Matt Ball

Aber Uni Student Record

Matt — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:30:27 +0000

Inspired by a fellow student, Matt Hojo, to do something pro-active, I decided to try and bring Aber Uni’s student record pages up to date. So in similar style..

The Problem

The current look of the student record is quite dated, and is not at all consistent with the new design for the main website. In fact, it isn’t even consistent with the last 2 designs of the main website. With the student record pages not being covered by the same department as the main website, it was apparent to me that this is something that either is not a priority, the skills needed aren’t around, or they simply feel the current look works. Personally I think the current design is not good for 2012, and whilst I couldn’t change the core looks, I at least wanted to make it consistent with the main site.

The Fix

Similar to Matt Hojo, I realised the best option would be to only tweak the CSS files. This means that a straight swap would be possible and the department in charge would not have to make any file edits. I soon realised that a couple of image tweaks would be needed too. I figured that since I didn’t want to edit any of the HTML, it would be easiest to provide images under the same name, so they could simply be overwritten and replace the previous, low quality ones.

How?

Google Chrome comes with some great developer tools. When Chrome first came out, I didn’t warm to them much as I was used to using Firebug in Firefox. I have to say that I’m a convert now. I downloaded the CSS files from the student record and set to work on them. Editing in my changes was as simple as using the developer tools to point to a copy of my edited stylesheets. It then updates the page as if the CSS had been modified. To open developer tools, right click on an element or just anywhere on the page, at the bottom of the list you should see ‘Inspect element’. By default the tool will be docked to the Chrome window. If you’d prefer it to be in it’s own window (sometimes this is easier), look at the very bottom left corner and click the button which shows one window on top of another. On hover this should say ‘Undock into separate window.’

Editing a HTML node in Chrome developer tools undocked to its own window

Next thing to do was to edit the above node to point to my edited CSS files. Here is a complete copy of the new head node:









Student Record - Login

Next, the header images need to be replaced. Picking ‘Inspect element’ on any part of the header will allow you to short-cut to the correct code piece in the developer tool. The standard images are really all that can be used with my approach. With any background colour behind them, it was apparent they weren’t made with transparency in mind. That means we need to point to some different images too (of course these images would just be overwritten, no code edits for the real thing):

The Results

If you want to make the changes yourself for comparison, the current student record can be visited here. The main website (which I was trying to be consistent with) is here. Otherwise, here are some screenshot comparisons between old and new.

Old student record login page

New student record login page

Old student record academic record

New student record academic record

Old student record timetable

New student record timetable

Old student record addresses

New student record addresses

Conclusion

I much prefer the new design which is consistent with the new main website. I would say that though, having made the changes. I worked hard to copy every colour and style existent on the new site and I think I have pretty much achieved that. It’s pretty much as close as looking like it’s actually using the same stylesheet.

What do you think to my new design? Should it be used? Do you have any questions on using Chrome developer tools? Comment below..

A blog post?!

Matt — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:54:24 +0000

Yes.

I haven’t forgotten that the blog was here.. just really wishing I had some better ideas for adding some really great content. I’ve had some ideas, so the aim is to post a bit more regularly from now on. I know I have said that before, but this time I’m serious.

Since my last post a lot has happened. I’ve been guns blazing trying to get an industrial year placement. No full details yet but I can say the search has gone very well. Since Gregynog in November I realised that I had a lot of things going for me, and that I could really help make a difference if I was to be employed somewhere. Since then I have been trying to put that across in all my applications. Finding motivation can be hard, and since I’ve been so lucky in receiving lots of help with my applications, I really want to try and give that back. A friend and I are hoping that we might be able to go along to Gregynog next year to give the 2nd years a kick start into applying for industrial years. That weekend is invaluable and I would love to see Aber become a recognised more and more for producing good CS students.

