Space Warps Talk

SpaghettiLens: where is it? is there a tutorial?

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to finding things on the internet, and as a long-time zooite, quite familiar with the quirks of Talk.

    However, I just spent a most frustrating ... well, far more minutes than I care to admit to trying to find a link to SpaghettiLens, and/or a non-Talk tutorial on it. Finally, I gave up.

    So this is a two-part question:

    1. where is the online SpaghettiLens software, and/or a tutorial on it,
      to be found?
    2. Oldbie zooites who use SpaghettiLens, can you find the answers to question 1, starting from scratch (and ignoring the fact that you already know where)? In particular, how would you use the Talk Search feature?

    Posted

  • c_cld by c_cld

    @JeanTate

    1. Discussion Boards
    2. Science Modelling
    3. SpaghettiLens - Updates, Bug fixes etc... by the two scientists @psaha , @rafael_kueng

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to C_cld's comment.

    Thanks! 😃

    The third post in that thread begins:

    To supplement the SpaghettiLens tutorial, here are some models of very clean systems.

    The link works, and does in fact take you to an online tutorial.

    In that tutorial, some of the time, there's some text in dark grey displayed on a slightly lighter grey background, along the bar at the bottom (I find this quite hard to read, but at least it's there). The last (right) bit of text begins: "Visit https://" and presumably is a link (URL) to the software itself. The tutorial does not tell you how to start ... other than "You go to the SpaghettiLens(SL) URL ...". The URL in the tutorial cannot by copy/pasted (or at least I could not do that), and it's not at all straightforward to copy it (you can of course open two windows, and make one smaller, so you can read the URL while typing in the other; this is pretty unfriendly).

    That thread does not - as far as I could tell - give the SL URL, nor any link to it.

    The tutorial is not - as far as I could tell - dated, so you can't tell which version of SL it's running/tutoring; the thread mentions many different versions - from 1.4.1 to 1.6.3 - but you have to read the whole thread to be sure of what's going on.

    Oldbie zooites who use SpaghettiLens, can you find the answers to question 1, starting from scratch (and ignoring the fact that you already know where)? In particular, how would you use the Talk Search feature?

    That's the second question I asked. I don't know if you actually tried, c_cld, but you get 35 hits with "SpaghettiLens" in Talk's Search. As you surely know, you basically get one chance to guess correctly with Search (going back returns you to a blank search, and repeating the same search gives you a blank page, unless you wait a very long time, or open in a different window/browser). The most obvious choice in such a search would be SpaghettiLens, in Science Board/Objects; "SpaghettiLens - Updates, Bug fixes etc..." is, on it's face, a choice you'd make only if you were looking for updates and bug fixes, not the URL to the software or a tutorial.

    Is there an effective, obvious, intuitive way to the the SL URL, within Talk (short of knowing the answer to begin with)? If so, what is it?

    Posted

  • c_cld by c_cld

    by @capella05

    collaborative modelling letter

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to C_cld's comment.

    Thanks!

    We're sorry, but something went wrong.

    We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

    Oops! 😦 (what's odd is that I can get to that Letter from the Letters homepage ... and I'll bet that you don't get this error message when you yourself click on the link. And why am I confident enough to write "I'll bet ..."? Because this isn't the first time I've encountered this problem).

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    Thanks! 😃

    With this thread now easily findable - it'll likely stay on various first pages for quite some time, for example - Capella05's invitation will be easier for other zooites to follow!

    A CALLOUT TO ALL ZOONIVERSE VOLUNTEERS

    We are looking for new modelling recruits, and as always, no experience is required!

    Perhaps you have come across a potential lens candidate that you would like to have collaboratively modelled? Well, drop us a line on the Spacewarps modelling board [7] and we will do our best to make it happen.

    With the help of the modelling team you will have all the support, skills and advice to manage your own collaborative modelling mini-project.

    7 http://talk.spacewarps.org/#/boards/BSW0000006

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    Hi JeanTate,

    Apart from a few posts in Talk and the online video tutorial - there is no tutorial.

    SpaghettiLens is a tool that was developed by a masters student at the University of Zurich. A few of us tested the program and allowed ourselves to be used as guinea pigs as part of his masters thesis.

    It is not a Zooniverse project per se.

    There are plans afoot to have a more comprehensive tutorial, but @rafarl_kueng and @psaha still need to get round to it.

    As far as I am aware, it was not envisioned to allow everyone access to the Spaghettilens, as it is still currently being hosted on a dev server at the University. I need to clarify this, with the Scientist's involved. We have allowed other 'non oldbie' users access to the web interface in the past, but it will cause a problem if suddenly a large numbers of users try to access it.

    Please PM myself with any other queries.

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    PS - I have moved this thread to the 'Modelling' board which is where it belongs 😃

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    Actually, I sometimes get that error when trying to access letters. It looks like a bug with 'Letters' itself - the problem appears to occur when I am not logged on to the Zooniverse and click on the hyperlink.

    I am in the process of writing feedback to the 'powers that be' as 'Letters' is a very buggy and non-flexible application. One of the reason for me to write the Collaborative Letter, was to gauge if 'Letters' would be suitable for our purposes.

    Posted