You get to buy electronics gear at 5% over a national chain's cost. I bet that for certain items that leaves you with a pretty healthy margin. Shop for fairly expensive items with good margins and you should be OK.
Let's say you can pay $500 for an item that normally sells for $800. Throw it on ebay and hopefully sell it for 600 to 700 bucks. For this example let's say you make an extra $150.
If you're only working at BB 10 hours a week, you just made an extra fifteen bucks an hour. Add on the original $7 per hour and you're looking at a gross of over $20 bucks an hour for the week. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Round here, $20/hour isn't all that great. However, in some areas, you could cover your mortgage doing this. There are better paying opportunities I'm sure, but this one comes with very little stress and a flexible schedule.
Below the Root has to be one of my all time favorites. Between that game and Pirates! I burned out a couple of C64's. The depth of gameplay in Below the Root was amazing for the time. I hadn't thought of the game in years, but I can still hear bits of the music.
There was so much to do and explore in both of those games. I still remember the first time I got into the Temple Grund.
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
Did you ever play the Alice in Wonderland game by the same publisher? I think it was Wyndam Hill. Never quite finished that one. They also had a Swiss Family Robinson game that had a text interface. I've still got a working C64 and the original media at my folk's place. Maybe I'll drag it out during Christmas.
It has some exceptions in it... and businesses you've done business with before (banks abuse this provision a lot).
Oh great. I can't wait for the "special partnership" between $YOUR_BANK and $SELLER_OF_CRAP. I bet some banking VP is sitting around dreaming about synergy and leveraged relationships.
If by 'valid' you mean 'effective', yes. So are many other forms of fraud and deception.
Sorry, you're wrong. Viral marketing is often quite entertaining and rarely pushy. The true point of viral marketing is to make something that people WANT to to show their friends.
That ad is perhaps the best example of viral marketing I've seen. I've seen it on TV three different times, not as a commercial, but as 'content'. Month after month this thing turned up in my user's mailboxes. Even now there are a ton of sites that you can download it from. I just got over 100 hits for it on Kazaa. John West isn't buying airtime to show the ad, it's got a life of it's own. It't viral.
No need for fraud or deception. Just killer content. Look at BMW Films for another example.
Well, as sorry I am that you had a bad experience as a Biology major, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got my undergraduate degree in Biology from Hillsdale College in Michigan and minored in Chemistry. If you don't enjoy your major, change it. Seems pretty simple to me.
No, the correct advice is this:
Unless you plan on going to graduate school for a long time, do not major in the sciences. Without a PhD you're a peon. There's no respect and little room for advancement. Everyone knows that you were pre-med and got one too many B's to continue.
I've got a BS in Chem and missed a Bio minor by a class or two. I loved organic chem, mollecular bio and all of those classes. When I graduated, I switched to the IT field because it paid twice what most science jobs paid.
Who wants to go through all of the rigor of a science major just to get a job as some government inspector? Sorry, I won't ever suggest that anyone sweat through o-chem to become the OSHA guy. If you truly love the field you won't be satisfied with those kind of jobs anyway. Making sure some binder has all of the MSDS sheets doesn't have anything to do with my love for science.
Here's my warning to all high school kids and undergraduates. You won't hear this advice from the admissions department or your advisors.
Do not major in a science. If you do, you should plan on doing one of two things:
1. Get a MD or PhD 2. Double-major in business, or maybe CS
Stay away from option number 2 unless you specifically want to combine the two fields or option 1 doesn't work out. College is a great time in your life. A science degree will take more of your time than most other disciplines. If you don't plan on reaping the benefits, don't put in the work.
There's something to be said for doing what you love. However, what good is it to study what you love in college if you can't practice it once you're out?
Sure, they may not be insured, but odds are next to none that both the backup that you keep at your house, the current running version of things on your lan and your bank are ALL going to go the way of the dodo on the same day.
Earthquake Tornado Flood Riots Nuke Blast Bio/Chem Attack Asteroid EMP Attack Bad Backups
OK, so it's still not likely. Even just making the list I felt like a card carrying member of the Tinfoil Hat Cabal. Living in LA, I could see at least of three of those wiping out my data. Add a fourth if Jack Bauer can't stop that nuke.
If you care about your data enough that you'd miss it if your town turned into a smoking hole, store a copy a few hundred km away for safekeeping.
On the other hand, many 'power users' like to personalise their desktop. My background has purple penguins in ear muffs and my colours reflect this purple rather than the default blue.
You say that 'power users' like to personalize their desktop. I'd say, at least in the Windows world, the opposite is true. It's the inexperienced users that get the biggest kick out of themes and GUI cruft. It gives them a false sense of control over their computer. Power users know that having a snake shaped cursor only gets in the way.
