-Budget in money for free sodas/water/coffee. I like to go for a morning coffee run, but I'd rather have an espresso machine and some cold Coke's at the office
I'd also put this as number two just behind a decent net connection. I worked at one of my company's satellite locations for a few months on a project. They had a really cool coffee/latte/hot drink machine. Usually when I reach a "bang my head on the delicate electronics" state of mind I'd get up walk to machine and have it make me a latte. Took maybe 10 minutes for me to drink one and then I'd be back to work. At my regular job, when I reach the same mental place I walk to Starbucks (20-30 min roundtrip).
Even cooler was a law firm my mother used to work at, that had its own cafeteria and provided breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day free to employees. Almost everyone ate there, the food was awesome and you could imagine productivity soared. While thats probably too much for your little office, its a pretty cool setup. Make your employees comfortable and happy.
Another thing, coders who work at my office seem to like is a group of small rooms we have that used to store lasers (Until someoen mounted them on sharks, I guess). They're sound proof, so they lock themselves in there sometimes when the engineer types are making a racket in the machine shop.
On a side note I happen to like cubes, but that could be because I'm more than a little agorophobic.
I don't see the MultiGene on my list, must not have been around yet.
For $1800 I'm sure it'd work for off the shelf assays.
You could literally do a commercial box HIV assay by moving the tubes between two cups of water. I've seen it done. The results aren't pretty but mostly it works.
But for the "scratch-built" super-optimized assays we do, I wouldn't hold out much hope.
How does the temperature issues effect PCR results?
Short answer. It depends on the assay. Especially if your using Hot start enzymes. A failure for a TC to reach and maintain the enzyme activation temp for an appropriate period of time leads to a much lower percentage of active enzyme than your pre-experiment calculations would come up with. Less active enzyme = less effecient PCR. This isn't some much of a problem for end-point PCR as you'll eventually get all the amplicon you want if you cycle long enough. But its death in certain applications of Real Time PCR that I can't talk about here if I want to keep my job. On the other end of the heat issue is that going to hot for too long will kill your enzyme. Even thermo-stable enzymes have their limit.
There are also other problems. If the TC temp wobbles so much that its takes is too long for it to reach its anneal step temp, then you have the chance of primer-dymer. A little PD is no big, in real time you can usual sort it out by running a dissasociation step at the end. But if your PD gets out of hand it could causes all the primer to be used up before the PCR REACTION properly gets going, and then you've got jack shit. There's also the problem of moving an assay to a different TC from the one it was optimized on. Easy right? Wrong. In about 90% of the cases I've seen the assay performance changes (sometimes dramatically if its an especially fussy assay) if you simply move the same cycling protocol to a different machine. It then becomes a matter of customizing the cyc protocl for each machine for the same assay. I've even seen this problem in different machines of the same brand and model.
You see, the problem is one of physics. TC makers test the heating block of a machine. My boss realized that made no sense. We tested the temperature of the liquid inside of a PCR tube. The Poly tubes and plates used in PCR soften when heated and change shape, which of course changes its thermal characteristics. This may not seem like much, but when you want to hold a temp for 15-30 seconds and variations of a second or more means different results, it means the world. Then there's heating block itself which warps over time. The angle of the tube wells change, The peltier device acts differently over time, hotspots, coldspots, variations due to to the environment. Undershoots, overshotts, in some of the old coolant based TCs you'd even get a buildup inside of the channels of the heating block that would slow the cooling speed.
When you get down to it, its impossible to build something that will act the same way all the time. The only real solution, and what we tell our reseachers, is to build a robust assay. Something that will work in all but the most extreme cases. Unfortunately there are times when this contradicts the point of the entire experiement.
rofl! where? Show me a good accurate Peltier based TC for 2 grand. I spent 9 months on a project where we did nothing but test TC, every TC we could get out hands on and they are all shit. Every last one of them. +/- 4 C temperature variations, Erratic ramping speeds, unexplained failures and plain inabilty to hold a temperate within an acceptable time.
The expensive ones (your ABI and Eppendorf ones) atleast are a lot less shitty than the cheapass ones.
If biotech becomes really easy for consumers to use/create, similar to the manner of open source software, I think something like this could put a lot of power into the hands of the people.
