Whenever someone at the AEI defends their PhD thesis, their friends construct an elaborate hat. In the celebrations after their presentation, they have to wear it. Over the years, the hats have evolved from simple constructions with a few themed items or pictures, to hats featuring LEDs, sounds and other …
New website
You are reading this on my shiny new website. I decided that WordPress, while awesome for big sites, is overkill for such a small place. What pushed me over the edge was my recent realisation that WordPress updates my site more frequently than I do. Plus, when I look at …
Moving to another country is expensive
In December I moved to Hannover, Germany to start a postdoc at the Albert-Einstein-Institute, a Max Planck institute dedicated to developing instrumentation and conducting data analysis for gravitational wave astrophysics. I've started work on the AEI 10 m prototype, which is an absolutely awesome experiment, but that's for another post …
Passing the DVSA theory test
I recently passed by DVSA theory test, which is a requirement for sitting the practical driving test to legally drive on UK roads. I booked my theory test 3 days ago, grabbing a last minute slot for earlier today, having not studied before then. Normally the waiting time is around …
Cryptocurrency quotes from the terminal
I made a small tool to retrieve prices of cryptocurrencies from the command line. It uses by default Kraken's API, first retrieving the available asset pairs (e.g. bitcoin to US dollars), caching them locally, then allowing for quotes to be retrieved with these assets.
For example, you can …
Standard resistors
E series of standard resistor values
Ever notice that resistors come in logarithmic increments? There's a lot of sense behind it. Resistor series typically follow the E-series of preferred numbers, codified into an IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standard after World War II (IEC 60063:1963 to be exact). The smallest …
Publishing my thesis in book form
Last year I completed my PhD studying interferometry for the detection of gravitational waves. My thesis is now available in electronic form that anyone that wishes to read it can obtain, and the source code is on GitHub. A paper copy - following the standard fabric-bound, A4 format specified by the …
What's the difference between resistor types?
Anyone who's ever had to buy resistors from sites like RS, Farnell or DigiKey will know that there are myriad types to choose from: "carbon composite", "wire-wound", "carbon film", "metal film"... what do these mean, and in which applications are they useful and harmful?
Assorted resistors. Which type is useful …
Fixing discarded messages in Dovecot sieve filters due to incorrect message IDs
I like StackExchange newsletters, which send you weekly emails for each site you sign up for containing top rated discussions. I subscribe to Electronics, Physics and, for fun, Aviation.
In February, I changed the email address associated with my StackExchange account to use my own server. After that, I noticed …
Spectra Microvision Plus install guide for modern operating systems
The Spectra Microvision Plus is a nice residual gas analyser (RGA), allowing one to examine the elements and molecules present within a vacuum system. In the speed meter group at the Institute for Gravitational Research, we use it to test our vacuum system for cleanliness, leaks and the presence of …