How many hardcore computer people do you know who run a copy of Webshots? Bonzi Buddy? It's all graphical masturbation. I'm glad that it makes you happy to get all Martha Stewart on your desktop. Unless it changes the functionality in some way, I simply don't care.
Linux is a different story because you get much more control over the GUI. You have the control to change how things work, not just how they look. That's a good thing. However, even under Linux, it seems like most skins try to:
Rip off MacOS
or
Rip off Windows
The skinners are like Spinal Tap with the volume turned up to 11. If transparency is good, they make everything at least partially transparent. If goofy, bubbly icons with drop shadows is trendy, they make the goofiest and bubbliest. I'm in the camp of keep it simple and make it work. Spending three days to get the metallic pastel alpha blend on the widgets "just right" doesn't do much for me.
If skinning is bad, then why allow us to 'skin' our desktop by changing the background?
So I can instantly tell which box I'm on when I use a flaky KVM? So Joe Luser can have his brain damaged offspring smiling back at him? Because $COMPETITORS_OS does it and they did it to compete? Just because you can do it doesn't make it a good idea.
They did. Turns out that P2P has a priority of zero.
Here's a challenge: Name one legitimate academic use for Kazaa.
The people in charge of the network probably couldn't come up with one. Kazaa was causing problems so they shut it off. Why should they put any effort into some type of priority system if it doesn't have academic value?
One answer: It's easy to find cheap PHP/MySQL hosting. Finding a host with a better DB usually means a few bucks more a month. For personal sites or small businesses without a lot of IT, cheap commodity hosting is a good thing. Keep in mind the hosting business has changed a lot in the last few years. It used to be rare to find databases included with hosting packages. When you did, it was often MySQL or even mSQL. Back then we used what we had.
This leads to answer number two:
Legacy code and bad database API's. There is a TON of code out there that expects MySQL. When you're writting a PHP app, all of the database calls are database specific. When you want to query mysql, you use mysql_query(). Talking to SQL Server? you use mssql_query(). That one letter makes a huge difference.
These disorganized function names mean that retooling your old application to use another datbase takes some work. Yes, there are wrappers and database abstraction layers. Sometimes they get used, but often they are not. PHPLib was popular at one point, and now it looks like PEAR has a good one. I'm usually not crazy about them because if I use subselects or stored procedures, I'm pretty much locked into a DB platform anyway.
I guess the last reason is that there are a lot of beginning programmers using PHP. MySQL has a reputation for being fairly easy and there are tons of examples using it. When you are cutting and pasting code, chances are it's MySQL based.
Part of the problem is that you didn't say what you want to use the images for. Do you really want public domain stuff, or will some cheap stock photography float your boat? Will you be using them on screen or in print? Most of my experience has been in finding images for websites and presentations, so that's where I'll focus.
Much of the material available from the US government is not copyrighted. Like another poster said, the LOC is a good place to start. You'll want to check for copyright notices before you suck the images off of a random.gov site though. Sometimes they will be using copyrighted images with permission.
Another tactic is to look for images using the Google image search. The nice thing about this method is that you have pretty good control over what you find. The problem is that what you find often isn't free. Here's an approach that I've used in the past:
Search for what I'm looking for on Google. Find a few images that I might be interested in. Select the images that look like they've been taken by student photographers. Contact the photographer about using their work.
Sometimes they'll let you use their stuff for free, especially if you give them credit. Other times you'll have to cough up some green or buy them some kit. The quality of the work varies so don't overspend. If they quote you big numbers, remind them that you could always go to Getty or Corbis and be done with it. Be sure to get written permission before doing anything with images you source this way. If there are people in the picture, they should also sign a release. It's a ton of work, but there have been times when I've found great shots this way.
That's really the problem with the free stuff. When you're working on a project you probably have a specific image in mind. Finding that image and getting permission to use it for free often takes more time than it's worth. If someone is paying for your services make them pay for the stock photo. That's why it's called time and materials.
For in-house productions (no paying client) I'd recommend Getty Works a royalty free division of Getty Images. For a hundred bucks a year you get access to almost all of their images. Sure, they only give you the low-res stuff, but for the web it is usually good enough. Not affiliated, but fairly happy with what they offer.
A lot of what a scientist ends up doing is making quantitative measurements. Understanding the drawbacks and limitations of analytical devices will do wonders for your future scientific career.
Start simple. Make a ruler that can measure something down to a millimeter precision. You can't use an existing ruler to get you started. All you get is a stick, some paper and a few tools. Maybe you can have ONE object with an accurately known length. Figure out how to do it, then actually build it.
