being in a constant state of hyperventilating panic
When you make such baseless and sweeping assumptions about other people you do little to make your side of the argument appear at all balanced and mature.
One other item of note: If you are a passenger on a plane, you have no rights. The FAA authorizes the pilot and crew full authority over what you can and cannot do on a plane.
I am well aware of that. When I purchase an airline ticket I am doing business with a private company who owns the aircraft I am paying to be transported on and they are entitled to do pretty well whatever they want while I am on their aircraft. And indeed there are some times when it is perfectly reasonable for them to do what they do. I'm just not sold on the importance of making me turn my phone completely off just so I can watch their safety talk for the 300th time, and then tell me I can't use it until we are at cruising altitude. I'm fine with turning off the radio functions, would it really be so terrible of me to check my calendar and do other work related functions on it while we're waiting though - so long as I'm not connecting to anything?
Takeoff and landing, you're supposed to concentrate on safety instructions which (very rarely) you might need to think about right soon and seriously. Just... put down the gadget for a moment, and join the real and dangerous world of the paid staff.
I fly a fair bit. Not enough that I have enough frequent flier miles with any one airline to go anyplace good, but enough that I can tell you the aircraft I am flying on as soon as I step through the door (without looking at my ticket or the safety pamphlet in in the seatback). I've seen safety presentations from a number of different airlines on each plane that I have flown on over a number of years. I can tell you that if a Delta flight attendant accidentally stepped on to a United flight and gave the safety briefing nobody would know the difference (other than the slightly different uniforms).
In fact, I've been on the planes enough that I could give the safety talk myself (and I can tell you for several airlines which planes have automated talks that the attendants pantomime to and on which ones the attendants have to describe it verbally).
And I'm quite sure there are plenty of other passengers like me. We are the same ones who get through security with minimal fuss because we're prepared from that from experience as well. We know which planes our carryons will fit in the overhead bin in, and which ones we need to gate check it for. We have smartphones and we know what airplane mode is. We know how to make sure that our phones are really, truly, disconnected; why can't we check out calendars while the attendant is giving the same safety talk we've seen dozens - if not hundreds - of times? I'm not asking permission to play rugby in the aisle while they're talking, or even to use the bathroom during that sacred minute-and-a-half. I won't be distracting other passengers because I also know how to do such things silently and discretely.
The restrictions seem to be in place just to amuse the airline companies as this point. They certainly don't amuse me...
Every flight I've been on recently has had an announcement of
you must turn OFF your cell phone until we reach cruising altitude, airplane mode is not ok
Which is rather stupid. Most people who know how to put their phones in airplane mode have seen the safety instructions enough times that they could give them for the staff, why not let them keep their cell phones on provided they aren't engaged in communication with them?
The Amazon page for this device says it has two CPUs (it has one quad-core CPU) and it runs (!) Windows Mobile. It also fails to mention that it can take up to 64gb micro sdxc (though that comes up in the reviews).
* does the car have a license plate for every country?
Haven't you ever driven to Canada or Mexico? There are other countries as well where you can drive cars registered in other countries. In other words, the presidential limo likely is registered only in the US, and accepted in other places.
* do the taxpayers pay property tax for it in every country?
Highly unlikely.
* do the taxpayers pay an import / export tax for every country he visits?
I've never had to pay any such tax to drive in Canada. When people drive between countries in Europe they don't pay any such taxes either.
* how many cars has the taxpayer bought for this president?
Probably around the same number we bought for the guy before him, and the guy before that guy, and so on...
* does every new president get a new car(s) or do is/are they reused for the next president?
That depends on your sense of "reused" vs "new", and for that matter what you call a "car". The current presidential limo - known as "the beast" - is actually on a truck chassis for several important reasons, and then basically covered with Cadillac accoutrement. So it was never really a "new" car in the standard sense anyways.
* is it water resistant up to 100ft?
Possibly, though getting it out of 100ft of water might be nearly impossible. It is capable of completely sealing up with its own air circulation system in case it should come under chemical attack.
* how heavy is this car, and does it meet the maximum weight allowance on our roads or that of any other country's roads?
It is ridiculously heavy. All the glass is several inches thick and resistant to just about anything you could imagine trying to attack a window with. Each door weighs in at several hundred pounds. Basically no amount of small arms fire could penetrate that car's armor.
