Juan Manuel Caicedo › Comments

An example of how to create barplots with error bars using ggplot2. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Tool to convert strings of characters in to every unicode and/or escaping syntax you can possibly imagine. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Shine is a command line tool designed to setup and manage the Lustre file system on a cluster. It aims at centralize and simplify Lustre filesystem management task with: - One human-readable configuration file to describe your file system - start, stop, format (and more) your filesystem from a unique machine, thanks to a simple command line interface. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

In The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery, the collection of essays expands on the vision of pioneering computer scientist Jim Gray for a new, fourth paradigm of discovery based on data-intensive science and offers insights into how it can be fully realized. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Below are audio, video and lecture sides for 1997 and 2007. Since the lectures are 10 years apart some of the topics covered by the course have changed. The 1997 lectures have a better quality video and audio than the 2007, although the 2007 covers the newer material and has better lecture notes. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Podtool is a Python-based utility for managing tracks between a local music repository and an iPod. In particular, podtool implements correct playcount and ratings synchronisation which is important when using smart playlists. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Bixo is an open source web mining toolkit that runs as a series of Cascading pipes on top of Hadoop. By building a customized Cascading pipe assembly, you can quickly create specialized web mining applications that are optimized for a particular use case. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

EnvJs is a simulated browser environment for Rhino. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

Gajim maintains a fork of the xmpppy jabber python library. Most of the code is inherited but has been extended by implementation of non-blocking transports and new features like BOSH. - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I I had to follow two courses: * [Safety awareness](http://safety-commission.web.cern.ch/safety-...) * [Radiation Protection](http://lhcb-background.web.cern.ch/lhcb-ba...) I think the former is mandatory for everyone at CERN, but the latter is only for people with access to the detectors." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I started working in January of this year, but I would say that the general feeling it was closer to the latter." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"The high energy levels produced by the collisions don't affect the devices around it because they are not in direct contact with the beam. In the LHCb experiment, the beam is isolated by a beryllium pipe and the collisions occur only inside of the [VELO detector](http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-pu...). Nevertheless, there's one potential problem for the electronic devices around the detectors: radiation. The servers and some of the analog-to-digital converters for the detectors are located in rooms separated from the detector chamber by a thick concrete wall and other radiation shields." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"No. I studied in Colombia." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I don't know if she's my girlfriend, but the funny thing is that she lives in Tsukuba (Japan), where the [KEK](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) is located." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"Try to apply for a Fellowship or to contact an institution in the US with some kind of agreement with CERN. I'm not a citizen of a member state either, but at least I could have a fixed-term contract. Have a look at the [careers website](http://www.cern.ch/jobs) and ask them directly." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I've been told that she doesn't work at CERN anymore :-/" - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"Actually, the other experiments also have different triggers for filtering the data. At the LHCb there are [three levels of triggers](http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-pu...) that reduce the event rate from 40 MHz received by the detectors to 2 kHz ~ 5 kHz persistently stored. The first level is implemented in hardware has an output of 1 MHz, the two following levels are implemented in software and run in a farm of 1000 computers (which will be upgraded to 2000 in the next months), here the event rate is reduced to 2 kHz, with fluctuations up to 5 kHz. This is the actual output rate of the event transferred to the transient storage: a high performance SAN. Later on, the experiment data are moved to CERN's main datacenter, where is stored in tape. This is the last part of the data acquisition process and at this point the physicists can start doing the analysis." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"[Servez-vous](http://bit.ly/8cZYtR)" - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I chose my user name after *The First Men in the Moon*, by H G Wells. I haven't read anything from Vinge, though." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"> Is there so little work on CERN actually that you have time to do an AMA on Reddit (I thought I was the only guy being paid to do nearly nothing all day long)? No, today is Saturday and I was not in shift, so I had time to answer a few questions. Certainly, this would not be the case during in weekdays. > Ninjas or Pirates? Pirates. We have a pirate flag in our office. > Have you watched District 9? Nope. > What did you have for lunch? Tortellini, salad, French bread and Brie cheese. > Is it raining outside now? No, but it's cold and foggy. I'll come back later to answer the other questions." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"To enter to the main site, where most of the offices are, is relatively simply: you just have to show your ID card to one of the security guards. Sometimes if you go by bike they just let you in... :-) To get to the LHCb experiment site, on the other hand, you have to open a door with your ID card. And if you have to go to the pit, i.e. where the detectors are (100m underground), you must have a personal dosimeter which has a RFID chip and pass through an iris scanner." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"Go to http://bit.ly/8A35iq and then look for *welding* :-)" - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I don't think I know them, but I recognize the pub. Is it *Les Brasseurs*, which is in front of the train station (Cornavin)?" - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"> Is there a feeling of personal achievement among employees or is it another day at work for most? There's some excitement in the air, that's true. But personally I think it's too early to celebrate. The accelerator is not running at full capacity and we still have to wait that the data is being analysed before we can see the first results." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"I'm from Popayán, Colombia." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"> Has the global interest in the experiment driven the involved technicians, engineers and non-scientific personnel to go back to their physics books and try and understand what is at stake? Absolutely, at least in my case (I'm a computer scientist working in the computing infrastructure of the LHCb experiment). I have attended a few introductory seminars about high energy physics and data acquisition systems. Those kind of events are organized periodically at CERN and are open to the general public. Further, CERN also has [Summer Students programs](http://www.cern.ch/SummerS...) and a [Summer School of Computing](http://csc.web.cern.ch/CSC/)." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"The initial duration of my contract was shorter. That was why I didn't have to pass through all the other stages." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"No. I work for the LHCb experiment which produces data in a rate that varies between 60 MB/s and 150 MB/s." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"My work doesn't necessarily require a strong background in physics. I work mostly with the data acquisition system and essentially our goal is to guarantee that the data taken from the detectors is transferred to the storage system. Even if I could not care about what do those bytes mean, it's important to have a rough idea of how the detectors work and, most important, to understand the parts of the data acquisition process, which implies to know how the data is represented, stored and used." - Juan Manuel Caicedo

"Do you want to apply? Just click here: http://www.cern.ch/jobs" - Juan Manuel Caicedo