Next, use your rule to measure something small. Start your measurement from different parts of the rule and plot the results. Figure out what the results mean, and what the flaws are with your measurements. Since you're working with length, conceptually this shouldn't be too hard.
Still want an easy one? Try measuring mass next. Take one accurately known mass and build a balance. Same idea as before. Build something. Use it to measure. Find out your precision and accuracy. Make it better if you want.
You're doing a little math, some engineering, and working with some generally applicable scientific principles. Remember that in this case it is the mistakes that teach you the most.
Like doing this kind of stuff?
Build a spectrophotometer out of a webcam. That should be a fun one. Tons of limitations, but the possibility of decent results.
Make your own microphone. What kind of frequency response can you get? Can you make it more linear?
Volumetric measurements can be interesting. Learn the difference between "To Contain" and "To Deliver" first.
This all might seem like too much engineering. Think of it as applied science. Learning what measurement is all about will probably make your labs seem less cookbook and more interesting.
Come up with you're own ideas. This is science after all. Forget what the art majors will tell you, this is where the creativity lies.
And now for something cynical (also known as advice from the real world):
Unless you plan on getting a PhD, don't major in science. In research labs and interesting industry positions, non PhD's are usually peons. Even a masters in some fields is largely viewed as a 'booby prize' for a washed out PhD student. Chances are that without the PhD you'll be better off working outside the field.
Here's more unsolicited advice: If you aren't going to work in the field, don't get the degree. You will have more fun in college if you don't spend it in a lab. Major in business and make your favorite science a minor instead. At least pick engineering over the hard science. The primary reason to get a science degree is to do research, and that career track begins with a PhD. If that isn't your destination it's probably easier not to begin the journey.
Funny, the LOUDEST power supply I've ever had was from Antec. After about a year the fan's power wires drooped down into the blades a little. Just enough to make a hell of a lot of noise. I wound up replacing the fan (no user servicable parts inside? HA!) and kept that box for another couple of years. Don't get me wrong, I'd buy Antec again, but I now can't think of the brand without thinking of the fan.
Wound up building a water cooler for it out of an old 486 heatsink, some candlewax and JB Weld, but that's another story...
One of my favorites is the sodium acetate tower. It is a very safe demo that gets a good reaction out of just about any age group. You make a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate in a spotlessly clean beaker. Show everyone the clear liquid (looks like water) then start slowly pouring it on the table. Crystals of sodium acetate form as you pour, and the water is trapped within the crystals. You wind up with a pile of fairly dry looking sodium acetate and no liquid. Very impressive. Sodium Acetate Tower
Another one I like is the burning carbon disulfide demo. I've seen this done using a long glass tube full of carbon disulfide gas. Drop a glowing splint in one end of the tube, and as it falls you get an amazing blue flame. Here's a link (hope you speak a little German) CS2
They did it a bit differently. As you might guess, this lab is a bit more hazardous and you do get some stink from the sulfur. It's pretty though.
Making your own mirror is another great demo. You prepare a small batch of silvering solution. ISTR using silver nitrate and nitric acid, maybe using an aldehyde as a reducing agent. I'll try to link to a recipe. Anyway, you mix the solution in a round bottom flask and begin swiriling. It takes about a minute, but as you swirl a silver mirror plates out onto the glass. Tollens Mirror
I used a bit of a different procedure, but this looks like it should work. You may consider keeping the flasks a little on the warm side (100-120 F) just before you do the demo. I've gotten better results compared to using cold glassware.
A great set of books is Tested Chemical Demonstrations, Vol. 1-4, by B. Shakishiri (University of Wisconsin Press.)
It is impossible to make money selling a cryptographic algorithm. It's difficult, but not impossible, to make money selling a cryptographic protocol.
Who said it? Bruce Schneier, one of the current gurus of crypto. Where did he say it? Here on Slashdot
The whole article is worth a read.
My perspective is that I seriously doubt your claims. Until there is strong peer review of your entire cryptosystem from top to bottom, I won't touch it. Unless it solves some problem with other cryptosystems already in use, the market won't touch it. If you can these two objections then you might have a shot at some money. Otherwise...
I think you're overstating the danger by quite a bit. I've had strong (12+ Molar) NaOH solutions on my fingers a few times without much effect. We're talking concentrated solutions here, not kid's stuff. It's so strong it's syrupy. I was always quick about washing it off, but I don't remember ever being burned.