* what is done with past presidential vehicles, where do they go after they are pulled from service?
Some of them have been retired to museums - the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan has a couple (including the limo JFK was assassinated in). Beyond those I'm not sure.
I know there are plenty of people who really do need Adobe software for various reasons. However, I know there are also lots of people who could get by with GIMP instead of Photoshop and Inkscsape instead of Illustrator (I am one of those later people). I think there is a missed opportunity here for the open source community to gain some traction down under...
They never listen to anyone else, so listening to them seems shortsighted. We have seen that they will ultimately favor whatever decision pays them the best, regardless of what consequences it may have on the rest of the internet. Likely this bit from them is nothing more than self promotion released in the hope of making themselves look like they give a shit about anyone.
Diesel is as close to renewable as a liquid fuel can get. We can effectively grow it in a field, which we cannot do with standard fuel. But of course as most American consumers are still stuck in the 1970's mindset of Diesel being unreliable, unclean, and loud, this statement will draw eyeballs with minimal risk. However as slashdot is allegedly in the 21st century people who work for it should be aware of the reality of today's Diesel fuel.
After all, do you see anyone pirating slashdot? It is a fool-proof strategy that has worked for taco and the rest of the employees of this site for a long time now!
society that gives the power to the majority to enslave a minority
First of all, I am being extremely generous to you by saying that you are not even close to accurate with your sense of what "enslave" means.
Second, the scenario you have been advocating for some time here on/. does exactly the opposite of what you claim the current scenario to do - you want to enslave the majority (well over 90% of the population) to give power to the minority (less than 1% realistically). Such a switch would truly exchange fictitious slavery for actual slavery.
Third, you are an idiot and a coward. You substitute your religious beliefs for an actual argument in the hopes that your fascist dream state would - completely contrary to all logic - favor, rather than abuse and enslave, you.
This isn't particularly new in academia. People from various universities have often shared access in order to grant their colleagues access to journals that their less-well-funded institutions did not have.
Seriously, it isn't worth your effort - especially if you want something reliable. People who set out to make homemade clusters find out the hard way about design issues that reduce the life expectancy of their cluster. There are professionals who can build you a proper cluster for not a lot of money if you really want your own, or even better you can rent time on someone else's cluster.
It's hard to believe that he could really be that oblivious to how the real world works. The messages he sent from Bolivia where he talks about the value of cocaine, and evading authorities, don't help his case, either.
First of all, you want "you're", not "your". You apparently suck at grammar almost as badly as you suck at very simply PC repair.
Second, my message was related to the topic. You then came in and tried to rip into the trackpoint on the thinkpad even though it is your own stupid fault that you couldn't bother to replace one part in almost two fucking decades.
If anyone is trolling, it is you.
your precious trackpoint blows ass, it takes nothing to break and the only way to fix it is to buy an entire replacement keyboard
You can't even demonstrate for sure what broke it. You couldn't bother to fix it, so you also don't know anything about its reliability.
fuck that
You really leave me missing the trolls we used to have here.
understand?
I understand that you are incompetent, and seem to be getting off on wasting my time. I also understand that you are too fucking lazy to replace a keyboard once in two decades to fix the problem that you came here to bitch about. Furthermore I understand that you are too fucking arrogant to realize that the problem you are bitching about cannot be unequivocally associated with the problem you claim to be the cause of it.
and hating a device thats easily fouled and irreparable is lame? ok
,bR>
First of all, it is not irreparable; you just need to replace the keyboard. You've had 20 years to do that but you're too cheap and lazy to do it. Don't blame the equipment.
Second, as you bought it used, you don't know what it went through before hand. For all you know the previous owner could have spilled a diet coke on there and it took that long for the system to be affected by it. A reasonable person would have replaced the keyboard.
yea you can remove the keyboard, yea I could have spent more money for a replacement (cause you cant get to the point without killing the keyboard)
It is no longer clear that you have any idea what you are talking about. Nobody replaces just the trackpoint, the entire keyboard assembly is one FRU for a reason. You could buy the keyboard for very little money and replace it, and you'd be set. Instead you leave it be and come here to bitch about it because you are too cheap and lazy.
but why, it would have just fucked up in no time
There is no reason whatsoever to expect that. There are thousands upon thousands of thinkpads in use today that have never had the problem the way you describe it. Being as you bought a used thinkpad you cannot state with certainty that the fault came about the way you describe it.
