Monthly Archives: March 2010

Revision Status

Leave a reply

So, as my term comes to an end, the focus inevitably shifts to revision. It’s something I struggled to knuckle down to last year, and so I decided to spend yesterday building a web-app to help me track my progress, along with my classmates.

Welcome revisionstatus.com

The easiest way to explain what this does, and why it should prove useful, will be through demonstrating it.

Users log into a primitive user authentication system.

User login screen

Once authenticated, they are taken to a list of all the lecture courses in their chosen year and subject. These are manually added, and currently only available for University of Cambridge, Computer Science Tripos Part 1B (Second Year).

Lecture list

The orange bars behind some of the lectures show the progress in that subject. This is calculated as an average of the progress of the ‘Course Topics’ that are defined below. As you can see, I have a way to go.

There is also a view which show the topics aligned next to the questions in the exam, on which they will be examined.

Exam Paper Questions List

You can access Course Topics by clicking on any Lecture Course.

Course Topics list

These are not as strictly defined by the University, and so I choose which topics I want to split the course into. Additional topics can be added using the box at the bottom of the screen.

If I click on a topic, I can change my progress or delete the topic.

Topic view

You can also see the progress of any ‘Supervision Partners’. I am paired with two people for example here, and so I can see if they are ahead or behind me. Rather than creating a competitive aspect, the idea is to find out who you should ask for help from. If one partner is ‘Feeling Confident’ about a subject that you don’t understand then it may be a good idea to have a chat with them.

The system is obviously very limited in its scope at the moment, and I only expect three users during this exam period. However it is designed in a way that other degree courses, years etc. could be easily added with little work. Maybe if it works well for me this year then I’ll invest some time in making it more available to others.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I should do some revision. After all, most of this tracking could have been done in minutes on a sheet of paper…

Warren Buffet Admits His Mistakes

Leave a reply

I guess it’s easy to admit ‘small’ mistakes when you’re worth $37billion, but I still find this impressive.

And now a painful confession: Last year your chairman closed the book on a very expensive business fiasco entirely of his own making.

For many years I had struggled to think of side products that we could offer our millions of loyal GEICO customers. Unfortunately, I finally succeeded, coming up with a brilliant insight that we should market our own credit card. I reasoned that GEICO policyholders were likely to be good credit risks and, assuming we offered an attractive card, would likely favor us with their business. We got business all right – but of the wrong type.

Our pre-tax losses from credit-card operations came to about $6.3 million before I finally woke up. We then sold our $98 million portfolio of troubled receivables for 55¢ on the dollar, losing an additional $44 million.

GEICO’s managers, it should be emphasized, were never enthusiastic about my idea. They warned me that instead of getting the cream of GEICO’s customers we would get the – – – – – well, let’s call it the non-cream. I subtly indicated that I was older and wiser.

I was just older.

It’s so easy to make excuses but you can come off looking so much better without them. Read the full Berkshire Hathaway 2009 report here. Interesting reading.