This is my last semester and I am taking my fourth class with a physics teacher who is probably the best I have had. She is enthusiastic about what she teaches, you can tell she enjoys her work. Her lectures are not monotonous but include stories and anecdotes, and after each new idea she lectures on we work an example on our papers, which we have to turn in at the end of the class meeting. Not good if you want to sleep in class, but I find that I do most of my learning during the in-class work. She's a tough grader, but I'm pleased to earn Bs in her classes: that means I learned a lot.
This teacher cares about her students individually and is fun to be around outside of class. And to top it off, she runs Linux on her desktop machine. Of course, the entire physics department uses Linux on their desktops, but she's still cool.
She also is evidence that women can succeed at physics. That is something I know anyway, but the encouragement that I'm not the only one trying is nice sometimes!
Things I do to conserve energy..
All fluorescent bulbs except in the bathroom where they are used for too short of times to be energy efficient, unplugging coffee maker, VCR, DVD player and other things with clocks and such when not using them.
Wearing a sweatshirt in the house and turning down the heat. An extra blanket on my bed, living in the semidark with few lights on at night.
Turning off monitors when not sitting directly in front of them (those things pull a lot of power, and with a real OS, you don't necessarily need a machine's monitor on to use it, either).
Turning my windows machine off when I wont have time for games for ahwile.
My apartment is pretty well insulated, and I have vertical blinds that I use strategically to either let light in or create an air pocket for insulation, depending on the weather.
Of course, I live on a pretty tight budget so I have more motives than saving the environment, but I like to think that is part of why I do it.:-)
"Staring out the window at the idle Altamont windmill farm..."
Well of course it's idle. Running it in the wind storms we're having would break the things. The Altamont farms produce most during summer nights when there is relatively constant and predictable wind blowing from the coast into the Valley.
Stockton here. Apparently at the last minute a large power plant was able to come back up. We were told to expect rolling blackouts but they haven't happened yet. The storm took out power at my place-of-employment for about 1.5 hours yesterday but our UPSes and generator kept our servers going with no problem. And I got to have the fun of everyone's oohs and aahs over the half-million candle flashlight that lives in my desk.
Umm, tech support *is* a lowly position, and unless you are referring to third world countries, techs hardly make "more than most people will ever make." I did tech support for a moderately-sized Californian ISP, and made about $1.50/hr more than minimum wage. Tech support is an entry-level position for someone with very little training or experience. Most of the people doing it don't know enough to get a job doing something more in-depth.
And yes, once they realized I was somewhat clueful I got moved. The clueful people don't stay in tech support, and the people that do stay there generally aren't motivated enough to become clueful.
We didn't, and still don't, support Linux. I could have supported it, but I would have gotten in trouble. If one support person supports something once, the customer is likely to call back later with a similar problem and whine, "But so-and-so helped me with it before!" So we were forbidden to help with things we didn't officially support. Being the Linux enthusiast that I was I would usually tell customers, "We don't support Linux so I can't help you. But I have your email address here, and when I get home from work I'll send you a note with some helpful URLs in an unofficial capacity if you like." Bad me.:-)
I would visit too. Can I be one of the radio astronomers? It sounds like a cool place to do research in. I'm glad that the place is going to be used again, seems a shame to have something so expensive be vacant for 5 years. I'm probably biased as a physics major, but radio astronomy is a good use of at least some of the equipment.
Then don't use snail mail. There are dead-tree-spam and mail bombs. Don't have a telephone, there are telemarketers. Don't listen to the radio, there are advertisements. Don't watch tv, it portrays Bad Things (TM). Your logic is flawed, unless you live your entire life in the wilderness with no connection to society, which you clearly don't since you posted here.
If you're out in nowheresville where no other high speed options are available, this is great. If it's this or dialup, I'll put up with a little latency. And on most things, including IRC, you probably won't notice a half-second lag.
That's why you save some of your money while you do make a bit. If one is making good money, one has no excuse to not save. Just because one lives in the modern world doesn't mean one *has* to live beyond one's means.
