Welcome

Welcome to Krioma.net. If you would like to view any of my previous articles then please see the blog page. This also has a handy search tool. Please note that this page is updated regularly and should automatically refresh but this is not always the case. Also, you can now [follow me on twitter].

Recent Blog Entries:

Syntax Highlighting in Nano Category: Computing geek nano
Being an astronomer my life at work quite often involves me using a commandline text editor. I'm a big fan of nano/pico and overwhelming prefer them to vi (I know this topic is easy the start a flame war - I'm just not one for vi, never could remember the commands etc). Now today my other half (bein...

My most useful scripts... so far Category: Astronomy Computing awk bash geeky python script
Over time I've wrote quite a few scripts todo lots of different things, from making [videos work on my PSP] to [astronomical coordinate system transformations]. A lot of these have been documented on my blog, lots more sit on my computer ready to go online (I will eventually put more online) either ...

Talking GALFACTS Calibration Category: Astronomy #scripting #arecibo #telescopes
I gave a talk at the GALFACTS/POSSUM meeting last week on the calibration of the GALFACTS dataset. In essence I talked about how we are going about the calibration and applying it to the main data. I also discussed recent releases of the initial data products: GALFACTS Calibration & Data Quality...

Awk sexigesimal to decimal Category: Astronomy Computing awk bash geeky
Ages ago I put on here some awk scripts to convert between decimal numbers and sexigesimal (i.e. very useful with astronomical catalogues) and I think I've also gone the other way... anyway here is an updated and a more useful bash script todo this, still using awk at the heart of it (this goes from...

Make grids of images Category: Astronomy Computing geeky imaging
Ever need to create subplots (or a nice mosaic of images) and can't be bothered to figure out how todo it in what ever programming language, or have to open up photoshop or gimp and have to manually reposition everything? Well Imagemagik (like always) can solve this(!) and a friend of mine wanted to...

WolframAlpha Widgets Category: Astronomy geeky mass space wolframalpha
Here is a little widget I made to have a play with the wolfram alpha widget builder, it allows you to quickly compare the mass of two celestial objects: (note: requires javascript)...

Interesting Astronomical Papers Category: Astronomy Site Stuff cyberska geeky papers rss science
Most days I index papers, generally on radio astronomy, that interest me - currently these are posted to the cyberska site and they should go to my [twitter page].... but I thought it would be nice to index it on here too, so take a look at the astro papers page....

More convolutions Category: Astronomy Random Stuff geeky maths radio
So a friend of mine asked if I could produce the same animation I did the other day of the [convolution of two top hats] but this time of two Gaussians. Pretty straight forward really: If you want to take a look at the code, see [gauss_convolve.py]....

Stampede Parade Category: General Me Photos alberta calgary canada rodeo stampede
I am currently experiencing my first [Calgary Stampede] and I have to say what I've seen so far I've thoroughly enjoyed. I still need to properly Cowboy up though, I must do this properly at some point this week. Yesterday I went to the Stampede parade which was a 2 hour long show with the downtown ...

matplotlib convolution animation Category: Astronomy Computing geeky maths python radio
I've recently been doing quite a few convolutions, quite important in the paper I'm working on (hopefully to finish soon, more on that soon I hope), and I thought I'd demonstrate a nice example of how todo a convolution in python with the aid of scipy, numpy and matplotlib (actually this is as much ...

FAS Societies Map Category: Astronomy General Me FAS google maps
As part of my work as the [FAS] (Federation of Astronomical Societies) webmaster I've been updating a few of the functions on the webpages. We now have a [Google map] with accurate society locations (and this now links from the [society diary]) - I think its starting to come together nicely (see bel...

Non-Thermal Radio Emission from Late B and Early A-type Magnetically Peculiar Stars Category: Astronomy General Me gmrt radio
The conference proceedings from High Energy Phenomena in Massive Stars held last year where my colleague, Dr Ian Stevens, presented our results for observations from CU Virgins have now been published. "Non-Thermal Radio Emission from Late B and Early A-type Magnetically Peculiar Stars"...

Hiking for Tea; a hike to Lake Agnes Category: General Me Photos alberta canada hike lake lake louise
Yesterday I went on quite a grueling hike. OK, its not really that bad a hike but starting at 1661 m and ending at 2210m (to the [Little Beehive]) is not good on my lungs - the combination of the altitude, asthma and my general poor fitness makes it more of challenge. Still it was quite good fun and...

Hiking around Lake Minnewanka Category: General Me Photos canada hike Lake Minnewanka
Just over a week ago, while my better half was here, we and a few of my friends went up to Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park for a hike. We really couldn't have asked for a better day for it, gorgeous sunshine (I still have the tan-line from my watch from it) and fantastic scenery. I do think, ...

An afternoon walk at Fish Creek Category: General Me Photos calgary hike park
We went on a walk around [Fish Creek provincial park] the other day (we basically followed one of the walks in [Calgary's Best Hikes and Walks by Lori Beattie] - I've mentioned a few of these walks before here). Fish Creek Park is a provincial park located in the southern part of Calgary, but is eas...