Category: English

How to use ecell from an ipython console with pylab

October 25, 2010 / / 0 Comments

If you use Ecell simulator sometimes it’s handy to have a way to use it inside an ipython/pylab session to quickly test some features and try some small thing.

For this reason I’ve created a class called quickEcell which takes care to initialize ecell simulator, create the ses object and offer a qcuik way to create loggers and plot the variable.

Below is the minimal to run a model and plot it. All the code is on http://github.com/mattions/QuickEcell

[code]"""Demo method. This should be the skeleton of your simulation"""

qE = QuickEcell(‘simple_ecell_mod.eml’)
variables = [‘S’, ‘P’]
loggers = qE.create_loggers(variables)
qE.run_and_plot(1000, variables, loggers)
plt.title("Test for Michaelis-Menten")
plt.show()[/code]

Going back in the past with git

October 15, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Sometimes you find yourself in a really big mess:

  • you made some modification that you want to disregard, but
  • you don’t want to delete everything you’ve done.
  • you messed up your master. Although you shouldn’t.

That’s why a git reset is not the way to go, however there is a really nice way to do it:

  • you choose the commit where you want to restart
  • you apply the merge with ‘theirs’ strategy, which actually copy the info from branch B (theirs) to branch A

This is the magic trick:

[code]git checkout -b fixing some_commit
git checkout master
git merge -s recursive –strategy-option theirs B[/code]

  1. Create a fixing branch from the right commit
  2. go back to master
  3. scrap everything you did and copy from the good old branch.

H/T darkhax

Terna joins the Desertec project

October 13, 2010 / / 0 Comments

DESERTEC-EUMENA

Terna, the Italian Transmission and System Operator, has joined the Desertec project. I got known the DESERTEC project some years ago and I was really excited about it for two reasons:

  • the possibility to harvest a great amount of energy from the sun, in a more efficient way than the photovoltaic1
  • enhance the collaboration within the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the European Union, where the south countries, like Italy, Greece, France and Spain have to play a really particular and important role.

In my idea Italy should lead this effort, given the geographical position. To achieve that we need to create a culture that is able to integrate with the other, in a way of respect, with the possibility to be free to like or dislike.

One interesting initiative on this line was the Adriatic Festival, happened in Ancona.

1 The photovoltaic panel are the right solution for roofs, however under a certain latitude the concentrated solar power should be preferred due to the better performance per land unit use, the buffer ability and the bigger output.

Research as a way to advance society

October 5, 2010 / / 0 Comments

This morning I had a really interesting conversation with a friend of mine on the bus to work.
Then I read this post from Luca De Biase about the Japanes law of Science and Technology which was in good agreement with my position.

Sometimes Science and Research is seen as a tool to achieve a better handling of technology. That’s a really narrow way to look at it and it’s not the main point.

I think Research regarding both humanistic and scientific topics, is a way to improve society. The better we understand the world and ourself, the better we can live on this planet and have a better society.

Japan has passed in 1995 a law called: “Science and Technology basic law“, this is the first article

Article 1
The objective of this law is to achieve a higher standard of science and technology (hereinafter referred to as “S&T”), to contribute to the development of the economy and society in Japan and to the improvement of the welfare of the nation, as well as to contribute to the progress of S&T in the world and the sustainable development of human society, through prescribing the basic policy requirements for the promotion of S&T (excluding those relevant only to the humanities in this law) and comprehensively and systematically promoting policies for the progress of S&T.

The real deal is to improve society and to create a sustainable way to do it. It is not about the money, is about the vision of the society and about building a better one for the future.

This is way, I signed the petition on science is vital, and I’m going to the rally on Saturday.

People should not be mistaken, this is not scientists calling for more money because they are fearing to loose the job, they can always do another job.

This is scientists calling the whole society to understand that research is a way to build a better society and to build a better future. The rally is happening in UK, but this is a worldwide issue.

Empowering people

September 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

On ted there is this very good talk about empowering people, connecting them and try to boost innovation to make the world better.

[ted id=955]

It is a very inspiring talk, which actually points you in the right way. Times are gonna be complicated and we need to sparkle innovations to improve the world and make it better. Is not a job that can be undertaken just by a bunch of guys but actually we need a distributed approach where everyone can find his/her niche and share back to the world, on a two ways system.

I have to say that when you look out of the window, sometimes you think that the crowd is too stupid and that there will be no possibility to improve.

However I believe this is not true, and this is just a sampling problem. You need a bigger sample, and then there will be the right answer for any questions, or at least a possibility to share a path together towards better conditions.

Empowering people, all of them and make them choose. A new blend of democracy?

Diaspora in the wild

September 16, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Today Diaspora is releasing its code. In short diaspora is a social network which takes the privacy of the users really seriously, given the possibility to control the information, the hosting and the way is delivered.

On top of that, contents created with Diapsora remains with the user and it’s not property of Diaspora.

The software is in still alpha mode, however I really like the idea and the vision of the developers.

As already noted several time, digital personal identity is something which should be taken more seriously and people should be more aware what that means, how to use it  and what they can do with that.

This is a moving target field, where things change rather quickly, so the dust is not yet set to understand what are the big innovations taking place.

I hope diaspora will make it big, and I hope it would be one of the gateway to make the net-citizen aware that their digital personal identity is important and should be protected.