Tomorrow is looking very likely to be the launch for Raspberry Pi. For those of you who don’t know, it is effectively a small computer the size of a credit card. It is still very powerful and features everything you might expect. You’d also expect such a product to be expensive. Wrong. There will be 2 models, selling at $25/$35. That makes for a bargain. Unfortunately the mad rush to get one (slash effective DDoS attack on the rPi site) is likely to effect my chances. The 6am start better be worth it!

This semester has been interesting thus far, with some modules being better than others as per usual. A web module is going again, so I am hoping to go one better. That means getting 97% in my assignment. Might be a bit tough this time as it requires more technologies I haven’t used much before. The idea is to make a game for people to learn basic Welsh. Must use HTML5 and jQuery. Will be tough but very rewarding at the end. Today I had my first practical session for a module which is all about mobile and embedded systems. It involved basic messing around with a mobile device, toying with accelerometers, LED’s and such. The program was written in C. I haven’t done C before and have heard rumours that it isn’t very nice to learn. Fortunately the code wasn’t too hard to understand, and I was able to complete the worksheet with relative ease. I was able to program the board to recognise 3 axis from the accelerometer and also the value from a variable resistor. Really interested to progress in this module as I’m aware I might learn things in it which could make for cool editions with my love for R/C stuff.

I mentioned last year that I had caught the running bug. I loved running. Unfortunately starting uni again meant I was busy a lot of the time and when I wanted to go in the winter I generally chickened out and decided it was too cold. Who wants to run along the sea front in shorts and t shirt at freezing temperatures? Anyway, I realised I need to start again so have booked a friend and I in to do the Great Birmingham Run in October. It is a half marathon (13 miles) so I will have to train, or I simply won’t make it.

Think that is about it for now. Hopefully more blog posts soon. More news on an industrial year, Raspberry Pi and also exciting news about the summer. Definitely worth checking back for!

Employability, CV’s, interviews..

Matt — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:19:54 +0000

Every year the uni runs a ‘weekend’ away at Gregynog for those students who are looking to do an industrial year. The idea is to help open student’s eyes as to what employers are looking for. It was a really useful weekend, and it really made you think hard. Many interview questions are quite challenging and it can be very hard to feel like you’ve nailed an impressive answer when there is so many things you could say. I found myself enjoying the interview stage quite a lot! It might seem unusual but I liked the pressure of trying to answer these hard questions, plus trying to account for things where the interviewer thinks they can catch you out. At times it feels like you are just trying to outwit each other! I should add, I do of course realise it is about a matching process, for both sides to find out if they are interested in and could work with each other.

My CV is very honest, so I didn’t have any problems with that. Certainly a few other students will have learnt not to claim themselves as an ‘expert’ or ‘have very good knowledge of’ when in fact they know little. The format in which the interviews took place was also good, we were able to hear everyone else’s questions and their answers. I took the whole thing as a long interview and decided to answer everyone else’s questions in my head too. I think at times it will have looked like I was itching to answer the questions when it wasn’t even my go, I got the opportunity at one point too (and I was right, always a bonus)!

It was also a reminder about our web presences. I realised that my LinkedIn was slightly out of date, and could have been better filled in. I felt glad the interviewers didn’t have time to look into that kind of thing as it can show a lack of effort, even if I have actually bothered to make one in the first place! I’ve updated it tonight and am trying to gain connections, so if you know me, add me! Twitter is also something I’ve been doing for a while now. Initially I hated, now I actually like it quite a lot. It’s like a mini news source. I find out things I wouldn’t otherwise and then captilise on them. I was always been a bit baffled about gaining followers, but learnt that you really need to interact with anyone you can find. Talk to them, help them, whatever you can. If they have a conversation with you that’s likely a follower gained, and perhaps some of their friends too. Simple stuff when you realise. I also found out about about.me, it’s a dead simple profile website where by people can place links to all their relevant stuff. I’m a bit peeved I didn’t have the idea myself, because I think it’s fricking awesome!

