I have a PhD in computer science... along with about 15 years of prior software engineering experience. Moreover, I maintained my programming chops through grad school; I developed a couple toolkits and coded up all the programs, scripts, and makefiles I used to run my experiments while there. If anything, being an experienced programmer gave me a tremendous boost to my productivity while pursuing my degree. So, yes, I'm qualified as a software engineer --- among the many other things for which I'm now qualified thanks to my education.
Alas, times are tough, so I could easily see vying for a software engineering job should my current academic job hunt fail to bear fruit before my postdoc funding is exhausted.
Right. This is attempt #3 for a reply. If this doesn't go through without/. eating it, I'm giving up.:P
The Delaware property is old farmland now managed by the Delaware Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club. There's plenty of room for the 1200 folks that show up, and it's in very rural area, so few neighbors. (However, there are one or two problem neighbors, hence the sound is dialed down after 2200.)
And regularly occurring events makes for easier planning and logistics. Kinda nice to plan ahead, especially if you have complex art pieces or little vacation time. Besides, you get a folks that show up each year, and it's kinda nice to have familiar faces. I doubt you'd get that for spontaneous events.
Irish pipes? Uilleann? FSM, those look impossible. Jeebus, looks like you need a PhD and a pilot's license to operate one of those.
I've got a set of big pipes, but also have some shuttles that I love love love to play. Unfortunately they're too quiet, if you can believe it. So I have on order a set of Scottish smallpipes which have the perfect volume for pubs. Loud enough to hear, but not overwhelming. That, and being cauld wind instruments might (hopefully) mitigate some of the dryness issues of Burning Man. (No worries about PDF as it's fairly humid.)
Though there is drug use at burns, that's not the point of those events. It's a collaborative space for makers and artists. I've been to several burns and the only "drug" I've consumed is alcohol, most of which was in the cooler I brought with me. And I didn't drink too much because that would otherwise interfere with playing music, which was one of the main reasons I went in the first place.:P
If you find Burning Man too expensive or inconvenient, but you're still interested in checking it out, then you might want to consider a local burn, instead. They're generally much, much smaller and more intimate.
I go to both burner events *and* Pennsic, and can readily relate that there is significant overlap between both. (E.g., the Batgirl I mentioned in a separate reply that is with Camp Justice League at Playa del Fuego is one of my Pennsic campmates; and at least three more of my Pennsic buddies also go to PDF and other burns.)
I refuted the claim that *no one* that's a nerd would find this compelling because I provided a ready contradicting data point. I implied that I was likely not alone in this set, and admittedly that was an implication I should have made clearer.
To wit, given my experience, I've encountered many, many nerds of various flavors at burner events. One example is a guy that made an interactive art piece that he hacked up involving a Kinect, a projector, and image processing software that was a hit. There was also Camp Justice League where everyone spent the burn dressed as a superhero. I had a pal dressed as Bat Girl from that camp help me assemble my tent in terrible gusts -- because helping people is what super heroes do, dontcha know. And I would hope I needn't explain the connection between comic book hero cosplay and nerdom.
And, hell, I go to play bagpipes, which is about as nerdy a musical instrument as the accordion or sousaphone.
Because Burning Man is a recurring annual event, and many on here, such as myself, have not been, but want to go, and so found some of the advice useful.
I am a nerd I go to burner events I have not been to Burning Man I want to go to Burning Man I found some of the advice useful Therefore this was useful news that matters to me, a nerd
I've only been to a regional burn, Playa del Fuego, but I realize that's but a shadow of the real thing. (I think of it it as a training camp.) Given the expense and distance of Burning Man, one might look to going to a local regional burn first to get a flavor of the real deal. As a plus, you might befriend folks that are going to Burning Man and be able to camp with them.
Fortunately I'm already going to heed part of your advice when I do go. I've got a slot available to me with the Irish pub, The Dusty Swan. Seems they're a little short on bagpipers, and I'm all too happy to fulfill that role. And I met the proprietor of The Dusty Swan at Playa del Fuego, so there ya go.
