Database management
Managing a large database is hard, I'm surviving, at least something we know how to do is dealing with "large" amounts of data.
Proved myself right!! Tried to install SCISOFT on FEDORA 10. Too many things I had to install "by hand" so that the RPMs from SCISOFT could be installed and I had to leave two packages out of the installation because one library is there on a newer version by SCISOFT don't want it. So, NO TIME FOR LINUX MANAGEMENT! (sorry Miggy!)
Thursday morning dentist + city, solving stuff (got myself a GPS) and afternoon same as yesterday.
Labels: hi-z morph, life, linux
Linux and problems
So! Instead of studying today I had to solve some problems.
Updating my database that I identified a pair of small errors. Now they are better.
This week decided to reinstall Linux on one of my PCs. I had Ubuntu there and was not happy with it. Decided to install Fedora 10, some problems were solved but the main concept is wrong nowadays. They want Linux to be user friendly, the problem is at what price. I installed it yesterday and simple things like changing the UID of a user or simple mounting a second HD in the fstab became a nightmare. The system doesn't seem to "obey" the "passwd" anymore, like even though the user is no longer there the "adduser" client still "remembers" it ... including a line on fstab now requires things like a UUID, whatever that is, and the task that is suppose to do that just gives me a message when I try to open it saying something like "you have nothing to do here, call the administrator", but you can't logon as root anymore in the X (it says the user doesn't exist ...).
I really miss RedHat 3.45, it was raw, but it was stable and good ... more and more Linux is getting similar to windows (unstable and unreliable) and more and more I'm happy with my MAC and it's BSD based OS, not 100%, but more than I'm happy with windows. Unfortunately I need the disk space (ok, I could use an external disk) and some tasks for data reduction that are only produced for Linux, actually for Fedora 6 (not my fault, ask ESO's IT department about it), so Linux it is.
More and more I agree with David Hogg when he said "I've got a Mac because I don't trust windows and I don't have time to manage Linux ...", me too. I just hope it doesn't really get to the point where I'll start advising people to use windows instead of Linux ...
Tomorrow dentist and some "downtown issues" then I'm back to install GASGANO and other things to reduce some spectra, keep searching for flaws in my database and studying for my important exams.
Labels: hi-z morph, life, linux
Long time no post ...
Since the last post, STUDYING ... this week (yesterday and today) some work on the catalogues again and applications ...
Labels: applications, hi-z morph
Studying
Studying, now star formation and evolution in galaxies.
Also finished some extra tables for the spectroscopic run.
Nice talk about Dark Energy by Jochen Weller.
Labels: applications, hi-z morph
Things going ...
Finished the parameters determination for the spectroscopic sample. Now I need to incorporate these data to my sample :-)
Studying. First essay ready.
Today one year that I first arrived at ESO.
Labels: applications, hi-z morph
Remodeling
On the train to Garching I worked on some things, but mainly the day was used remodeling the object of the new spectroscopic run and collecting material to study, and studying, of course.
Labels: applications, hi-z morph
Monday in Goettingen
Anyway, some work was done, identifying and remodeling objects on our last spectroscopic run, to obtain structural parameters. Some control quality will be applied tomorrow and some models will be redone, not for smaller reasons.
Also tried some wavelet modeling of a galaxy sent by Miguel Verdugo. For some weird reason the modeling stops. I'll have to look carefully why.
At late hours (at dinner time) Elif Kutdemir asked me for an object check, but everything was right with the object.
A paper worth commenting from last week. Rasmussen et al (2008, MNRAS, ..., ...). They tested the idea that hot gas in compact groups, that generates the diffuse emission, would be responsible for the HI destruction, causing the observed HI deficiency. They've got 8 HI deficient groups, did new X-ray observations, but only half their sample showed diffuse X-ray emission. So this is not the cause for the deficiency, at least not for all groups. They simulated galaxy interaction, specially ram pressure, to strip and destroy the HI. They suggest some possibilities but none really explains the deficiency.
They have an X-ray map for HCG 15, to which I have IGL analysis (Da Rocha et al, 2008), and the X-ray halo matches quite well the IGL one. Papers were published on the same issue but I was too slow to read the astro-ph version :-))
The paper, when comparing stripping of gas to stars, mentions the IGL component but misses the fact that one of their objects have detected IGL (they haven't read the paper on astro-ph) and that it was detected in HCGs before. They prefer to cite a paper in clusters, instead of something in HCG ... too bad. Sound bitter, but people that works in groups, must start reading the groups literature. They are quite different from clusters and most of the things can't be just simply scaled.
Labels: hcg, hi-z morph
From thursday and friday
The end of the week was used mostly to solve problems.
Summary :-) May 2008 we received the "bad" news that the place we reserved for Matheus at the MPIEM kindergarden didn't exist and we needed to find a quick and good solution. It was a "tagesmutter" (day mother), a system very common here in Germany and very reliable. After searching we've got a great one, for a good price but in the neighboring town. Everything was great, they were perfect, no one could take better care of Matheus, the only problem was the 1.5 hours by bike or 2.5 hours by bus to go and comeback. So the 8 hours day gets reduced to a 6.5 hours day.
On tuesday we've got a call from the kindergarden that they finally had a place for us. After visiting and thinking a lot we decided that this would be the best an sanest option. Spoke to Silke, the tagesmutter, who's got very sad. The only option we were doing it was the going back and forth. During this day she made us a "counter offer", that she would pick up and bring Matheus home everyday. For us the problem was solved, we've got the care we like for our son and don't spend long time going and coming back.
People say Germans are cold, they might be, but once you break their "ice" they are able to do anything for you. Thanks Silke!
This wouldn't be a problem if we had bought a car, but considering that we'll not stay in Germany after the summer, this wouldn't be the wisest thing to do.
The next problem to be solved was my visa, also solved.
Now about work. Reading and locating the topics I have to study for the positions I'm applying. No details now. Also finished the photometry of the new objects we have spectroscopy. Also working on my catalogues, as usual.
That was the weekend too.
Later a post about monday.
Labels: applications, hi-z morph, life
Since friday
Yep, posting is a bit erratic lately. Too much to think about, many things in mind.
By parts. Friday, a whole deal calibrating a run, using the individual frames, pretty consistent but still not taking me where it should. Now I'll try with another run from FORS2, instead of FORS1, but that was more complicated before friday when I've got the master files for BIAS and flats, thanks to Sabine Moehler (ESO). There's a small problem with the archive soft that it retrieves only part of the master calibration files, but all the raw ones are there. It was just not worth going from scratch.
On the train back more galaxy morphology. Found a group of missing objects in the CAS analysis of all clusters. Gotta identify them all and get the parameters. Together with retrieving missing objects from raw photometry to complement our last spectroscopic run. Together with studying for a very complex job application (I'll explain that later). All that has been happening since the weekend.
+ visa paperwork + repairing broken mobile + fixing some stuff at home + more important discussing kindergarden issues also takes a lot of time.
Labels: applications, hcg_gcs, hi-z morph, life
