1: netbook has actual keyboard
It has a keyboard attachment, use it if you need it. Less bulk if you are just carrying around an ereader and websurfing appliance.
2: netbook is a actual pc Ie it runs windows or linux
This only matters to the slashdot crowd, normal people don't care.
3: netbook can multi task
Valid point, I hate the fact that my iPhone doesn't multitask but see point 2.
4: nebook can be had for as cheep as 200$
Not one that you would actually want to buy.
5: netbook can close to protect screen.
This is my one concern, how fragile will the screen be. Needing a bulky protector defeats the advantage of not having a keyboard.
If people want to copy each other's homework, who cares - they'll fail the exam anyway Even if cheating on homework artificially elevates their grades, still, who cares. It will catch up with them eventually. A D student that cheats to become an A student will be found out in the workplace (by being incompetent). The workplace will probably detect the cheating C student as well. There's functionally little noticeable difference between the average A and B students. The B student may be doing what it takes to get ahead (not that I condone this activity). Face it, people at the top typically are not there because the are especially honest, smart or nice. Take Bill Gates, for example.
HD is a waste for most of the population: anyone who isn't a home-theater nut. There is a very clear difference between HD and SD tv, a difference that anyone can see. HD has more detail and colors are more vibrant. Anyone who claims there is not difference is clearly incorrect. The point of contention is do most people care, which is probably your point.
Most of us go through phases of being quite evil and pathetic Very true. Don't forget these guys were teenage boys as most slashdotters once were. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of dumb things I did as a kid. It's a wonder any of us live through our teenage years. Although I agree these guys were dumbasses, cut them some slack. Did you ever drag race as a kid? Play with explosives or other weapons? Drink way too much? Drugs?
Everyone has done phenomenally stupid things at one time or another.
I've been using Pandora for a couple months now and have been *very* impressed with it's song choices. I haven't tried Last yet but from the description it sounds like Pandora has an advantage over Last in that you are more likely to find new music. I've found that about half of Pandora selections have been artists I haven't heard of. Truely refreshing. If you just want to find what other similar people are listening to you can always use Amazon Suggests. Nothing special there.
Do a search on Monster and you will see many companies hiring positions with computational biology experience. All pharmaceutical companies and many biotech companies have computational biologists, to some degree. It's a difficult field to excel in since you need a strong background in both CS/Math and biology. Sounds like you are off to a decent start. Look for a software developement position in a pharmaceutical or biotech company. It will be the best way to get your foot in the door. Play up your developer experience and top it off with a class or two in biology and Comp bio. Good luck.
I also switched careers into bioinformatics but from a molecular/cell biology background (went back to schoool for a MS in CS). As several previous posters have pointed out, knowledge of biology is not an incidental in this field, it *is* the field. It's easier to learn the CS side than the biology. I often take my own knowledge for granted, figuring hell, anyone can do this job, until I talk to people without a biology background.
That being said, if you are willing to learn the biology your math background could be a huge plus. Much of bioinformatics is focused on data mining various sources like sequence databases, microarray results, pubmed, etc so an understanding of pattern recognition, AI, and statistics would be beneficial. Also, biologist tend to be horribly bad with math;)
I'm not sure about the actual percentages, but I believe you are right about marketing costs being outrageous. Like everyting else, drugs also need to be marketed. I'm not saying its right or wrong, it just is.
It's estimated
that it costs about $800 million dollars to bring a drug to market. Some of this is research, some is marketing and other expenses. Regardless, this is what it costs.
There is good reason to have long patents. Consinder when patents are filed, typically very early in R&D, a process that on average takes 12-15 years. If you have a patent that expires in 10-15 years, all your research and funding was pointless. But I do agree, there are way too many patents filed, in all fields.
If there is no financial incentive, who will pay for the research? Government funding has faded over the years leaving private industry to pay for much of the basic research upon which commercial enterprises are built.
People need to understand, drugs are not expensive because the pharmaceutical industry is taking huge profits (unethical, I know) but they're expensive because research is *enormeously* expensive, combined with the fact that most drugs fail clinical trials. The money has to come from somewhere.
shoddy, sub-standard teachers who should be teaching elementary-school english
You seem to have it a bit backwards. The average elementary school teacher is BY FAR a better teacher than the average college professor. Unlike college professors, elementary/high school teachers are actually taught how to teach. Unfortunately the arrogance of the university system allows professors to teach with absolutely no training. But hey, they have PhD so certainly they can teach. Right?
Actually, you are off by over an order of magnitude. The cost is around $800 million. This includes research and clinical trial costs for the drug but more significantly, money to cover all the drugs that fail. Nine out of ten drugs that make it to clinical trials FAIL. That's alot of money to recoup.
