Author Archives: Luc Beaulieu
Explanation of how a computer work by the legendary Richard Feynman
This was relayed to me by a colleague at work. Done at the most basic level, in a style typical to the incredible teacher that was physics Nobel winner Richard Feynman and for the general public. How computer works from the inside out! Still highly relevant today – see here from YouTube.
Switching automatically between Light and Dark mode in OSX: Welcome to NightOwl!
The latest release of MacOS 10.14 introduce a Dark mode. It does look great and make it really easy on the eye at night. Personally though, I do not like it during the day. Especially for apps that have presents lots of information such as DevonThink Pro or even Mail. In broad day light, I find the light mode easier.
Do boring speakers talk longer?
According to this Nature blog post (Do boring speakers really talk for longer?), yes! It seems that having rhythm, a clear structure and sticking to it as well as practice your talk should be obvious practice but not always applied by the research community.
Please add to your names to the scientific community Statement denouncing Strumia’s discriminatory talk at CERN
“In this talk he argued that the primary explanation for the discrepancies between men and women in theoretical physics is that women are inherently less capable.“
— Statement introduction
Follow the link to the Community Statement, read it (and the associated materials in the REFERENCES and LINKS at the top if you do not know of that talk yet) and if. like myself and many others, feel the discriminatory and unethical aspects that was convey during the talk, please sign by selecting ADD YOUR NAME at the top right corner of the page.
Minor updated to Kanban View for Cultured Code Things 3
First, Kansan-View scripts and css are now available on GitHub.
Second, many thanks to Alexander Willner from Berlin, Germany for making the script fully compatible with both the stock 2.7 (coming with any recent macOS version) and 3.6 version of python. Furthermore, he introduce dynamic home folder as well as default output in the same directory as the script path. This removes the need of previous version to edit the script to change the unix user name in the file path. As such, the new version is extremely easy to run . Better, follow the instruction (method 2) given here and make it a system service, assign a keyboard shortcut and never, ever run python directly yourself!
Kanban-View for Things 3 – Release V1.0 available (free)!
Synopsis:
The following will allow a visual project-level overview of what is on your plate. It is comprised of 3 files: a python script, a CSS file and a PDF README file (a copy of this post). It can be executed from the terminal or as a system service using the macOS Automator app (thus never needing to open a terminal and can be associated to a keyboard short cut).
*** read below for the download link ***
A Kanban view for Things 3 : Part III – displaying the project-level information
Almost there!
Quite surprisingly, I hadn’t written html code since I completed my PhD in 1996. From 1993 to 1996, I created and maintained our research group webpage. At the time, we were one of the few to actually have sites. Well, it does come back and boy it much easier than anticipated (at least at the current level) 😉
A Kanban view for Things 3 : Part II – extracting the relevant information
In a previous blog post entitled Adding an efficient, higher-level project view layer to Things 3: a proposal , I put forth that while Things 3 is a great task manager for day to day activities, it is not ideal when a higher altitude view is needed. However a visual presentation with key information, at the project level, would accomplish this task without the need for a more complicated project manager application. In this post, I have taken a first step toward getting to that point by extracting the necessary information out of Things.
Adding an efficient, higher-level project view layer to Things 3: a proposal
Task manager applications are great. They help you get things out of your head and easily accessible. One of the major issues with task manager applications is higher level planning, particularly on the fly decision about committing or not a new project. This is because you need in one look an overview of everything going one right now, including deadlines. This is something not easy to do only with a Task Manager and your electronic calendar apps. Also for what I am thinking about, a planning software is not that useful either. I tried OmniPlan for that purpose alone, maintenance is higher than I would like and I am still not convinced this is the best way of doing it.
A Truely Portable 2TB Backup Drive – the Samsung SSD T5
I was recently in need of a new portable backup drive that uses directly a USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 port to go with my new MacBook Pro. I saw a few SSD options and asked my University store. I was propose the tiny, 51g (1.8 oz) 2TB Samsung T5 drive. If like me, you have been using computer for a long time, boy is this unit small for 2TB capacity. I still remember a time were we would leave the home computer ON once we have program a game (from a printout you would get in a specialized computer magazine) because there was no saving option…
Free, multi-platform pro-like applications for students
– Free Software Foundation
Going through graduate studies (or even undergraduate studies), is about creativity, hard work and learning not to loose information, not to drop the ball on ideas and projects. In order word, part of it is also about being able to put your ideas to work for you in an efficient manner. In the following are a few applications to help you along the way. Of course, nothing precludes the good old pen and paper. I personally really enjoy my Lamy 2000 fountain pen and a Leuchtturm 1917 whitelines notebook (but this is for another post!).
Things 3: clean, efficient and simply beautiful!
Ever since moving all of my projects an tasks planning digital, I have used a dedicated task manager. I started with Cultured Code Things over 11 years ago with the very first beta; something like version 0.7b – can find my old e-mail about it. When it came out, Things was not only the most intuitive and beautiful dedicated task manager on the market but also the best (at least mac-wise).
Université Laval medical physics professors and students in action at AAPM2017
This week, our students and faculty are involved in 17 presentations at the AAPM meeting in Denver, Colorado. This include Best In Physics (Therapy) Marie-Ève Delage. Overall 2 general poster presentations, 5 poster discussions (ePoster), 3 SNAP Oral, 5 oral presentations and two symposium presentations.
New manuscript published by our group!
Use of 3D- transabdominal Ultrasound Imaging for Treatment Planning in Cervical Cancer Brachytherapy: Comparison to Magnetic Resonance and Computed Tomography available for 50 days (free) – https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1VS4n5Tpjq36rD.
