I started my Ph.D in the US and finished in Europe and while my experience with the US system was vastly different from yours, we seemed to come to the same conclusion: it's dysfunctional. I got a job in US industry later on and came to a similar conclusion. My conclusion was to vote with my money and move, I live in a smallish town in the EU and haven't looked back!
The shame is the US can be a very cool place! (Hello to the folks in Huntsville, I still LOVE little river canon!)
I hate to say it, but having done a little work in this field, but most of this stuff is PLC controlled. And to their little world it is standard and comprehendable. Open doesn't really apply but sort of happens anyway.
It is just me or are the articles on OnLamp very hit or miss. When the are good, like this one, they are very good & when they are bad I can't even finish them!
Or I suppose it could be that I'm mildly interested in Dragonfly and I think Matt et all have a strong argument in LWKT.
Hmmm now I wonder what sort of SMP strategy is used in OS X??
I suppose when the religion that is intermingling with the government is yours, or one that you do not find odious, then it is not a big deal. But when you can't do things you'd like to do (which do not infringe on the rights of others) because laws inspired by a state supported religion, it is a big deal. Or if, for example, you can not get a government job because you do not subscribe to the state supported religion, even though you are technically capable, put conversely those who have government positions have because they subscribe to religious ideas not because they technical abilities or know how that this hypothetical job might require. And I don't think this is off topic!
Yeah, I was really trying to point out that when other countries craft policy based on extremist religious ideas Americans decry it as authoritarian, while when employed in the US it becomes a "faith based initiative". Sure the Taliban was more extreme than the Republicans are currently but where does this trend end? How far will a vocal extreme push the Republican Party from the rational center? How long will a moderate majority tolerate the erosion of important American ideals; such as Privacy, Freedom and separation of church & state? And if the Americans *really* do want this form of government, I think they out to change the name to something that's more fitting.
Perhaps the current US political administration should change their name to something that describes them more accurately, like "Taliban" rather than "republican".
This is something I've wondered about. NASA knew going into the project that the Gyroscopes were not all that reliable, so made them replaceable and designed in redundancies. Given that forthought, why in the hell didn't they put this in an area the crew could reach without a space walk?
I have a Philips LCD screen, at work, that rotates. So I thought: 'Ah Ha perfect for coding!' Wrong! any, application other than Acrobat looks very bad, VIM (and plain text) being the worst. So I will *not* be trying to rotation thing at home on my G5 Mac.
I agree, this is Microsoft's game to loose and they seem to be going about it wrong.
I work for a *huge* pharma company and our IT guys are militant paranoid security freaks. To this point we have been a mostly Windows company, using any software that is not approved is ground for dismissal. I spent most of a year getting SuSE Linux approved for limited use (Embedded development workstations). We also have spent big money dealing with all of the recent security problems with Microsoft products and this has become very visible. However little money / time has been spent dealing with Linux / *BSD security issues (I did use the recent CVS issue as an excuse to migrate to subversion). This too has become visible. I wonder how long until they move all of R&D to some sort of non-MS OS...
I live and work in Austria. Workers have a few more rights which are very beneficial
No cubicles
Every office has several windows that can open.
I have instrumentation in my office so I qualified for AC, (my boss doesn't) not that we use it much. One difference is that most offices have room for 2 to 4 people, at first I did think I'd like that but I like my assistants and find the interaction both fun and efficient.
I have a fridge and a sink.
I have a separate lab so big or noisy things are not in my office.
If you have to have a solder station in your office have a ventilation system installed (which I sort of inherited)
A library is a must! And with sufficient budget to purchase reference books (which, in my industry are offensively expensive)
We have a mobile projector and connected white board which were more useful than I had expected (but the whiteboard is fragile:( we've had two warranty replacements).
There is no gym near us though but given that most folks bicycle to work it hardly seams necessary, we do have several sporting clubs though.
NO free cola it's not healthy! We pay.2 euro for each cup of coffee which affords us very good coffee, rather than that evil crap pawned off as coffee when companies provide it for free.
A company sponsored cafeteria in house which provides food not only better than I can cook myself but healthy food as well. There is no point in having one with bad food, that's worse than not having one!
Having written all of this, I have also concluded that the nicest office in the world won't make up for a negative or combative work environment!
Age may be associated with wisdom but it is not a guarantor of wisdom. Additionally wisdom is not the sole ingredient to good decision making, nor is age the sole ingredient to a utopian society. There are a lot of things science could be doing to make regular people's lives better. Reducing disease, poverty and illiteracy or bring electric power to the rest of the world for example. I'm sure the research we are discussing will help to increase the quality of life for people of all ages and I'm all for it.
This idea that is being proposed of dramatically extending peoples lives only extends the lives of those who can afford it. I think this would simply increase the separation between the "haves and have nots". And from another point of view favors stagnation rather than change. I am reminded of Bruce Sterling's "Holy Fire" a rather good book, in fact one of his better ones.
I am not "standing in you way" (or any one else's!). I am laughing at you. This "tantamount to murder" you proclaim works both ways: I favor the natural death of those who have had full lives while you advocate wresting it from the potential lives of those who are not yet. So I think the idea has significant drawbacks and is not the panacea you describe.
