Pretty Printing C++ Archives from Emails
I'm just putting this here because I nearly managed to lose it. This is a part of a pretty unvarnished BASH script for a very specific purpose, taking an email file containing a ZIP of submitted C++ code from students. This script produces pretty printed PDFs of the source files named after each author to […]
Installing Android Nougat on a Stock Galaxy Tab 10.1
My daughter uses an Android Samsung tablet (coded GT-P7510) which ended official support on Android 4.0.4. Unfortunately I didn't pay any attention to this issue until the apps she most wanted to use, namely Netflix and YouTube stopped working on it as the Android version was too low. I found a ROM to upgrade to […]
The Deceptiveness of Coincidence
A friend of mine recently posted about a chain of events - people sharing birthdays - that was so unlikely that a lottery ticket purchase was called for. Most people might make similar comments as the oddity of these events struck them. There followed some discussion about these problems and it made me think of […]
Python Script To Copy a Playlist and Linked Files
Most tools for copying files onto MP3 players (often actually a phone these days) work on the basis that you copy your entire music catalogue and then make playlists linking to various files on it. It can be a trickier process to copy your favourite selected audio files - the ones specifically used in your […]
Resistance in Aikido
If you spend a little bit of time on-line looking at what other martial arts practitioners have to say about aikido, one of the thing you note is that people with little or no experience whatsoever about aikido still have plenty to say about it. The most common comments is that aikido has no sparring […]
OPUS and Assessment 3 - Regime Change
This is the third and final article in a short series on how OPUS, a system for managing placement on-line, handles assessment. You probably want to read the first and second article before getting into this. Regime Change It's not just in geo-political diplomacy that regime change is a risky proposition. In general you should […]
OPUS and Assessment 2 - Adding Custom Assessments
This is a follow on to the previous article on setting up assessment in OPUS, an on-line system for placement learning. You probably want to read that first. This is much more advanced and requires some technical knowledge (or someone that has that). Making New Assessments Suppose that OPUS doesn't have the assessment you want, […]
OPUS and Assessment 1 - The Basics
OPUS is a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) web application I wrote at Ulster University to manage work based learning. It has been, and is used by some other universities too. Among its features is a way to understand the assessment structure for different groups and how it can change over years in such […]
Workload Allocation Modelling Update - Scalability
I have been doing some more work on my software to handle Academic Workload Modelling, developing a roadmap for two future versions, one being modifications needed to run real allocations for next year without scrapping existing data, and another being code to handle the moderation of exams and coursework (which isn't really anything to do […]
How Effective Is Aikido?
I based this on a response I made to the same question on Quora. But it's a question I get asked a lot. Along with the somewhat related "how often do you need to use aikido?" which I address below. It's very popular for people (often who have never studied aikido) to tell other people […]