is slightly richer than our Kilmory expression bringing to the fore notes of sweeter spices and rich fruits.

lagg-corrieveckie