Admissions representatives and administrators should be serving the needs of the potential students first, and the University/College second.
The best way to attract, enroll, and retain students is to find those students who are the best match for the school, and for whom the school is the best match. The closer one approaches that ideal, the more likely that any given student is going to select the right school and have a successful academic career. So in that respect you are serving the needs of the university/college, but only by serving the needs of the students first.
Admissions representatives and administrators who simply exist to recruit students ("warm bodies") do not do the school or the students any favors.
>> Building a space elevator using carbon nanotubes...that's advanced. Magnetic field >> drives...that's advanced. Solar sails, antimatter engines, gravitational drives...all >> advanced.
> All *fictional*. With the possible exception of solar sails, based on my understanding > of those "technologies", they are not at a point where time might be usefully spent on > them by engineers as opposed to SciFi writers.
It is not necessarily true that currently fictional technologies are unlikely to be near-term realities. Science fiction and genuine science are not entirely disconnected; the best science fiction is grounded in at least some form of true science, and then takes off from there. Many scientists are curious about the kinds of "science" that appears in fiction, especially if there is enough of a framework to make it at least plausible.
Manned space flight was fictional from pre-1900 until 1961. The concept of geosynchronous communications satellites was largely invented by Arthur C. Clarke several decades before they were engineered into reality.
Space elevators are complete fiction--except that the research and engineering to actually *build* one is going on right now, and the discovery/creation of carbon nanotubes is a likely candidate for the material needed. Ion drives were theoretical, then fictional, and are now used in actual satellites and probes. I've just recently read about some proposed magnetic field propulsion--that might lose funding with the elimination of NIAC. The Star Trek transporters of the 1960s, originally 'invented' to avoid wasting air time on landing/takeoff, were pure fiction...but controlled quantum teleportation is now a (limited) reality.
Is it possible that discoveries in gravitational wave physics might make gravity-based drives possible? I don't know, but if we are already doing the background work to evaluate it, we'll be better prepared to capitalize on any future discoveries.
If we're looking for ways to do things better 50, 100, 200, 1000 years from now, why would we care about short term "...technologies...that have made it into practical use"?
>> So what do they do? Shut down the people who dream up advanced concepts!
> Not exactly. They feed $500M to SpaceX and Kistler to develop real-working rockets that can deliver > to ISS. And yes, the money is contingent on success. Invoking private industry to develop the next > generation of vehicles is the way to go.
Building a rocket to go to the space station is not an advanced concept.
Building a space elevator using carbon nanotubes...that's advanced. Magnetic field drives...that's advanced. Solar sails, antimatter engines, gravitational drives...all advanced.
The whole point of research like this is to look for major leaps in science, technology, and engineering. The third-party space industry is concerned with profit, mainly by repeating what NASA and the military have been doing for about a half century. Maybe in thirty years they'll be in a position to concentrate on research like this...but I don't think SpaceX is concerning itself with warp drive just yet.
The NIAC, and the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics group before it, are about pushing for the future, not just resting on our chemically propelled century-old technological laurels.
As I recall, my Windows 95 Upgrade required the presence of Windows 3.1/3.11 to install. Now, this was tied to exactly ONE file, so if you had a copy of it and you could produce it at the appropriate step during install, it would go ahead.
Re:I am not the only one with a story like this:
on
USB Drives — Recovery?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Try removing the drive from the USB enclosure, installing it as the sole drive in a computer, and running DBAN.
I had to do that to a laptop drive that just wouldn't recognize in a USB enclosure. Once wiped and formatted, I reinstalled it into the USB enclosure, and it has worked fine ever since.
No good idea why (either the failure or the recovery!).
I found a stunning sale on Sony Microvault Tiny http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/Microvault/usm- h.html at Staples a few weeks ago. I had just purchased a 2gb PNY drive to supplant my old 128 meg Lexar JD Secure, so I decided to go for one of the smaller (512 meg) drives.
And, smaller is a good word for it. It makes the iDisk Tiny look like a Ford Explorer compared to the Sony's equivalent of a Mini Cooper.
Fun times when you can get a gig or two on something the size and weight of a few stacked postage stamps for less than a hundred dollars. I paid $15 after rebate for my half gig postage stamp.