Did it ever occur to you that some of us might use the Internet to do *fun* things? If you look a little, you will find things that are enjoyable and relaxing.:-)
I don't know about the other ones, but at the AMD party I just showed them my nametag and walked right in. They didn't seem to care if I was underage. Of course, I didn't try to get alcohol since I had to drive home afterward, but at least I could get in. It looked like they may have been carding people at the bar.
I think a major part of the problem is how people are taught to think. Little girls are given barbies for their birthdays and play with clothes, makeup, and the like. Little boys are given toys like legos that help them learn logical thinking skills. Hmm, could I be on to something here? Once the kids are older these skills learned early-on are still there, giving the boys the advantage in understanding things that require logical thinking skills, and producing social norms about girls not doing as well with math, science, or computers. I believe it all has a lot with what parents encourage in their children when they are very young. I was the little girl who played with legos =)
That the average Talk City luser is not tech savvy is an understatement. The computer forum provided a big pull for Talk City even if they didn't see it generating a lot of revenue: The average luser could join a computer room and ask questions, and usually get an answer. Now that all the knowledgeable people are leaving, they will be stuck with a big vacuum. They will miss us, we were their free tech support and Q&A people. Oh how fun to see the company I used to work for on/. for being stupid. I honestly didn't think it would ever get *this* bad!
DX: so how about cleaning out my freezer (yeah I know its off topic) But Daemon-Xanth is right, the computer forum is going to be empty. I don't know of anyone that is going to be staying there. But unfortunately the computer forum, which was once one of the major ones there, is not much of an issue for them anymore. With TC being (or having had been, I dont know if it still is) the default chat server for WebTV, they will still have plently of people to watch their ads on their special clients. But at least we have a new home. TC tried to create a community, and they partially succeeded: They allowed the computer forum community to grow into a group that is going to migrate together to another server and remain a community. But for now I'm having fun watching their stock drop, and being glad I didn't buy any!
I dont know about other third world countries, but in Papua New Guinea, there *is* internet access, and it *is* important. PNG is a developing country playing catch-up with the western world, and being able to communicate is an important factor. In many parts of the country people are too remote for telephones, or even elementary schools, but these areas are shrinking (slowly). There is a high demand in the country for people with training in technological fields, and for there to be these people there need to be technical schools...with computers and internet access. Since there is no such thing as long distance charges in the country, anyone with a phone line has local internet access. Granted most of the computers are ancient Macs, but they still work for email and basic websites. The internet is a noticeable factor in the development of PNG. If nothing else, it allows me to keep in contact with my family there, despite it taking 3 weeks for snail mail to arrive. *g*
Actually, edges *do* make a difference in topology. A two dimensional surface stretched into weird shapes in three dimensional space and with a hole in it would not have a continuous derivative as you cross over the edge (through the hole) from ones side to the other. This may not mean anything to most people, but it does affect the classification of the surface in topology.... Acrucis
Is it just me, or is the comment about monopoles completely hilarious? If I find a magnetic monopole on one of them, I will claim the nobel prize myself, and certainly not send it back! Not sure how I would detect one though. I couldn't stop laughing at that for half an hour, maybe it comes from being a math and physics double major.... Acrucis
He's right. Its never easy for any of us geeks in school, but there's usually a small group of geek guys that can hang out together. And the guys are more likely to be encouraged by parents and teachers. For girls, not only do peers think it is uncool to be a geek, but we are less likely to be encouraged by teachers and parents. There are fewer of us (but we are a growing population) and we don't have anyone to hang out with at school. I was never actively discouraged by any teacher or parent, but most of my teachers seemed to think I was odd and just didn't know what to do with me. In college things are much easier, but most people form most of their life goals (or lack thereof) and set the stage for reaching those goals in high school
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This is my last semester and I am taking my fourth class with a physics teacher who is probably the best I have had. She is enthusiastic about what she teaches, you can tell she enjoys her work. Her lectures are not monotonous but include stories and anecdotes, and after each new idea she lectures on we work an example on our papers, which we have to turn in at the end of the class meeting. Not good if you want to sleep in class, but I find that I do most of my learning during the in-class work. She's a tough grader, but I'm pleased to earn Bs in her classes: that means I learned a lot.