It's great to see somebody bucking the stereotypes that claims all geeks are fat and lazy. A lot of us are outdoorsy types in better shape than our peers.
Very true. As a runner and triathlete myself, I see a surprisingly large number of people from tech backgrounds (computers, other sciences, medicine) in these sports. I think it has to do with the nature of the sport. In order to participate in these activities you have to be of a mindset where you enjoy being alone combined with a certain amount of compulsion and drive, all of which are common among tech type. Plus, there is an enormous opportunity to "geek out", get into the technology of running shoes, nutrition, exercise, mods for your bike, etc. It can get very addictive.
Ha! Ha! very funny. Would be accurate if you replaced 'american beer' with 'budmillors' (budweiser, miller and coors) but definately not true for 'american beer'. People, there are plenty of very good american beers out their, in fact I think you will find a greater variety and higher quality beer in america than anywhere else. Ever been to the pacific northwest? Tons of good local beers. Brew pubs and microbreweries across the country have been brewing outstanding beers for over a decade now. For beers that may have a wide distribution, here a few standouts:
Sam Adams: not the best but started to break the "american beer is water" routine.
Rogue: many high quality beers from light ales to strong ales to porters.
Harpoon: Make a standout IPA.
Sierra Nevada: Lots of hops for the hop head.
Brooklyn brewery: Make an awesome barelywine, a delicious Heffe Weissen (sp?), a solid Pale ale.
Dogfish head: My latest favorite. Very good IPA and specialty beers.
Ommegang: Belgian style ales brought to you by a brewery in upstate NY.
This is just a start, there are many many others. Try something local or not made my Anheiser Bush.
For those of you north of the border, Canadian mass produced beer is just as aweful as budweisser.
There is some truth to that but as you said it's "comparing apples and oranges". You can't carry a laptop around with you like a PDA. While it is true, what most people use PDA's/handhelds for could be accomplished with a $100 Palm or (cringe) an pad and pencil, PDA's/handhelds are just becoming powerfull enough to run seriously useful apps. I recently wrote a flower recognition/classification app for the Zaurus which extracts data from an image captured from the Zaurus and runs it through a db all on the Zaurus. An enhanced app like this could be useful for many people from hobbyist to law enforcement (for face recognition). Can't run these on a traditional PDA and carrying around a laptop "in the field" would be impossible. Just an example where handheld computing may be heading, not just for address books.
Your point about the price is well taken, they need to come down but keep in mind, realistically this is very early stage technology. These are not PDA's they are handheld computers. I think there is a major difference.
You say your company is facing hard economic times and therefore is demanding more from its employees. In addition to the many "be thankful you have a job" posts I would like to add in tough economic times it may be important (necessary) for employees to step up and take more responsibility to carry the company through the downturn. If the downturn has no end in sight or if the company continues to treat you like crap even in good times then I think your walkout is justified. Consider the possibility that the company has no alternative if it is to stay in business. Also consider what caused the downturn, a victim of a recession or bad management?
Slashdot Mirror
1: netbook has actual keyboard
It has a keyboard attachment, use it if you need it. Less bulk if you are just carrying around an ereader and websurfing appliance.
2: netbook is a actual pc Ie it runs windows or linux
This only matters to the slashdot crowd, normal people don't care.
3: netbook can multi task
Valid point, I hate the fact that my iPhone doesn't multitask but see point 2.
4: nebook can be had for as cheep as 200$
Not one that you would actually want to buy.
5: netbook can close to protect screen.
This is my one concern, how fragile will the screen be. Needing a bulky protector defeats the advantage of not having a keyboard.
I've been using Pandora for a couple months now and have been *very* impressed with it's song choices. I haven't tried Last yet but from the description it sounds like Pandora has an advantage over Last in that you are more likely to find new music. I've found that about half of Pandora selections have been artists I haven't heard of. Truely refreshing. If you just want to find what other similar people are listening to you can always use Amazon Suggests. Nothing special there.
Do a search on Monster and you will see many companies hiring positions with computational biology experience. All pharmaceutical companies and many biotech companies have computational biologists, to some degree. It's a difficult field to excel in since you need a strong background in both CS/Math and biology. Sounds like you are off to a decent start. Look for a software developement position in a pharmaceutical or biotech company. It will be the best way to get your foot in the door. Play up your developer experience and top it off with a class or two in biology and Comp bio. Good luck.
