March 1st, 4 pm Central European Time...
Mar. 1st, 2007 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielLo and behold, I actually managed to register for ALL the English classes I want to take today.
Or I should say, all but one: You can only register for ONE class of that kind, but you actually need to take two seminars in order to get a certificate. I could register for one of the two; naturally, the system (once it deigned to talk to me at all) told me that I couldn't register for a second one as I'd already registered for one.
Schwachkopfvollversammlung, as my boyfriend would say.
But that's something I can take up with the lecturer once he's in Cologne, I'm sure. At any rate, he doesn't believe in uk-online anyway and makes his attendance sheets on the first day of classes. Can't blame him.
So, all in all, once the system actually got running between two crashes, I got what I wanted.
Still, I just don't get it.
If I may invoke an example from the evil, frivolous world of fandom:
The Middle-earth Festival in Leuk/Loëche-la-ville is a pretty popular event among Tolkienists in Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Danmark and other countries in that sphere.
Registration usually starts on some day in late autumn at 8pm.
There are 200 tickets.
On the set day in autumn at approximately 7:55 pm, about 400 people crash online and try to register for a ticket.
In 2002 (the first year of online registration; before that, you registered per mail), that surprised the MEF crew. Within two minutes, the server crashed and everything was in uproar.
In the following MEF years, they were forewarned. They organized additional servers, took down the parts of their page (such as the forum) that weren't needed for the registration, and waited for the next onrush.
It came, and system and server dealt with it perfectly fine. The only downside was, of course, that there were still only 200 tickets and around 400 applicants. But at least all 400 could try for a ticket without being hindered by an over-taxed server.
This in a fan-organised, next-to-no-funds event.
Ever since it became obligatory to register for classes via uk-online, on the day the registrations begin, all students of [insert subject of choice here] rush online pretty much at once in an attempt to get into at least a few of the classes they need or want to take.
If, say, registrations for classes in English literature and linguistics started on March 1st, 4 pm, it'd be a safe bet that by 3:58 on that day every student of English within reach of the internet would be online, waiting for the registration forms to be activated.
Each and every year, the university seems to be surprised by the onrush. Every half year since online registration began, the servers go down because all students try to register at once.
What do the responsible people at the university do?
They tell students not to register all at once. You know, there's still time later. No stress.
LISTEN, ASSHAT. THERE IS A LIMITED CHOICE OF CLASSES. THERE IS AN EVEN MORE LIMITED CHOICE OF CLASSES THAT APPLY TO MY NEEDS AND INTERESTS AND TIME SCHEDULE. I HAVE TO TRY AND GET INTO THESE CLASSES OR I CAN'T GET MY CERTIFICATES. IF I DON'T HAVE MY CERTIFICATES, I CAN'T TAKE THE FINAL EXAM. IF I CAN'T TAKE THE FINAL EXAM, I'LL HAVE TO STUDY FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER. THAT'S ANOTHER SEMESTER OF TUITION FEES, FAMILY MEMBERS ASKING WHY I'M STILL NOT DONE STUDYING, UNDERGRADUATE JOBS AND FUSS WITH UNDER-PAID, ILL-TEMPERED PROFESSORS. NOBODY WANTS TO STUDY FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO TAKE ONE LAST CLASS TO GET THEIR SCHEIN BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T GET INTO THAT CLASS THE SEMESTER BEFORE BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T ONLINE THE SECOND REGISTRATION STARTED AND THUS APPLIED FOR THE SEMINAR AS 65th WHEN IT'S OPEN ONLY FOR 60 APPLICANTS. DON'T TELL US TO REGISTER LATER. WE WON'T GET INTO OUR FUCKING CLASSES LATER.
It is, you know, technically possible to not have the system running on one measly server when there's massive demand. It's not like you don't know that there are, what, 500? students of English who'll try to be online as soon as registration starts. It's happened before. But no. Why improve on the system? It's not your problem when people don't get into the classes they need. There are dozens of excuses. Low funds, lack of personnel, whatever.
It's not like that situation is any different for the MEF crew. But the MEF crew's got something that the uk-online staff lacks.
Enthusiasm.
Bah.
In other news, it's another month over, so here comes the reading list.
Madeleine L'Engle, An Acceptable Time
I really, really loved the Times quartett - or the first three books of the Times quartett, I should say; I already found Many Waters a bit heavy on the allegorical side. It was more fun when L'Engle's Christianity didn't interfere with her stories quite so much.
An Acceptable Time is even heavier on the biblical sledge-hammer. Aside from the setting and the basic idea being kind of a rerun of A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the moral voice was just too annoying. And, well. The story is nice enough, the idea is fine, but the execution is kind of lacking.
Also I find it highly doubtful that a people who can pronounce names like Anaral or Karralys without any trouble would find it difficult to pronounce "Polly".
