Databases

As I’ve been working to get some results done for my Ph.D. thesis, I’ve stumbled across the problem of having different data obtained through different software. Even if it’s just a matter of text files, the fields are all different and even if dealing with the same data, trying to infer relationships is a pain.

April 22, 2007

Nanoha StrikerS 2-3

It seems I can’t quite keep up with the episodes given my limited spare time (considering also I have the second book of The S.T.E.A.L. Saga to take care of), so here I am with a recap of the last two episodes of Maho Shojo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS.

April 22, 2007

Kubuntu 7.04

[code lang=“bash”] lb@hardin:~$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 7.04 Release: 7.04 Codename: feisty [/code]

April 21, 2007

One man, one lame ideology

I just read on Slashdot that the famous RMS has now sung something against the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay (no link, I’m not giving it hits). All this while being in Cuba, for all heavens, that’s not even remotely a democracy. I don’t deny the fact that that place may have been ground for abuses, but I find it hypocritical that RMS did that in a place where people are imprisoned on a whim and human rights are not upheld constantly.

April 21, 2007

Python usefulness

I’ve again seen how useful and powerful Python can be. The other day I had to prepare an Excel spreadsheet (sadly) which among other things needed to contain links to the GeneCards database for each gene listed. There were more than 2900 genes listed, so adding links by hand would have been suicidal. That’s when Python, through its Windows extensions, comes into play. First of all I created a module for COM objects using the makepy utility.

April 18, 2007

Big anime mash-up

Ok, I _so _tried to keep separate posts for each series I watched. But there are so many, it’s impossible to keep up! (including also my limited time to write). I’ll just present them in reduced form here, along with a few comments.

April 14, 2007

Bioinformatics != sequence analysis

This post sums up my frustration in trying to use Python for my daily work. Like Perl and Ruby, it has its own Bio version to deal with biological data. However, the current implementation leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of stuff that doesn’t deal with sequence analysis, even for simple tasks such as fetching annotations from Entrez Gene, is missing (but present in Bioperl, for example). Also, documentation for some modules is lacking or non-existant (why keeping a parser for Affymetrix CEL files when there are no information on how to use it, let alone know which formats does it support?

April 12, 2007

lolTribe

The behavior of some people in FFXI is certainly excessive to say the list, with many people (especially in the “endgame” linkshells) showing an extremely arrogant and impolite attitude. I had a really nice show of that yesterday, when I went out to get a few merit points with my static group.

April 6, 2007

Romeo x Juliet 1

When I first heard that GONZO was going to make an anime out of the work of William Shakespeare, I can say that I was interested, given their past record with Gankutsuô, namely the visionary adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

April 6, 2007

Idolm@ster XENOGLOSSIA 1

In an effort to clean up my backlog of entries (curse my tendinitis, luckily I’m going to get therapy soon), I’m posting about the series of the new season that I found interesting. I will start this by talking about the most recent Sunrise production, by the same staff of Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome: Idolm@ster XENOGLOSSIA.