Sunday, June 21, 2009
freezing electrical equipment
This is just a quick note. Several years ago, a lab I was in had a hard drive crash that contained valuable data. We took the drive to the electronics shop on campus and they put the drive in the freezer and were able to get our data off it because the drive would work after freezing until it warmed up. Several weeks ago, I took part in a 24hr race that was a very cold, wet and muddy experience. I had a light for night riding, but hadn't used it in ~7 months. When I went to charge my battery before the race, the battery wouldn't charge. Luckily, I was able to borrow a lighting system from a friend, but I was bummed that my battery didn't work - largely because they're so expensive. So, I put it in the freezer a few days ago to see if it would charge after freezing. I'm not totally sure it will work yet, but it seems to be charging! I might just be tricking the temperature sensor into thinking it is charging as the battery returns to room temperature, but I'm crossing my fingers that it will actually work. I find it absolutely amazing, but it seems that in general, when electronic things don't work, you can freeze them and they get better. It's so stupidly simple. Lasers are also like this - the body temperature of one of our lasers is 12 degrees cooler than the range specified by the manufacturer, but this is also a good thing - not sure why, but it is according to the technician.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
new phone
new phone. Try to make old crappy one linux.
Hardware Notes:
- Model: motorola v195
- Processor: ARM7
- Board: (?)
Process notes:
- Access bootloader: turn off, reboot while holding '*' and '#'.
- bootloader candidate: u-boot (?)
Other notes: not full time - need to prepare for qualifying exam.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
cool picture
My cool picture is below:
It is so pretty. I uncaged MNI-glutamate onto a spine that was about 50 microns away from the cell body. I uncaged at 720 nm with ~80 mW in the back focal plane and ~ 5-7 mW at the spine and the uncaging pulse was 0.2 ms. The noise is a bit much I think because sometimes the rig has under 4 pA peak-to-peak but that was not the case today (~10 pA). On the plus side, there was no 60 Hz noise. Sometimes the 60 Hz is absolutely rediculous and I have not a clue as to its source. I suspect that someone in the building is turning on some big peice of equipment or something because it doesn't seem to be anything in the laser room or on the table.
On other pictures note, I also have pictures of the spine but they haven't yet undergone beautification, and even when they do they'll still suck because they're really low resolution. However, a few days ago, I took a really high resolution image of a cell at 630X that was totally gorgeous. You can even make out the spines and my patch pipette is protruding from the side of the cell body. I'll post one of those when I look at them and if they meet my exacting standards. There's also some yellow stuff on my kitchen floor that looks kind of neat, but I'm afraid to touch it. It's not pee and its not from me - the landlord thought it was a stain but about a week ago, I dropped some frozen grapes out of my freezer and one of them rolled through it and it came off on the grape, which makes me want to stay away even more. It looks sort of like antifreeze and it doesn't seem to be evaporating. Maybe I'll post a picture of that too.
It is so pretty. I uncaged MNI-glutamate onto a spine that was about 50 microns away from the cell body. I uncaged at 720 nm with ~80 mW in the back focal plane and ~ 5-7 mW at the spine and the uncaging pulse was 0.2 ms. The noise is a bit much I think because sometimes the rig has under 4 pA peak-to-peak but that was not the case today (~10 pA). On the plus side, there was no 60 Hz noise. Sometimes the 60 Hz is absolutely rediculous and I have not a clue as to its source. I suspect that someone in the building is turning on some big peice of equipment or something because it doesn't seem to be anything in the laser room or on the table.On other pictures note, I also have pictures of the spine but they haven't yet undergone beautification, and even when they do they'll still suck because they're really low resolution. However, a few days ago, I took a really high resolution image of a cell at 630X that was totally gorgeous. You can even make out the spines and my patch pipette is protruding from the side of the cell body. I'll post one of those when I look at them and if they meet my exacting standards. There's also some yellow stuff on my kitchen floor that looks kind of neat, but I'm afraid to touch it. It's not pee and its not from me - the landlord thought it was a stain but about a week ago, I dropped some frozen grapes out of my freezer and one of them rolled through it and it came off on the grape, which makes me want to stay away even more. It looks sort of like antifreeze and it doesn't seem to be evaporating. Maybe I'll post a picture of that too.
Friday, July 4, 2008
distribution
It's time to change my distribution. I'm sick of ubuntu because it starts too many things that I don't want started. These are my options:
Debian:
I know I can get it working well on my desktop
It boots slowly
Gentoo:
It boots super quick
I tend to make it not work after a few days when ever I install it because I forget that I don't know anything about linux
Slackware:
This has a similar appeal as Gentoo, but is much more like debian. I'm not sure why I wouldn't just want to go with debian though.
