Astronomy and Coffee

ADASS 2011 - the other days

2011-11-12T15:07:00.002+01:00

So, as expected, a daily post about ADASS would end up being too much. The daily program was too long and then comes the social part of it ;-)

After the tutorials there was the opening reception in the Observatory, in the beautiful Cassini Room. I really have to go there again with a real camera hehehehe

Summarizing what I found interesting in the talks.

There was a lot about GPU processing. GPUs are able to do floating point operations with much better than CPUs, and they have lots of processors inside, so with parallelization one can really improve processing (on what can be distributed). BTW, don't ask the GPU to write a text, it's not able to ;-)

Nice processing example using GPU would be the GPU version of the FATBOY (University of Florida) pipeline.

Another point was Cloud computation. For several cases it is good and applicable. Instead of buying high power machinery, use Amazon, for example. Might be faster (since you don't have to draw specs, approve budget, collect invoices, buy the H/W, install all the S/W and fine tune it ...

VO world goes on, despite ESO going from active to passive member of IVOA. Lot's of interesting things going on. At ESO we need to find a way to extend VIRGO's life ... let's see what can be done.

Lot's of smaller communications on on-going projects. This would have been the perfect place to present the OV_WAV. Well, it's not all lost, we still can finish the paper and present it there!

Synergy between different areas was a lesson to take home. Eric Feigelson told us how he made statistical analysis of quasars using the statistical methods developed for survival rate analysis in biomedicine.

Sometimes all it takes is mention the problem to someone.

Some years ago I wanted to do automated search of compact groups in SDSS. The idea of calculating distances from each galaxy to all the other ~140 million galaxies in the catalogue was out of the question. There had to be a better way (I know there are several, I just needed to know which). There was. I mentioned the idea to my office mate at ESO, Joerg Dietrich, and he mentioned KD-Trees and that he was building a library on that a while ago. We just had to include spherical coordinates in it and voila, there it was, the solution.

I was not aware of binary or any other kind of tree, but mentioning got me the solution. The project didn't go forward for other reasons, but we had the tool.

That's why coffee is so important hehehehehe The solution might sit in the same office as you ... you just need to find it out!

ADASS 2011 day one

2011-11-06T23:57:00.003+01:00

Not sure I'll keep with the daily update, but today I can hehehehe

Short day, just a tutorial. Either GPU processing or R (statistical language) or walking around Paris in a dull weather windy day.

I tried to play with R last year ... could not find my way around it and quit with a "I have to read more about it ...". 1.5 year later I haven't read about it, for one reason or another, so I decided to give it another try.

Tutorial with Eric Feigelson. He's been doing astrostatistics since ever and used survival rate statistics to quasar analysis in the 80's. I like that "synergy" thing. Get a technique widely used in one place and find out it solves your problems in another area ...

Tutorial was good. I might be able to find my way around it now, so it was worth to break the ice :-)

ADASS 2011

2011-11-05T22:59:00.002+01:00

After two years I'm back to a conference. Since the IAU GA in 2009 in Rio I haven't been to a conference ... kind of bad, but, part of life.

I'm in Paris for ADASS (Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems).

I'm pretty new to the topic, so it will be fun and surprising :-) Let's see. A lot on GPU processing, I'm curious about it and tomorrow a tutorial on R (statistical language).

Paper and refereeing

2011-09-19T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! Some science (quite ok for someone that does not have time for science lately :-) )

Refereeing a paper. I must say the authors made it easy, since the paper was good.

Paper accepted (astro-ph/1109.3967), in a nice collaboration.

Not bad :-)

More training on DB

2011-07-10T16:55:00.002+02:00

So, the reason why the last post was delayed was a training.

I spent the week in Düsseldorf in a Sybase training.

This was the Fast Track to ASE, the relational database server of Sybase. Nice, goes from concept of relational database and its structure (databases, tables, rows and columns) to populating, updating and deleting content until SQL programing and features like cursors, procedures and triggers.

Together with is a very nice weather week in Düsseldorf, with lots of tourism and picture shooting. Unfortunately it was not possible to the family to go with me, so it was just me, camera and my "one-fits-all" lens.

Tiresome but nice, training and tourism.

Note ... NEXT TIME I'LL GO BY TRAIN!! I HATE AIRPORTS!!!

Conference at home

2011-07-01T23:59:00.001+02:00

So! Late post due to the next post (I know, sort of non-timeline reference ...), but I'm dating it retroactively so it makes sense.

Conference at ESO. Fornax, Virgo Coma et al.

Could not officially attend to conference, there were some problems on the way, but managed to attend to some of the talks.

Always good to see Bill Harris speaking. As usual a great review of globular clusters, the kind that spare you of reading several papers :-) After him I could still listen to Michael Hilker and UCDs. Long time friend and co-author of the latest paper. Unfortunately the follow up observational proposal was not accepted by ESO ... too bad.

Then came the "Diffuse light afternoon". It was great to see lot's of people talking about the topic that is getting hotter everyday. Magda Arnaboldi, Jorge Melnick, Chris Mihos and Jessica Krick on the observational side, Gabriella De Lucia on the theoretical/semi-analitic side and Craig Rudick (the next day) on the N-Body side.

What was missing in this conference and I think it totally fit the topic, since we just see them in the local universe, anyway, was GROUPS and specially (guess what ... he he he) COMPACT GROUPS.

Anyway, not my call, so ...

Also managed to quickly see some people I like, like Mike West and Thomas Puzia.

Training

2011-05-06T23:59:00.001+02:00

So! Couldn't post before.

Week in London in training. Course in Sybase about IQ databases ... yeah, now I'm the database guy hehehehehehe

It was very good and London is a beautiful city!

Proposal sent ...

2011-04-04T22:37:00.002+02:00

So! Proposal sent on thursday. Quite hard to write a proposal working 8 hours a day on something else ...

Continuing the series "Brazil at ESO".

The first edition of the ESO Messenger with the Brazilian flag.

First post of the year?

2011-03-23T23:16:00.005+01:00

First post of the year already in the end of the first quarter? A lot of time.

Most of this time has been spent in finding a flat in Garching, renting it and moving to it. Now we are organizing the things ... complex task since every time we move, there seems to be less space. On the other hand, like is much simpler now! :-)

The UCDs paper was published in A&A in January.

I'm writing a proposal, but since time is a precious good now (more than ever), it's being used to write the proposal and not to tell you about it.

When I was settling down at the AOG (Archive Operations Group), what would allow me some time for other activities, a new challenge appeared, a now I'm part of DBCM (Database Content Management). Interesting position, requi

res some certification (what is good), and I'll have to study a lot in the next weeks/months. But it's worth.

In the beginning of march there was a meeting at ESO (Committee of the Council - or something like that) and for the first time our flag was there! Though I'm not usually touched by this kind of thing, I confess that it was exciting to see the flag there (as at ESO's websites). Now let's just hope that the Brazilian Astronomical Community do a good use of it and stop fighting and trying to undermine it. The time for discussing has passed.

Happy 2011!

2010-12-31T18:29:00.000+01:00

Finally 2010 is over! I personally thought I have had some bad years before, but this was surely the more complicated. 2009 seemed to be the year to be forgotten with all the contract renewal problems and looking for something and so, but the whole conjecture of 2010 was very hard.

It started with hope, like every year. We had just moved to Munich, where Fernanda has got a position on a prestigious lab. Moving would be good for me, since Munich has 4 institutes in astrophysics and some short term contracts are available sometimes and being in the city would make it possible.

Arriving there had already some complications. Flats are very expensive and childcare is inexistent! That plus some contract complications for Fernanda where already a sign. We solve problems, that's what we do for a living.

Long story short and not chronologically. Fernanda's back pain turn out to be a disk hernia that repeated itself 10 weeks after the first surgery. Health insurance complications solved 30 minutes before the first surgery and after the second one a lot of treatment and physiotherapy. Still recovering and preventing a third intervenction.

That meant 4 months of absence in about 6 months of work. Coming back was basically to find out her boss was as much of an asshole as she was told and she quit to maintain her mental sanity. Lack of professional respect is a very bad characteristic for a scientist.

On my side, given the crisis, probably, short term contracts and visitorships disappeared, not to mention the larger term contracts. So after a while I've got a technical job and I don't regret it. Actually I should have done this before, but maybe I was not ready. In fact, I am enjoying the new job, a lot! Let's see what happens, now that Brazil has joined ESO.

Sports went pretty bad also. Short rides are not compatible with the city and time for larger ones not compatible with life.

Of course not only bad things happened. Matheus is growing healthy and that's what's important. Fernanda is recovering and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. There we are.

Now we are looking for a flat in Garching, so I can be closer to work (instead of spending 2.5-3 hours a day back and forth) and we will have a place at the kinder garden of the city ... the problem is finding a "family size" flat in such small and student oriented city.

Well, 2011 starts with a lot to be decided, but as every year with hope for a better year. I won't say "it can only improve since it can't get worse" because I did it last year and was proven wrong!

Happy new year!

A month

2010-11-15T20:25:00.002+01:00

A month of work.

We started the phase II for training. Last week I performed one of the four groups of tasks. Today I started the second group ... and there it goes.

The other projects on work are also going and there is a lot to be done.

Science should also be possible from this week on.

Third week

2010-11-05T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Third week of work! I wanted to write again in the second week, but it was not possible.

Being trained and next week a new phase will start, actually operation the system. Let's see.

This week some science. The proofs from the UCDs paper arrived and were inspected and sent back.

Last week I've got somehow involved on the new interface and system for the ESO archive users. It's going to be cool!

Mostly that!

Changes

2010-10-15T23:59:00.000+02:00

Back!!!

As already commented before some changes were happening. One of them has just started (it has started this friday, so the post goes on that day).

I started a job as Archive Operator at ESO. In short words, now I'm part of the team that makes the ESO archive happens. We're in charge from monitoring and troubleshooting from the reception of the just observed data to distribution data on request and to PI's. So basically IT. Not what I studied for but something I had enough knowledge, so that they'd hire me. I hope also bring a bit of the "user's point of view" and improve if something can and needs. It's a third party service, so I'm not an ESO employee.

I'm still doing science, on my free time. I like science and I still have good ideas and data, just couldn't find payment, where I wanted, to keep doing only that. Being inside ESO allows me to keep in contact with collaborators, facilities and "inspiration". And also opens future doors on a carrier outside of science.

Perspectives in science are less and less attractive.

So! New stage! New era! Let's see!

Back!?

