April 2012
1 post
Is there an open source software for data...
I’ve done it with Python before. Have a look at pyVISA[1]. It can connect through a GPIB, USB, or RS232 interface. You’ll have to write your own SCPI command strings to control your instruments.
Let me rummage through my files and I’ll put up a code snippet if I can still find them.
UPDATE: Here’s a Gist that you can use https://gist.github.com/2301119
The basic idea is...
February 2012
3 posts
2 tags
MySQL notes
sudo mysqld_safe
sudo mysqladmin shutdown
sudo mysql
GRANT ALL ON menagerie.* TO 'user'@'localhost';
\q
mysql
SELECT USER();
CREATE DATABASE menagerie;
USE menagerie;
SELECT DATABASE();
CREATE TABLE pet (name VARCHAR(20), owner VARCHAR(20),
-> species VARCHAR(20), sex CHAR(1), birth DATE, death DATE);
SHOW TABLES;
DESCRIBE pet;
Secure the MySQL accounts. See 5.3.1. General Security...
3 tags
Vim pythoncomplete for Google App Engine
Follow this: appengine & virtualenv
And then in your .vimrc, be sure to have the following lines:
py << EOF
import dev_appserver
dev_appserver.fix_sys_path()
EOF
Vim pythoncomplete relies on successful compilation of modules. If one of your modules has a reference to a Google App Engine package, it fails to compile in the Vim environment because the GAE path hasn’t been added....
January 2012
22 posts
1 tag
Enabling Werkzeug debugger console →
1 tag
The Information Diet →
This is the kind of diet I need right now.
1 tag
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(Almost) Running JavaScript with Python →
1 tag
“If you believe too much you’ll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too...”
– Richard Hamming You and Your Research
2 tags
On Inventing Your Life →
What are you going to do with that?
An essay adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May 2010.
Moral imagination is hard, and it’s hard in a completely different way than the hard things you’re used to doing. And not only that, it’s not enough. If you’re going to invent your own life, if you’re going to be truly autonomous, you...
2 tags
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Photovoltaics fundamentals →
1 tag
Wireless Wings →
₱111M Angel Fund launches in the Philippines today
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Python objects in the datastore →
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MIT launches online learning initiative - MIT News... →
MIT expects that this learning platform will enhance the educational experience of its on-campus students, offering them online tools that supplement and enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences. MIT also expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world.
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Python dictionary in the Google App Engine... →
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Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud →
It’s not all web and software.
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What Is It About 20-Somethings? →
They move back in with their parents. They delay beginning careers. Why are so many young people taking so long to grow up?
1 tag
“To abstain from the enjoyment which is in our power, or to seek distant rather...”
– N. W. Senior 1836
Baybayin Buhayin →
Ang “app” na ito ay naglalayong i-pakilala at muling buhayin ang matandang Tagalog o mas kilala ngayon sa salitang Baybayin.
1 tag
A Saint's Dark Night →
Although the journals of Mother Teresa reveal that she doubted God’s existence, to call her a crypto-atheist is to misread both the woman and the experience that she was forced to undergo.
— The New York Times
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“My daily resolution for 2012 is to focus and get into flow.”
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“To my mind, career entrepreneurship looks like someone living well below their...”
– from The Startup Toolkit
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Today I cracked open my second-hand copy of Freakonomics I bought from Samtoy Books a week ago. Two thoughts:
It has ideas I would not agree with so easily. I just realized that over the past year I’ve been exposing myself to situations that do not align with my beliefs: religious, political, philosophical, economic, scientific, and otherwise. This is good. Not that I will be changing my...
December 2011
5 posts
2 tags
“I do have fears in speaking my opinion. The least is retribution. The worst is...”
2 tags
Travel with photography gear →
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What happens inside my brain when I forget... →
As an EE, I take a tiny capacitor and store one bit inside it. If it’s charged, then it’s 1. If not, then it’s 0. I then take millions of these capacitors to store millions of bits worth of information.
The brain is made up of trillions of neurons. Surely neurons aren’t binary :)
3 tags
Ilocos Getaway Part II — Pagudpud
Before we hopped on the bus, we looked around in the nearby stores for sunblock to use at the beaches in Pagudpud. We didn’t find any. Well, it turns out we were in for a surprise up north after all.
From Laoag to Pagudpud bayan (town proper), we traveled 71.9 km by bus (₱60/person); then another 18.4 km by tricycle (₱300/trip) to the resort we were staying in, Kapuluan Vista...
4 tags
Ilocos Getaway Part 1 — Getting There
Jackie and I decided to make a beeline for faraway Ilocos. We were up for an adventure in a relatively foreign place.
The plane ride
Laoag City in Ilocos Norte is the airline entry point to get to the region. I would have opted for a bus ride from Manila if not for the ~14-hour trip. So we took Cebu Pacific flights from Cebu–Manila and Manila–Laoag. We did not buy tickets for connecting flights...
November 2011
4 posts
2 tags
The World Is Round Indeed In Circular Three-Way...
Now, this is what you call “It’s Complicated”, in a nerdy kind of way.
We have here a variant of the three-way chess game played on a circular board. It preserves the original rules and mechanics of chess as much as possible. One difference I’ve found, however, is that conventional chess has 8 ranks; whereas in this variant, we get a total of 10 ranks. This means that a...
3 tags
Understanding Python decorators
Python @decorators baffle the mind. Here’s a Stack Overflow treasure to unravel it.
3 tags
Caterpillars turn into DNA soup before becoming a...
Think caterpillars simply hide away in their cocoons and grow butterfly wings? Think again. Enzymes break down the caterpillar into a soup of DNA, then a butterfly is grown out of that material. Woah. Below is an infographic, and if you’re more science-y, see this: Inside the Chrysalis. I’m not sure why it doesn’t load right away, just refresh that page to see the explanation.
...
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Install a Python package from source on Mac OS X
Some Python packages do not come with an installer. Take for example simplejson. My scenario is that I have two Python installations (2.5.4 32-bit and 2.7.2 64-bit) plus one that’s supplied by Apple (2.6.1). We’re not supposed to mess with the Apple-supplied Python.
cd into your site-packages folder. By default, this is found on
$ cd...
April 2011
1 post
1 tag
Look beyond the individual
Today I start reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (2008). I began searching for this book when I heard about the 10,000-hour rule—do something for 3 hours everyday for the next 10 years and you’ll be an expert at it.
Now, that is a quantitative treatment of Milo’s Practice Makes Perfect ad campaign a decade ago. I browsed the contents and found that I was in for a great read. First,...