Redhat/Suse:
I don't like them.
Small mystery distro:
This one boots super quick and can do everything. I will definitely use it when I find it.
Windows virtualization:
I think i might want to but I'll need to think about it. I don't think I would be comfortable with using the software because I really hate microsoft, but then I've already paid for it when I purchased my laptop and I've bought copies of office and whatnot in the past. However, I tend to think this is very different from actually using the software - sort of like I've been reincarnated. Given this, i'm also inclined to write all my matlab software to work only on linux, but this is impractical because the computers I need to use it on, or at least some of it, are windows and there is very little chance of my negotiating a switch.
Debian:
I know I can get it working well on my desktop
It boots slowly
Gentoo:
It boots super quick
I tend to make it not work after a few days when ever I install it because I forget that I don't know anything about linux
Slackware:
This has a similar appeal as Gentoo, but is much more like debian. I'm not sure why I wouldn't just want to go with debian though.
Redhat/Suse:
I don't like them.
Small mystery distro:
This one boots super quick and can do everything. I will definitely use it when I find it.
Windows virtualization:
I think i might want to but I'll need to think about it. I don't think I would be comfortable with using the software because I really hate microsoft, but then I've already paid for it when I purchased my laptop and I've bought copies of office and whatnot in the past. However, I tend to think this is very different from actually using the software - sort of like I've been reincarnated. Given this, i'm also inclined to write all my matlab software to work only on linux, but this is impractical because the computers I need to use it on, or at least some of it, are windows and there is very little chance of my negotiating a switch.
Monday, September 24, 2007
What to do with this
I would like to create a mildly useful blog but this will probably not be the case.
Who am I?
I just graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and I'm currently a grad student at the University of California, Davis.
Insurance companietheys and cars:
On my way out here, some anonymous dude with a big truck hit me on the highway and totaled my car (it was a 2002 hyundai accent). I had minimal coverage so my insurance company wasn't interested in being helpful and essentially suggested that I should get better coverage next time. However, based on what anonymous dude's insurance company appraised my car for, I was already paying more than it was worth annually for my minimal coverage. I think I was going to get screwed regardless of how much insurance I had and now believe that insurance is only really worth having if you can afford to drive a car expensive enough to dissuade the insurance companies from totaling it. I don't have a car now.
How this relates to mountain biking:
So, the only reason I wanted a car was to carry my bike to the trail head. So, because I no longer have a car, I joined the UCD cycling team to increase my chances of getting rides to trails. The strategy worked. However, the cycling team races so I started trying to race as well. I'm not very good but it is fun. So far, I've come in 15th out of 17. I expect to maintain that performance level throughout the collegiate racing season (begins next weekend in Nevada). I'd like to post pictures of places I go because some of the trails I've been on so far are extraordinary but I'm really bad about bringing cameras places so it will probably not actually happen.
What else to do with the space:
The other things I'd like to do with this involve posting some science stuff and commenting on things. I'll do this later, though.
Who am I?
I just graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and I'm currently a grad student at the University of California, Davis.
Insurance companietheys and cars:
On my way out here, some anonymous dude with a big truck hit me on the highway and totaled my car (it was a 2002 hyundai accent). I had minimal coverage so my insurance company wasn't interested in being helpful and essentially suggested that I should get better coverage next time. However, based on what anonymous dude's insurance company appraised my car for, I was already paying more than it was worth annually for my minimal coverage. I think I was going to get screwed regardless of how much insurance I had and now believe that insurance is only really worth having if you can afford to drive a car expensive enough to dissuade the insurance companies from totaling it. I don't have a car now.
How this relates to mountain biking:
So, the only reason I wanted a car was to carry my bike to the trail head. So, because I no longer have a car, I joined the UCD cycling team to increase my chances of getting rides to trails. The strategy worked. However, the cycling team races so I started trying to race as well. I'm not very good but it is fun. So far, I've come in 15th out of 17. I expect to maintain that performance level throughout the collegiate racing season (begins next weekend in Nevada). I'd like to post pictures of places I go because some of the trails I've been on so far are extraordinary but I'm really bad about bringing cameras places so it will probably not actually happen.
What else to do with the space:
The other things I'd like to do with this involve posting some science stuff and commenting on things. I'll do this later, though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