Setup was a breeze, and I now use it everywhere. I've only tried it in windows so far, but I have no reason to expect that the linux versions won't work perfectly well too.
I really like the level of security it appears to provide, and I no longer worry about identity or information theft by any casual or semi-serious adversary.
I have it installed on my 2002/2003 vintage Lexar JumpDrive 128, and on my newer PNY 2gb drive, and on my Sony Micro Vault 512mb. You can install just the encrypted file system, or install the necessary software on the drive too, or if you want you can encrypt the whole drive.
The solution to your problem. Not only does it have a combination, but the design of the combination entry point makes it even more difficult for a non-adult hand to operate the combination mechanism.
I've been thinking of acquiring one for my bedroom so that I have a place to store a pistol without having to take it to a remote safe.
But you're willing to trust......some redneck that simply had to wait a week to get a CHL?
There is a lot more to it than just waiting. In most states, there is a criminal background check, performed by law enforcement, along with a fee and required training or proof of training. The training requirements usually involve knowing the law (when it is legal to use a firearm, when it is not, how to tell the difference, what the penalties are for illegal use, etc.), understanding the consequences of the use of deadly force, learning and demonstrating knowledge of firearm safety, and learning and demonstrating knowledge of firearm operation.
The implication that it is just "rednecks" who get handgun licenses is also mistaken. Among the people I know who have CHLs are physicians, lawyers, computer programmers, truck drivers, network installers, electricians, college professors, construction managers, and ministers. And, yes, I do "trust them," and in fact feel much safer when I'm in a state where such properly licensed responsible people are likely to be carrying concealed weapons. Thankfully, my state recently passed CHL legislation, and we will join the vast majority of other states with CHL or CWL laws in 2007.
Encrypted bullets, owner-identifying firearms, and all of these technological developments strike me as solutions looking for a problem. Unlike a vehicle, I never leave my firearm unattended in public, so it does not need key access. Having your weapon taken from you and used against you is a frightening scenario, but that is why training on how to identify when you are reasonably in fear for your life is a good idea. The risk of technological malfunction, or of devices to cause malfunction or to deny operational capability (jammers, remote de-activators) is far too great to outweigh the minor benefit of providing insulation in case someone manages to get my weapon away from me.
So, they're physicists. And they published a paper potentially relevant to economics.
John Nash is a mathematician. And he won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
There is nothing wrong with either case. Mathematical analysis is something physicists, mathematicians, and economists all do. Crossing over frequently occurs, generally in the direciton of less math.
If writing about it on a blog is proof enough, then how long before descriptive stories of the school administrators doing lines of coke off of the naked breasts of underaged cheerleaders starts showing up?
Just one budding Photoshop genius at the school, and the whole administration could end up as registered sex offenders.
If it's good enough to 'prosecute' a student into a suspension/expulsion, shouldn't the DA consider it good enough to prosecute the administrators into jail?
Your future bosses and the people interviewing you are also online, and may have interesting bits of information floating around there.
If nothing else, it makes sense to include personal information searches in your "company background research" phase of interview preparation. The more you know, the better prepared you are.
You assume that soft-stored software (OS and higher) is the only risk.
You forget, there is an entire hard-stored software subsystem and electronic circuitry which could be altered or designed to compromise security. Not just the BIOS; networking, display, and disk subsystems, as well as power and wireless communications.
Okay, probably Chris Knight, I identify the most with him. "Another in a long series of distractions..." is a pretty good description of graduate student life!
I have noticed some significant assumptions made by most people considering this issue. The two most important assumptions are:
1. The Human species will continue to advance technologically, or at a minimum will retain our current level of technology and knowledge.
2. The Human species is the only species we are concerned about.
The second example is more speculative; we don't think there are any other species which are approaching the ability to develop large scale civilization and higher brain functions. However, since we don't really seem to understand the mechanism by which we developed our own advanced civilization and higher thought processes, nor why it occurred when it did and not at some earlier or later point, we may not be good judges of this natural phenomenon.
