This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled “the only aber fresh moving in party”, having previously been named other things including “Aber Freshers 2011″. The event page encourages students to buy a £9 ticket to enable them to collect an “official”  t-shirt on the date of the event. which will allegedly allow access to special promotional deals within venues. The event, organised by Aber Fresh Ltd, of Pembrokeshire, claims to be an official event, as well as one run by students.

Similar claims are made by Bangor Fresh Ltd, also of Pembrokeshire. This should not come as a surprise, as both are registered to the same address, and use the exact same branding. Both companies were registered with Companies House this July, alongside a separate company, “Top Banana Entertainment Ltd” (trading as “Top Banana Students” and “Top Banana DJ service and promotions”). Top Banana seems to be the de-facto parent company of Aber Fresh Ltd and Bangor Fresh Ltd.

Despite claiming to be both official, and organised by students at Aberystwyth / Bangor, the event has nothing to do with the respective universities, unions, or student societies, and beyond a referral and volunteer “helper” scheme, seems to have no involvement from current students, with the man behind these companies being, I understand, a Mr James Kershaw of Pembrokeshire. Mr Kershaw identifies himself as Director of Top Banana, as well as Manager of the unrelated “Top Notch Garden Services”, an unregistered organisation providing ground care services in Pembrokeshire.

In challenging the claims made by these companies, I posted the information identifying the 3 companies, and Mr Kershaw, and stated that this meant that any claims that the events are run by aber students were “fabrications”, to the facebook event page, as well as a page operated by the University that advised caution with regard this event. This resulted in Mr Kershaw stating “you’re a dick head.”, before deleting the comments posted to the event page. I am also informed that in a separate comment they claimed I was “jealous” and had “already bought a t-shirt”, more false claims there. I can also disclose that on Tuesday 23rd August, a person claiming to represent these companies made repeated phone calls to a member of staff at Aberystwyth University, threatening unspecified court action against said member of staff unless all comments regarding the company and its event were removed. This despite the information being in the public domain and indeed partially available from the event page itself.

The actions of Aber Fresh Ltd, and Top Banana Entertainment Ltd, suggest that these are companies seeking to profiteer from students, and who are not above intimidatory conduct to try to cover up anything that may jeopardise their profits. I ask that all universities, student unions, and pubs in Wales be aware of the actions of these companies, and to take reasonable precautions to protect the safety and well-being of students and staff members.

Update: following the publicising of this article on facebook, James Kershaw informs me he intends to commence legal proceedings against me. I welcome the move if true, as it shall provide opportunity to expose the facts in court.

This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled "the only aber fresh moving in party", having previously been named other things including "Aber Freshers 2011". The event page encourages students to buy a £9 ticket to enable them to collect an "official"  t-shirt on the date of the event. which will allegedly allow ...

On Thursday and today the Computer Science Department held practical sessions that aren’t part of the regular timetable. Each day consisted of 2x 2 hour sessions in B23 doing basic exercises in perl – although we do java in the first year. During these sessions we were also set our first assignment: CS122 students have to make a basic “Captcha-Bot”, and CS121 students have to make hangman. Both are due in next Friday and also serve as an introduction to the procedures surrounding the handing in of assignments, with reports and declarations and all that jazz.

Since I’m a 121 student, I’ve been working on hangman. Although it’s not exactly hard, adjusting to the syntax of a language I’ve never used, and actually just writing the code and testing it is quite a time sink. So far I’m at 183 lines, and about half way done. I’ve got the interface sorted and all the code for initialising the game, I just need to actually code for guessing letters and displaying the word and hanged man.

This is going to be such a fun way to spend the weekend…

Pictured: Fun

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

On Thursday and today the Computer Science Department held practical sessions that aren't part of the regular timetable. Each day consisted of 2x 2 hour sessions in B23 doing basic exercises in perl - although we do java in the first year. During these sessions we were also set our first assignment: CS122 students ...

Blurry photo of Aberystwyth Societies Fair

This morning I went to the Sports Cage to check out the societies.  A member of the Debating Society showed me the way from Pentre Jane Morgan Amenity Block. Before I left I’d already decided what societies I’d probably join or at least check out – International Politics, and the Debating Union. You can find a list of societies on the AberGuild website; it’s well worth a look so you know what to expect.

From the moment you step into the Sports Cage you are bombarded with leaflets and free food , pens, stickers, and badges. As fun and interesting as it is, it’s not really that green, is it… Granted, Aber is known for being pretty bad when it comes to its green credentials (although it is improving gradually)

Anyway, after you get past the chancers at the entrance, you’ll be able to see stall upon stall of societies trying to attract your attention, from Amnesty International, to the Debating Society, to the Maths Society, Rock Society, and much, much more.  Even societies with departmental links like the InterPol Society, GeoSoc, Law Society, etc. are open to anyone and everyone regardless of course.

Societies provide a good opportunity to meet people you otherwise wouldn’t encounter during your time at Aber – and who knows, maybe you’ll meet your new best friend, or even partner there. I highly recommend you join at least one or two, and you can always get put on the mailing list for more, or drop by and join at a later date!

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

This morning I went to the Sports Cage to check out the societies.  A member of the Debating Society showed me the way from Pentre Jane Morgan Amenity Block. Before I left I’d already decided what societies I’d probably join or at least check out – International Politics, and the Debating Union. You can ...

As of today I am officially an undergrad at Aber! The process for registration was changed this year compared to previous years. Having been informed of module choices yesterday, we today had to head over to the arts centre to register our choices with the department. It took maybe 20 minutes, and it was all entered onto the system there and then – although practicals and tutorials are only added later this week.

Once you’ve registered with the department you have to go find a computer –here’s where it’s handy to have your own laptop or desktop – and connect to your student record to confirm your personal details and that the modules have been entered correctly. After you finish that, you can totally call yourself a fully registered student!

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

As of today I am officially an undergrad at Aber! The process for registration was changed this year compared to previous years. Having been informed of module choices yesterday, we today had to head over to the arts centre to register our choices with the department. It took maybe 20 minutes, and it was ...

View of Aberystwyth from the top of the Lladinam Tower.

Today the CompSci Department had its introduction lecture, where we were introduced to the lecturers and informed of our module options. Turns out first semester quite a few of us have to look to other departments for a final 10 credits. The recommended modules for that were Astronomy and Chaos, Communications, Consciousness. Both look pretty interesting, but since I’m doing GG4R CompSci Artificial Intelligence, I’ll probably be going with CCC; sadly this means 9am lectures on a Monday, though. As you can imagine, CompSci is quite the festival of sausage. You’ve got to feel sorry for the few girls studying the course…

From Sausage Fest to Pizza Fest – In the evening, CompSci had a welcome part at the top of the Llandinam Tower, complete with beer and pizza that quite a few have described as the “best pizza ever”.  The social included a game of “human bingo”, designed to make us interact and get to know each other. There may have been some cheating involved.

I left early because I had to get some work done, but I understand that the second and third years like Weasel and Pyro came and whisked away the other freshers and took them into town to get them drunk and do unspeakable things to them.  Hopefully I’ll join them next time.

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

Today the CompSci Department had its introduction lecture, where we were introduced to the lecturers and informed of our module options. Turns out first semester quite a few of us have to look to other departments for a final 10 credits. The recommended modules for that were Astronomy and Chaos, Communications, Consciousness. Both look ...