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Re:Ah, this again... by Eli+Gottlieb · 2011-03-27 11:34 · Score: 1 · on Friends Don't Let Geek Friends Work In Finance

I have to say, I kind of fall on the fence about this one. The financial sector, after all, is a fine and dandy thing provided that they don't hold the Sword of Damocles over the government's head to coerce it into socializing private losses and privatizing public profits.

The other thing, though, is what this article and its commenters are ignoring: many, if not most, really hardcore science-engineering-and-math jobs suck. I've gotten assistantship offers from graduate schools where I applied by now, and I've gotten industrial job offers too (CS Bachelors degree). They're not even comparable, not even in the same ballpark at all.

An industrial job, in my field, will make me an extremely comfortable upper-middle-class income at a young age, with benefits, when I don't have children to support yet. In industry, I could live well and save for when I will have to provide for others. The only downside is working on real products that get specified by real clients or target markets. And if they work me too hard, I can leave to find another job (with an actual chance of one existing somewhere). This is, of course, in computing; I'm informed that engineering isn't so cushy.

Graduate schools, on the other hand, literally want me to work academic-style work-weeks (read: 60-90 hours/week) for slightly less money than flipping burgers. Estimating for $10/hour in food-service (where I live) * 40 hours/week * 52 weeks/year (the notion that grad students only work during semesters is a lie) = $20,800/year, a larger salary than any of the academic offers I've gotten so far. The only actual appeal is getting to work on interesting stuff for the benefit of humanity at large, or at least the tiny minority of human academics who care about one's specialty.

Now, if someone comes along with a third option, of working in finance, that requires sacrificing my notions of producing real value but pays way better than either of the aforementioned... I would turn it down, but how many others would? And how could I ever begrudge them?

We have no excuse to say that our society's best and brightest young geeks have betrayed their calling, or humanity, or anything else until we as a society actually make the life of an engineer or a scientist reasonably livable and based on something other than luck and nepotism (looking at you, tenure-track hiring!).

Re:...or maybe by Eli+Gottlieb · 2009-06-02 12:15 · Score: 1 · on The Myth of the Mathematics Gender Gap

Engineers generally make pretty good money, though they need to be prepared for a sudden layoff with the way many companies operate now.

You're at least partially right. Even back in 2005: "High school and college students considering their futures know that work as a scientist is morally nasty, brutally alienating and financially insecure."

Impeach Obama: +1, PatRIOTic by Anonymous Coward · 2009-05-28 06:44 · Score: -1, Troll · on 45-Year-Old Modem Used To Surf the Web

by Ted Rall.

I hope this helps to prevent preventive detention.

Yours In Socialism,
Kilgore Trout

Re:Science education by Eli+Gottlieb · 2008-07-29 11:44 · Score: 1 · on How Do You Fix Education?

Funny, then, why aren't students going into engineering?

Re:No. by PitaBred · 2006-03-08 09:02 · Score: 1 · on Is Visual Basic a Good Beginner's Language?

If you're a parent, then you definitely need to read this.
Don't worry, it's short. And it may help your kids.

Malcolm Gladwell Blinks At Racial Realities by Baldrson · 2005-02-03 12:06 · Score: 4, Interesting · on Blink

From Steve Sailer's review of Blink :

Now, it would be tremendously useful if Gladwell had figured out some general rules of thumb for when to rely on your instantaneous hunches and when not to.

But as far as I can tell, his book reduces to two messages:

Go with your gut reactions, but only when they are right
And even when your gut reactions are factually correct, ignore them when they are politically incorrect.

Gladwell does make a genuinely useful point about how when people try to put their ideas into words, they often distort them into meaninglessness or falsehood.

Ironically, this happens to Gladwell every time he writes about race.

Because there were already plenty of books on the market advising corporate workers in tiresome detail how to look before they leap, the sales potential of a book telling them, "Wotthehell, just go ahead and leap," was clear.

Unfortunately for Gladwell, the best-known examples of thinking without thinking are racial and gender prejudices. But, then, you've forgotten Rule #2--Readers despise logic and consistency. So Gladwell just assumes that his otherwise beloved "rapid cognition" is 100% wrong whenever it's based on race or gender stereotypes.

(And that's why he makes a $1 million annually and I don't.)

The most intriguing aspect of Gladwell's book is that its hopeless confusion and mind-melting political correctness stem from the author's own racial background. Although mostly white, Gladwell is partly of African descent (his mother was black, Scottish, and Jewish). But he doesn't look noticeably black in most of his pictures.

The origin of Blink, he writes on his website, came when, "on a whim," he let his hair grow long into a loose but large Afro.

As you can see in this picture of Gladwell with his Afro, he wound up with more of a Napoleon Dynamite Mormon 'fro than the genuine kinky kind that ABA basketball players espoused back in the 1970s. Still, it does finally make him look marginally black.

