I am a researcher in Astronomy and I have found that Google Schalor is very lacking in my field. They have bigger competition in Astronomy than in most fields because all of the journal articles in Astronomy going back a century have been scanned, cross referenced and are available from the NASA/Harvard Database.
If it is family or friends I ask for dinner or lunch depending on the amount of work I do. If it is someone from work I charge them $20 an hour. As a graduate student I tend to prefer home cooked meals to money.
I have been using evolution 1.4 (Ximian's version of M$ Outlook) since the day it came out (a few months ago) and it is really solid. It sync's with my Sony Clie (running Palm OS). It interfaces with my LDAP server for storing email and personal contact information. It even shows me the current slashdot news titles and the weather. I couldn't do without it!
Warning: Even though evolutions is great, Ximian's Desktop is terrible!
I am a physics graduate student in theoretical cosmology and these types of claims irritate me. Sure, after WMAP measurements of the CMB combined with Lyman break galaxy data we have determined the cosmological parameters today such as lamda, omega_matter, sigma8, but we are far from understanding how the universe will end. For example, the dark energy (lambda) is what is forcing the expansion of the universe at present, but we don't know what the nature of the field driving the expansion is or even if it is constant or accelerating (quintessence theory).
Even when we understand the dark energy it can not be hailed as a triumph above all other discoveries, because we don't know how galaxies form? How massive (primordial?) black holes at the centers of galaxies form? What re-ionized the universe? How even a single star forms?
Unfortunately, this is also a view held by many older astronomers and physicists in academia, because they have pushed so hard for so long for the values of these fundamental parameters.
None the less, the book looks interesting. I always enjoy books about science and scientists. My question for Chris Seife, which is related to his phenomenal statement, is: As a science writer, do you attempt to explain the hard science to people and if so do you feel it is important for scientist to try and explain their work to the public, or is it better to skip the details and just show them pretty pictures and cool stories? We all know that's what gets science funded.
I am working on my PhD in Physics and I feel the same way as you. I look at CS and EE in envy. I say to myself,"If I had to do it over again,..." As with all interests, you need to take a break. I have read some suggestions from other people, telling you that you might want to go to grad school. I suggest taking time off. I moved to Austria out of the blue after I got my BS and after two years of hanging out, working under the table in Vienna I was itching to come back. I learned a new language and culture and had a great time. But alas I am three years into my PhD and I feel as though I need to take another break.
My point is that you are coming up on a natural point to take a break and do a 180. I say do it.
Are YOU an idiot?
Seriously
My reference to the third world was to the articles comment. Obviously, if you are reading/. you are not doing all you can do for the environment. If you can't handle a little comment you should turn off your little computer and go hide in the woods, because the energy you use by using your computer contibutes to the "poison gas" produce by electrical plants.
PS I have read Ayn Rand and her advise to you would be to stop wasting electricity on your holier than thou comments and take action!
I am a grad student and systems admin for the University of California, Santa Cruz. I feel like I live in a third world country. Power goes out here about twice a week. It is flickering as I type this. It is incredibly difficult to do research when you are not even guaranteed that your computational cluster will even stay up for a weeks time.
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I am a researcher in Astronomy and I have found that Google Schalor is very lacking in my field. They have bigger competition in Astronomy than in most fields because all of the journal articles in Astronomy going back a century have been scanned, cross referenced and are available from the NASA/Harvard Database.
They have a long way to go to compete with that.
If it is family or friends I ask for dinner or lunch depending on the amount of work I do. If it is someone from work I charge them $20 an hour. As a graduate student I tend to prefer home cooked meals to money.
b.
Warning: Even though evolutions is great, Ximian's Desktop is terrible!
I am a physics graduate student in theoretical cosmology and these types of claims irritate me. Sure, after WMAP measurements of the CMB combined with Lyman break galaxy data we have determined the cosmological parameters today such as lamda, omega_matter, sigma8, but we are far from understanding how the universe will end. For example, the dark energy (lambda) is what is forcing the expansion of the universe at present, but we don't know what the nature of the field driving the expansion is or even if it is constant or accelerating (quintessence theory).
Even when we understand the dark energy it can not be hailed as a triumph above all other discoveries, because we don't know how galaxies form? How massive (primordial?) black holes at the centers of galaxies form? What re-ionized the universe? How even a single star forms?
Unfortunately, this is also a view held by many older astronomers and physicists in academia, because they have pushed so hard for so long for the values of these fundamental parameters.
None the less, the book looks interesting. I always enjoy books about science and scientists. My question for Chris Seife, which is related to his phenomenal statement, is: As a science writer, do you attempt to explain the hard science to people and if so do you feel it is important for scientist to try and explain their work to the public, or is it better to skip the details and just show them pretty pictures and cool stories? We all know that's what gets science funded.
I am working on my PhD in Physics and I feel the same way as you. I look at CS and EE in envy. I say to myself,"If I had to do it over again,..." As with all interests, you need to take a break. I have read some suggestions from other people, telling you that you might want to go to grad school. I suggest taking time off. I moved to Austria out of the blue after I got my BS and after two years of hanging out, working under the table in Vienna I was itching to come back. I learned a new language and culture and had a great time. But alas I am three years into my PhD and I feel as though I need to take another break.
My point is that you are coming up on a natural point to take a break and do a 180. I say do it.
My suggestions would be the following:
website: www.designisdead.com
film: The Cell
artist: HR Geiger
Are YOU an idiot? /. you are not doing all you can do for the environment. If you can't handle a little comment you should turn off your little computer and go hide in the woods, because the energy you use by using your computer contibutes to the "poison gas" produce by electrical plants.
Seriously
My reference to the third world was to the articles comment. Obviously, if you are reading
PS I have read Ayn Rand and her advise to you would be to stop wasting electricity on your holier than thou comments and take action!
I am a grad student and systems admin for the University of California, Santa Cruz. I feel like I live in a third world country. Power goes out here about twice a week. It is flickering as I type this. It is incredibly difficult to do research when you are not even guaranteed that your computational cluster will even stay up for a weeks time.