I'm glad you're that smart. But what happens to the 14 or 15 or 16 y.o. whose parents won't let him have a FB or MS account and then goes behind their back (because, you know, kids NEVER do that) and then post a bunch of crap they shouldn't because, you know, their kids and then in five years they get smart and then want to actaully protect what is out there?
Well, with my cell phone, I keep getting Network busy. For the last two weeks between 4 and 9pm, ever since the kiddies came back to campus. I call Cingelhell and apparently everything is going through one tower. One tower in the whole city.
It's been two weeks. My contract didn't say good luck between the hours of 4 and 9. No, no it didn't.
I'm not a huge church goer. I go with my mother at Christmas. But other family members are devout Christian and they chose not to drink, smoke, etc. That's fine. At NYE, they don't go to bars, they usually do something with the church. A lot of churches have 'alternatives'. People come together to be with people that they enjoy being with and in the environment that their comfortable. Kinda like if you went to a sports bar to be with people that you enjoy hanging out with.
The thing I don't get, if the air the disclaimer at the end, how do you know that you can't have a SB party until after the game is over?
How much do you pay your mentor at work? The fact that they're a mentor has nothing to do with money.
Even if you want to call it a stipend, it has nothing to do with school and thus your arguement of getting paid over 60K a year is null. There is no tuition included. The original arguement to this thread was that postdocs get paid disproportionately lower then what a tech with a BS does. That pay scale I linked to are guidelines. There is absolutely no requirement that to recieve the federal funds you must pay postdocs that much. With the smaller NIH budgets, that grant money is even tighter. Compound that with the number of PhDs coming out and the influx of non-American postdocs allowed to come here, wages for postdocs will stay depressed like they are.
I am thinking about leaving Academia. The postdoc position in academia, though, will make the transition to industry easier. The transition to industry back to academia is not as easy and in fact, qualifies as difficult because of the publication issues.
I just reread my original post and realized I misspoke/typed. I shouldn't have written stipend. Still in graduate school and yes, I get a stipend, but it definitly does not put me in the top 20% of income levels. Student loans to pay the tuition when my stipend was $900 a month and I had to pay tuition out of that and live. So, yea. It doesn't put graduate students in the top 20% level.
And postdocs, definitly not. (see second post).
No. Post docs are not students. I'm about to start one and I certainly won't be paying tuition. A postdoc is to refine your training, independently, but with a mentor. It has NOTHING to do with school. Therefore, it is NOT a stipend. It is a salary. A stipend is when you're in graduate school and get the check. However, most stipends don't cover the cost of living in the big cities and student loans come with it. So tell me, is it still a well-paying job?
So yes, it is daunting that after being in school as long as I have, with a PhD in Biochemistry, I'm only going to be making about $38, 000. And yes, someone with a BS working as a tech in the lab will probably be making that amount or more.
Let's see here:
My cell phone sucks in my house. It's like the bermuda triangle of cell phone coverage. It doesn't matter who your provider is, it's not working.
Triple play phone service......uh. no. thanks. The only reason I have issues with vonage are indirect to them because my cable sucks. Heaven forbid if I can get a signal between midnight and 1am. Suddenhell (I mean, suddenlink) insists there is no problem, No, ma'am I'm showing your modem hasn't been reset in over 48 hours (hey idiots, I just reset it before I called you.)
Plus, I have an Indiana number while living in Texas, since my whole family is in Indiana. When I go there for a visit, I just take the router and ring ring, I have my phone. Same thing if I'm in a hotel. I'm on the $14.99 a month plan, it's a total of $20 a month, 500 minutes outgoing, all incoming free. When I had verizon, it was minimu $30 for the 'basic' plan (not including VM and CI). Sure, I can get a package for about $45 a month, including LD, but that's before taxes. My bill was minimum, $60 a month.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Tad inconvient? A 10% restocking fee on a $2000 laptop at Best Buy is going to cost me $200. I don't understand how me losting $200 is smart just to make a point.
While I understand the point of returning it to make the point that, as consumers, we want a choice, I don't think flat out giving money to the corporations you're trying to make a point to is smart.
And if you say it's defective, they usually will replace it with the same product. So you can spend your time going around in circles with BB or CC.
