What is it like? (App. Comp / Comp. Forensics)

jakedixon2004

Im strongly thinking about doing computer forensics down in WIT but i just want to know:

1. What is the course like?
2. What is the gaming scene like down there?
3. What is the broadband like?

Any help would be great!

Sully

jakedixon2004 wrote: »

Im strongly thinking about doing computer forensics down in WIT but i just want to know:

1. What is the course like?

Most people seem to be enjoying it. Its the first year of it running irrc, but has been part of the Applied Computing Course as an optional stream for some years now.

There are a few topics on the forensics course around the WIT Forum. Iv been meaning on getting a proper synopis of whats covered, but im just short on time at the moment!

2. What is the gaming scene like down there?

In WIT or just gamers in general? I dont think its big within WIT, not even sure if there is a Club or Society for such. As for Students, iv no idea if its big but I know plenty of "gamers" - people who play there Xbox/PS/Wii etc. throughout the day.

3. What is the broadband like?

Depends where you stay. Templers Hall residents use NTL mostly, with offers recently from Smart Telecom. Supposed to be just as fast as the college if not faster, but it depends on the package you pick with them. Manor Village is fast(sh) but comes with restrictions as does Riverwalk afaik. Lismore Park and other areas are probably using NTL.

College has good broadband speeds and most of it is covered by a secured wireless (dodgy) network. Lots of computer rooms after being upgraded (outside of the IT Building) so you got great machines to go with it to.

christophicus

I tried to get info about the gaming Soc at the start of the year and no one replyed to my txt so I am assuming its dead.

jakedixon2004

does anyone orginise LANS?

christophicus

Not that I am aware off. But then again there are so many people in the collage that I only know a tiny fraction of them.

There is an internet cafe down here that used to host lans and have gaming rigs. If you were so inclined you may be able to get one going in there if you could get enough people in the collage to attend.

Sully

christophicus wrote: »

There is an internet cafe down here that used to host lans and have gaming rigs. If you were so inclined you may be able to get one going in there if you could get enough people in the collage to attend.

If I recall, they stopped that and its more a training facilite. Though, Murderer would know better..

christophicus

Yeah I think you are right. But I am sure they would consider hosting a lan if enough people would come.

AdMMM

CyberMart, on the Park Road in Waterford, run an overnight LAN once a month, usually on a Friday. Although Brendan would certainly be interested in running it on a more regular basis and at a more convenient time should you be able to convince him of adequate interest.

An idea would be to try and resurrect the WITless gamers society which hasn't been active this year and apply for funding from the college which you could use to pay for your own LANs in CyberMart and run regular competitions with prize money. I'd be interested in doing this myself, but I've been very busy setting up and running the Poker Society in the college and haven't had time to even consider it.

Although trust me when I say that if you're interested in gaming, you'll find yourself being invited to people's houses for mini-LANs and mini-tournament once you settle into college and get to know people.

christophicus

**** man I did not know that they still do Lans there , Are you sure they still go on there? I used to go to the BF lans a few years ago , but they died out because no one was showing up. What games do they play ??

Murderer I would like to help you set up witless gamers again if you are considering doing it. I am not sure I would want to try and get it started on my own though .

jakedixon2004

OMFG that would be unreal to have a gamer society in WiT
I am definentaly going to go to WiT now

jakedixon2004

What is the broadband like in College Field's?

ec18

jakedixon2004 wrote: »

What is the broadband like in College Field's?

Where's college fields?

Sully

ec18 wrote: »

Where's college fields?

At a guess, id say thats the oncampus accommodation. The ones on the small car bark at the side of the hall.

ec18

ahhh...I thought that was only for ERASMUS students....Probably wrong though

jakedixon2004

I havent a clue where it is but it is on the website
Does anyone know what type of maths and physics are on the Applied Computing Course?

ec18

see here http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54869244&postcount=4

stick-dan

Hello,

I hear you're planning on coming down to do computer forensics in Waterford IT. Good idea i must say but make sure you do the computer forensics dedicated course instead of choosing it as an option two years into an applied computing course.It has two major advantages doing it this way because the course i think is 3 years long, a yea shorter than the applied computing course for just as good education and also you would not be stuck in a course for two yeas before you got to do it and then discover it is not the course for you.