On the other hand strong nitric or sulfuric acid is nasty. I actually had a little mishap with the nitric. Some nitric acid got sucked into a pipette bulb by another student. When it was my turn, I didn't notice the bulb was wet until it started burning. Didn't take long at all. Wound up with a nasty burn on a couple fingers and a bizzare yellow callous that took a month to go away.
Back to bases...
Let's work out the problem and see how nasty this really is. Take one kilo of Na. How many moles is that? A thousand grams divided by twenty three grams per mole. Lets round up and call it 44 moles.
How many moles of hydroxide will that produce? With a one to one ratio in the balanced chemical equation, I get 44 moles of hydroxide. For someone used to working with a few grams, that sounds like a hell of a lot of hydroxide. But is it?
To find out, I need to know much water I'm jumping into. I'm well over six feet tall. Call it 2 meters even. My "wingspan" is also about two meters. Let's make it easy. I get a cube of water, two meters on an edge, to dive into. I'll jump in with my arms outstreched, hit bottom, pivot 90 degrees and touch both sides of our 'lake'. Degree of difficulty in international competition would only be about a 1.6, but we've already bribed the French judge.
No really, how much water is that in liters? A liter of water is a 1 decimeter cube. Therefore, an eight meter cube (two meters on a side, remember) holds 20*20*20 cubic decimeters. Wow, that's 8000 liters of water.
OK, so we've got 44 moles in 8000 liters. I'm feeling generous now. Lets say you dumped a 80 mole chunk into our little cubic lake. That would be about four full pounds of sodium. Eighty moles in 8000 liters is a.01 molar hydroxide concentration. That gives us a pretty respectable pH of 12.
What else has a pH of 12? We're still in the range of common household cleaners. Wet concrete is in this range, maybe a bit higher. You can get chemical burns from wet concrete, but it takes awhile. Honestly, it's a bit higher than I'd have guessed when I started. I'd give it a shot for Angles tickets anyway.
Remember, in the real scenario we're talking about a much larger pond. Between the sodium skipping around with it's bastardized leidenfrost action and 100 kilos of Wookie jumping in, you'd see some rapid dilution.
So while you wouldn't have a fuel line feeding directly into your laptop from the airline seat, it'd still be convenient, and you could drink the leftovers....
Ah, yes, but you'd also have to pay the sin tax on your laptop fuel.
The thought of screwing one of those little airplane sized bottles into the side of my laptop almost makes it worth it.
"Barkeep, another round for me and my little friend here!"
"Um, sir. I think I'm going to have to cut you off. The penguin is looking a bit tipsy and you actually think that code's gonna compile in the morning..."
If you have to ask what skills you'll need, you're at least 3 years behind getting those skills and the necessary experience. So be prepared for a LONG haul.
Yeah, but those three years come and go whether you like it or not. It feels a whole lot nicer to look back and know you've learned something. Five years ago I didn't know my ls from a hole in the ground. Now I know my way around pretty well. I'd rather not be a Unix admin, but I don't regret having that knowledge.
And 3 years from now, when you're up to "par", the bar will have been moved again
True, but we're all in that situation. The bar keeps moving for everyone. The core concepts and algorithms don't change much. That's the value of formal education. Yet you'll still need to know how to implement them in a commercially relevant manner. Five years from now, I want to be working in a job that hasn't been invented yet. Ten years from now I want to be inventing jobs. A whole lot of living in the next ten years is going to determine how that all plays out. It's only a LONG haul if you only look at the endpoints and forget about the life in the middle.
There are only a few instances where I would recommend taking a year off:
Long term travel (several months outside your culture). A killer intership in an interesting field. Some sort of hardcore volunteer gig.
If you can have an experience that will challenge you more than college, go for it.
Sick of school and want a break? Take an extra year to get your degree instead. You'll probably get a better education and the stress won't be nearly as bad.
The five year plan lets you spread out your classes a little. You'll have the time to dig deeper and learn more about the subjects that interest you. For 'hard' majors, having the extra time is important. Instead of pounding out A- caliber filler to get through the class, you can learn the material. Of course if learning isn't your gig, you can party a lot more too.
Slashdot Mirror
What about ebay?
You get to buy electronics gear at 5% over a national chain's cost. I bet that for certain items that leaves you with a pretty healthy margin. Shop for fairly expensive items with good margins and you should be OK.
Let's say you can pay $500 for an item that normally sells for $800. Throw it on ebay and hopefully sell it for 600 to 700 bucks. For this example let's say you make an extra $150.
If you're only working at BB 10 hours a week, you just made an extra fifteen bucks an hour. Add on the original $7 per hour and you're looking at a gross of over $20 bucks an hour for the week. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Round here, $20/hour isn't all that great. However, in some areas, you could cover your mortgage doing this. There are better paying opportunities I'm sure, but this one comes with very little stress and a flexible schedule.