This teacher cares about her students individually and is fun to be around outside of class. And to top it off, she runs Linux on her desktop machine. Of course, the entire physics department uses Linux on their desktops, but she's still cool.
She also is evidence that women can succeed at physics. That is something I know anyway, but the encouragement that I'm not the only one trying is nice sometimes!
Things I do to conserve energy..
:-)
All fluorescent bulbs except in the bathroom where they are used for too short of times to be energy efficient, unplugging coffee maker, VCR, DVD player and other things with clocks and such when not using them.
Wearing a sweatshirt in the house and turning down the heat. An extra blanket on my bed, living in the semidark with few lights on at night.
Turning off monitors when not sitting directly in front of them (those things pull a lot of power, and with a real OS, you don't necessarily need a machine's monitor on to use it, either).
Turning my windows machine off when I wont have time for games for ahwile.
My apartment is pretty well insulated, and I have vertical blinds that I use strategically to either let light in or create an air pocket for insulation, depending on the weather.
Of course, I live on a pretty tight budget so I have more motives than saving the environment, but I like to think that is part of why I do it.
"Staring out the window at the idle Altamont windmill farm..." Well of course it's idle. Running it in the wind storms we're having would break the things. The Altamont farms produce most during summer nights when there is relatively constant and predictable wind blowing from the coast into the Valley.
No, some of us have UPSes and can stay online in the dark. Everyone knows 'net access is more important than lights, anyway. ;-)
Stockton here. Apparently at the last minute a large power plant was able to come back up. We were told to expect rolling blackouts but they haven't happened yet. The storm took out power at my place-of-employment for about 1.5 hours yesterday but our UPSes and generator kept our servers going with no problem. And I got to have the fun of everyone's oohs and aahs over the half-million candle flashlight that lives in my desk.
Umm, tech support *is* a lowly position, and unless you are referring to third world countries, techs hardly make "more than most people will ever make." I did tech support for a moderately-sized Californian ISP, and made about $1.50/hr more than minimum wage. Tech support is an entry-level position for someone with very little training or experience. Most of the people doing it don't know enough to get a job doing something more in-depth.
:-)
And yes, once they realized I was somewhat clueful I got moved. The clueful people don't stay in tech support, and the people that do stay there generally aren't motivated enough to become clueful.
We didn't, and still don't, support Linux. I could have supported it, but I would have gotten in trouble. If one support person supports something once, the customer is likely to call back later with a similar problem and whine, "But so-and-so helped me with it before!" So we were forbidden to help with things we didn't officially support. Being the Linux enthusiast that I was I would usually tell customers, "We don't support Linux so I can't help you. But I have your email address here, and when I get home from work I'll send you a note with some helpful URLs in an unofficial capacity if you like." Bad me.
I would visit too. Can I be one of the radio astronomers? It sounds like a cool place to do research in. I'm glad that the place is going to be used again, seems a shame to have something so expensive be vacant for 5 years. I'm probably biased as a physics major, but radio astronomy is a good use of at least some of the equipment.
The difference is that people who send you junk snail mail have to pay postage, and don't hijack the USPS to do it.
Then don't use snail mail. There are dead-tree-spam and mail bombs. Don't have a telephone, there are telemarketers. Don't listen to the radio, there are advertisements. Don't watch tv, it portrays Bad Things (TM). Your logic is flawed, unless you live your entire life in the wilderness with no connection to society, which you clearly don't since you posted here.
If you're out in nowheresville where no other high speed options are available, this is great. If it's this or dialup, I'll put up with a little latency. And on most things, including IRC, you probably won't notice a half-second lag.
