Filippo's Weblog

La tua sorpresa :-)

fmenolascina — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:54:53 +0000

Allora che mi dici? Ti è piaciuta la sorpresa? Adesso ti racconto come è andata…tutto è iniziato qualche giorno fa, erano le 7 e stavo tornando a casa dall’uni…stavo pensando al fatto che tu stavi sicuramente dormendo a quell’ora e che sarebbe stato bellissimo poter fare come Sir Doyle in Sherlock Holmes e guardare dal tetto della tua camera te che dormivi…ancora vicino a me. Mi è sembrato subito strano che pensassi a quel libro perchè non è uno dei miei preferiti, però quella scena mi ha sempre molto colpito. Ad un certo punto sono ritornato sulla terra e mi sono trovato di fronte ad una libreria…davanti all’ingresso un grandissimo poster del nuovo libro di Dan Brown…è in quel momento che gli unici due neuroni che ho in testa hanno fatto cortocircuito e ho avuto l’illuminazione. Purtroppo era l’11 e la presentazione mondiale era prevista per il 15! Così ho atteso il 15 e…il resto lo sai…o forse no!

Almeno…non sai tutto! Perchè il bello deve ancora venire. Il libro è solo l’inizio! La vera sorpresa è un’altra ma per scoprire di cosa si tratta dovrai cimentarti con ciò che la mia mente diabolica ha partorito durante gli interminabili minuti di attesa alla mezzanotte del 15 mentre aspettavo che il libro diventasse disponibile su internet Così ho pensato che sabbe stato interessante farti confrontare, prima di scoprire la sorpresa finale, con una serie di prove, proprio come il Prof. Langdon ne “Il Codice da Vinci”. Dovrai trovare indizi, rispondere a domande importanti e effettuare un percorso che ti porterà a conoscere alcune cose che voglio tu sappia di me. Iniziamo da qui: questo è il mio blog più recente…è la parte più vicina al “filippo” che conosci…hai l’autorizzazione a leggere se vuoi ma non perdere troppo tempo…ricordi? C’è un’avventura che ti aspetta!

Inizia allora, clicka su questo link, scarica il file .zip, scompatta i file in una cartella e, quindi, avvia il file “Cryptex_xx.jar” dove xx sta per un numero. Buon divertimento!

p.s. cerca di fare tutto questo sul mio pc in istituto…

MATLAB R2008b is out!

fmenolascina — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:06:19 +0000

Yesterday Mathworks released the ultimate version of the widely used Matlab. Unfortunately the R2008b release doesn’t seem to provide major updates neither in the bioinformatics nor in the systems biology toolbox (where, in particular, support to critical points of SBML is still missing). I’ll wait for the new version in the lab and I’ll let you know the first impressions on that…even though the outlook doesn’t seem to be too encouraging!

USBTex: portable LaTEX distribution

fmenolascina — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:31:10 +0000

Today I would like to point you out a quite interesting tool for latex dox editing. It is a portable latex distribution: this means that you can install it on your usb memory (well it’s not a tight distribution…it requires no less than 200 MB) and you can start editing your dox from there without having to install the whole system on your hd. Nice, isn’t it?

This is the link, enjoy!

Systems Biology Graphical Notation v1.0 is out

fmenolascina — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:33:27 +0000

Finally the systems biology group did it and published the v1.0 specifications of the graphical notation standard for systems biology. This is a quite relevant step forward in this field since the lack of standardization and the ever growing amount of information to be coded were generating an unbearable situation. If you want to take a look at the new stadard you should check this link.

enjoy!

Farewell Prof. Pausch!

fmenolascina — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:49:26 +0000

Today, some months after his last lecture, Prof. Pausch died of cancer. His enthusiasm and love for life will remain in our hearts forever.

Farewell Prof. Pausch, we will miss you

A bunch of new papers from PLoS Comp Bio

fmenolascina — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:39:41 +0000

PLoS Computational Biology Published published a some papers that could be of interest for someone out there. These are the links:

Ten Simple Rules for Organizing a Scientific Meeting

Regulation of Signal Duration and the Statistical Dynamics of Kinase Activation by Scaffold Proteins

Integrated Information in Discrete Dynamical Systems: Motivation and Theoretical Framework

Enjoy!

BioBarCamp is real!

fmenolascina — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:34:59 +0000

I recently noticed that BioBarCamp is now reality! You can get more information here:

http://barcamp.org/BioBarCamp

Great job, guys!

Two papers from PLoS Computational Biology

fmenolascina — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:27:52 +0000

Two very interesting papers appeared today in PLoS Computational Biology. The first is the sequel of the never ending series of “ten simple rules”:

Ten Simple Rules for Aspiring Scientists in a Low-Income Country

the second, instead, is more concerned in establishing links between computational neuroscience and systems biology:

Why Are Computational Neuroscience and Systems Biology So Separate?

Have a look at both and enjoy!

BioBarCamp: that’s a good idea!

fmenolascina — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:36:11 +0000

I learned from Attila’s blog. It seems a quite interesting idea…let’s see how it will evolve!

Good job, guys!

This is why being an engineering student doesn’t suck!

fmenolascina — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:46:00 +0000

I recently read this post on Rod’s blog discussing this article. I do think this thesis is absolutely misleading and I’ll explain why. Let’s sum up the points of the article:

5. Awful Textbooks

Absolutely false…try to read a serious math book and an equivalent engineering book. Everyone will notice the difference. There should be some reason for all the jokes describing mathematicians complaining with engineers about their simplistic way of approximating complex processes in order to come up with a solution at any cost.

4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging

False in general. It significantly depends on the professors you have to do with. There are many highly qualified and much stimulating researchers among professors. Moreover laziness doesn’t only affect engineering professors.

3. Dearth of Quality Counseling

This depends on the university you attend and its management. This could be true for some situations but it’s sure that engineering is one of those universities which is more in touch with real life problems and students usually find their work some weeks after they got their degree.

2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades

This is true but this doesn’t depend on the engineering but on the other universities! However there are similar situations even in the various curricula in engineering.

1. Every Assignment Feels the Same

This is probably the more absurd statement about engineering classes. Assignments are usually difficult, challenging but of course not all the same.