Hello,

Posting this here in the hope someone may be able to help. I'm now having major problems with my laptop battery. I bought the laptop two years ago.

I'm using an Acer TravelMate 6592, which originally shipped with Windows XP Home. Since then I've upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate and then to Windows 7 Ultimate just three weeks ago. I've never had issues with the battery for most of that time.

However, now I can barely squeeze 10 minutes life out of it, even on the Power Saver profile. The problem started suddenly a couple of weeks before the Windows 7 installation, when battery life decreased from nearly two hours to 10 minutes.

I'm also using an external battery, which usually gives me 4-5 hours use. However, this morning I connected it up and it was flat in 3-0 minutes. I did have the internal battery attached also, but will try again without it this evening to see if that makes a difference.

I'm not sure if it's the battery, the electronics inside the laptop or the AC charging port that's faulty. Then again, I've also heard of the power meter on Windows 7 being problematic, but not to this extent.

One solution is to test the battery with a similar laptop. Unfortunately, nobody I know has the same laptop as me, so any offers of help here are much appreciated. Also, if anyone knows how I can fix this problem, I'd be really grateful.

Apart from all this, the rest of the laptop works like a charm.

Time to pull some more hair out I think.

Hello,

Well the last week has been nothing short of hellish. In particular, I don't mind admitting I was thinking some very dark thoughts mid week and wishing it could all just come to an end. I have got to say this week has seen the worst finger pains ever. But it was also strange in that they only seemed to occur between lunchtime and late evening every day. Mornings were usually fine, but by then I was so tired due to lack of proper sleep the night before I couldn't really use that time for anything constructive.

It's only since Friday that things have started to get better, but today was the first day since before last weekend that I had no pains all day. Now I'm wishing I didn't write that in case I've jinxed myself. I've tried to work out what caused the relapse, but as I haven't really been out much, and the heating's been on all the time I've at a loss. I'm half wondering if I'm just extremely susceptible to changes in the timing for my medications, especially the slow release Nifedipine. Mum was on holiday last week, so we usually had a lie in and I took the tablet at around 8am, compared to the usual 6am immediately after breakfast. I also overdosed on the Pregabilin by accident on Tuesday, but that doesn't seem to have caused any negative side effects. Then again, it didn't help either.

Despite this, we got out shopping at Tesco's on Wednesday's (is it me or do the stores seem to get bigger every time you visit?) and then in for a Subway. We did the Ashvale run on Friday, but the pain took the edge off the excitement and I'm sure the macaroni cheese turned out dry and a little overcooked in sympathy.

On the plus side though, I got six rounds of the winter postal shooting leagues done on Thursday. I didn't score any 100's, but I wasn't really that bothered - it was too cold and I was too tired and sick of life to focus, or even be my usual perfectionist self. Ali thinks I need to seek help, which actually made me smile when I pictured myself in the padded cell and straight jacket. I've even let the work I was doing on a presentation for someone slip by the wayside, and I've just realised I'm about to enter another financial crisis with our dear friends at the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

But hey, at least I've got my first 846 words of the Nanowrimo challenge written, albeit 22 days behind schedule.

It's childish I know but that's the way I feel. I hate the cold. I hate making plans that then come crashing down, day after day. And above all, I hate feeling so useless and incapable and being ruled by the pain in my fingers rather than being master of it.

Even the pain power trick doesn't work anymore, or maybe I'm just losing my tolerance to it. It's a trick I learnt from Sir Ranulph Fiennes' book, "Mind Over Matter". You imagine the pain as a tool, like a hammer or drill, and put it to solving a problem and doing something useful. It's worked in the past when the feet were at their worst, but it no longer helps for the fingers.

I'm just getting so fed up with this. For the last four days, like clockwork, the mornings have been fine, then come midday until late at night it's just one constant agony, like hot lava flowing through my veins.

And this is mild compared to what some people are going through.

But really, this isn't life. It's just a horrible nightmare that's stealing my will power and time from what I'd like to enjoy the most. And Thor only knows how long I can keep this up and keep it together.

I've become quite familiar with taxis and taxi drivers over the last five years, their good and bad sides, their annoyances and quirks. Most journeys have been quite unremarkable, but there have been a few experiences, which were a little more memorable. Like the time we got stuck in a snow drift in early March and had to be dug out by passersby. However, it was today's journey that I wanted to tell you about.

