PhysX » Cambridge

Cambridge students on strike!

PhysX — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:45:43 +0000

When getting some food at marks and spencer we encountered a bunch of students and enthousiasts that were on strike. You might have seen or read somewhere that the the government is planning on raising the tuition fees.

Read more about it on BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-11827660

Do I look like a gangster to you?

PhysX — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:16:30 +0000

Since I’m working in the UK I’ve traveled back to Belgium a few times. I tried out the different scenarios that would get me across the puddle of water that separates the UK from the main land and I discovered a quality I have. Eurostar, Eurotunnel, Seafrance and P&O were all happy to help me.

Apparently, every single time I go through the passport checks they think I’m a gangster and check my car and luggage for malicious contents. The guys from immigration and customs must notice some kind of gangster quality in me. Maybe I should use that quality to rob banks and stuff, care to join me? I’ll only select you if you seem as suspicious as I do though…

Since those guys already suspect me for all sorts of stuff I bought some stickers for my headlights. Those stickers make sure you don’t blind oncoming traffic. European vehicles have different angles in which the light is spread and, if not corrected, you can’t drive in the UK (well, you can but it’s illegal). I don’t want to piss the British customs off any more so I spent 7 quid to be legal on the road.

Cheers!
Bert

Almost at Cambridge

PhysX — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:56:59 +0000

It’s been a week now since I started working for CARET. I’m not in Cambridge at the moment as I’m working at home but I’ve booked my ferry ticket today. My car is coming with me to Cambridge so the ferry is the way to go I guess. I’m looking forward to move into my new home.

The biggest disadvantage is that I’ll miss my girlfriend and family though . I will be coming back to Belgium on regular basis to visit everybody.

Cheers,
Bert

job@CARET

PhysX — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:00:55 +0000

I’ve been in Belgium for a couple of weeks now and I’m still getting used to it. It’s definitely good to be back but I’m looking forward to return again too. From August on I’m going to be working at the University of Cambridge at CARET. I’ve completed my internship there and I’m happy to be able to go back and work in Cambridge. I’ve met a lot of interesting people during my internship so it should definitely be a good experience again .

Visit CARET

All good things come to an end

PhysX — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:32:39 +0000

We’re closing in on the last week at CARET. I’ve received my final project last week. It’s a design project for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) to be implemented in Sakai. I’ve been doing some design work for a few days now and I really like this project. ‘Designing stuff’ is something that’s often looked at as ‘not that hard to do’ but there is so much wrong with that statement. To make a design you have to be able to get in the skin of the one that will end up using the site. User testing will help too but you still need that ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’. If I’m not sure if something is decent in a design the chances are big that the end user most certainly won’t like it. I usually just rethink or throw it away in that case.

I sometimes refer to a good design as love. It’s hard to get it, easy to be thought of as obvious and frustrating if it never feels right. People often forget that behind a great website goes a lot of thinking, throwing away ideas and starting all over again. It’s one of the downsides of being a designer; but getting it absolutely right makes you forget about all downsides. Just my two cents.

I’ll end this post by giving you an example from Clients From Hell.

Client: “The cost is very high, we can save costs by getting our guy to design it.”

Web designer: “That’s possible, would save some amount of money.”

Client: “Yeah, he’s an illustrator but I am sure he can do web-design, it’s all the same art stuff anyway.”

AAR: http://www.aarweb.org/

Clients From Hell: http://clientsfromhell.net

Punting around the world

PhysX — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:58:28 +0000

Last week we went punting in the Cam. The weather was excellent to do it that day and it was very relaxing. Punting seems easier than it is and you should definitely try it if you get the chance.

Yesterday we visited the 37th Cambridge Beer Festival. The atmosphere was brilliant I must say and I got a cool balloon hat! I gave it to another guy when we left and he seemed very happy with it . Some beers where better than the other but ‘Funky Monkey’ was definitely the best I got.

Work has been cool too, I’m working on an AIR application that let’s users log in to Sakai from their desktop and do everything they can do on the website itself. I’ve been cooperating on the Cambridge University Library widgets project, BERA project and now starting the AAR project too. You can read about them in the links below. The rest of my time is divided between writing my thesis and enjoying the good weather (not today ).

I’m getting my first job offers too. That’s a big confidence boost . Check out Meebo!

http://www.bera.ac.uk/

http://www.aarcorp.com/

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/

http://www.meebo.com/

UK Last.FM pwns Belgian Last.FM

PhysX — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:30:00 +0000

After Planet Rock, the new Slash album and some Q music I’ve tuned my UK radio to Last FM. I’ve created an account which you can add as a friend so we can see what awesome music we like. Apparently in Belgium you have to pay for the “Radio” on Last FM but here in the UK I don’t seem to have any limits on it so it’s free!

Last weekend some we held a football match with some Caret Colleagues and friends. Our team lost in the end but it was a great game, I really enjoyed it even though the weather wasn’t that good. I hope this weekend the weather is better because we are planning on playing football again.

Cheers

Bert

Awesomesauce!

PhysX — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:21:17 +0000

It has been a great weekend so far. Some friends from Belgium were visiting the UK and they were in Cambridge for three days. On Friday we went to several clubs and had a great time there. We were joined by a colleague of mine too, awesome!

On Saturday the weather was great! We walked around in the center of Cambridge, laid around in some parks, talked some nonsense and enjoyed it a lot. This city really is kick-ass when the weather is good. ”Awesomesauce” would one of the guys say that visited . In the evening I went to their hostel and had some diner at “the Rock”. Sadly enough it was raining on the way back home. There are some pictures but I’ll probably get them later this week.

Life can’t be about partying all the time ( ) so today I’ll work on my thesis and reports. The first version of it is due in 17 days so it’s probably a good idea to spend some time on it. Tomorrow is a bank holiday so we’ll probably do some laundry and, depending on how the weather is, play some frisbee or football in the park.

Sightseeing and stuff :-)

PhysX — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:36:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we visited the backs of Cambridge. They’re amazing to see! The backs are basically ‘the backs’ of the colleges here in Cambridge. Most of them are really huge and have a great architecture. It’s an interesting visit if you’re in Cambridge. We should go punting before we leave it seems cool too. Punting is driving a boat with a large stick you push in the ground (that sounds kinda lame but it isn’t ). Yesterday after work we got some beers at the Mill, a pub next to Caret. After that we went for some Chinese food and checked out this pub called ‘The Fez’. It was awesome!

You should definitely check out all the pictures we’ve made so far. All pictures from everyone here are in my gallery. You can find them in the ‘Cambridge Internship’ directory and subdirectories. Check them out and leave some interesting comments if you want.

Cheers

Bert

Bank day ftw

PhysX — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:37:33 +0000

Tomorrow and Monday we don’t have to work (well, at Caret…). Tomorrow we’ll probably work on our thesis and in the evening go into the city to have some fun. We were planning on visiting some things like the university this weekend so I hope the weather’s great.

Normally I’ll go out and take some pictures too, I haven’t really done that and that’s a shame. Cambridge is a really nice town for photographers.

Cheers!

Bert