FujitaBlog

Steps towards being paperless?

Sat, 7 Mar 2009 21:56:30 -0800

So a while ago, I talked about going paperless. Well, I just got my MacBook Air, and I can confirm that it is often more efficient to go paperless with the Air. I’ll talk in more detail about the Airbook another time, but here I want to briefly show how I’m going electronic for a very important aspect of my research: lab work.

I now have an electronic lab notebook that I prepare in Numbers. I use Numbers because of it’s really good page layout focus, which to me is essential for flexibility. It’s easy to create charts, import gel pictures (drag-and-drop), write commentary (text boxes), etc. In the end I do end up printing a copy just to have a hard-copy, but I can see myself eventually stopping this. My lab notebook is kept on my iDisk, which syncs to three different computers, which means I basically have three back-ups plus a copy on Apple’s server.

I can then take my Airbook in the lab because it’s so airy and portable, or, what I’ve found even better, I export my lab notebook as a pdf, put it on iDisk, and use the iPhone application MobileFiles (free I think) to view the entries. I need to export the notebook as a pdf because MobileFiles can’t read Numbers documents yet, and I delete all the entries of the notebook except for the ones that I need to reduce the file size. However, with MobileFiles, my lab notebook is with me all the time for my iPhone as long as I have access to the internet (3G or wireless works best for large files).

Sometimes, I make a mistake in my calculations when preparing my labwork in Numbers, and can’t exactly recalculate using the pdf on my iPhone. Usually it’s a recipe that I calculate for the wrong number of reactions. If I had my MacBook Air with me I could recalculate directly on the lab notebook, easy. But with only my iPhone, I’m stuck unless I want to recalculate by hand (sounds like I’m lazy, but my templates incorporate 10% pipetting error). Luckily, I have my cocktail recipes in an Excel file in addition to my Numbers lab notebook. This Excel file is on my iPhone using the program Mariner Calc ($9.99), which allows you to create and modify Excel worksheets (and it even has some built-in functions). I can easily recalculate the recipe for any of my cocktails. I haven’t had too much experience with Mariner Calc yet, and it is a version 1.0 (so expect bugs), but so far it’s been good.

So, with expensive gadgetry, it is possible to go more electronic and to use less paper. I use my iPhone, my MacBook Air, and my MobileMe subscription. I’ll talk about how I use each in my research in more detail later.

iWork ‘09

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:53:36 -0800

So I have been trying iWork ’09 for a few weeks, mostly Pages and Numbers, and I will end up getting it. I think the best addition to Pages is the full screen writing mode, which has always appealed to me to the point where I was going to buy a program just for that feature...and now it’s included in Pages. Numbers has received a bunch of new improvements, including adding trendlines to charts and more formulas to work with. The formula editor is so easy to use, too. It’s greatest strength is still page layout, but it is growing in terms of computing and data management. I have experimented with the new features of Keynote, such as the object and text transitions, and I can’t wait to use them in a presentation at some point.

I also experimented with iWork.com. I have to say that even though it seems like an interesting service, it isn’t worth paying for it. Luckily, it its beta stage, iWork.com is free for the moment. But it is leaning toward a collaboration atmosphere rather than an actual online productivity suite. You can’t edit documents, just make comments on them. Which is fine, as long as you don’t have to pay for it (otherwise just e-mail your collaborators).

So, get iWork ’09, and try iWork.com beta before you have to pay for it.

Queensland Field Trip Part 1

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 19:00:36 -0800

So I arrived in Brisbane on the 23rd of November and Mitzy and Renee picked me up at the airport. We blitzed our way to Mt. Isa to pick up Craig. Along the way, I semi-learned how to drive a manual car...it’s fun, but we made sure I stuck to the long, empty roads with little or no traffic. We arrived in Mt. Isa on the 25th and made plans to search a few stations within the vicinity before heading to Gregory Downs in the rains died down a little. It was certainly raining quite hard, and the frogs later that night were definitely out in full force. Anyway, we went to one station and of course found some Heteronotia. We went back to the caravan park where we were staying, had some chicken tikka masala dinner, and prepped the Heteronotia.

On the 26th, we headed north to Gregory Downs, looking at stations and roadhouses along the way. We stayed along the river that night, and it wasn’t the most comfortable of places despite having nice, clear water nearby. First, it was hot and humid. Second, that is where I got my ten mosquito bites! Third, the water wasn’t even that cool, but it was cool enough to provide some relief. Nevertheless, it was quite fun, even with the thousands of cane toad metamorphs along the river bank.

Adobe CS4

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:43:43 -0800

Now, lately I’ve been writing about several pieces of software that I enjoy. I don’t simply go out and buy it because it sounds cool...I do research and think about the pros and cons of each program. In the end, I think I make pretty good decisions. For instance, I rely more and more on MobileMe, despite its little annoyances with syncing. I’m just about ready to go on a 2-month trip to Australia, and I dumped all the important documents into my iDisk...now I have a copy on my computer and on the web for easy access.

But this post is about CS4. In general, I get frustrated with Illustrated and Photoshop because they are too powerful for anything I would ever want to do. I think the new versions are better and easier to use, so I give them credit. What has really caught my attention, however, is Acrobat Pro.

First, why did I buy it? I will say this is the first time I bought an Adobe product. It got it via UC Berkeley’s steep license cut (though it was still expensive).

Second, what’s up with Acrobat Pro? I previously hated it for these reasons: (1) It was slow to open pdfs, (2) It looked clunky, (3) It’s features weren’t very easy to understand or access. In Acrobat Pro 9, for some reason, these three things have disappeared, or at least largely abated.

Acrobat Pro opens pdfs very fast...on par with Preview. In fact, I now have pdfs open in Acrobat Pro automatically. Acrobat’s editing tools are much more vast compared to Preview, and now that I have a better handle on them (again perhaps due to Acrobat Pro 9’s more intuitive feel?), I an ADDICTED to editing pdfs! I now want any and all forms I need to fill out in pdf form so I can use Acrobat 9 to fill them out! I love the typewriter tool, and I am getting better at using textboxes. You can easily add, delete, rearrange pages in a pdf similar to Preview’s sidebar.

All in all, Acrobat Pro 9 is a winner, in my opinion. Once I get better at graphic design, maybe I’ll comment on Illustrator and Photoshop.

Bento 2

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 14:02:22 -0800

So just a small update...Bento 2 is better and more powerful than the first version. In particular, it is easier to work with data, especially in creating entries in Table view...there is now the option to fill down! This makes it just as easy to create multiple entries in Bento as it is in Excel. It still costs $50, and the only bad thing I have to say about it is that it is $50 even for people who bought the first version of Bento. It’s still worth the price.

I now keep a database of all my sequencing, and will soon create a database of my field catalog. I am still waiting for it to have web integration, perhaps with MobileMe.

Anyway, Bento 2 is perfect for individual database organization. Highly recommended.