Just FYI : Pure academic teaching jobs exist. I'm finishing my PhD in the chem dept @ Columbia University, and we have at least one full time teaching professor, and I believe other depts have them too. They receive a much heavier course load and write textbooks -- no research! Our dept has a number of adjunct professors too (part-time teachers) that don't do research in the dept -- they have industrial positions -- and teach a few courses. At least in the sciences, teaching-only positions are available.
From the article (bolded emphasis is mine):
One option that the FSF is considering, Moglen said, will make it necessary for companies that distribute GPL software to pledge that they're also explicitly giving the right to use the patents found in their code.
The article claims that the program can correlate protein sequence to function. I don't doubt that it can find small regions of contiguous amino-acid sequences that are common between a few proteins of the same function, but I highly doubt that it can predict function from from a protein sequence. Predicting a protein structure is already a very difficult problem for computational biophysicists , which is a prerequisite for studying function. For example, the CASP4 competition compares various structure predicition programs from an amino-acid sequence. Understanding function from a structure is even more difficult because it involves identifying the active site or functional regions as well as protein dynamics.
Comparative sequence searching, known as homology alignment, is not fool proof either. See the PSI-BLAST tool for homology alignments. This is a very difficult problem for biophysicists because of insertion mutations, functional mutations, and many other reasons. Two sequences with low homology may or may not have similar structures (folds) and/or function. Likewise, homologous sequences may have very different functions.
Protein structure prediction, which precedes function prediction, is already quite a difficult problem for biophysicists to tackle.
I don't work in IT, but when people I work with have certain degrees/certificates, I can expect a certain number of skills and level of work from them. Without certification, the employee's skills may not be guaranteed, making it difficult for the employer to depend on that employee.
That said, certification doesn't necessarily mean better training. It just sets a standardization bar.
I always have trouble finding the new features and driver changes with each major release.
For reference, Kernel trap has a copy of Linus' e-mail to the Linux Kernel Mailing List with a list of changes. If someone has a better link, please reply.
I think the Total Value of Ownership tips the scale to one end more. Tack on reliability, open-formats, malware/viruses, spectrum of useful and competing tools, maintenance.
Linux in itself, independent of cost, is a much more valuable product that Windows in many ways.
I'm in the process shopping for a fanless card. I found this review useful (Nvidia and ATI). Sorry, no linux. The review comes with detailed benchmarks.
includes...
PCI-E and AGP
Nvidia Geforce 6200, 6600 and 6800 models
ATI X300, X700, X800
Benchmarks : 3DMark05, 3DMark03, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry,
Theoretically, the reason it's a problem is because it invalidates the benchmark.
Suppose another motherboard was actually faster than the ASUS, but decided to not overclock. If it had overclocked like ASUS, it would have outperformed the ASUS motherboard (hypothetically speaking).
I don't think the situation is bad now, but it could end up like video cards (Nvidia vs Ati and driver optimizations). The result is that benchmarking will no longer be useful because the comparison is between an apple and orange.
Molecular biologists have been cloning genes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes for tens of years. It's not a new idea to clone a series of genes that work cooperatively to change biochemical behaviour of an organism.
Something I find more note-worthy, as a biological chemist, is a new trend to expand the amino-acid table (past 20). Many of the codons (DNA or RNA triplets) are degenerate or they are stop codons. The idea is to add synthetic amino-acids to specific tRNAs. Chemically modified amino-acids are incorporated at the desire of the molecular biologist. This technology has already been developed, and the scientists in this field (not myself) are discussing using directed evolution with organisms with an expanded codon base. Very interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
Just FYI : Pure academic teaching jobs exist. I'm finishing my PhD in the chem dept @ Columbia University, and we have at least one full time teaching professor, and I believe other depts have them too. They receive a much heavier course load and write textbooks -- no research! Our dept has a number of adjunct professors too (part-time teachers) that don't do research in the dept -- they have industrial positions -- and teach a few courses. At least in the sciences, teaching-only positions are available.
incrementing the number of villains/allies is standard in making a blockbuster sequel ...
Batman (1989) : 1 villains
Batman 2 (1992) : 2 villains
Batman 3 (1995) : 2 villains plus 1 sidekick!
