2025 - Study Group!

[tyme]

Are you enjoying it @Oaktree ?

[Oaktree]

@tyme 

Yes I love to learn. 
I have a great memory too so that helps.

It can be a bit confronting at times.

[Blackcloud]

@MJG017

So yesterday I had the lecture, I used the lab PC to plug in my SSD onto it, tried to download the ubuntu on there many times (even with the teacher) but there I get errors saying ‘disk full’. 

Now, it’s not only that that I’ve experienced yesterday — the main problem was, the teacher himself was overall giving me a very hard time especially with his way of approaching in general (including the way he speaks in a certain tone that rubs me the wrong way), when he tells me to plug the SSD onto the lab PC then download ubuntu & then to plug it on my MacBook then download ubuntu on that one too & then plug the SSD and download ubuntu onto the lab PC again (like I dont get why you want me to do the same task more than once when I already did it and it didn’t work - like even you saw that too 🤨???), when he keeps coming up to me and even calls out my name from afar asking me if I installed it and how its going blah blah blah, then keeps telling me things after we’ve kept trying and doing everything that we could. Then at some point during this whole chaos, my SSD happens to not be working nor doing anything in any of the computers including on the windows laptops. Oh, and don’t get me started with the way that he uses his hand movements whilst speaking, he does those movements in a harsh/aggressive way. 

He also made me come to his desk to see how my SSD works on another student’s laptop (a windows one), while that student was showing him his work on there. That student also owns the Samsung SSD, but the appearance of his SSD is different compared to mine. So the teacher wanted to show me and see how my SSD works when it’s plugged into that student’s laptop  vs how his SSD works when it’s plugged into his own laptop. His SSD works completely fine whereas mine doesn’t even do anything. So the teacher was disappointed (well he seemed rather frustrated than disappointed actually). 

Also, I FULLY can’t stand it when I get told off whilst someone else other than just a teacher or whoever, is present. Like in this case, I get told off by the teacher about my SSD not working and sh1t whilst that student was right beside him.

I dont even care when people get disappointed or frustrated at me especially when they’re the ones that already make me feel like sh1t first. If they weren't frustrated, then I would've apologised than if they did get frustrated.

At that point I almost cried and was holding back my tears many times throughout the class and the class after that. Well during the second class, I had to go to the bathroom twice just to wipe my nose that was running because at that time I was holding my tears and had to take a deep breath lots of times (well I even had tears in my eyes twice) because I was still angry at him. 

Ever since we’ve had him at the beginning of this semester, I knew he was gonna be my least favourite and most disliked lecturer because of his way of approaching when it comes to teaching. He scares me.

Anyway, he suggested that I need to speak with the salespeople/customer service at JB HIFI about the issue with my SSD but I dont know if im really going to anyways - because I would’ve actually go on the alternative route instead, which is, to go out of my way to purchase a windows laptop myself to help fully resolve this whole issue.

But instead, I actually plan to drop off this unit/subject for this semester mainly because at this stage I cannot afford to spend $$$ on a windows laptop (even if second handed) as I have other stuff that are more important that I need to still spend my money on. I rather be more cautious with my spending than risking it for something that I know may not be worth it at the end. Also, the more you drop off units from your course, the lesser your total fees will be before you start paying them before the census date.

 It’s more worth dealing with teachers that are nicer than people like this lecturer that has a very off-putting approach and has a certain speaking tone that I cannot stand. I’ve already dropped off 3 units in this semester so far but thats because im currently doing another cert IV (accounting) this semester. FYI and to be specific, I’m only doing 2 units from that accounting cert IV, and both of those units clash with those 3 units in the I.T certificate that I dropped out from. Reason why I wanted to do the accounting certificate alongside was because I was doing that cert before I did the I.T cert and at this stage, the 2 units I'm doing right now are actually the last units in that certificate that I'm still yet to get a competency/pass with, so that I can quickly move on to choosing an undergraduate degree after completing a cert IV.

Anyways, at the end he suggested me to download linux kali on my MacBook, and then when I did that the iso file for that one wouldn’t even open on my MacBook. So I showed him exactly that when he came up to me asking me if it worked. 