Not trying to start anything, but with the way flying is today (and I'm not happy about it, btw), why would you do that to yourself? If you're luggage is that important, why don't you have something as a carry-on or why do you cut your flights that close? I won't do that with a connection simply because of the chain reaction of one delay.
I wouldn't care if my bag is last. In all honsety, the airports I fly (chicago and college station) either have huge ramps to go around or 1 ramp and not that many people. So, having my luggage come off first/last, I don't think anyone is EVER in that hurry, even if you are multibillion CEO. And if you are a multibillion CEO, then you're probably flying your own plane. You can stand down at the luggage point on your phone just as well as you can standing outsite waiting for your taxi.
The problem I have is the amount of time for the first piece to show up. At O'hare, espcially around the holidays, we once waited 45 minutes for first piece of luggage to appear. That, to me, is ridiculous.
Sweet. So if it's profiting from illegal behavior, can't we get them in some kind of conspiracy thing and have the cable companies brought down so we can actually get some competition?
This is way off-topic and I'm sure everyone has their own opinion, but there is a massive piece of legislature in the senate now for 'immigration reform'. Basically, a huge bill that is being shoved down American's throats (any poll shows that people neither want this bill, nor do they want amnesty) to add new laws that will give amnesty to the estimated 12-30 million illegal immigrants in the country now. Today, the senate voted for cloture on the bill and on Thursday they will vote to proceed to vote (basically, end debate and then vote). IMO, it's a horrible, horrible bill (like you couldn't tell from what I wrote).
Either way, senator's offices have been swamped with calls from voters to tell them their opinion. 300 pages of amendments to a 300 page bill that they haven't even gotten yet and they vote on it on Thursday. So, yes.
Good luck getting through to the senator. They've got a much bigger bill that you should be calling on that they're going to be voting on again on Thursday.
I was at the post office, I don't sign my cards. They made me sign the card in front of them and then said they needed to see some other form of ID. I said, well, that's why it said see ID on it. I should mention that I had a brace on my right hand, finger tips to elbow (CT) and the signature looks nothing like my normal signature because I'm right handed.
So, I give them my drivers licence with my signature on it and she they have the audacity to say "These signatures don't match, ma'am."
I told her to rip the postage off the package and give me the package back.
Idiots
I understand that there are contracts between the broadcaster and the MLB and regions and this and that and we're all getting screwed as a consumer.
The thing I've never understood, though, is this: We've accepted that a VCR is something to record a TV show for later. A DVR, in non-tech terms, is the same as a VCR, just in a different format. If I can record something to watch later (let's say a baseball game) what is the point of throwing a huge hissy-fit about letting me watch it when I have to travel for whatever reason? It's fine if I record it to come home and watch, but I can't watch it in real-time just because I have to be at (insert excuse here).
Off-topic, but extending the same rationale, I've not understood why the broadcasters pitch a fit about BTing a tv show, either. Someone else just recorded it for me. If I had remembered to set my VCR, I was still going to ff through the commercials, but I digress.
Maybe I'm just stupid, but I didn't sign anything. I called, said I wanted internet and poof, they showed up with a modem. They installed it, left, and then a month later, I got a bill. That was eight years ago and I've still signed nothing. I would suspect that there are many others who have had this same thing.
Hell no am I going to check my luggage. I've gotten it down to the roller board. 50% of the time, I've got a connection into the small airport in College Station from Dallas. One summer, I had to stay in Dallas every time because of weather, delay out of Chicago or my personal favorite, the flight to College Station was canceled because of mechanical trouble. I don't need my mascara for the two hour flight. My god, I'm far from a high-maintenance. I'd just like to have my stuff with me when I get where I'm going.
The Christmas flight I was talking about was my checked luggage. The airport is small enough where they don't use X-Ray, they wand it and search it by hand. I'm sorry, but it's checked luggage for a reason--the bag is too big. It's Christmas, I've got gifts to go home and I follow the guidelines on they suggest I pack (potential breakables in the middle, not wrapped, etc). They should at least have the courtesy to pack it back without shoving it all in there.
Again, the point is, inconsistency. Some airports want stuff in, some want it out. Some see the wires in the bag and don't care, others it causes a secondary screening. All that money and time and we're still not safe.
