How long does it take to say "sorry; I can't talk now. Bye."? Why stay on the line for 20 minutes with someone you don't want to talk to?
It might only be 30 seconds of my time to listen to your message and wait for the beep, if you've set it up well. It's another 60 seconds for me to leave a coherent message. Longer for me to prepare that message to make sure it *is* coherent if I know I'm going to have to speak to a machine. or: 30 seconds for you to pick up the phone if it is a convenient time and say "sorry; can't talk" if you don't want to talk to me. If it isn't a convenient time, sure, let it go through to the machine. If it's important enough that it can't wait for a more convenient time, I will leave a message.
I hate that. I hate talking to answering machines and usually won't leave a message unless I have already tried calling several times with no answer and have no other way to contact the person. If you do that you are telling me that your time is more important than mine - I have to talk to a machine so you don't have to risk hearing from someone you don't want to talk to. If it's a temporary thing while you change your phone number after being harassed, that's one thing. As a permenant solution, it's quite another.
The poster's spouse may already have their dream job and be unwilling to give that up. They may work in a specialised field and be unable to find a job in their field in the same city (I know there are only a handful of research centres in the country compatible with my own field of scientific interest, for example). There may be family reasons for staying - elderly parents who need them, perhaps.
But of course I don't want to open every file relating to a project, just the ones that I am working with at the moment. Nor do I want to create new folders and scripts and shuffle documents back and forth every time this changes - I might as well just open them by hand if I'm doing that.
Not sure I agree with some of the ideas in the winning entry: most people don't want to work in full page view by default, for instance, since most of us are stuck with monitors and eyesight that make full-page view uncomfortable for reading.
What I'd really like to see is a tool to remember what documents are associated with different projects. When I'm working on my "river1" report, for instance, I want to have "river1 draft manuscript.doc", "river1 budget.xls" and "river1 project plan.doc" open for easy access, and Matlab up with the path set to the river1 directory. I should be able to do all this with a single click.
When I'm working on the "Lake Suchandsuch" project, I want to be able to open a different set of tools and documents with one click: perhaps a putty terminal connected to my high performance computer account, a gvim window with "buggy code.c" open, and a PDF of a scientific manuscript with details of the algorithm I am trying to implement. Does anyone know of a tool that can do this?
That's funny. At my school, it was the other way around. Everyone liked to pretend that they did less work to get their grades than they really did, because that proved they were "smarter". Being smart was good, working hard was "square". Getting As without working improved your status, but working for As made you a nerd, a teacher's pet.
Anyway, all in all I'd strongly urge you to consider just how much value your personal space has for you. Consider: how much extra would you pay in rent not to have to deal with a roommate?
That's a nice way of thinking about it. As it happens, I'm currently paying $5000/yr extra not to have to deal with a house mate. I wonder whether it's significant that that's the same value I put on my office?
I also have +0.25 astigmatism in both eyes, which developed in my case in my late 20s. Like you, my main symptom was that it was harder to concentrate: I didn't actually have any difficulty reading, but it became an effort, which it had never been before. I got a pair of prescription glasses about three years ago and they solved the problem. The nice thing about astigmatism is that the correction is the same for all distances, so you can wear them reading, driving, or just walking around and it prevents that end-of day eyestrain and blurred vision. With such a mild prescription, though, you don't have to wear them if you don't want to.
You shouldn't need special "computer glasses" unless you also have a bit of long- or short-sightedness. I am also very slightly long-sighted, so I have glasses that correct that, too, and have the focal length set for computer use, since that is how I spend most of my time.
It's a well-known fact that wearing corrective lenses causes the eye to learn to depend on the lens
No. It's a well-known "common sense" idea with no scientific backing. Although many optometrists have long believed it to be true, when put to the test, it turns out that it's a myth.
You don't think privacy might be important when talking to clients about contract negotiations, or talking to subordinates about their performance, or to HR about needing bereavment leave, or to your boss about your next pay rise?
IQ is a very poor measure of genius. When people who know me talk as if they believe IQ means something, I tell them truthfully that I consistently score about 152 on IQ tests, and that's usually enough to correct the misapprehension. I'm bright, but no brighter than average among my colleagues and friends. Some of those around me are clearly much smarter. I was a good student and a hard worker in school, but rarely topped my classes. It just happened that I was good at IQ puzzles. To find genius children, you'll need more than an IQ score.