That's why you save some of your money while you do make a bit. If one is making good money, one has no excuse to not save. Just because one lives in the modern world doesn't mean one *has* to live beyond one's means.
Did it ever occur to you that some of us might use the Internet to do *fun* things? If you look a little, you will find things that are enjoyable and relaxing. :-)
I don't know about the other ones, but at the AMD party I just showed them my nametag and walked right in. They didn't seem to care if I was underage. Of course, I didn't try to get alcohol since I had to drive home afterward, but at least I could get in. It looked like they may have been carding people at the bar.
I think a major part of the problem is how people are taught to think. Little girls are given barbies for their birthdays and play with clothes, makeup, and the like. Little boys are given toys like legos that help them learn logical thinking skills. Hmm, could I be on to something here? Once the kids are older these skills learned early-on are still there, giving the boys the advantage in understanding things that require logical thinking skills, and producing social norms about girls not doing as well with math, science, or computers. I believe it all has a lot with what parents encourage in their children when they are very young.
I was the little girl who played with legos =)
That the average Talk City luser is not tech savvy is an understatement. The computer forum provided a big pull for Talk City even if they didn't see it generating a lot of revenue: The average luser could join a computer room and ask questions, and usually get an answer. Now that all the knowledgeable people are leaving, they will be stuck with a big vacuum. They will miss us, we were their free tech support and Q&A people. Oh how fun to see the company I used to work for on /. for being stupid. I honestly didn't think it would ever get *this* bad!
DX: so how about cleaning out my freezer (yeah I know its off topic) But Daemon-Xanth is right, the computer forum is going to be empty. I don't know of anyone that is going to be staying there. But unfortunately the computer forum, which was once one of the major ones there, is not much of an issue for them anymore. With TC being (or having had been, I dont know if it still is) the default chat server for WebTV, they will still have plently of people to watch their ads on their special clients. But at least we have a new home. TC tried to create a community, and they partially succeeded: They allowed the computer forum community to grow into a group that is going to migrate together to another server and remain a community. But for now I'm having fun watching their stock drop, and being glad I didn't buy any!
I dont know about other third world countries, but in Papua New Guinea, there *is* internet access, and it *is* important. PNG is a developing country playing catch-up with the western world, and being able to communicate is an important factor. In many parts of the country people are too remote for telephones, or even elementary schools, but these areas are shrinking (slowly). There is a high demand in the country for people with training in technological fields, and for there to be these people there need to be technical schools...with computers and internet access. Since there is no such thing as long distance charges in the country, anyone with a phone line has local internet access. Granted most of the computers are ancient Macs, but they still work for email and basic websites. The internet is a noticeable factor in the development of PNG. If nothing else, it allows me to keep in contact with my family there, despite it taking 3 weeks for snail mail to arrive. *g*
Actually, edges *do* make a difference in topology. A two dimensional surface stretched into weird shapes in three dimensional space and with a hole in it would not have a continuous derivative as you cross over the edge (through the hole) from ones side to the other. This may not mean anything to most people, but it does affect the classification of the surface in topology.... Acrucis
Is it just me, or is the comment about monopoles completely hilarious? If I find a magnetic monopole on one of them, I will claim the nobel prize myself, and certainly not send it back! Not sure how I would detect one though. I couldn't stop laughing at that for half an hour, maybe it comes from being a math and physics double major.... Acrucis
He's right. Its never easy for any of us geeks in school, but there's usually a small group of geek guys that can hang out together. And the guys are more likely to be encouraged by parents and teachers. For girls, not only do peers think it is uncool to be a geek, but we are less likely to be encouraged by teachers and parents. There are fewer of us (but we are a growing population) and we don't have anyone to hang out with at school. I was never actively discouraged by any teacher or parent, but most of my teachers seemed to think I was odd and just didn't know what to do with me. In college things are much easier, but most people form most of their life goals (or lack thereof) and set the stage for reaching those goals in high school