Nov 11, 2020Are Julia and Pluto the best way to teach programming?I have some experience with teaching people how to program. One day I was trying to teach my wife Python in a Jupyter notebook and she wrote something like this code and executed it: a = 1 b = a b Then in a separate cell she wrote and executed…Julia3 min read
Nov 2, 2020How to unpivot a table in Google Sheets easilyAn easy trick that I discovered while trying to unpivot a table in google sheets was to use the array literal syntax. This syntax is close to how some programming languages deal with arrays and matrices. …Excel2 min read
Feb 2, 2018An anonymous recursive function in ElixirAs I was experimenting in iex I needed to make a recursive anonymous function as I was lazy to write a module for just experimenting. Sadly, Elixir doesn’t have a way to create an anonymous recursive function yet because the right-hand side is always evaluated before the left-hand side and hence the name of the function is undefined inside its body. We have to do a little trick and pass the function to itself when calling it to get recursion. The first code example shows this in a simple way. The problem though is it looks ugly if we’re designing an API, so to overcome this we have to wrap this function in another to expose a cleaner API.Elixir1 min read
Jul 3, 2016Letters from deep withinYou know son? I’ve always carried your bitterness in my inside and it has always filled me deep within until others told me to get rid of it. I did what they said just to get more of your bitterness and let you fight evil without carrying it out through…Body3 min read
May 13, 2016Let all of your grief be in silence to Allah (personal translation)Of all the stories of the followers comes to the story of Imam Hasan of Basra, which I can’t forget forever, and on top of what I’m thinking always, comes this story , especially, as the I love him so much, for a reason. …Islam5 min read
May 10, 2016Ignorance and GenomicsI’ve had sometimes the thought that in this era we are almost on the edge of science and there will be no ground shaking discoveries in the future because we almost understood most of the core stuff. I know it’s illogical and that most of the people in most eras…Genomics2 min read
May 8, 2016Oh FairOne of my all of the time favorite poems and songs is Oh Fair: ================ Oh fair in his judgement, not unjust When the truth shows, many rise against and try to silence it Oh hearer of their supplicating voices, if you didn’t answer Who else would answer and have…Music1 min read
Apr 29, 2016Malcolm X — ReadingSo Malcolm said, “Every time I catch a plane, I have with me a book I want to read. and that a lot of books these days. If I weren’t out here everyday battling the White man, I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity…Reading2 min read
Feb 18, 2016Computational Genomics — MitochondriaIn addition to energy production, mitochondria play a role in several other cellular activities. For example, mitochondria help regulate the self-destruction of cells (apoptosis). They are also necessary for the production of substances such as cholesterol and heme (a component of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood). Mitochondrial DNA contains 37 genes, all of which are essential for normal mitochondrial function. Thirteen of these genes provide instructions for making enzymes involved in oxidative phosphorylation. The remaining genes provide instructions for making molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), which are chemical cousins of DNA. These types of RNA help assemble protein building blocks (amino acids) into functioning proteins.Computational Genomics1 min read
Feb 13, 2016InternationalsI’ve always wondered what’s it like to be on a long trip away from family. I’ve surely felt the pain of missing them. But there comes a new family of friends who care about you, make you a part of their own lives and push you forward whenever you drop…Life Lessons1 min read