As soon as Gladwell grew his Afro, he claims, he started getting hassled by The Man: highway patrolmen wrote him speeding tickets, airport security gave him the evil eye, and the NYPD questioned him for 20 minutes because they were looking for a rapist with an Afro.

"That episode on the street got me th

Re:Now tell Joe Beer this. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-29 16:04 · Score: 0 · on Internet Turns 35 Today

You vote Republican, don't you.

Question for Kerry by MHerzog · 2004-09-24 04:53 · Score: 3, Interesting · on Submit and Moderate Questions for Bush and Kerry

I would like your comments on the following http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/?uc_full_date=2004 0525

Is it true that: At a recent appearance at the City College of New York, Kerry talked to an audience of students about, of all things, "tax-code reform, outsourcing, Social Security and Medicare."

Re:Saddam Hussein's Link with 911 by js7a · 2003-10-27 18:19 · Score: 1 · on White House Website Limits Iraq-Related Crawling

A few weeks ago I heard that both our Fearless Leader and Condoleezza Rice came out to the press saying that there are no connections between Hussein and 911, and that they have never implied otherwise.
... does anyone know of any mainstream articles on this announcement?

Ted Rall has a decent column on the subject.

Re:Why not 500,000 million? by murr · 2003-10-15 09:29 · Score: 1 · on U.S. Supreme Court To Rule On Online Porn Law

Do you really think that 40 years ago, when the FCC actually (correctly) enforced the spirit instead of the letter of their guidelines and regulations, that we had this same issue? History tells us that this was not the case.

I wouldn't know about history, but here's some anecdotal evidence that would lead me to believe otherwise:

DEAR ABBY: I will be 79 in a few weeks and recently received notice of my 60th high school reunion. I was an outstanding beauty when I was 18, but now I have thinning hair and gravity has taken its toll on me.

I grew up in a small town outside of Boston and was one of a class of 160 students. I was extremely promiscuous back then. I slept with more than two-thirds of the boys in my class -- and everyone knew it.

Wow! And all without the benefit of Internet served feelthy pictures!

( .hj by Anonymous Coward · 2002-07-31 18:56 · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Matchbox -- a Small Footprint Window Manager

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It's difficult. by z-axis · 2000-10-19 21:18 · Score: 1 · on Should You Vote?

The moral dilemma that I (and I'm sure quite a few others) face is whether to vote for Gore, who actually has a chance of winning, and is certainly the lesser of the two most significant evils, or to do the Right Thing and vote for Nader, thereby essentially helping to elect George "There ought to be limits to freedom" Dubya. Voting for Gore, still, would leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I would be very, very frightened to have Bush in the White House. Politics is a dirty game.

Of course, a vote for Nader brings just that much more support to third party candidates, and specifically the Green Party closer to the ... what is it, five percent? ... they need to get federal funds in four years.

What finally made up my mind to vote for Nader is the corporate exclusion, by physical force, of Nader from the first debate. This was thuggish and low, and should never have happened in America. I still don't understand why it (and corporate-sponsored debates, for that matter) was tolerated. Well, I suppose I do, but it's depressing.

(Usually, of course, I'm more of the opinion expressed in thi s comic...)

Re:I knew this would happen by mwillis · 2000-06-08 20:37 · Score: 1 · on Massive DDoS Attack Brewing?

Ah, sarcasm.

I like sarcasm. But raw text, devoid of subtle body language and foreknowledge of the author, has probability 1 of being misinterpreted. So if you care what people might say, one must be very careful with sarcasm on the internet.

The polite thing to do seems to be to add a smiley for the humor-disabled, so as to aid their faulty recognition. That, or use HTML like tags to indicate <SARCASM> and </SARCASM>. Except both of those seem to dumb down everything for the lowest common denominator, and generally ruin the joke.

More illustrations of the dangers of sarcasm can be found in this article.

internet evolution by ruin · 2000-03-29 01:56 · Score: 1 · on The Internet-Have We Reached A Turning Point?

Internet evolution is a vague process that's pretty difficult to pin down while you're actually in the middle of it. It seems to me to be a continuous process, and it's hard to see single events that might have been 'turning points.' Can you pin down the exact time when the internet shifted from an academic playground to a potential business model? When web pages went from bored college student's biographies to chat rooms and company advertising?

Appropriate Tom Toles cartoon

--

Re:Overload by justo · 1999-08-30 06:19 · Score: 1 · on Load Test the New Slashdot Setup

Slashdot:News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters. faq
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This page was generated by a Swarm of Psycho Chickens for justo (2858).