2010-09-15T20:24:00.003+02:00

Two months with no posting and three months without a real post.

Well, as said in the last post a huge crisis was on the way and it hit us like a hurricane. It's a crisis at home, but nothing to do with family. Family is great.

Long story short. My wife came back to work after two lumbar disk hernia surgeries and took little time to find out the kind of ASSHOLE (sorry for the word, but is the sweetest that comes to mind) he is. After some professional mistreat she decided to quit, putting our life in Munich in problems. We managed a provisional solution.

That solution also goes through looking to the world outside of the research "bubble" ...

Besides that, I also commented here, a couple of times, that the childcare structure in Munich is extremely deficient. That forces parents to basically build their own kindergartens. The state funds most of it but has no work (and expenses) administrating it.

Our, the drachenei, started on august. This had a lot of work associated. From end of june to mid august literally building the place, still every weekend some stuff to do. From that on we all have tasks to perform. Mine, of course is IT and part of the Facility Management group.

The whole month of august was the adaptation of the kids there. That represented part-time care, with increasing time and in good part staying at the place during a couple of hours. Adaptation went well. Now the second phase started. Making it work properly with all the problems of a starting operation.

It took a lot of time.

Together with that, a lot of time spent with application material outside of the academy and difficult times to put my mind on work.

Not all lost. The GCS project is flowing, tends to accelerate now. A nice radio sources project has effective started and we observed good data on PNes in compact groups. Data to be reduced.

The good news are that the UCDs paper was accepted TODAY. So soon is astro-ph (probably friday).

In summary we have detected, for the first time, UCDs in two Hickson Compact Groups (HCG) - HCG 22 and HCG 90. The detected UCDs indicate two different formation channels and now NEW objects. Old objects with possible mid-age ones.

Cool paper :-)

Several things

2010-07-12T22:00:00.004+02:00

So! Several things in a long time.

In this time the UCDs paper is gone and back from the coI's and it's submitted for real.

Done some stuff on the GCs, now I think I have it clear. Still playing with the data, but almost there.

Several small crisis happened in the meanwhile and a major one that is still being dealt with ... let's see.

More when it's done.

In this time without posting, June 27th, this blog had it's 5th anniversary. Not sure it's really fulfilling it's purpose, but surely has done something.

GCSs photometry again

2010-06-15T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! GCSs photometry. Redoing some stuff now more accurately after confirm that "there's something there!"

Back on a new topic

2010-06-14T23:59:00.000+02:00

As weird as it sounds :-)

Back on an old, but new considering the last few weeks, topic. GCs! Selecting objects!

Gotta finish that ASAP.

Also some minor changes on the UCDs paper text after ping-pong with Steffen Mieske (ESO-Chile).

Late from friday + weekend

2010-06-11T23:59:00.000+02:00

Short. Paper of UCDs sent to the closest coI's. When they send it back, small smoothing and to the other coI's.

Back on writing

2010-06-07T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! Several personal issues since last post, some good (just time consuming), some bad (and time consuming) required my total attention the last 2 weeks and only a small fraction of the time was dedicated to research.

The part that was was basically implementing the discussion we had in Garching (see last post). Now I'm back on the text, hopefully it won't take long.

Busy day!

2010-05-21T22:27:00.000+02:00

So, day in Garching. A lot of discussion over coffee at ESO with Iskren (AIfA), Bodo and Michael (ESO) about the UCDs paper. A lot of discussion generated a lot testing and checking for me and the other authors. Let's try to get things ready as soon as possible.

Also a lunch meeting with Magda, Giulia, Steffi, Bodo (ESO) and Ortwin (MPE) about the observation details of next run in august. Nice stuff decided like who goes, strategy and backup plan. Some stuff still to be looked at.

The visit was so rushy that I basically arrived went from one meeting to the other and got back to Munich to pick up Matheus at the Tagesmutter.

Now implementing all that ...

Now it goes!

2010-05-20T23:59:00.000+02:00

Ups and downs weeks. Time spent in personal things like solving problems, going to the doctor to try to find out why Fernanda still has pain after two hernia surgeries (they may know why now ...) and on good things also like recording our cycling podcast (Radiocorsa) on a raw/live way to discuss the first long week of the Giro d'Italia. That was fun. Also some good time spent taking Matheus around with his bike. Now I just need to find a time slot (and a weather slot) to cycle myself.

Finished the text for the Mammary Gland paper. Looking for the GCS center on H90. Not trivial task, but today there was some light on the topic. Lets see how it goes. Also finally updating the UCDs paper. Tomorrow I'm meeting with Iskren (AIfA) who's visiting ESO Bodo and Michael to discuss some topics on that. Also meeting Magda Arnaboldi (ESO) and Ortwin Gerhard (MPE) to talk about our coming observations of PNes.

A complicated week ...

2010-05-14T23:59:00.002+02:00

Since sunday I've been playing daddy and mommy, since Fernanda went to a conference. It's amazing how being alone takes time. At least we (me and Matheus) spent some good times together when he was riding his bike. That with the holiday on thursday (when Fernanda was already back) helped to a not really productive week, in any sense.

To finish a dead week my MacBook's batery's puffed, what is a clear sign that something went wrong. Not suppose to be a big issue, since my Apple Care is still running, just some wasted time to solve it. Well, turns out, not surprisingly, that bateries are not included on it, unless for deffects. Some foruns report the LAME EXCUSE of Apple saying that this is a sign of wear, it's normal when the batery get old. BULLSHIT!!! Never saw a batery puff when it gets old. But they would never acknowledge ANOTHER batery issue on MacBooks. So I had to buy a new one, since I can afford a new machine at the moment. That means I'll get a new and larger disc soon and extend this machine's use for a couple of years more.

Science!!! Some checks on the UCDs paper and some new writing one the statisical part of the mammary gland project.

Next weeks tends to be better (unless something else breaks he he he).

A little bit of everything!

2010-05-07T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! A bit of UCDs work with the new objects we have redshift for. Next week gotta get back to the text and make "it happen".

A bit of GCs with the transformation equations and revisiting the candidates selection in color space. No changes, but "better defined". Now density maps which have some impact on the UCDs also.

Some quality time with Matheus. We started to go to the pool and have "swim" lessons. Yep, with the help of our good friend Elysandra Figueiredo (IAG/USP), former infant swim instructor I'm teaching the basics of swimming to my son. First lesson was just "being there". Next time (hopefully next tuesday) we'll start with legs movement.

Fernanda's parents arrived, so thursday was basically used on picking them up at the airport and spending some time with them and friday a bit of tourism in the city. As grand parents they already started with gifts to Matheus, who's got his first bike. Now I'm the one to teach him :-)

Going on

2010-05-03T23:57:00.002+02:00

So, paper on velocity fields read and comments sent, a lot of them.

Color transformations still going on, not much time spent on that and news on the UCDs paper, which is back to life.

Tomorrow, if it all goes fine, first swimming class to Matheus.

Getting back

2010-04-30T23:59:00.000+02:00

I know a weekly report is not the best way to show "getting back on track" but that's what it is.

Science remarks are color transformations being worked out and paper commenting almost done.

Personal remarks are a lot of paper work and "stuff" processed and some quality time spent with my son. Not as much as I would like to, but some.

Also this week I've been in Garching for a talk about funding options from FP7 and managed to talk to some people I care about.

Not forgetting a new application.

Still alive

2010-04-26T23:04:00.002+02:00

No! I didn't die in the trip to Austria! Also didn't moved there and disappeared!! :-))

Basically we came back on monday (last easter day in Germany), took a nice ride to the Alps on tuesday to see some castles there and so. Fernanda had some pain in the legs and back during the trip, which increased with time. On wednesday we came back to the neurosurgeon, immediate MRI and the disc hernia was back ... one last try to avoid a new surgery failed and she went back to surgery 10 days ago.

Parents visiting also demands some attention (thanks god they were here and gave us a big help with the surgery issue), specially when a vulcan stops the European air traffic and seem they would be stranded here. That was also some stress.

So, pre/post surgery tension + almost stranded parents stress mostly prevents you from doing anything else.

During this time I've been playing with some colors transformation from models, density maps, UCDs paper and now reading Elif's (Kutdemir, at the moment at ESO) paper.

Hopefully tomorrow life comes back into track!

Application + trip

2010-03-31T23:59:00.000+02:00

Just a job application and preparing things for our easter trip to Austria.

Some stuff finished

2010-03-30T22:09:00.001+02:00

Mammary gland analysis, finished (so far).

New application for a position, finished, to be sent tomorrow.

Proposal that I'm in but couldn't contribute much to the text finished and submitted.

Collecting posts

2010-03-29T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, several days.

Gave up writing a new proposal, better advance some stuff to give more background for the next proposal. Of course, not before checking what I needed and I we wanted ...

Successfully modified the ISODENS code I've got from Hugo Capelato (DAS/INPE) to work on the Mac and expanding capabilities to "today's computers". Not, interpreting the results is a whole other story :-)

Mammary gland project almost ready. Gotta write my statistical conclusions.

Wednesday we went to Hofbräuhaus to have dinner with Elif Kutdemir (former Göttingen) that just finished her Ph.D. thesis in Gronningen. It was a nice evening.

Weekend was typically german. We had a really sunny week, that I couldn't enjoy due to too many things to do. Then, friday at 3:00 PM weather changed, windy and rainy ... as it was the whole weekend.

My parents arrived to visit for a month :-)

More on GCs

2010-03-23T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Once the color-color issue was set, candidates were selected on the color-color plot using Harris (1996) Galactic GCs and GALEV SSP models for ages from 2-15 Gyr and a range of metallicities. Locus defined, candidates selected.

Also young star clusters locus defined using GALEV models, from 100 Myr to 1 Gyr.

Now that candidates are selected, density maps to find the GCS center. Options are, they are centered on the galaxies, or they are "common" to the potential (what is the expected considering the distribution of galaxies, UCDs and IGL). To that an kernel density estimator. Tried to find something available on the net, but couldn't (maybe if I look better ...) so using an old code from my old boss and friend Hugo Capelato (DAS/INPE). Making old workstation FORTRAN work on a Mac :-) Also expanding capabilities.

Found!

2010-03-22T23:14:00.003+01:00

Despite the 300 thousand things I have to do this week, the whole day was spent on one single, but solution was found and an elegant one :-)

I was worried about the FORS calibration for my images. When I plot a color-color diagram and overplot Harris (1996) Galactic globular clusters on it they are not where my supposed population is.

