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postdoc74

Re:What's in a PowerPoint File? on Sunday August 23, 2026 @03:20AM (#49406709)
No, I did not dig around into commercial software. I wanted a simple open format precisely because I've had both Libreoffice and PowerPoint break large sets of slides in weird ways.
Re:What's in a PowerPoint File? on Sunday August 23, 2026 @12:35AM (#49406094)
The complication of PPT led me, with the assistance of LLMs, to design a simple but powerful enough alternative editor of slides based on a markdown format that uses reveal.js as presentation engine https://github.com/juanjosegarciaripoll/quarkfoil

Good enough for my work as scientist and also as science communicator. Some slide decks from a recent course can be seen here https://juanjose.garciaripoll.com/cern-lectures/

The markdown format is very useful because I can edit the human readable content easily enough and it is easy to get assistance from the LLM in tasks such as designing diagrams, finding typos, completing bibliography, adding paper crops, etc.

Re:Python 3.14 garbage collection rigamarole on Sunday June 14, 2026 @06:30AM (#48525902)
Not anywhere near Mathematica, but a good replacement for Matlab. From a daily user of all those.
A terminal and keyboard based email user agent with support for markdown, all written in Python with Textual https://github.com/juanjosegarciaripoll/pony
I've had a lot of fun vibe coding my own text-based email client and reader using mostly Python's stdlib. It is my daily driver and found no problem with parsing so far. It also leads to a very efficient and simple HTML reader submodule.

https://juanjosegarciaripoll.github.io/pony/

Re:Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative on Tuesday March 03, 2026 @02:34AM (#47229339)
Many banks restrict the number and capabilities of secondary users. In the end I had to get a power of attorney, but for me observing these changes is just a warning. I see a pervasive use of a phone as means of authentication and the compulsory nature of hardware-bound digital IDs is penetrating our society. That is a barrier for elderly people but also for other groups, specially when those requirements are not accompanied by standards (i.e. why does a French person need to get a new ID to work with Spanish bureaucracy) and also because the phone itself is an unsubsidized cost. Not to mention when one is travelling to countries with locked networks, losing the phone or, closer to the topic here,the lack of trust on generic phone platforms, which enforces a duopoly (Google Android + iOS) preventing new technologies to enter the market.
Re:Jolla phone – a full-stack European alternative on Monday March 02, 2026 @01:46PM (#47222241)
Maybe you don't live in any European country. 2FA with cell phone has become compulsory for most banking procedures in Spain, to the point that I can even no longer assist my parents without being present there with them. Even when there is a web app, this randomly forces the user to confirm identity via phone. Every day this extends to more and more official proceduress these days (e.g. loging to EU pages, regional government paperwork, access to hospital records and prescriptions...), and unfortunately it seems to me that the phone as official ID might be the future. In this scenario, projects like this one cannot be really useful without some standardization or layer that makes it acceptable by the government.
I don't know what's new on this. For the last two years all Office apps I own have insisted on saving to OneDrive first. I have always had to explicitly click on the path and select another folder. Every. Single. Time.
I am not familiar with Janet but have been a long time lisp developer. Could you perhaps add a few lines to the readme explaining how the build process for jwno works? Would love to give it a try, understand how it works and hack around :)
Re:More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:33AM (#42777458)
Not necessarily. A three or four year PhD in Europe is a short time to acquire a solid network (a lot of time is spent in training, unless the student is very proactive) and not all PhDs broaden their horizon to have a well differentiated topic to pursue after the degree. I would argue that true independence is actually acquired in the early postdoc years, but it requires a lot of work and a lot of luck.

TBH, 40% attrition rate is less I expected. Since each academic can train more than one PhD and postdoc every few years, which is the case, some attrition is required because the system cannot grow exponentially. The desired outcome in this context is that this talent incorporates to industry or other sectors where this expertise or problem solving skills are not wasted.

Re:Let's Quit X on Monday January 13, 2025 @01:26PM (#42686733)
It's not hate but unwillingness to support a guy promoting extreme right wing Nazi parties in Europe. That's a no go in my agenda. The only reason I don't delete my profile is I don't want anyone to use my name.
I believe they are so aggressive that they have broken their shopping cart code. For instance, as Prime subscriber I usually get at checkout preselected options that would be aimed at getting people subscribed. Like two separate boxes stating "Free delivery". Weird.
Re:An implementation of Common Lisp targeting Lua on Friday November 10, 2023 @07:30AM (#38218063)
As former maintainer of ECL, another open software Common-Lisp, I can attest that both CMUCL's and SBCL's are extremely useful as reference implementation for much of ANSI CL. I learned a lot regarding LOOP, or how to implement the floating point printer, which has a lot of complexity (and reproducibility) as compared to ANSI C and other standards.
Re:Virtual Visit to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center on Wednesday November 08, 2023 @02:17AM (#38187585)
You obviously do not understand tenders and also have a bad faith in addressing this message towards me (García-Ripoll) and Artur.

First of all, this tender only received one application. There could have been other applicants as it happened in Galicia's quantum computer tender, but there were none.

Second, this application was done by a collective of companies of which Qilimanjaro is only one more participant, responsible for calibration and integration.

Third, my role as scientist in this evaluation was only to certify that the specifications of the tender proposal follow the scientific requirements of the call, and whether any parameter is below or above the requested standards. That is tickboxing essentially and with only one applicant this does not influence the outcome.

So I am asking you to retract these accusations as I am concerned, or follow suit if you have so much evidence of wrongdoing.

Re:GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide on Friday October 20, 2023 @04:31PM (#37961165)
I love Gnucash, have been using it for my personal accounting for 20 years, but the stock and funds part is horribly complicated. Yet I have not found anything better.
I can second this program. I am usually into kettlebells, but for several months I was travelling and required an alternative. This program is an open version of the "Convict Conditioning" program which works just as well. I've been using several months and now that I have returned to KB and clubbells I have retained the pushup and pull-up progressions.
Re:Ask HN: Recommendations for Working from Home? on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @04:27PM (#22550111)
Having a dedicated space makes a huge difference in concentration. However, it also helps you feel relaxed in other parts of the house.

I lived long in a single space studio and worked everywhere in the flat. After a few months I ended up hating just being at home and had to work at coffee places (noisy, productivity killer).

Now I have a slightly larger flat with a designated office corner. Not only it is more convenient, but when I saturate I go to the reading corner and switch off more effectively.

I also found buying a cheap monitor and an external keyboard to plug the laptop a huge productivity improvement.