How to insert and modify the Notepad2 Datestamp I like to keep a running plain text file as a journal of tasks, ideas, and cool things I find. Whilst I could just keep this as jumble of different thoughts, it makes so much more sense to keep track of the time and date that I… Read More »
The job market for young scientists seems as difficult as ever. To help guide me through this difficult landscape I’ve picked out three books that span the whole of the last century. The three books offer advice on what problems to expect in a scientific career, how to pick a research program, and suggestions of… Read More »
Lifemanship, by Stephen Potter, is essentially the art of getting one over on other people. I really can’t workout if it’s a work of genius, or utterly rediculous. Lifemanship is a sequel to ‘Gamesmanship‘, which applied similar methods to winning at sports by underhand tactics. The book gives you a sense of the now rather… Read More »
Trapezoidal Decomposition Trapezoidal decomposition of polygons involves breaking a polygon into a series of smaller trapezoids. I’ve been working on a project – gds2ecp – to decompose lithography design files into compound shapes that can be written by electron beam lithography. I was sure that there would be an existing library to do the polygon… Read More »
Sir Peter Medewar (1915 – 1979) was a Nobel Prize winning British biologist. In the late ’70s he wrote ‘Advice to a Young Scientist‘ – his take on what he thought the young scientist of the age needed to know. The book is just the kind of mix of solid advice and philosophical meanderings you… Read More »