Haxit, on year on

One year has passed since I left Edinburgh to live in Germany. There were many reason why we decided to move to Berlin and not all of them had to do with the Tories and Brexit. Much has happened and it is time to take stock. I absolutely enjoy living …

First Software Carpentry Workshop at the Charité

On four mornings during the last two weeks of May, 2023 we ran a Software Carpentry Workshop covering the Unix Shell, Plotting and Programming with Python and the Version Control with Git lessons. This was the first in-person workshop since before the pandemic. It was also the first time for …

2022 - A Year of Change

After an uneventful start, apart from the now sadly traditional strike for better working conditions, the year 2022 turned out to be full of change. I stumbled across a job advert for a position at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. Berlin has been on our list of places to …

Signed and Stamped

It is now more than three months since I left Scotland, time for an update. I arrived at the end of August. The weather was lovely and everything was new. I had a long list of things to sort out, official appointments that required signed and stamped papers that produced …

Digital Migration

We are well into the process of rearranging our lives. It is now also time to work on my digital migration. I have never used facebook and see no reason why I ever would. I do have a presence on linkedin which I don't really use. I don't quite see …

Haxit

The day has come when I bid farewell to Scotland. I have lived more than half my life in Scotland. I have always felt very welcome here. I love the place, the sea, the mountains and I have many good friends and colleagues. I leave with a sense of betrayal …

Berlin Calling

After having lived more than half my life in Scotland, it is time to pack our bags and move on. In the summer we are going to relocate to Berlin where I will take on a new position at the Charité hospital. Unsurprisingly, this is a very difficult decision with …

Setting up a Globus Online Service

The School storage is continuously increasing and datasets of many terrabytes are no longer exceptional. One of the big problems with large datasets is how to transfer them from one system to another. One of our research groups collects micro tomography datasets of the order of tens of terrabytes. These …

Fighting Community

Here we go again, we are preparing for another round of strikes. The issues we have been fighting over have not changed: our pensions are still threatened and our working conditions have still not improved. The three day strike before Christmas was just a warm up for this round. We …