<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>dayel.com</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.dayel.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.dayel.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:28:47 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>
	hourly	</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>
	1	</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Choanoflagellate Illustrations</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 02:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=1435</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Here are some 3D illustrations of choanoflagellates I made to show the lifecycle of the choanoflagellate I&#8217;m studying. My goal was to show the shapes of the cells in cartoon-like form for clarity, but with enough detail to show all the important bits, and also convey the 3D relation of the cells in colonies. I [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/">Choanoflagellate Illustrations</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/" rel="bookmark" title="Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki">Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki </a><small>Here&#8217;s a basic mediawiki extension to render thumbnails for quicktime (.mov) files. Mediawiki (the engine that powers Wikipedia) doesn&#8217;t understand...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/choanoflagellates/" rel="bookmark" title="Choanoflagellates and Animal Multicellularity">Choanoflagellates and Animal Multicellularity </a><small>The New York Times wrote about us! What are Choanoflagellates? Choanoflagellates are aquatic filter-feeders that are found all over the...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/arp23-complex/arp23-filament-nucleation-images/" rel="bookmark" title="Arp2/3 filament nucleation images">Arp2/3 filament nucleation images </a><small>Here are some stills from the Arp2/3 model movies (the movies themselves are on this page). Filament Nucleation Filament Capping...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/1435.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<div id="attachment_1434" style="width: 141px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/choanoflagellate_maya.png"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1434" class="size-medium wp-image-1434" title="Choanoflagellate as viewed in maya" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/choanoflagellate_maya-131x300.png" alt="Choanoflagellate as viewed in maya" width="131" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/choanoflagellate_maya-131x300.png 131w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/choanoflagellate_maya-65x150.png 65w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/choanoflagellate_maya.png 365w" sizes="(max-width: 131px) 100vw, 131px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1434" class="wp-caption-text">Editing a choanoflagellate in maya</p></div>
<p>
Here are some 3D illustrations of choanoflagellates I made to show the lifecycle of the choanoflagellate I&#8217;m studying.  My goal was to show the shapes of the cells in cartoon-like form for clarity, but with enough detail to show all the important bits, and also convey the 3D relation of the cells in colonies.</p>
<p>I used Maya, a great 3D modeling program that can export as vector graphics!  Below are some pngs of the illustrations, and links to vector files for download (in pdf format, which should be compatible with most programs like  illustrator, keynote, powerpoint etc).  The illustrations are licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">the creative commons attribution share-alike license</a>&#8212;if you find them useful, please link back here.  Thanks!<br />
<div class="clear"></div><br />
<div id="attachment_1438" style="width: 91px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-216px-Thecate_3d_model_orthog.ai_.png"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1438" class="size-medium wp-image-1438" title="Choanoflagellate Thecate Cell" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-216px-Thecate_3d_model_orthog.ai_-81x300.png" alt="Choanoflagellate Thecate Cell" width="81" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-216px-Thecate_3d_model_orthog.ai_-81x300.png 81w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-216px-Thecate_3d_model_orthog.ai_.png 216w" sizes="(max-width: 81px) 100vw, 81px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1438" class="wp-caption-text">Choanoflagellate Thecate Cell <a href='http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/Thecate_3d_model_orthog.pdf'>(download pdf)</a></p></div></p>
<div id="attachment_1437" style="width: 123px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-204px-Slow_swimmer_3d_model.ai_.png"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1437" class="size-medium wp-image-1437" title="Choanoflagellate Swimmer Cell" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-204px-Slow_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-113x300.png" alt="Choanoflagellate Swimmer Cell" width="113" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-204px-Slow_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-113x300.png 113w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-204px-Slow_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-56x150.png 56w" sizes="(max-width: 113px) 100vw, 113px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1437" class="wp-caption-text">Choanoflagellate Swimmer Cell <a href='http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/Slow_swimmer_3d_model.pdf'>(download pdf)</a></p></div>
<div id="attachment_1436" style="width: 120px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-191px-Fast_swimmer_3d_model.ai_.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1436" class="size-medium wp-image-1436" title="Choanoflagellate Short-collared Cell" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-191px-Fast_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-110x300.png" alt="Choanoflagellate Short-collared Cell" width="110" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-191px-Fast_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-110x300.png 110w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-191px-Fast_swimmer_3d_model.ai_-55x150.png 55w" sizes="(max-width: 110px) 100vw, 110px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1436" class="wp-caption-text">Choanoflagellate Short-collared Cell <a href='http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/Fast_swimmer_3d_model.pdf'>(download pdf)</a></p></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<div id="attachment_1439" style="width: 178px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-448px-Chain_3d_model.ai_.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1439" class="size-medium wp-image-1439" title="Choanoflagellate Chain Colony" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-448px-Chain_3d_model.ai_-168x300.png" alt="Choanoflagellate Chain Colony" width="168" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-448px-Chain_3d_model.ai_-168x300.png 168w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-448px-Chain_3d_model.ai_-84x150.png 84w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-448px-Chain_3d_model.ai_.png 448w" sizes="(max-width: 168px) 100vw, 168px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1439" class="wp-caption-text">Choanoflagellate Chain Colony <a href='http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/Chain_3d_model.pdf'>(download pdf)</a></p></div>
<div id="attachment_1440" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1440" class="size-medium wp-image-1440" title="Choanoflagellate Rosette Colony" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_-250x274.png" alt="Choanoflagellate Rosette Colony" width="250" height="274" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_-250x274.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_-136x150.png 136w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_-518x568.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/page1-729px-3D_model_rosette_colony.ai_.png 729w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1440" class="wp-caption-text">Choanoflagellate Rosette Colony <a href='http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/10/3D_model_rosette_colony.pdf'>(download pdf)</a></p></div><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/">Choanoflagellate Illustrations</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/" rel="bookmark" title="Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki">Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki </a><small>Here&#8217;s a basic mediawiki extension to render thumbnails for quicktime (.mov) files. Mediawiki (the engine that powers Wikipedia) doesn&#8217;t understand...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/choanoflagellates/" rel="bookmark" title="Choanoflagellates and Animal Multicellularity">Choanoflagellates and Animal Multicellularity </a><small>The New York Times wrote about us! What are Choanoflagellates? Choanoflagellates are aquatic filter-feeders that are found all over the...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/arp23-complex/arp23-filament-nucleation-images/" rel="bookmark" title="Arp2/3 filament nucleation images">Arp2/3 filament nucleation images </a><small>Here are some stills from the Arp2/3 model movies (the movies themselves are on this page). Filament Nucleation Filament Capping...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:20:37 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Data Visualization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=1234</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Here&#8217;s a basic mediawiki extension to render thumbnails for quicktime (.mov) files. Mediawiki (the engine that powers Wikipedia) doesn&#8217;t understand Quicktime files by default, so doesn&#8217;t produce thumbnails for them.  I hacked together this extension to create thumbnails for the movies so you can browse through snapshots of the movies in the search results, media [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/">Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/arp23-complex/arp23-filament-nucleation-images/" rel="bookmark" title="Arp2/3 filament nucleation images">Arp2/3 filament nucleation images </a><small>Here are some stills from the Arp2/3 model movies (the movies themselves are on this page). Filament Nucleation Filament Capping...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/" rel="bookmark" title="Choanoflagellate Illustrations">Choanoflagellate Illustrations </a><small>Here are some 3D illustrations of choanoflagellates I made to show the lifecycle of the choanoflagellate I&#8217;m studying. My goal...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-supplemental-movies/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet supplemental movies">Comet supplemental movies </a><small>Below are the high-res movies of the simulations from the In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility paper&#8212;not just from the...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/1234.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1239" title="QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki-250x128.png" alt="Mediawiki quicktime thumbnailer extension" width="250" height="128" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki-250x128.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki-150x76.png 150w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki-518x265.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/QuickTimePlayerXMediawiki.png 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" /></a>Here&#8217;s a basic mediawiki extension to render thumbnails for quicktime (.mov) files.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org">Mediawiki</a> (the engine that powers <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>) doesn&#8217;t understand Quicktime files by default, so doesn&#8217;t produce thumbnails for them.  I hacked together this extension to create thumbnails for the movies so you can browse through snapshots of the movies in the search results, media page etc.  It&#8217;s based on loosely on PNGHandler extension by Bryan Tong Minh, and uses ffmpeg to generate the thumbnails.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a gallery page before and after installing  the extension:</p>