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
If you ever were mispleased by the service of that telecommunications company with the fatpink magenta T, THIS is the book for you. [Not that the postal service is much better in our world at this time, really, but still.]
Of course, being written by Terry Pratchett, this is among the books you can pretty much read without bothering to check the blurb because you know it's going to be brilliant. I mean, Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari. Golems. Postmen. Werewolves. Watch officers. Wizards. Geeks in towers. And evil telecommunications syndicate people.
Seriously, if you haven't read this, read it.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Brief Lives
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: World's End
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Wake
These were re-reads, and I don't really have to say anything on them, do I? You all know how much I love Gneil in general and The Sandman in particular.
Tom Holt, Who's Afraid Of Beowulf?
This is somewhere vaguely between American Gods and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Except with more vikings.
Vikings who have woken after 1200 years to take up again their war against the evil sorcerer-king.
Vikings to whom modern 20th century science is just a more primitive form of magic, really.
(I mean, who can resist a quote like that:
'What do you mean?' said Angantyr, puzzled. Danny explained; he told him about CS gas and stun-grenades, machine-pistols and birdshot.
'You mean Special Effects,' said Angantyr. 'Don't you worry about that. All our armour is spellproof.')
Also vikings who rock everybody's sockses. Especially those of Hildy Fredericksen from Long Island, trained archaeologist, who happens to be at the site of their grave-mound in Caithness just as they wake up.
A highly entertaining, intelligent and funny read
Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China
Yeah, well. I have to write a termpaper about this.
It's okay though. Just specialised.
*stops rambling now*
Or I should say, all but one: You can only register for ONE class of that kind, but you actually need to take two seminars in order to get a certificate. I could register for one of the two; naturally, the system (once it deigned to talk to me at all) told me that I couldn't register for a second one as I'd already registered for one.
Schwachkopfvollversammlung, as my boyfriend would say.
But that's something I can take up with the lecturer once he's in Cologne, I'm sure. At any rate, he doesn't believe in uk-online anyway and makes his attendance sheets on the first day of classes. Can't blame him.
So, all in all, once the system actually got running between two crashes, I got what I wanted.
Still, I just don't get it.
If I may invoke an example from the evil, frivolous world of fandom:
The Middle-earth Festival in Leuk/Loëche-la-ville is a pretty popular event among Tolkienists in Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Danmark and other countries in that sphere.
Registration usually starts on some day in late autumn at 8pm.
There are 200 tickets.
On the set day in autumn at approximately 7:55 pm, about 400 people crash online and try to register for a ticket.
In 2002 (the first year of online registration; before that, you registered per mail), that surprised the MEF crew. Within two minutes, the server crashed and everything was in uproar.
In the following MEF years, they were forewarned. They organized additional servers, took down the parts of their page (such as the forum) that weren't needed for the registration, and waited for the next onrush.
It came, and system and server dealt with it perfectly fine. The only downside was, of course, that there were still only 200 tickets and around 400 applicants. But at least all 400 could try for a ticket without being hindered by an over-taxed server.
This in a fan-organised, next-to-no-funds event.
Ever since it became obligatory to register for classes via uk-online, on the day the registrations begin, all students of [insert subject of choice here] rush online pretty much at once in an attempt to get into at least a few of the classes they need or want to take.
If, say, registrations for classes in English literature and linguistics started on March 1st, 4 pm, it'd be a safe bet that by 3:58 on that day every student of English within reach of the internet would be online, waiting for the registration forms to be activated.
Each and every year, the university seems to be surprised by the onrush. Every half year since online registration began, the servers go down because all students try to register at once.
What do the responsible people at the university do?
They tell students not to register all at once. You know, there's still time later. No stress.
LISTEN, ASSHAT. THERE IS A LIMITED CHOICE OF CLASSES. THERE IS AN EVEN MORE LIMITED CHOICE OF CLASSES THAT APPLY TO MY NEEDS AND INTERESTS AND TIME SCHEDULE. I HAVE TO TRY AND GET INTO THESE CLASSES OR I CAN'T GET MY CERTIFICATES. IF I DON'T HAVE MY CERTIFICATES, I CAN'T TAKE THE FINAL EXAM. IF I CAN'T TAKE THE FINAL EXAM, I'LL HAVE TO STUDY FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER. THAT'S ANOTHER SEMESTER OF TUITION FEES, FAMILY MEMBERS ASKING WHY I'M STILL NOT DONE STUDYING, UNDERGRADUATE JOBS AND FUSS WITH UNDER-PAID, ILL-TEMPERED PROFESSORS. NOBODY WANTS TO STUDY FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO TAKE ONE LAST CLASS TO GET THEIR SCHEIN BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T GET INTO THAT CLASS THE SEMESTER BEFORE BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T ONLINE THE SECOND REGISTRATION STARTED AND THUS APPLIED FOR THE SEMINAR AS 65th WHEN IT'S OPEN ONLY FOR 60 APPLICANTS. DON'T TELL US TO REGISTER LATER. WE WON'T GET INTO OUR FUCKING CLASSES LATER.
