I am about to finish my Phd in CS and during these long years, I came to realise that part of the Phd process is (maybe) to figure out what is this all about... be able to answer questions of the form "Does it help me to find a job?", "Should it be useful?" etc.
My take on this is as follows... It's not about finding a job... it's not about adding another bullet in a CV to impress someone... it doesn't have to be useful or practical.. it doesn't have to cure cancer (although some people do this for a phd)...
I think a phd is a long thought exercise. You prove to yourself (and to a bunch of other people) that in a finite amount of time, you can understand an area, the issues involved, and you can come up with something innovate, something new... a new problem or an new solution to an old problem...
how to get a job after all that, is an orthogonal issue... maybe deserving another phd...:-)
As I said to another posting, we named the ocean Atlantic because probably this is where we think Atlantis is. This is due to the fact that ancient texts say that Atlantis is in the middle of the earth. Since in our world the "middle" of the earth is in the atlantic ocean, it makes sense to look for Atlantis there.
HOWEVER, Mediterrenean or "Mesogeios" as it is called in Greek, literally means "Middle of Earth" (Meso = middle, geios = Earth). So maybe, the ancient texts were referring to what the Greeks referred to as the middle of the earth... Mesogeios... so probably this is were we should look for Atlantis...
I have the impression that the Atlantic Ocean was named this way because people "thought" that this is the place where Atlantis should have been. The ancient texts say that Atlantis was in the middle of the earth. Now, since the Atlantic Ocean is in the middle of what we today assume to be the earth, then we conclude that rightly so, atlantis should be there.
HOWEVER, Mediterrenean (or "Mesogeios") as it is called in Greek means literally Middle of Earth. Thus, maybe the ancient texts, when they were referring to the middle of earth, they were talking about Mesogeios...
my 2 cents...
"You don't know how something works unless you can explain it to a five-year-old."
I was in a talk a couple of years ago and the speaker was Jim Gray (winner of the turing award in 1998) and he also said something along these lines... as a researcher, you have a clear picture of what you are doing if you can easily explain your research to your partner (assuming of course that your partner is not in your field and assuming that he/she understands your explanation).
'Living in a country where mobile phone use is quite common and is not seen as being"
Greece is a country with 10M people and 6.5M cell phones... and the number of phones is increasing (although the number of people is almost a constant)... Well, I am from Greece, I lived there for most of my life, and I am still annoyed... The thing is that at the end it's not mobile phones that become a habit... it's being annoyed that becomes a habit...
Example: try going out for a coffee with 3 of your best friends, all of whom have a mob. phone... how many times do you think you would be interrupted in an hour...!??! and I am not talking for other peoples' phones... just your friends, sitting with you... now, if this is not annoying to someone in Greece, Sweden, US or China, I don't know what is... I don't know how you can make a "habit" out of that...
Slashdot Mirror
Canada... both strange and remote...
I am about to finish my Phd in CS and during these long years, I came to realise that part of the Phd process is (maybe) to figure out what is this all about... be able to answer questions of the form "Does it help me to find a job?", "Should it be useful?" etc.
:-)
My take on this is as follows... It's not about finding a job... it's not about adding another bullet in a CV to impress someone... it doesn't have to be useful or practical.. it doesn't have to cure cancer (although some people do this for a phd)...
I think a phd is a long thought exercise. You prove to yourself (and to a bunch of other people) that in a finite amount of time, you can understand an area, the issues involved, and you can come up with something innovate, something new... a new problem or an new solution to an old problem...
how to get a job after all that, is an orthogonal issue... maybe deserving another phd...
As I said to another posting, we named the ocean Atlantic because probably this is where we think Atlantis is. This is due to the fact that ancient texts say that Atlantis is in the middle of the earth. Since in our world the "middle" of the earth is in the atlantic ocean, it makes sense to look for Atlantis there.
HOWEVER, Mediterrenean or "Mesogeios" as it is called in Greek, literally means "Middle of Earth" (Meso = middle, geios = Earth). So maybe, the ancient texts were referring to what the Greeks referred to as the middle of the earth... Mesogeios... so probably this is were we should look for Atlantis...
I have the impression that the Atlantic Ocean was named this way because people "thought" that this is the place where Atlantis should have been. The ancient texts say that Atlantis was in the middle of the earth. Now, since the Atlantic Ocean is in the middle of what we today assume to be the earth, then we conclude that rightly so, atlantis should be there. HOWEVER, Mediterrenean (or "Mesogeios") as it is called in Greek means literally Middle of Earth. Thus, maybe the ancient texts, when they were referring to the middle of earth, they were talking about Mesogeios... my 2 cents...
"You don't know how something works unless you can explain it to a five-year-old."
I was in a talk a couple of years ago and the speaker was Jim Gray (winner of the turing award in 1998) and he also said something along these lines... as a researcher, you have a clear picture of what you are doing if you can easily explain your research to your partner (assuming of course that your partner is not in your field and assuming that he/she understands your explanation).
'Living in a country where mobile phone use is quite common and is not seen as being"
Greece is a country with 10M people and 6.5M cell phones... and the number of phones is increasing (although the number of people is almost a constant)... Well, I am from Greece, I lived there for most of my life, and I am still annoyed... The thing is that at the end it's not mobile phones that become a habit... it's being annoyed that becomes a habit...
Example: try going out for a coffee with 3 of your best friends, all of whom have a mob. phone... how many times do you think you would be interrupted in an hour...!??! and I am not talking for other peoples' phones... just your friends, sitting with you... now, if this is not annoying to someone in Greece, Sweden, US or China, I don't know what is... I don't know how you can make a "habit" out of that...