I had all of the data, and I had it in an easily searchable MySQL database. Now, I had to figure out the best way to access it. I contemplated just having a bunch of search boxes, but that was quickly crossed out. It needed to be intuitive, and there were too many categories. I then thought maybe having sliders for the number of people and rooms, and the standard dropdown/checkboxes for the other values. Again, I vetoed this for something easier to grasp immediately.
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I realized two days ago that there wasn't at all a good way to find rooms that fit your desires for upperclassmen housing. I contacted the housing office, and inquired as to if they had access to data about all of the rooms. Unfortunately, all they had was access to the same outdated floor plans that anyone could access. Sighing, I started looking through all of the PDF's to see if there was an easy way to extract the data. The links to the PDF's are scattered across pages, with differing numbers depending on what floors there are. I noticed they have a similar address pattern: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~orl/images/floor-plans-06/<first four characters of building name>-<floor number (0-4).pdf. I quickly got the building names by copying them all and running a quick strip, and then using the requests python module to check if the pdf file existed and then downloading it. You can check out the very easy download script here, on my Github.
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For the Dartmouth Redesign, I wanted a way to turn the DiD (a seven character alphanumeric that identifies you) into an attractive QR code. This got me wondering into how QR codes work. Turns out, there are very few easily accessible resources on it. This is what I found:
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Now, I've done a fair amount of work in regards to the Dartmouth ID, but mainly in terms of duplicating/replicating it. I've made a fair amount of progress, and you can see some of the early work and the updates by clicking on the links. However, this article is about a possible redesign on the current ID. This is what the current ID look like.
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Financial Aid Menu
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Dartmouth currently uses an Ellucian product called Banner for the 'Student Information System'. From a UI standpoint, it's a nightmare. From a UX standpoint, it's even worse. First of all, the URL. The URL to access banner is https://banner.dartmouth.edu/banner/groucho/twbkwbis.P_WWWLoginWEBAUTH. One would think that https://banner.dartmouth.edu would redirect, and be a lot easier. But instead, that redirects to a 403 Forbidden page.
When you finally get to the site, you're greeted with this 'beautiful' and totally useful landing page.
The 'Help' link brings up a popup window that just says click on the Menu. The 'Site Map' link brings up the same menu options as clicking 'Undergraduate Student Main Menu'. Clicking that brings up one of the worst menus.
You'll notice that the links are almost in alphabetical order, which is infuriating. Now, a lot of these links aren't applicable, or available at certain times. The main ones are the following:
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The way that I use my router is basically as an ethernet splitter, and to make my own wifi signal. In case anyone else has multiple devices in their room that need ethernet, this is a rough guide of how to set it up. These instructions are for the router I have, which is the Linksys WRT54G.
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The site where you can get information on meal swipes and that information has transferred from ManageMyID to CBORD's GET, along with the laundry machines. I've accordingly updated the Python script for scraping it, and it's accessible in the same location as last time.
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It seems like it would be pretty easy to make the ID's. The first thing you would need is a printer that has a CD/DVD printer tray. The Canon PIXMA MG7520, available here on Amazon for $200 would probably do. Then, you need an ID tray, one that will work with the printer, but replace the CD/DVD tray. That specific printer uses a type of tray referred to as 'Tray J'. You can buy an ID tray for Tray J type on this great site, brainstormidsupply.com. You can also buy Inkjet PVC cards there for relatively cheap. Finally, you need a template to print to. Using Photoshop, in Print Settings, you can choose Printable disc under media type, and Disc tray J under Printer Paper Size. Then, use a template for Tray J. I couldn't find one online, so I made one that's downloadable here for novelty purposes.
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Some of the things stated in the Dartmouth article I cited in the Dartmouth ID post weren't entirely accurate: it's not a 125kHz RFID tag in it, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a bad thing in that I bought a RFID reader for 125kHz, and not 13.56 MHz, but a good thing in that it's a lot easier to write to a 13.56 MHz tag and thus clone it. NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is almost certainly not correct, and it's instead a 125kHz card, but with HID encoding, so that a normal 125kHz reader won't do it, you'll need one from HiD.
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