I also switched careers into bioinformatics but from a molecular/cell biology background (went back to schoool for a MS in CS). As several previous posters have pointed out, knowledge of biology is not an incidental in this field, it *is* the field. It's easier to learn the CS side than the biology. I often take my own knowledge for granted, figuring hell, anyone can do this job, until I talk to people without a biology background. That being said, if you are willing to learn the biology your math background could be a huge plus. Much of bioinformatics is focused on data mining various sources like sequence databases, microarray results, pubmed, etc so an understanding of pattern recognition, AI, and statistics would be beneficial. Also, biologist tend to be horribly bad with math;)
I'm not sure about the actual percentages, but I believe you are right about marketing costs being outrageous. Like everyting else, drugs also need to be marketed. I'm not saying its right or wrong, it just is. It's estimated that it costs about $800 million dollars to bring a drug to market. Some of this is research, some is marketing and other expenses. Regardless, this is what it costs.
There is good reason to have long patents. Consinder when patents are filed, typically very early in R&D, a process that on average takes 12-15 years. If you have a patent that expires in 10-15 years, all your research and funding was pointless. But I do agree, there are way too many patents filed, in all fields.
If there is no financial incentive, who will pay for the research? Government funding has faded over the years leaving private industry to pay for much of the basic research upon which commercial enterprises are built. People need to understand, drugs are not expensive because the pharmaceutical industry is taking huge profits (unethical, I know) but they're expensive because research is *enormeously* expensive, combined with the fact that most drugs fail clinical trials. The money has to come from somewhere.
shoddy, sub-standard teachers who should be teaching elementary-school english
You seem to have it a bit backwards. The average elementary school teacher is BY FAR a better teacher than the average college professor. Unlike college professors, elementary/high school teachers are actually taught how to teach. Unfortunately the arrogance of the university system allows professors to teach with absolutely no training. But hey, they have PhD so certainly they can teach. Right?
Actually, you are off by over an order of magnitude. The cost is around $800 million. This includes research and clinical trial costs for the drug but more significantly, money to cover all the drugs that fail. Nine out of ten drugs that make it to clinical trials FAIL. That's alot of money to recoup.
Very true. As a runner and triathlete myself, I see a surprisingly large number of people from tech backgrounds (computers, other sciences, medicine) in these sports. I think it has to do with the nature of the sport. In order to participate in these activities you have to be of a mindset where you enjoy being alone combined with a certain amount of compulsion and drive, all of which are common among tech type. Plus, there is an enormous opportunity to "geek out", get into the technology of running shoes, nutrition, exercise, mods for your bike, etc. It can get very addictive.
Ha! Ha! very funny. Would be accurate if you replaced 'american beer' with 'budmillors' (budweiser, miller and coors) but definately not true for 'american beer'. People, there are plenty of very good american beers out their, in fact I think you will find a greater variety and higher quality beer in america than anywhere else. Ever been to the pacific northwest? Tons of good local beers. Brew pubs and microbreweries across the country have been brewing outstanding beers for over a decade now. For beers that may have a wide distribution, here a few standouts: Sam Adams: not the best but started to break the "american beer is water" routine. Rogue: many high quality beers from light ales to strong ales to porters. Harpoon: Make a standout IPA. Sierra Nevada: Lots of hops for the hop head. Brooklyn brewery: Make an awesome barelywine, a delicious Heffe Weissen (sp?), a solid Pale ale. Dogfish head: My latest favorite. Very good IPA and specialty beers. Ommegang: Belgian style ales brought to you by a brewery in upstate NY. This is just a start, there are many many others. Try something local or not made my Anheiser Bush. For those of you north of the border, Canadian mass produced beer is just as aweful as budweisser.
There is some truth to that but as you said it's "comparing apples and oranges". You can't carry a laptop around with you like a PDA. While it is true, what most people use PDA's/handhelds for could be accomplished with a $100 Palm or (cringe) an pad and pencil, PDA's/handhelds are just becoming powerfull enough to run seriously useful apps. I recently wrote a flower recognition/classification app for the Zaurus which extracts data from an image captured from the Zaurus and runs it through a db all on the Zaurus. An enhanced app like this could be useful for many people from hobbyist to law enforcement (for face recognition). Can't run these on a traditional PDA and carrying around a laptop "in the field" would be impossible. Just an example where handheld computing may be heading, not just for address books. Your point about the price is well taken, they need to come down but keep in mind, realistically this is very early stage technology. These are not PDA's they are handheld computers. I think there is a major difference.
You say your company is facing hard economic times and therefore is demanding more from its employees. In addition to the many "be thankful you have a job" posts I would like to add in tough economic times it may be important (necessary) for employees to step up and take more responsibility to carry the company through the downturn. If the downturn has no end in sight or if the company continues to treat you like crap even in good times then I think your walkout is justified. Consider the possibility that the company has no alternative if it is to stay in business. Also consider what caused the downturn, a victim of a recession or bad management?