Slashdot Load Testing (Continues) Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon August 30, 02:13 PM EDT
from the ain't-this-fun? dept.
Fixed so far:

Dropped http MaxClients down to 75
increased mysql max_connections to to 250

(they were 150 & 100, so we had 450 http forks fighting for 100 mysql connections. Oops! Thank god for load testing! I guess its problably good that I post another story just so that we can simulate normal Slashdot a little better: Slashdot doesn't usually have just 1 story with people posting on (well, unless we mention evolution or the GPL being violated or something) (Oh, and don't post comments with bug reports, there is no way I'll be able to keep up, email 'em. I won't reply, but I'll read it)

( Read More... | 190 of 190 comments )

Help Test Our New Server! Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon August 30, 12:51 PM EDT
from the load-testing-is-cool dept.
So here it is: A mirror of Slashdot (as of a week or so ago). It exists now for testing: So feel free to post comments and help test the new load balancer. For the curious, the new system has 3 http machines (P2s) and one mysql box (a dual P2) with a load balancer trying to keep everyone all equally busy. And its about time: the old setup has been really stressed out trying to keep up with everyone. Anyway, don't get to attached to any of your comments here, when we're satisfied that the new setup is stable, I'm gonna mirror over Slashdot and make the final switcheroo.

( Read More... | 335 of 335 comments )

Interview: Mandrake Answers Posted by Roblimo on Fri August 20, 12:00 PM EDT
from the x-leads-to-enlightenment dept.
Monday a whole bunch of people had questions for Mandrake, one of the heavies behind Enlightenment. Slashdot Moderators picked the best ones. We forwarded them, unedited, to Mandrake on Tuesday. His (excellent) answers appear below.

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Geeks in the Space: The Attack of 5 Posted by Hemos on Thu August 19, 04:10 AM EDT
from the more-stuff-to-listen-to dept.
Well, we've done it again. Yes, Geeks in Space, Episode 5 has been released. In it, we lament the lack of good news, talk about anti-matter, and the hiring of hacks by companies. You can also become...educated in my long-term plan for the hostile takeover of a certain Redmond-based company.

( Read More... | 14 of 17 comments )

Apple announces Darwin 0.3 Posted by Hemos on Thu August 19, 12:24 AM EDT
from the more-to-download dept.
J. FoxGlov writes "Macintouch reports that v0.3 of Darwin, the open-source foundation for Mac OS X Server is available on Apple's Public Source site. Apple Developer Connection members can get it on CD for $29. Check Public Source for more about the Darwin SDK and the new Darwin. "

( Read More... | 67 of 68 comments )

Microsoft's New Audio Format Cracked Posted by Hemos on Wed August 18, 05:23 PM EDT
from the secure-this-buddy dept.
Barcode (JPB) was one of the first to send us the word from Wired that the new audio format Microsoft introduced (Two days ago), supposed to be a secure format (resricting playback) has already been cracked. Dimension Music first carried the news-and what a name the crack has *grin*.

( Read More... | 238 of 240 comments )

Find your Star Wars Twin Posted by Hemos on Wed August 18, 05:16 PM EDT
from the what-freud-really-wanted-to-do dept.
The_Monk writes "Ever wanted to know your Star Wars twin? Now this incredibly important information can be verified. It placed me the likes of Astro Mech Droids, 'Tarkin, and R2-D2. " Ahem-as the lost twin of Lando (extraversion), I have a Cloud City I'd like to sell someone. But I'm about as agreeable as Boba, always a bonus.

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Now Police Can 'See' Through Walls Posted by Roblimo on Wed August 18, 12:40 PM EDT
from the move-along-there's-nothing-to-see-here dept.
Bram writes "Just found an article about another way to invade privacy." He's talking about hand-held radar systems police can use to detect breathing, beating hearts or other motion through walls and other obstacles. Sounds like a declassified version of the Ground Support Radar [GSR] units we used years ago in the Army. I can see why police would want them, and I can also see why Bram considers them a privacy threat. Depends on how they're used, I suppose.

( Read More... | 205 of 205 comments )

FreeType posts patent warning Posted by Hemos on Wed August 18, 11:53 AM EDT
from the i-want-my-verdonna dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "According to the the FreeType web page, there have been some new concerns raised about Apple's patents on TrueType. I hope this doesn't affect the planned TrueType support in XF86 4. " It appears that they are still checking into the issue, but I'd really like TrueType support. A lot. Let's hope Apple responds nicely.

( Read More... | 202 of 206 comments )

Microsoft to "publish code" to Instant Messenger Posted by Hemos on Wed August 18, 09:49 AM EDT
from the want-more-market-share dept.
VFVTHUNTER writes "According to this article at cnet, MS, in an attempt to gain a share of AOL's Instant Messenger Service Market, announced today it is going to publish the protocol to its own messenger service. " It's important to note it's NOT the source code, just the protocol.

( Read More... | 192 of 192 comments )

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