Do yourself a favor, next time buy a mac. You clearly are not capable of even basic repairs so you would be much better served by a setup where you replace the entire system instead.
Really? You're angry that your thinkpad has lasted almost 20 years? You could have easily obtained the service manual from IBM (more recently at no cost through their website) if you wanted to; thinkpad keyboards in general are actually quite easy to remove when you know the proper method. Hell you could probably still order a replacement keyboard for it off ebay (that is, if you can't still get a new one through IBM/lenovo).
That is the lamest excuse I've seen in a long time - possibly in all time - for hating the trackpoint.
When they make a buckling-spring keyboard with trackpoint and a USB hub. I have work to do and I don't want to have to take my hands off my keyboard. And don't you dare offer me a touchpad or a trackball; I will beat you up with my Model M keyboards if you even think of it.
But their website isn't particularly helpful. If I'm ordering a new buckling-spring keyboard I want to order one with a USB hub and trackpoint (or equivalent - no stupid crappy touchpad, I have work to do). They have logos that suggest they have them with trackpoint but I sure as hell can't find them - and I don't want a trackball, either.
Otherwise I will just use my old model M's, with trackpoint, when I need them. USB adapters work just fine for that purpose.
That all sounds like good advice if you believe, as the parent seemingly does, that maximizing your career is the highest and most worthy goal that anyone can attain.
While it would be great to be an idealist and follow all of one's interests regardless of the career, the job market for new PhDs does not allow it. We are producing too many PhDs and have not enough postdoc positions for them - and it only gets worse from there. Only the people who jettison everything else make it anywhere now, the rest get tossed aside. Even industry positions in biotech are now going only to those who had a successful academic postdoc, in part because that is an easy way for industry to quickly filter out the undesirable.
In other words the situation is splitting into almost exactly two possible outcomes, success or failure. And at that, the path of success doesn't pay well for some time, but it pays better than failure. That said, failure does allow you time for non-career objectives, which success does not.
There are a lot of different programs that fall under the description of "Bio PhD". If this person is doing a PhD in Biology, they will have a hard time (perhaps even harder if they are doing "Behavioral Biology" or something of that sort). However there are other affiliated "Bio" studies that are doing quite well in terms of job placement - Structural Biology comes to mind, and Biochemistry in general often does as well. Hell Bioinformatics is generally pretty solid for opportunities as well.
Though generally if one finishes a PhD with "no marketable skills", there has been a failing of at least the student and the adviser, and possibly others as well.
I recently completed my PhD so I can offer some very recently acquired information for (hopefully useful) advice.
First of all, you need to find something else when you finish your PhD. Usually, academics went for a post-doc and non-academics went to industry. The game is a little different now, though, and pretty well everyone needs an academic post-doc, even to go to an industry position. Hence you should be thinking now about what you want to do when you finish, figuring out how to get there from where you are about to go. It really is never too early to start thinking about that. Some people say that the most important thing you do in grad school is line up a post-doc position.
Second, networking is critical. I highly recommend that you try to get to as many conferences as you can manage when you are a grad student.
Third, the job market for post-docs right now is terrible, unless you are in the right field at the right time. Right now it seems structural biologists are in high demand but in 5 years it could be something else entirely. Keep an eye on where the job market is going and know how to market yourself to the demand.
Fourth, start thinking right away about your committees for your time in grad school. You'll probably have a qualifying committee, an advisory committee, and a thesis exam committee. Obviously your advisor will be on all three but the rest might or might not carry over much between the three. Know how to deal with those people, how to keep them happy, and how to get them to help you graduate and network.
Fifth, if you don't have an adviser already, start talking to current students in the labs of advisers who are looking to pick up students. You want to know what your life will be like, and how long potential advisers generally keep their students around for before they graduate.
In other words, don't take this summer to escape academia. Take it to prepare for it. If your school graduates most PhDs in 5 years you really don't want to be the person who takes 7 due to lack of preparation.
Slashdot Mirror
Only if your point is that you learned how to "debate" on the internet.
being in a constant state of hyperventilating panic
When you make such baseless and sweeping assumptions about other people you do little to make your side of the argument appear at all balanced and mature.