After arriving at the University earlier today and paying the fare (not before I almost broke the C&P machine and had to sign the receipt instead), the driver offered to wait on me after learning I'd only be about ten minutes whilst I handed in my letter of complaint. He told me that if he got a job after that time, he'd just go for it. This was fine by me, as I wouldn't have expected any less, but the thought behind the offer was welcome nevertheless.

A full 40 minutes and an argument with one very stubborn receptionist later, I emerged into the car park fully expecting the space where I'd been dropped off to be empty. The sun was quite bright, so my eyes weren't at their best. Imagine my surprise when I found the same taxi, plus driver, waiting just where I'd left it. What luck! I promptly got in, thanked the driver and asked if he'd mind taking me to the bank to deposit some cash. Oh, and if he wouldn't mind dropping me on the right side of Union Street so I wouldn't have to cross it to reach Nationwide. Now anyone who's been to Aberdeen knows how quickly this city can grind to a halt if just one street is blocked for one reason or another. This was exactly the situation today. So, after taking a wild detour, which had me completely lost, we finally arrived at the bank. Was I surprised when the driver, again, offered to wait for me, and even refused payment, saying I'd only have to pay him again when he finally dropped me off at home?

There was a long queue at the bank. I hate queuing, whatever the reason, as it makes my feet hurt worse than usual, so I sat, checked my e-mails and made some calls whilst I waited. Mum had asked me a while back to look into transferring some shares, which my dad held, but which were still active. After some calling around I discovered that I'd need to send in a letter of probate, whatever one of those was, but not to worry, as the local court could help me with this. Banking done, I returned to the taxi, and half expecting a refusal, asked if he wouldn't mind awfully dropping me off at the courthouse, and that I'd pay him there, as I had no clue how long I'd be. This he did, but again, you guessed it, offered to wait. Well, who was I to say no? He sure didn't seem in a hurry, so in I went. Twenty minutes later (does anything administrative ever happen quickly here?) and after making a complete fool out of myself (well, who was I to know that you couldn't just buy a letter of probate from Tesco's or rent one from Budget!) in front of what I'm sure were several judges and someone dressed like one of those army folks they have patrolling Schiphol Airport, I was done and off to try to track down my solicitor whom we last engaged with seven years ago.

After returning to the taxi, which I half expected to have been clamped and towed away (I'm sure it says somewhere that it's illegal to park in front of the courthouse and at a bus stop to boot), I then had the unenviable task of holding the car there whilst I did some more searching to try and track this other guy down. Thank Thor for Google. Using just his name alone, I was able to pin him down to a solicitors at, you guessed it, the other end of Union Street, and after calling in with the secretary there, was told I could drop in for a visit. We duly arrived, and the driver once again offered to wait (yes, this is getting repetitive, I know). By now, I was seriously getting concerned at just how I was going to pay the surely humungous bill that must have accrued, but by then it was getting late and time was short.

Fortunately, the solicitor was the right one, although he had moved firms since we last met. My meeting with him lasted barely five minutes, during which he assured he could get the accursed letter but that I should send him a written confirmation of the request by post. He'd be back to me after several days. Job done, I returned to the taxi and home.

Now for the bit where I start planning how to sell my soul just to pay the cabbie off. On arrival, I was promptly asked for the grand sum of £21. This after the £25 I had already paid at the University. I didn't believe him at first, and I'm sure I said something to the effect of wanting to know the full bill, not just the bill for one leg of the journey. And don't forget the nearly two hours waiting time in between. £21, he said again, and I'm sure if I could have seen his face he'd have been grinning. Oh well, who am I to say no to that? I just hoped he wasn't about to bring my world crashing down by putting some other amount into the payment machine, which fortunately my earlier episode hadn't broken.

So, all that and a final bill of just £46. I'd not have been surprised if he'd have charged over £200. Of course, I was profusely apologising over what I thought must have been an inordinate waste of time for him, even though he was the one that had offered to be my effective chauffeur for the afternoon. It's the first time something this extreme has happened to me, and I can only say it was a pleasure to meet such a genuinely kind-hearted, generous and helpful person. It turns out he recognised me from having picked me up several times before, as, indeed, have most of Rainbow's drivers. I guess it's hard to forget the half-blind 'all bar the kitchen sink' traveller trekking back and forth across the city ten times a week. Plus, my house is one of those weird ones that's numbered on one street but sits on another.

