Usability & design improvements

app/models/commit.rb

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class Commit
   end
 
   def author_name
-    author.name
+    author.name.force_encoding("UTF-8")
   end
 
   def committer_name

app/models/user.rb

@@ -65,7 +65,11 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   def self.generate_random_password
     (0...8).map{ ('a'..'z').to_a[rand(26)] }.join
-  end 
+  end
+
+  def first_name 
+    name.split(" ").first unless name.blank?
+  end
 
   def self.find_for_ldap_auth(omniauth)
     username = omniauth.sAMAccountName[0]