Below the Root has to be one of my all time favorites. Between that game and Pirates! I burned out a couple of C64's. The depth of gameplay in Below the Root was amazing for the time. I hadn't thought of the game in years, but I can still hear bits of the music.
There was so much to do and explore in both of those games. I still remember the first time I got into the Temple Grund.
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
Did you ever play the Alice in Wonderland game by the same publisher? I think it was Wyndam Hill. Never quite finished that one. They also had a Swiss Family Robinson game that had a text interface. I've still got a working C64 and the original media at my folk's place. Maybe I'll drag it out during Christmas.
It has some exceptions in it ... and businesses you've done business with before (banks abuse this provision a lot).
Oh great. I can't wait for the "special partnership" between $YOUR_BANK and $SELLER_OF_CRAP. I bet some banking VP is sitting around dreaming about synergy and leveraged relationships.
If by 'valid' you mean 'effective', yes. So are many other forms of fraud and deception.
Sorry, you're wrong. Viral marketing is often quite entertaining and rarely pushy. The true point of viral marketing is to make something that people WANT to to show their friends.
Here's an example: John West Salmon
That ad is perhaps the best example of viral marketing I've seen. I've seen it on TV three different times, not as a commercial, but as 'content'. Month after month this thing turned up in my user's mailboxes. Even now there are a ton of sites that you can download it from. I just got over 100 hits for it on Kazaa. John West isn't buying airtime to show the ad, it's got a life of it's own. It't viral.
No need for fraud or deception. Just killer content. Look at BMW Films for another example.
Well, as sorry I am that you had a bad experience as a Biology major, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got my undergraduate degree in Biology from Hillsdale College in Michigan and minored in Chemistry. If you don't enjoy your major, change it. Seems pretty simple to me.
No, the correct advice is this:
Unless you plan on going to graduate school for a long time, do not major in the sciences. Without a PhD you're a peon. There's no respect and little room for advancement. Everyone knows that you were pre-med and got one too many B's to continue.
I've got a BS in Chem and missed a Bio minor by a class or two. I loved organic chem, mollecular bio and all of those classes. When I graduated, I switched to the IT field because it paid twice what most science jobs paid.
Who wants to go through all of the rigor of a science major just to get a job as some government inspector? Sorry, I won't ever suggest that anyone sweat through o-chem to become the OSHA guy. If you truly love the field you won't be satisfied with those kind of jobs anyway. Making sure some binder has all of the MSDS sheets doesn't have anything to do with my love for science.
Here's my warning to all high school kids and undergraduates. You won't hear this advice from the admissions department or your advisors.
Do not major in a science. If you do, you should plan on doing one of two things:
1. Get a MD or PhD
2. Double-major in business, or maybe CS
Stay away from option number 2 unless you specifically want to combine the two fields or option 1 doesn't work out. College is a great time in your life. A science degree will take more of your time than most other disciplines. If you don't plan on reaping the benefits, don't put in the work.
There's something to be said for doing what you love. However, what good is it to study what you love in college if you can't practice it once you're out?
They're gonna get my PIN number for the ATM machine...
It's the last four digits of Pi.
One fellow, who was paranoid about the permanence of magnetic media, even kept a copy of his raw data on punch cards (cartons of them).
I put mine on Kazaa as [tmd]8mile.(ftf).ts.(1of2)_COMPLETE!!1!
Who said P2P doesn't have substantial non-infringing uses?
Sure, they may not be insured, but odds are next to none that both the backup that you keep at your house, the current running version of things on your lan and your bank are ALL going to go the way of the dodo on the same day.
Earthquake
Tornado
Flood
Riots
Nuke Blast
Bio/Chem Attack
Asteroid
EMP Attack
Bad Backups
OK, so it's still not likely. Even just making the list I felt like a card carrying member of the Tinfoil Hat Cabal. Living in LA, I could see at least of three of those wiping out my data. Add a fourth if Jack Bauer can't stop that nuke.
If you care about your data enough that you'd miss it if your town turned into a smoking hole, store a copy a few hundred km away for safekeeping.
You could always upgrade your software.
I'll investigate any break in or security breach for ten bucks a day. The following terms and conditions may apply:
Minimum length of investigation: 20 years
No more than 1 byte processed per day.
Results cost extra.
How about it? For a little over $3000 a year, you'll never have your reputation damaged by a hacker again.
On the other hand, many 'power users' like to personalise their desktop. My background has purple penguins in ear muffs and my colours reflect this purple rather than the default blue.
