In some places, yes, in others, no. There are some areas where the long-assumed "nurse shortage" is deemed to be over, and hospitals feel a lot more comfortable treating nurses like easily replaced commodities. That may change in the future, but it could be rough if you're starting out in the wrong place and can't move to find work.
I just wanted to say thank you for linking to a real article about weapons in space. I seriously expected the Wikipedia link to go to some sci-fi article that wouldn't actually add anything to the discussion.
Then I read the article and realized that the meetings have gone from as little as 30 hours a week to as long as the entire work week, just one long virtual meeting.
Where the hell do you people work that you spend that much time in meetings? I've been in the military, and worked as a contractor with meeting-loving, long-rambling-discussion-having government employees, and I doubt I've ever spent more than 20 hours in a single week in meetings. And those weeks were extremely rare--they maybe happened once or twice per year.
Have I just luckily dodged the horriffic work environments that exist out there, or are you people just embellishing your stories?
If you don't like riding with your OCD acquaintance that requires you to remove your shoes and put on a Tyvek suit before getting in his oh-so-pristine car, then don't ride with him.
Test the teachers and fire the failures. Success is dependent on hard decisions and hard work, not billions of dollars.
People that are really good teachers and administrators are going to want to get pay that's commensurate with their level of education and dedication to their job. Usually they are smart enough to go work anywhere they want and get paid much more than most teaching jobs offer.
So you're not going to get "more blocking and tackling" unless you pay for some really good players. I expect the amount you'd have to pay is more than most Americans will think is reasonable.
It took a change of government to get us out of Iraq.
I recall hearing several times that the change of government wouldn't have taken place without the 2004 train bombings in Madrid. Do you think there's any truth to that? (I figure the opinion of somebody that actually lives there is worth more than all the news reports and commentary I heard here in the U.S.)
...why in anyone in their right mind do a science PhD?
I'm doing one now because I want to know if I can. I don't expect anybody to pay me more just because I have an extra piece of paper (although lots of pointy-haired people think pieces of paper automatically equal more value, and I won't argue with them if they want to offer a bigger salary up front). I certainly wouldn't expect to land an academic position, but that's because I know I'm not smart enough or dedicated enough, and I'm already too old (plus I hate teaching anyway, so I don't care).
There's a reason why if you go to the grad department of any university, it's filled with people from China and India with few if any Americans. There are no decent paying jobs for all the training and schooling required.
Not everywhere--it's been at least half Americans at the two schools I've seen. There would probably be more Americans if they either dropped the tuition or didn't make you live like a pauper while you're on an RA/TA appointment. And there are jobs available after all that training if you're willing to step outside academia.
Maybe the educational system should do a better job explaining the after-PhD options to young, bright students, just so they know that sticking with academia (1) isn't the only route and (2) isn't all that promising if your end goal is to obtain a tenured position at a university. But then, that would drain the gigantic pool of grad students willing to burn away half a decade working for a tiny little stipend, wouldn't it?
Footnote: People giving tours frequently want you to be impressed with what they do and how hard their job is, so make sure to factor that into your estimation of how much trouble generators this size are.;)
Ever see them try to spin up a 1 MW class diesel locomotive engine in winter?... I was told in a tour that the nuke backup engines go full power in much less than 10s, but, they keep the coolant and engine block heated to operating temp 24x7 with electrical heaters, they have bizarre oil systems that are kept pumping 24x7 yet somehow don't hydrolock the pistons, they have onsite 24x7 maintenance crews, and still they occasionally break so they need multiple ones for true redundancy.
I've worked with diesel generators from 1MW up to the size this town would need, that were primarily emergency generators for a nuclear plant, and they were only run for testing, drills and the occasional power loss. They needed a small (like tens of kW tops) set of heaters to keep them warm even in the coldest weather, and there were maybe two 24-7 guys whose responsibility was to go check readings once an hour on multiple generators (and in the non-nuclear world you could easily replace those two guys with some sensors, a computer, a phone line, and an on-call mechanic). I don't remember there being bizarre oil systems, and the oil didn't run 24/7, because it was very quiet when they weren't running.
They really just weren't a big hassle in the big scheme of things. You have to do maintenance on them at regular intervals, but you have to do that to any complex machine, like, say, a town-load-sized battery + inverter installation. Disclaimer: I've never worked with a 4MW UPS, but I don't think it's going to be maintenance-free.
Since the new series started I've kinda hoped we'd at least get a good 30-second comedic bit where either Eccleston or Tenant's doctor explained why the new console is largely covered in mechanical controls. Maybe it was just redesigned for the sake of being different, with no thought of ever explaining it, though.
From what i could tell at the university where I did my undergrad, the only way you touched anything other than their main language (C++) was if you went on to a graduate CS program. It looked to me like the CS degree was heavily slanted towards making entry-level programmers for local industry, not for giving people a thorough tour of computer science.:(
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LOLx2! Anyone who is serious about computing as a TOOL uses OS X.