The first example is the one that concerns me more, and which most people ignore. There is no reason to believe that we will not experience a catastrophic natural or man-made event that results in the collapse of civilization. This is fairly unlikely in the next ten years, slightly more likely in the next hundred, more likely in the next thousand, etc. If we destroyed a significant portion of our infrastructure, it is likely we would descend as a civilization into a new dark age. Without the knowledge and infrastructure base, we would not be looking for radioactive material to power our nuclear reactors--we would be looking for land on which to hunt and grow crops. Travelling groups of humans might notice a site such as the nuclear waste storage facility. Curiosity might get the better of them...
So, we have two problems. How do we communicate with a future human race that might be far more advanced than we are; and how do we simultaneously plan to communicate with a future human race that has regressed into a new dark age? If you really want to speculate, then you might consider how we communicate reliably with a non-human intelligent race...
I think you'll find it exceptionally hard to get a 555 circuit to operate with very long (greater than a few minutes) periods.
I tried to do so for a project once, and after much frustration I switched to a more reasonable clock frequency and a series of frequency dividers to achieve the slower switching frequency I needed. (I wanted the circuit to output ON one minute of every thirty, if I recall correctly.)
To try to successfully get the 555 to cycle very slowly, you need to choose your component types and values very carefully. Capacitors with very low self-discharge rate would help. I suspect my problem was that, with the values I used to try to achieve the desired switching period, the charge rate for the capacitor was of the same order as the self-discharge rate. Consequently, the 555 would never switch. Designing to a higher frequency and using digital frequency divider circuits to achieve the lower switch frequency was a useful and simple solution.
I always found note taking a waste of time. How long has it been since we invented the printing press, projector, photocopy machine, or internet? Couldn't we find a better way to distribute content than to have a highly-paid professor copy his notes onto a blackboard so that they can then be copied by a bunch of highly-paying students into their notes or laptops?
You just...copied?
When I took notes in class, I wasn't usually copying anything (other than a diagram or a few sentences). I was making...notes...which were mostly in my own words, explaining things to myself. Often, I'd scribble a question in the margin to ask the prof later, or I'd circle something and make a note about looking it up later. When I had free time, I'd go back over my notes, and think about the class, and add to the notes and questions. When I read through the textbook again, I'd add to my notes and questions again.
So you seriously just wrote what was on the board and that was it? I'm not being a jerk, I'm honestly baffled by that.
Now your books are in order. Want to be able to look them up? Someone already suggested the card catalog--a tried and true old system. It works. Or, if you insist on using a computer system, how about one ofthe availablefree and/or open source solutions? There are many more available online if you search.
You are paying for the privilige of attending the school. The professors are not your employees.
Professors are usually given (by their actual employer) fairly wide latitude in setting rules for their classrooms. If you do not like it, you can drop the class, complain to the professor and/or the professor's superiors, or drop out of the school.
Sorry, but the "student-as-consumer" model, while popular for admissions and retention discussions, has never been a functional model for classroom interactions.
Finding a "secure delete" program on a computer is pretty much clear-cut evidence that you were trying to hide something.
Whoa, whoa there. Every user should be using "secure delete" of some sort on any file that they are certain they do not want to undelete. It should be a standard feature of any operating system, although it is still most often part of an add-on security suite or standalone program.
It is the digital analogue (ha ha) to shredding documents. When you shred a document, you shred it. You don't put it complete and intact in a box marked "SHREDDED" for long term storage.
And for some strange reason, my copy of The Code Book is fully titled:
The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography
It's a 1999, 1st edition hardback. I emailed the publisher to find out why the subtitle had changed, and when. The ISBN is identical to the current edition. I need to check out a current edition to see if there are any substantive differences in the text.
Lightman's scientific research has focused on gravitation theory, the structure and behavior of accretion disks, stellar dynamics, radiative processes, and relativistic plasmas. His research articles have appeared in The Physical Review, The Astrophysical Journal, Reviews of Modern Physics, Nature, and other journals of physics and astrophysics. For his contributions to physics, he was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989 and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science the same year. In 1990, he chaired the science panel of the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee for the 1990s. He is a past chair of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society.
