With a degree in Math/CS from San Jose State, I work as a senior test engineer in the semiconductor industry. I design test algorithms, design circuitry for the fixtures that interface to the devices under test, characterize the behavior of those devices, improve test throughput, and analyze a variety of problems with the goal of getting a given device into efficient routine production. My work involves lots of electronics, electromechanics, human engineering (on the production floor) and sometimes interesting math problems. I use a variety of DSP techniques as needed. I really enjoy the work and have done this sort of thing for over 25 years at a variety of companies. It is a single example of where you can land with a math degree, a special interest (electronics in my case) and a love of technical problem solving.
Art Sez, Take one physics course, and one chemistry course, and call me in the morning if the symptoms persist. In severe cases, a stiff course of thermodynamics might be required, but we hope that it won't come to that. In the meantime, stay away from junk science articles. Good Luck, Art
We use a 2.4kW solar power system on our house in the city, not the woods, but the panels cost more like $10/watt, not $1/Watt.
From a design standpoint, the average laptop will definitely be more efficient than the average desktop, if only because they have to be for battery life. Additionally, the Pentium family is less efficient than the PowerPC family, based upon an engineering study that I read. The application being investigated was an embedded processing system, for which there were some overall power constraints. The PowerPC proved to be a much easier fit for economical consumption.
You can debate the fine points of Port 25, SMTP and Bayesian filters all day, but unless you make the economics of spam less attractive, you will never get a handle on it through technical means. If you compare spam to physical junk mail, you'll find that it is a *lot* cheaper to contact (annoy) 30 Million folks by email, than it is by using printed letters or catalogs. Until that changes, the spam merchants will read the same technical posts that you do, and evolve their offense as readily as you evolve your defense. Until it costs actual money to send each email on the internet, there will be absolutely no incentive for spammers to ever stop what they are doing, and if there's even a small amount of money to be made, there is always someone deep enough in poverty or sleazy enough to do what it takes to make it. If you enjoy the technical challenge of fighting spam, then by all means have a really good time, but please don't delude yourself into believing that that there is anything going on here but traditional bottom line economics. Unfortunately, there is always someone low enough on the totem pole to be perfectly happy to step up and do those dirty jobs that only exist to annoy almost everyone else. Art
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With a degree in Math/CS from San Jose State, I work as a senior test engineer in the semiconductor industry. I design test algorithms, design circuitry for the fixtures that interface to the devices under test, characterize the behavior of those devices, improve test throughput, and analyze a variety of problems with the goal of getting a given device into efficient routine production. My work involves lots of electronics, electromechanics, human engineering (on the production floor) and sometimes interesting math problems. I use a variety of DSP techniques as needed. I really enjoy the work and have done this sort of thing for over 25 years at a variety of companies. It is a single example of where you can land with a math degree, a special interest (electronics in my case) and a love of technical problem solving.
Art Sez,
Take one physics course, and one chemistry course, and call me in the morning if the symptoms persist. In severe cases, a stiff course of thermodynamics might be required, but we hope that it won't come to that. In the meantime, stay away from junk science articles.
Good Luck,
Art
We use a 2.4kW solar power system on our house in the city, not the woods, but the panels cost more like $10/watt, not $1/Watt.
From a design standpoint, the average laptop will definitely be more efficient than the average desktop, if only because they have to be for battery life. Additionally, the Pentium family is less efficient than the PowerPC family, based upon an engineering study that I read. The application being investigated was an embedded processing system, for which there were some overall power constraints. The PowerPC proved to be a much easier fit for economical consumption.
You can debate the fine points of Port 25, SMTP and Bayesian filters all day, but unless you make the economics of spam less attractive, you will never get a handle on it through technical means. If you compare spam to physical junk mail, you'll find that it is a *lot* cheaper to contact (annoy) 30 Million folks by email, than it is by using printed letters or catalogs. Until that changes, the spam merchants will read the same technical posts that you do, and evolve their offense as readily as you evolve your defense. Until it costs actual money to send each email on the internet, there will be absolutely no incentive for spammers to ever stop what they are doing, and if there's even a small amount of money to be made, there is always someone deep enough in poverty or sleazy enough to do what it takes to make it. If you enjoy the technical challenge of fighting spam, then by all means have a really good time, but please don't delude yourself into believing that that there is anything going on here but traditional bottom line economics. Unfortunately, there is always someone low enough on the totem pole to be perfectly happy to step up and do those dirty jobs that only exist to annoy almost everyone else.
Art