(This is a cross post from the fast forward labs blog ) As an exercise into learning more about python 2.7 bytecode, I wanted to implement the thing that pythonistas love to hate - tail call optimization! This isn’t novel at all, but I chose to implement this only using the standard library so that I could understand more about generating and modifying bytecode. As a result, I’m sure there are…
The following is a cross post from the bitly engineering blog : Forget Table is a solution to the problem of storing the recent dynamics of categorical distributions that change over time (ie: non-stationary distributions). What does this mean? Why is this useful? What makes this the most important thing since sliced bread?! Read on! Storing distributions is crucial for doing any sort of…
I was recently involved in an astronomy hackathon that was great fun! One of my projects for the day was to hack into MAST , which is a giant astronomical database. The hack was successful and, by the end of the day, we had found a valid SQL injection into the system which allowed us to manipulate data, or worse. Below is a short writeup of what I did and why it is important for future science…
While trying to figure out how to move files to HDSF through an SSH tunnel, I encountered this gem: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 $ hadoop --help Error: No command named ` --help ' was found. Perhaps you meant `hadoop -help' $ hadoop -help Error: No command named ` -help ' was found. Perhaps you meant `hadoop help' $ hadoop help Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:…
A couple of years ago I took my Saeco Via Venezia and added a PID to it. A PID is used in many machine (like your oven!) to control temperature and I wanted to use it to better regulate my espresso machine. The problem with most cheap espresso machines is that the temperature is regulated by a temperature limited fuse… when the grouphead (where the water heats up and pressurizes) gets too hot, it…
So, I moved again which means time to build new stuff! For this apartment, we decided to build: pan holder (made from 1/2” steel pipe’s) capable of holding the ridiculous amount of pans we have (the pictures only show half of our pans!) bathroom shelving system (made with rope and spare wood… it hangs from the ceiling so we didn’t have to drill into the tile) a large kitchen table. The table’s…
A friend of mine, Julia Kodysh, was on her way to burning man and needed a good costume to wear. Luckily, we came up with an idea for an awesome glowing t-shirt on a recent camping adventure… so we got to building it! The catch: we had 24 hours to complete the project. Originally, the LED heart was going to pulse with her heart beat. However, after fiddling with an infrared led heart monitor we…
Concepts Standard input / output (Think: the input and output of your program) [Unix Pipes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_(Unix) Plotting in matplotlib The Hack So, you have your code working, but you are tired of having to run a separate program to see plots? There are many simple solutions, but I am going to present what I think is the absolute simplest. What we are going to do is have…
As you know, I recently moved to a new place (and built myself a desk !), but now it’s time to have a bed! One thing I considered when designing this bed was how little space I had and how every inch is precious. As a result, this bed as an extraordinary amount of storage underneath and, although it is built like a tank, it disassembles very easily for when I move (edit: I have since moved and the…
I recently moved into a new apartment which means I need a desk! Below is the construction of my “made to fit in my tiny NY room” desk, which spanned over a couple of days. The resulting structure was perfect for my uses, although it was a bit wobbly. That being said, I learned quite a lot during the building process… namely to double check my plans before building!
While taking a summer school at UC-HiPACC on astro-computing (sounds fancy!) we were given a tour of the NERSC supercomputers! It was a lot of fun and very very noisy (watch the video!). Anyways, it was really nice being able to see first hand the nameless computers that I’ve been using. Enjoy!
So, after a long time working solely in FORTRAN , I decided to try to find a way to use python to get the same things done. I wanted to incorporate what I had done in FORTRAN as a library that way I wouldn't have to recode much and could instead continue developing (except now in the wonderful warmth of python) The most successful method I tried was using f2py. What f2py does is take in a FORTRAN…
Well, I thought it was about time to post something, so let me show you this little project I've been tinkering with. It basically allows me to control my server with a cellphone. This can be applied to any computer with python installed and can do really anything (right now I have it search/download bittorrent files). It basically works by creating a master thread on the server that constantly…
Well, after the treachery of exams and then the confusing transition into vacation I finally think it's time to update! Well, I've done quite a lot: everything seems ready for the final version of the 3D whiteboard along with the construction of the 3D display. Furthermore everything is in motion to begin the fusion device first semester of the next academic year (damn you Darryl for leaving to…
Well, it's taking longer than I expected for the parts for my most recent project to come in. I'm waiting for some wireless pigtails (U.FL to RP-SMA) so that my EEE PC has an external antenna (an easy hack, but one I haven't seen any documentation online for). In the meantime, here's an old video I made a while ago playing with non-Newtonian fluids. This is really easy to make (just saturate water…
OBAMA WON! Truly a day to remember. So, in the spirit of science funding not being slashed to death I am going to release one of my first python scripts that downloads all images off of the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod). I tried keeping the code commented so that it could also serve as a good learning tool. One thing I'd like to include is some way of saving the description of the…
Well, exams are finally done but I am still contending with all the work I had to put off. In the works is a post on the topic of conscience and the release of my mac remote code. For now, I will distract everyone with an old youtube video of mine: exploding flint (well, actually ferrocium) The video pretty much explains itself. It is a nice little demo on the properties of ferrocium. In the end,…
So, after a while spent getting my telescope aligned (and, of course, staring at M41 and M42 for a while), the clouds came in before I could get the camera ready. When I was done cursing the clouds and the cold I had been sitting in, I decided to take pictures of Toronto to gauge the camera. I was using my 8" Celestron (f#=10, focal length=2032 mm). It's a great telescope although it takes a…
So, I was at active surplus (with trusted, albeit slightly slow, sidekick Darryl) looking for parts for the fusor or the 3D display when I ran into this amazing old school oscilloscope. After quickly brainstorming some reason I could justify buying this beautiful piece of science equipment (or history depending on your view) I got it! The justification is actually quite good: instead of buying a…
So, a little bit ago I got a new camera (well, I guess it's no longer new) so I thought, since I couldn't afford any great lenses, I'd get acquainted with good post-processing. First thing to attend to was mending a mosaic of pictures together into one seamless picture. So, bellow is my evolution in trying to get a good panorama: Balcony View: This one didn't look too bad. I was lucky that…
I also want to use this blog as a place to write down the projects I want to try doing on top of talking about the ones I've already completed. So, here's a list of what's coming up and what I would like to come up: In the works: 3D Whiteboard (almost done!) 3D Volumetric Display (anyone want to donate an optical bench or some mirrors? :) (with help from Darryl) Fusor (anyone know how to make a…
Alright, well... after many failed attempts to start a blog I will, instead of starting and ending with an introductory post, get right into it. This will be kind of odd as I've already completed this project in full, but soon i'm going to be doing it again, so stay tuned for version two of this howto! Anyways, I've always wanted a camera for my telescope but they were always too damn expensive!…