So yeah…🤷‍♀️ that was yesterday.

@Jynx @tyme @rav3n 

Edit: forgot to mention that as soon as I’ve returned back to my room in the accomodation after, I’ve immediately started crying and woke up to having puffy eyes this morning.  I still look a bit flat right now that it’s the afternoon & idk if I plan on going to class because I don’t wanna turn up to classes looking like that.

[Oaktree]

@tyme @rav3n 

This morning I managed to complete an entire assessment. Just need to reference powerpoints that I used. This evening need to look at Practicing Peer Work assessment and then I am all up to date with assessments. Also still need to watch 3 recorded lectures but they are for today and tomorrow so not behind.

[MJG017]

Hi @Blackcloud 

It sounds like this lecturer is just not paying attention or is a bit clueless... or a bit of both.  There's a couple of reasons I can see the copying of the Ubuntu ISO file giving a 'disk full' error.  A dodgy SSD drive which is not as big as it claims but this is extremely unlikely from JBHifi, but wouldn't surprise me from eBay or Amazon where fakes are common.  The 2 likely reason I see are either that drive is still partitioned from the previous attempted VM/Ubuntu installation and your trying to copy it to a partition that is too small.  The other that the drive is formatted in a format like FAT32 with had a 4GB file size limit.  The Ubuntu ISO is about 5.6GB(?) so it would throw up and error in this case.

It's hard to see without see the drive, as I know you've been trying to get the Ubuntu thing working on the   Mac so i have no idea what state/format/partition structure the drive is in now.  You may need to use Disk Utility to see that the state of the drive is in, remove any partitions and reformat it back to a clean drive.  You could also then run a scan on it, just to be sure there's no physical errors on if it you suspect that.

This lecturer knows you've been trying to (using a Mac) install Ubuntu on the drive so these should have instantly been the first thing he checked.  Of course it's not going to look like the same drive plugged into someone's Windows laptop!  Their drive will be formatted as a standard windows compatible FAT32, or more likely, NTFS.

I'm sorry about how he mad you feel, that was totally unprofessional and out of line.  Not to mention unfair and has me doubting their level of basic knowledge.  Either way, it's no wonder you are upset, confused, and frustrated.

It's such a pity that because of his complete lack of... well everything... it's put you in the position it has and planning to drop the subject completely.  That's some A-grade teaching right there!

For what it's worth, i doubt there's anything wrong with the drive if it's giving a 'disk full' error.  If it was giving a read or write error, then yes, very possibly faulty.

I know it's hard but please try not to let your experience with this lecturer upset you too much.  None of it was your fault at all.  It's purely a Mac issue and a completely unhelpful lecturer.  I hope you do go back to the IT units later, as I think you would enjoy it in the right environment.  And i would hate this to be your main experience with learning IT.  It should be far, far more fun, interesting, and fulfilling than that.

[tyme]

Awww @Blackcloud ,

I'm so sorry to hear about these dramas happening in your class. I can see how deflated one can feel, particularly after spending so much money on hardware - that doesn't even work!

Hang in there my friend. 

Thinking of you.

[Blackcloud]

@MJG017

Yeah everything on the first paragraph you’ve mentioned all seems about right and I believe in all of it.

Here’s the screenshots of the disk utility with my SSD plugged in

I believe it wasn’t just the Mac issue, but also the issue with the SSD itself but that could be just me since when I had my SSD plugged into the windows computers (including the other student's windows laptop) it didn’t do anything.

Don’t worry about it. After I drop out of this unit, that will leave me off with just doing half of the units of this semester now 🙂 I hope that later on when I do get to get into the bachelors degree that I can pursue in the bachelor of CS. But if not, there’s other options along the way — like pursuing a fine/visual arts course if I would.

Ever since I had that experience with my lecturer yesterday and was easily sensitive over that. I started googling careers that are suitable for highly sensitive people, and there’s a few of them listed that stood out to me — those ones being: arts therapist, artist (maybe?), computer programmer (well for me now, I.T is something that I’m partially passionate about to be honest), and that's how I've thought about right away about wanting to do an arts course & degree to...idk potentially become an arts therapist for something. I may as well would work in the art therapy services that are specifically under NDIS too 😄 who knows?

