eric.jain.name » Humor http://eric.jain.name Eric Jain's Blog Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:50:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Amos Bairoch Action Figure http://eric.jain.name/2007/12/04/amos-bairoch-action-figure/ http://eric.jain.name/2007/12/04/amos-bairoch-action-figure/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:17:47 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2007/12/04/amos-bairoch-action-figure/ While looking for a birthday and farewell (I was just leaving the Swiss-Prot group) present for Amos Bairoch, I came across a company that creates custom action figures. Here’s the result!

Figure
 		 Packaging Front
 		 Packaging Back
 
]]> http://eric.jain.name/2007/12/04/amos-bairoch-action-figure/feed/ 1 No GPL? http://eric.jain.name/2007/09/07/no-gpl/ http://eric.jain.name/2007/09/07/no-gpl/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:52:01 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2007/09/07/no-gpl/ It’s not uncommon for organizations to have strict policies regarding the use of GPLed code, due to the somewhat viral nature of this license.

Nevertheless I was a bit taken aback when I discovered this sign at the entrance to our garage:

GPL Prohibited?

Moreover, the prohibition sign to the right contains a figure that resembles a hacker wearing a hat!

Microsoft-sponsored conspiracy, or misunderstanding?

Hint: I’m currently working in a French-speaking region.

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2007/09/07/no-gpl/feed/ 1 New UniProt Theme http://eric.jain.name/2007/04/01/new-uniprot-theme/ http://eric.jain.name/2007/04/01/new-uniprot-theme/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2007 04:28:51 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/?p=105 Here’s the new “Powerpuff Girls”–inspired theme for the new UniProt website.

screenshot

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2007/04/01/new-uniprot-theme/feed/ 0 The Annotator http://eric.jain.name/2006/12/21/the-annotator/ http://eric.jain.name/2006/12/21/the-annotator/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:29:50 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2006/12/21/the-annotator/ Fake ad for an “annotation robot” that could be used to replace human database curators. Shown at the Christmas dinner of the Swiss-Prot group.

The robot that appears in the ad is a Robosapien V2.

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2006/12/21/the-annotator/feed/ 0 UniProt Logo http://eric.jain.name/2006/11/07/uniprot-logo/ http://eric.jain.name/2006/11/07/uniprot-logo/#comments Wed, 08 Nov 2006 04:21:06 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/?p=101 The search is on for a new UniProt logo. Here are some ideas…



]]> http://eric.jain.name/2006/11/07/uniprot-logo/feed/ 0 RDFRoom http://eric.jain.name/2006/04/01/rdfroom/ http://eric.jain.name/2006/04/01/rdfroom/#comments Sat, 01 Apr 2006 13:57:27 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2006/04/01/rdfroom/ We’ve been looking for a decent ontology editor for a while now. The problem is that most editors are either to technical or too cumbersome to use for entering a lot of data. But it looks like we have finally found something suitable!

RDFRoom is a graphical RDF tool. It seems to work quite well (it’s written in Python) and performance is acceptable, at least for smaller graphs. Here’s a screenshot:

RDFRoom

As you can see, I’m just deleting some outdated data…

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2006/04/01/rdfroom/feed/ 0 ToonTalk http://eric.jain.name/2006/01/31/better-programming-languages/ http://eric.jain.name/2006/01/31/better-programming-languages/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:41:40 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2006/01/31/better-programming-languages/ It looks like our initiative to port all of our code to a more compact and efficient language didn’t get very far. So what next?

Perhaps we should try a simpler and more “friendly” programming language: ToonTalk.

Variables are called boxes, function calls are flying birds and strings are text pads.

Instead of a stack there is Dusty the Vacuum, instead of comparator functions you use scales, and object creation is done by construction trucks.

Best of all: Instead of automatic garbage collection (which everone knows is decadent), you need to blow up stuff to free memory.

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2006/01/31/better-programming-languages/feed/ 0 Predictions 2006 http://eric.jain.name/2005/12/22/predictions-2006/ http://eric.jain.name/2005/12/22/predictions-2006/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:17:16 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2005/12/22/predictions-2006/ Here’s a short movie with some predictions about what I think is going to happen at Swiss-Prot next year. Shown at our Christmas dinner. Warning: May contain insider jokes…

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2005/12/22/predictions-2006/feed/ 0 Swiss-Perfect http://eric.jain.name/2005/06/19/swiss-perfect/ http://eric.jain.name/2005/06/19/swiss-perfect/#comments Sun, 19 Jun 2005 14:16:12 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/2005/06/19/swiss-perfect/ For years people have been misspelling Swiss-Prot…

  • SWISSPROT
  • SWISS-PROT
  • SwissProt
  • Swissprot
  • swisprot

Now, we can fight back! Watch the demo.

Requirements

Firefox web browser with the Greasemonkey extension.

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2005/06/19/swiss-perfect/feed/ 0 Accessible format for UniProt http://eric.jain.name/2005/04/01/accessible-format-for-uniprot/ http://eric.jain.name/2005/04/01/accessible-format-for-uniprot/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2005 16:47:18 +0000 Eric Jain http://eric.jain.name/?p=113 To remain complaint with NIH accessibility requirements, UniProt databases will be distributed in MP3 format for visually impaired users.

e.g. P61812:

]]> http://eric.jain.name/2005/04/01/accessible-format-for-uniprot/feed/ 0