<div id="attachment_1246" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1246" class="size-medium wp-image-1246 " title="gallery_no_ext" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext-250x203.png" alt="" width="225" height="183" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext-250x203.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext-150x121.png 150w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext-518x421.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_no_ext.png 1044w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1246" class="wp-caption-text">Gallery without movhandler installed</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1245" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1245" class="size-medium wp-image-1245 " title="gallery_ext" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext-250x204.png" alt="" width="225" height="184" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext-250x204.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext-150x122.png 150w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext-518x424.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/gallery_ext.png 1043w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1245" class="wp-caption-text">Gallery with movhandler installed</p></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<p>And here&#8217;s a media page:</p>
<div id="attachment_1248" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1248" class="size-medium wp-image-1248 " title="mediapage_noext" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext-250x153.png" alt="" width="225" height="138" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext-250x153.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext-150x92.png 150w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext-518x318.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_noext.png 1379w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1248" class="wp-caption-text">Media page without movhandler installed</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1247" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1247" class="size-medium wp-image-1247 " title="mediapage_ext" src="http://bio.dayel.com/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext-250x272.png" alt="" width="225" height="245" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext-250x272.png 250w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext-137x150.png 137w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext-518x565.png 518w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mediapage_ext.png 1364w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1247" class="wp-caption-text">Media page with movhandler installed</p></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<p>The movhandler extension also reports the size, framerate, encoder and bitrate of the quicktime file.  It does not embed the movies themselves in the thumbnails (that would be too slow&#8212;especially for galleries), but if you click through the media page, the movie file will play in the browser.</p>
<p>You can download the extension here: <a href="http://projects.dayel.com/projects/movhandler/repository">movhandler repository</a></p>
<p>To install, make a directory called movhandler under your extensions directory, put the files in there, then add this line to Localsettings.php:</p>
<pre>require_once("$IP/extensions/movhandler/movhandler.php");</pre>
<p>Let me know if you find it useful, or make any improvements to the code.</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/">Quicktime Movie thumbnailer for Mediawiki</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/arp23-complex/arp23-filament-nucleation-images/" rel="bookmark" title="Arp2/3 filament nucleation images">Arp2/3 filament nucleation images </a><small>Here are some stills from the Arp2/3 model movies (the movies themselves are on this page). Filament Nucleation Filament Capping...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/10/07/choanoflagellate-illustrations/" rel="bookmark" title="Choanoflagellate Illustrations">Choanoflagellate Illustrations </a><small>Here are some 3D illustrations of choanoflagellates I made to show the lifecycle of the choanoflagellate I&#8217;m studying. My goal...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-supplemental-movies/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet supplemental movies">Comet supplemental movies </a><small>Below are the high-res movies of the simulations from the In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility paper&#8212;not just from the...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/09/27/quicktime-movie-thumbnailer-mediawiki/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:43:59 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=1091</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>This script re-orders The Economist Audio Edition mp3 files into an iPod audiobook, allowing you to resume from the last listened position and includes chapter marks for each story, and original artwork. I&#8217;ve been very happy since The Economist started their audio edition&#8212;now I can listen to the whole of the magazine on my iPod!  [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/">Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/" rel="bookmark" title="Building GSL as a Universal Binary">Building GSL as a Universal Binary </a><small>Here's a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/1091.jpg&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<div id="attachment_1093" style="width: 220px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1093" class="size-medium  wp-image-1093  " title="Economist audiobook on ipod nano" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod2-210x300.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod2-210x300.jpg 210w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod2-105x150.jpg 105w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod2.jpg 417w" sizes="(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1093" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 1: Economist audiobook on ipod nano.  The little vertical lines on the bottom bar are the chapter marks</p></div>
<p>This script re-orders The Economist Audio Edition mp3 files into an iPod audiobook, allowing you to resume from the last listened position and includes chapter marks for each story, and original artwork.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been very happy since <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00077B7M6/ref=nosim/dayelcom-20">The Economist</a> started their <a title="Economist Audio Edition" href="http://www.economist.com/audioedition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">audio edition</a>&#8212;now I can listen to the whole of the magazine on my iPod!  There are two snags, though:</p>
<ol>
<li>It doesn&#8217;t remember your position&#8212;if you want to listen to something else on your ipod, you have to remember which story you were on when you go back.</li>
<li>I usually don&#8217;t want to listen to the stories in the order they come in&#8212;for example, I&#8217;d rather hear the Science and Technology, Business, and Finance sections before hearing about Britain and Europe.</li>
</ol>
<p>I wrote a little script to fix both of these issues, and I&#8217;m posting it in case anyone else might find it useful.</p>
<div id="attachment_1092" style="width: 220px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1092" class="size-medium wp-image-1092" title="Economist audiobook chapter view" src="/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod-210x300.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="300" srcset="http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod-210x300.jpg 210w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod-105x150.jpg 105w, http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/economist_ipod.jpg 450w" sizes="(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-1092" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 2: Economist audiobook chapter view, each story marked as its own chapter.</p></div>
<p>The script re-orders the stories, and then packages them into one single file in ipod audiobook format, with chapter marks for each story. This means you can still navigate by either skipping stories by hitting forward or reverse while listening (Figure 1) or going directly to the story you want from the chapter list (Figure 2).  If you listen to something else and then come back, just select &#8216;Resume&#8217; (Figure 2) to carry on where you left off.</p>
<p>The script requires a number of free command line utilities to be installed:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAAC">faac</a> and <a href="http://sox.sourceforge.net/sox.html">sox</a> are essential for converting the mp3 files into an ipod audiobook (aac m4b file)</li>
<li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/mp4v2/">mp4chaps</a> is needed to set the chapter marks</li>
<li><a href="http://mpeg4ip.sourceforge.net/features/index.php">mp4art</a> and <a href="http://freshmeat.net/projects/eyed3/">eyeD3</a> are used to set the artwork</li>
<li><a href="http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/">AtomicParsley</a> sets the file info</li>
<li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/mp4v2/">mp4file</a> optimizes the final file (comes with mp4chaps above in the mp4v2 package)</li>
</ul>
<p><div class="clear"></div><br />
These can all be installed on OS X with macports using the line:</p>
<pre>sudo port install faac sox mp4v2 mpeg4ip py-eyed3 AtomicParsley</pre>
<p>or on Ubuntu or Debian Linux with:</p>
<pre>apt-get install faac sox mpeg4ip-utils libmp4v2-0 libmp4v2-dev eyed3 atomicparsley</pre>
<p>(linux note: mpeg4ip-utils libmp4v2-0 are from multiverse repos, and you need to install mp4chaps manually&#8212;download from <a title="mp4v2 google code project" href="http://code.google.com/p/mp4v2/downloads/list">Google Code</a> and do make ; sudo make install)</p>
<p><div class="clear"></div><br />
Once you have the tools installed, you&#8217;re good to go. Here&#8217;s the script:</p>
<pre><pre class="brush: bash; title: ; notranslate">
#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Script to combine Economist Audiobook mp3s into a single
# iPod 'Audiobook' file, with chapter marks for each story
#
# Mark J Dayel 2010
#
# Download the zip file from economist.com
# extract the mp3s and run this script
#
# Dependencies
# ------------
# this script needs the following programs to be installed:
# ffmpeg sox mp4chaps mp4art mp4file AtomicParsley eyeD3
#
# What it does
# ------------
# - Copies mp3 files into a temporary directory, re-ordering
#&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp; them as specified.
# - Finds the length of each track and keeps a running total
#&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp; to figure out where the 'chapter' marks should be.
# - Combines the mp3 files (with sox) and pipes the combined stream to faac
#&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp; for encoding into a single aac file.
# - adds the chapter marks and the artwork.
#

