This is my third MIA post and I’d like to think that taking time to finish my Master of Bioinformatics degree, get a job, move, and get engaged would be suitable excuses for my lack of posting. But who knows, maybe I’m just not cut out to be a blogger. But as with all good/bad trilogies, things must come to an end so expect this to be my last MIA post.
Currently on the queue of posts that I have begun to write about are the following:
The R Programming Language- Links for free Bioinformatics and Biology classes
- Consed’s .ace file format
- NCBI’s OMIM
If there is anything else that anyone is interested in, leave the topic ideas in the responses.
Sorry to be MIA once again. I got busy with wrapping up my course work, fending off hackers from this site and attending last week’s Systems Biology Summit (more on this in a follow up post). But besides that, I was privileged enough to be asked to contribute some thoughts on working in Bioinformatics with regards to Academia at Bioinformatics Zen for their 11th Bio:blogs. You should check out the article, there is a various assortment of information provided by some of the more prominent bloggers in the Bioinformatics community.
This past weekend I said goodbye to all my hair to support kids with Cancer. I was fortunate enough to exceed my goal of $500 (donations are still welcome and appreciated)! By bundling my hair I also I got to donate to Locks of Love.
As someone who is in academics and benefits from funds raised by this type of event, I felt it was necessary to participate. Not only did I have the opportunity to give back but it also helped to remember why we do the research we do; why we participate in science. I came back to school so I could pursue a career that benefited other people’s well being. Prior to that I was just twiddling my fingers away working for a credit card company. I enjoyed this event very much and encourage anyone else who has the opportunity to participate in various things outside of the lab to remember why we do what we do.
For everyone who donated:
THANK YOU!
Want to select that list of genes without the pain of closing and reopening the file in Excel? Diana Higgins at Windows Fanatics reminds us to do this using most text editors (it can also be done in Word). Simply hold down the Alt key (or the option key in Macs) when making a selection.
Unfortunately this little trick doesn’t work in Microsoft’s notepad and I wasn’t able to find such a key in Gnome for Linux either. Does anyone else out there know?
Sorry that this wonders off the purpose of the blog but I feel its necessary.
This actually happened about three months ago but I never got time to share.
Since I came into my lab two years ago I have become involved in an age long battle between biologists and computer scientists (when I say age long I really mean never existing). The biologists and technicians called me “Neo”, asked me regularly if I was hacking into the FBI’s website, and complained when they couldn’t use my computer (I’m running Fedora Core 6). I called their bench work fancy biological hand waving.
An exceptionally good prank of theirs was wrapping my computer, mouse, monitor and keyboard all unplugged in bubble wrap. I actually thought we were moving labs. Pure comedy. I got the tech back by remotely logging into his Mac and having it sing a little tune for him. It seemed like this kind of fun would last forever but alas all good things come to an end and our lab technician was offered a position somewhere else. On his last day as a truce at work I allowed him to go ahead and fool around with my workstation one last time. The following pictures are his depiction of his thoughts on Linux.
It seems like my public ramblings are not a waste. Not only am I talking to myself and former classmates but people from other blogs as well. Even Google’s first search result for “bioinformatics blogs”, nodalpoint, references this site. Although I don’t like the heading “perl hacking”, I shouldn’t complain for being acknowledged by my own peers. Plus its my fault that I don’t post more often.
Who knows maybe this recognition will inspire me to post more when Spring Break ends. You’ll just have to tune in and see =).
Sorry I’ve been missing in action. I’m completing my last semester of classes.
Since I’m on Spring Break (AKA catch up with all my work break) there will be quite a bit of posts popping up on information I’ve gained throughout the semester but have not had the time to post on.
Hello world! This is the second beginning of biowhat. I accidentally hit the reset button on the site last week, sorry guys! I did manage to save most of the content so a lot of that will start appearing in the weeks to come. Thanks for visiting. - Ryan
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