There may be a lack of updates from now, I have 3 assignments to be getting on with, plus numerous industrial year applications. It might be very close to Christmas before I’m back to the blog again. I will still be frequenting Twitter of course!

See you soon.

Back to uni

Matt — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:13:16 +0000

Haven’t blogged in a while, despite my promises to do it more regularly every time I post! Sorry to all my loyal readers.. I know you’re out there somewhere!

Things are hotting up at uni, a lot is going on. So far I have found out that I am actually still doing software programming, which I was told not to expect. Essentially this is going to be my biggest module as well. We have been tasked with making an Android game. The game is a typical pirate/treasure game. Users must be able to login, have a friends list and receive notifications. They must find clues, and upon resolving the clues, move appropriately across the map to dig up the treasure. They can also bury treasure and leave their own clues for others too find. All of these actions must be updated on a global map and shown to everyone. Any friends must also be notified of any found treasure or any new clues that have appeared.

Basically, it’s complex. Compared to the past projects we’ve done, it’s like learning to count to ten, and then being told you must learn calculus. Not good. Thankfully the majority of the marks come from the organisation of the team and how well you can document what you are doing. It will be a lot of writing and pansying about. I think it over-complicates things when you go this deep in trying to organise projects, but it isn’t my choice how we do it! Never the less, I am still looking forward to it! Should learn lots.

Other modules don’t seem too bad, and I’m looking forward to most of the other assignments as I view them as more achievable. Web Programming is a new module which leads on from Web Develepment Tools which I did last year. We’re now doing dynamic pages, so naturally that means PHP. I’m really looking forward to it. If you’re confused about all this talk of modules, check my Uni page, it contains useful links.

The BUKC has kicked off again, and I went to the first test session at the weekend. As per usual, it was chaos. Lots of people who’d never touched a Club 100 kart, and you could tell. In my first 15 minute session, every lap I had was yellow flagged! My second session was better and I was able to get the fastest time in for Aber, but that was still only 17th out of 30 odd teams. Unfortunately this year we don’t seem to have any fast freshers so that is not great! I’m debating as to whether I will try and compete in the championship. I’m living in private accomodation this year, which is about double the price of uni digs. Rent comes before karting, apparently.

All for now!

Long overdue updates

Matt — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:02:17 +0000

Been a long time since I’ve posted here. The theme which I use for the site has received a lot of updates recently so I’ve gone about putting them in. I think it’s great that WordPress themes are coming along like this now. It means near enough anyone can have a great site. Even for those who only want a cheap website it means that web developers can just stick something on like this and still be proud of their work. Before it was very much frowned upon in a, ‘oh but you’ve just used somebody else’s theme?’

Anyway, can’t really think of much that has been going on recently. I’ve taken up running and caught the bug, so you may see more posts about that soon. It doesn’t seem that long ago since I finished Uni, yet I’m well over half way through my holidays and will be going back before I know it. I can see Christmas is going to arrive just as quick too, and I can still remember New Year’s Eve like it was yesterday. Sometimes I wish life would slow down a little!

That’s all from me for now, may have another post up by the end of the month.

I’m back!

Matt — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:43:37 +0000

Well it has been almost 2 months since my last post here – which isn’t too great. There has been a lot going on and I’ve either not had time for this or forgotten about it.. woops!

Since that last update the BUKC has finished. Aber came a very disappointing 54th out of 60 teams. I’m not going to be too phased about it as the poor results weren’t down to me (not that I like to blame the team but..) and after rounds 7+8 I was able to keep form and top 20 finishes were rolling in. Where as the rest of the team were struggling to be in the top 30. The last round also saw the Driver’s Championship. This consisted of 2 heats followed by an A/B final. My first race was a disaster as I got shoved off the circuit on the first lap resulting in me rally-crossing over the grass to get back on track. Later on in the lap I got caught out by a pile up which unfolded before me. I spotted a gap and went through it with considerable pace realising that it was closing. Unfortunately that put me on the grass and I was going far too fast across it to be able to slow down or turn. Consequently Whilton Mill are still rebuilding their tyre wall. If this is your first time reading here, please do not take me as a bad driver! Check out some of my other posts. The next heat passed incident free but it wasn’t enough to get me a decent start in the final. I finished a distant 23rd/36 in the end.

