Charles Basenga Kiyanda

Poster making 101

Every conference that I have a poster at, I wonder again: “How big should I make the font again?”

This link was actually helpful.

For linux users out there, here are some font conversions.

New “maker space” at Concordia

Really not so much a “maker space” as a “discover space”. It’s basically a library version of a maker space. Find it here: https://library.concordia.ca/locations/technology-sandbox/. An interesting concept if you have no experience with arduino, 3D printing, VR gear and more. I’m told it opens February 22nd 2017. I might just have to go around and […]

Use version control

I’m serious, do. (So, in other news, I’m back after a long hiatus, maybe I’ll explain one day.)

I kept track of my Ph.D. thesis using subversion as I wrote it. I’m sure my blood pressure went down a few notches because of that. I highly recommend everyone do the same. Now I recently participated in […]

Kludging your way to nice figures with ubuntu+kile+inkscape+cairo+eps+psfrag

Several inkscape+latex+psfrag users have been complaining for quite a while now about the changes in cairo. I periodically forget how to kludge my way through while I wait for the situation to stabilize and I have to search the tubes for a couple hours before I remember all the details, so […]

classifying papers

Every few months I ask myself the question again: “What to do with my scientific library?” I’ve run across solutions here and there, bu none which convinced me: jabref, zotero, papers, etc.

I actually tried jabref, but it struck me as not having many functions beyond holding a list of all my papers and generating a […]

Linux and music production

An interesting article on an electronic musician, Kim Cascone, switching from Mac to Linux for his music production. I wonder how this guy’s installation compares from starting with Ubunu Studio. My understanding is that Ubuntu Studio is supposed to be tailored to audio/video/image production from the start. I’ve been meaning to try it for a […]

It’s the simple things

Every time I buy music from amazon in mp3 format, I’m absolutely amazed at how well it works. I’m not just talking about the no-drm mp3 stuff, that’s only half of the equation. What’s the other half? Convenience. Amazon has a download utility for their digital music sales. I was amazed the first time I […]

FOSS taking over the world

The french legislature switched from windows to linux in July 2007. ZDnet ran an article a year later (in french) with several first hand accounts of the effects of the transition. The conclusion was that everything went well.

Now, the German foreign ministry is in the process of migrating its 11 000 desktops to linux with […]

The 6 months music challenge, Issue 1: Hipster, Please! Compilations

I’m a strong supporter of free and open source software. To be honest, I’m a supporter of free and open source anything really. That’s why I contribute to wikitravel (sporadically, but still), why I started wikiscuba (well, still trying to make it take off, really), openstreetmap and anything I can get my hands on that […]

The Cloud and the Dreamer

People have lately been talking about “computing in the cloud”. I hate that sentence. Nonetheless, what I’m guessing they’re referring to is “using the internet as an infrastructure design component in computing systems”. I’m not happy with that either. For one, as a scientist, the word “computing” has a rather precise definition which can’t be […]