Besides I really doesn't matter that much, we're all on the this Farris wheel called life until we figure out how to cease our own suffering any way.
Slashdot Mirror
The shame is the US can be a very cool place! (Hello to the folks in Huntsville, I still LOVE little river canon!)
Portable will just get you funny looks ;-)
Or I suppose it could be that I'm mildly interested in Dragonfly and I think Matt et all have a strong argument in LWKT.
Hmmm now I wonder what sort of SMP strategy is used in OS X??
I suppose when the religion that is intermingling with the government is yours, or one that you do not find odious, then it is not a big deal. But when you can't do things you'd like to do (which do not infringe on the rights of others) because laws inspired by a state supported religion, it is a big deal. Or if, for example, you can not get a government job because you do not subscribe to the state supported religion, even though you are technically capable, put conversely those who have government positions have because they subscribe to religious ideas not because they technical abilities or know how that this hypothetical job might require. And I don't think this is off topic!
Yeah, I was really trying to point out that when other countries craft policy based on extremist religious ideas Americans decry it as authoritarian, while when employed in the US it becomes a "faith based initiative". Sure the Taliban was more extreme than the Republicans are currently but where does this trend end? How far will a vocal extreme push the Republican Party from the rational center? How long will a moderate majority tolerate the erosion of important American ideals; such as Privacy, Freedom and separation of church & state? And if the Americans *really* do want this form of government, I think they out to change the name to something that's more fitting.
Perhaps the current US political administration should change their name to something that describes them more accurately, like "Taliban" rather than "republican".
Been Done: Kim Stanley Robinson in the novel Red Mars which is the first of a trilogy. Green Mars and Blue Mars finish the series.
Now that makes sense!
This is something I've wondered about. NASA knew going into the project that the Gyroscopes were not all that reliable, so made them replaceable and designed in redundancies. Given that forthought, why in the hell didn't they put this in an area the crew could reach without a space walk?
I have a Philips LCD screen, at work, that rotates. So I thought: 'Ah Ha perfect for coding!' Wrong! any, application other than Acrobat looks very bad, VIM (and plain text) being the worst. So I will *not* be trying to rotation thing at home on my G5 Mac.
But the DR.DOS guys have their niche and seem to be doing quite well!
Having said all of that a Free Win98SE also would be useful , I suppose.
I work for a *huge* pharma company and our IT guys are militant paranoid security freaks. To this point we have been a mostly Windows company, using any software that is not approved is ground for dismissal. I spent most of a year getting SuSE Linux approved for limited use (Embedded development workstations). We also have spent big money dealing with all of the recent security problems with Microsoft products and this has become very visible. However little money / time has been spent dealing with Linux / *BSD security issues (I did use the recent CVS issue as an excuse to migrate to subversion). This too has become visible. I wonder how long until they move all of R&D to some sort of non-MS OS...
No cubicles
Every office has several windows that can open.
I have instrumentation in my office so I qualified for AC, (my boss doesn't) not that we use it much. One difference is that most offices have room for 2 to 4 people, at first I did think I'd like that but I like my assistants and find the interaction both fun and efficient.
I have a fridge and a sink.
I have a separate lab so big or noisy things are not in my office.
If you have to have a solder station in your office have a ventilation system installed (which I sort of inherited)
A library is a must! And with sufficient budget to purchase reference books (which, in my industry are offensively expensive)
We have a mobile projector and connected white board which were more useful than I had expected (but the whiteboard is fragile :( we've had two warranty replacements).
There is no gym near us though but given that most folks bicycle to work it hardly seams necessary, we do have several sporting clubs though.
NO free cola it's not healthy! We pay .2 euro for each cup of coffee which affords us very good coffee, rather than that evil crap pawned off as coffee when companies provide it for free.
A company sponsored cafeteria in house which provides food not only better than I can cook myself but healthy food as well. There is no point in having one with bad food, that's worse than not having one!
Having written all of this, I have also concluded that the nicest office in the world won't make up for a negative or combative work environment!
and it does
Scientific American had an excelent article on the art Jackson Pollock: Order in Pollock's Chaos
I to am interested
Yeah, but digital zoom sucks
It has a retrograde orbit
I used to live in Atlanta, there's nothing worth picking up there
I think IBM calls it "cell"
This way we save the trees, remember kids: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!
The "row boat" looks like a giant rapala lure!
Who in their right mind would row anywhere with that thing?
You're right it's far from dead, some really intersting things are going on in the film camera world!
nice sig...
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
This idea that is being proposed of dramatically extending peoples lives only extends the lives of those who can afford it. I think this would simply increase the separation between the "haves and have nots". And from another point of view favors stagnation rather than change. I am reminded of Bruce Sterling's "Holy Fire" a rather good book, in fact one of his better ones.
I am not "standing in you way" (or any one else's!). I am laughing at you. This "tantamount to murder" you proclaim works both ways: I favor the natural death of those who have had full lives while you advocate wresting it from the potential lives of those who are not yet. So I think the idea has significant drawbacks and is not the panacea you describe.
Besides I really doesn't matter that much, we're all on the this Farris wheel called life until we figure out how to cease our own suffering any way.