The fact is at one airport, they told me having all the chargers and wires and stuff put together was way easier to screen in a bag outside of the roller board. It's not a huge bag; it fits perfectly fine in the rollerboard. I just have it out so I don't have to stop, pull it out while I'm trying to undress, get the laptop out, put it in it's own bin and keep track of all the stuff. Trying to explain it to the low wage and poorly trained TSA agent only amplifies the problem.
In Houston last week, I put the liquid bag on top of the laptop in the bin and you thought the world was going to crash to end. Again, the poorly trained TSA agent put it in a separate bin instead of just putting it on top of the other stuff. I've tried putting the shoes and bag on the conveyor and it's different depending which airport. The small one, bin. Chicago, bin. Austin, depends what day it is, not really sure. Same with Houston.
The inhalers. Sorry. I've been asthmatic since I was a kid and the changes in the plane only aggravate it more. But, again, I had to go to the drugstore to get copies of the prescription label just to satisfy them. Last week, they didn't even look at the inhalers. I used to drink about a liter of water on the plane and it stopped me from getting a cold during my trip. My sincere apologies to you for having a weak immune system. Read any article about traveling, though, and they say keeping hydrated is key to not getting tired or sick.
The point is, I'm not the idiot who doesn't know what they're doing. In fact, I do. The fact of the matter is is that the policies are different and if they are in reality the same, inconsistently applied between airports. If I try to find out what happens to MY information when it sets off some alarm for some random reason, I can't find out.
Off-topic to the original subject, but the TSA security just gets me agitated. I fly about once a month.
First you show your id (which could be fake) and your boarding pass you printed at home (which could be fake). Then, ten feet later, you do it again. Why? who knows.
Then I have to unpack. I take my router with me, chargers, ipod, camera, phone, laptop and the usual crap that goes with it. I usually pack them in a separate bag that goes in my carry-on, but have that bag out separately because then I don't have to go into the bag to get it out. Half the time, this causes an argument with the TSA person b/c I have now have too many bags. So I have to put the bag in the bag to get into screening only to have to pull it out again.
The laptop has to be in a separate bin. The shoes have to come off, the sweater, laptop bag go in one bin. Then the carry-on bag. Now, let's not forget about the gels and liquids. They've literally spent four minutes telling me how I'm allowed a bigger bag. I tell them I don't need a bigger one, everything fits nicely in this small bag, thanks. They tell me again, I'm allowed a bigger bag. I roll my eyes. Let's remember the time where I had my inhalers without the prescription for them (it's usually on a box that the inhaler comes in) and they wanded it, swabed it, etc. I've had them look at my mascara and lip gloss with the utmost scrutiny, yet first-class people go by with their water bottles. So now, my stuff is in four bins, all over, they want my id and boarding pass, again (third time in probably 30 feet). I fly out of Chicago a lot and now it's winter and I had to take my shoes off so my socks are wet.
I can't monitor my stuff because it's in four bins, they want to wand me for whatever reason (I didn't set the alarm off). They're going through my stuff, my feet are wet and now I get to pay $5 for a bottle of water that I could have filled for free.
When I fly out of the small airport, they swab the bag there because it's only one flight going out at a time. If it sets off the detector, they call you up, you watch while they unpack your bag, stuff all over the place in plain view and then they shove it all back in the bag that took 2 hours to pack because it's Christmas. If you try and repack it to protect the breakables, they pitch a fit. And then, they want your ID and you to sign a form that says it's your bag. You ask for a copy of the form and what it's going to be used for and they won't tell you, just that it's for their 'records'.
So let's review: They still don't know if I am me. My feet are wet, there's some slight public humiliation for underwear being thrown about, probably sick because I can't keep properly hydrated on the plane and I'm pretty sure I'm in some database that I will never be able to find out for why.
We're really really safe now, aren't we?
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I'm glad you're that smart. But what happens to the 14 or 15 or 16 y.o. whose parents won't let him have a FB or MS account and then goes behind their back (because, you know, kids NEVER do that) and then post a bunch of crap they shouldn't because, you know, their kids and then in five years they get smart and then want to actaully protect what is out there?