Lightman has also been interested in science education and the philosophy of science. His work in science studies and in science education has been published in The American Scholar, The Physics Teacher, Science, Science and Children, The Science Teacher, and Social Studies of Science.
Slashdot Mirror
Admissions representatives and administrators should be serving the needs of the potential students first, and the University/College second.
The best way to attract, enroll, and retain students is to find those students who are the best match for the school, and for whom the school is the best match. The closer one approaches that ideal, the more likely that any given student is going to select the right school and have a successful academic career. So in that respect you are serving the needs of the university/college, but only by serving the needs of the students first.
Admissions representatives and administrators who simply exist to recruit students ("warm bodies") do not do the school or the students any favors.
>> Building a space elevator using carbon nanotubes...that's advanced. Magnetic field
>> drives...that's advanced. Solar sails, antimatter engines, gravitational drives...all
>> advanced.
> All *fictional*. With the possible exception of solar sails, based on my understanding
> of those "technologies", they are not at a point where time might be usefully spent on
> them by engineers as opposed to SciFi writers.
It is not necessarily true that currently fictional technologies are unlikely to be near-term realities. Science fiction and genuine science are not entirely disconnected; the best science fiction is grounded in at least some form of true science, and then takes off from there. Many scientists are curious about the kinds of "science" that appears in fiction, especially if there is enough of a framework to make it at least plausible.
Manned space flight was fictional from pre-1900 until 1961. The concept of geosynchronous communications satellites was largely invented by Arthur C. Clarke several decades before they were engineered into reality.
Space elevators are complete fiction--except that the research and engineering to actually *build* one is going on right now, and the discovery/creation of carbon nanotubes is a likely candidate for the material needed. Ion drives were theoretical, then fictional, and are now used in actual satellites and probes. I've just recently read about some proposed magnetic field propulsion--that might lose funding with the elimination of NIAC. The Star Trek transporters of the 1960s, originally 'invented' to avoid wasting air time on landing/takeoff, were pure fiction...but controlled quantum teleportation is now a (limited) reality.
Gravitational drives (or 'warp drive') are still well into the realm of fiction, *but* there are two active research programs looking for gravitational waves (LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) and LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory).
Is it possible that discoveries in gravitational wave physics might make gravity-based drives possible? I don't know, but if we are already doing the background work to evaluate it, we'll be better prepared to capitalize on any future discoveries.
Why would that be important?
If we're looking for ways to do things better 50, 100, 200, 1000 years from now, why would we care about short term "...technologies...that have made it into practical use"?
Jim
>> So what do they do? Shut down the people who dream up advanced concepts!
> Not exactly. They feed $500M to SpaceX and Kistler to develop real-working rockets that can deliver
> to ISS. And yes, the money is contingent on success. Invoking private industry to develop the next
> generation of vehicles is the way to go.
Building a rocket to go to the space station is not an advanced concept.
Building a space elevator using carbon nanotubes...that's advanced. Magnetic field drives...that's advanced. Solar sails, antimatter engines, gravitational drives...all advanced.
The whole point of research like this is to look for major leaps in science, technology, and engineering. The third-party space industry is concerned with profit, mainly by repeating what NASA and the military have been doing for about a half century. Maybe in thirty years they'll be in a position to concentrate on research like this...but I don't think SpaceX is concerning itself with warp drive just yet.
The NIAC, and the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics group before it, are about pushing for the future, not just resting on our chemically propelled century-old technological laurels.
As I recall, my Windows 95 Upgrade required the presence of Windows 3.1/3.11 to install. Now, this was tied to exactly ONE file, so if you had a copy of it and you could produce it at the appropriate step during install, it would go ahead.
Free, definition number 36.
Try removing the drive from the USB enclosure, installing it as the sole drive in a computer, and running DBAN.
I had to do that to a laptop drive that just wouldn't recognize in a USB enclosure. Once wiped and formatted, I reinstalled it into the USB enclosure, and it has worked fine ever since.
No good idea why (either the failure or the recovery!).
Look for neutrons.
I found a stunning sale on Sony Microvault Tiny http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/Microvault/usm- h.html at Staples a few weeks ago. I had just purchased a 2gb PNY drive to supplant my old 128 meg Lexar JD Secure, so I decided to go for one of the smaller (512 meg) drives.