It is, you know, technically possible to not have the system running on one measly server when there's massive demand. It's not like you don't know that there are, what, 500? students of English who'll try to be online as soon as registration starts. It's happened before. But no. Why improve on the system? It's not your problem when people don't get into the classes they need. There are dozens of excuses. Low funds, lack of personnel, whatever.
It's not like that situation is any different for the MEF crew. But the MEF crew's got something that the uk-online staff lacks.
Enthusiasm.
Bah.
In other news, it's another month over, so here comes the reading list.
Madeleine L'Engle, An Acceptable Time
I really, really loved the Times quartett - or the first three books of the Times quartett, I should say; I already found Many Waters a bit heavy on the allegorical side. It was more fun when L'Engle's Christianity didn't interfere with her stories quite so much.
An Acceptable Time is even heavier on the biblical sledge-hammer. Aside from the setting and the basic idea being kind of a rerun of A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the moral voice was just too annoying. And, well. The story is nice enough, the idea is fine, but the execution is kind of lacking.
Also I find it highly doubtful that a people who can pronounce names like Anaral or Karralys without any trouble would find it difficult to pronounce "Polly".
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
If you ever were mispleased by the service of that telecommunications company with the fat
Of course, being written by Terry Pratchett, this is among the books you can pretty much read without bothering to check the blurb because you know it's going to be brilliant. I mean, Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari. Golems. Postmen. Werewolves. Watch officers. Wizards. Geeks in towers. And evil telecommunications syndicate people.
Seriously, if you haven't read this, read it.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Brief Lives
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: World's End
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Wake
These were re-reads, and I don't really have to say anything on them, do I? You all know how much I love Gneil in general and The Sandman in particular.
Tom Holt, Who's Afraid Of Beowulf?
This is somewhere vaguely between American Gods and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Except with more vikings.
Vikings who have woken after 1200 years to take up again their war against the evil sorcerer-king.
Vikings to whom modern 20th century science is just a more primitive form of magic, really.
(I mean, who can resist a quote like that:
'What do you mean?' said Angantyr, puzzled. Danny explained; he told him about CS gas and stun-grenades, machine-pistols and birdshot.
'You mean Special Effects,' said Angantyr. 'Don't you worry about that. All our armour is spellproof.')
Also vikings who rock everybody's sockses. Especially those of Hildy Fredericksen from Long Island, trained archaeologist, who happens to be at the site of their grave-mound in Caithness just as they wake up.
A highly entertaining, intelligent and funny read
Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China
Yeah, well. I have to write a termpaper about this.
It's okay though. Just specialised.
*stops rambling now*
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 06:35 pm (UTC)Greaaat :-)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 11:01 pm (UTC)At UMBC, we had online registration, only registrations were staggered and those closest to graduation got first dibs. So, with only 20 credits to my name, I might have 29 November, 4 p.m. as my registration time. With 115 credits, I might have 15 November, 1 p.m.
That seems a remarkably simple solution (unless I'm misunderstanding the process) that doesn't even require gobs of extra money or effort on anyone's part. And it was always fair, too: That way, senior students got into the fun, hard-to-get classes, which they'd earned through three years and schlepping through the boring stuff. And freshmen were encouraged to get their basic requirements out of the way first, rather than jumping with both feet into more specialized material when 1/3 of American university students don't make it to their second year anyway.
But because I registered for classes back in the dinosaur age of dial-up and UMBC's registration pages too forever to load, I totally empathize with that helpless feeling of not being able to get on and imagining all of the good classes--the ones that you need--slowly being grabbed up by students that don't even really need them.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 11:31 pm (UTC)Which meant, of course, being up at 7am (when the university building opens) and then running through the corridors throwing your name on lists left and right in an attempt to get into classes before the paper was full. So it wasn't ideal either.
But this grand new solution just doesn't work either.
Actually, I was pretty lucky with my classes this year. But yeah, I've often sat in seminars I barely made it into, surrounded by people who weren't even entitled to take it ("What do you mean, all of you took your intermediate exam already?") or who had apparently expected something different and left after three weeks - just as it was too late for those on the waiting list to take their places...
Grah. Can't do with it, can't do without it.
But this time I pretty much got what I needed and wanted. If I work diligently enough, by the end of this semester I'll have all the credits I need to be admitted for the final exams.
Scary thought.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-02 12:56 am (UTC)The college I went to had a system where registration times were staggered by how many credits you had, and despite having 60 credits finished, do you think I got into my classes? No.
Loved Going Postal, for exact same reasons you did (and you haven't worked in the telecom industry for a decade, either...lucky you)