This post was inspired by the content and the comments of an old blog post of Chemjobber from 2012. The blog posts literally asks ‘Isn’t it time for a really good chemical video game?’
Tag Archives: Software
Steps to an open tool for pKa-prediction
Update, 16th Sep, 2014: Started an writeLatex-document on this topic.
Is there an open source pKa or LogD tool available?. This question was asked 4 years ago. Still, there is no really good tool available. This post is about my thoughts about creating one.
PC-222 multimeter, RS-232 protocol
For a project we needed to read out our PC-222 multimeter. It supports RS-232, but the protocol is not documented at all and the software is proprietary. After a little research on the web, we found some information in a comment on Amazon. With this and a little trial–and–error we found out how it works.
PC-222 multimeter
SciRev – Peer-reviewception!
Everyone who published a paper had to go through a peer–reviewing-process. A lot of (technical) things and people take part in this process and, naturally, its outcome is not always for the benefit of the authors of the submitted manuscript and even if it is: sometimes the feel is unsatisfactory. Continue reading
Software: Ancient Origin version (2.74)
Last friday, we needed an old 3.5″ floppy disk to backup an old system we wanted to replace. So, I was searching our offices and labs, and found an very old (but working) disk.
To my surprise, this disk contained a very old version of Origin, viz. 2.74 from 1991! It was packed in an old archive type (ARJ) to fit onto the disk (unpacked: 2.62 MB!). It still works on my Windows XP machine.
Of course, modern features such as project managment and context menus are missing. However, it also possesses features, which the current version lacks: fast start, no annoying copy protection, and a clear and simple GUI. Below, you can see a screenshot of it.
Figure 1. Screenshot of Origin 2.74. Note the clear and simple GUI.
I wonder at which point the development created this huge multi-gigabyte monster of today?
Howto: Replacing axes in Origin without changing the data
Recently, my co-worker and me had to replace an axis of one of our plots in Origin [1]. We measured a signal over time and, actually, wanted to just add a little offset without changing the data. We didn’t want to go through the get-a-nice-matrix-out-of-your-data-for-3D-plotting-torture, again.
References
- " OriginLab - Origin and OriginPro - Data Analysis and Graphing Software " http://www.originlab.com/
Software: QtiPlot
QtiPlot is a cross platform data analysis and scientific visualisation solution [1] similar to Origin [2]. The program is developed by Ion Vasilief, who also developed some other nice tools[3].
References
- "Page Redirection", 2014. http://soft.proindependent.com/qtiplot.html
- " OriginLab - Origin and OriginPro - Data Analysis and Graphing Software " http://www.originlab.com/
- ProIndependent, "ProIndep Serv Srl" http://soft.proindependent.com/serv/projects.html
Howto: Fit sigmoid functions in OpenOffice Calc and Excel
Last week, I posted an article about sigmoid functions and how to use them. Nevertheless, it is hard to guess the parameters for a given problem. So, people use software such as Origin [1] or QtiPlot to fit.
Personally, I use Origin/QtiPlot only for plotting and Excel/OO–Calc for evaluation/calculation, because both programs are much more comfortable and powerful. However, both lack the possibility to fit sigmoid functions, automatically.
It is possible to do such fits for nearly any function using the solver, though, but only a few people I’ve met knew how to do this or that it is even possible. But, I think the solver is a very handy feature and, therefore, I want to give here a short introduction into using it for fitting a sigmoid function to a set of data.
This post is open to read and review on The Winnower.
References
- " OriginLab - Origin and OriginPro - Data Analysis and Graphing Software " http://www.originlab.com/