Well, with my cell phone, I keep getting Network busy. For the last two weeks between 4 and 9pm, ever since the kiddies came back to campus. I call Cingelhell and apparently everything is going through one tower. One tower in the whole city. It's been two weeks. My contract didn't say good luck between the hours of 4 and 9. No, no it didn't.
I'm not a huge church goer. I go with my mother at Christmas. But other family members are devout Christian and they chose not to drink, smoke, etc. That's fine. At NYE, they don't go to bars, they usually do something with the church. A lot of churches have 'alternatives'. People come together to be with people that they enjoy being with and in the environment that their comfortable. Kinda like if you went to a sports bar to be with people that you enjoy hanging out with. The thing I don't get, if the air the disclaimer at the end, how do you know that you can't have a SB party until after the game is over?
Yes, but I can block my phone number from showing up on your caller id, though.
How much do you pay your mentor at work? The fact that they're a mentor has nothing to do with money. Even if you want to call it a stipend, it has nothing to do with school and thus your arguement of getting paid over 60K a year is null. There is no tuition included. The original arguement to this thread was that postdocs get paid disproportionately lower then what a tech with a BS does. That pay scale I linked to are guidelines. There is absolutely no requirement that to recieve the federal funds you must pay postdocs that much. With the smaller NIH budgets, that grant money is even tighter. Compound that with the number of PhDs coming out and the influx of non-American postdocs allowed to come here, wages for postdocs will stay depressed like they are. I am thinking about leaving Academia. The postdoc position in academia, though, will make the transition to industry easier. The transition to industry back to academia is not as easy and in fact, qualifies as difficult because of the publication issues.
I just reread my original post and realized I misspoke/typed. I shouldn't have written stipend. Still in graduate school and yes, I get a stipend, but it definitly does not put me in the top 20% of income levels. Student loans to pay the tuition when my stipend was $900 a month and I had to pay tuition out of that and live. So, yea. It doesn't put graduate students in the top 20% level.
And postdocs, definitly not. (see second post).
No. Post docs are not students. I'm about to start one and I certainly won't be paying tuition. A postdoc is to refine your training, independently, but with a mentor. It has NOTHING to do with school. Therefore, it is NOT a stipend. It is a salary. A stipend is when you're in graduate school and get the check. However, most stipends don't cover the cost of living in the big cities and student loans come with it. So tell me, is it still a well-paying job? So yes, it is daunting that after being in school as long as I have, with a PhD in Biochemistry, I'm only going to be making about $38, 000. And yes, someone with a BS working as a tech in the lab will probably be making that amount or more.
$32,000 is a little low, but really, not that far off. Look at the stipend level recommendations from http://www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/budget/stipendlevels.htm/NRSA and it's about right. Some schools do have a cost of living increase, but starting postdocs at http://www.gladstone.ucsf.edu/gladstone/site/postdoc/section.php?id=935 UCSF start at $43, 000. Not much, really, for living in SF.
Let's see here: My cell phone sucks in my house. It's like the bermuda triangle of cell phone coverage. It doesn't matter who your provider is, it's not working. Triple play phone service......uh. no. thanks. The only reason I have issues with vonage are indirect to them because my cable sucks. Heaven forbid if I can get a signal between midnight and 1am. Suddenhell (I mean, suddenlink) insists there is no problem, No, ma'am I'm showing your modem hasn't been reset in over 48 hours (hey idiots, I just reset it before I called you.) Plus, I have an Indiana number while living in Texas, since my whole family is in Indiana. When I go there for a visit, I just take the router and ring ring, I have my phone. Same thing if I'm in a hotel. I'm on the $14.99 a month plan, it's a total of $20 a month, 500 minutes outgoing, all incoming free. When I had verizon, it was minimu $30 for the 'basic' plan (not including VM and CI). Sure, I can get a package for about $45 a month, including LD, but that's before taxes. My bill was minimum, $60 a month. Thanks, but no thanks.
10:30 to 6 yes!
Always set to the US time, too, to basically exclude anyone overseas from getting on after school, too.
Tad inconvient? A 10% restocking fee on a $2000 laptop at Best Buy is going to cost me $200. I don't understand how me losting $200 is smart just to make a point. While I understand the point of returning it to make the point that, as consumers, we want a choice, I don't think flat out giving money to the corporations you're trying to make a point to is smart. And if you say it's defective, they usually will replace it with the same product. So you can spend your time going around in circles with BB or CC.
