On the topic of flat, table, internet, running, and blockchains.

Once again back in Glasgow, now for the 4th year and most likely the last one here at University of Glasgow (but who knows?). This year I was exceptionally cautious about the start itself; it being the last year with higher workload than 3rd year, it was and still is crucial to be nicely organized. There are few lapses sometimes, but overall I have managed the semester with grace.

But, what’s different, you might ask. You can surely read about “this year is going to be more difficult” and “you must be organized” in a lot of posts, including some of my previous blog posts. Well, at least for me the largest difference from the last three years is everything around the University. For the last two years I have left the search for flat for the very last moment, and ended up getting a “hole in a ground” for the second year, and a very nice flat for the third year, which was however on the other side of the city. Not ideal for a student that has only a few lectures per week, goes back to the flat to make food (instead of needing to buy something on campus), and sometimes just needs to jump on campus to do some work. Well, fortunately, this year I have managed to get a flat that is just a few minutes from the campus on a quieter street, with a view on the Main building, a park, and after all the leaves from the trees were gone, even parts of the river side (yes, the flat is right under the roof), and with a great landlord. And since it’s quite an old building, we even have semi-functional pull-bell system here! Another great aspect, for me at least, is the massive old-style wooden table as my workspace. Yes, it has been used extensively before, but despite its age, it is surprisingly spacious and an inspiring place to do work; honestly, I have never thought that a table might improve your work ethics, but alas, I was proven wrong.

But, of course, there were some caveats with our flat – mainly with what someone might consider to be the most important amenity of all: the internet. You see, since both my flatmate and I were coming to Glasgow quite early, we have figured that such a thing like internet access will be a breeze. But oh, we were about to get a nasty surprise. Given how the flats are numbered officially (ie. Glasgow City Council), there are flats B/00, G/00, 1/00, and 2/00; us being 2/00, as for first flat on second floor off the ground. But surprise surprise! Internet providers use different database, and as such flats in our house correspond to 1, 2, 3, and 4. Facing this problem we have consulted previous tenants, who reported that we should simply order as “Flat 2”. Sounds easy. Order was placed, with installation date 14 days later. “Well, fortunately University is close, so emergency internet access should be fine.“, we though. A few days later we find out that flat below us has already ordered internet under “Flat 2”, so we had to call the provider and place yet another order, this time for “Flat 4”, after agreeing on the numbering by the rest of the flats. Flat under us changed its address onto “Flat 3”, as apparently Basement and Ground flats were cancelling each other’s orders unintentionally. With this sorted, we had slightly longer wait until the internet is fully installed; but since we had placed the order properly and cancelled the “Flat 2” order, everything should be fine, right? Oh no, turns out that on the date of installation for the new order both “Flat 2” and “Flat 4” orders we have placed have been cancelled, apparently by mistake. Yet another call had to be made to once again place an order. This time, it actually worked, and 5 weeks after we have arrived in Glasgow we finally had our internet access. I have never thought that ordering internet would prove to be such a process, but well, at least I know exactly where and who to call for our provider should anything go wrong.

So, what do you do to keep off the stress of 4th year and the whole internet situation? Run. It’s simple really, Glasgow has proven to be a great place for some running. Since our flat is in the West End, it’s only a short distance to run towards Botanic Gardens and continue along Kelvin walkway towards Maryhill locks, and along Forth&Clyde canal towards the city centre, and through Kelvingrove park back to our flat - all in all, almost 13 km of running, where you run in relative wilderness for most of the time. If a bit unkempt and rugged nature of walkways is not for you there is always an option to simply run towards the river – only a short hop away (about the same length as a run towards Botanic Gardens) and you are arriving to Riverside Museum: as the title might suggest you are now on the river side, with flat and modern quays to run on for your pleasure. You can run all the way up to Glasgow Green, and if your heart desires just continue on Clyde Walkway along the river for as long as your body can. And if neither is your preference, just hop on Great Western Road and head west. A straight major road with only minor inclines up and down. You don’t even have to think about direction, just make sure to turn around after a while.

But what is stressing you that you need to keep running? Well, just as last year, University work is hard, demanding, and more often than not with deadlines tightly-packed together. And this semester I had 3 different group projects with a total of 9 different people. Now that is something that puts a lot of overhead on communications, just trying to meet with the different groups can prove to be difficult, and on top of it trying to come up with what everyone is going to be working on given their different subject choices. Fortunately I can say that all the team mates were extraordinary, and despite everyone’s busy schedules we have managed to get our work done in time. 

“Wait wait, you are not ending, are you? What about your dissertation?” Well, good point. Our dissertation is not just plain research (unless you want it to), but most of the time consists of creating a larger piece of software, with a proper documentation, rationale, research, and of course, practical outcome; and we even get around 50 pages to fill, which is a great aspect – no need to constrain yourself with arbitrary 10,000 word limits! I am going to fill that space with research into blockchain technology, which is a way of creating trust in a highly distributed system with immutable public record of what has been transmitted using the system. “Bitcoin!”, you might think, “That’s what your dissertation is about?” In that case you would be only partially correct: the idea of blockchain is what Bitcoin is built on, but the idea of shared trust without a central authority does not have to be constrained to cryptocurrencies alone. In my project I will be focusing on how to use blockchain-based trust system in hybrid private/public systems that do no rely on central authority, and how to preserve the data inside the network should it be compromised. I could go more into details, but I fear that it might be too long even for this blog post.

And what about planning for after studies? Well, even between all the deadlines I had the time to consider it. As of now I have applied for a graduate position of a Corporate Technology Full Time Analyst at JP Morgan; and I am looking forward to the interviews that are coming. And if that will not come to fruition, there’s always the path of an independent contract developer … fortunately this topic comes out as the least stressing of them all, as there is a multitude of opportunities laying around. We’ll see how it goes.

More blog articles

All news