I’ve also been home for Easter since my last post, but that almost seems so long ago I can’t remember what happened! When I got back I rounded up my mates for a karting session which was good fun despite some very aggressive driving by someone. I managed to win but the fastest lap time was taken from me. Obviously, I blame the kart, I think the tyre pressures were bad Not long after we all went to see Fast Five which was great. The ending was even better. Now looking forward to the sixth instalment.

Whilst I was back I also got the chance to fix up the family car. My Mum had been driven into in a Morrisons car park and it had cracked the rear bumper. Since I love the car (I learnt to drive in it) I couldn’t bare to see it ‘injured’. I set about looking for replacement bumpers and was fortunate enough to find a Suzuki Swift that had been involved in an accident and was undergoing breaking for spares/repairs (it was a Cat B so could not be driven again). Fortunately the rear of the car was not involved and I was able to get the bumper for £60 having knocked him down from £85. Not bad I thought

Fitting the bumper was slightly problematic but it was great fun. I’ve always wanted to be able to repair cars for myself and this was a good chance to prove to myself I could do it. I won’t bore you with the details (although if you’re really interested you can read them here). It took roughly 7 hours to complete the job but a lot of that was messing around fitting the reversing sensors. They were an after-market kit the previous owner had fitted, and to put it bluntly the way in which they are fitted is horrible. I’m pretty sure given a car with no reversing sensors you could have the job done in less than an hour.

Uni is going well and I have completed 2 of 3 exams for this summer. My last one is on the 2nd of June and then I’ll be returning home. I think that’s all for now and I’ll probably be posting again after that last exam.

Over and out.

Mostly racing news.. again

Matt — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:56:23 +0000

Yesterday saw rounds 7+8 of the BUKC at Clay Pigeon Raceway. Situated between Yeovil and Dorchester it was one of Jenson Button’s local tracks for karting when he was growing up in Frome. Unfortunately the weather was miserable all day. I went out in my solo race to a very wet track, with drizzling rain. Contrary to my normal lack of ability in the wet I was able to keep it on the track for the whole race and secured 17th out of 36. It must be all the practice in the wet! With it being my best result so far I was pretty happy. There were quite a few faster guys behind me, but they paid the price of pushing too hard, and they all span off at least once.

The weather didn’t improve for the endurance races in the afternoon, and a couple of laps into my stint it started raining heavily. The lack of grip was baffling and the visibility was even worse. With my visor down I had no chance of seeing any signals from the pit lane or reading the time into the race. Since I didn’t want to miss my stop I was having to raise my visor every time I went down the main straight. This wasn’t ideal as I would get a soaking in the face every time!

After spotting the signal to come in, our next driver went out for the middle half hour stint, with me to return for the final 15 minutes. He had a few off track excursions but we weren’t running too bad. When I headed out for the last stint the fog had closed in massively. I headed towards the first corner and was unable to see far enough ahead to where I would be able to stop if I had to. Whilst I now realise that should be somewhat disconcerting, I carried on round the track at the best pace I could. I soon realised that even some of the marshal’s posts were not visible through the fog. As I came across the line to start my first lap, I was greeted with a red flag and the race was stopped due to the conditions. It was a shame, but it was bad out there. I still have round 9 and the driver’s championship to look forward to before the season ends so it is all good.

With some things drawing to a close like the BUKC, some things have started up again. Namely, Formula 1. After waiting 2 weeks longer than intended due to the Bahrain grand prix being cancelled, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited at the start of the season. I even had trouble sleeping the night before qualifying. Reminds be of being a little child on Christmas eve, oh dear! The race in Melbourne certainly wasn’t an all time classic but it was a lot better than last years season opener at Bahrain. It was a bit disappointing to not see Button on the podium, but hopefully he’ll be there in Malaysia. Not too long till that’s on TV!