And, smaller is a good word for it. It makes the iDisk Tiny look like a Ford Explorer compared to the Sony's equivalent of a Mini Cooper.
Fun times when you can get a gig or two on something the size and weight of a few stacked postage stamps for less than a hundred dollars. I paid $15 after rebate for my half gig postage stamp.
Jim
Seriously, try TrueCrypt.
Setup was a breeze, and I now use it everywhere. I've only tried it in windows so far, but I have no reason to expect that the linux versions won't work perfectly well too.
I really like the level of security it appears to provide, and I no longer worry about identity or information theft by any casual or semi-serious adversary.
I have it installed on my 2002/2003 vintage Lexar JumpDrive 128, and on my newer PNY 2gb drive, and on my Sony Micro Vault 512mb. You can install just the encrypted file system, or install the necessary software on the drive too, or if you want you can encrypt the whole drive.
Jim
The solution to your problem. Not only does it have a combination, but the design of the combination entry point makes it even more difficult for a non-adult hand to operate the combination mechanism.
I've been thinking of acquiring one for my bedroom so that I have a place to store a pistol without having to take it to a remote safe.
Jim
But you're willing to trust......some redneck that simply had to wait a week to get a CHL?
There is a lot more to it than just waiting. In most states, there is a criminal background check, performed by law enforcement, along with a fee and required training or proof of training. The training requirements usually involve knowing the law (when it is legal to use a firearm, when it is not, how to tell the difference, what the penalties are for illegal use, etc.), understanding the consequences of the use of deadly force, learning and demonstrating knowledge of firearm safety, and learning and demonstrating knowledge of firearm operation.
The implication that it is just "rednecks" who get handgun licenses is also mistaken. Among the people I know who have CHLs are physicians, lawyers, computer programmers, truck drivers, network installers, electricians, college professors, construction managers, and ministers. And, yes, I do "trust them," and in fact feel much safer when I'm in a state where such properly licensed responsible people are likely to be carrying concealed weapons. Thankfully, my state recently passed CHL legislation, and we will join the vast majority of other states with CHL or CWL laws in 2007.
Encrypted bullets, owner-identifying firearms, and all of these technological developments strike me as solutions looking for a problem. Unlike a vehicle, I never leave my firearm unattended in public, so it does not need key access. Having your weapon taken from you and used against you is a frightening scenario, but that is why training on how to identify when you are reasonably in fear for your life is a good idea. The risk of technological malfunction, or of devices to cause malfunction or to deny operational capability (jammers, remote de-activators) is far too great to outweigh the minor benefit of providing insulation in case someone manages to get my weapon away from me.
Jim
So, they're physicists. And they published a paper potentially relevant to economics.
John Nash is a mathematician. And he won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
There is nothing wrong with either case. Mathematical analysis is something physicists, mathematicians, and economists all do. Crossing over frequently occurs, generally in the direciton of less math.
Jim
If writing about it on a blog is proof enough, then how long before descriptive stories of the school administrators doing lines of coke off of the naked breasts of underaged cheerleaders starts showing up?
Just one budding Photoshop genius at the school, and the whole administration could end up as registered sex offenders.
If it's good enough to 'prosecute' a student into a suspension/expulsion, shouldn't the DA consider it good enough to prosecute the administrators into jail?
Your future bosses and the people interviewing you are also online, and may have interesting bits of information floating around there.
If nothing else, it makes sense to include personal information searches in your "company background research" phase of interview preparation. The more you know, the better prepared you are.
Jim
You assume that soft-stored software (OS and higher) is the only risk.
You forget, there is an entire hard-stored software subsystem and electronic circuitry which could be altered or designed to compromise security. Not just the BIOS; networking, display, and disk subsystems, as well as power and wireless communications.
Jim
I'll have to go with either the original rock star physicist, Buckaroo Banzai, or perhaps Chris Knight, or Lazlo Hollyfield.
Okay, probably Chris Knight, I identify the most with him. "Another in a long series of distractions..." is a pretty good description of graduate student life!
