2011 begins!

I've somehow neglected my blog for a little while, but have found a bit of time and will to update.

Firstly I guess I need to tie up some loose ends from the previous Xfactor type blog. I haven't performed analysis on any data collected after my previous post and may not till some time in the future if at all.

 In the end Matt Cardle won the Xfactor, with Rebecca Ferguson coming second, One Direction were runners up and Cher Lloyd came fourth. These are also the top four artists who were still in the competition when the graph was produced, however not in the order they placed by the end of the competition. Of course it is difficult and unwise to draw conclusions when only one piece of data has been analysed, though this is an interesting result. Comparing it against the actual votes the acts were recieving at the time which was between weeks 7 and 8, the proportions do not really align, though it is noted the graph I produced was the sum of everything previous, even if this sum was taken I don't think they'd compare that well. I conclude that facebook may not necessarily be a good substitue for determining the outcome of a public vote. Although this conclusion fails the new rule for science journalism, I support the scientific paradigm - more research (and in my case data as a must) needed to better answer the question!


But asides from that what have I been up to?

~I've got back from the winter holidays and sat some exams, which didn't go great in all honesty, but could've been worse I guess. Will have to wait till the results come back!

~I've been using C++ to create a program which performs a random iterated algorithm, on an Iterated function system of a finite number of contracting affine transformations. If that means nothing to you, I'll suffice to say I've been making fractals and if that means nothing to you I'll redirect you to here. I may post some images when the assessment is completed.

~I've been reading up on algorithmic processes and the biology and experimentation on ants! I am planning on doing some research and developing algorithms for ants to produce biological knowledge(and potentially computational knowledge also, everythings interdisciplinary nowadays).

~I've been learning to use HTML and CSS to build my own website to advertise myself to potential PhD supervisors and job opportunites. W3 schools has been an excellent resource to this end!

~I've been looking for the above mentioned PhD positions and job opportunites, though I'm finding it very difficult to narrrow down on anything. There are so many fascinating things I'm interested in and to choose a PhD is to define an interest for 3 years, which still feels like a massive amount of time to me! It makes it even more difficult to know that funding deadlines are very near and that there is less cash in the pot, and hence more competition for places, due to the economic climate.

~& finally I've been eating a lot of chocolate as I got a lot for Christmas! Yummy!