I always wondered why it is not possible to scan just a few sentences from a book. As there are some products on the market, I ordered such an IrisPen. It took only 15 minutes to convince me, that this device is largely useless – a cheap plastic pen with a flimpsy contact but rather rigid USB cable.
What I even did not consider that syllabicated words at the end of every line can not be recognized by any OCR. So scanned words will require a lot of editing – while it may be better to invest into a typing course using all your fingers, yea, yea.
Category Archives: Software
iWork Pages now supports Endnote X2
Although many journalists have been disappointed from the last MacWorld keynote, there are some good news for scientists who like the clean writing style in Pages as it supports now also MathType and EndNote (so far I am using Lyx with BibTex as Zotero and NeoOffice were a dead end). So I will have to finish my next paper within the 30 day trial period which creates some time pressure, yea, yea.
Addendum
You need an immediate patch otherwise the system is largely unusuable.
A strange survey at Slashdot
nay, nay.
First email or the driving force of science
According to Wikipedia on May 24, 1844 Samuel Morse sent his famous words “What hath God wrought” from the B&O’s Baltimore station to the Capitol Building along the wire – the first email. Continue reading First email or the driving force of science
In a perfect world
of science even computer nerds would need just one single word processor Continue reading In a perfect world
How to secure your macbook air in the library
Visiting again the British Library Humanities Reading Room last week, I had a major problem securing my laptop as it has no Kensington slot. I haven’t found anything useful for locking it except this free (car-like antitheft)Lockdown application. If you are not too much paranoid – it is a clever solution – and a lot of fun here back in the lab to watch the pictures it takes.
Addendum
Found some lock brackets here.
Electric wiring diagram as a metapher for gene-rna-protein networks
Two days ago I heard an interesting by Andreas Beyer about using wiring diagrams as a bioinformatics tool box for simulating complex biological relationships. This is something that can be found also in this recent nat gen review but even more detailed in new work on eQTLs. So far, however, there is not proof that any of these methods behave much better than others in the absence of a gold standard in bioinformatics, yea, yea.
Intranet exception
A small luxurious law here in Germany – we may further offer limited documents to limited participants according to Heise news Continue reading Intranet exception
Alt – Command – Escape
After a long time (to be exact: 27 years of Microsoft and 12 years of Linux use) I decided to switch to a Macbook Air. That may be an aesthetic decision (as buying an A4, a Nomos, a Bose or whatelse) :-) but may be heavily influenced of my obsession for lightweight and durable equipment. Continue reading Alt – Command – Escape
Basic instinct for math?
It seems that there are two numbering systems in humans – a general sense of numbers for some quick and dirty estimates and some more genuine computation skills of showing the result of (2327)^2. At least the first capacity seems to be inborn (and an important survival skill). According a recent SZ article (29th Sept 2008) a host of new studies now show that
the two number systems, the bestial and celestial, may be profoundly related, an insight with potentially broad implications for math education
and as I believe – for science in general as most science fields are being dominated by the Fermi problem. Continue reading Basic instinct for math?
Bench (marks) to bedside
For the first time, I found some data about “bench to bedside” transit times. Of 101 promising claims between 1979 and 1983, there have been only 5 clinical interventions in 2003 and only 1 had extensive clinical used; mean lag time 24 years, yea, yea.
SNP batch annotation of GWAs
Genowatch (paper|website) is doing pretty well by annotating large SNP sets that would require otherwise numerous hours to map their position on genes, biological function and pathways. Continue reading SNP batch annotation of GWAs
Galaxy work flows
Galaxy, one of my favorite bioinformatics websites now offers the conversion of existing history into a work flow. Obviously source data (by UCSC or Ensembl) may be produced in the same format but everything else can then be delegated to a workflow – just a set of instructions how to modify your data.
WikiPathways
As somebody who is dealing most time with large datasets I always arrive at genes and proteins that I do not know. Using Biocarta, Keggs and other services in the past, I find the new WikiPathways exciting and hope that it will grow over the years. A companion paper in PLoS biology describes its roots in GenMAPP and the current work of the authors on bots that identifiy inconsistencies but also pick up loose ends. Hopefully I will find some time to work a bit on nuclear receptors, yea, yea.
CNV (not London) calling
Having been asked now by several people, I am compiling here a list of programs can be used for CNV calling. Continue reading CNV (not London) calling