Option 1 - There's a calibration error. Small errors can't be seen in magnitudes, but popup in colors!

So part of the day was a recalibration effort. FORS transformation equations, surface brightness profiles, very old FORS equations ... confirmed my values. If it's wrong, it's a serious problem ...

Option 2 - Filter differences. Johnson-Cousins to FORS-Bessel filters are supposed to be very close to each other ...

Couldn't find "colors" from Johnson-Cousins to FORS-Bessel filters, so solution was using a SSP model with output in both systems.

Not used to SSP models. Learning how to use Bruzual & Charlot (2003) or any other model would take too much time.

GALEV (Kotulla et al, 2009) turns out to have a great web interface that works very well, at least for simple uses such as my need. Managed to get my magnitudes for a GC with different metallicities and a large range of ages. All that without having to spend time learning details. Of course for something more sophisticated you probably have to really get into it, but for this filter transformation it has worked perfectly.

Got a mean color shift for a 15 Gyr population in metallicities ranging from [Fe/H] = -1.7 to 0.3, applied it to Harris (1996) GCs and VOILA, it all falls into place :-)

One problem less! Now let's move on and with minimal damage (bad calibration would require several modifications, once the right value was found).

For several days!

2010-03-19T23:59:00.000+01:00

Just noticed now that several days have passed without posting. Things are quite crazy around here.

So, summarizing including some stuff done during the weekend (which I shouldn't but despaired times call for despaired measures).

Mammary gland projects is going. Still to be done parts 4 and 5.

A lot of discussion about the UCDs paper, even though no feedback from other authors, just the usual ones.

Tweaked the star-galaxy classification to a misclassification ratio of 19%. That includes extended objects in the point-sources list and point-sources left out of the list. That was done in the R FORS image and checked at the ACS image. The ACS image is about a quarter of the FOV, so it's not useful to do the whole classification deal. How this has got to the point where there can be a small error in calibrations. So that's the days task for monday, along with other things.

Other things: prepare a proposal and a job application. All that for friday. Deadline is next week, but my parents will arrive on saturday, and you can imagine what that means :-)

Comment on the weather. This weekend was a typical german weather. Sun until friday, rain on the weekend and a sunny monday :-) At least I took Matheus to the Tagesmutter by bike, like old times. Feeling german again hehehehehehe

I'm also astonished by some stuff I've been reading lately. Can't comment for political reasons, but the only thing that can be said is "the worse bureaucracy is the one we carry inside of us ...".

Two days like one :-)

2010-03-16T23:09:00.002+01:00

Monday was a very, but very short and slow day. Matheus decided to wake up at 4:30 and finally slept about the time we should be waking up ... so we slept a bit longer.

Sent the paper to the other co-authors, after some small modifications and then organized some info to be "repaired" when it comes back. Small stuff.

Today a failed anaerobic threshold test ... home trainer should have more resistance at the beginning. Again next time.

One more step in the Mammary Gland project. Now gotta write it and do 2 more.

Some playing with colors from SSP models.

Friday

2010-03-12T23:28:00.002+01:00

So! Friday!

Good thing, this week I managed to train twice, in-door (I know, like a hamster, but there is about 10-15 cm of snow outside).

Retrieved the FLT images from the HST archive ... but still the coordinate transformation doesn't work. It complains about a missing keyword on the header, but doesn't tell me which and why ... dammed pyraf! I'll have to do it brute force, as usual!

UCDs paper is back to me. Gotta finish going thru it, couple of small modifications and distribute it to all the authors on monday.

Tweaking the star-galaxy classificator. Figured out a nice way of defining the tweaking procedure.

A bit of all

2010-03-11T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Wrote some text describing the analysis so far of the Mammary Gland project, discussed some conclusions for the UCDs paper a we started the idea for the next proposal. Paper will be back today and distributed to all the authors after I fix a couple of references and table captions.

Installed a new version of SciSoft (for OSX) to be sure pyraf would work. Well, it does, but still the function TRAN from STSDAS.DRIZZLE doesn't. It maybe that it's the header of the WI4 image that is not the same as the FLT image. So I already requested the image from STSci's archive, but this may come only tomorrow.

In the mean while I can do something on the ground-based images. So, star-galaxy classification using my old FWHM x Mag method, as in the 2002 paper. On that, it needs some tweaking. On that.

Let's see tomorrow!

Geometric corrections ...

2010-03-10T23:19:00.002+01:00

Yesterday more on the mammary gland project. One more step gone. Gotta stop and write what's up so far. 3 steps yet to go and getting more complicated and interesting.

Today GCSs in H90 to complement the UCD's study. Fighting with ACS multidrizzle corrections. Of course there's a pyraf task for that and of course there's something wrong with my pyraf.

The first question is why pyraf? IRAF has been working fine for more than 15 years!

The second question is why ONLY FOR pyraf?

Never managed to make pyraf works! You're told "install scisoft, it comes with it all", no it doesn't! There's always a problem!

Also, I want things on a terminal, so I can do things remotely! I hate windows and GUIs and stuff that doesn't work remotely!

They say Python is the future ... as long as you define which version you're programming to, seems 2.5 is not compatible with 2.6, or so. And as long as you can make it work, mine comes with a "closed package" installation, but still there's something wrong.

Probably gonna have to do things "the hard way", as always. I don't even know why do I bother ...

Solving small things, again

2010-03-08T23:33:00.003+01:00

So! Solving problems like finally registering at the Brazilian consulate and transferring our voting "cards" to Munich. Then to IKEA to buy some stuff we need and never had the will to go as far as IKEA is ... today we did it.

More statistical analysis on the Mammary Gland project.

Something else

2010-03-05T23:59:00.001+01:00

So! To rest my head I started to work on another project. Something on molecular biology :-)

Not Astrobiology, molecular biology, for real! Cancer research!!!

No, I'm not changing areas, not yet. My wife is analyzing a huge chunk of data and if there's something we learn during a PhD is astrophysics is STATISTICS!!! So I'm in charge of the statistical analysis of the data. It's good to deal with something different and it will be nice to be on a non-astronomical paper :-)

I'll finish that on the next couple of days, alongside another important project. An IGL+GCS analysis.

Sent "back"

2010-03-04T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! No big boring details about the last 3 days.

UCDs paper sent back to Steffen Mieske (ESO-Chile) and Iskren Georgiev (AIfA) with discussion and conclusions drafted. Now their turn to give input on that. This paper is gonna be nice.

Summary of modifications. Text, new text drafted, figures changes, new tables, old tables modified ... so nice work!

In the meanwhile some other stuff to do.

Tables and more tables

2010-03-01T23:59:00.000+01:00

Providing some data to Bodo on our low luminosity ellipticals and some drafting on the UCD's paper.

Paper + life

2010-02-26T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Mostly working on the UCDs paper, discussing some issues with Steffen Mieske (ESO-Chile) and Iskren Georgiev (AIfA). Now, apart from some small things the text is homogeneous and I can go on to the next section.

Friday an almost non-science day. Had to go to the doctor with Fernanda who will have to stay on medical leave for 2 more weeks. No problem, just precaution.

In the mean while reading some paper that might be important to the UCDs paper. I love smartphones with acrobat! :-)

Double checking

2010-02-23T23:59:00.000+01:00

Double checking info on the UCDs paper and working on the figure, before going on.

On the fight!

2010-02-22T23:59:00.000+01:00

So, monday as usual, fighting with the health insurance to get my bills paid!

Believe me when I say RUN FROM MAWISTA! RUN FROM MONDIAL ASSISTANCE!!

Also filed an official complain about the insurance issue at Mawista.

Weekend was more productive than today. Answered the questions from Christophe Adami (Marseille), about the OV_WAV and finished some issues on the UCDs paper. Some stuff on a figure to be worked and the end of the paper to be drafted.

Today we recorded an interview with Murilo Fischer (Garmin) for the Radio Corsa podcast! Very cool talking to a top professional cyclist!

Paper mode: ON

2010-02-19T23:59:00.002+01:00

Short day for personal house reasons.

Working on the paper, updating references, mostly.

After getting my (usually) delayed bus and missing (as usual) my commuting subway, I read the following headline on a newspaper "bus and subway: Munich is number one in Europe". Ironically funny on a first moment, scary after it ... if here is number one I'm sorry for people in other cities!

On paper

2010-02-18T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Still on the paper.

Finished my modifications to the existing text, now gotta organize the references, modify some figures and write the missing text. Getting in the writing mood.

Some training, even though another part of my home trainer broke ... somethings seem to have a defined life time :-) I've got some reply from Elite (the manufacturer) on how to walk around (it's not a repair) of the previous problem. That was nice, I'll do it tomorrow.

Also got a reply (after calling the guys a couple of times) about cable connection in the house. The building has no TV antenna, so signal should come by cable. There's only one cable company allowed to provide services in my building (and mostly in Munich, as far as I could understand). This is the German capitalism. They work on monopoly basis ...

This company doesn't do collective contracts. It won't provide cable to the building as a whole Each one must make an individual contract with them. In Brazil, at least, if 40-50% of a building want to have the same cable company, they give you lots of things. Better price, top quality decoders, upgrade on packages, ... here, there's only one option, so why bother. Why make it better is we can provide the same crappy service for a higher price??

Tried to get an antenna. No one at the store was able tell me if any further equipment was needed. There was no signal on the TV ... luckily here you can give anything back within 14 days, only one question asked "is it broken or you just don't want it?", so that they know what to do with it.

Also trying to contact O2, my mobile operator, about the firmware upgrade for our Nokia N97's. I need the upgrade so I can use iSync and get more from my phone and it's only possible with the new version. O2 has to make the upgrade available, and it didn't. I don't wanna have to "hack" my own phone to make it better.

If you're considering buying a smart phone, Nokia N97 is the WORST option. Slow, no skype version YET, firmware upgrade is a nightmare, 'cos it has to be authorized by your operator, no "Missing Sync" version, software is rare ... bad choice.

700!

2010-02-16T22:57:00.003+01:00

Post 700! It's a lot of posting :-)

Hope I had better science to post today.

The day could be summarized as "it never ends".

Reading the UCDs paper. Finish my "on paper" modifications and comments, now gotta implement them organizing some stuff on the text and then write some new text.

My back aches a bit, so no training.

Gave back Miguel's flat.

Up to now, all as it should.

Also received some important documents from a friend in the USA. The absurd part is that DHL delivered the envelope WET! Yep! Not humid, not a bit wet, REALLY WET!