rm -f working.chapters.txt
rm -f working.m4b

mkdir -p renumbered

echo
echo -n Rearranging tracks

ls -1 *.mp3&amp;amp;nbsp; | while read FILENAME
do
echo -n .
LOWERFILE=$(echo $FILENAME | tr [:upper:] [:lower:])

# change the order below to change the order of the stories

case ${LOWERFILE:4:100} in

&quot;introduction&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A01 ;;
&quot;twtw&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A02 ;;
&quot;the world this week&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A02 ;;
&quot;leaders&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A03 ;;
&quot;letters&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A04 ;;
&quot;briefing&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A05 ;;
&quot;united states&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A06 ;;
&quot;science and technology&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A07 ;;
&quot;international&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A08 ;;
&quot;business&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A09 ;;
&quot;finance and economics&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A10 ;;
&quot;special report&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A11 ;;
&quot;technology quarterly&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A12 ;;
*&quot;bagehot&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A13 ;;
*&quot;charlemagne&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A14 ;;
*&quot;banyan&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A15 ;;
&quot;books and arts&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A16 ;;
&quot;britain&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A17 ;;
&quot;europe&quot;* )
ORDINAL=A18 ;;
* )
ORDINAL=A19 ;;

esac

cp &quot;$FILENAME&quot; renumbered/&quot;$ORDINAL $FILENAME&quot;

done

echo done
echo

function converttomp4 {

TRACKS=`ls -1 *.mp3 | wc -l | xargs`

TRACKNO=0
CHAPTERTIME=0
TIMESTR=00:00:00.000

echo
echo Finding chapter positions...
echo

ls -1 *.mp3 | while read FILENAME
do

((TRACKNO=TRACKNO+1))

BASENAME=&quot;`echo ${FILENAME%.*}`&quot;

TITLE=&quot;$BASENAME&quot;
TITLE=&quot;${TITLE:8:150}&quot;

echo $TRACKNO/$TRACKS $TIMESTR $TITLE
echo $TIMESTR $TITLE &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; working.chapters.txt

# We figure out the track length using the number of samples and the sample
# rate for more accuracy (to the nearest millisecond).&amp;amp;nbsp; We need this
# accuracy because there are nearly 100 tracks, and rounding errors add up.

SAMPLES=`soxi -s &quot;$FILENAME&quot;`
RATE=`soxi -r &quot;$FILENAME&quot;`

LENGTH=`echo &quot;$SAMPLES * 1000 / $RATE&quot; | bc -l`

LENGTH=${LENGTH%%.*}

# Chapter position is the running total of the track lengths
((CHAPTERTIME=CHAPTERTIME+LENGTH))

TIMESTR=`printf &quot;%02d:%02d:%02d.%03d\n&quot; $((CHAPTERTIME/3600000)) $((CHAPTERTIME/60000%60)) $((CHAPTERTIME/1000%60)) $((CHAPTERTIME%1000))`

done

echo
echo Converting to m4b...
echo

# The main conversion command uses sox to decode the mp3s piped to faac to encode as aac
nice -n 10 sox *.mp3 -t wav - | nice -n 10 faac - -b 96 -o working.m4b

echo
echo Setting Chapter marks...
echo

# this adds the chapter info to the mp4 file
mp4chaps --import working.m4b
rm&amp;amp;nbsp; working.chapters.txt

echo
echo Setting tag to Audiobook...
echo

# tag as an audiobook set the file info
# (we set the author as the issue date so it shows on the browsing page)
# Note: some versions of AtomicParsley need the --DeepScan parameter
AtomicParsley working.m4b --artist &quot;$2&quot; --stik Audiobook --overWrite