So, besides having to pay for it the first time, we should have to pay the restocking fee for it, too?
Not trying to start anything, but with the way flying is today (and I'm not happy about it, btw), why would you do that to yourself? If you're luggage is that important, why don't you have something as a carry-on or why do you cut your flights that close? I won't do that with a connection simply because of the chain reaction of one delay.
I wouldn't care if my bag is last. In all honsety, the airports I fly (chicago and college station) either have huge ramps to go around or 1 ramp and not that many people. So, having my luggage come off first/last, I don't think anyone is EVER in that hurry, even if you are multibillion CEO. And if you are a multibillion CEO, then you're probably flying your own plane. You can stand down at the luggage point on your phone just as well as you can standing outsite waiting for your taxi.
The problem I have is the amount of time for the first piece to show up. At O'hare, espcially around the holidays, we once waited 45 minutes for first piece of luggage to appear. That, to me, is ridiculous.
Sweet. So if it's profiting from illegal behavior, can't we get them in some kind of conspiracy thing and have the cable companies brought down so we can actually get some competition?
Again, no. There is no law requiring you to show ID to board a plane. They'll be cranky and bitchy towards you, but you are not required to show ID.
This is way off-topic and I'm sure everyone has their own opinion, but there is a massive piece of legislature in the senate now for 'immigration reform'. Basically, a huge bill that is being shoved down American's throats (any poll shows that people neither want this bill, nor do they want amnesty) to add new laws that will give amnesty to the estimated 12-30 million illegal immigrants in the country now. Today, the senate voted for cloture on the bill and on Thursday they will vote to proceed to vote (basically, end debate and then vote). IMO, it's a horrible, horrible bill (like you couldn't tell from what I wrote). Either way, senator's offices have been swamped with calls from voters to tell them their opinion. 300 pages of amendments to a 300 page bill that they haven't even gotten yet and they vote on it on Thursday. So, yes.
Good luck getting through to the senator. They've got a much bigger bill that you should be calling on that they're going to be voting on again on Thursday.
I was at the post office, I don't sign my cards. They made me sign the card in front of them and then said they needed to see some other form of ID. I said, well, that's why it said see ID on it. I should mention that I had a brace on my right hand, finger tips to elbow (CT) and the signature looks nothing like my normal signature because I'm right handed. So, I give them my drivers licence with my signature on it and she they have the audacity to say "These signatures don't match, ma'am." I told her to rip the postage off the package and give me the package back. Idiots
I understand that there are contracts between the broadcaster and the MLB and regions and this and that and we're all getting screwed as a consumer. The thing I've never understood, though, is this: We've accepted that a VCR is something to record a TV show for later. A DVR, in non-tech terms, is the same as a VCR, just in a different format. If I can record something to watch later (let's say a baseball game) what is the point of throwing a huge hissy-fit about letting me watch it when I have to travel for whatever reason? It's fine if I record it to come home and watch, but I can't watch it in real-time just because I have to be at (insert excuse here). Off-topic, but extending the same rationale, I've not understood why the broadcasters pitch a fit about BTing a tv show, either. Someone else just recorded it for me. If I had remembered to set my VCR, I was still going to ff through the commercials, but I digress.
Maybe I'm just stupid, but I didn't sign anything. I called, said I wanted internet and poof, they showed up with a modem. They installed it, left, and then a month later, I got a bill. That was eight years ago and I've still signed nothing. I would suspect that there are many others who have had this same thing.
Hell no am I going to check my luggage. I've gotten it down to the roller board. 50% of the time, I've got a connection into the small airport in College Station from Dallas. One summer, I had to stay in Dallas every time because of weather, delay out of Chicago or my personal favorite, the flight to College Station was canceled because of mechanical trouble. I don't need my mascara for the two hour flight. My god, I'm far from a high-maintenance. I'd just like to have my stuff with me when I get where I'm going.
The Christmas flight I was talking about was my checked luggage. The airport is small enough where they don't use X-Ray, they wand it and search it by hand. I'm sorry, but it's checked luggage for a reason--the bag is too big. It's Christmas, I've got gifts to go home and I follow the guidelines on they suggest I pack (potential breakables in the middle, not wrapped, etc). They should at least have the courtesy to pack it back without shoving it all in there.
