Quaternions are essentially magic. With just four numbers, they can describe the position and orientation of an object in space. For example, the rotation of an object about one axis. Consecutive rotations can also be described by a quaternion. There are many explainer articles which help to understand quaternions and their uses (they are used […]
Tag: IgorPro
Rollercoaster IV: ups and downs of Google Scholar citations
Time for an update to a previous post. For the past few years, I have been using an automated process to track citations to my lab’s work on Google Scholar (details of how to set this up are at the end of this post). Due to the nature of how Google Scholar tracks citations, it […]
Turn A Square: generative aRt
A while back I visited Artistes & Robots in Paris. Part of the exhibition was on the origins of computer-based art. Nowadays this is referred to as generative art, where computers generate artwork according to rules specified by the programmer. I wanted to emulate some of the early generative artwork I saw there, using R. Some […]
Plotlines: the story behind the graph
On a whim a posted a plot on Twitter. It shows a marathon training schedule. This post explains the story behind the graph. I downloaded a few different 17-week marathon training schedules. Most were in imperial measurement and/or were written for time at a certain pace, e.g. 30 min Easy Run etc. I wanted to […]
Small Talk: How big is your lab?
I really dislike being asked “how big is your lab?”. The question usually arises at scientific meetings when you are chatting to someone during a break. Small talk can lead to some banal questions being asked, and that’s fine, but when this question is asked seriously, the person asking really just wants to compare themselves […]
My Blank Pages VI: Programming in Igor Pro
It has been a long time since I wrote a book review. A few months ago I read on IgorExchange that Martin Schmid had written a book about programming Igor. I snapped up a copy. I’m a competent Igor programmer but I was hoping that this book would be useful for lab members that want […]
Cloud Eleven: A cloud-based code sharing solution for IgorPro
This post is something of a “how to” guide. The problem is how can you share code with a small team and keep it up-to-date? For ImageJ, the solution is simple. You can make an ImageJ update site and then push any updated code to the user when they startup ImageJ. For IgorPro, there is […]
Turn That Heartbeat Over Again: comparing wrist and chest-strap HRM
As a geek, the added bonus of exercise is the fun that you can have with the data you’ve generated. A recent conversation on Twitter about the accuracy of wrist-based HRMs got me thinking… how does a wrist-based HRM compare with a traditional chest-strap HRM? Conventional wisdom says that the chest-strap is more accurate, but […]
Adventures in Code VI: debugging and silly mistakes
This deserved a bit of further explanation, due to the stupidity involved. “Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer.” – Filipe Fortes My code was giving an unexpected result and I was having a hard time figuring out the problem. The unexpected result was that a […]
Measured Steps: Garmin step adjustment algorithm
I recently got a new GPS running watch, a Garmin Fēnix 5. As well as tracking runs, cycling and swimming, it does “activity tracking” – number of steps taken in a day, sleep, and so on. The step goals are set to move automatically and I wondered how it worked. With a quick number crunch, […]