Sadly, now that University's come to an end, my taxi days may well be numbered. When you're not receiving travel expense reimbursements, charges really are sky high and you've really got to think about every journey you want to make. But my point with all this was that, following my rant about kindness and respect last week, it's great to know they haven't worn off completely. Who knows, I might meet the same chap again someday, and do a re-run of the encounter, although hopefully on happier business.

Oh, and a letter of probate is a letter from the legal authority confirming the execution of a will and divestment of an estate as valid under the law of the land. Some also call it a letter of confirmation. So now, you know.

Well, I've bitten the bullet and filed a formal complaint against the University and Lyn Batchelor in particular over the fiasco surrounding and during my final presentation on 26 October. Up until last night, I was prepared to let it drop and perhaps just appeal in February if it became necessary. However, my friend has wisely persuaded me that there's really not much to lose now and that at the very least someone somewhere might read the complaint and take the issues within into account. I'm not sure whether it'll make the slightest bit of difference - universities are renowned for clamming up tight whenever the slightest hint of bad sentiment flows their way, but I'd never know if I didn't at least try.

The basic points of contention are:
1. That I received contradictory sets of instructions from two members of staff on the day of the presentation itself.
2. That the second set of instructions given by Lyn Batchelor came just moments before the presentation began.
3. That this gave me unreasonably short notice to change my prepared presentation plans in order to fit with the new guidelines. The revised guidelines cut my speaking time in half, something of which I had not been forewarned.
4. That several requests for the same guidelines made to Lyn Batchelor and other members of staff throughout the duration of my project at Cornerstone were not honoured.
5. That immediately before the presentation, Lyn Batchelor insinuated that the poster created as part of the assessment criteria was extraneous and therefore that its contents were irrelevant to the presentation. This resulted in my having to duplicate information during the aural delivery, diverting focus from more important issues for which I had previously prepared.
6. That immediately following the presentation, Lyn Batchelor focussed unfairly harshly on just one aspect of the project discussed, detracting from the issues, which I was led to believe, were of higher importance and relevance for marking purposes.
7. That, despite promises both written and verbal to the contrary, Lyn Batchelor failed to present me with acceptable marking guidelines for the presentation session, which would have been used to ensure I delivered a pitch of a standard against which I could benchmark. This left me unknowing as to whether I was delivering something of a high enough quality for this level of assessment.

Today I hand delivered a 3-page letter of complaint to the Registry for onward forwarding to the Academic registrar. Lest it be said that I've disregarded proper protocol, I should add that Lyn Batchelor did make me an offer of an informal chat to discuss the issues above; although at the time, she did not know of my specific concerns. However, as it is apparent that I can no longer trust in her integrity or impartiality, and that the so-called 'impartial observer' she came up with to oversee the meeting was anything but, I decided to invoke the provision stated in the University charter which allows for a complaint to be taken directly to the Registrar on occasions where the complainant feels an informal resolution is not possible or appropriate.

I've proposed the following solutions:
1. That all parties involved in the marking and verification of this assessed work be informed in full of the particulars of my complaint.
2. That I am prepared to re-do the presentation provided a completely impartial observer is present. This person must be impartial to both the course-co-ordinators and myself.
3. That the aural delivery be disregarded as it can no longer be independently judged. No recording was made of the presentation to my knowledge, and thus the poster remains the only tangible piece of work that can be marked fairly.
4. That I be given a complete accounting of the ways in which the final mark for this course is derived, and the individual weights for each component comprising it.
Apparently, I'm supposed to hear back from the University within the next week. But now that it's done, I'm not going to hold my breath and will just wait and see what happens. However, be sure that I'm not going to just let this matter die, and am prepared to do anything and everything necessary to ensure this case is heard and that action is taken to my satisfaction.

Watch this space for more news as this develops.

I've been thinking a lot recently about customer service and what we should expect from it. Obviously, the most important thing is that the requested service is delivered as expected. However, there are many other positive and negative factors, which can influence our view of customer service, for example, friendliness of staff, time to respond and interim communication. I've often felt that the latter is where many companies fail, and it's something, which I feel is really important, particularly in the current times.

I suppose our ever increasingly hectic lives and advances in technology have a lot to do with it. We have less free time to ourselves, yet we can be reached more quickly through an increasing number of communication channels.

In addition, as individuals, we have a need to feel wanted, and to know what's going on, even if the job is not completed, now, and not at some unspecified point in the future. I feel this often makes us feel as if we're still in control of things, even if the service we've requested is something we may not have any control over.