The more absurd was the delivery guy that said the only thing he could do would be take it back, repack it and bring it again (I don't need a dry pack, a need a dry content), and when I got the envelope and noticed that it was actually WET, and asked "but that happened now!", he looked at me and said "yes! you better open it quickly to try to save the content" as he turned around and went away.

Tried to call DHL and the phone that is on the webpage gives a message something like number unreachable and the e-mail I've send, not even an automatic reply "we received your message". To this I might say "welcome to Germany, the land of (bad)service".

The documents got in one piece, but heavily tainted by the water. Not the most desirable quality to important papers for the government.

Going to the post to complain tomorrow ... it was CLOSED today. Carnival ...

The usual

2010-02-15T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! The usual.

Some work in the UCD's paper, some fighting with the health insurance ... hehehehehe

By parts.

Fernanda called the insurance, who asked us to write the story and send them ... germans love paper ... poor trees. I'm also rushing anything that has to do with this insurance to get rid of it asap. Also stating a formal complain at Mawista and, in case they insist on being dishonest with those bills or any of the other bill I'm sending, getting a lawyer.

As I say, researchers coming to Germany, Mawista now works with Mondial Assistance, RUN FROM THEM! Sorry for Mawista, nice and good company, but with bad friends.

Reading the UCD's paper, putting my comments. Today starts the part of putting them into the file (can't correct a paper on the screen), arranging bibliography and fixing figures.

Last section of physiotherapy also. At the end of the day my good friend Miguel Verdugo (MPE) needed help. He was leaving his flat and going to Chile to observe. When he's back, he'll go to a new flat. Bad combination, work trip with removal ... helped him with the "removal". Got a huge and heavy bag ... my 5 weeks of physiotherapy got lost hehehehehe Miguel, I'm gonna kill you when you're back hehehehehe

Mostly that!

Week summary

2010-02-12T23:59:00.001+01:00

So! Fernanda is back home after the surgery and the week was mostly taking care of her.

Some science was done, also :-)

Finished reading and correcting Lucas Schubert's (Computer Science Uni-Goettingen) thesis.

Now on reading and putting my part on our UCDs paper.

Basically that.

Hint complementing health insurance from my previous post. If you're coming to Germany, or changing insurances, RUN, RUN FOREST, from MONDIAL ASSISTANCE. They are definitely not a serious company. After all they did on the case of Fernanda's surgery, now they sent back the medical bills from Matheus, claiming pre-existence of his skin infection ... they just forgot to check that we had insurance by Mawista-Science, back on the beginning of the problem, so ... no pre-existence.

The summary is the ALWAYS look for a way not to pay your bills. I have private insurances before, their job is try not to pay if they don't have to, but MONDIAL does it on a CRIMINAL way.

Monday I'll talk to them and eventually with a lawyer, because I'm fed up with their crap! I'm fed up of having to call them for them to do their work.

Also complaining officially to Mawista about their bad choice and "incomplete" information on the web page.

Still on the cranky mood ... in latin languages we have two different "to be"'s, from latin "essere" and "stare". The first is an intrinsic state, it can't be changed, "you're tall" "you're a man" and so on. The second is a not permanent state, "you're alive", "you're tired".

Well, I'm cranky in both senses :-))

Snow is back in the city. You hear the people here talking about snow, on summer, and you have the impression they live in Finland! Well, it's not that much snow, but it's annoying since the city services don't do anything about it. My street still have a lot of snow, even though there has been any new snow for already 2 days. I won't mention the sidewalks and the fact that you're not able to cross, since all the snow moved goes to the side and makes a wall between the sidewalk and the street.

Another discovery of the week. Buses run under Murphyan mechanics here :-) Back home they don't have a time table, they leave the start point in a certain time and arrive when factors like traffic allow them to. Here they have a schedule in each stop, but in Munich it's useless.

If you're soon on the bus stop, it will come very late. If you're on time, either it comes late, or too soon, so that you seen the bus passing while you walk to the bus stop. If you're late and hope the bus will also be late as usual, it comes right on time ... :-)) Murphy is unbeatable!!

Fine after surgery

2010-02-05T23:59:00.001+01:00

So! First information is that Fernanda's surgery went fine, she's recovering fine and will be back home tomorrow.

Getting to it was a nightmare, so I decided to write some stuff here that may help other foreign researchers that are coming or will come to Germany. I hope that can help them on health insurance. BTW, some keywords so it shows up when someone google it.

Health insurance for foreigns in Germany, health insurance for researchers in Germany.

So, the story so far. We needed a health insurance for transition, between Fernanda's insurance in the Max Planck in Goettingen and the new one in the TUM in Munich, first one was private and the second one was "public" (gesetzliche). So we've got one called Mawista-Science.

It has worked well while we were in Goettingen, since Mawista hires insurance from someone else and for northern Germany is hired on Wurzburger and it worked fine (no big requests). In the south is hired on Mondial Assistance and those guys failed us twice.

First failure was the lack of respect for the human being that pays for it. They tried to find technicalities not to pay for the surgery and took them 4 work days to decide to pay for it. That means they called the doctor with the authorization less than half an hour before the scheduled time for the surgery. That's a huge lack of respect in my opinion. We were ready (doesn't mean we could do it, but someone that has good friends doesn't die alone) to pay privately for the surgery.

Second failure is related to a market "war" between two parts of this "industry" (namely physicians and insurance). Here in Germany, I don't really understand how that goes, but it seems that medical services and material have a fixed price that can be multiplied by a factor.

First time I saw this as a problem was on a dental treatment, where my dentist was charging a 3.5 factor and the insurance top was a 2.7 factor (or something like that).

Turns out Mondial/Mawista approved surgery but with a 1.8 top factor and the doctor would charge 3.5, i.e. they would pay for about half the prince. According to the doctor, 1.8 is about the price this surgery costed in the 1970's ... and even though they put in their webpage, on the coverage part "SURGERY - 100%" ... not really true ...

The main problem in this war is that it's not a fair market. If you're not happy with the price of milk, or beer, you just don't buy it. When a doctor tells you, "we need to operate you or you'll die", you're not really in a position to discuss prices ...

At the end we were very lucky because the card from AOK, Fernanda's public insurance, arrived the day before and they quickly agreed to pay for the surgery without restrictions.

In a nutshell, we were betrayed by our private health insurance.

Summarizing insurances in Germany:

- Public health insurance (gesetzliche krankenversicherung)

+ Pay the things they have to pay without complaining

+ Charge a "handling fee" (10 Euro each time in go to a doctor in a trimester, unless you're being transfered from another doctor - like, you go to a general doctor because your leg hurts and he sends you to an orthopedist, you just pay the first one)

+ If your work gives you that, the law obliges you to have it

+ They don't pay several things or limit kinds of treatments (like dental, fillings must be made with amalgam, abandoned in most of the occidental world many years ago)

+ They don't cover medicines

- Private health insurance

+ Pay medicine

+ No handling fee

+ Pay several treatments (like resin fillings)

+ Sometimes come out with a disagreement in "price factors"

Hints:

- Specifically ask about payment factors for doctors and get it written, before contracting the insurance.

- Ask about the timescale for authorizations for large procedures.

- Get clear the procedure, if you're reimbursed or if they pay the medical bill directly and what are the limits. You don't want to have to pay a 1K Euro bill and then be reimbursed.

Basically that. If something else occurs to me I'll complement this text.

Science the last few days ... not much. A lot of reading on the subway on the way to the hospital and back.

My neck and my back are much better also!

Is this a joke?

2010-02-01T23:59:00.000+01:00

So!

Several jokes lately.

Health insurance looking for technicalities not to pay Fernanda's surgery, which will be on wednesday. Their part is to get our money and not to pay us when it's needed. My part is to make them pay, even if that means taking them to a court. Let's see.

Not enough having a back problem, Fernanda needing surgery like this, since the weekend I also have a terrible pain in the neck, what made the pain in the back "disappear" ... not even the physiotherapist could make it better ...

Gathering on the weekend was just great! Too bad it lasted only a couple of days. It's great to spend good hours with old and good friends.

Finished checking and redoing the failed models. This part is over. Now finish the analysis and write the paper (that easy).

Solving problems ... that's what I do :-)

2010-01-28T22:46:00.002+01:00

So!

the worsening of my pain in the back is probably nothing major as a hernia or so. The doctor looked and said something in german, too fast to be understood. Anyway. An injection of something for the pain and I should be improving soon. Dammed snow delaying the usually delayed bus + delayed subway + doctor appointment + physiotherapy took me the whole morning.

Fernanda, at the same time had her appointment at the other side of town and she will really need a surgery. Next week. The rest of the day was spent arranging stuff like authorization from the health insurance for the surgery and other issues. Not done yet, but on the way.

Only reading some papers while waiting.

About pain and models :-)

2010-01-27T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! About pain. My lumbar pain is gone worse. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow. It can be some sort of "inverted placebo", like I get worse because I know the symptoms of disk hernia ... or I did something wrong on the home part of my physiotherapy ... or as I have been taking more care of Matheus (specially the lifting part). Anyway.

Fernanda had her appointment and it all points to surgery. The doctor was safe to say that it was too bad for therapy but not as bad as to assure a surgery. He sent Fernanda to a neurosurgeon, tomorrow at 10.

On science I finished "healing" the failed models and ran it. Now gotta check them all, but a first look only showed a hand full of problems.

Also read more of Lucas Schubert's dissertation. Still lots of pages to go :-)

a day to ...

2010-01-26T21:55:00.002+01:00

So! What a day, good that it's over.

As I comment last post, Matheus provided me with night entertainment :-)

In the morning it was all white, again! I don't mind, as long as I can walk, what was not the case. Streets around here were full of snow (not that there was THAT much snow) and sidewalks too. I don't understand that city ... in Goettingen it was always everything clean early in the morning, here the problem starts with my janitor service, that sux. And we woke up later, given the "night" party :-)

Don't need to comment that the bus that is usually late just collapsed, something that other people in other parts of the town also know, so it's not just "my bus". And there's winter every year ... will they learn?

Yes, I complain about this city! People in "suburbs" like Garching have a better service!

Most of the day was spent with Fernanda around doctors. Yep, her back pain didn't improve, actually got worse since our last visit to the doctor, now an orthopedist.

