Finally~ My Mandarin Learning Tools CD Pack is completed, I have decided to stop develop it and submitted today. Well, this afternoon I went to submit my Final Year Project with my course mate Jingkai and Henny.

Finally~ I almost complete my course and now I am just waiting for my graduation. I wish my final semester result is good enough to let me pass and have a good marks in this Final Year Project. So it will be more easier for me searching for a job later. I learn a lot from this Final Year Project, It is definitely one of the project I am very proud of. It seems that three years has gone in a blink. I have a very great time here with my lovely course mate.

Finally~ To conclude my last entry, just want to wish all of my course mate the best for their futures. Here I want to thanks my entire course mate for helping me all this time and I would like to give a million thanks to the lecturers for their help, assistance, feedback and everything that you have thought us. Well, everyone deserves a break after this super duper hard work FYP. Thank you so much and wish all happy big holiday~ Bye~

Arrgghhh…how~ how~ two more day is our Final Year Project submission already. This week is Week 16, which means this is also the last week to work on our final year project. And Week 16 also is the Final week for our study already. Yesterday I just finish my final exam, but my project is still not yet completed, there are still around 10% to do more. So now back to work on my FYP.

Final week! Well, basically it is a most busy week on final touchup for our whole project. Now the big problem that I am still facing is my Quiz part. I got stuck on the XML~ it took me quite some time just to find out what wrong with my codes. It is challenging for me because I am not confident enough to complete the Quiz part as my XML is not good. I still explore it. The only problem is I still cannot call the animation or image for the answers inside Quiz part, maybe I need to use others method to make it run. If still cannot run with the XML, I will using action script to run the Quiz. This is simply because I realize the more I try to do changes on my project, the more errors I must debug.

I still need to do minor debugging to make my FYP work perfectly. After this, I am just progressing in terms of completing my unfinished part for the project. I guess I’ll be done soon. But, I must keep concentrating, I certainly cannot lost it at the final war of my study. Oh ya~ my lovely course mate, don’t forget to follow the FYP submission requirement that Ms Jeya given.

Submission requirement:
Progress report
Buletin board agreement (you can get this from me on the day of submission, so do not seal your envelope)
Link to your blog
Ensure you label your CD well
Submit 2 copies of CD’s
Write down the URL of your site on the CD cover.

Good luck again to all.

Alpha test was finally over. I am very happy that I am able to present my work well to the class. Just a Quiz section that I still exploring. We had good news from Ms Jeya that our final year project submission has been extend to the next Monday 21/07. Since we already showed 80% of work on alpha test last week, that means we still have 20% more to go.

So this week, I’m working on my Quiz section using XML. Its quiet confusing for me when I working on it. My Quiz section can’t run properly, it does really make me headache and tension because I’m not really familiar with this script langue. I believe that my work is fine so far, I just need to make sure that all my animations and sounds works properly. Phew..It seems like I have done quite a lot, but I still need to complete my unfinished Quiz part quickly.

Anyway, I still have Quiz part to be done, just need to finish it and prepare myself for the SAD exam coming up on next Friday. I better pray hard that I’ll be able to finish my project on time. So..wish me luck ok?? As for now, that’s all for the updates. Alright then, I wish everyone good luck in SAD exam and their FYP.;)

Super duper fast, Week 14 just past it likes that, and we have done our Alpha Test presentation on Thursday. I was simply shocked by the intensity of the presentation! There were many people including 2 others lecture and my junior. Phew…… I done my presentation smoothly and no any comment from the audience. I finished 80% of my projects and for the following weeks I just need to improve little bits here and there for my project.

This week is rather tiring for me. One of the major portions I’ve been working on is XML script language for every question for my Quiz section. I still explore it. The only problem is I cannot call the animation or image for the answers inside the Quiz section, maybe I need to use others method to make it run.

This week I managed to complete all my videos and sounds editing and embed it to my project. I have also completed all the animation images for my project. Apart from that I am also working progressively on my different part for my project.

As the due date for FYP submission is getting closer, I have become more stressful compared to the previous week, but at least I am progressing well, so to me and everyone else, good luck.

Panic, panic, panic~
Last week, Ms Jeya posts this on our FYP Bulletin Board->
“understand some of you prefer to have the alpha test on thursday instead of tuesday. Will consider to change it…..“
After that->
“Please take note that your alpha test is scheduled to Thursday (3/7) at 9.30 in MMPL.”

I guess this is the most pleasant week in my very last semester. We had good news from Ms Jeya that our alpha test is extend to the next Thursday. Even though just two days of extension, it’s give me more time to prepare and do a testing for my project.