echo
echo Adding the cover art...
echo

# eyeD3 pulls the jpg from the first file, and mp4art adds it to our mp4 file
eyeD3 -i . &quot;`find .. -name '*.mp3' | head -n 1`&quot;
mp4art --add &quot;`find . -name *.jpg`&quot; working.m4b

echo
echo Optimizing final file...
echo

# optional, this makes sure the file blocks are optimally arranged
mp4file --optimize working.m4b

echo
echo Finished.&amp;amp;nbsp; Renaming final file...
echo

mv -v working.m4b ../&quot;$1&quot;.m4b

}

DIR=&quot;`pwd`&quot;
NAME=&quot;`echo ${DIR##*/} | cut -d' ' -f1-8`&quot;
DATE=`echo ${DIR##*/} | cut -d' ' -f3-8`

cd renumbered

converttomp4 &quot;$NAME&quot; &quot;$DATE&quot;

cd ..
rm renumbered/*
rmdir renumbered
</pre><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/">Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/" rel="bookmark" title="Building GSL as a Universal Binary">Building GSL as a Universal Binary </a><small>Here's a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Embedding a 3D figure into a PDF</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/09/embedding-a-3d-figure-into-a-pdf/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/09/embedding-a-3d-figure-into-a-pdf/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:32:07 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Data Visualization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=896</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>How do you share a 3D diagram?  Acrobat!  It turns out that the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader contains a 3D engine that works great for distributing interactive 3D figures.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/09/embedding-a-3d-figure-into-a-pdf/">Embedding a 3D figure into a PDF</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-related-none yarpp-template-list'>

No related posts.
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/896.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<h3>Why use a PDF for 3D?</h3>
<p><a href="/comet/">Some data</a> really needs to be seen in 3D, but how do you easily distribute a 3D diagram? VRML, the <a href="http://vrmlworks.crispen.org/">erstwhile 3D web standard</a>, seems to have <a href="http://www.galaxygoo.org/blogs/2003/04/whatever_happened_to_vrml.html">all but disappeared</a> leaving no widely-adopted replacement (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O3D">O3D</a> not withstanding).</p>
<p>It turns out that Adobe Acrobat reader contains a 3D engine!  And since it&#8217;s in the ordinary Acrobat Reader, it&#8217;s pretty much ubiquitously installed.  Here are a couple of examples, with links to two of the 3D pdfs I made for the paper; there are more in the <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000201#s6">supporting information</a> (view with Acrobat for the 3D to work):</p>
<p><a style="http: //www.plosbiology.org/article/fetchSingleRepresentation.action?uri=info;" href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/fetchSingleRepresentation.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000201.s006" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" class=" " title="2-D projections (left) and corresponding 1interactive 3-D reconstructions (right) of unconstrained beads (15-µm spacers) showing bilobed and trilobed structure." src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/pbio.1000201.FigureS6_202x.png" alt="2-D projections (left) and corresponding 1interactive 3-D reconstructions (right) of unconstrained beads (15-µm spacers) showing bilobed and trilobed structure." /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/fetchSingleRepresentation.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000201.s007"><img decoding="async" class="   " title="In silico network trajectory relative to bead during smooth motion. " src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/pbio.1000201.FigureS7_274x.png" alt="In silico network trajectory relative to bead during smooth motion. " /></a></p>
<div class="clear"></div>
<h3>How to make a 3D PDF</h3>
<p>There are essentially just two steps to making a 3D pdf:</p>
<ol>
<li> converting your model into the U3D format that acrobat uses, and</li>
<li>embedding that U3D file into a pdf.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Converting VRML to U3D</h3>
<p>VTK will produce VRML directly with the <a href="http://www.vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/classvtkVRMLExporter.html">vtkVRMLExporter</a> class (take a look at the <a href="http://github.com/markdayel/comet/blob/master/comet_vtk.cpp">comet_vtk.cpp</a> file to see how we used it).  Calling comet with a single frame (e.g. &#8216;comet vtk 200:200&#8217;) will write out a .vrml file (see the <a href="/comet/wiki/index.php/Display_settings">cometwiki</a> for more details).</p>
<p>To convert the VRML files that VTK produces to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_3D">U3D</a> format needed for the pdf you need to buy Acrobat 3D or <a href="http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/de_std.html">Deep Exploration</a> (the converter in Acrobat 3D is just a re-branded copy of <a href="http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/de_std.html">Deep Exploration</a> anyway). The academic price for Acrobat 3D was only $70, and <a href="http://millerinstitute.berkeley.edu/">my fellowship</a> payed for it, but the non-academic price for Acrobat 3D (now called Acrobat Pro Extended) is a rather steep $699.</p>
<h3>Embedding the U3D into the PDF</h3>
<p>Once you have the 3D models converted into U3D format, you can just copy and paste them into a pdf using Acrobat itself.  This might work if you only have one model, but I actually found using Acrobat to place the models to be surprisingly difficult.  Pasting the model into the pdf result in a model bigger than the page itself, and I couldn&#8217;t figure out how to resize other than dragging the corner, which doesn&#8217;t preserve the aspect ratio.  It was all very haphazard, and having all the subfigures sized and aligned correctly was nearly impossible.</p>
<p>In the end, I used the <a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/~noeckel/PDFmovie.html">LaTeX movie15 package</a>, which I would recommend over Acrobat 3D if you&#8217;re at all familiar with LaTeX.  Not only does it allow you to easily size and place all the subfigures correctly, but makes it very easy to have a consistent layout between figures.</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/09/embedding-a-3d-figure-into-a-pdf/">Embedding a 3D figure into a PDF</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-related-none yarpp-template-list'>
<p>No related posts.</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/09/embedding-a-3d-figure-into-a-pdf/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Setting bash variables from an XML file</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=857</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Here's a quick way to set bash variables using data from an XML file</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/">Setting bash variables from an XML file</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/" rel="bookmark" title="Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters">Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters </a><small>This script re-orders The Economist Audio Edition mp3 files into an iPod audiobook, allowing you to resume from the last...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/endoplasmic_reticulum/" rel="bookmark" title="Continuity of, and Diffusion through, the Endoplasmic Reticulum">Continuity of, and Diffusion through, the Endoplasmic Reticulum </a><small>Diffusion through the Endoplasmic Reticulum The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a meshwork of narrow membrane-bound tubes running through the cytoplasm...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/" rel="bookmark" title="Installing VTK on Mac OS X">Installing VTK on Mac OS X </a><small>Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself). The comet program...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/857.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a quick way to set bash variables using data from an XML file.  Say the xml file is called &#8216;writetext.xml&#8217; and looks like this:</p>
<pre class="brush: xml; title: ; notranslate">
&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot;?&gt;
&lt;writetext&gt;
 &lt;DATE&gt;04/04/09&lt;/DATE&gt;
 &lt;AUTHOR&gt;Mark&lt;/AUTHOR&gt;
 &lt;CROP&gt;TRUE&lt;/CROP&gt;
 &lt;FONT&gt;/Library/Fonts/Arial.ttf&lt;/FONT&gt;
 &lt;FONTSIZE&gt;18&lt;/FONTSIZE&gt;
 &lt;FIXEDFONT&gt;/Library/Fonts/Courier New Bold.ttf&lt;/FIXEDFONT&gt;
 &lt;FIXEDFONTSIZE&gt;18&lt;/FIXEDFONTSIZE&gt;
 &lt;FRAMESTEP&gt;1&lt;/FRAMESTEP&gt;
&lt;/writetext&gt;
</pre>
<p>&#8230;and you want to parse it for the variables &#8216;DATE AUTHOR CROP FONT FONTSIZE FIXEDFONT FIXEDFONTSIZE FRAMESTEP&#8217;, setting the corresponding bash variables to the values in the XML file.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a way to do it using xmlstarlet:</p>
<pre class="brush: bash; title: ; notranslate">
VARIABLES=&quot;DATE AUTHOR CROP FONT FONTSIZE FIXEDFONT FIXEDFONTSIZE FRAMESTEP&quot;

