In the past month or so, I’ve had a great experience learning about the limits of loading data into my relational databases for The Geno.me. I started with rake tasks using ActiveRecord inserts. Slow. Then I tried SQL inserts. Slow. Then I tried bulk SQL inserts. Better. Then I realized that loading from large flat files wouldn’t be super realistic in...
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I’m in the process of coding out a demo app for browsing curated human genome data. As such, I’ve decided to establish a canonical backbone for each chromosome and standardize not only the genes, but their structures, mutations, primers, SNPs, etc., and all data I can get my hands on to this one backbone. As such, I’ve set upon loading all 3 billion+...
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Just this July, I decided it was time to graduate from PHP to Ruby. I had to see what all the hype was about. Rails was everywhere. Getting started with the Ruby on Rails tutorial by Michael Hartl couldn’t be easier. Thirteen chapters later, and I’m working on my new startup’s website, http://thegeno.me. While I have my complaints about Ruby (this will...
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In the midst of coding a website (www.recombine.com), I realized that using my combination of jQuery DOM manipulations with AJAX for the content rendered me without the ability to send people permalinks. I googled a bit, but had trouble discovering solutions that didn’t look like this. FYI, I didn’t and don’t care about the back button. That seems to be...
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I’m currently on the Academy Bus from Red Bank, NJ heading to the Port Authority in NYC for a night out with some friends. It is 4:51pm as I begin to write this. Although I usually listen to music for the duration of the trip, I’ve decided to have a little experiment with blogging (while still listening to music) to entertain myself. I’m writing this...
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Over the past few months, I have been involved with some genetics start-ups. More recently, it has been necessary for me to form my own software company, Chromosoft. Not wanting to waste time nor money, I decided to go about forming Chromosoft and developing its company profile by spending as little of both precious items. Whether you are working on a new company...
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I posted back in August about vDownloader, a great tool for ripping MP3′s or videos from YouTube and other web video sites. Now I have a quicker, newer solution: BenderConverter! Back in early February, LifeHacker did a quick blurb on BenderConverter, so I decided to give it a try. BenderConverter is different from vDownloader in many ways. First of all,...
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What is Skill Acquisition? Simply put, skill acquisition is exactly what it sounds like: learning to do things. There is one important caveat – you want to learn to do things well. Conventional theory holds that when skills are acquired through external instruction, the learner goes through five phases: Novice, Advanced Beginner, Competent, Proficient, and Expert....
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