One other item of note: If you are a passenger on a plane, you have no rights. The FAA authorizes the pilot and crew full authority over what you can and cannot do on a plane.
I am well aware of that. When I purchase an airline ticket I am doing business with a private company who owns the aircraft I am paying to be transported on and they are entitled to do pretty well whatever they want while I am on their aircraft. And indeed there are some times when it is perfectly reasonable for them to do what they do. I'm just not sold on the importance of making me turn my phone completely off just so I can watch their safety talk for the 300th time, and then tell me I can't use it until we are at cruising altitude. I'm fine with turning off the radio functions, would it really be so terrible of me to check my calendar and do other work related functions on it while we're waiting though - so long as I'm not connecting to anything?
Takeoff and landing, you're supposed to concentrate on safety instructions which (very rarely) you might need to think about right soon and seriously. Just... put down the gadget for a moment, and join the real and dangerous world of the paid staff.
I fly a fair bit. Not enough that I have enough frequent flier miles with any one airline to go anyplace good, but enough that I can tell you the aircraft I am flying on as soon as I step through the door (without looking at my ticket or the safety pamphlet in in the seatback). I've seen safety presentations from a number of different airlines on each plane that I have flown on over a number of years. I can tell you that if a Delta flight attendant accidentally stepped on to a United flight and gave the safety briefing nobody would know the difference (other than the slightly different uniforms).
In fact, I've been on the planes enough that I could give the safety talk myself (and I can tell you for several airlines which planes have automated talks that the attendants pantomime to and on which ones the attendants have to describe it verbally).
And I'm quite sure there are plenty of other passengers like me. We are the same ones who get through security with minimal fuss because we're prepared from that from experience as well. We know which planes our carryons will fit in the overhead bin in, and which ones we need to gate check it for. We have smartphones and we know what airplane mode is. We know how to make sure that our phones are really, truly, disconnected; why can't we check out calendars while the attendant is giving the same safety talk we've seen dozens - if not hundreds - of times? I'm not asking permission to play rugby in the aisle while they're talking, or even to use the bathroom during that sacred minute-and-a-half. I won't be distracting other passengers because I also know how to do such things silently and discretely.
The restrictions seem to be in place just to amuse the airline companies as this point. They certainly don't amuse me...
you must turn OFF your cell phone until we reach cruising altitude, airplane mode is not ok
Which is rather stupid. Most people who know how to put their phones in airplane mode have seen the safety instructions enough times that they could give them for the staff, why not let them keep their cell phones on provided they aren't engaged in communication with them?
The Amazon page for this device says it has two CPUs (it has one quad-core CPU) and it runs (!) Windows Mobile. It also fails to mention that it can take up to 64gb micro sdxc (though that comes up in the reviews).
* does the car have a license plate for every country?
Haven't you ever driven to Canada or Mexico? There are other countries as well where you can drive cars registered in other countries. In other words, the presidential limo likely is registered only in the US, and accepted in other places.
* do the taxpayers pay property tax for it in every country?
Highly unlikely.
* do the taxpayers pay an import / export tax for every country he visits?
I've never had to pay any such tax to drive in Canada. When people drive between countries in Europe they don't pay any such taxes either.
* how many cars has the taxpayer bought for this president?
Probably around the same number we bought for the guy before him, and the guy before that guy, and so on...
* does every new president get a new car(s) or do is/are they reused for the next president?
That depends on your sense of "reused" vs "new", and for that matter what you call a "car". The current presidential limo - known as "the beast" - is actually on a truck chassis for several important reasons, and then basically covered with Cadillac accoutrement. So it was never really a "new" car in the standard sense anyways.
* is it water resistant up to 100ft?
Possibly, though getting it out of 100ft of water might be nearly impossible. It is capable of completely sealing up with its own air circulation system in case it should come under chemical attack.
* how heavy is this car, and does it meet the maximum weight allowance on our roads or that of any other country's roads?
It is ridiculously heavy. All the glass is several inches thick and resistant to just about anything you could imagine trying to attack a window with. Each door weighs in at several hundred pounds. Basically no amount of small arms fire could penetrate that car's armor.
* what is done with past presidential vehicles, where do they go after they are pulled from service?
