Posts | dayel.com

Embedding a 3D figure into a PDF

How do you share a 3D diagram? Acrobat! It turns out that the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader contains a 3D engine that works great for distributing interactive 3D figures.

Setting bash variables from an XML file

Here’s a quick way to set bash variables using data from an XML file

A side view of cells with Galena

Putting small, cubic, crystals of galena on the surface of a culture dish provides flat surfaces that are ideal for good side-views of attached cells for light microscopy.

Valap brush

I made a valap brush—essentially a modified soldering iron, with a metal brush at the end. It heats up just enough to melt the valap—so you dip it into solid valap, which it melts, then you paint the liquid valap on at leisure.

Comet tutorials

In my first attempt at making screencasts, I’ve posted two tutorials on how to get the comet program working on OS X.

Tags: Comet, OS X

Installing VTK on Mac OS X

Download Universal Binaries of the VTK libraries for OS X here (also how to build them yourself). The comet program uses VTK for all its 3D rendering—if you want to compile comet with 3D output, you’ll need to link against the VTK libraries.

Tags: OS X, VTK

Comet paper accepted

The comet paper (or ‘In silico reconstitution of actin based symmetry-breaking and motility’) has been accepted to PLoS biology!

Tags: Actin, Bead Motility, Comet

Building GSL as a Universal Binary

Here’s a universal binary of the Gnu Scientific library (GSL) for OS X, including the ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64 architectures. Works with Leopard and Snow Leopard.