I don't see this happeneding. I work in Biotech. The cost of instrumentation alone is astounding. Its not like you can go out and setup a sequencing lab in your basement. An older model used Thermocycler will cost at least 10K, and thats on the low end of the instrumentataion scale. Even if you scratch build equipment yourself (which I've done) its still going to cost you, and try convincing peer reveiw or god forbid, Mr. FDA that your findings on non-validated equipment is worth anything...
I'm all for open source but I don't see it getting very far in high-end Biotech.
well its not overpriced. Severely underpriced is more like it. I'm not a console gamer. But alot of my freinds have multi-machines, and the only thing they ever play on XBox is Halo. In fact the only thing I ever hear "good game" and "Xbox" in a sentence Halo is usually included in there somewhere. Xbox is defenitely no.3 of he top 3 consoles and while that puts them one up on Sega, Atari's and other dead console makers failures, I don't think anyone would consider it a success.
Feel free to prove to me that I'm talking out of my ass.
"Um, M$, this is nothing like the elegance of the iPod. Way to go MS, blow it again."
Thats just it, it doesn't have to be anything like iPod. As a geek (normal ppl will no doubt disagree) I want something functional. Something that works and does everything its supposed to do with no extraneous BS.
Barring that I would settle for something elegant. Elegant does not have to mean "...look and feel like the iPod". Why is it that Apple, a company of relatively small size and resources can make computers and electronics more aesthetically pleasing than atlest half the women I've dated and M$ can only put out bloated, overpriced crap. Look at the XBox.
The money that M$ is losing on this MP3 player project could be invested in market research and finding the next User Interface design geniuses that will put out something that'll make every M$ bashing geek on/. cream in his pants. Instead they'd rather put out cheap crap and spread all kinds of FUD just to kill off a competitor.
The Rio Karma has vorbis, flac, wav, and mp3 support right NOW and is 20GB and costs 250$ from WalMart or Amazon. Stop waiting and buy!!
Like I said. I've got maybe twenty CD. Every ogg and mp3 I own fits on two CD that I play with the rio MP3 CD player I bought 2 years ago for $60.
The only complaint I have with it is battery life sucks. Its too big to fit in my shirt pocket and once every 5 days or so I have to swap out the CD. and the navigation is archaic, which isn't much of a probaly because I've basically memeorized the playlists.
If Apple make a 1GB iPod mini and sells it for $100. I'd snatch it up. Other than that I'll wait.
rofl! an they modded you as a Troll too./. cracks me up.
Seriously though. Since I ripped my entire CD collection in.OGG last year I have to agree withe parent. I only own like 20 CDs but no way I'm re-ripping all of them. I'll buy an MP3 when a nice one has.OGG support.
A Sat photo of my house I mean. I've been looking for sat image poster for a while now but all the available pics are from the 1980's. Anyone know who has recent sat images for sale?
thanks
I'm night photography enthusiast. Apparently nothing makes a Cop more nervous that a guy all in black walking around in the dark taking pictures.
Technically I'm not doing anything illegal, but that doesn't stop them from driving by every 10 minutes of so and ruining one my shots by hitting me with the spotlight and asking inane questions. So somehow I doubt you could walk around taking pictures of people's houses with impunity
The concern though isn't with the pics themselves, its the fact that its being databased. That opens up a whole new can of worms...
They kept the F-117 secret for almost 15 years. The B2, The Predaotr. A veritable shitload of planes that were being test flown long before a blurry pic ever showed up on a Jane's message board.
humans can't even grade essays fairly. Case in point. I took SAT and got 720 on verbal (my math score sucked though) In my first year college though I had to take an English placement exam which was to write an essay. Whoever graded my essay for some reason thought it was bad enough to stick me in remedial English.
I actually went to the remedial English that being my fiurst year in college, I assumed that they must know what they're doing. Why else would they be working at a University. After my first essay the professor told me I didn't belong there. She made a call to the Dean and had him dig up and read my placement exam Essay. A week later I was in an English Honors class.
So if Humans can be so divergent in their grading how do you program software to do it right?