First doctor said it was a muscular distention ... after 2 months of pain. Well I have distended most of the muscles in my body and I can tell none lasted 2 months ... Second doctor said it was a nerve clamp, but the solution offered was some physiotherapy, didn't work. In Brazil she visited a physiotherapist and an acupuncturist, also no solution. Then we visited an orthopedist how said it was muscle clamping a nerve ... ok

So, today she went to the doctor again and he asked for an MRI (if you watch House M.D. you're familiar with the term :-) ), which took most of the afternoon. Result of it ... lumbar disc hernia. Tomorrow we're gonna see the doctor again, to hear that. Solutions are, surgery and when possible a conservative treatment involving medicines, physiotherapy and massage. Surgery solves the problem quicker and with less pain, at least through time ... on the other hand is a surgery and it has risks. Let's see what the doctor will tell us tomorrow.

So! Pretty tuff day!

Science: I kept saving failed models in the waiting rooms.

Cold

2010-01-25T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Seems that the cold really got me. Whole morning between taking Matheus to the Tagesmutter and physiotherapy. Then after a couple of failed models checking I gave up to the sore body of who has a cold ...

A long and good night of sleep should do the trick (P.S. Your kid can provide you enough entertainment during the night to destroy your plans ... :-) ). Let's see what the next day will bring.

Also received some chapters of my good friend Lucas Schubert's (Computer Science Uni-Goe) dissertation to check on.

Gathering! :-)

2010-01-22T23:59:00.001+01:00

So, two friends that worked with me at INPE are coming to Munich next weekend (30-31/01)! Alex Wuenchen (INPE) and Rodrigo Leonardi (ESA) will be coming for the weekend, so tourism and music! We used to play together.

Thursday back up day. Finished to copy my back up and started to see how could I expand my Time Machine partition. Turns out I'd need the iPartition and I'm not in the mood for paying about 40 USD for it. So I'll have to copy data to another disc, then change the partitions and re-copy. Tried it last night and it didn't work fine with a "cp". Turns out there're too many cyclic references and it copies everything (I could tweak the parameters, I know).

So you search and talk to people and got this info:

http://www.macyourself.com/2008/12/10/how-to-copy-your-time-machine-backups-to-a-new-larger-drive/

It works.

(actually done in the weekend and worked fine)

Science. Identifying and correcting the GALFIT failures (not running them yet). This will go on monday and reading the draft of the UCDs paper. It's getting good!

Still on the backup

2010-01-20T23:59:00.000+01:00

Yep! Finished updating one backup disk and now I'm mirroring it to another disk, but some possible bad clusters on the original backup disk showed up. Luckily all the possible corrupted files are recoverable from the computer's HD.

Now also trying to resize my Time Machine backup disk, so that I solve backup problem for a while. Next step on backup will be trying a Time Machine similar for windows, so that Fernanda's problem with backup is also solved.

Science ... reading some papers while the computer is doing the work.

Backup day

2010-01-19T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Day spent organizing my backup disk. Next day will probably be spent on that also and on making the backup's backup.

Forgot to mention yesterday, on the bus complaint, that the bus schedule is planed to minimize commuting time. But the bus I need to get the subway is always late, so it maximizes the commuting time, since you can see the subway closing doors and leaving while you rush through the stairs ... :-)

Back to normal ... almost

2010-01-18T23:59:00.002+01:00

So!

Sad news, read today at David Hogg's blog that Sam Roweis has passed away. Didn't know him personally but liked his work a lot.

Trying to get back to normal life. Day started with physiotherapy, to my back problems. I hope to see some improvement soon.

Organizing small issues to make work flow and putting some things in motion via e-mail.

Now section "complaining about Munich" :-))

German buses are always in time and have an area reserved to wheelchairs and baby trolleys. Of course there's always someone standing in this area, instead of sitting. In a smaller city like Göttingen, people see you coming with a trolley and leave, making place for you. Here, besides for rare occasions, they pretend you don't exist. I'm starting to think that larger cities either have/attract indifferent and careless people, or brings this "dark side" from us ...

Still waiting to see the bright side of Munich. Maybe the Pat Metheny's concert at the end of next month helps :-)

One more week

2010-01-15T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! One more week!

Matheus is adapted to the Tagesmutter. Fernanda is already working. And I'm trying to get back to a work routine after a long set of non-science related tasks like looking for flats, some traveling, removal, organizing ...

Put together a couple of IDL routines, specially one for Pearson Correlation Coefficient to be used in a paper we're working on. With it I started to reformulate my personal webpage and make the routines public. "click here" :-))

Also finally managed to read the referee comments from Elif's paper. Long but good list of suggestions.

Also my back pain didn't improved, so now the doctor put me (actually us, Fernanda has a stronger problem also in the back) in physiotherapy ... let's see. No one has ever heard of RPG (Global Postural Re-education, not Role-Playing-Game) here in Germany. Basically is a physiotherapeutic technique that works your whole body as one, not just your pain in the back or in the leg.

Good new, we got time at ESO to observe the PNe's!

Signed

2010-01-07T22:27:00.002+01:00

So! Fernanda signed her contract with the TUM without any extra requirement of Beckenbauer's autograph or so ...

Problem solved.

Also the adaptation of Matheus at the Tagesmutter is going well ... I'm the one "suffering" hehehehehe gotta spend the whole day there but not playing with the kids, but trying to go as unnoticed as possible and with my lumbar distention that prevents me from sitting properly ... blah. At least he's having fun! :-)

Finished (up to a certain point) updating my bibtex file and downloading most of the PDF for the papers there, so I can't get rid of most of the printed versions.

Stearing

2010-01-05T23:48:00.002+01:00

So! Managed to get the letter for the TUM saying that Fernanda doesn't need any special permit for that. The very nice people at the foreigns department also made me aware on how fed up they are with the TUM and their ignorance of the German laws.

Then the "know it all" b*tch of the personnel department of the hospital once again said some stupidity, now about health insurance that costed me more time, energy, stress, but I solved the problem before it became one. Now let's see on thursday (tomorrow is a holiday) if she will come out with some other "problem" or if Fernanda will be able to sign the contract. Surely the next "problem" will be solved by a lawyer, because I'm done with it.

Matheus spent the whole day by the Tagesmutter. We took turns to stay with him there, and solve problems, but we managed to leave him in peace :-))

So, it seems now that things will start working fine!!!

Getting in track?

2010-01-04T19:22:00.002+01:00

Life was suppose to start getting in track today ... I mean, getting back to a normal.

After the long story with visa and permissions Fernanda would start working and Matheus would start in the Tagesmutter (day care) so that I would start having time to work. Even though there were still some small issues to be taken care.

The day care requires some adaptation period, that in this case means staying there the whole time ... not exactly a good thing for someone that can't stay sit too long because of the lumbar distention, also can't stay laying there ... well it would have to do.

Fernanda went to the institute and from there to the personnel department of the hospital to finally sign the contract ... turns out that the INCOMPETENT employ said she still needs to bring the "work permit" to sign the contract.

Just remembering previous posts (not gonna link them) Fernanda doesn't need it because researchers don't and also spouse of a citizen of an "old-EU-member-country", as its citizens, don't need this permit to work. The restriction on the visa is hashed and that excludes the need for it. But the wh*r* still wants it or a letter from a competent authority saying otherwise. She has a copy of the f*ck*ng law that says it but "she knows the law" ... f*ck!

So, after 2.5 hours of adaptation I had to get Matheus and leave to go to the foreigns department and work department to try to solve. The first ones closes too soon, and the work department said that this permit not necessary, that a personnel department of one of the largest universities in Germany SHOULD know that and that he doesn't have the authority to state that, the foreigns department is the proper place. So tomorrow we'll have to go there and see what we can get. In case we can't solve, then I'll need a lawyer to tell the TUM about laws ...

Upset? NOOOOOOOO!!!! Luckily I'm not the one that goes to the TUM, luckily for them ...

Backup

2009-12-31T23:59:00.000+01:00

Basically making backup, syncing disks and saving what's on ESO's discs, in case my access really ends with the year.

Also retrieving papers to complete my bibliographic archive (aka having PDF for all the entries in my bibtex, so that I can get rid of the hardcopies of the papers).

"Broke" my back. As usual, lumbar distention, probably due to the removal. It's got worse the last few days, don't know why ... but it hurts.

Another week ... last part of the delayed saga

2009-12-23T21:09:00.002+01:00

So! Last part of the delayed. The rest will be posted more or less in real time.

Monday started with Fernanda going to her group meeting at work, even without the contract. The boss had been absent for personal reasons also.

On the end of the previous week I've been to the equivalent of a "day care pool" from the city government. Actually, after visiting a couple of kinder gardens Matheus could go we found out that, for the city kinder gardens the waiting list is of about 1-1.5 years. Considering that german women have 8 weeks of maternity leave (they can also spend the next 2 years at home, partially paid by the government) a couple has to sign up for a KG about one year before actually getting pregnant. Then they complain that the countries population is getting old and all the economic implications of that. You just CAN'T HAVE A KID HERE!

Back to the pool. The option is Tagesmutter, as we had in Goettingen. And looking for one must be done thru the government since I myself require certification for that. Good. On monday I visited them at the proper place and time, got the name of a hand full and started calling. Not many options actually.

On tuesday we visited one that we liked it. She actually was raised in Uruguay and also lived in Brazil, so communication was much easier, even in german. We thought over night and called here today to say we're in. So Matheus starts on Jan 4th. Paying is another issue :-) There's governmental help for that, we just have to set the paperwork for that. Next monday.

Got to the social service, got a huge form that I need to translate and fill ... and tried to contact the city hall again ... no contact.

BTW, on monday we woke up with some 15-20 cm of snow at the door. For my surprise, the street and the sidewalks still had snow at 11:00 AM!! Even in Goettingen they would have been already clean! Even the avenue had snow on it yet! More complaining about the city hehehehehe

Tuesday, we decided to go to the city hall and see what's up. The provisional visas would end the 27th (sunday) and this is a short week. Got there, waited, got to talk to the nice guy there, who looks at the computer screen and say "you're both researchers, so you have to go to our section of 'students and researchers', not here with me", called someone and turned to me saying "it's gonna be quick there".

They have a special section for us, but no one told me that, actually I think the TUM's personnel department should have told us that. BTW, when I say TUM's personnel department I mean the TUM's hospital personnel department. No extrapolations here.

We went to the other section, got there and another nice guy starts asking all the papers again. All that the other wanted and had processed, this one wanted again. Gotta say, people at the foreigns department of the city hall have been EXTREMELY nice to us!!!! When he noticed I was not getting 100% of what he was saying, he switched to english :-))

At the end he tells me "you gotta bring one picture each, this declaration filled and signed, proof of health insurance until Dec 2010 and come back tomorrow at 10:00 AM, only one of you, no need for both and kid".