I know with art especially, us that have mental health issues can use any forms of art (like drawing for example) to help us express our emotions and thoughts through our artwork. I feel that this is something I might be interested in doing, since art in general is widely linked to having mental health issues, and being a highly sensitive person like myself.

@tyme 

[MJG017]

@Blackcloud 

Yep, your SSD has a single 1TB (993GB) APFS partition, with ~6.6GB used, which I assume in the Ubuntu files.  As you've probably guessed APFS is the Apple File System and is unreadable to Windows without some extra software.  So if you plug it into a Windows machine as it is now, Windows will just look at you blankly and say "What the heck is this?".  To use it with windows, you just need to reformat it.  The fact that an IT lecturer, knowing you are using a Mac, didn't instantly know this was an issue when trying to use it with Windows is... concerning.

If you like art and you like IT, maybe combine them and do graphic design.  That can lead to so many things and a lot of it can easily be freelance so you'll only usually email customers/clients.  For an added bonus, this is something Mac are well suited for. Although the software (as far as i know) is more expensive as there's less choice and Windows does tend to have a lot more free options.  Although to be fair, I'm sure you can get GIMP on Mac.  GIMP is a free open source alternative to Photoshop.

[Blackcloud]

@MJG017 OMG NOW IVE FOUND OUT WHY I WAS ENCOUNTERING ALL THESE ISSUES IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!

so turns out the reason why my SSD didn’t even work all along was all because I didn’t even use the cables that came in the SSD’s packaged box. At first I didn’t even realise until this morning before I was about to throw that packaged box away and was taking every other bits and pieces out from there, that it also came with a box that had all the cables that are compatible with the SSD!!!! 

WHAT!!!?!? 😄 so it was my lazyness and my assumption of the cables not included in the packaged box that was the root cause of the problem all along. FAR OUT!!!!!

AND THEN when I use one of those official cables to connect with my laptop, at first the ubuntu ive opened on the UTM didn’t work at all, but then suddenly straight after, It actually finally worked !!!! OOOOOHHHHHHHHH MY GOSHHHHHHH HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT ANY OF THIS BEFORE BEFORE I EVEN WENT TO CLASS TO TEST IT OUT ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!

edit: actually after I've closed it and then open the ubuntu on the UTM again (without the SSD plugged in this time), I notice that at first it would say 'display not active' but then if you wait for a few seconds after the ubuntu display would pop up.

edit 2: nevermind actually, looks like it'll only pop up when the SSD is plugged into the MacBook.

So that means I’ll no longer need to worry about needing to get a windows laptop then!!!!! 🎉

Oh but now after I unplugged my SSD out of my MacBook as well, the ubuntu is still opened 😄

Oh but yesterday though, a different lecturer that I currently have for one of my Thursday classes was actually able to help me find a BETTER way to download ubuntu through the UTM since he uses both Windows and a MacBook himself, and I've felt that a part of that was how it now worked. Unlike the one that was rude to me on Wednesday who has NEVER used a Mac himself.

Here’s my screen of the ubuntu thingy WOOHOOOOOOO

But it still hurts when you think about how he treated me that day though, and considering the kind of person he’s like in general too. Still doesnt change the fact that I hate him.

How do I feel about it? well yes I'm definitely relieved now that I was able to get the issue solved, but at the same time I kinda blame it on my laziness for not being bothered to take that cable box out from the SSD original package in the first place, since I didn't even know that the thing that I've first brushed it off with all along was 'just there' turned out to be the cable box and then me having to encounter all the chaos within the Wednesday that then eventually made me really upset. I'm still upset that it happened.

yes, even when it shows the USB and the instructions icon at the front of it, I just didn't think of it.

@tyme @rav3n @Jynx 

[tyme]

Ahhhh @Blackcloud 

Live and learn???

At least you've solved the mystery!

Well done.