As my user number attests, I've been on board/. from nigh near the beginning. I may not read/. with the near obsessive frequency I did in the 90s, but I still poke my nose in now and again for news. I also had the pleasure of meeting you and Hemos at the 1999 Lokihack, which you both judged. I remembered coming away from Marietta more impressed by how sharp and gee golly nice you guys were. I knew then, more than ever, that/. was in good hands. I think I might even have saved some of your original/. business cards.
(The tragic irony is that I learned about your resignation via twitter, and not from checking./ itself. Oy.)
So very sorry that you're leaving, but I well understand that occasionally one needs to hit the ole magic reset on life, to move on to a new, fresh chapter. We can only keep on the same trajectory for so long before burn out saps the will to live. So, all the best on starting your next chapter; if the previous one is an indicator, it'll be a doozy.
As an aside I thought that Bioshock addressed the facial animation problem with a clever hack: have the agents wear masquerade masks. No visible face! No need for animations! (And they even managed to make it fit into the back story.)
As pointed out below, the easy way to dynamically adapt game play is to add or subtract game elements as needed. However, it may be more interesting to allow the game AI to adapt -- instead of adding or subtracting objects have the AI continue to learn during game play. That is, for some games the AI learns "offline" -- it may be trained using many runs in a headless simulation mode; once the game is shipped the AI's knowledge doesn't change since learning is "turned off." But if learning can still happen during normal game play, then adaption will happen implicitly.
Of course that sounds really simple, but may actually be a bear to implement. For example, learning has associated overhead which might have an impact on game performance. (Which is normally why it would be done offline during development.) And if the AI is fairly simple to begin with then it might not make sense to have it learn during normal game play.
the tremendous success that is evolution on this planet has overshadowed its inherent weaknesses - that it is a greedy, local optimizer which cannot reach a large amount of the possible biological search space due to being stuck in local optima
Untrue. There are EC mechanisms to deal with inferior local optima such as hypermutation, restarts, coevolution, island models, and dynamic population sizes, among others.
verything must be constructed out of self-replicating units (these two factors are why something useful, like, say, a Colt 45, will never emerge without the pre-existence of an intelligence).
I hope you're not making some obtuse case for Intelligent Design. Anyway, the use of "self-replicating" is puzzling since I don't think most EC researchers think of populations as being self-replicating, at least not in the real world biological sense. EC != Biology.
By coincidence I'm taking a machine learning course and am undergoing the same experience. Fortunately I'm just auditing the class, so I'm not under the wire to actually demonstrate class related knowledge! But I am motivated to dig out dusty tomes on differential equations, linear algebra, and calculus so that I can review the material to get a deeper understanding.
Some of the closing comments from various neuroscientists, roboticists, cognitive scientists, and AI researchers from the very recent "Decade of the Mind" symposium at George Mason University indicated that academic research funding in those areas is flat or in decline. My advisor lays the blame at the feet of the ongoing Iraq debacle, which is vacuuming huge amounts of monies away from all other aspects of government-based research funding.
I will never believe that an advanced race can travel all the way across the inconceivable distance between stars, and be dumb enough to crash.
There was supposedly a very severe thunderstorm for the infamous 1947 Roswell crash. Also note that there were upper atmosphere nuclear tests in the '50s and '60s, some of which knocked out power and otherwise disrupted electronics for hundreds of miles. It's conceivable that either of these scenarios could play havoc with avionics leading to a crash.
I just completed my Masters in computer science and am already in the PhD program. I'm very lucky in that I have a part-time job that's very supportive of my studies; e.g., they allow for a flexible schedule, which is perfect for attending last minute school meetings and seminars.
My prior experience as a software developer have proven very useful as many academics have no practical programming experience. Moreover I bring domain knowledge that is also useful, such as familiarity with geospatial related software. (This is useful, say, for robotic navigation and for proper reading and rendering of geospatial data.) In a recent project I was able to use software design patterns and CVS to yield some productivity gains.
Working part-time has also, as a side-effect, forced me to adapt to the lower income to be expected switching to an academic or research mode from a professional software developer. Also, the livable income and decent health insurance from the part-time job are good compromises while making progress academically in parallel.
