Brendan James Arnold's Homepage

Last Updated: 10th February 2009

The brief

I am a graduate of Bristol University, England with a bachelors in physics, the third year was spent at Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France as part of the ERASMUS scheme. I did a research masters growing and characterising ferromagnetic semiconductors as part of the X-Ray Spectroscopy Group and the Laser and Plasma Applications Group at Trinity College Dublin. In September 2008 I came back to Bristol to start a PhD in the Correlated Electron Systems Group.

My Curriculum Vitae was last updated on the 22nd April 2006.

If you would like to get in touch, then send an email to brendanarnold@gmail.com.

Current Likes

• Apple's OSX
• Microsoft's .NET framework

Current Dislikes

• Nothing much

Computing

Some projects of mine hosted on Google code,

• Python XRD Library a simple library for crystallography
• Calcite a generic data analysis program written in C#.NET
• Graphite a graph export wizard for use alongside Calcite written in C#.NET (not yet uploaded)

Only a couple of articles so far, maybe more to follow.

• Enabling antialiased fonts in Slackware a step-by-step guide, may also be useful for non-Slackers.
• Installing HP 'Winprinters' in Linux A step-by-step guide.

University Work

Some of my university work. You will likely need Foxit or another viewer that supports .pdf files to open these documents. Feel free to read (Accuracy Not Guaranteed™) but please don't copy word for word, that's plagiarism.

Final Year Project

About my final year project. Should be understandable to all.

• An Affordable Particle Detector for Education Popular introduction plus links to reports and papers.
• Project page at Bristol Work done before and after my time at Bristol on this topic.

Physics Notes

Some notes written up in LaTeX. May not be useful to most people since they are primarily for my own use although you might find we think exactly the same...

• Differential Equation Notes (.pdf) Super condensed notes on the most common ways to solve differential equations.

Formal experiment write-ups were removed by request of my department due to possible problems with plagerism. Sorry!

French Work

I've studied French for many years now but I still manage to be not all that good. At any rate, below is some files that you might find useful.

• ERASMUS Report for Université Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse A guide to studying for a year at Toulouse's Université Paul-Sabatier. A report I had to write for prospective students.
• Une Introduction à la Physique de l'Antimatière A popular-science essay I had to write in French about antimatter. Thank God for Cern's website and a French chef who worked in the restauraunt where I used to, who also happened to do physics (Thanks Matthieu!).
• Summary of Marie Cardinal's La Clé Sur La Porte We were asked to write an English summary of this French A-Level text. It turned into more a rough translation and since I had typed it out, it was fairly easy to put online.

Photo Collection

Finally done away with my last shred of modesty and included some photos on my site. Perhaps I should have stayed on Geocities.

Montages

These are pictures created by merging lots of seperate pictures together. This was done using Photoshop Elements' photomerge tool.

• Copenhagen Harbour (132k) Vista showing the length of the promenade at Copenhagen harbour.
• Pyrenees Skiing Photo (75k) Smallish montage actaully an illusion. James was not stood there at the same time as Natalie, but the end result looks like Natalie was posing for a photo shoot.
• Neils 21st (124k) The guys at Neil's 21st. Quite a challenge due to movement but I am pleased with results.
• Cafe in Pyrenees (76k) Drove up here and had a coffee in cafe. Two guys in front are friends.
• Aquaduct in Montpellier (136k) May redo this one due to stretching. Note pervy French guy watching kissing couple.
• Crossroads in Prague (266k). The guy on the left is my brother. You can see the gothic cathedral in the background.
• Panorama of Montreal (225k). Taken from the top of Mont Royale.
• Our Glastonbury Camp (181k). From the left, my brother, Bryn and Kara. Glastonbury 2003.

Galleries

Galleries of photos on a theme. Hopefully I'll get some more done soon.

• Boaters of Temple Quay. My friends from Temple Quay 2004 – 2006
• Living Aboard a Boat. A slice of boating life.
• Provence in a Renault 4. Photos from our road trip around Provence.
• Glastonbury 2003. Photos from the annual music festival.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous bits and bobs that don't really merit a full section of their own.

• Professor Branestawm's machine for peeling potatoes. This guy and Time Hunkin made me want to be an inventor.
• How to build your own nuclear reactor!
• The miracle of the acid face in my Marmite jar.
• This internet site is subject to these disclaimers.
• See my recent findings in using migration patterns of ants to predict lottery results.
• My efforts in Erin's C Class can be downloaded from this site.
• Referring to my above reports, I found a much more accurate description of undergrad physics experiments.
• Linux Gazette's tips page came up with this great perl one-liner for hiding your email on websites from spammers.
• Salon.com's Ask the Pilot column is a great read if you are at all interested in becoming a pilot.
• I used Michael DeCorte's LaTeX template for writing my CV. It certainly saved me a lot of bother.
• Learn real UNIX computing at sdf-eu.org by opening a free telnet account.
• If you don't have a DVD player, try the next best thing by telnetting to towel.blinkenlights.nl.
• Incoming flight to the isle of St. Maarten. I originally saw this picture in Focus magazine but found a copy on www.airliners.net.

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