This was all brought home to me by a surprisingly heartening incident earlier this week. I had written to Danmarks Radio (DR), otherwise known as the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. I wanted them to send me the titles and artists of some songs I really enjoyed on one of their online radio stations back in September, but which I couldn't identify. Like any such minor query (well, minor if you consider the size of the organisation and the far more major issues they undoubtedly deal with on a daily basis), I half expected to either hear nothing at all back from them, or to receive a standard "Please visit our website" response in a couple of week's time.

I sent in an e-mail via their online form at around10am on Monday, and immediately received an auto-response acknowledging my message. I then went out to spend some time at Ali's place, and also to deliver some new shooting target cards (but that's a different story) but I did check my e-mail from the cell phone whilst I was there. At 11am, I received a human response advising that my message had been forwarded to the correct department and that they would be in touch shortly. Another human response followed at 1pm, letting me know they could assist me, and that they would be back to me with a definite answer soon. This finally arrived at 3pm (still the same day) and boy did they come up trumps. They didn't just send me the titles and artists I asked about, but the actual log files for all of the songs played on each of the two days in question. I was absolutely delighted, and even though it might not be read, actually took the time to send a message of thanks, in Danish, to thank them for their time and support. The sheer speed of the response for such a (to them) probably insignificant matter was simply amazing, and this must rank amongst some of the best customer service experiences I've had to date. The fact that they kept me informed at each stage of the process was definitely a plus, and something I appreciated greatly.

Reflecting back on this, I feel many of us, including companies and institutions here in the UK could take an example from this. This certainly applies to the University of Aberdeen - I've been waiting for a simple letter confirming my course from them since 19 August without any acknowledgement. I even spoke to a different person to the one I contacted initially at the beginning of October, who assured me it would be dealt with "right away". Needless to say, we must be using completely different definitions of the term.

With all due respect, I do have to say that British companies are amongst some of the worst for doing this that I've encountered recently. I've dealt with both a German and Chinese company in the last week in addition to DR above, and all of these have been really wonderful interactions. Compare that to dealing with the BBC or even worse, UK Customs, and it makes you feel as if you've stepped back into the Stone Age with loin-clothed, axe-wielding barbarians running about!

I've said this before, but I do think as time has passed common courtesy in business has pretty much gone out of the window. Simple things like actually letting people know when you'll get back to them, acknowledging when there's been a delay or even better, advising that there might be a delay in the first place, or even just wishing people a pleasant day. Is it just me, or do these things not matter anymore? Have we become so clinical and self-focussed that nothing matters other than what's directly in front of us?

What do you think?

Hello,

I know some of you use eSet Smart Security as your antivirus and firewall software of choice, so I thought I'd post this in case it's of any help. Note this mainly focuses on accessibility. The tips are relevant to eSet Smart Security v4, but some of the options may be available in earlier versions.

First, open the main eSet Smart Security program and press F5 to open the advanced options dialog. Note that you may have to allow the F5 keystroke through if using some access software, as many also use this key as a function of the same. A list of option categories is given on the left. Use the tab key and up/down arrow keys to navigate through it, and between it and associated options. Use the spacebar to select/deselect options or to click the OK/Cancel button at the bottom of the screen.

Alerts and Notifications Category: Deselect 'Display notifications on desktop' and Display balloon tips in Taskbar for sec'. This removes the annoying pop-up balloon tips, which steal the focus away from whatever else you're working on at the time. They are also difficult to close with the keyboard and usually require mouse intervention. Mostly, they relate to the daily update of the antivirus definitions and so do not require user intervention. Deselecting these options will cause the notifications to appear as a standard message box on screen. You can hit OK to close it immediately, and usually you will return to the exact place you left off before the interruption. Advanced users can disable the notification altogether, so you will never be prompted when a successful update has been completed.

User Interface category: Deselect 'Show splash screen at startup', 'Use animated controls' and ‘Use animated icons for progress indication'. Select 'Advanced Mode' and 'Display menu in standard mode'. This tidies up the interface a little as well as giving access to the menu through which options can be selected. However, note that the 'Advanced Mode' will override this, but you can disable that if you're more comfortable with a simpler interface with fewer options. I have noticed some slightly faster response times with the animations disabled, and it seems to work better with the screen reader as well.

