Writing on the Casa wall

Quotes from the Marcelayan

2011-07-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

From the book of Guido 3:1
On Fishbath day one shall indent code by 4 white spaces
On Fishmoultday identation shall be done by 6 white spaces
On the rare day of Fishsweat one shall code only with tabs as white spaces

From the book of El Gato 1:7

Nothing is more beautiful than displayed in 80 characters wide terminal.
Thus no code shall be written that violates this edict except on Soltice days when
thou shall not touch a ^M or ^J.

Fundamental

2011-05-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

Obvious

2009-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Many radio astronomers can't seem to see the obvious or self evident
till they get their face rubbed into it.

I am shocked

2009-07-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

I have not been invited (me who did Non-Euclidean Transformation Grammars with C++ http://marctimalin.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html) to the 3rd Generation Calibration meeting.

They are talking of a new breed
I lead my own species indeed
Young minds are not being being 3GC'ed, que c'est chiant !
And yet i'm forgotten like Boris Vian.

What do we call people who train others in what they don't know ?
Yes.....No ?
Who theorize about collaboration ?
Those faux genies without a passion !

I know i'm right why collaborate ?
I will get it right without a sweat on my pate
I can drive my new Ferrari
(Pere was kind to buy me another one)
It will generate less CO2 than talking in Paris
(and be bored like a moine).

Requirements

2008-03-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Marcel's first rule on software requirements ( ok i'm not humble)

If a requirement cannot be explained in plain French (i'll grudgingly accept plain English too) then its not a requirement.

Quote of the day

2007-06-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

From my personal chef :

A quick omelet is usually called scrambled eggs.

Global Torture

2007-05-24T13:56:00.002-07:00

Globalization fight

2007-05-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Can we protect our parameters in this day of globalization ?

How can we keep our hand crafted parameters getting trampled by cheap mass produced (in sweat-shops) parameters .

This is terrible. We are in a losing battle to keep the culture of designer crafted parameters and shown off by (anorexic) models.

May be we need to be a bit more protectionists about our parameters, the global economy can go thus far...we cannot let culture be trampled (Quel horreur !).

We should build protected pipelines from the source of good quality parameters to us (who can appreciate the "quality"). We cannot let them be corrupted globally by the uncultured mass.

Ah the days when one could savor the bouquet of a zparm in the privacy of one's protected knowledge

Quote of the day

2007-05-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

When you are ready to savor the fruits of your labor you realize that they've turned to raisins.
(B.G.)

The road

2006-10-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

If you want plenty of people to use a road...the conventional wisdom is to pave the road ...but have you noticed that all roads that are paved (at least most of them) lead to boring places

So question do most people like boring places or do the paved roads make the place boring ?

What's the lesson here ?

Oh well time for me to go to Amsterdam to get my stash....

Afraid

2006-05-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have not been able to work very well in the last few days...as you know robbers went through my neighbour's house....

Imagine all those people who hate the software i work on...what if they put stuff in my air conditioner.

I am rewriting the software and putting sensors on my ac's....

What should a bus driver do ?

2006-04-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

If a bus driver, thinking doing well, was early all the time at a given bus stop and miss his customers all the time... What does he do to correct his pattern ?

Does he start coming late henceforth ?

Radio Astronomers ou pas ?

2006-03-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

There is a heavy discussion, forwarded to me, going on in the Americas about whether Radio Astronomers are
Astronomers using radiometres or Radionomers picking astronomical signals.

First of all my American cousins don't seem to remember that to have a good philosophical discussion you need your beret, pipe, good wine and a cafe. As they have none of this their discussions are just a joke !
Why the fuss you may say....it seems in the Americas they think if they can call themselves astronomers using radiometres then they can claim money from a larger pot.

But what they don't understand ...is that you cannot change your spots... Radio Astronomy has to be done the way we have done it all the time...Its like champagne ...you cannot make champagne in California...it has to be done in Champagne and using the right process.

That is why the whole of the aips++ mess...if they respected the traditions ...life would have been good.
Let the tradition stay and stand proud: We are Radio Astronomers and fiere de l'etre ...Les faibles and miserables call themselves astronomers. Tigers don't call themselves cats, nom de Dieu!

Unleashed!

2006-03-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I have unleashed an early product - a version of AIPS++ designed to appear very similar to the previous version but with some hidden features. This tests the forward and reverse transformations that I have developed. To alert the quite often dozy AIPS++ developers, I have reset the VERSION number. Let us see what happens.....

0.1.00 Sat 2006/03/04 01:00:48 GMT

Non-Euclidean Transformational Grammars and C++

2006-02-28T00:33:00.000-08:00

When I first had the misfortune to cast my eyes upon AIPS++, I said to myself, c'est foutu! However, as part of my last year at the otherwise tedious Ecole Normale Superiere in Lyon, I worked with an unassuming professor from one of our previous colonies. He was hard put to keep up with me, quel branleur, but he did provide a little aid on my groundbreaking work on Non-Euclidean Transformation Grammars and C++ which I presented as a thesis in lieu of any attending any lectures. The relevance to my current work is of course obvious - an XSLT mediated transformation selected by genetic algorithm implements a range of possible unfoldings of typically constipated AIPS++ code into CASA code of openness, vitality, and elan. I have implemented a subtle form of user testing via phishing, which eventually allows me to select one of these as the code to be used. The entropy of the transformation allows a precise metricification of my remediation of AIPS++. This is the secret of my simply massive progress, I cannot conceal. I fully expect to be through with the entire work within a few weeks, and then it is on to the ALMA!

A demain, MALPT!

Marcel

Introduction

2006-02-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

I am Marcel Timalin. Right now I am re-writing the whole of aips++ as casa.
This blog is going to reflect my thought process as I progress. Already done quite a lot of work and gotten some work that is going to be released soon.

I am doing this as a favor and working for free ( My father has enough money to support me). I live in Nice.

It was found that Radio Astronomy software cannot be effectively be written by a group. Single genius is necessary otherwise the radio astronomy software have fundamental bugs. That is a well know radio astronomy axiom. It is called the cottonology of radio astronomy software

And look what i have done. A large part of the functionality of aips++ have been rewritten by me in less than 6 weeks of work. And work typically for me is waking up in the morning, have breakfast of croissant and cafe au lait on the riviera. Then have lunch with wine. Work for 2 hours. Then hang out on the beach or drive my Aston-Martin around till dinner time.