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Reverse-engineering USB control of a laser unit

We have several Vortran Versalase™ units giving multiple laser lines with a fibre-coupled output. I’m a big fan of them. One of the only drawbacks is that there is no API for programmatically controlling the laser (for example, turning different wavelengths on and off, altering the power, etc). This can be done over an RS232 connection if you wire that...

Version control for one

This post makes the case for using version control when you are just writing your own code and maybe don’t expect to work with anyone else on it, or to share it with anybody else. There are plenty of articles out there about how to use version control tools like git, and why they are useful for teams...

Personal academic websites for the impatient

If you are used to working with github, and using markdown, it really does just take half an hour to throw a website together. Obviously writing the content will take a little longer, but once you’re over the first hurdle you can add things incrementally. For me the big hurdle was just figuring out how to get anything up...

Finding a PhD outside the UK

This post outlines how PhD study works in countries other than the UK.

Although there is a lot of information out there about PhDs in general, it is often written with the aim of being relevant to any subject (physics, medieval literature, sociology…). This often results in a misleading picture of what a physics PhD looks like, so in this...

Finding a PhD - choosing and applying for a PhD

This post outlines how to go about finding the right PhD project for you, and the application process. Although there is a lot of information out there about PhDs in general, it is often written with the aim of being relevant to any subject (physics, medieval literature, sociology…). This often results in a misleading picture of what a physics PhD...

Finding a PhD - how does a science PhD work?

This post outlines what PhD study looks like in a science subject in the UK, and how funding works. Although there is a lot of information out there about PhDs in general, it is often written with the aim of being relevant to any subject (physics, medieval literature, sociology…). This often results in a misleading picture of what a physics...