I was shy and socially awkward as a child, but developed into a well-adjusted and moderately sociable adult. Good social skills are something that most people can learn with a bit of effort, and it is very rewarding to make the effort.
Kids need to know how to do basic arithmetics by hand, true. But as someone who used to tutor highschool kids in maths, I was apalled to discover how few knew how to use their calculators effectively. Because they had never been taught (or figured out for themselves) how to do more than one simple operation at a time, the kids I was tutoring were taking three times as long on the basic sums as they needed to, and introducing more typo level errors along the way. This meant that they made more mistakes, believed themselves to be worse at maths in comparison to their peers than they really were, and spent less time on the maths they were supposed to be practising and more time punching buttons on their calulators.
Of course, they could have done all the arithmetic by hand, but then they'd have had even less time to learn real maths.
I was in a liquor shop recently. A man walked in, picked up a case of beer near the entrance, and walked out. The alarm beeped. There are two young male staff behind the counter:
A: Did you see that?
B: What?
A: That guy just walked in and nicked a case of VB!
B: Really?
A: Yes!
B: Huh. Fancy that.
A:
B: Well, it's not our job to chase him. He was right, really. They're not paid to care.
When an alarm goes off as I leave a store, I head back in and get the attention of a shop assistant. They've never looked suspicious or asked to search my bag - they just reswipe my items and suggest that it's probably a library book or security card in my bag if that doesn't work. Maybe I just look innocent.
IQ is a better of measure to use for class than education any day of the week.
Speaking as someone who has a measured IQ over 150 (top 0.1%), you couldn't be more wrong. IQ is worth very little. Mensa is full of washouts with entitlement complexes. Education shows a capacity for real achievement and a PhD is proof - not of intellect - but of perseverence and hard work.
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How long does it take to say "sorry; I can't talk now. Bye."? Why stay on the line for 20 minutes with someone you don't want to talk to?
It might only be 30 seconds of my time to listen to your message and wait for the beep, if you've set it up well. It's another 60 seconds for me to leave a coherent message. Longer for me to prepare that message to make sure it *is* coherent if I know I'm going to have to speak to a machine.
or:
30 seconds for you to pick up the phone if it is a convenient time and say "sorry; can't talk" if you don't want to talk to me. If it isn't a convenient time, sure, let it go through to the machine. If it's important enough that it can't wait for a more convenient time, I will leave a message.
Ignore the ringing phone if you're busy - sure. That's not rude. Just don't insist on me leaving a message - that is rude.
I hate that. I hate talking to answering machines and usually won't leave a message unless I have already tried calling several times with no answer and have no other way to contact the person. If you do that you are telling me that your time is more important than mine - I have to talk to a machine so you don't have to risk hearing from someone you don't want to talk to. If it's a temporary thing while you change your phone number after being harassed, that's one thing. As a permenant solution, it's quite another.
The poster's spouse may already have their dream job and be unwilling to give that up. They may work in a specialised field and be unable to find a job in their field in the same city (I know there are only a handful of research centres in the country compatible with my own field of scientific interest, for example). There may be family reasons for staying - elderly parents who need them, perhaps.
But of course I don't want to open every file relating to a project, just the ones that I am working with at the moment. Nor do I want to create new folders and scripts and shuffle documents back and forth every time this changes - I might as well just open them by hand if I'm doing that.
Thanks - I'll look into this.
Your brain can open several documents with one click?
Not sure I agree with some of the ideas in the winning entry: most people don't want to work in full page view by default, for instance, since most of us are stuck with monitors and eyesight that make full-page view uncomfortable for reading.
What I'd really like to see is a tool to remember what documents are associated with different projects. When I'm working on my "river1" report, for instance, I want to have "river1 draft manuscript.doc", "river1 budget.xls" and "river1 project plan.doc" open for easy access, and Matlab up with the path set to the river1 directory. I should be able to do all this with a single click.
When I'm working on the "Lake Suchandsuch" project, I want to be able to open a different set of tools and documents with one click: perhaps a putty terminal connected to my high performance computer account, a gvim window with "buggy code.c" open, and a PDF of a scientific manuscript with details of the algorithm I am trying to implement. Does anyone know of a tool that can do this?