Again, the point is, inconsistency. Some airports want stuff in, some want it out. Some see the wires in the bag and don't care, others it causes a secondary screening. All that money and time and we're still not safe.
The fact is at one airport, they told me having all the chargers and wires and stuff put together was way easier to screen in a bag outside of the roller board. It's not a huge bag; it fits perfectly fine in the rollerboard. I just have it out so I don't have to stop, pull it out while I'm trying to undress, get the laptop out, put it in it's own bin and keep track of all the stuff. Trying to explain it to the low wage and poorly trained TSA agent only amplifies the problem.
In Houston last week, I put the liquid bag on top of the laptop in the bin and you thought the world was going to crash to end. Again, the poorly trained TSA agent put it in a separate bin instead of just putting it on top of the other stuff. I've tried putting the shoes and bag on the conveyor and it's different depending which airport. The small one, bin. Chicago, bin. Austin, depends what day it is, not really sure. Same with Houston.
The inhalers. Sorry. I've been asthmatic since I was a kid and the changes in the plane only aggravate it more. But, again, I had to go to the drugstore to get copies of the prescription label just to satisfy them. Last week, they didn't even look at the inhalers. I used to drink about a liter of water on the plane and it stopped me from getting a cold during my trip. My sincere apologies to you for having a weak immune system. Read any article about traveling, though, and they say keeping hydrated is key to not getting tired or sick.
The point is, I'm not the idiot who doesn't know what they're doing. In fact, I do. The fact of the matter is is that the policies are different and if they are in reality the same, inconsistently applied between airports. If I try to find out what happens to MY information when it sets off some alarm for some random reason, I can't find out.
Off-topic to the original subject, but the TSA security just gets me agitated. I fly about once a month. First you show your id (which could be fake) and your boarding pass you printed at home (which could be fake). Then, ten feet later, you do it again. Why? who knows. Then I have to unpack. I take my router with me, chargers, ipod, camera, phone, laptop and the usual crap that goes with it. I usually pack them in a separate bag that goes in my carry-on, but have that bag out separately because then I don't have to go into the bag to get it out. Half the time, this causes an argument with the TSA person b/c I have now have too many bags. So I have to put the bag in the bag to get into screening only to have to pull it out again. The laptop has to be in a separate bin. The shoes have to come off, the sweater, laptop bag go in one bin. Then the carry-on bag. Now, let's not forget about the gels and liquids. They've literally spent four minutes telling me how I'm allowed a bigger bag. I tell them I don't need a bigger one, everything fits nicely in this small bag, thanks. They tell me again, I'm allowed a bigger bag. I roll my eyes. Let's remember the time where I had my inhalers without the prescription for them (it's usually on a box that the inhaler comes in) and they wanded it, swabed it, etc. I've had them look at my mascara and lip gloss with the utmost scrutiny, yet first-class people go by with their water bottles. So now, my stuff is in four bins, all over, they want my id and boarding pass, again (third time in probably 30 feet). I fly out of Chicago a lot and now it's winter and I had to take my shoes off so my socks are wet. I can't monitor my stuff because it's in four bins, they want to wand me for whatever reason (I didn't set the alarm off). They're going through my stuff, my feet are wet and now I get to pay $5 for a bottle of water that I could have filled for free. When I fly out of the small airport, they swab the bag there because it's only one flight going out at a time. If it sets off the detector, they call you up, you watch while they unpack your bag, stuff all over the place in plain view and then they shove it all back in the bag that took 2 hours to pack because it's Christmas. If you try and repack it to protect the breakables, they pitch a fit. And then, they want your ID and you to sign a form that says it's your bag. You ask for a copy of the form and what it's going to be used for and they won't tell you, just that it's for their 'records'. So let's review: They still don't know if I am me. My feet are wet, there's some slight public humiliation for underwear being thrown about, probably sick because I can't keep properly hydrated on the plane and I'm pretty sure I'm in some database that I will never be able to find out for why. We're really really safe now, aren't we?
No you're not. I don't understand why teens need a phone anyway. At best, they need one that calls mom, dad, and maybe a taxi.