Health insurance is one of those loops, as I could see. You need it to get the residence permit, that is needed to have the work permit, that is needed to have the contract signed, that is needed to have the health insurance :-) We are with a provisional insurance for visitors, but Mawista is nice (if you ever need a short science visitor health insurance use Mawista - cheap, easy and simple). They extended our insurance until the end of the year and sent it right away to my e-mail, so I could print it when I got home. And we can cancel anytime.

Things seemed to be working. I needed to be downtown at 10:00 AM and in the west part of the city before 12:00 PM to get the contract for the Tagesmutter ... this was solved by phone and I'll get it on monday.

Got to my meeting at the city hall, gave documents, papers, pictures ... and then the person I was dealing with gets to me and says "what about your passport", and I point to my portuguese ID that he had in hand and say "I'm portuguese ... and brazilian" ... then the mess starts ... they always have problems with multiple citizenships. I understand, those laws are too complicated and too new!

Asked me to wait outside, went somewhere to gather information, after some 10-15 minutes he comes back with the "problem solved face". Then the forms started ... not many, but enough for me, Fernanda and Matheus. Remember when I said it was too easy for the first week? No forms, all digital ... well they got to me :-) Well, not so hard too, at 11:00 I was given things to pay and explanations.

So, now I have a permanent residence permit in Germany. I don't really need it, being portuguese, but Fernanda and Matheus do, and for them to have it, I must have it too. So now we have permanent residence permit in Germany with no restrictions whatsoever. Matheus has to come back in 5 years to renew it (don't ask me why). So, the instruction was "you go, pay and they will give you all there, merry Xmas". Then I asked, "what about the work permit?" and the reply was "for this you have to go to the Work Department" ... ooooooohhhhh crap!! We needed it today, so that Fernanda can sign the contract on the first working day of january (yep a month late ... no comments).

Fernanda was at home and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it for here ... so comes the "emergency call" while I was waiting for the papers to be issued ... "get Matheus and so to the Goethestrasse station, as soon as possible, I'll meet you there, we need to be at the Work Department before 12:30 PM", chaos, ... got the papers, got to this station, they arrived, we managed to get to the person we needed 12:25 PM.

Explained the situation, the person there tells that researchers don't need "work permits". Then we comment that the university was asking for it he researched his folders, some stuff on the computer, and printed the law that says that :-) Then I asked what would she need to do if she wanted to work with something else. He looked at Fernanda's brand new residence permit and said "nothing, here it has no restrictions, so she can work with whatever she wants without any special permit, this dashed part is canceling and need for work permits". Problem solved!

So excess of pressure was unnecessary, but we didn't know that before. TUM contacted, paperwork processing, documents handed, contract will be signed on Jan 4th.

And yesterday I've got a message from the train company that Matheus bag was found and is being sent via post to us! This is also good news!!!

So! That's all folks! The saga is not over, but will be reported more often hehehehehehe

Tomorrow is Xmas eve, so merry Xmas to all possible readers. No new before monday! :-)

Another week in Munich

2009-12-20T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! That week would start with phone installation. I'm being very pessimistic with all, so I can only get good surprises :-)))

The phone installation happened on monday at 9:30 (we'd need to stay home waiting for them, the whole day, if necessary). Despite the phone cord that has to cross half the flat, all perfect! Internet!!!

Forgot to mention in the previous post. Tethering is when you're mobile connects to the internet, creates a hotspot that allows you to connect your laptop to it, as a normal WiFi net. The only point is that O2 limits to 200 MB our 3G data transfer. After that it all goes GPRS (much, much slower).

So, this week, waiting for pay slips that ESO very kindly sent to me, since my own set was in some box (thanks a lot, Lone), to go back to the Work Department.

In the mean while got news that the protocols arrived from Goettingen BUT (there's always a but) needed to be scanned, since in Munich it's all digital already. Call back on friday!

Now let's complain a bit about the city :-)

When you come to a city like Munich you realize how life is simpler in a smaller town like Goettingen. It's all far! You need subway for anything! In Goettingen I only started using buses to protect Matheus from the cold! Garbage. Germans recycle everything, what is great. Recycling only works if it's simple and people don't waste time with it. In Goettingen, "packing" garbage was picked up on the street once every two weeks. Here, you have to take it to a "collection island", like glass. Munich is the only city in Germany that doesn't have a collection at home of this kind of garbage, as far as I found out, even Freising (the city beside) has this service. Not surprising no one cares about recycling here.

The city also doesn't care about kids! First weekend here we went to the "Christmas Market", so that Matheus could play a bit on roundabouts and other carnival toys ... turns out ... no carnival on the large and famous "Christmas MarketS" in Munich. Business people don't have kids, or send them to Disneyworld when they feel like playing!

Managed to go to the Work Department and officially found out that I would not receive the unemployment insurance. At the end I've got the paper that allows me to receive the social money, since we don't have jobs yet (Fernanda still don't have the contract).

Tried to contact the city hall to know about the scanning and permits and no reply. Now 3 weeks gone.

At this point I was already feeling bad, Matheus also had a cold. During the weekend we got better and Fernanda got very ill, with fever and so on ...

The previous weekend we had our first visitor! Miguel came to help me with some heavy furniture and of course a fondue.

About work (yes I try). Trying to read and write comments about the papers on UCDs we're working on (sorry guys, I'm trying) and finished the first round of models checking ... now the second and hard part comes.

The week with the trip to Goettingen

2009-12-13T23:59:00.000+01:00

Like in Friends, episodes were named "The One With blah blah blah", or simply "TOW blah blah blah". Now here it's "the week with" ...

So! Trip to Goettingen! For the first time traveling alone with Matheus. We've got to Goettingen, all under control, until I realized that Matheus' bag was left on the train, with toys, dippers, bottles, some documents, ... everything. Well, I just went down ...

Contacted immediately the info-desk, that called someone, that would call the train and make people locate, "capture" and send the bag back in Hannover, something that could take about 1-2 hours. Well I waited and heard that the bag was not located, even though I gave them the exact sit and car I left it ... they would keep looking and contact me, after filling several forms. Well ...

Gave the flat back, saw some friends, Matheus had a lot of fun at Silke's, sad goodbye, back home.

More unpacking in the house and calling the train company daily. Filling contract and forms for several things. A little discussion with the landlady about humidity and changing the heating knobs. All settled.

Time to look for my unemployment insurance. Miguel, who's chilean, tried it and could not get it for the end of his PhD thesis because his visa didn't allowed him to work on anything but his PhD, so he didn't qualify to the implicit "job searching" of receiving the unemployment insurance. On the other hand he would not receive what he paid unnecessarily and compulsorily for this insurance. I would have the same problem as Brazilian, now, as portuguese, I don't need a visa, so I qualify! Informed myself with friends and internet and the minimal condition is having payed 12 months of unemployment insurance in the last 36 months . I had payed 13.5 months, great. The time at ESO doesn't contribute to that and the last unemployed months either ... specially because I was not sure we'd stay in Germany and I'd become portuguese, and both were mandatory conditions for this unemployment insurance.

Well, turns out the rules changed in 2005, before I started contributing, and now it's 12 months of unemployment insurance in the last 24 months. In this case I have only 1.5 months paid so ... no unemployment insurance for me ... but I still needed to take the pay slips there so that they were 100% sure I couldn't have it.

Also called for the residence permit, in advance, to know if it was all "running properly". Turns out the protocols haven't arrived from Goettingen yet. I would have to call in the following wednesday. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

The surprising thing, was ARCOR. Now VODAFONE. I forgot to mention that they contacted me in the last week in Goettingen and I sent the forms by fax, so I was expecting internet and phone in January (4-6 weeks). We were being saved by the mobiles and tethering. Arcor set the instalation for the next monday (Dec 14th). Amazing, 2 weeks. Let's see.

In Munich

2009-12-06T23:59:00.001+01:00

So! In Munich!

New flat, chaos, all in boxes, heating failing and the only internet connection was thru the new mobile phones (that really saved the day and the next days). Why internet connection? Yep, when you have a situation like that you see dependent of it we are.

For example, our way through the german bureaucracy (it's easier than most of the countries) starts with registering yourself as inhabitant of the city you live. Where would you do that? In a city like Goettingen, you go to the town hall/city hall. Here it depends on where you live. Also "how to get there?" All this info is in the internet and we failed to foreseen that need. Thanks Miguel again.

We did the registration (anmeldung), but that was all on the first day, since most of the public service in the country is opened to the public only in the morning, and the residence permit was to be dealt in the other side of the city. Great.

Now fix the heating. Long story short. After calling several people, an expert came and solved the problem. At least to the point of "having a heating", but the knobs were too old so tuning was not really possible.

Next day, residence/work permit. In Goettingen I always had them together and preceded by lots of forms. We've got to the place, got a number waited LONG and got a very nice person that did everything without a single form and very easily. All digital! It ended with "I need your protocol to come from Goettingen, it is transfered with the registration you did yesterday, when it arrives you will receive a card with residence and work permit". THAT EASY. We just needed to call in 2 weeks to be sure it was ready and I didn't need anything anymore since I'm portuguese now and Fernanda and Matheus would have it all because of that.

There was still a problem. Fernanda needed the work permit this same day (Dec, 1st) to sign the contract and start working. Of course we knew that this wouldn't be the case, but 2 weeks was too long, so we needed some receipt that would work. The very nice person at this department just said that the university could call him and he would explain it all. We called the personnel department immediately and heard something like "is not the policy of the TUM to call people, he can call us if he wants" ... WOOOOOOOOOOOW Incompetent and prepotent!!! Long story sort again, waited a lot to talk back to the guy, who agreed to call them the next day and explain.

Without that, no contract ... so waiting.

Arranging the house, getting used to the new and way smaller place.

And YES, I'm all complains about the city (at least yet). Now I understand people that came to Germany and did not liked it. I really like living in Germany! They came to Munich, not to Germany.

All arranged to give the flat in Goettingen back. Me and Matheus would go to Goettingen on monday morning, we'd stay at Silke's (former Tagesmutter from Matheus, now our great friend) and come back on tuesday. And I would be able to see some people in Goettingen I couldn't before leaving.

Moving to Munich

2009-11-29T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! Got back to Goettingen and started planing the removal.

