Dr. Juande Santander-Vela

PhD in radio astronomy and VO; Joint ALMA Observatory Development Systems Engineer. Half astronomer, half Systems engineer, half developer (those halves overlap!). Previously at #ESO #IAA-CSIC #SKAO #DataObsCL. He/him.

Only boost images with useful/meaningful alt-text. Might unboost after review.

This is a searchable profile.

Avatar: person looking to the camera, pretending to surf on a fake plastic wave.
Banner: Pen and paper sketch of ALMA by Olivia H. Wilkins.

Last Notes

2026-09-29 13:10:21 UTC

Today I (Re-)Learned about the `sep` and `end` parameters to Python’s `print`.
`end=‘’` is useful to allow that print not to add a newline. But you can also have it.
`sep=` allows you to have a separator. For instance, you can print a list vertically with `sep=‘\n’`:
`print(*range(1,10), sep=‘\n’, end=‘’)`
The `*` before `range` expands the content of range into multiple arguments to `print`.
And a couple more parameters whose defaults are often OK, but also is good to know about:
`flush` défaults to `False`, but using `print(flush=True)` can help get quicker output from a Python script before waiting for automatic flushing of standard out.
And `file` defaults to `sys.stdout`, but you might want to use something like `print(“Error or debug info”,file=sys.stderr` to print to the standard error stream, so that if you pipe stdout, you still get the stderr messages.
#TIL #TIRL #TodayILearned #TodayIRelearned #Python #PythonPrint

2026-08-24 11:32:41 UTC

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@nprofile…yzy8 what does `file` say about your file and the files from QTfW examples?

2026-08-24 11:21:16 UTC

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@nprofile…yzy8 .MOV is a container, can you specify the coder for QuickTime? Apple Video came with QT1, Cinepak with QT1.5.
MPEG-1 was added in QT2.5, so probably MPEG-2, and MJPEG should not be available.

2026-06-16 16:45:53 UTC

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@nprofile…yjg9 me encantaba, especialmente saber de qué país, o de qué región de España podían ser, y mi mujer (chilena) siempre me preguntaba por qué no les decía hola (los chilenos lo hacen todo el rato)… pero a mí me parece un poco intrusivo, ¿cómo lo ves tú?

2026-05-07 16:57:18 UTC

#BBCMicroBot
REM Sierpinski Triangle
REM Based on https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle/Graphical#BBC_BASIC
REM Fixed BBC Micro missing mode and plot by @nprofile…9dck
REM Additional comments by @nprofile…zgy3
MODE0 : REM To get graphic mode
O% = 8 : REM Triangle order
S% = 2^O% : REM triangle side length
FOR Y% = 0 TO S%-1
FOR X% = 0 TO S%-1-Y% : REM Reduces computation in later lines
IF (X% AND Y%)=0 PLOT 69,X%*2,Y%*2 : REM 69 allows for single-pixel plotting
NEXT X%
NEXT Y%

2026-05-07 16:08:51 UTC

#bbcmicrobot
REM Sierpinski Triangle
order% = 8
size% = 2^order%
VDU 23,22,size%;size%;8,8,16,128
FOR Y% = 0 TO size%-1
FOR X% = 0 TO size%-1
IF (X% AND Y%)=0 PLOT X%*2,Y%*2
NEXT X%
NEXT Y%

2026-02-23 17:07:58 UTC

Tax breaks for data centers, when they are increasing the price for every other computer-based item, plus the cost of electricity and hence add to inflation is the ultimate fu to normal people.
#nevent1q…wg3j

2026-02-19 16:04:11 UTC

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@nprofile…yjg9 @nprofile…lvcc mandatory link to the “Argentinian in Canada” audio (Spanish only, I’m afraid).
https://youtu.be/cFgcYZU6RUM?t=119

2026-02-13 12:54:14 UTC

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@nprofile…yjg9 i hope @nprofile…sfxw will keep me abreast 😉

2026-02-09 12:59:40 UTC

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@nprofile…ugpy that image should wear a Content Waning of its own 😉

2025-12-30 18:48:04 UTC

Not a fan of video for what I think night have been a blog post, but this video from @nprofile…lymr explaining the kind of features from C++ that cannot be used in aerospace environments is quite good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4sDL9Ljww
/via @nprofile…n94k
#C #Cpp #AerospaceSoftwareEngineering #SoftwareSafety

2025-12-15 10:16:56 UTC

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@nprofile…t03n it is interesting, though, that overall views changed to show less support of Trump policies for all demographics, except for Hispanic Catholics, where it slightly increased (29% to 32%). This also tracks the very small decrease across Hispanic in general (31% to 30%), so it might be an issue of the small sample.
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/723/063/316/906/284/original/db6aaa85be03de2c.jpeg

2025-11-10 19:38:13 UTC

I have a friend (possibly my best friend) who's living very far away from her home country (Spain), and finally decided to publish a blog… and she's doing it — probably at the advice of her local IT support — in Substack.
I know that if she were aware of the implications of being on Substack she would not be there, but I also know that moving will be daunting for her if not provided with a good solution.
Is there anything really user friendly that she could migrate to? I have heard many things about Ghost, but it would need to be something not self-hosted, and also not paid, or with a very small payment amount…
#FediHelp #SelfPublishing #Ghost #MigrateFromSubstack

2025-10-22 10:11:18 UTC

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@nprofile…zenr the BS is strong in that one… thanks for the excerpts, so that no one else has to read it…

2025-10-13 19:36:18 UTC

Speaking about Python and Guido van Rossum, the documentary “Python: The Documentary” is now freely available on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/GfH4QL4VqJ0
#Python #GuidoVanRossum #video #documentary

2025-10-03 09:17:39 UTC

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@nprofile…qek2 #AltText4U #AltText4Me
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/309/481/510/117/203/original/b6b59e6a420dd9c4.png