My Boss bought a roaster and 10 lbs from sweet marias a few weeks back. Good stuff. But the start up costs are killer. The Ro0aster set him back 500, the beans I'm not sure of and since I've now become and overpriced coffe caddy, these have to be the most expensive cups of coffee ever made.
After years of drinking 32 oz a day and feeling nothing however, its good to have the uncontrollable feet shaking back after 2 cups.
How many gaves does that leave really? Tetris you can play but all games where you would say, have use the directional pad and press a button to perform and action are out. That eliminates a lot of games.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd also put this as number two just behind a decent net connection. I worked at one of my company's satellite locations for a few months on a project. They had a really cool coffee/latte/hot drink machine. Usually when I reach a "bang my head on the delicate electronics" state of mind I'd get up walk to machine and have it make me a latte. Took maybe 10 minutes for me to drink one and then I'd be back to work. At my regular job, when I reach the same mental place I walk to Starbucks (20-30 min roundtrip).
Even cooler was a law firm my mother used to work at, that had its own cafeteria and provided breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day free to employees. Almost everyone ate there, the food was awesome and you could imagine productivity soared. While thats probably too much for your little office, its a pretty cool setup. Make your employees comfortable and happy.
Another thing, coders who work at my office seem to like is a group of small rooms we have that used to store lasers (Until someoen mounted them on sharks, I guess). They're sound proof, so they lock themselves in there sometimes when the engineer types are making a racket in the machine shop.
On a side note I happen to like cubes, but that could be because I'm more than a little agorophobic.
I'm a big Octavia Butler fan. I'm curious as to what she's been up to lately.
For $1800 I'm sure it'd work for off the shelf assays.
You could literally do a commercial box HIV assay by moving the tubes between two cups of water. I've seen it done. The results aren't pretty but mostly it works.
But for the "scratch-built" super-optimized assays we do, I wouldn't hold out much hope.
ROFL! If I buy a Tc off of eBay my support departement would have a coniption.
Short answer. It depends on the assay. Especially if your using Hot start enzymes. A failure for a TC to reach and maintain the enzyme activation temp for an appropriate period of time leads to a much lower percentage of active enzyme than your pre-experiment calculations would come up with. Less active enzyme = less effecient PCR. This isn't some much of a problem for end-point PCR as you'll eventually get all the amplicon you want if you cycle long enough. But its death in certain applications of Real Time PCR that I can't talk about here if I want to keep my job. On the other end of the heat issue is that going to hot for too long will kill your enzyme. Even thermo-stable enzymes have their limit.
There are also other problems. If the TC temp wobbles so much that its takes is too long for it to reach its anneal step temp, then you have the chance of primer-dymer. A little PD is no big, in real time you can usual sort it out by running a dissasociation step at the end. But if your PD gets out of hand it could causes all the primer to be used up before the PCR REACTION properly gets going, and then you've got jack shit. There's also the problem of moving an assay to a different TC from the one it was optimized on. Easy right? Wrong. In about 90% of the cases I've seen the assay performance changes (sometimes dramatically if its an especially fussy assay) if you simply move the same cycling protocol to a different machine. It then becomes a matter of customizing the cyc protocl for each machine for the same assay. I've even seen this problem in different machines of the same brand and model.
You see, the problem is one of physics. TC makers test the heating block of a machine. My boss realized that made no sense. We tested the temperature of the liquid inside of a PCR tube. The Poly tubes and plates used in PCR soften when heated and change shape, which of course changes its thermal characteristics. This may not seem like much, but when you want to hold a temp for 15-30 seconds and variations of a second or more means different results, it means the world. Then there's heating block itself which warps over time. The angle of the tube wells change, The peltier device acts differently over time, hotspots, coldspots, variations due to to the environment. Undershoots, overshotts, in some of the old coolant based TCs you'd even get a buildup inside of the channels of the heating block that would slow the cooling speed.
When you get down to it, its impossible to build something that will act the same way all the time. The only real solution, and what we tell our reseachers, is to build a robust assay. Something that will work in all but the most extreme cases. Unfortunately there are times when this contradicts the point of the entire experiement.