We needed a truck (too much stuff) with a driver. Removal companies are much too expensive, for the same service. If you need them to carry your stuff is even worse and if you need them to pack and unpack for you ... forget it.

We had been trying to reach the TUM Personnel Department since the previous week and finally, on monday, we managed. We learned that Fernanda needed a health exam, that had to start with a blood test and then a week later, when you have the results from the test, the physical exams. Well, a week later would be the start of the contract ... and the blood test could only be done very early in the morning. Result, Fernanda got the train at the end of the day to Munich, stayed at Miguel's (thanks pal) and I went the next day to officially get the keys of the flat (flat that we had never seen, it was visited and "approved" by Miguel - thanks again pal!). So in 12 hours I spent 7.5 in trains to go and come back.

Fernanda received the huge list of documents she would need, some that take a very long time to be issued, and we also learned that she should have been contacted around mid OCTOBER, but, you know ... her boss is already hunting heads and we are still paying (sometime literally) the price of the incompetence of the TUM's personnel department. There will be more complains later about it. :-)

So, back to Goettingen, back to the removal. We decided that we would be already living in Munich when she started to work so the removal would happen in the weekend, we had 4 days to pack the house and arrange everything.

Set the truck to sunday, set an army of friends to help on the removal in Goettingen and in Munich (thank you all again). Also a lot of help on the packing. Friends are great!

We moved on sunday, chaos took over our things.

During this week we tried to get the more complicated document, the "work permit", that should come after having the "residence permit", that requires a contract and time. In Goettingen they informed us that there would be no time for that, since we would be moving on the weekend. I also registered my portuguese citizenship at their system. Very handy even though cause of confusion in the future.

Needless to say that the only work time during the whole week were the almost 4 hours train trip to Munich on tuesday (trip back I was too tired and I had Fernanda as company :-) ). Started checking the new models.

Next chapter "in Munich" :-)

The trip back

2009-11-20T23:59:00.000+01:00

So! It's been a while, too much happening at the same time, so now I can come back to posting what has been happening.

I'll be posting with "retroactive" dates, so that things are well placed "in time" and I'll be telling the story in parts, even it several parts at once. This way my "loyal reader" (as Hogg always says) can know what's up.

The second half of the trip to Brazil was fine. We came back to Rio, but couldn't see most of the people we wanted due to small problems like "food poisoning" of the couple (we're not sure it was bad, or we just ate too much at the "churrascaria"). That killed the weekend.

On the next monday I had to come back to Sao Paulo to sign my portuguese papers and get my ID card. So now, officially portuguese.

Some work was done one the cluster project, finishing to produce the new photometric catalogue, matched with the ACS photometry and with CAS analysis. The next step would be modeling the new objects. That was also started (it runs in batch) and will need checking afterwards.

In the mean while we were worried about the paperwork for Fernanda's contract at the TUM (in Munich) and we finally heard we would need to call the personnel department. To know what was up. And also couldn't contact ARCOR successfully about new prices and transferring my phone/DSL to Munich. Which they ask 4-6 weeks.

Time to come back to Germany.

Flight TO Brazil was already bad. The sit was about 1cm narrower than my hips and I'm not "that" out of shape. A "not new" 747. Bad choice. You really have the impression they are transporting CATTLE!!! At least the crew was nice and that made things easier. When you travel with a small kid that should sleep in your lap, you really need some crew attention.

On the flight back, no changes on the sits (same plane, or similar), place was worse, there was a mother with 2 kids beside us, one in the lap and a larger one on the sit. That as every kid it "spreads" while sleeps and poor Fernanda with Matheus on her lap and a kid beside using her as pillow and so on ...

To complete, the crew of this flight really sucked! Now I was sure they were transporting cattle! For example, when the "food" came, I've got mine and would get Fernanda's when I was done, so I could get Matheus while she eats (actually a nice suggestion from the crew of the flight to Brazil). When I said that I heard "we can't do that", after a "cynical/ragged" look and a "so what to you suggest??" pointing at a mother with sleeping son in her arms, I was "tolerated".

This is just an example, I really don't intent to get into an Air France flight again, if I can prevent. Hooray to KLM!

Got home and started solving problems and planing the moving.

BTW, there will be A LOT of complaining in the next few posts :-))

Summarizing

2009-11-13T23:59:00.000+01:00

Long while ... things are quite crazy.

The flat we found "turn us down" ... no comments ...

After looking a bit more and a "remote" visit (thanks Miguel) we found a flat. Contract was signed a day before our trip to Brazil.

We came to Brazil ... I had to sign some papers (still have to sign some of them) and since we're moving to Munich we won't be able to come for Christmas, so we all came.

Some days in Sao Paulo, now some in Rio. Days have to be equally divided between the grandparents.

About science. New photometry for the clusters that was observed and "z-photted" by the "Bonn people" was matched to our ACS photometry. Now CAS is being ran and gotta check the GALFIT models.

Other clusters and DFs are ready in CAS and models and photometry. Just the "best fit" decision is to be done. Simulations will give this to train the method.

What else ... several small things, but mostly family issues.

We'll be back to Germany next week and then we move to Munich ... so rushy times.

Too much non-science ...

2009-10-13T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! Mostly since last post I've been looking for flats in Munich. Yep, is a dammed expensive city.

We've spent last week there visiting the flats and found something, one that is "livable and affordable". Now we "applied" to it and are waiting for the landlord to say "yes, we like you ..."

Besides that just some application material. Tomorrow I'll be back to science.

Too much at the same time!

2009-10-02T23:59:00.001+02:00

So too many things at the same time.

A lot of work to do, as usual, now I really need to finish some stuff for good!

We are moving to Munich. Yep! Not because of me. Fernanda got a post-doc position at the TUM. So we are going there, then I can try to get something for me there (4 institutes, there's gotta be something :-)) ).

That implies in looking for a flag. A good one for an affordable price ... yeah, in Munich ... is like searching for cool breeze in hell!! Munich is amazingly expensive! Anything is at least twice the price of Göttingen.

We have been calling several adds and escaped a dirty con!! Yep! Be aware, it's happening in Germany and at least in Switzerland. Amazing flat for a good price, contact by e-mail, you are "chosen" from "several" applicants. Keys will come by DHL in a service where you deposit the "bail" and receive the keys. If you keep the keys the bail is sent to the landlord. But then the transfer would be make by Western Union ... opaaaaa ... short call to DHL was enough to learn the word BETRUG (german word for fraud). Then some more directed "googling" and many more indications of it. Some people believed and why not ...

Next week we gotta go to Munich to visit some of the flats.

About science. Updating information. Latest CAS results and working on the simulations. Not much time. Calling flats takes too long for me because I have to prepare myself for what I want to say and to what I expect to hear. Bavarian accent makes things a bit worse, but I'm handling.

Also got involved in some proposal, but no PI-ing, no time this round.

A lot to do out of science

2009-09-29T23:59:00.001+02:00

So!

haven't been posting here due to lots of "off science" duties. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be the end of it and not a train. More soon and with good news.

About work. Last week I finished my part of the new mask of our low luminosity ellipticals. Now it's back to Bodo.

Yesterday and today back to hi-z morphology. Trying to make BPZ work and reproduce Hendrik Hildebrandt's (Leiden) kind work on photometric redshifts. We have added NIR photometry to 2 clusters and refined the photometry of all the clusters, so z-phots should improve. Unfortunately there's still something missing since I can reproduce his results with the old photometry. The results of the new photometry compared with spectroscopic redshifts are not so bad but could improve ... deciding what to do.

Also managed to "hack" Asmus Boehm's code on CAS to make it possible to run remotely (no displays and other graphic stuff) to be able to run it on the 15200 simulated galaxies of my "characterization simulation". Then we can compare GALAPAGOS/MULTICOMP with CAS results for simulations also. Even though the CAS analysis suffers a bit since there are no star formation regions and irregularities on the simulated galaxies.

This project seems to never end, and indeed it never ends. More and more we see things we can improve and explore using the full capability of the high quality data ...

Basically that. Tomorrow back to analyzing the results of MULTICOMP on the simulated galaxies to define confidence levels.

Some stuff

2009-09-23T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, friday was application submission and some home problem solving.

Light at the end of the tunnel, hoping not to be a train ... more on that soon!

Working, last minute stuff, on the Low Luminosity Ellipticals project. I guess I never mentioned that before because it uses data from the hi-z clusters. But requires some refinement on it, so that is taking some time. The topic on the tunnel is also taking time.

Gotta finish the ellipticals tomorrow morning.

Besides that, some medical appointments before I change health insurance.

Writing and rewriting

2009-09-17T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, wednesday more on writing, thursday more on rewriting. Also today Matheus had a pediatrician appointment so that took most of the day, since he stayed home for most of it and I was the father "on duty" :-))

New application ready. Tomorrow submission.

Of course the weather didn't improve on wednesday. It did so for today, but no time for cycling ... maybe tomorrow afternoon for a little while.

Dinner at home with a good friend and collaborator of Fernanda, Elaine Del Bel (USP-Ribeirao). It's always great to talk to intelligent people, isn't it?

Writing some stuff

2009-09-15T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, writing stuff.

Updating some e-mails, asking for some information, some updated text for a new job application..

Reading a proceeding and a observational proposal to be submitted by collaborators.

Wrote most of my cycling magazine monthly text.

Basically that.

More to write for another application, some organization to do and if the weather improve as it's claimed, some cycling!! :-)

Getting back to normal!

2009-09-14T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, today, comparing the implementation of the BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion) and the Akaike test. Of course the bad results the preliminary analysis gave were due to a small bug on the code ... now I'm to decide which one fits better my needs and, more important, to decide how to decide that!! Which would be the good tests for that, that can also characterize classification errors.

Also updating CV and texts for applications.

Yet another summary ...

2009-09-11T23:59:00.000+02:00

So! Catching up is difficult, takes time, so no time for posting :-)))

Now a little summary.

First, unfortunately Fernanda hasn't got the offer in Leeds. She's been there for the interview, they took some extra time to reply, but at the end not for her, so we're not going to Leeds ... the search continues.

Analyzing some intracluster light together with Ignacio Toledo and Jorge Melnick from ESO using OV_WAV. Was a surprise when Jorge said in his talk at Rio he was using the OV_WAV for ICL and it's good that I can give them some help on what's not working fine.

Gotta prepare a webpage for OV_WAV with instructions.

Refereeing a nice paper.

Reading a draft of a proceeding.

Didn't have time to really read Elif's paper. She submitted it anyway, I'll insert comments on the "referee bounce".