for VARIABLE in $VARIABLES
do
eval $VARIABLE=\&quot;`xmlstarlet sel -t -m //writetext -v $VARIABLE writetext.xml`\&quot;
done

</pre>
<p>Since this code snippet uses xmlstarlet to parse the XML,  you&#8217;ll need to install it first using &#8216;sudo port install xmlstarlet&#8217; on OS X or &#8216;apt-get install xmlstarlet&#8217; on ubuntu/debian.  (You could also potentially use &#8216;sed&#8217; to do the parsing, but I&#8217;m quite happy with xmlstarlet since regular expressions make my head hurt.)</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/">Setting bash variables from an XML file</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2010/04/18/convert-economist-audio-edition-to-ipod-audiobook/" rel="bookmark" title="Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters">Convert The Economist Audio Edition into an iPod audiobook with chapters </a><small>This script re-orders The Economist Audio Edition mp3 files into an iPod audiobook, allowing you to resume from the last...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/endoplasmic_reticulum/" rel="bookmark" title="Continuity of, and Diffusion through, the Endoplasmic Reticulum">Continuity of, and Diffusion through, the Endoplasmic Reticulum </a><small>Diffusion through the Endoplasmic Reticulum The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a meshwork of narrow membrane-bound tubes running through the cytoplasm...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/" rel="bookmark" title="Installing VTK on Mac OS X">Installing VTK on Mac OS X </a><small>Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself). The comet program...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>A side view of cells with Galena</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:20:58 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microscopy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=556</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Putting small, cubic, crystals of galena on the surface of a culture dish provides flat surfaces that are ideal for good side-views of attached cells for light microscopy.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/">A side view of cells with Galena</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-related-none yarpp-template-list'>

