Google Fail 2: The Pharangulation

On a related note, can anyone tell me why AdBlock Plus has stopped working for me in Firefox 3 for Windows Vista?

In Which Inappropriate Jokes Are Made Regarding Electromagnetism

Item the First:

Item the Second:

Item the Third:

Item the Fourth:

Conclusion:

Exeunt.

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. 

Lifehack: Reading Rule

Despite my great ambitions, I have managed only a fraction of the reading I had hoped to achieve this summer. In fact I’ve really only read about 1.5 books since the school term ended. This is an embarrasing state of affairs, and is in spite of the recent addition to my room of a giant comfy chair perfect for reading.

The fact is that I have not been making enough time for reading, something I want to change. In order to facilitate this I am trying out a new rule for myself:

On any given evening, I will undertake no other leisure activities (TV, computer games, music etc.) unless I have read for at least 30 minutes.

I think I will extend it to say that if it is before 9pm I must read for at least an hour. I just read for a solid three-quarters of an hour, so the rule is a success thus-far!

Aggregation Blog

I’ve created a new element to my website; a blog which aggregates all my writing from the two blogs I write for (here and the Terry blog). I’ll also write personal news etc. there. All the posts syndicated to the site link back to their original source, so comments etc will still be on the original blogs. The other great benefit is that I can have one destination and RSS feed for all my writing.

To do the aggregation I’m using a great WordPress plugin called FeedWordPress, which syndicated posts from RSS feeds into a WordPress blog. This plugin was suggested to me by Andre Malan. The theme is based on “Pretty-Parchment” by Lloyd Armbrust, with my own modifications.

Google Fail

I was amused to see this ad pop up in Gmail for Microsoft’s newly-released search engine, Bing. Is this an oversight by Google, or the ultimate show of contempt for the supposed “Google Killer”?

A Letter to the PM: Regarding Minister Goodyear

In response to the shocking revelation of comments by Canada’s Minister of State for Science and Technology on evolution.

(see here for some great response from the research community)

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To the office of the Prime Minister of Canada:

As a student in scientific field, I wish to express the deep concern I felt reading about Minister Goodyear’s comments on a central fact of scientific knowledge – evolution. I was disappointed to learn that the man in charge of scientific development in this country is so deeply ignorant of his domain. The fact is that evolution is a central pillar of many avenues of scientific research today – from biomedical advances which increase our ability of understand and fight diseases, to even seemingly unrelated fields such as my own – artificial intelligence – where concepts of evolution have been adapted into successful computational techniques. Far from being a controversial issue, as some dishonest partisans imply, there is no controversy amongst scientists; Evolution is a fact, and an important one.

Moreover, it is confusing that the Minister would frame the question as a matter of belief in the first place – evolution is the result of overwhelming evidence and consistent data from a wide array of research avenues. To frame the issue as one of personal belief or even as a matter of religious freedom is to miss the point entirely, and suggests a frightening lack of understanding on the Minister’s part.

To have the Minister of Science be so ignorant of a central fact of scientific knowledge is absurd – as absurd as if the Finance Minister did not “believe” in supply-and-demand, or if the Minister of Defense did not “believe” in the existence of Iraq. How can Canada hope to remain relevant and competitive as a location for research if those in charge are so incompetent? As a student looking towards graduate school, such revelations about our country’s leadership make me seriously question whether I wish to continue my studies in Canada, or go elsewhere.

I sincerely hope that further clarifications will be made on the Minister’s stance on this issue and that, if it his found that he is as ignorant as his previous comments suggest, a more suitable replacement will be found.

Beyond the comments on evolution, I am further concerned that the minister hinted at an approach the research focusing on commercial applications. Such a focus on research that will sell will harm the research community in Canada; pure research is important and valuable, and it should not be the domain of the government to decide which avenues are likely to be the most profitable.

Sincerely,
Nicholas FitzGerald

UBC Terry Project Blogging

I have recently signed on as one of the collaborators on the UBC Terry Project Blog. My posts can be found here.

The Terry project is an initiative centered on using an open-minded, interdisciplinary approach to solving the world’s problems. Amongst other things, it serves to encourage sharing and openness between students from different faculties. As well as the blog, the project hosts a series of guest speakers (including Richard Dawkins last year), as well as an annual conference of student talks modelled on the TED talks. The videos from this year’s conference can be found on the site.

Was it good for you, too?

(follow up to this)