Since I have an assignment for the module “Web Development Tools” due in tomorrow evening, I’m now going to be leaving you I’m afraid. Whilst it is 99% done the perfectionist in me wants to make sure everything is just so.

See you soon.

Some time to relax, what?

Matt — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:54:44 +0000

It seems that the chaos that was going on in my previous posts is dieing down. It was mostly Uni stuff, so it’s great that it’s out of the way now – for a while at least. The Java assignment got handed in on time and without any major issues, so our group just has to wait and see how well we scored. We had to perform a group presentation in our tutorial to show what our program could/could not do, and discuss how the project went. Although we had one group member missing, it went well and people seemed reasonably impressed!

I also had an assignment to write a CV and covering letter as a part of my “Personal and Professional Development” module. I spent a fair amount of time working on this trying to perfect it and make it look like the professional kind of document it should be. I’m around 90% happy with it but I still think it could be improved. It is harder than you think to try and include everything you want to say in an appropriate manner and in few words.

In my last post I was about to head down to Llandow for rounds 5+6 of the BUKC. The track was wet to begin with, but with none of us being in the first race it had dried up a fair bit by the time I went out for race 2. I had been randomly assigned pole position which was great, although I knew I was never going to be able to keep it – especially in the tricky conditions. After spending what seemed like forever rolling up, the race got under way. I slipped to 2nd by the first corner, but was able to hold it for a good few laps. Unfortunately I was then squeezed wide through the last turn and ran through a big puddle. I lost a lot of positions whilst I was off line and running on wet tyres. To add to my misery, I soon managed to spin twice resulting in a finish of 26th/36.

The afternoon promised better racing as the track had fully dried out, and I felt more confident starting the endurance race in my randomly assigned slot of 19th. After my 15 minute stint I was able to get us up to 9th (no spins, yay!). The next 30 minutes didn’t go too well for us with the other driver spinning 7 times and putting us down to 33rd. I got back in for the final 15 minutes, and drove as hard as I could. I was able to get us back up to 30th/36, but it was simply too little too late.

I think that’s all for now, but I’ll have some more updates by the end of the month!

More Races

Matt — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:54:20 +0000

This weekend sees the 5th and 6th rounds of the British Universities Karting Championship at Llandow Kart Club. I’m unaware of the grid slots at the moment as I can’t find them on the BUKC site. Maybe they haven’t been released yet. Either way I’m not too fussed as they do work out at an average so that all teams have the same opportunity throughout the season. If anything I’d rather start at the back so I can at least move forward rather than drop back, ha! The weather is looking promising, there could be a chance of rain but I’m going to hope it stays dry as it makes things so much easier! Watch my Twitter for updates or come back here in around a weeks time for results.

Assignments wise, my teams Java deadline is fast approaching and there is still a fair amount to do. I spent a couple of hours the other day just cleaning up the code from huge amounts of white space, code that didn’t need to be there and terrible indentation. I decided it would be worthwhile commenting it all at that point too, so I did. We’re now almost there apart from completing the implementation of the load and save methods. Then of course there is documentation to do. 3 full days left on that one.

My XHTML/CSS/JavaScript assignment is fairing a lot better, mostly because it’s easier! It’s now essentially complete apart from a 200 word write up. The write up has to detail the process I went through to complete the assignment. After that I will almost undoubtedly go through all the code and comment it up whilst perfecting the indentation, because I am incredibly OCD like that. I’ll check the CSS for duplicate properties too, as I’ve most likely slipped up there. I will be doing that manually, however it is possible to do it automatically. I found a great tool called CSSTidy which has many options for compressing CSS files and checking for duplicate properties. I will definitely be putting it to good use in non University work.

rFactor related news now. The season in which I was racing had it’s finale on the Sunday just gone at Silverstone. After a couple of DNF’s and having a great strategy, where by I had to pit 1 less time than everyone else, I was able to get on the podium with a 3rd place. This moved me into 10th position in the drivers championship and a 6th place finish for my team in the constructors championship. I’m very happy with that as I only competed in a 1/3 of the seasons races and it was contested between 32 drivers in my class alone. Bring on next season!