Some system settings:
Antispam Module category: Use this tip only if you do NOT want to mark messages as spam. Select 'Enable antispam module’ Deselect 'Add text to email subject' and 'move messages to spam folder'. I have noticed that disabling the antispam module causes Outlook 2007 (and possibly earlier versions) to hang for a few minutes at the 50% mark when doing its initial send/receive. I feel this may be down to poor logic in the eSet Outlook add-in, which may be attempting to find the module even if it is disabled in the main program options. Enabling the module resolves this problem. Deselecting the other two options will prevent the module from having any impact on the e-mail messages themselves. I have not noticed any degradation in Outlook performance with this configuration.

System Updates category: Use this tip only if you have Windows set to notify you of or automatically install new updates, or if you check Windows Update manually. Select 'No updates' from the drop down list. This will prevent eSet needlessly notifying you of missing updates and tidies the interface a little.

I hope these will be of some use to you. Note however that these are only a few of the many options you can configure within eSet, but I felt these were the most important. My aim here is to make the program easier to use in terms of accessibility, but also to reduce the interaction level required by the user. I've tested all of these with eSet Smart Security v4 and latest updates, running on Windows 7 with all updates. I use Supernova 11.04 as my screen reader/magnifier.

Feel free to add any comments or suggestions that may help others.

Hello!

It seems I can't keep away from writing for long. I've just started the first chapter of my submission for Nanowrimo, the National Novel Writing Month. You can find my user profile and learn more about it here.

Paul in the SVQ department at Cornerstone first told me about it, and I thought it would be a great idea as I'd actually have motivation to write with the potential of winning something, and also I'd be working to a deadline - I guess I'm just one of those people that work best when under pressure.

I've almost decided what I'm going to write about, and am just at the stage when I need the final push to get started. Once I get going, it's almost as though I'm on automatic, when everything else becomes irrelevant and the whole thing just seems to flow. So I'll be hoping to come out the other side with something reasonably good. Watch this space for more.

Talking of articles, I've been busy on the shooting front as well. The new Disability Shooting Project founded by Liz Woodall of the NSRA was set up a couple of months back. Naturally, I was on the phone to her right away to see how I could be involved, and it turned out they were happy to publish an article on the Scottish Championships. Read it here. I also had an article on the same event written by a fellow shooter but edited by me published in the Autumn 2009 issue of Target Magazine (BBS). Read that here.

As if that weren't enough, I've another article due to the NSRA next week, an introduction to acoustic shooting for those not familiar with the sport. This is a fantastic publicity opportunity and one, which will hopefully raise the profile of the sport amongst able-bodied shooters. I'll be pushing for that to be placed on the NSRA website too, and you'll have a link to it here just as soon as it goes live.

Finally, just this evening I decided to enter a competition being run by STV. They're looking for a writer to work a six-month freelance contract writing articles for their website. The winner will win the contract, but I expect it to be tough competition. Also, it's short articles, (which for anyone that knows me is not something I'm terribly good at!) but I live for the challenge.

Happy reading, and for anyone else doing Nanowrimo, writing as well.

After some time running the RTM through a virtual machine on the desktop, I finally installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my laptop. So far, I have to say I'm quite happy with the performance and features, even though I've disabled most of the media and network related ones.

Originally, I was hoping to use a slimmed down version based upon work by Liquid0624 over at the MSFN forums. However, after a successful installation, which was completed in 8 minutes flat, I found that a small component had been, overlooked meaning there was no detection of the Ethernet controller at all. Even the Intel automatic detection facility couldn't find it on this machine. As I was anxious to start playing around with Windows 7, I finally just went and installed the full version.

I've since done some tweaking to improve performance, mainly focussing on display settings, and disabling quite a few services based on Black Viper's work (actually, I've almost entirely used the 'Tweaked' services configuration) apart from a few modification to allow the Volume Shadow Service to work.

I've recently been having an issue with my laptop battery whereby it drains completely from a full charge in less than a minute. I'll admit I've been scared to even try the battery again after I tried the deep freeze trick, but it's something I'll have to do soon if only to know how Windows 7 fairs under a power saver profile.

I'm really happy that some obvious problems that annoyed me under Vista are resolved. These include the time to resume from hibernation, and Outlook 2007 hanging during the initial send/receive. It also seems slightly more stable and responsive, although that's impacted negatively by the screen reader. It'll be fascinating to see how the upcoming release of v11.50 affects performance in this regard.

