Stellarium 二三事

一直在默默的觀察 Stellarium 的開發,不過都沒有在這裡提起,簡單說一下囉:

  • 下個版本的 Stellarium (0.10.0) 會有全新的控制介面,光害模擬的部份也重寫了
  • 新控制介面似乎會直接去拿系統字型來顯示,好處是中文字型包可以功成身退了(?),壞處是新細明體(默)。
  • 因應來自於 Google Sky 與 Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope 的挑戰,新版會有線上 SDSS 影像存取的功能(我還是覺得模擬比 SDSS 拼圖好看 >< 但是,唉)
  • 沒圖沒真相,但我實在是懶得擷圖… 所以自己去載 developer’s version 來試玩,在這裡
  • 中文開發的部份,之前在此處發布的中國星官考據計畫吸引了一些香港與中國(大陸)的同好的迴響,留下了一些個人初步的成果,有興趣可以看看

老實說我還滿想功成身退的 XD。這就是惰性呀(遠目)。

xkcd: Angular Momentum

Angular Momentum

– 妳在做什麼?

– 我在原地反時鐘旋轉。
– 每轉一圈,搶走地球旋轉的角動量。
– 讓它的自轉慢一點。
– 拉長夜晚,使白天晚點到來。
– 讓我有多那一點點時間待在這裡 …
– … 和你在一起。

我超愛這張圖片。

可是腦中的物理告訴我當她停止旋轉的時候,因為角動量守恆,地球的轉速會立刻回復。

這想法算是我個人的左右腦衝突吧。

How to dissect a paper

How to dissect a paper by Ellen Gottlieb, 2003. Given to me from a teacher and it does help. A lot. Hope it helps you too.

Overview:

  1. Look at the title and authors.
  2. Read the abstract.
  3. Look at the figures to access quality (If they don’t look good, keep this in mind when assessing the paper)
  4. Read the last paragraph of the introduction which will give you the objective, the rationale and the approach
  5. Read the first paragraph of the discussion which will give you the objective, approach and major conclusion(s)
  6. Read the last paragraph of the discussion which will give you the implications and possibly future directions.
  7. Now read the paper through from being to end and critically analyze the paper.
  8. You might also want to look through the reference titles for additional info or other papers that might interest you.

When dissecting a paper, Ask yourself:

  1. What is the overall objective of this paper?
  2. What is the approach?
  3. What is the point of each figure or group of figures?
  4. What do the data actually prove? (Note: Figures which do not address objectives of the paper may be extraneous and could be eliminated or just mentioned in passing in a short presentation)
  5. Are the conclusions in the paper supported by the actual data or are alternate conclusions appropriate?
  6. What might you do next given their data?

Remember:

  • Just because a paper is published, doesn’t mean it is correct
  • A paper may have excellent data but incorrect (or skewed) conclusions. Base your future experiments on what the data show and not necessarily on the authors’ conclusions. This is often a good place to start on a new exciting experiments. Another good place for ideas on future experiments is the last paragraph of the paper.