I guess most of us will be extremely busy these weeks. I wish time can just go a little slower, isn’t it nice if we can pause the time a while. I’m getting anxious as the time passes by. It is the end of week 12 already, and I haven’t completed my FYP yet and panic is attacking me. My week 13 has been a much better week compared to the last. I’ve been able to complete my Watch & Learn, Pronunciation and Writing scene. Now I’m working on the Quiz section. I’ll be on my way to completing this CD pack. Now I just begin on my Quiz section that need XML script language to run it. It is challenging for me because I don’t know anything about XML. However, I am still exploring it.

I hope that there won’t be any problem resulting in any panic attack and that everyone else project is going fine too. OK, I want start my FYP already, I guess I won’t have much time to sleep after this, so~ wish me luck ok?

This week I’m too late to post my FYP blog because I need to finish my SAD assignment that is due today. In addition, I’ve also been working hard for my FYP this week. This is quite a progressive week for me.

I’ve been working on my Writing scene this week. I’ve explore the Chinese Characters that included in my CD Pack Writing scene. I need to refer back my primary Calligraphy books to get a correct method and steps of Chinese Calligraphy writing. I do spend a lot of time to write the Chinese Calligraphy words. I’ve to make sure that my Chinese Calligraphy writing methods are correct. I also have to make sure that my video shooting are very clear and easy for children to view it. One of the sad part is, after capturing all my video using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, it look like got a few tiny line inside the video clips if viewing with maximize screen. Not sure that is it this is my Panasonic NV-GS25 Digital Camcorder problem or the software problem?

I already post this problem at our FYP Bulletin Board, but don’t have any response yet until today. Maybe nobody understands what I’m talking about, but never mind larr~ just a small problem. But before that I received a quick response from Leny on Sunday June 22, 2008 4:51 pm about my animation buttons. Leny suggested me that to create a simple and suitable animation since it is for children. And just be a little careful not to over use the animation or else it can be confusing and distracting. Very thanks for her suggestion. That’s all for now. Good luck to everyone then, have another busy week ahead. Go Go Go FYP…

Time passes like a flash, I’m getting stressing as the time passes by. It is the end of week eleven already, but my progressing for this week is still very slow. I was wondering why we have so many assignments due during our final term. Another thing is why our Final Year Project just have 4 month to complete it and it is in final term not Final Year, it suppose call this project become “Final Term Project –FTP”. Isn’t it nice if we can concentrate on the Final Year Project alone.

I am still working on my project as there are still other major constructions to be completed. With the main page and the pronunciation page done with flash animation buttons and not in 3D anymore. So I need to drop all my buttons that done in 3Ds Max before, all the 3D buttons I have created not childishly as my project need. I just have a basic level in 3Ds Max, it is hard to me to create a 3D buttons that suit with my cute characters in this CD Pack. So as Ms Megan said, my characters is created in 2D so I just need to maintain all buttons in 2D, 2D is good enough already. I’ve been cracking my head to think out new 2D buttons for my CD Pack. I hope that there won’t be any more major changes resulting in any stress and hope my project is going fine in this month. Have another great busy week ahead!

Finally I finished my Project Documentation on time and submitted on last Monday. It is just a pre-proposal, not a thesis like we think before that makes us worried and stressing for a long period. Thankfully Ms Megan comes visit us earlier, it was great spending the whole 2 weeks war with her. Ms. Megan has really helped us a lot, if without her guiding or help, it likes a “Judgment Day” for me! A week of worrying and stressing over the Project Documentation is passed.

Ms Megan decided to increase the percentage for the Project Documentation and cancel the assignment 3 for us, so that we can focus on developing our Final Year Project. Before Ms Megan back to Australia, I managed to show her what I have done for my new interface design at the moment. The design is ok according to Ms. Megan and she gave good feedback on what I have done so far. Now I can concentrate more on my project. Go Go Go FYP~

This week, Ms Megan still accompanies us to continue our documentation and workshop. She also gave us an extra class on Thursday and Friday to guide us to do the documentation. Ms Megan really understands our situation that we are very struggle and suffering to finish our documentation without any guide last week. She also gives us an extension for our documentation submission that due next Monday. She really explains clearly all of my doubt about the documentation. Ms. Megan had re-explained and went through the guidelines of the project documentation with us. She also show us example of some documentation done by previous VU students.

Now I’m more confident that I can finish my documentation on time by this Monday since it is no longer 10,000 words and take out some part of the documentation that not needed. I am glad that I’m almost done and Ms Megan already went through my documentation and also gave me some feedback and comment.