Nice troll. You win 6 internets.
I'll be sure to pass along your words of wisdom to all the idiot mathematicians, scientists, and engineers I know that use Linux to do their (apparently) trivial research. I wish we were all as smart as you.
You'd think that they wouldn't default to giving away their (supposedly) valuable seal of approval, though. Most bureaucracies I've dealt with personally just ignored you if too many applications meant they would have to stay past 4pm.
Anyway, way to go GAO. It sounds like somebody in there has a fun job-- "Johnson, I need you to create some idiotic-sounding products and set up fake companies to go with them."
There may not be a lot of Linux gamers, there are a *lot* of science/engineering people using (or wanting to use) GPUs to do general purpose computation. GPGPU a hot topic in some of those communities, and some organizations are spending research money on finding ways to use them. Looking at the CUDA forums on NVIDIA's site, I see:
1729 topics under "CUDA on Windows XP" + "CUDA on Vista"
1689 topics under "CUDA on Linux"
295 topics under "CUDA on Mac OS X"
So I really don't think NVIDIA is going to stop providing Linux drivers any time soon.
I don't think that was the original AC's point, honestly. The point is that big companies with lots of spending power, "leaving your state" power, and lobbyists frequently get what they want, no matter which business or state they're in.
Or do they mean software that is pumped out by the thousands, like MS Windows.
I'm guessing....no. MS has a metric fuckton of lobbyists leaning on the lawmakers, most little custom software shops don't.
"Custom software" is any software that the state of Washington can be troubled to find out that I'm developing for somebody. Good luck tracking that, WA! Let me know how it turns out.
Slashdot Mirror
...a jelly-like substance made up of 95% water along with two grams of clay and a small amount of organic materials.
It also takes 7 minutes and 8% of your time to set after you mix the ingredients together.
In some places, yes, in others, no. There are some areas where the long-assumed "nurse shortage" is deemed to be over, and hospitals feel a lot more comfortable treating nurses like easily replaced commodities. That may change in the future, but it could be rough if you're starting out in the wrong place and can't move to find work.
Everybody's favourite waste of time...
Speak for yourself, Stoobalou.
I just wanted to say thank you for linking to a real article about weapons in space. I seriously expected the Wikipedia link to go to some sci-fi article that wouldn't actually add anything to the discussion.
cue the comments overintellectualizing and deducing vague ominous things from this pointless bit of fluff
That was already happening in the summary:
So, basically, driving past a McDonald's on the highway has the potential to not only make you drive faster...
So any comments of the kind you're describing should be moderated redundant.
Then I read the article and realized that the meetings have gone from as little as 30 hours a week to as long as the entire work week, just one long virtual meeting.
Where the hell do you people work that you spend that much time in meetings? I've been in the military, and worked as a contractor with meeting-loving, long-rambling-discussion-having government employees, and I doubt I've ever spent more than 20 hours in a single week in meetings. And those weeks were extremely rare--they maybe happened once or twice per year.
Have I just luckily dodged the horriffic work environments that exist out there, or are you people just embellishing your stories?
If you don't like riding with your OCD acquaintance that requires you to remove your shoes and put on a Tyvek suit before getting in his oh-so-pristine car, then don't ride with him.
Test the teachers and fire the failures. Success is dependent on hard decisions and hard work, not billions of dollars.
People that are really good teachers and administrators are going to want to get pay that's commensurate with their level of education and dedication to their job. Usually they are smart enough to go work anywhere they want and get paid much more than most teaching jobs offer.
So you're not going to get "more blocking and tackling" unless you pay for some really good players. I expect the amount you'd have to pay is more than most Americans will think is reasonable.
It took a change of government to get us out of Iraq.
I recall hearing several times that the change of government wouldn't have taken place without the 2004 train bombings in Madrid. Do you think there's any truth to that? (I figure the opinion of somebody that actually lives there is worth more than all the news reports and commentary I heard here in the U.S.)
...why in anyone in their right mind do a science PhD?
I'm doing one now because I want to know if I can. I don't expect anybody to pay me more just because I have an extra piece of paper (although lots of pointy-haired people think pieces of paper automatically equal more value, and I won't argue with them if they want to offer a bigger salary up front). I certainly wouldn't expect to land an academic position, but that's because I know I'm not smart enough or dedicated enough, and I'm already too old (plus I hate teaching anyway, so I don't care).
There's a reason why if you go to the grad department of any university, it's filled with people from China and India with few if any Americans. There are no decent paying jobs for all the training and schooling required.
Not everywhere--it's been at least half Americans at the two schools I've seen. There would probably be more Americans if they either dropped the tuition or didn't make you live like a pauper while you're on an RA/TA appointment. And there are jobs available after all that training if you're willing to step outside academia.