Jim
I have noticed some significant assumptions made by most people considering this issue. The two most important assumptions are:
The second example is more speculative; we don't think there are any other species which are approaching the ability to develop large scale civilization and higher brain functions. However, since we don't really seem to understand the mechanism by which we developed our own advanced civilization and higher thought processes, nor why it occurred when it did and not at some earlier or later point, we may not be good judges of this natural phenomenon.
The first example is the one that concerns me more, and which most people ignore. There is no reason to believe that we will not experience a catastrophic natural or man-made event that results in the collapse of civilization. This is fairly unlikely in the next ten years, slightly more likely in the next hundred, more likely in the next thousand, etc. If we destroyed a significant portion of our infrastructure, it is likely we would descend as a civilization into a new dark age. Without the knowledge and infrastructure base, we would not be looking for radioactive material to power our nuclear reactors--we would be looking for land on which to hunt and grow crops. Travelling groups of humans might notice a site such as the nuclear waste storage facility. Curiosity might get the better of them...
So, we have two problems. How do we communicate with a future human race that might be far more advanced than we are; and how do we simultaneously plan to communicate with a future human race that has regressed into a new dark age? If you really want to speculate, then you might consider how we communicate reliably with a non-human intelligent race...
Jim
I think you'll find it exceptionally hard to get a 555 circuit to operate with very long (greater than a few minutes) periods.
I tried to do so for a project once, and after much frustration I switched to a more reasonable clock frequency and a series of frequency dividers to achieve the slower switching frequency I needed. (I wanted the circuit to output ON one minute of every thirty, if I recall correctly.)
To try to successfully get the 555 to cycle very slowly, you need to choose your component types and values very carefully. Capacitors with very low self-discharge rate would help. I suspect my problem was that, with the values I used to try to achieve the desired switching period, the charge rate for the capacitor was of the same order as the self-discharge rate. Consequently, the 555 would never switch. Designing to a higher frequency and using digital frequency divider circuits to achieve the lower switch frequency was a useful and simple solution.
Jim
You just...copied?
When I took notes in class, I wasn't usually copying anything (other than a diagram or a few sentences). I was making...notes...which were mostly in my own words, explaining things to myself. Often, I'd scribble a question in the margin to ask the prof later, or I'd circle something and make a note about looking it up later. When I had free time, I'd go back over my notes, and think about the class, and add to the notes and questions. When I read through the textbook again, I'd add to my notes and questions again.
So you seriously just wrote what was on the board and that was it? I'm not being a jerk, I'm honestly baffled by that.
The vast majority of the books I own have their Dewey number printed on the copyright page right along with date of publication and edition.
Those that don't, I can assign a Dewey number based on the subject matter. Hmm, math...500. Physics, 530. Here's a fairly nice breakdown you can use for just the main numbers.
Now your books are in order. Want to be able to look them up? Someone already suggested the card catalog--a tried and true old system. It works. Or, if you insist on using a computer system, how about one of the available free and/or open source solutions? There are many more available online if you search.
Jim
You are paying for the privilige of attending the school. The professors are not your employees.
Professors are usually given (by their actual employer) fairly wide latitude in setting rules for their classrooms. If you do not like it, you can drop the class, complain to the professor and/or the professor's superiors, or drop out of the school.
Sorry, but the "student-as-consumer" model, while popular for admissions and retention discussions, has never been a functional model for classroom interactions.
Finding a "secure delete" program on a computer is pretty much clear-cut evidence that you were trying to hide something.
Whoa, whoa there. Every user should be using "secure delete" of some sort on any file that they are certain they do not want to undelete. It should be a standard feature of any operating system, although it is still most often part of an add-on security suite or standalone program.
It is the digital analogue (ha ha) to shredding documents. When you shred a document, you shred it. You don't put it complete and intact in a box marked "SHREDDED" for long term storage.
Jim
And for some strange reason, my copy of The Code Book is fully titled:
The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography
It's a 1999, 1st edition hardback. I emailed the publisher to find out why the subtitle had changed, and when. The ISBN is identical to the current edition. I need to check out a current edition to see if there are any substantive differences in the text.
Jim
Here's his information from MIT, and an excerpt below:
Hardly a layman in the sciences.