You say that 'power users' like to personalize their desktop. I'd say, at least in the Windows world, the opposite is true. It's the inexperienced users that get the biggest kick out of themes and GUI cruft. It gives them a false sense of control over their computer. Power users know that having a snake shaped cursor only gets in the way.
How many hardcore computer people do you know who run a copy of Webshots? Bonzi Buddy? It's all graphical masturbation. I'm glad that it makes you happy to get all Martha Stewart on your desktop. Unless it changes the functionality in some way, I simply don't care.
Linux is a different story because you get much more control over the GUI. You have the control to change how things work, not just how they look. That's a good thing. However, even under Linux, it seems like most skins try to:
Rip off MacOS
or
Rip off Windows
The skinners are like Spinal Tap with the volume turned up to 11. If transparency is good, they make everything at least partially transparent. If goofy, bubbly icons with drop shadows is trendy, they make the goofiest and bubbliest. I'm in the camp of keep it simple and make it work. Spending three days to get the metallic pastel alpha blend on the widgets "just right" doesn't do much for me.
If skinning is bad, then why allow us to 'skin' our desktop by changing the background?
So I can instantly tell which box I'm on when I use a flaky KVM? So Joe Luser can have his brain damaged offspring smiling back at him? Because $COMPETITORS_OS does it and they did it to compete? Just because you can do it doesn't make it a good idea.
They did. Turns out that P2P has a priority of zero.
Here's a challenge: Name one legitimate academic use for Kazaa.
The people in charge of the network probably couldn't come up with one. Kazaa was causing problems so they shut it off. Why should they put any effort into some type of priority system if it doesn't have academic value?
Executive Summary: Inertia
One answer:
It's easy to find cheap PHP/MySQL hosting. Finding a host with a better DB usually means a few bucks more a month. For personal sites or small businesses without a lot of IT, cheap commodity hosting is a good thing. Keep in mind the hosting business has changed a lot in the last few years. It used to be rare to find databases included with hosting packages. When you did, it was often MySQL or even mSQL. Back then we used what we had.
This leads to answer number two:
Legacy code and bad database API's. There is a TON of code out there that expects MySQL. When you're writting a PHP app, all of the database calls are database specific. When you want to query mysql, you use mysql_query(). Talking to SQL Server? you use mssql_query(). That one letter makes a huge difference.
These disorganized function names mean that retooling your old application to use another datbase takes some work. Yes, there are wrappers and database abstraction layers. Sometimes they get used, but often they are not. PHPLib was popular at one point, and now it looks like PEAR has a good one. I'm usually not crazy about them because if I use subselects or stored procedures, I'm pretty much locked into a DB platform anyway.
I guess the last reason is that there are a lot of beginning programmers using PHP. MySQL has a reputation for being fairly easy and there are tons of examples using it. When you are cutting and pasting code, chances are it's MySQL based.
Part of the problem is that you didn't say what you want to use the images for. Do you really want public domain stuff, or will some cheap stock photography float your boat? Will you be using them on screen or in print? Most of my experience has been in finding images for websites and presentations, so that's where I'll focus.
.gov site though. Sometimes they will be using copyrighted images with permission.
Much of the material available from the US government is not copyrighted. Like another poster said, the LOC is a good place to start. You'll want to check for copyright notices before you suck the images off of a random
Another tactic is to look for images using the Google image search. The nice thing about this method is that you have pretty good control over what you find. The problem is that what you find often isn't free. Here's an approach that I've used in the past:
Search for what I'm looking for on Google.
Find a few images that I might be interested in.
Select the images that look like they've been taken by student photographers.
Contact the photographer about using their work.
Sometimes they'll let you use their stuff for free, especially if you give them credit. Other times you'll have to cough up some green or buy them some kit. The quality of the work varies so don't overspend. If they quote you big numbers, remind them that you could always go to Getty or Corbis and be done with it. Be sure to get written permission before doing anything with images you source this way. If there are people in the picture, they should also sign a release. It's a ton of work, but there have been times when I've found great shots this way.
That's really the problem with the free stuff. When you're working on a project you probably have a specific image in mind. Finding that image and getting permission to use it for free often takes more time than it's worth. If someone is paying for your services make them pay for the stock photo. That's why it's called time and materials.
For in-house productions (no paying client) I'd recommend Getty Works a royalty free division of Getty Images. For a hundred bucks a year you get access to almost all of their images. Sure, they only give you the low-res stuff, but for the web it is usually good enough. Not affiliated, but fairly happy with what they offer.
Build something that makes measurements.
