Week 7: August 15 - 21

Work

This week I mostly worked on displaying the results of our queries as a tree, which makes it a lot easier to navigate the results and understand the information that is returned. At the end of the week, I got the results to be displayed as a tree for all the queries, and also made sure that for all the queries that need recursion (need to perform the query down the part hiearchy), recursion is implemented correctly. So now all the queries should work as Raven wants them to, except the "union" query which we initially didn't understand how to do. We now know how to implement it, so it shouldn't be hard to put it in. There is also one last check to do for all the queries, which should hopeully be easy.

After those two things are done, we will have a pretty good working version of the application, with the results displayed in two formats - text and tree. We will also put in a help menu which explains exactly what each of the queries mean and what results they return, and a few other things. We will also work on making the final report required for the DMP in the format of a paper that could potentially be submitted for a conference or journal along with Raven's theoretical explanation.

I might carry on working on this project after I leave this summer, but another student/s could also be involved in making the results format even better - with graphics showing relationships and mappings.

Play

I managed to lose my wallet this Friday, which is not a pleasant experience to go through. I have to take Monday off and go back down to Portland (OR) to reactivate my bank account which I blocked in case someone tried to use my cards. I also have to get a new driver's license, which means I can't drive there so I'm taking the bus down. It's Sunday right now, and I'm bored, sitting in one of the 10 billion downtown Starbucks, waiting for the bus. That explains all the extra detail in this week's journal.


Arrr matey!

As for fun things, yesterday (Saturday) Dana, Dave, Tejinder & I went up to the San Juan Islands and took a whale-watching "tour" on a boat. We basically spent all day on boats: 1 hour on the Anacortes - Friday Harbor ferry, then a 3 hour whale-watching tour, and then the ferry back. It was pretty fun, and we saw ONE whale, a "little" (it still looked pretty big to me) grey whale that the captain said had probably gotten lost on its way up to Alaska. We were hoping to see some Orcas, but they weren't around.. oh well. Check out the San Juan Islands Whale Watching page for some quick advice if you're planning to go up.