Some of them have been retired to museums - the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan has a couple (including the limo JFK was assassinated in). Beyond those I'm not sure.
I know there are plenty of people who really do need Adobe software for various reasons. However, I know there are also lots of people who could get by with GIMP instead of Photoshop and Inkscsape instead of Illustrator (I am one of those later people). I think there is a missed opportunity here for the open source community to gain some traction down under...
75% of Apple's Power Comes From Renewable Sources
Instead? Or even
Apple Says 75% Of Their Power Comes From Renewable Sources
which would also be more clear.
They never listen to anyone else, so listening to them seems shortsighted. We have seen that they will ultimately favor whatever decision pays them the best, regardless of what consequences it may have on the rest of the internet. Likely this bit from them is nothing more than self promotion released in the hope of making themselves look like they give a shit about anyone.
Diesel is as close to renewable as a liquid fuel can get. We can effectively grow it in a field, which we cannot do with standard fuel. But of course as most American consumers are still stuck in the 1970's mindset of Diesel being unreliable, unclean, and loud, this statement will draw eyeballs with minimal risk. However as slashdot is allegedly in the 21st century people who work for it should be aware of the reality of today's Diesel fuel.
After all, do you see anyone pirating slashdot? It is a fool-proof strategy that has worked for taco and the rest of the employees of this site for a long time now!
society that gives the power to the majority to enslave a minority
First of all, I am being extremely generous to you by saying that you are not even close to accurate with your sense of what "enslave" means.
/. does exactly the opposite of what you claim the current scenario to do - you want to enslave the majority (well over 90% of the population) to give power to the minority (less than 1% realistically). Such a switch would truly exchange fictitious slavery for actual slavery.
Second, the scenario you have been advocating for some time here on
Third, you are an idiot and a coward. You substitute your religious beliefs for an actual argument in the hopes that your fascist dream state would - completely contrary to all logic - favor, rather than abuse and enslave, you.
This isn't particularly new in academia. People from various universities have often shared access in order to grant their colleagues access to journals that their less-well-funded institutions did not have.
Seriously, it isn't worth your effort - especially if you want something reliable. People who set out to make homemade clusters find out the hard way about design issues that reduce the life expectancy of their cluster. There are professionals who can build you a proper cluster for not a lot of money if you really want your own, or even better you can rent time on someone else's cluster.
It's hard to believe that he could really be that oblivious to how the real world works. The messages he sent from Bolivia where he talks about the value of cocaine, and evading authorities, don't help his case, either.
... could you force them to sue themselves?
god your a hateful little troll
First of all, you want "you're", not "your". You apparently suck at grammar almost as badly as you suck at very simply PC repair.
Second, my message was related to the topic. You then came in and tried to rip into the trackpoint on the thinkpad even though it is your own stupid fault that you couldn't bother to replace one part in almost two fucking decades.
If anyone is trolling, it is you.
your precious trackpoint blows ass, it takes nothing to break and the only way to fix it is to buy an entire replacement keyboard
You can't even demonstrate for sure what broke it. You couldn't bother to fix it, so you also don't know anything about its reliability.
fuck that
You really leave me missing the trolls we used to have here.
understand?
I understand that you are incompetent, and seem to be getting off on wasting my time. I also understand that you are too fucking lazy to replace a keyboard once in two decades to fix the problem that you came here to bitch about. Furthermore I understand that you are too fucking arrogant to realize that the problem you are bitching about cannot be unequivocally associated with the problem you claim to be the cause of it.
:)
So really, go fuck yourself you fucking fuck.
I bought it used
Ah, so you're cheap. OK.
and hating a device thats easily fouled and irreparable is lame? ok
,bR> First of all, it is not irreparable; you just need to replace the keyboard. You've had 20 years to do that but you're too cheap and lazy to do it. Don't blame the equipment.
Second, as you bought it used, you don't know what it went through before hand. For all you know the previous owner could have spilled a diet coke on there and it took that long for the system to be affected by it. A reasonable person would have replaced the keyboard.
yea you can remove the keyboard, yea I could have spent more money for a replacement (cause you cant get to the point without killing the keyboard)
It is no longer clear that you have any idea what you are talking about. Nobody replaces just the trackpoint, the entire keyboard assembly is one FRU for a reason. You could buy the keyboard for very little money and replace it, and you'd be set. Instead you leave it be and come here to bitch about it because you are too cheap and lazy.
but why, it would have just fucked up in no time
There is no reason whatsoever to expect that. There are thousands upon thousands of thinkpads in use today that have never had the problem the way you describe it. Being as you bought a used thinkpad you cannot state with certainty that the fault came about the way you describe it.