You asked about the gaming scene in the college, This year there has been none. Two friends of mine non-boardies this year did attempt to rejuvenate the witless gamers club but due to their lack of attendance and eventual and probable exist of the course this never happened. I am definite though that it was discussed with clubs and society by them and they got the go ahead to re-establish the club although i am a bit sketchy if the college was providing finance,I'll try to find out though. As for if there are gamers in the college there most certainly is.I know this because i was stuck in a class full of them for the year even though i am not a gamer myself.So don't worry you'll definitely have gamers to mess around with should you come down if even the last two years of applied computing students and this years computer forensics student are anything to go by. And yes it is true that there also has been the hosting of LAN parties within the student society of the college although i have never attended one but some of the boardsies here have, you know who ye are :P

With regard to broadband and its quality in waterford there are many options you can partake with all Dependant on where you decide to reside in the city. Should you for example decide to reside in Riverwalk where i did last year you will suffer no download speeds worth noticing and regular loss of connection. Living in manor village you will have slightly acceptable broadband but i personally would not accept it's level of speed as i am sure either would you being a future computing student yourself. To be honest and frank if you are a computing student and want a place with a decent broadband connection there are no student accommodation facilities in waterford that provide adequate broadband services for a computing students needs in my opinion. The option i choose to take this year after spending a year in the company of Riverwalk's continuous crappy broadband service i choose to get a house and contract 6mb broadband from NTL which is brilliant. It has only broke down twice so i have no major problems with it and at one stage they unknowingly provided us with 8.2mb broadband for two months without knowing.they only noticed it when i rang up the time the service went down.

So to summarize, Waterford IT provides a good forensics course which seems to be being enjoyed by both courses using it at the moment and the city provides no decent enough broadband service so the better option is to get a house and contract from NTL who do pretty good student deals in fairness to them.

jakedixon2004

sorry i just noticed the reply now
thanks for all the information , i am probably going to WiT providing i gets the points and the B in maths
It says that there is programming on the course
do u know what it is like

Sully

The programming is intense, and its all Java.

ec18

Sully wrote: »

The programming is intense, and its all Java.

Which turns out to be useless in Industry

jakedixon2004

thats a pitty
I was looking forward to learning something like c

Sully

Im not sure of the streams for that course, but in Applied Computing you do C in the Gaming Stream in second year.

jakedixon2004

I will probably stick with Forensics for the moment
I heard that Applied computing is a very difficult and diverse course

ec18

C is hard and nasty java is much nicer to learn and use for most day to day things. C is used when memory allocation and speed are the most important factors. In the Game Dev stream we use C.....and its a very hard transition going from Java to C

stick-dan

The applied computing is a diverse course and also a very dis-heartening course at times. I'm in second year of it and you just want to leave at times but its my own fault for not paying as much attention as i should. If you do decide forensics you'll like it, the current crop seem to. It has advantages doing the applied computing though.True you don't do forensics until second year but you do get a greater understanding of technology i think anyway. Either way you go you'll get your forensics. It's just a semester shorter in the applied computing course. Forensics is good though. I like the class i must say. Can't wait for cryptography wayhay lol. As with regard to programming sure the programming is combined between the two courses but it all depends on the lecturer you get that will determine how hard it is. This years first years are getting a better run at it than i did last year. They are already touching on stuff we only doing in second year. It's luck of the draw with regard to programming.

coadyj

well java and c# which is pretty much used exclusivly in the work place are nearly the same language, just slightly diffrent api's

you kids have it easy now though with eclipse and vs2008, back in my day all we had was notepad.

Also i would harldy call the programing intensive kev, you start off with basic object interaction without writing a single line of code.

I was in the first year forensics course and it was a little slow for my liking, but i already had a degree in ICT from Trinity. So they bumped me up to 3rd year appliced c. Same course really

Sully

1st Year semester 1 is fine. But your put straight into the deep end of it in second semester with little or no help. Its a kinda shock, unexpected one. I assume you were pretty good with programming, so it would always be a walk in the park for someone who had a flare for programming! Like we had to do an interactive text game, football league with sorting / top20 chart with sorting (similar), web side for either of the earlier projects (a bitch and pain in the arse). The general web coding for servlets is grand but for a web course I would have expected something like PHP or ASP at least.

If you have a talent at programming and find it easy, its grand. I think PHP is an easier language to learn then Java. Don't like Java, and from speaking to graduates there not being asked to use it. A lot of companies people ask on those graduate days are being told that they don't want Java. C on the other hand, is a requirement.

ec18

I'm currently on work placement and java hasn't been mentioned yet...its ruby and php

jakedixon2004

do u have to secure networks and stuff in the course or is it more complicated than that

stick-dan

Depends on if you take the networking stream of the course. Sources in the networking course suggest that it is an exciting stream and liked alot. You will touch on cryptography in forensics or networking and also all about network administration and security, I still have to do that but people have told me the module is great.

Also i don't know if you would be interested but the college also offer a CCNA course which is backed by cisco that students of any year can avail of. It is run once a week and you are tested every week from the second week onwards and you must get a required mark of 80%(i think 80% not sure but there is a required mark for every test a minimum pass if you will but a lot higher than the ordinary pass mark of 40). The cisco (CCNA) course offers a lot when it comes to networking and if you feel drawn to the idea of networking you would have that course to provide you with networking modules instead of waiting for third semester to start it.

jakedixon2004

sounds like fun
I will defo do that course in cisco anyway it will be a huge benefit i the future