So, all in all both me and Nicole (yes, I'm still naming things!) the laptop are happy with the new OS. I think I'm going to opt for a lean model this time, and will only install what's necessary rather than going full out and installing everything at max settings as I did before. I'm hoping I can still get some useful life out of this baby yet - after all, it's already been two years and she's on her third OS.

The only question remaining now is, how long till the first service pack? After all, we've already had a number of security fixes within the first week after commercial launch!

Hi. Long time no write, ja?

Well, since I last wrote the project at cornerstone has ended (26/10/2009). As a reminder, it was to investigate the impact of Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ) on the quality of service delivered to the people they support. It was later expanded to include staff and management's perspectives due to the low number of supported persons that could effectively communicate their views.

I can't believe it has passed so quickly, but I'd be lying if I said there weren't times when I felt totally down and ready to throw in the towel. My fingers haven't helped. For a few weeks, things were great, then I went through a spell, weeks on end where I just wished everything would come to an end and the pain would stop.

I'm reasonably happy with the final report, but absolutely kicking myself and in a real fury over the final presentation. It was a disaster. Although I'd practiced and planned for it, when it came to the day itself, it all just seemed to fall flat on its face and I found myself saying something completely different and far from the polished delivery, I'd intended. What was worse was I knew I was messing it up royally whilst I was speaking, but I couldn't seem to do anything about it. That's never happened to me before.

I suppose it's not all my fault though. The University have had an appalling lack of communication; I was given two sets of instructions for the presentation, with the last coming just as I walked in the door. Then, they seemed to totally disregard the poster I spent several days putting together, and still expected me to fit the salient points of 3 months of work into 10 minutes. After that, it completely went downhill when Lyn Batchelor, the course coordinator started attacking the methodology of the project and saying I must have asked the wrong questions to get the results I did, just because they disagree with what Cornerstone previously heard about the service they provide. Then she got all hung up about qualitative research methods, and completely disregarded the recommendations and conclusions I outlined in the presentation. Of course, I know it's important to ask the right questions, but is it my fault people told me what they did? And it's not as though I didn't revise the questions several times during the project, although I admit that only comes out in the reflective journal and I didn't do a good job of stressing this during the talk.

Sorry guys, I'm not trying to make a big deal out of this, but it was only when I came to look over the reflective journal and noted all the points against the University that have probably caused this project and my resulting mark to drop to rock bottom that I really started getting mad. I didn't realise this earlier, as it's just part of my nature to try and work through problems myself where I can. No doubt had I made a song and dance about this earlier and really pointed out the University's failings, something may have come of it.

For now, I've done the only thing I can. I've put all this into the reflective journal, and even though it's not marked, the feedback form for the project that the University asked me to complete - thank God I waited until after the presentation to submit it. I was originally only going to gently put forth my views, but my friend rightly told me I've little to lose now so it ended up being a lot harsher than it was originally - and yes, I do have the original version to hand. I've also said I'm ready to fight tooth and nail for my marks should they be unreasonable when they come out, and more importantly, if they can't give a reason to justify the mark. In addition, and following advice from many people, I've told Lyn I'm considering making a formal complaint but of course, I'm not going to specify the full extent of this until the appropriate time.

I've lost all confidence and trust I ever had in this course coordinator. A reliable source told me she's leaving for RGU in December, and I can only hope the student's there know what's in store for them when she arrives. Part of me thinks she's just lost interest in the whole course here seeing as she's not got long left here, and part of me is sorry she just doesn't seem to see how passionate her students are to really make a decent job of their work. One would think she would do everything in her power to help where she reasonably can, but clearly, that's not the case.

I'd like to end on a positive note as it's not fair to let the actions or lack of, of one-person ruin what has otherwise been a great experience. I loved 'working' (well, technically it's a consultancy) at Cornerstone and I think they have some really great people there. It's amazing to see the real passion and zest that flows through the place, and you get the same feeling of unrestrained resolve and love of their work from everyone you speak to. My particular thanks to the staff of the SVQ department for putting up with me for the last 80 days - (yes, I know I'm not the easiest to deal with) and I can only hope they get as much out of the report as I did working towards it. This is definitely something I'm going to have fond memories of for a long time, not to mention the skills I've learnt and the confidence I can feel in myself. I now know that I am indeed capable of working on a prolonged project when I put my mind to it, and visual disability aside, that I can fend for myself without the constant cushion of academic support. That has got to be the greatest gift I take away from my time at Cornerstone.