Maybe the educational system should do a better job explaining the after-PhD options to young, bright students, just so they know that sticking with academia (1) isn't the only route and (2) isn't all that promising if your end goal is to obtain a tenured position at a university. But then, that would drain the gigantic pool of grad students willing to burn away half a decade working for a tiny little stipend, wouldn't it?
Everybody knows C's film is so awesome it goes to 11.
.
.
.
(sorry)
Footnote: People giving tours frequently want you to be impressed with what they do and how hard their job is, so make sure to factor that into your estimation of how much trouble generators this size are. ;)
Ever see them try to spin up a 1 MW class diesel locomotive engine in winter? ... I was told in a tour that the nuke backup engines go full power in much less than 10s, but, they keep the coolant and engine block heated to operating temp 24x7 with electrical heaters, they have bizarre oil systems that are kept pumping 24x7 yet somehow don't hydrolock the pistons, they have onsite 24x7 maintenance crews, and still they occasionally break so they need multiple ones for true redundancy.
I've worked with diesel generators from 1MW up to the size this town would need, that were primarily emergency generators for a nuclear plant, and they were only run for testing, drills and the occasional power loss. They needed a small (like tens of kW tops) set of heaters to keep them warm even in the coldest weather, and there were maybe two 24-7 guys whose responsibility was to go check readings once an hour on multiple generators (and in the non-nuclear world you could easily replace those two guys with some sensors, a computer, a phone line, and an on-call mechanic). I don't remember there being bizarre oil systems, and the oil didn't run 24/7, because it was very quiet when they weren't running.
They really just weren't a big hassle in the big scheme of things. You have to do maintenance on them at regular intervals, but you have to do that to any complex machine, like, say, a town-load-sized battery + inverter installation. Disclaimer: I've never worked with a 4MW UPS, but I don't think it's going to be maintenance-free.
And german words.
Yeah but you'd need an extra 5-gallon bucket full of tiles if you're gonna allow people to use German words.
Since the new series started I've kinda hoped we'd at least get a good 30-second comedic bit where either Eccleston or Tenant's doctor explained why the new console is largely covered in mechanical controls. Maybe it was just redesigned for the sake of being different, with no thought of ever explaining it, though.
It inexplicably uses about 130MB of RAM while idle.
Thanks, that's all I needed to know!
It's more fun if you script something to repeatedly spider the site at the maximum rate the server can put out, and let that run for a few days.
From what i could tell at the university where I did my undergrad, the only way you touched anything other than their main language (C++) was if you went on to a graduate CS program. It looked to me like the CS degree was heavily slanted towards making entry-level programmers for local industry, not for giving people a thorough tour of computer science. :(
Public Service Announcement: The unlabeled* checkbox above the reply textarea causes your carefully crafted reply to be posted anonymously, thereby casting to the wind any fame and fortune you might have obtained from the Slashdot community. Don't check it out of curiosity and then forget about it, unless you possess sufficient attention to detail to notice that the preview is tagged as "by Anonymous Coward."
* Ok, it's really labeled as "Post Anonymously" in white on a white background in my browser. Good job, Slashdot.
If it had been Colm Meaney who narrated it it wouldn't have said "Miles O'Brien", now would it?
I dunno, this is Slashdot, you know.
LOLx2! Anyone who is serious about computing as a TOOL uses OS X.
Nice troll. You win 6 internets.
I'll be sure to pass along your words of wisdom to all the idiot mathematicians, scientists, and engineers I know that use Linux to do their (apparently) trivial research. I wish we were all as smart as you.
You'd think that they wouldn't default to giving away their (supposedly) valuable seal of approval, though. Most bureaucracies I've dealt with personally just ignored you if too many applications meant they would have to stay past 4pm.
Anyway, way to go GAO. It sounds like somebody in there has a fun job-- "Johnson, I need you to create some idiotic-sounding products and set up fake companies to go with them."
There may not be a lot of Linux gamers, there are a *lot* of science/engineering people using (or wanting to use) GPUs to do general purpose computation. GPGPU a hot topic in some of those communities, and some organizations are spending research money on finding ways to use them. Looking at the CUDA forums on NVIDIA's site, I see:
So I really don't think NVIDIA is going to stop providing Linux drivers any time soon.
I don't think that was the original AC's point, honestly. The point is that big companies with lots of spending power, "leaving your state" power, and lobbyists frequently get what they want, no matter which business or state they're in.
Or do they mean software that is pumped out by the thousands, like MS Windows.
I'm guessing....no. MS has a metric fuckton of lobbyists leaning on the lawmakers, most little custom software shops don't.
"Custom software" is any software that the state of Washington can be troubled to find out that I'm developing for somebody. Good luck tracking that, WA! Let me know how it turns out.