I cannot emphasize too much, however, the need to ensure that your fiscal affairs are in order. E.g., I have no debt and no credit cards. I don't have a car payment nor a mortgage. I also have a five figures of money saved up as a buffer.
After getting my PhD, I hope to continue doing research, whether at a company or university. I'm hoping that my "hybrid" background will make me more enticing to prospective employers.
(As an aside, there are a few other guys at my university about my age that have made the same switch from software engineering to academia. So, more positive data points for you.)
Slashdot Mirror
Takes a while to get enough states to ratify a Constitutional amendment.
Especially Beltway bandits. They consider adding PhDs to the pile of CVs for proposals as a +5 modifier to their award rolls.
Alas, times are tough, so I could easily see vying for a software engineering job should my current academic job hunt fail to bear fruit before my postdoc funding is exhausted.
The Delaware property is old farmland now managed by the Delaware Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club. There's plenty of room for the 1200 folks that show up, and it's in very rural area, so few neighbors. (However, there are one or two problem neighbors, hence the sound is dialed down after 2200.)
And regularly occurring events makes for easier planning and logistics. Kinda nice to plan ahead, especially if you have complex art pieces or little vacation time. Besides, you get a folks that show up each year, and it's kinda nice to have familiar faces. I doubt you'd get that for spontaneous events.
Irish pipes? Uilleann? FSM, those look impossible. Jeebus, looks like you need a PhD and a pilot's license to operate one of those.
I've got a set of big pipes, but also have some shuttles that I love love love to play. Unfortunately they're too quiet, if you can believe it. So I have on order a set of Scottish smallpipes which have the perfect volume for pubs. Loud enough to hear, but not overwhelming. That, and being cauld wind instruments might (hopefully) mitigate some of the dryness issues of Burning Man. (No worries about PDF as it's fairly humid.)
Nothing wrong with going to just observe. And it sounded like he adapted and found ways to contribute and make friends.
Though there is drug use at burns, that's not the point of those events. It's a collaborative space for makers and artists. I've been to several burns and the only "drug" I've consumed is alcohol, most of which was in the cooler I brought with me. And I didn't drink too much because that would otherwise interfere with playing music, which was one of the main reasons I went in the first place. :P
If you find Burning Man too expensive or inconvenient, but you're still interested in checking it out, then you might want to consider a local burn, instead. They're generally much, much smaller and more intimate.
Here's a list to get you started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_Burning_Man_events
I go to both burner events *and* Pennsic, and can readily relate that there is significant overlap between both. (E.g., the Batgirl I mentioned in a separate reply that is with Camp Justice League at Playa del Fuego is one of my Pennsic campmates; and at least three more of my Pennsic buddies also go to PDF and other burns.)
I refuted the claim that *no one* that's a nerd would find this compelling because I provided a ready contradicting data point. I implied that I was likely not alone in this set, and admittedly that was an implication I should have made clearer.
To wit, given my experience, I've encountered many, many nerds of various flavors at burner events. One example is a guy that made an interactive art piece that he hacked up involving a Kinect, a projector, and image processing software that was a hit. There was also Camp Justice League where everyone spent the burn dressed as a superhero. I had a pal dressed as Bat Girl from that camp help me assemble my tent in terrible gusts -- because helping people is what super heroes do, dontcha know. And I would hope I needn't explain the connection between comic book hero cosplay and nerdom.
And, hell, I go to play bagpipes, which is about as nerdy a musical instrument as the accordion or sousaphone.
Because Burning Man is a recurring annual event, and many on here, such as myself, have not been, but want to go, and so found some of the advice useful.
I proffer the following syllogism:
I am a nerd
I go to burner events
I have not been to Burning Man
I want to go to Burning Man
I found some of the advice useful
Therefore this was useful news that matters to me, a nerd
I've only been to a regional burn, Playa del Fuego, but I realize that's but a shadow of the real thing. (I think of it it as a training camp.) Given the expense and distance of Burning Man, one might look to going to a local regional burn first to get a flavor of the real deal. As a plus, you might befriend folks that are going to Burning Man and be able to camp with them.