A lot of what a scientist ends up doing is making quantitative measurements. Understanding the drawbacks and limitations of analytical devices will do wonders for your future scientific career.
Start simple. Make a ruler that can measure something down to a millimeter precision. You can't use an existing ruler to get you started. All you get is a stick, some paper and a few tools. Maybe you can have ONE object with an accurately known length. Figure out how to do it, then actually build it.
Next, use your rule to measure something small. Start your measurement from different parts of the rule and plot the results. Figure out what the results mean, and what the flaws are with your measurements. Since you're working with length, conceptually this shouldn't be too hard.
Still want an easy one? Try measuring mass next. Take one accurately known mass and build a balance. Same idea as before. Build something. Use it to measure. Find out your precision and accuracy. Make it better if you want.
You're doing a little math, some engineering, and working with some generally applicable scientific principles. Remember that in this case it is the mistakes that teach you the most.
Like doing this kind of stuff?
Build a spectrophotometer out of a webcam. That should be a fun one. Tons of limitations, but the possibility of decent results.
Make your own microphone. What kind of frequency response can you get? Can you make it more linear?
Volumetric measurements can be interesting. Learn the difference between "To Contain" and "To Deliver" first.
This all might seem like too much engineering. Think of it as applied science. Learning what measurement is all about will probably make your labs seem less cookbook and more interesting.
Come up with you're own ideas. This is science after all. Forget what the art majors will tell you, this is where the creativity lies.
And now for something cynical (also known as advice from the real world):
Unless you plan on getting a PhD, don't major in science. In research labs and interesting industry positions, non PhD's are usually peons. Even a masters in some fields is largely viewed as a 'booby prize' for a washed out PhD student. Chances are that without the PhD you'll be better off working outside the field.
Here's more unsolicited advice: If you aren't going to work in the field, don't get the degree. You will have more fun in college if you don't spend it in a lab. Major in business and make your favorite science a minor instead. At least pick engineering over the hard science. The primary reason to get a science degree is to do research, and that career track begins with a PhD. If that isn't your destination it's probably easier not to begin the journey.
Funny, the LOUDEST power supply I've ever had was from Antec. After about a year the fan's power wires drooped down into the blades a little. Just enough to make a hell of a lot of noise. I wound up replacing the fan (no user servicable parts inside? HA!) and kept that box for another couple of years. Don't get me wrong, I'd buy Antec again, but I now can't think of the brand without thinking of the fan.
Wound up building a water cooler for it out of an old 486 heatsink, some candlewax and JB Weld, but that's another story...
How do I know you're not lying?
One of my favorites is the sodium acetate tower. It is a very safe demo that gets a good reaction out of just about any age group. You make a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate in a spotlessly clean beaker. Show everyone the clear liquid (looks like water) then start slowly pouring it on the table. Crystals of sodium acetate form as you pour, and the water is trapped within the crystals. You wind up with a pile of fairly dry looking sodium acetate and no liquid. Very impressive. Sodium Acetate Tower
Another one I like is the burning carbon disulfide demo. I've seen this done using a long glass tube full of carbon disulfide gas. Drop a glowing splint in one end of the tube, and as it falls you get an amazing blue flame. Here's a link (hope you speak a little German) CS2
They did it a bit differently. As you might guess, this lab is a bit more hazardous and you do get some stink from the sulfur. It's pretty though.
Making your own mirror is another great demo. You prepare a small batch of silvering solution. ISTR using silver nitrate and nitric acid, maybe using an aldehyde as a reducing agent. I'll try to link to a recipe. Anyway, you mix the solution in a round bottom flask and begin swiriling. It takes about a minute, but as you swirl a silver mirror plates out onto the glass. Tollens Mirror
I used a bit of a different procedure, but this looks like it should work. You may consider keeping the flasks a little on the warm side (100-120 F) just before you do the demo. I've gotten better results compared to using cold glassware.
A great set of books is Tested Chemical Demonstrations, Vol. 1-4, by B. Shakishiri (University of Wisconsin Press.)
That doesn't make a great deal of sense. What's so terrible about a work that you've produced entering the public domain?
Two words: "Peeing Calvin"
It is impossible to make money selling a cryptographic algorithm. It's difficult, but not impossible, to make money selling a cryptographic protocol.
Who said it? Bruce Schneier, one of the current gurus of crypto. Where did he say it? Here on Slashdot
The whole article is worth a read.
My perspective is that I seriously doubt your claims. Until there is strong peer review of your entire cryptosystem from top to bottom, I won't touch it. Unless it solves some problem with other cryptosystems already in use, the market won't touch it. If you can these two objections then you might have a shot at some money. Otherwise...
