Posted by Martin Orr on
Tuesday, 04 March 2008 at 20:50
The world is full of unfinished websites (in particular, the world of Cambridge societies, but I am sure it applies elsewhere too). The Archimedeans have had a new design (for the same content) for about three years, but it has never been officially adopted. The person who made it left the Society a couple of years ago, but intended to finish it off (although I don't know what still needs to be done); since he has now left Cambridge, presumably it will be forgotten.
For TCMS, our IT officer, who developed the current website, graduated a few years ago, but continued as the society's IT officer. He runs a small software consulting business, and the website is hosted on their server. This has worked OK, but has always meant inconvenience every time a change has to be made, and noone has ever completed some of the missing features of the site. Jon resigned last year, and I have now taken over responsibility for the website. I have been working on a new site, as the current arrangement remains inconvenient for both Jon and us.
I chose not to remain on the TCMS committee because after two years, I have done my bit of feeling responsible when the society fails and of practical help at concerts, and so that I don't either become frustrated or step on people's toes if things are done differently from what I would do. I fear that this puts me into the position that I regard as the problem in the cases above: developing a new website for the society, without otherwise being involved. Nevertheless, as the person who knows what is going on now, I think it is the best arrangement.
Tags
archimedeans, tcms, website
Posted by Martin Orr on
Sunday, 28 May 2006 at 19:52
Exams are coming closer now - mine are from Thursday to the following Tuesday. Last Sunday I went to Oxford to play croquet against the Oxford Maths society. Croquet is an intensely tactical game and we were thoroughly trounced - there were several Oxford people who seemed quite experienced - although I did manage to be the first person to get my ball through a hoop. Oxford is a strange place: it is far too big a city to put a university in, and they appear to have no equivalent to May Week, which is the period in mid-June when there are lots of post-exam parties.
According to the BBC, someone is to open a crocodile farm in Cambridgeshire. This reminds me of when I saw crocodiles in Australia. Apart from being a bit dangerous, I think they are very farmable animals although I don't know if they are happy with the climate in England. The article says that he will be allowing visitors on Saturdays, but it doesn't say if this has opened yet or how to contact the farm; I would certainly go and visit.
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Martin
Tags
agriculture, archimedeans, cambridge, oxford
Posted by Martin Orr on
Monday, 24 April 2006 at 17:02
Last term I got out of the habit of posting; sorry about that. You will consequently have missed that I have become Membership Secretary for the Trinity College Music Society and Bookshop Manager for the Archimedeans (University maths society). The first is not a terribly difficult task, which means maintaining the members database and making membership cards for new members, and also stewarding at a few concerts per term. We had a committee meeting this afternoon, held on the Fellows' Bowling Green thanks to the sunny weather (although it is not yet very warm).
A major event this term will be exams. I have four exams at the start of June. We are expected to work pretty hard before that, doing a year's worth of past papers each week, with two supervisions a week to go through them. There are also four weeks of lectures, but these are not examined until next year and you can choose not to go to some of them until next year. In any case, we will get no supervisions on them this term.
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Martin
Tags
archimedeans, tcms, tripos