Fortunately I'm already going to heed part of your advice when I do go. I've got a slot available to me with the Irish pub, The Dusty Swan. Seems they're a little short on bagpipers, and I'm all too happy to fulfill that role. And I met the proprietor of The Dusty Swan at Playa del Fuego, so there ya go.
As my user number attests, I've been on board /. from nigh near the beginning. I may not read /. with the near obsessive frequency I did in the 90s, but I still poke my nose in now and again for news. I also had the pleasure of meeting you and Hemos at the 1999 Lokihack, which you both judged. I remembered coming away from Marietta more impressed by how sharp and gee golly nice you guys were. I knew then, more than ever, that /. was in good hands. I think I might even have saved some of your original /. business cards.
./ itself. Oy.)
(The tragic irony is that I learned about your resignation via twitter, and not from checking
So very sorry that you're leaving, but I well understand that occasionally one needs to hit the ole magic reset on life, to move on to a new, fresh chapter. We can only keep on the same trajectory for so long before burn out saps the will to live. So, all the best on starting your next chapter; if the previous one is an indicator, it'll be a doozy.
Cheers,
Mark Coletti
(User 367)
As an aside I thought that Bioshock addressed the facial animation problem with a clever hack: have the agents wear masquerade masks. No visible face! No need for animations! (And they even managed to make it fit into the back story.)
As pointed out below, the easy way to dynamically adapt game play is to add or subtract game elements as needed. However, it may be more interesting to allow the game AI to adapt -- instead of adding or subtracting objects have the AI continue to learn during game play. That is, for some games the AI learns "offline" -- it may be trained using many runs in a headless simulation mode; once the game is shipped the AI's knowledge doesn't change since learning is "turned off." But if learning can still happen during normal game play, then adaption will happen implicitly.
Of course that sounds really simple, but may actually be a bear to implement. For example, learning has associated overhead which might have an impact on game performance. (Which is normally why it would be done offline during development.) And if the AI is fairly simple to begin with then it might not make sense to have it learn during normal game play.
By coincidence I'm taking a machine learning course and am undergoing the same experience. Fortunately I'm just auditing the class, so I'm not under the wire to actually demonstrate class related knowledge! But I am motivated to dig out dusty tomes on differential equations, linear algebra, and calculus so that I can review the material to get a deeper understanding.
Some of the closing comments from various neuroscientists, roboticists, cognitive scientists, and AI researchers from the very recent "Decade of the Mind" symposium at George Mason University indicated that academic research funding in those areas is flat or in decline. My advisor lays the blame at the feet of the ongoing Iraq debacle, which is vacuuming huge amounts of monies away from all other aspects of government-based research funding.
I see that you enjoy "proof by all caps and 133t exclamation points."
I just completed my Masters in computer science and am already in the PhD program. I'm very lucky in that I have a part-time job that's very supportive of my studies; e.g., they allow for a flexible schedule, which is perfect for attending last minute school meetings and seminars.
My prior experience as a software developer have proven very useful as many academics have no practical programming experience. Moreover I bring domain knowledge that is also useful, such as familiarity with geospatial related software. (This is useful, say, for robotic navigation and for proper reading and rendering of geospatial data.) In a recent project I was able to use software design patterns and CVS to yield some productivity gains.
Working part-time has also, as a side-effect, forced me to adapt to the lower income to be expected switching to an academic or research mode from a professional software developer. Also, the livable income and decent health insurance from the part-time job are good compromises while making progress academically in parallel.
I cannot emphasize too much, however, the need to ensure that your fiscal affairs are in order. E.g., I have no debt and no credit cards. I don't have a car payment nor a mortgage. I also have a five figures of money saved up as a buffer.
After getting my PhD, I hope to continue doing research, whether at a company or university. I'm hoping that my "hybrid" background will make me more enticing to prospective employers.
(As an aside, there are a few other guys at my university about my age that have made the same switch from software engineering to academia. So, more positive data points for you.)
It may be that you just need to have your eyes checked. A new set of glasses might set you aright.
This graphic elegantly summarizes the problem with many types of electronic voting machines, especially Diebold's.
Sounds like excellent design objectives. Isn't Common Cause already pushing for something similar?