The dateline for project documentation is getting closer, this week all of us are busy preparing the documentation. Now I can’t work on the system much as I’ll have to work on the documentation instead. We are supposed to submit the documentation in this week after the mid term break, but I still have so many doubts regarding the documentation and I wonder if it’s possible to extend the documentation submission. Luckily Ms Megan visits us earlier and she explains clearly all of my doubt about the documentation. She also gives us an extension for our documentation submission. It looks like we just need to prepare around 7-9 pages for the documentation but not 10,000 words.:|

This week like usual my classmate present their progress report to Ms Jeya but seen like I was still far behind them, I still planning on my interface design, I feel I am not god enough to complete my project.

I had presented my interface design to Ms Jeya, but Ms Jeya feel that my interface is not attractive for children, seems like Ms Jeya insisted on having some attractive design that suit for children interface. So I still need some time to redesign my interface and recreate 4 main buttons for my interface. But for documentation part, at least I’ve come out with the detailed Gantt chart and Structure charts that better than the previous one.

We had a concept demonstration last week Tuesday and we all presented our progress in front of class. So I was explaining my detailed story boards to Ms. Jeya and course mate. While presenting my progress, I was wondering that my storyboard is not good enough. I am scared that Ms Jeya and course mate doesn’t understand what I am talking about. But thanks god, I done my presentation smoothly. After my presentation, Miss Jaya and course mate no comment on my concept and ideas and Ms Jeya ask me to move on it.

In addition, I’ve also been working on my interface design and a little modification for some of my story boards in this week. I must say that it is very hard to me to follow my Gantt Chart’s planning especially to do my Project Documentation. It will be due on week eight, and I now just in middle of completing my documentation. This week I am a bit late to post my blog because I just came back from my hometown Kelantan. Have a nice Documentation Day.

This week, I have done a draft of storyboard for my Final Year Project. On Tuesday, Ms Jeya have go through my storyboard, she suggest that I need to include a different element in my project. She also give some comment about my Quiz section part, she ask me to use a database to control the quiz section to make it more interesting. Because before this I just plan to add in a simple row of question.

Besides that, for my documentation part, Ms Sara also give me a lot of suggestion and help to complete my Documentation Part 1 including Introduction, Aims and Objective, Scope and Boundaries, Target Audience, Problem Statement and Solution. While doing the documentation, I forgot to add a suitable title for my project. After Ms Sara warns me, I just come out a title call “MandaLand”. We also have a short presentation about our documentation, but yesterday just 7 of our classmate done the presentation.

Finally received the feedback from VU on 9th April. In that mail, VU said that can proceed but really need to clarify scope of my idea. Before this I have included a section call Chinese Art, VU said that this just confuses the project , why include art history in a teaching Chinese writing tool. I do some minor changes on my Project Proposal. So now I will be just concentrate on the learning tools section.

Now I understand that there is no way on this project that I will end up with teaching whole sentences or complex structures because Chinese is huge language. So I be more focus on small sections, break it into small basic section like greetings and numbers. I also contact my friend that working as Chinese teacher to collect some information from her. In this week also I do some research about some software that will be including in my project like flash and Adobe Photoshop.

So after listen what Ms Jeya said about the Copyright Laws for the first reading in class, I just notice that a lot of Copyright Law need to be follow . In the first reading that Ms Jeya have give us, it state that limited Term for US copyright was for 14 years, which could be extended to 28 years if the author was alive. Copyright law protect some works like literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes, choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, sculptural works, motion pictures, other audiovisual works, sound recordings and architectural works. All those are protected, so we need to avoid being accused of plagiarizing other people’s work. So I must be more careful in working out of my Project’s Documentation or Prototype before using any article,image or music. If I want to use I must provided that those copies were originally produced by or with the permission of the copyright holder by emailing them or have a black and white letter. Some of the copies need to be follow by the Copyright law, such as some of the article only can be copied just 20% of the article or some music can be download only 30 second long.

Now I’m still awaiting the feedback from Victoria University about my second Project Proposal Title. I now already do some planning and research about my new Project Proposal.

After 3 weeks holiday, I came back Sunway University College to start my studies. This is my final term for this year, so I will be start busy with my Final Year Project! Before start worried about my Final Year Project, I have been notice by Ms Sara by mail that my Final Year Proposal not good enough to be approving by VU, but the feedback given wasn’t that bad after all.

In that mail, VU said that my title is interesting but maybe too large for this project. Lots of research and will not be able to get a real system operating because student will not be able to get payment gateways without using real business.

First in my mind, I don’t think about the toughness to create this system, but I just think out an a new idea like this Online Ticketing System hope that to improve the MPSJ car part ticketing machine nowadays.

After think it twice, I decided to choose a new of my Project Proposal Title that I have done as a backup during the holiday. After finish read Ms Sara email, immediately I send out my backup proposal to Ms Sara. So now I just need to wait a good news from VU.