I think that’s all for now so see you soon.

5 weeks left, really?

Matt — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:11:46 +0000

Definitely time I made a blog post as I have been meaning to do for quite some time now, but simply haven’t got round to it. I barely know where to start it feels like so much has been going on! Anyway here is my best shot, enjoy..

Last thing I had mentioned was that I was going to a BUKC race in Middlesbrough at Teesside Autodrome. The day started pretty wet, and it was incredibly slippy on track. I was given the first race and was a little apprehensive what with only having driven the karts once before, and that had been in the dry. I found myself going into the first corner continuing straight on; it was solved with a fair old kick of throttle but certainly not what I was expecting! The steering wheel wasn’t doing much for me and it was all about the transfer of weight you could get by messing with the throttle. Despite struggling to the finish, it was all in vein as we had messed up the weights. I was 450g underweight, which I thought was a little harsh to disqualify me.

With round one really something to forget about, I was really looking forward to round two. The was track almost dry, and most definitely dry on line. It was a one hour race and I was doing a 30 minute stint in the middle. I was able to climb 15 places, getting us into the low 20′s. I was just about sticking with the leaders for pace, and passing back if I pushed hard enough. It was exhausting work though, and around 25 minutes in, disaster. Some plank decided to wave his teams pit signal in front of my face. I was unsure at the time who had made the signal, so I went to make for the pits. However having been blinded by the aforementioned plank, I was going far too fast to enter it. I hit the brakes with me then facing back down the track watching the smoke come off my tyres. It cost a good few minutes dragging the kart off the grass, by which point it was time to switch drivers. After the driver change and my spin, we lost the majority of places that I had gained. At the end of the day we were 49th/56th in the championship. I guess this is okay for our first race, but I can’t help but feel disappointed.

In the weekend just gone, I went back to Melton to see both friends and parents. Although I wasn’t there long it was good to be back home and see people. Went out on the Saturday night with three mates and had a properly good time. Now that it’s coming towards the end of the week, I realised I only have 5 weeks of lectures left, and hence 5 weeks of my first year of University left. I honestly cannot believe how quickly it has gone! Best get revising for those exams because they will be here in no time.

In other news, my first semester results came through. I averaged 69% which I am very happy with. My best module mark was 74% with my worst being 57%. I will update the University page in the next couple of days to give full details. Ideally I’d like to push my first year average over 70% but it could be tough.

I’m currently working on two assignments. One of them is a group project to create a comic strip maker in Java, and the other is to develop an XHTML page with a couple of links, a bit of JavaScript and ensuring it is styled with CSS. Both the XHTML and CSS have to pass W3C validation to get any decent marks. I spent several hours on it last night getting the layout, look and feel etc sorted and I’m relatively happy with it. I was even happier when I found some people were throwing up 70 or so errors in the validator where as mine is passing no problem. I don’t think I could get that many if I tried!

Finally a bit of news for those of you who like to follow my rFactor happenings. I recently had a race at MoSport and managed 3rd position which I was properly happy with. I knew I had a good chance of doing well as it is a very tight track and the DNF count is always high. So much so that I was in fact third even with my DNF. Yes, I DNF’d and got on the podium! I caught a touch of grass on the braking point of turn 3 and it sent me straight on into the tyre wall killing my engine. It was a shame as I was running 2nd, but 3rd is still great.

Hopefully there won’t be as much as a gap to my next post as this time, so expect to hear from me soon.

Over and out.