That's funny. At my school, it was the other way around. Everyone liked to pretend that they did less work to get their grades than they really did, because that proved they were "smarter". Being smart was good, working hard was "square". Getting As without working improved your status, but working for As made you a nerd, a teacher's pet.
Anyway, all in all I'd strongly urge you to consider just how much value your personal space has for you. Consider: how much extra would you pay in rent not to have to deal with a roommate?
That's a nice way of thinking about it. As it happens, I'm currently paying $5000/yr extra not to have to deal with a house mate. I wonder whether it's significant that that's the same value I put on my office?
I also have +0.25 astigmatism in both eyes, which developed in my case in my late 20s. Like you, my main symptom was that it was harder to concentrate: I didn't actually have any difficulty reading, but it became an effort, which it had never been before. I got a pair of prescription glasses about three years ago and they solved the problem. The nice thing about astigmatism is that the correction is the same for all distances, so you can wear them reading, driving, or just walking around and it prevents that end-of day eyestrain and blurred vision. With such a mild prescription, though, you don't have to wear them if you don't want to.
You shouldn't need special "computer glasses" unless you also have a bit of long- or short-sightedness. I am also very slightly long-sighted, so I have glasses that correct that, too, and have the focal length set for computer use, since that is how I spend most of my time.
It's a well-known fact that wearing corrective lenses causes the eye to learn to depend on the lens
No. It's a well-known "common sense" idea with no scientific backing. Although many optometrists have long believed it to be true, when put to the test, it turns out that it's a myth.
You don't think privacy might be important when talking to clients about contract negotiations, or talking to subordinates about their performance, or to HR about needing bereavment leave, or to your boss about your next pay rise?
On the show, Adam and Jamie seem to just barely get on. Is this an act to make it more edgy for viewers, or is it the reality of your relationship?
IQ is a very poor measure of genius. When people who know me talk as if they believe IQ means something, I tell them truthfully that I consistently score about 152 on IQ tests, and that's usually enough to correct the misapprehension. I'm bright, but no brighter than average among my colleagues and friends. Some of those around me are clearly much smarter. I was a good student and a hard worker in school, but rarely topped my classes. It just happened that I was good at IQ puzzles. To find genius children, you'll need more than an IQ score.
I was shy and socially awkward as a child, but developed into a well-adjusted and moderately sociable adult. Good social skills are something that most people can learn with a bit of effort, and it is very rewarding to make the effort.
iinet offers up to 12MBps, and are cheaper than Telstra.
Kids need to know how to do basic arithmetics by hand, true. But as someone who used to tutor highschool kids in maths, I was apalled to discover how few knew how to use their calculators effectively. Because they had never been taught (or figured out for themselves) how to do more than one simple operation at a time, the kids I was tutoring were taking three times as long on the basic sums as they needed to, and introducing more typo level errors along the way. This meant that they made more mistakes, believed themselves to be worse at maths in comparison to their peers than they really were, and spent less time on the maths they were supposed to be practising and more time punching buttons on their calulators.
Of course, they could have done all the arithmetic by hand, but then they'd have had even less time to learn real maths.
The CSIRO has many research labs, but I've never heard of that one.
I was in a liquor shop recently. A man walked in, picked up a case of beer near the entrance, and walked out. The alarm beeped. There are two young male staff behind the counter:
A: Did you see that?
B: What?
A: That guy just walked in and nicked a case of VB!
B: Really?
A: Yes!
B: Huh. Fancy that.
A:
B: Well, it's not our job to chase him.
He was right, really. They're not paid to care.
When an alarm goes off as I leave a store, I head back in and get the attention of a shop assistant. They've never looked suspicious or asked to search my bag - they just reswipe my items and suggest that it's probably a library book or security card in my bag if that doesn't work. Maybe I just look innocent.
IQ is a better of measure to use for class than education any day of the week. Speaking as someone who has a measured IQ over 150 (top 0.1%), you couldn't be more wrong. IQ is worth very little. Mensa is full of washouts with entitlement complexes. Education shows a capacity for real achievement and a PhD is proof - not of intellect - but of perseverence and hard work.