No related posts.
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/556.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p>Choanoflagellates are a bit of a challenge to image in several ways.  Putting aside the fact that many of them swim about a lot, even the ones that stick to surfaces tend to attach to the surface of the dish and point directly upwards&#8212;so they look like little circles under the microscope, their collars and flagella not visible because they are pointing directly towards you.  What we need is a flat surface at right angles to the bottom of the dish, that the choanos can attach to and be in the perfect orientation for us to image them.  We also need the substrate to be thin&#8212;too thick, and it&#8217;ll cut off part of the cone of light that forms the image. </p>
<p>I was thinking that the ideal solution would be (very) tiny cubes that would sit with one face on the surface of the dish, and the four adjacent faces providing good, flat, orthogonal surfaces for the choanos to attach to.  What is small and cubic?  I thought of salt&#8212;a naturally occurring cubic-lattice crystal, which wouldn&#8217;t work of course because it would dissolve, but lots of other crystals have cubic lattices!  After ordering a few different minerals with cubic lattice crystals from <a href="http://wardsci.com">Wards</a>, and trying to crush them in a pestle and mortar to make tiny little cubes, I found one with the right properties&#8212;cheap, soft enough to crush into tiny crystals easily, and insoluble in water&#8212;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena">Galena</a> (Lead Sulphide).</p>
<p>The second challenge was to get a (reasonably) uniform size, which is actually really easy.  Just start by griding up some galena in a mortar and pestle (feeling like an old alchemist).  I did this with water to prevent dust because I didn&#8217;t want to inhale lead powder, and wearing gloves&#8212;small things tend to be rather biologically active, and I don&#8217;t want to absorb any lead through my skin if I can help it).  Then I isolated a size range&#8212;putting the galena slush first through a large (150 µm) filter, keeping the flow-through (&lt;150 µm), then through a small (30 µm) filter (nylon mesh) keeping the retentant (30&#8211;150 µm) and washing to remove all of the very small particles.  I stored this under ethanol, to try to prevent the galena dissolving too much.</p>
<div id="attachment_563" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/10x_CM_Galena_Col-_Eaero_E.png"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-563" class="size-medium wp-image-563" title="Galena crystals covered in attached choanoflagellates" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/10x_CM_Galena_Col-_Eaero_E-300x224.png" alt="Galena crystals covered in attached choanoflagellates" width="300" height="224" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-563" class="wp-caption-text">Galena crystals covered in attached choanoflagellates</p></div>
<p>It works quite well (see Figure&#8212;click on it for a larger view).  The crystals aren&#8217;t perfect cubes, but there are lots of flat surfaces orthogonal to the bottom of the dish, and the choanos attach all over them, their cell bodies lining up in their thecae a few microns from the surface.  The crystals are thin enough not to disrupt the imaging too.  The only downside is that they tend to slide over the bottom of the dish if you&#8217;re not careful, ploughing through the choanos on the surface and piling them up on the edge of the crystal.  For long-term growth, I might be a bit concerned about lead dissolving into the solution, but I&#8217;m not sure how much of an issue this is&#8212;galena is not supposed to dissolve very much.  </p>
<p>I&#8217;m not including any high res images of choanos taken this way, because we&#8217;re not yet sure which ones we might want to publish, but I may add some later.</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/">A side view of cells with Galena</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-related-none yarpp-template-list'>
<p>No related posts.</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Valap brush</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/21/valap-brush/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/21/valap-brush/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:47:59 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microscopy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=360</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>I made a valap brush---essentially a modified soldering iron, with a metal brush at the end.  It heats up just enough to melt the valap---so you dip it into solid valap, which it melts, then you paint the liquid valap on at leisure.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/21/valap-brush/">Valap brush</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/" rel="bookmark" title="A side view of cells with Galena">A side view of cells with Galena </a><small>Putting small, cubic, crystals of galena on the surface of a culture dish provides flat surfaces that are ideal for...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/360.jpg&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p>Valap is a soft wax used to seal around a coverslip when you put it on a slide, to keep it in place and prevent evaporation.  It&#8217;s better than nail polish because it sets almost immediately and is non-toxic&#8212;so you can image live cells.  It also stays relatively soft, so you can recover your sample if you need it back, or if you want to flow in a new solution you can easily break the seal, change the solution, and re-seal it in seconds.</p>
<div id="attachment_505" style="width: 240px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Slide2a.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-505" class="size-medium wp-image-505   " title="Slide and coverslip before valap" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Slide2a-300x300.jpg" alt="Two spacers (made from a cut-up coverslip) make a flow chamber, creating a gap between the coverslip and the slide" width="230" height="230" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-505" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 1: Two glass spacers (made from a cut-up coverslip) form a flow chamber by creating a gap between the coverslip and the slide</p></div>
<div id="attachment_506" style="width: 240px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Slide5a.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-506" class="size-medium wp-image-506  " title="Finished slide and coverslip, sealed with valap" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Slide5a-300x300.jpg" alt="The finished, sealed chamber, with valap sealing all the edges." width="230" height="230" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-506" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 2: A finished chamber, sealed with valap on all sides.</p></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<p>Valap is easy to make: just weigh out equal amounts of vasoline, lanolin and paraffin wax into a beaker, microwave until they melt, and stir well to mix.</p>
<p>The downside of valap is that it&#8217;s essentially wax&#8212;you have to melt it and paint it on.  You can do this by putting a beaker of valap on a hotplate (or special <a href="http://www.google.com/products?q=wax+warmer">wax warmer</a>), but this takes some time to warm up and melt, and it is hard to paint on with a brush as it solidifies on the brush within a second or two.</p>
<p>To solve this, I made a valap brush&#8212;essentially a modified soldering iron, with a metal brush at the end.  It heats up just enough to melt the valap&#8212;the solid valap melts as you touch the brush to it, then you paint the liquid valap on at leisure. :)</p>
<div id="attachment_500" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ValapBrush1.JPG"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-500" class="size-medium wp-image-500 " title="Valap Brush" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ValapBrush1-300x225.jpg" alt="The valap brush, made from a modified soldering iron" width="240" height="180" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-500" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 3: The valap brush, made from a modified soldering iron</p></div>
<div id="attachment_501" style="width: 250px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ValapBrush2a.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-501" class="size-medium wp-image-501 " title="Tip of the Valap Brush" src="/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ValapBrush2a-300x300.jpg" alt="The brush tip is made of two parts, thick single-strand copper wire coiled around and supporting a bunch of multistrand flexible wire that makes up the brush tip itself" width="240" height="240" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-501" class="wp-caption-text">Figure 4: The end of the brush is made of two parts, a thick single-strand copper wire which coils around and supports a bunch of multistrand flexible wire that makes up the brush tip itself</p></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<p>To make one:</p>
<ol>
<li>Put a $10 lamp dimmer in the line (used to reduce the temperature of the iron to just enough to melt the valap)</li>
<li>Coil some single-strand 16-gauge copper wire by wrapping it around something like a screwdriver, then bend the ends together and insert into the tip of the iron as shown (Figure 4).  Tighten the screw to keep it in place&#8212;I had to put a couple more pieces of copper wire in there to pad out the gap and make a snug fit.</li>
<li>Insert some flexible multistrand wire through the coil (I used some extra-flexible wire from Radio Shack and stripped off the insulation).  Bend one end around to keep it in place and leave the other end sticking out to make the brush part of the tip.</li>
<li>Plug in the iron, starting the dimmer switch all the way down, and gradually increase the dimmer until the iron tip is hot enough to melt the valap, but not so hot that it burns it. Once set to the right temperature, you might want to fix it in place.</li>
</ol>
<p>I find that pouring the valap into a petri-dish (Figure 3) makes it easy to use with the iron.  You should melt the valap with the copper part of the brush, which is quite rigid, then tip the brush to allow the liquid valap to flow onto the flexible brush tip for painting it onto the slide. Also, I put a piece of foil under the stand to catch drips (Figure 3; moved out the way to increase contrast in the photo.)</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/21/valap-brush/">Valap brush</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/22/side-view-of-cells-with-galena/" rel="bookmark" title="A side view of cells with Galena">A side view of cells with Galena </a><small>Putting small, cubic, crystals of galena on the surface of a culture dish provides flat surfaces that are ideal for...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/21/valap-brush/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Comet tutorials</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:21:32 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Simulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=475</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>In my first attempt at making screencasts, I've posted two tutorials on how to get the comet program working on OS X.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/">Comet tutorials</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-tutorial-2/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet Tutorial 2 &#8211; Rendering Isosurfaces">Comet Tutorial 2 &#8211; Rendering Isosurfaces </a><small>Here is the second video tutorial on the comet program, on how to make 3D isosurfaces (also see the first...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-tutorial-1/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet Tutorial 1 &#8211; Running the Program">Comet Tutorial 1 &#8211; Running the Program </a><small>Here is a video tutorial on how to run the comet program on Mac OS X (also see the second...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet paper accepted">Comet paper accepted </a><small>The comet paper (or 'In silico reconstitution of actin based symmetry-breaking and motility') has been accepted to PLoS biology! ...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/475.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p>In my first attempt at making screencasts, I&#8217;ve posted two tutorials on how to get the <a href="/comet/">comet</a> program working on OS X:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/research/comet/comet-tutorial-1/">Comet Tutorial 1 – Running the Program</a></li>
<li><a href="/research/comet/comet-tutorial-2/">Comet Tutorial 2 – Rendering Isosurfaces</a></li>
</ul>
<p>They&#8217;re HD videos (1280&#215;720) hosted by youtube.</p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/">Comet tutorials</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-tutorial-2/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet Tutorial 2 &#8211; Rendering Isosurfaces">Comet Tutorial 2 &#8211; Rendering Isosurfaces </a><small>Here is the second video tutorial on the comet program, on how to make 3D isosurfaces (also see the first...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-tutorial-1/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet Tutorial 1 &#8211; Running the Program">Comet Tutorial 1 &#8211; Running the Program </a><small>Here is a video tutorial on how to run the comet program on Mac OS X (also see the second...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet paper accepted">Comet paper accepted </a><small>The comet paper (or 'In silico reconstitution of actin based symmetry-breaking and motility') has been accepted to PLoS biology! ...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Installing VTK on Mac OS X</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:14:53 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OS X]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[VTK]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=29</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself).  The comet program uses VTK for all its 3D rendering---if you want to compile comet with 3D output, you'll need to link against the VTK libraries.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/">Installing VTK on Mac OS X</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/" rel="bookmark" title="Building GSL as a Universal Binary">Building GSL as a Universal Binary </a><small>Here's a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/" rel="bookmark" title="Setting bash variables from an XML file">Setting bash variables from an XML file </a><small>Here's a quick way to set bash variables using data from an XML file...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/29.gif&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>