Then you're pretty much screwed.
rofl! where? Show me a good accurate Peltier based TC for 2 grand. I spent 9 months on a project where we did nothing but test TC, every TC we could get out hands on and they are all shit. Every last one of them. +/- 4 C temperature variations, Erratic ramping speeds, unexplained failures and plain inabilty to hold a temperate within an acceptable time.
The expensive ones (your ABI and Eppendorf ones) atleast are a lot less shitty than the cheapass ones.
I don't see this happeneding. I work in Biotech. The cost of instrumentation alone is astounding. Its not like you can go out and setup a sequencing lab in your basement. An older model used Thermocycler will cost at least 10K, and thats on the low end of the instrumentataion scale. Even if you scratch build equipment yourself (which I've done) its still going to cost you, and try convincing peer reveiw or god forbid, Mr. FDA that your findings on non-validated equipment is worth anything...
I'm all for open source but I don't see it getting very far in high-end Biotech.
Feel free to prove to me that I'm talking out of my ass.
Thats just it, it doesn't have to be anything like iPod. As a geek (normal ppl will no doubt disagree) I want something functional. Something that works and does everything its supposed to do with no extraneous BS.
Barring that I would settle for something elegant. Elegant does not have to mean "...look and feel like the iPod". Why is it that Apple, a company of relatively small size and resources can make computers and electronics more aesthetically pleasing than atlest half the women I've dated and M$ can only put out bloated, overpriced crap. Look at the XBox.
The money that M$ is losing on this MP3 player project could be invested in market research and finding the next User Interface design geniuses that will put out something that'll make every M$ bashing geek on /. cream in his pants. Instead they'd rather put out cheap crap and spread all kinds of FUD just to kill off a competitor.
Like I said. I've got maybe twenty CD. Every ogg and mp3 I own fits on two CD that I play with the rio MP3 CD player I bought 2 years ago for $60.
The only complaint I have with it is battery life sucks. Its too big to fit in my shirt pocket and once every 5 days or so I have to swap out the CD. and the navigation is archaic, which isn't much of a probaly because I've basically memeorized the playlists.
If Apple make a 1GB iPod mini and sells it for $100. I'd snatch it up. Other than that I'll wait.
seriosuly do you need ever iteration, varitation and remix of the latest computer generated boyband, teen idol pop-song?
yeah, I was wondering what exactly the sound quality of PNG and GIF is like...
Seriously though. Since I ripped my entire CD collection in .OGG last year I have to agree withe parent. I only own like 20 CDs but no way I'm re-ripping all of them. I'll buy an MP3 when a nice one has .OGG support.
Whatever happened to outdoing your competitors?
Way to go MS. Aim low.
globexplorer.com seems to have better looking shots. Wow my roof needs work.
that sucks.
They've got some nice area 51 images though.
A Sat photo of my house I mean. I've been looking for sat image poster for a while now but all the available pics are from the 1980's. Anyone know who has recent sat images for sale? thanks
Technically I'm not doing anything illegal, but that doesn't stop them from driving by every 10 minutes of so and ruining one my shots by hitting me with the spotlight and asking inane questions. So somehow I doubt you could walk around taking pictures of people's houses with impunity
The concern though isn't with the pics themselves, its the fact that its being databased. That opens up a whole new can of worms...
Great now I have to install heat shielding in the roof of my basment, or get busted for my personal use mar...umm...I mean rose garden.
The gov can keep a secret when it wants too.
Post as a real person if you'd like a response.
I actually went to the remedial English that being my fiurst year in college, I assumed that they must know what they're doing. Why else would they be working at a University. After my first essay the professor told me I didn't belong there. She made a call to the Dean and had him dig up and read my placement exam Essay. A week later I was in an English Honors class.
So if Humans can be so divergent in their grading how do you program software to do it right?
exactly. pretty much the only reason I drink soda anymore is for the caffeine when I don't want coffee.
I personally think the idea of caffeine free soda is ludicrous.
If thats what I wanted I'd drink some real juice.
After years of drinking 32 oz a day and feeling nothing however, its good to have the uncontrollable feet shaking back after 2 cups.
How many gaves does that leave really? Tetris you can play but all games where you would say, have use the directional pad and press a button to perform and action are out. That eliminates a lot of games.