python makes everything easy

As I was sitting at my desk at work, watching code roll by as my Monte Carlo runs worked, I thought about how nice it would be to go do something else while I waited for data.  An email notifier wouldn’t be enough, as I might want to be away from wifi.  Then I remembered that Bell has an email to text message gateway, number@txt.bell.ca .  In the course of ~10 minutes, I was able to whip up a python script that will send me a short email notifying me that my jobs have completed.  All I have to do is add a line at the end of a script with the python script and the job name, and it will send me a message as soon as the script run completes.  I simply store the password for my local smtp server in ~/.pass, and it fires of texts like magic.  Python makes everything easy.  Code after the jump.

Galileoscope Modification: Lego Focuser

So,  I have been the proud owner of a galileoscope for about a month now.  While I am quite happy with the optical quality (and the price!), the focusing mechanism leaves a bit to be desired.  In order to cut costs, the ’scope focuses (changes the distance between the objective and eyepiece lenses) simply by having a pair of concentric tubes that you manually pull out or push in to focus. 

Protospace

I think that every city needs a hackerspace.  If all goes well, Calgary may soon have one.  If you are interested in sci/tech and DIY in Calgary, come to the meetings: Tuesdays @ 7PM at Eau Claire Market.  We have bi-weekly talks on various topics.  Last week was Ham radio!

How to Drive a Student Crazy

Hello friends, Sorry about the massive lack of posts from yours truly (Thanks for keeping us going Nick!). I’ve been over my head with school work lately, and that’s what I want to talk about today.  I’m currently taking both the most and least frustrating computer science classes I have done thus far.  The good one is Programming Paradigms, and the terrible one is Software Engineering one.  Besides the fact that SENG is a bunch of management bulshytt, and functional programming with Haskell is a glorious and lovely excercise, there are some fundamental differences that make the one class a joy to take, and the other is like having bamboo shoots driven under my fingernails.  Let me begin with how to teach a class right.

What I Do

Holy crap, it has been forever since I posted.  Sorry folks, I am a lazy man.  I’ve been meaning to write this post since I started my new job.

Since October of last year, I have been working as a part-time research assistant at the Radio Astronomy lab at the University of Calgary.  I am basically the odd-jobs guy, writing python scripts and some IDL.  My work is a tiny part of what is done at the CfRA, but the tools we work with, and the science that is being done is DAMN COOL.

The Quest to End My Contract

With so many wicked awesome gsm phones either already here or on their way, I’m starting to get serious protocol envy. I’ve currently got a pretty decent student plan with Bell, but unfortunately, they are a CDMA carrier. Naturally, there are a number of reasons to prefer GSM to CDMA: the ease of changing phones and carriers via SIM cards, the better overseas coverage, and, as I said before, better phones.  So, as soon as the first hardware with Android arrives (the T-mobile G1), I am going to try to get Bell to end my contract.  How, you might ask?  By actually using it.  Most telecommunications companies grossly oversell their networks, as the vast majority of users never even begin to approach full use of the service they pay for.  So, once I find out if I can get me a pocket of linuxphone goodness, my phone will be wardialing from 9pm-5am (free calling!) and every minute I am not using it on the weekend (also free calling!).  Depending on what I can do with that, I may also exploit the “unlimited browsing” feature in my contract (no tethering though).  If anyone else has any ideas to help me congest the network and hopefully have Bell pull the plug on me, let me know.

Back from Crazy-land

As I am sure is quite obvious, I have not posted for about a month.  I’ve been ultra-crazy busy.  I’ve just started the 3rd year of my Physics BSc, been preparing for the inaugural event for CFI Calgary, manning the Freethinkers booth at clubs week, and I got a new job!  Starting Oct. 1, I will be working as a research assistant in the University’s Radio Astronomy department.  Updates will be finally coming in now, including the long overdue HOPE post.  I’ve also been hanging out with some friends of mine, Robin & Eran.  Eran is an incredibly talented artist, check her work out.

The Nokia N800 Experience

Mirroring Nick’s post, I thought I would write about my experience with a Nokia N800.

A Nokia N800

I’ve had my N800 for over a year now, seen 3 major software revisions (Bora, Chinook, and Diablo), and two new models (the N810 and N810 WiMax).  Overall, I am quite satisfied.

Warai 0.2: Now with video!

Just a quick post, wanted to announce that warai now has support for video. It’s slow as hell, and it chews disk space like no tomorrow, but it works (so far).  I’m pretty pleased with it, I think it really does capture the same look as the Laughing Man’s hacks.

Laughing man code: Warai

Lately, I have been watching a lot of Ghost in the Shell: SAC.  In the show, the main antagonist is a Salinger-loving uber-hacker who has a tendency to replace faces in live video with his rotating-text logo.  As with many of my projects, this piqued my interest, and sent me off coding.  So, here to all of you, I debut the first version of my little python script, Warai, for replacing faces with logos.  Hopefully I will add support for video in the future.
Warai