Feel free to use: A list of linking words or phrases.

So: I'm still alive. Still breathing (still healthy but still being checked, for those wondering). An update is coming soon. Really!

First impressions; not bad. It took me some time to find a good IDE for the Mac and to find out how to get additional libraries (and got stuck in getting rpy running). In the end I got everything up and running; I'm using IDLE for now and I've installed SciPy, NumPy, wxPython, PyGame and PyOpenGL. At this point I should mention that Jon has done a great job in creating a custom IDE that is included in the PsychoPy package, or at least it is on the mac version, and you can easily code and run your experiments in this environment. Furthermore, all the packages you would need for experiments are included in the package. But... I'm stubborn and like to take the hard route; if you want to get a kickstart, use Jon's IDE.

The Python language seems - at a first glance - great. It seems elegant and I've had no trouble understanding code sniplets. It handles strings much much better than matlab, and it looks like whatever you can do with Matlab, you can do with Python too (using NumPy and SciPy). I'm now working my way through some Python books to get the hang of the basics - will keep you updated.

1. It's based on free libraries
2. It is platform independent
3. Python is a nice OO language
4. Did I mention it's free?
5. It works great with OpenGL

I believe that software should be freely available and psychopy is exactly that; that means that you will not have to pay for Matlab licenses to use the PsychToolbox. Although a wonderful piece of software in its own right, the PsychToolbox requires researchers to have a license for Matlab, which can make it quite expensive. Furthermore, coding (or should I say: scripting) an experiment in Matlab can be somewhat "ugly" in my opinion. As far as I can tell, it's early days for PsychoPy, Jon told me there are about a 100 users at the moment. Hopefully more researchers will find their way to PsychoPy and hopefully some of them will be able to help expand it!

(ofcourse there are a couple of down sides of using PsychoPy; (1) installation of Python is not always straightforward, but see the .dmg for the mac which features everything you need to run PsychoPy; and (2) if you don't know the language you would have to learn it)

1. the ability to run multiple interleaved staircases
2. more control of the stepsize

I'm still in the process of programming, debugging and testing the code at the moment, but here's a sneak peak of what is to come:

(click for larger image)

In the meantime, I've disabled the download for the old staircase procedure. If you want a copy, please drop me a line and I will send it to you asap.

Edit 06/02/2009: still in progress - please be patient

function importfile(filename)
 
% import the file
newdata = importdata(filename);
 
% create new variables in the base workspace from these fields
vars = fieldnames(newdata);
for i=1:length(vars),
    assignin('base', vars{i}, newdata.(vars{i}));
end

This will give you three variables in your workspace:

• colheaders: a list of all the variable names, extracted from the header
• data: a matrix with all your data in it
• textdata: essentially the same thing as colheaders

From: http://biosemantics.org/jane/

My favorites? "Electric Bird", "Day too soon", "Button" (the hidden track) and "The girl you lost to cocaine". So what are you waiting for? Go and get that album (or listen to the previews on Amazon).

Alternatively, watch the KCRW2007 live sessions (big thanks to Milo for the link).

Also, new CD by Goldfrapp incoming soon! W00t~? Oh the joy..

But I don't really care about all that.. For me, these new features would just be nice bonuses.. I work with OpenGL a lot and I just want to be able to do that on my laptop - something I think the Macbook Pro can do just fine. However, if I would have to make a list of upgrades, that list would be the following:

1. Upgraded CPU (2.6 Penryn CPU's standard in new models, maybe?)
2. Upgraded video memory (512MB would be splendid)

I'm gonna be disappointed if none of these make it in the new model. But then again, I'd buy a new MacBook Pro anyway...

Fingers crossed and creditcard at the ready!

Update: There's some new rumors on a new apple notebook called "MacBook Air" - a new model that apparently is completely wireless (or so people are suggesting). I'm not sure how it compares to the current models, but it doesn't make much sense to introduce a 3rd model now that they have a top-end and a lower-end model in production. Only 22 more hours, and we'll know, I guess...

Post MWSF Update: Not a happy bunny. Not happy at all.

So far, I'm quite enjoying myself as a PhD student - it's hard work, but it's very rewarding and I get to work with some of the best people in the field. I'm quite eager to see what next year will bring me! As for new years resolutions, I'd think my main one would be to get my first article published or at the very least submitted. Furthermore, I want to visit conferences, meet new people, and talk about the research I'm doing. In that respect I think I'll be up for a treat next year!

But, enough science talk. Tomorrow I'll fly back home to the Netherlands and enjoy two weeks of "rest". Quite looking forward to seeing my parents and my cat Floris again. Leaves me one last thing to do: I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for the new year!