<h3>VTK Precompiled Universal Binaries (OS X 10.5/10.6)</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.vtk.org">VTK</a> is a great open source 3D visualization library.  (The <a href="/cometwiki/">comet program</a> uses VTK for all its 3D rendering&#8212;<a href="/research/comet/comet-supplemental-movies/">examples movies here</a>).  You can read below how to build the VTK libraries on OS X from source, but if you simply want to use them, you can download <a href="/comet/libs/vtk/">Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here</a> (The current version is 5.5 as of 03/12/10).  The libraries are in the file called &#8216;VTK5.5universal.zip&#8217;, and you can find the source tree from which they were compiled in &#8216;VTKBuild.zip&#8217;.</p>
<h3>Using VTK in an XCode project</h3>
<p>To use these for an XCode project, open the project, select Project-&gt;Edit Project Settings and under the Build tab change &#8216;Library Search Paths&#8217; to include the path to the libraries, e.g., /Users/mark/VTK/lib/ and &#8216;Header Search Paths&#8217; to include the path to the header files, e.g., /Users/mark/VTK/include/ (changing the user name and version as appropriate).</p>
<h3>Building VTK as Universal Binaries on OS X</h3>
<p>It took me a little while to get VTK compiled on OS X 10.5/10.6, so I&#8217;m posting the instructions here in case they are helpful to others trying to compile it.  VTK uses cmake, which is not very straightforward, but seems robust once you know the secret ways.  This is largely based on the <a href="http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/Cocoa_VTK">vtk wiki</a>, <a href="http://macresearch.org/installing_vtk_on_mac_os_x">the instructions here</a> and some fiddling.  Note:  this is using the CVS version version of VTK (currently 5.5)</p>
<p>First, install the <a href="http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/">Apple Developer Tools (Xcode)</a>, and <a href="http://www.macports.org/">Macports</a>,  then open a terminal and use Macports to install CMake:</p>
<pre><code>sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install cmake</code></pre>
<p>Create a directory for VTK, and download the CVS version of the software:</p>
<pre><code>mkdir VTK
cd VTK
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@public.kitware.com:/cvsroot/VTK login</code></pre>
<p>enter &#8216;vtk&#8217; as the password, then start the download:</p>
<pre><code>cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@public.kitware.com:/cvsroot/VTK checkout VTK</code></pre>
<p>Make a directory for the build and run cmake from that directory, pointing to the source you just downloaded:</p>
<pre><code>mkdir VTKBuild
cd VTKBuild
cmake ../VTK</code></pre>
<p>Cmake will make its config files based on the system info.  These will be almost right, but we need to open CMakeCache.txt in a text editor and change the following (replace /Users/mark/VTK/VTKBuild with the path you chose above):</p>
<pre><code>CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Release
CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS:STRING=-Wl,-dylib_file,/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib:/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/Users/mark/VTK/VTKBuild</code></pre>
<p>Make sure to change the username in that last line to match your own. If you want to make universal binaries, edit these lines including the targets you want, and set the target to the minimum OS you want to support (I use 10.5):</p>
<pre><code>CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES:STRING=ppc;ppc64;i386;x86_64
CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT:PATH=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk
CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET:STRING=10.5</code>
</pre>
<p>Then call cmake again and it will write out a makefile:</p>
<pre><code>cmake ../VTK</code></pre>
<p>Finally, compile and install (this takes some time):</p>
<pre><code>make
make install</code></pre>
<p>If all is well, you should have a set of compiled libraries in VTKBuild/bin and include files in VTKBuild/include/vtk-5.5 (depending on the current VTK version number).  If you built universal binaries, you can check the architectures by using lipo:</p>
<pre><code>$ lipo -info libvtkRendering.a
Architectures in the fat file: libvtkRendering.a are: ppc ppc64 i386 x86_64
</code></pre><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/">Installing VTK on Mac OS X</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/" rel="bookmark" title="Building GSL as a Universal Binary">Building GSL as a Universal Binary </a><small>Here's a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/11/08/setting-bash-variables-from-xml/" rel="bookmark" title="Setting bash variables from an XML file">Setting bash variables from an XML file </a><small>Here's a quick way to set bash variables using data from an XML file...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Comet paper accepted</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/#respond</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:18:10 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Simulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Actin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bead Motility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comet]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=34</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>The comet paper (or 'In silico reconstitution of actin based symmetry-breaking and motility') has been accepted to PLoS biology!</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/">Comet paper accepted</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-supplemental-movies/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet supplemental movies">Comet supplemental movies </a><small>Below are the high-res movies of the simulations from the In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility paper&#8212;not just from the...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/" rel="bookmark" title="In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility">In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility </a><small>Links The paper published in PLoS Biology. High resolution movies of most of the simulations mentioned in the paper. The...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet tutorials">Comet tutorials </a><small>In my first attempt at making screencasts, I've posted two tutorials on how to get the comet program working on...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/34.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p>The comet paper&#8217;s been accepted to PLoS biology (Yay!) after a lot of work&#8212;easily the most I&#8217;ve ever done on a single project.  The comet project, (or &#8216;In silico reconstitution of actin based symmetry-breaking and motility&#8217; as I titled the paper) is really the first time I&#8217;ve been able to do the kind of science I&#8217;ve wanted to do for a long time&#8212;take a complex biological phenomenon and figure out what&#8217;s going on by simulating it a top-down computer model.  By a top-down model, I mean that rather than throwing everything we know into the model, we simulate just enough to test the hypothesis. That way, if it works, we know exactly how it&#8217;s working.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m quite proud of the paper, and very grateful to my collaborators:  Mark Landeryou for his help with some of the harder parts the programming (all of the thread programming and much of the VTK work), Orkun, Viviana and Dyche for pulling together the experimental data to check the predictions, and Alex for for his help and support with the model and the paper.</p>
<h3>References:</h3>
<p><a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000201">Dayel MJ, Akin O, Landeryou M, Risca V, Mogilner A, et al. (2009) In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Symmetry Breaking and Motility. PLoS Biol 7(9):e1000201. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000201</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000201"><span>Free open-access article</span></a></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/">Comet paper accepted</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/comet-supplemental-movies/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet supplemental movies">Comet supplemental movies </a><small>Below are the high-res movies of the simulations from the In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility paper&#8212;not just from the...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/research/comet/" rel="bookmark" title="In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility">In Silico Reconstitution of Actin-Based Motility </a><small>Links The paper published in PLoS Biology. High resolution movies of most of the simulations mentioned in the paper. The...</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/07/comet-tutorials/" rel="bookmark" title="Comet tutorials">Comet tutorials </a><small>In my first attempt at making screencasts, I've posted two tutorials on how to get the comet program working on...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/comet/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Building GSL as a Universal Binary</title>
		<link>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/</link>
					<comments>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:47:02 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How To]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dayel.com/?p=390</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Here's a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64 architectures.  Works with Leopard and Snow Leopard.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/">Building GSL as a Universal Binary</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->

Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/" rel="bookmark" title="Installing VTK on Mac OS X">Installing VTK on Mac OS X </a><small>Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself). The comet program...</small></li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails/timthumb.php?src=http://www.dayel.com/wp-content/thumbnails/390.png&amp;w=100&amp;h=100&amp;zc=1&amp;ft=png' alt='post thumbnail' /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Quick download link: <a href="/comet/libs/gsl/">GSL 1.15 precompiled universal binaries for OS X</a></p>
<h3>GSL</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/">GSL (Gnu Scientific Library)</a> is a robust set of math routines, very useful for scientific computing.</p>
<p>If you want to link against the GSL and make code that runs on multiple architectures on OS X, you&#8217;ll need a universal binary of the library, like this <a href="/comet/libs/gsl/">precompiled universal binary</a> of the GSL for OS X, including the ppc, i386 and x86_64 architectures.</p>
<h3>Building GSL as a Universal Binary</h3>
<p>The script I used to build it is below, and is based on <a href="http://osdir.com/ml/lib.gsl.general/2007-10/msg00023.html">this post</a>.  If you want to compile it yourself, download the latest version of the GSL (.tar.gz file) <a href="http://mirrors.ecvps.com/gnu/gsl/">from here</a> or <a href="http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html">one of the mirrors</a>, then run the script below in the same directory. If you&#8217;re worried about the compiler optimizations affecting accuracy, remove the &#8216;-O3&#8217; from COMPFLAGS.  The finished libraries are in the &#8216;libs&#8217; directory and the headers are in &#8216;include&#8217;.  The script makes universal libraries of all of the &#8216;.a&#8217; files.</p>
<pre class="brush: bash; title: ; notranslate">
#!/usr/bin/env bash

# possible archs: i386 ppc x86_64 ppc64
# note: ppc64 doesn't work in Snow Leopard
ARCHITECTURES=&quot;i386 ppc x86_64&quot;

# number of cpus to use during compile
COMPILETHREADS=2

COMPILER=gcc-4.2
#COMPILER=/Developer/usr/bin/llvm-g++-4.2

# configure flags
CONFFLAGS=&quot;--disable-shared&quot;

# compiler flags
COMPFLAGS=&quot;-O3&quot;

# find the name of the source file
SOURCEFILE=`find . -name &quot;gsl*.tar.gz&quot; -depth 1`
SOURCEFILE=${SOURCEFILE:2:100}
GSLVER=${SOURCEFILE%.tar.gz}

# unzip the main source file
tar -xzf $SOURCEFILE

for ARCH in $ARCHITECTURES
do
echo Compiling for ${ARCH}...

# copy source to new directory
cp -r ${GSLVER} ${GSLVER}_$ARCH
cd ${GSLVER}_$ARCH

# configure for architecture
if [ &quot;$ARCH&quot; != &quot;ppc64&quot; ] ; then  # not sure why we have to do cross compile for ppc64 but not ppc...
env CC=&quot;$COMPILER&quot; CFLAGS=&quot;-arch $ARCH $COMPFLAGS&quot; LDFLAGS=&quot;-arch $ARCH&quot; ./configure $CONFFLAGS --build=$ARCH
else
env CC=&quot;$COMPILER&quot; CFLAGS=&quot;-arch $ARCH $COMPFLAGS&quot; LDFLAGS=&quot;-arch $ARCH&quot; ./configure $CONFFLAGS --host=$ARCH
fi

# compile for architecture
make clean ; nice make -j $COMPILETHREADS

cd ..

done

mkdir include
mkdir libs
cp `find ${GSLVER} -name &quot;*.h&quot;` include

echo
echo
echo Making Universal Binaries...

find ${GSLVER}_$ARCH -name &quot;*.a&quot;

for LIBRARY in `find ${GSLVER}_$ARCH -name &quot;*.a&quot;`
do
echo
LIB=`basename $LIBRARY`
echo Library: $LIB
find . -name $LIB
lipo -create `find . -name $LIB | xargs` -output libs/$LIB
lipo -info libs/$LIB
done

echo
echo Universal Binaries:
echo
lipo -info libs/*.a
</pre><p>The post <a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/">Building GSL as a Universal Binary</a> first appeared on <a href="http://www.dayel.com">dayel.com</a>.</p><div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-rss yarpp-template-list'>
<!-- YARPP List -->
<p>Related posts:<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/06/installing-vtk-on-os-x/" rel="bookmark" title="Installing VTK on Mac OS X">Installing VTK on Mac OS X </a><small>Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself). The comet program...</small></li>
</ol></p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
					
					<wfw:commentRss>http://www.dayel.com/blog/2009/09/05/building-gsl-universal-binary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
			<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		
		
			</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!--
Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: https://www.boldgrid.com/w3-total-cache/


Served from: www.dayel.com @ 2026-04-12 17:05:59 by W3 Total Cache
-->