About this page
This is just a small and slowly growing list of tools I've developed.
Physics tools
Box plotter
One of the most popular ways to compare results in particle physics is to create plots that show different results with horizontal bands (sometimes known as boxes), making comparisons easier on the eye. Unsatisfied with the quality of available solutions at the time, I created my own scripts which would make these plots for use in my thesis.
Feynman diagram maker
One of the most common diagrams that particle physicists use are Feynman diagrams. There are already a few tools that can be used to make them, but they usually have some significant drawback (including non-intuitive interface, poor quality graphics, lack of control over the final image, text only input.) This is a drag and drop style Feynman diagram maker aimed at making creation of the diagrams as quick and simple as possible. This is quite an advanced project with lots of scope for further development.
i, short for indico
At CERN we used a meeting organisation system called indico. Each meeting had a unique ID that was used to identify the resources associated with it. In many instances there were times when a person had to access a meeting page when they only knew the unique id, and not the full uri. I made this tool to obtain the full uri, given only the meeting id. Since this project shortens the uri for indico it is called "\(i\)", which leads to all kinds of puns.
Symbol browser
This is a simple tool to allow the user to quickly copy a string of symbols.
Uncertainties radar
When dealing with systematic uncertainties in physics it's often important to know the relative contributions of each unceratinty to the overall uncertainty. This script compares all the uncertiaties, assuming they are \(0\%\) correlated.
Web design tools
Color converter
This is a very simple yet useful script for converting colours from one description to another. What causes the most frustration here is the difference between US and UK English, as it seems I'll never be happy with the uri for this tool. So I use the word "color" in the context of values the computer understands and "colour" to describe the aesthetic experience of humans. That makes the best of a bad situation.
HTTP error pages
As part of my webspace I wanted to add some humourous error pages to soften the blow when there's a problem.
Image fader
This is a simple script that fades an image to a given color and transparency. It's used to make images for use in web design (for example, a background image that needs to fade to match the background color.)
Key decoder
This project tells the user the keycode associated with a given key in a given browser.
Links pages
When working on ATLAS and CMS I often needed to save links to poorly advertised pages. This is where I store the links.
Painter
Many years ago I wanted to make a platform game (I still do) and I needed to be able to make simple and small graphics quickly and easily. Once I realised I could manipulate images using PHP it became easy to create a simple application to make pixel art.
Other tools
Alarm clock
This project was written very quickly one evening to give myself an emergency alarm clock after my phone was stolen. As a result it is not very user friendly.
Floorplan
This was a quickly written project to help me rearrange the furniture in my new apartment. This project has scope for a lot of further development in the future.
L'Hotel d'Aidan
When I was living near Geneva I had a spare room and many people came to visit for work or leisure. To make it easier to keep track of who was visiting when I created a page where people could book my spare room.
LGBT map
One of my more far reaching projects is the LGBT CERN group. It is a diverse group with people from across the world, and one of the issues that we care about is safety in different nations. This project keeps track of progress in different nations.
Photo calendar
One of my friends suggested I make a calendar featuring some of the photos I had taken while in Geneva. Here is the result. She wanted me to make some money from it, but I didn't the quality of the images was good enough, so instead I just made it available for free. Future years might see a paid option.
Pixeler
This project was made rather quickly in response to an image challenge. Afterwards I changed the project to allow the user to choose any image to pixelate.
Project list
I have many projects on my website, and it can be hard to keep track of them all. This project is a tool to list them all and make it easier to collate them online.
Recolourer
This project has been on my to-do list for a very long time. The idea is to take an image which is difficult for a colour blind person to view, and then remap the colours to make it easier for them to view.
YouTube thumbnailer
This project takes a YouTube uri and provides the appropriate thumbnail images.