I think you're overstating the danger by quite a bit. I've had strong (12+ Molar) NaOH solutions on my fingers a few times without much effect. We're talking concentrated solutions here, not kid's stuff. It's so strong it's syrupy. I was always quick about washing it off, but I don't remember ever being burned.
.01 molar hydroxide concentration. That gives us a pretty respectable pH of 12.
On the other hand strong nitric or sulfuric acid is nasty. I actually had a little mishap with the nitric. Some nitric acid got sucked into a pipette bulb by another student. When it was my turn, I didn't notice the bulb was wet until it started burning. Didn't take long at all. Wound up with a nasty burn on a couple fingers and a bizzare yellow callous that took a month to go away.
Back to bases...
Let's work out the problem and see how nasty this really is. Take one kilo of Na. How many moles is that? A thousand grams divided by twenty three grams per mole. Lets round up and call it 44 moles.
How many moles of hydroxide will that produce? With a one to one ratio in the balanced chemical equation, I get 44 moles of hydroxide. For someone used to working with a few grams, that sounds like a hell of a lot of hydroxide. But is it?
To find out, I need to know much water I'm jumping into. I'm well over six feet tall. Call it 2 meters even. My "wingspan" is also about two meters. Let's make it easy. I get a cube of water, two meters on an edge, to dive into. I'll jump in with my arms outstreched, hit bottom, pivot 90 degrees and touch both sides of our 'lake'. Degree of difficulty in international competition would only be about a 1.6, but we've already bribed the French judge.
No really, how much water is that in liters? A liter of water is a 1 decimeter cube. Therefore, an eight meter cube (two meters on a side, remember) holds 20*20*20 cubic decimeters. Wow, that's 8000 liters of water.
OK, so we've got 44 moles in 8000 liters. I'm feeling generous now. Lets say you dumped a 80 mole chunk into our little cubic lake. That would be about four full pounds of sodium. Eighty moles in 8000 liters is a
What else has a pH of 12? We're still in the range of common household cleaners. Wet concrete is in this range, maybe a bit higher. You can get chemical burns from wet concrete, but it takes awhile. Honestly, it's a bit higher than I'd have guessed when I started. I'd give it a shot for Angles tickets anyway.
Remember, in the real scenario we're talking about a much larger pond. Between the sodium skipping around with it's bastardized leidenfrost action and 100 kilos of Wookie jumping in, you'd see some rapid dilution.
So while you wouldn't have a fuel line feeding directly into your laptop from the airline seat, it'd still be convenient, and you could drink the leftovers....
Ah, yes, but you'd also have to pay the sin tax on your laptop fuel.
http://www.atf.treas.gov/about/service/nps/
The thought of screwing one of those little airplane sized bottles into the side of my laptop almost makes it worth it.
"Barkeep, another round for me and my little friend here!"
"Um, sir. I think I'm going to have to cut you off. The penguin is looking a bit tipsy and you actually think that code's gonna compile in the morning..."
If you have to ask what skills you'll need, you're at least 3 years behind getting those skills and the necessary experience. So be prepared for a LONG haul.
Yeah, but those three years come and go whether you like it or not. It feels a whole lot nicer to look back and know you've learned something. Five years ago I didn't know my ls from a hole in the ground. Now I know my way around pretty well. I'd rather not be a Unix admin, but I don't regret having that knowledge.
And 3 years from now, when you're up to "par", the bar will have been moved again
True, but we're all in that situation. The bar keeps moving for everyone. The core concepts and algorithms don't change much. That's the value of formal education. Yet you'll still need to know how to implement them in a commercially relevant manner. Five years from now, I want to be working in a job that hasn't been invented yet. Ten years from now I want to be inventing jobs. A whole lot of living in the next ten years is going to determine how that all plays out. It's only a LONG haul if you only look at the endpoints and forget about the life in the middle.
There are only a few instances where I would recommend taking a year off:
Long term travel (several months outside your culture).
A killer intership in an interesting field.
Some sort of hardcore volunteer gig.
If you can have an experience that will challenge you more than college, go for it.
Sick of school and want a break? Take an extra year to get your degree instead. You'll probably get a better education and the stress won't be nearly as bad.
The five year plan lets you spread out your classes a little. You'll have the time to dig deeper and learn more about the subjects that interest you. For 'hard' majors, having the extra time is important. Instead of pounding out A- caliber filler to get through the class, you can learn the material. Of course if learning isn't your gig, you can party a lot more too.
Can google enterpret Morse code?
Searched the web for "dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot". Results 1 - 10 of about 164. Search took 0.46 seconds
Yes.