In Rio, talking to my good friends Roberto Cid Fernandes (UFSC) and Marcelo Byrro Ribeiro (IF/UFRJ) I collected some suggestions for my "goodness of the fit" indicator. Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and the Akaike Information Criterion. Implemented the BIC, but it's too punitive for free parameters, in a first analysis. Mostly it prefers the simpler model, while Chi^2 mostly prefers the more complex model (even the reduced one).

I'm checking the simulated objects now and gonna implement the Akaike test, which is less punitive and see what comes out.

Some object selection on UCDs in HCGs.

Also several medical check ups, just in case! And trying to bike a bit, to get back in shape.

Two applications due this week ...

Back in Germany (again)!

2009-09-01T23:49:00.001+02:00

So! Catching up after vacations in France and Spain! Back to work! More tomorrow!

IAU-GA summary

2009-08-14T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, I've been out the last two weeks, part of it spent on the IAU-GA in Rio. I've actually only spent the first week and the first day of the second week.

First my idea was to write daily on what I've seen there, but it was impossible, not only because of the meeting, but because of the "after meeting" hehehehehe

One of the very interesting things of this meeting, held in my home country was seeing a lot of people I haven't seen since before I left to Germany almost five years ago. Since then lot's of things have changed, like my long hair is gone, my need for glasses is gone, so I had to re-introduce myself to many colleagues. No problems with it.

On the scientific side, on the first three day I attended the joint discussion on Dark Matter in Elliptical Galaxies. Interesting topic, sometimes too technical. I would highlight here the talk from Tomaso Treu and the one from Richard Ellis.

The following two days I attended to the joint discussion on Diffuse Light, the one I had my talk and appointed myself. It was very good!! Very good indeed. Very nice talks from Ann Zabludoff, John Feldmeier, Pat Durrell and (of course) Claudia Mendes de Oliveira, just to mention a couple of them. One and a half days of discussion worth seeing.

We had the opportunity to openly discuss issues like contaminations, error estimates, modeling problems and so on. Also had the opportunity to have interesting conversations with some of the people and specially with Ann Zabludoff, a conversation that was postponed from the last IAU-GA in Prague.

On the following monday, nice talks from Richard Ellis (again) and Abraham Loeb and a nice invited discourse from Simon White.

On the weekend the city planetarium took 300 of the participants to a soccer match in Maracanã, Flamengo x Corinthians (my favorite team). It was fun to take all this people there. The match was not that good and my team lost 1x0 ... grrrr :-)))

After that somedays at my parents, to enjoy their company and to solve some problems related to my portuguese citizenship and to lots of things I left at their place five years ago and never really took care of it. This time I managed to overview half of it and two produce a large amount of trash! Yep, old receipts from telephone, electric power and things like that, lot's of useless paper and several other things. Important things now properly organized and archived.

Basically that. Now I'm at the plane (just gonna post that on monday night) flying home to my family. I miss them badly :-) Trips are not ending. One day at home and 12 days in the south of France/north of Spain are coming with a lot of beach and bike rides for the three of us!!

So I'll probably be back on posting in the first week of september.

Flying to Brazil

2009-07-31T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, during this week most of the time was spent on planing the trip to Brazil (even though is a "going to my home land" kind of trip, it involves some planing :-) ).

Finished to review the models for the velocity fields work and couldn't make de CAS code work. Asmus Boehm will need to give some extra help on that.

Flying to the IAU-GA meeting ... had to "sleep" at the airport since the first train in the morning from Göttingen to Hannover is not early enough for a 6:30 flight. Then a day flight, kind of boring (as I was commenting to my wife) since there was no baby playing with the personal screen remote or trying to rip the flight magazine or walking me through the hole plane! :-)))) I miss them already.

Already in Rio. I'm writing that on sunday night, even though I'll "date" it as friday night, for organizational reasons.

Tried to get my material in the early-pick-up. My father-in-law drove me there twice and twice they had run out of material ... I just hope this is not an "indication" on how the meeting is going to be ... let's think positive because up to now they have been quite good.

Let's see what's good for tomorrow :-)

Less than half a day

2009-07-28T23:59:00.000+02:00

Almost the whole day taking care of Matheus ... some model checking, not done yet.

It's way funnier to take care of him :-))

Half a day

2009-07-27T23:59:00.000+02:00

Half a day working, half a day babysitting. Matheus babysitter is sick so he'll stay home part of the week.

Fernanda took care of him in the morning and I prepared my talk to Rio. Afternoon she went to work and we went to check some car parts for "grandpa" :-))

Week at ESO (summary)

2009-07-24T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, there wasn't much time for posting last week. A mix of a lot of work with spending time with friends. Summarizing in monday morning.

Claudia Mendes de Oliveira, my former PhD supervisor, came on wednesday. We arranged what we needed for the talks at the IAU-GA in Rio and some other minor stuff. We had a productive meeting with Bodo and Michael Hilker about the preliminary results for the UCDs in HCGs. That was great.

In the evening a nice dinner at Claudio Melo's. We studied together our whole life (high school, college and master) and his wife is a friend of mine since we are 5 years old. It was a great evening with a lot of chatting :-))

More work on the data, lots of small problems to solve, catalogues to arrange, codes to make it work ...

Evening at Bodo's with Thomas Kronberger and his girlfriend. Also a lot of chatting.

We have some red sequence discrepancies within the data and when comparing to models, I could not meet with Massa Tanaka to discuss about it.

I'm trying to make Asmus' code for CAS work, it's a MIDAS code and I'm not exactly a MIDAS user. Got to the first steps but still no result from the code. I'm missing something and Asmus is on vacation ... I'll try more latter.

Also rechecking objects selected by Elif. Up to now most of them keep the way I selected. Some could use some improvement.

More at ESO

2009-07-21T23:59:00.000+02:00

More discussion about the data we have, some technical stuff ...

Claudia Mendes de Oliveira will come tomorrow (wednesday).

At the end of the day Biergarten with Bodo, Jörg Dietrich and Massa Tanaka. Some fun, we deserve it.

Week at ESO

2009-07-20T23:59:00.000+02:00

First day, as usual. Train, some work during the trip, seeing good friends and discussing the simulations with Bodo. Tomorrow more discussion on this project.

A week searching

2009-07-17T23:27:00.003+02:00

Basically the whole week arranging the NIR photometry, trying to figure out how to make the recipes for photometric redshifts work and figuring out details in the simulation results.

Next week I'll be in Garching, working with Bodo and with Claudia Mendes de Oliveira.

Finding systematics

2009-07-13T22:58:00.001+02:00

Trying to find systematic errors on the simulation. Some weird behavior of GALFIT was found ...

Good results

2009-07-09T22:52:00.003+02:00

So! The first results of the simulation are good. Now I'll try to extract something more from it.

Also half of the NIR photometry is done, now include it in the catalogue, do the other half and include this on the phot-z's

Dentist treatment is over! eeeeee

Simulation done, NIR photometry almost

2009-07-08T23:16:00.003+02:00

So, simulation (re-furbished version) is over (about 90 hours to run in 4 processors, so 360 hours of simulation) and will be analyzed tomorrow.

NIR photometry almost there for one cluster, than there's a second one. It's also boring, matching objects is not so straight forward ...

Tomorrow check up on the dentist, to know all that was done is ok and hopefully it's all over. Also gotta check some car rental for a trip end of august.

It goes

2009-07-06T23:31:00.003+02:00

Refurbished simulation running, should be ready by tomorrow, thanks to the quick computers :-)

Some data digging on my catalogues for the VF project.

Last catalogues is ready. Now I should try to include some NIR photometry to improve spectral fitting.

Tomorrow dentist ... should be the last appointment!

Refurbished ...

2009-07-03T23:59:00.000+02:00

2:00 AM refurbished simulation running. The goal is to have it all on sunday, again ...

I'll describe the refurbishing latter.

Clearing the mind

2009-07-02T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, yesterday and today, to clear a bit the mind and do a proper analysis of the simulation and take other project forward I was organizing the photometry of our UCD candidates!

That will be a nice result!!!

Also trying to understand the residua I'm getting on the GALFIT analysis of the simulated galaxies. Is it right? Are the simulated galaxies wrong? Is GALFIT getting crazy?

Not so clear

2009-06-30T21:54:00.001+02:00

So, the results of the simulation are not so clear. There might be a problem on the GALFIT modeling or on the way parameters were defined ...

Good and bad news

2009-06-29T22:23:00.001+02:00

Good news! Simulation is ready, done, over! eeeeeeee

Bad news! Its analysis and interpretation is not as straight as I would like it to be ...

Is it almost done?

2009-06-26T23:24:00.003+02:00

So! GALAPAGOS finished its task. Now is multicomp who is playing, just making multi-component fit with GALFIT. That is running and should run during the weekend.

Finishing the last objects from the last cluster! Just the worst cases ahead.

Dentist was painful!

It seems to go ...

2009-06-25T23:59:00.000+02:00

Yep! Seems that the GALAPAGOS part of the simulation is running smoothly now and should be done by tomorrow.

Alto a third of the sample is already fitted in multi-components, a second third is running and the third part is the one running in GALAPAGOS.

If I have enough processors, it will be done by monday.

Also a nice MTB ride to test the new/old/renewed bike!! Needs some derailleurs and breaks tuning (cables stretch) and pedals are still not there. But the new cassete solved the chain jumping issue! I know, sports on Bikes'n'Coffee :-)) It's back alive!!

Tomorrow morning ... dentist, again. After that still 2 appointments to go ... ahhhhh

Some more jumps

2009-06-24T23:44:00.002+02:00

Some more jumps on the simulation, but seems that now it goes. I should have results until the weekend!

Still jump starting ...

2009-06-23T23:59:00.000+02:00

So, still jump starting my simulation, but seems my walk arounds have worked, so now it's running ... hopefully until the end!

Also fishing failures, now one more is about to go and one is left!

Crash and Burn ... bug fixing and jump starting ...

2009-06-22T23:59:00.000+02:00

During the weekend I tried to make the simulation run as fast as possible, when I could use a larger number of processors. Well, turns out GALAPAGOS was not meant to run several images with a single object, but several (about a hundred not 20,000) with several objects ... so some issues appeared. Some were solved, some I'm still stuck with.

No new option for Delta_Chi^2. Unfortunately since the variation of Chi^2 is typically larger than the number of parameters ... it gives the same result as pure Chi^2 ...

Also saving failed models around.