Do yourself a favor, next time buy a mac. You clearly are not capable of even basic repairs so you would be much better served by a setup where you replace the entire system instead.
Really? You're angry that your thinkpad has lasted almost 20 years? You could have easily obtained the service manual from IBM (more recently at no cost through their website) if you wanted to; thinkpad keyboards in general are actually quite easy to remove when you know the proper method. Hell you could probably still order a replacement keyboard for it off ebay (that is, if you can't still get a new one through IBM/lenovo).
That is the lamest excuse I've seen in a long time - possibly in all time - for hating the trackpoint.
When they make a buckling-spring keyboard with trackpoint and a USB hub. I have work to do and I don't want to have to take my hands off my keyboard. And don't you dare offer me a touchpad or a trackball; I will beat you up with my Model M keyboards if you even think of it.
But their website isn't particularly helpful. If I'm ordering a new buckling-spring keyboard I want to order one with a USB hub and trackpoint (or equivalent - no stupid crappy touchpad, I have work to do). They have logos that suggest they have them with trackpoint but I sure as hell can't find them - and I don't want a trackball, either.
Otherwise I will just use my old model M's, with trackpoint, when I need them. USB adapters work just fine for that purpose.
That all sounds like good advice if you believe, as the parent seemingly does, that maximizing your career is the highest and most worthy goal that anyone can attain.
While it would be great to be an idealist and follow all of one's interests regardless of the career, the job market for new PhDs does not allow it. We are producing too many PhDs and have not enough postdoc positions for them - and it only gets worse from there. Only the people who jettison everything else make it anywhere now, the rest get tossed aside. Even industry positions in biotech are now going only to those who had a successful academic postdoc, in part because that is an easy way for industry to quickly filter out the undesirable.
In other words the situation is splitting into almost exactly two possible outcomes, success or failure. And at that, the path of success doesn't pay well for some time, but it pays better than failure. That said, failure does allow you time for non-career objectives, which success does not.
There are a lot of different programs that fall under the description of "Bio PhD". If this person is doing a PhD in Biology, they will have a hard time (perhaps even harder if they are doing "Behavioral Biology" or something of that sort). However there are other affiliated "Bio" studies that are doing quite well in terms of job placement - Structural Biology comes to mind, and Biochemistry in general often does as well. Hell Bioinformatics is generally pretty solid for opportunities as well.
Though generally if one finishes a PhD with "no marketable skills", there has been a failing of at least the student and the adviser, and possibly others as well.
I recently completed my PhD so I can offer some very recently acquired information for (hopefully useful) advice.
First of all, you need to find something else when you finish your PhD. Usually, academics went for a post-doc and non-academics went to industry. The game is a little different now, though, and pretty well everyone needs an academic post-doc, even to go to an industry position. Hence you should be thinking now about what you want to do when you finish, figuring out how to get there from where you are about to go. It really is never too early to start thinking about that. Some people say that the most important thing you do in grad school is line up a post-doc position.
Second, networking is critical. I highly recommend that you try to get to as many conferences as you can manage when you are a grad student.
Third, the job market for post-docs right now is terrible, unless you are in the right field at the right time. Right now it seems structural biologists are in high demand but in 5 years it could be something else entirely. Keep an eye on where the job market is going and know how to market yourself to the demand.
Fourth, start thinking right away about your committees for your time in grad school. You'll probably have a qualifying committee, an advisory committee, and a thesis exam committee. Obviously your advisor will be on all three but the rest might or might not carry over much between the three. Know how to deal with those people, how to keep them happy, and how to get them to help you graduate and network.
Fifth, if you don't have an adviser already, start talking to current students in the labs of advisers who are looking to pick up students. You want to know what your life will be like, and how long potential advisers generally keep their students around for before they graduate.
In other words, don't take this summer to escape academia. Take it to prepare for it. If your school graduates most PhDs in 5 years you really don't want to be the person who takes 7 due to lack of preparation.