An Eye to the World, an Eye to the Net
E’ stato confermato il 55% delle riduzioni sugli ecoincentivi.
ECO-BONUS
Prorogato nel 2011 lo sgravio per la riqualificazione energetica degli edifici e delle abitazioni. La detrazione è però spalmata su dieci anni e non su cinque come era lo scorso anno.
La campagna forse è servita.
It seems the big paper about the Arsenic which I’ve talked briefly on the previous post lacks a lot of precision and that the impurities presents in the medium will give room to the possibility that actually the bateria is not using arsenate, but still phosphate.
We were not really convinced at lunch discussion and then it seems we are not the only ones.
More info here. Especially interesting these criticisms . ).3 µM of Phospate is quite a lot in a P-/As+ medium.
I guess there is room to have another look at this bacteria.
I’m still amazed by the subs of the Phosphorus with Arsenic as found out and report in Science here
So life can have a completely different way for working… It’s also true that the Arsenic sits just under the Phosphorus, so it share a lot of chemical property, but still is the first time we have an example of something living without Phosphorus. Some questions just right off the bat:
Time to read the paper.
Looking for a really powerful editor in GNOME is one of my constant research.
However it seems now it’s close to an end and it need just a small tilt to achieve perfection.
Right now I’m using Gedit with LaTeX plugin . It works amazingly and it does it jobs. The spellchecker is available and everything works properly.
I’m using Evince to actually check the complied PDF instead of the third panel, but that is a preference thing.
However the best tool out there to enjoy creative writing is definitely Scrivener. The main features of Scrivener is the ability to completely shiedl the user from the managing of the files and names, giving the possibility to focus on:
Writing books or big documents from scientific papers to PhD thesis it’s a main effort, which need constantly the main vision, but also the attention to details. Some parts will be ready before others, some pieces have a different evolution than others. The chunked text is the best way to go and I think it will really make the users’ life easier while battling with writing massive document.
The main problems with Scrivener are three according to me:
This is the impression I’ve got when I used it for a really small period of testing. Although the User Interface is amazing.
Therefore we should create our own Scrivener, where the three points over stated should be addressed.
Gedit is a very good candidate to evolve, due to use of plugins, to a similar User Experience. Using the LaTeX plugin is already possible to holds and manage complicated text and notation and have a top-notch quality results.
What we are missing is the managing of the files a la Scrivener, where each file is a just a chunk of text which can be a subsection, a section up to even a chapter. Each file should be indexed and the metadata of each file should be tracked, like the revision status and the part status. A project manager, which will holds all this file and it will open them and make them always available to the user. The best would be to have a project manager which holds all the files, and a third panel where the status of the file and the type of the file is tracked properly.
Any chunk of test should be written in LaTeX and could be combined according of the order in the Outline, using the input command.
Unfortunaly I’m not too familiar with Gedit from the programming point of view, however if there is anyone who thinks is a good idea and want to give a try I’m happy to be a beta tester and give an hand.
If interested, leave a comment, or send me an email. There is a starting (hopefully) discussion also on the Gedit ML
This is a very good and clear tutorial how to push a local branch to a remote with git.
In a nutshell:
1. Creating a the remote branch
git push origin origin:refs/heads/new_feature_name
2. Updating the branch list
git fetch origin
3. Just double check if it is really there
git branch -r
4. Track the remote branch on a new local one
git checkout --track -b new_feature_name origin/new_feature_name
5. Classic pull. All branches will be pulled now
git pull
Great video about science and a way of thinking.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT90dAA49Q]
Best quotes:
Plait:
Teach a man to reason
And he’ll think for a lifetime
Randi:
Enjoy the fantasy, the fun, the stories
But make sure that there’s a clear sharp line
Drawn on the floor
To do otherwise is to embrace madness
Un gruppo di ricercatori/studenti/professori/tecnici di Pisa ha cercato di riassumere il problema dell’Università italiana in maniera semplice e puntuale.
Per chi in questo marasma non riesce a capire perchè c’è tutto questo casino, lo consiglio vivamente.
Si scarica da qui
Uno dei siti dove si trovano info real time è uniriot.org
Un altro è Rete29Aprile
The only thing I’m really missing right now, it’s not to be in Italy to actual join the manifestation going on in the country against the infamous reform ‘Gelmini’ which is a disastrous choice for the Public school and Italian University.
Anyway I’m supporting, from here. For now.
Neuronvisio is now 0.5.1. The project is well mature and stable. This is just a release to add some features and polish it a bit.
More info on the google groups ML
Today I’ve tried to get the City7 from Cambridge to Hinxton. Usually I take the shuttle bus in the morning and in the afternoon, but if you’ve got stuff to do in town, you have only two options left:
The train+bike means boarding your bike @ Cambridge station and getting out at Whittlelsford Parkaway station and then cycle to the Genome Campus and cycle back in the evening.
The path is really nice, especially in summer, but right now it gets dark rather too quickly, and the road from the Genome Campus to Whittlesford ParkAway is completely without any kind of illumination. So not available in the winter.
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117346831772329393426.00048f2f5310609e8b669&ll=52.091784,0.172152&spn=0.025068,0.029241&t=h&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
The other option is to catch the City 7.
Now, the problem with the city 7 is the service is quite disastrous. There is only one city7, that goes hourly from CB to Hinxton, where the Genome Campus and the EBI is based and it’s never on time. We actually call it the “Unpredictable city 7”.
Real life experience, today the bus @11.05 never show up and I was forced to take the one @12.05. I was at the bust stop from 10.40 (to not miss it if was going to pass really early), so I waited 1 hour and 30 mins. Oh yeah!
I think those guys can do better than this. So I wrote the letter below. Feel free to send them an email as well if you care about this. You can use mine as template if you like.
Their email address is cambridge.enquiries@stagecoachbus.com .
Dear Stagecoach,
The the City 7 line, specifically the one that goes from Cambridge to Saffron Walden has a very sloppy service for an amazing high price.
While I understand you can’t provide a service every 10 mins I think it’s outrageous that your bus is most of the time either late or too early in respect of the schedule.
When I started my PhD, 3 years ago, the frequency of the bus was every half hour for 2.80 £. Right now the service is hourly and the price is 3.10 pounds. As I already stated the punctuality is not a strength.
I’m working @ the EMBL-EBI which is in the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, together with the Sanger institute and the Hinxton Hall Conference Center. The Campus is very close to the Hinxton Village.
The Genome Campus has roughly 4000 people and I can tell you I’m not the only one who would enjoy a better service. Most of the people I know have completely given up the idea to take the public bus, in favour of cycling or going by car or other means because of its unreliability.
I think there is enough potential to try to run things differently.
Other City 7 lines stops at Duxford and the Duxford museum. Maybe you can run a trial and extend those services to Hinxton, which is just few miles away.
If you can provide a reliable schedule with an increased number of services maybe the perception would change and more people will use those service more often.
That would be a better service for us and a good business for you.
I hope you will take those suggestions in consideration.
Thanks for your time.
Best regards,
Michele Mattioni.