This morning, the temperature in the animal housing unit was 10.5°C in all the rooms and 13.7°C in the room where the rats are sleeping. As explained in the ad hoc page of the university website, they turned the general heating system off since May, 15th, regardless of the weather conditions. Since then, I’ve clearly observed a drop in temperature. But today is the worst, not only for scientists who are trying to work in these conditions but also for the precious animals we take care of (the recommended temperature range by all ethical committees is 20-25°C). ...

This week was quite busy … In the proteomic lab, I released the first version of IPGPhor2 Reader (see also the previous post). Of course, since we didn’t fail any recent experiment ;-) we don’t see the immediate usefullness of this software. The main purpose of this software is that it allows to see where and when an experiment failed, how the current was given during the IEF and when it was not correctly supplied. ...

IPGPhor is a device from GE Healthcare (formerly Amersham Biosciences) that performs an isoelectrofocusing of proteins. Version 2 of IPGPhor can be connected to any computer via a serial cable. GE Healthcare provides a monitoring software but no post-hoc analysis software. This gap is efficiently filled by IPGPhor 2 Reader. Today, I wrote “IPGPhor 2 Reader”. Its goal is to parse log (text) files resulting from an experiment with the IPGPhor and to plot graphs. This software (for MS-Windows, since IPGPhor logs are collected on a MS-Windows computer) is available here. ...

A nice link found tonight: GUIdebook is a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). There is no judgment nor opinion associated with choices made by the various companies. They just show what is and what was the user interfaces, icons, splash screens, etc. of various operating systems and software.

I am slowly beginning to look for a job ; at least, for what I’ll do after my Ph.D. (there is still a lot of work in order to finish it!) (some people find that I am too slow at this quest for a job). I worked hard to develop the behavioural lab but I think that I wouldn’t be able to continue in this field (behavioural science doesn’t get a lot of funding). Anyway, I have some other people to see before I perhaps decide to reject this career option for/by myself. ...

Not because it makes a beautiful “moustache” when we drink the coffee (as I told a Nespresso commercial) but to keep the coffee aroma inside the cup (as he told me, later). This short line to say that the week-end was full of “things to do” and these “things” kept me away from real work. We went to Spa Balmoral for a grant interview for my wife, we went to Brussel for Bharati the show, we spent a delightful, sunny afternoon with my parents and we spent some time at the usual, annual Falisse cousins meeting (and it was also a pleasure to meet them all). Therefore, I am not sure to be able to do everything I planned in due time.

The Indian Students’ Association of Leuven warmly invites you to experience the magic of Indian music and dances! It will be on May, 17th, 2006, at P. De Somer Aula, in Leuven (Deberiotstraat, 24). (And, by the way, it’s Nandini -my wife- that drew the poster ;-))

As I previously wrote, I’ve discovered the Beamer class for LaTeX some months ago and I really like it! It’s very easy and straightforward to use (provided you know a little bit of LaTeX, of course). I’ve also noticed it forces me to actually prepare my slides and illustrations before beginning to create the slide show. This is a good point since 1) it forces me to stress the structure (rather than doing it as one goes along the slides) and 2) it allows me an easier and better re-use of illustrations and slides previously shown (in Powerpoint or Impress, you had to think of what objects you have to copy ; here, you have only text to copy). ...

After one year of hard work, we finally took some holidays. We spent three days in Middelkerke, at Hotel Were-di. It’s a nice hotel, clean and small. It’s not too far from the beach and the city is much less crowded that other big cities on the Belgian coast. The restaurant on the ground floor is nice, food is good but I still don’t understand the need to pay so much for the “nouvelle cuisine” (I know: I am a greedy fellow). ...

I’ve recently learned that the Jabber.org server was an experimental one but I was too lazy to change my Jabber ID. Now that the Jabber.org server is down (apparently since 23.00, Belgian time), I am forced to change. My new Jabber ID is “jepoirrier at jabber.fr”. I will still use the old one (“jepoirrier at jabber.org”) but I will gradually switch all my contacts to this new ID. BTW, the Jabber.org status can be found here. The Jabber.fr server is hosted by APINC and its status are here. ...