RFC 1149 (aka: Procrastination)

One of the least fun ways of avoiding coursework is to browse the RFC archives for interesting standards. A particular favourite I found a while back would have to be RFC 1149 - the standard for the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers.

One note not presented in the RFC, that I think gives this standard a great advantage over others, is that no wired or wireless connection is required between parties - now all we need are some really well trained birds, who can first carry laptops (with a lot of spare batteries) out to remote tribes, and who'll then give them the ability to torrent Desperate Housewives. Very, very slowly.

If you're still looking for a way to avoid your coursework, you might want to try reading these extremely helpful tips on How To Stop Procrastinating. After that, I'd suggest looking up Procrastination on Wikipedia (I won't link you, that'd spoil the fun) and following every link you find, until you get to a page that contains the letter 'x' more than 10 times.

I'm great, y'hear?

Took part in another final year research project today - it's pretty fun volunteering for them, you generally get some free sweets and you also get to see a bunch of interesting experiments, and methods of carrying those out.

Today's was for an Audiology dissertation, the experiment was designed to answer the question 'Is auditory memory enhanced by musical training?'. I'd imagine that the answer is yes, and according to the current set of results, it is.

First off I got a hearing test (not entirely sure of the reason I needed one) which disproved my inkling that I might have a couple of problems due to all the music I play and gigs I attend.

Secondly, I was asked to listen to a sequence of tones (ranging from between 4 and ~13 tones at a time), and then to listen to a second series and state whether the two sequences were identical or different. This went on for a fair while.

Thirdly, as a control test, I was asked to listen to a sequence of numbers being read out by a computerised voice, and then, as above, to compare the sequence to a second one.

Needless to say, I got the top 'score' for my responses in both examples out of all the current set of test subjects, and was only slightly better at recalling the tones than I was the numbers. Must come from playing jazz ;)