Batman 4 (1997) : 2 villains plus 2 sidekicks!
Great! Now we'll only have to wait about two years for mediocre linux support.
sounds like a voluntarily installed virus. I wonder how it detects copyright infringed media files...
:
Searching movies
filename : "PhD Dissertation 20050827 : Mating habits of the male spider.pdf" => "Spiderman : The Movie" detected. File deleted.
I find posting on slashdot very therapeutic.
I'm lonely.
the OO friendly light bulb irritates me just as much as clippy with its "'scuse me sir, but may I make a polite suggestion?" look.
;p
I guess now that clippy has been dropped from Microsoft Office, we can expect OO to do the exact same
This seems very reasonable to me. There's something I'm missing -- Why the resistance and the spoof site?
I thought that I was the first astronaut to discover the object.
It appears that Dvorak is already working with Windows Vista : Desperate Journalist Edition.
I'm still trying to get my cpu fan to tell me when I've got a new e-mail.
Here is an alternate article on the issue.
:
From the article (bolded emphasis is mine)
One option that the FSF is considering, Moglen said, will make it necessary for companies that distribute GPL software to pledge that they're also explicitly giving the right to use the patents found in their code.
I was the first to discover a parasite that brainwashed the mind of its host when I got married.
Can Microsoft be far behind?
If they did, would you want it?
The article claims that the program can correlate protein sequence to function. I don't doubt that it can find small regions of contiguous amino-acid sequences that are common between a few proteins of the same function, but I highly doubt that it can predict function from from a protein sequence. Predicting a protein structure is already a very difficult problem for computational biophysicists , which is a prerequisite for studying function. For example, the CASP4 competition compares various structure predicition programs from an amino-acid sequence. Understanding function from a structure is even more difficult because it involves identifying the active site or functional regions as well as protein dynamics.
Comparative sequence searching, known as homology alignment, is not fool proof either. See the PSI-BLAST tool for homology alignments. This is a very difficult problem for biophysicists because of insertion mutations, functional mutations, and many other reasons. Two sequences with low homology may or may not have similar structures (folds) and/or function. Likewise, homologous sequences may have very different functions.
Protein structure prediction, which precedes function prediction, is already quite a difficult problem for biophysicists to tackle.
I enjoy the appearance of a BSOD. It gives me a welcome break from my day, and reminds me to slow down a little.
When buying a Vista license, you'll be paying for XP a second time ... but you're really saving in the TCO.
I don't work in IT, but when people I work with have certain degrees/certificates, I can expect a certain number of skills and level of work from them. Without certification, the employee's skills may not be guaranteed, making it difficult for the employer to depend on that employee.
That said, certification doesn't necessarily mean better training. It just sets a standardization bar.
I always have trouble finding the new features and driver changes with each major release.
For reference, Kernel trap has a copy of Linus' e-mail to the Linux Kernel Mailing List with a list of changes. If someone has a better link, please reply.
I think the Total Value of Ownership tips the scale to one end more. Tack on reliability, open-formats, malware/viruses, spectrum of useful and competing tools, maintenance.
Linux in itself, independent of cost, is a much more valuable product that Windows in many ways.
Madden '06 has evolved. Have you?
includes...
Theoretically, the reason it's a problem is because it invalidates the benchmark.
Suppose another motherboard was actually faster than the ASUS, but decided to not overclock. If it had overclocked like ASUS, it would have outperformed the ASUS motherboard (hypothetically speaking).
I don't think the situation is bad now, but it could end up like video cards (Nvidia vs Ati and driver optimizations). The result is that benchmarking will no longer be useful because the comparison is between an apple and orange.
Molecular biologists have been cloning genes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes for tens of years. It's not a new idea to clone a series of genes that work cooperatively to change biochemical behaviour of an organism.
Something I find more note-worthy, as a biological chemist, is a new trend to expand the amino-acid table (past 20). Many of the codons (DNA or RNA triplets) are degenerate or they are stop codons. The idea is to add synthetic amino-acids to specific tRNAs. Chemically modified amino-acids are incorporated at the desire of the molecular biologist. This technology has already been developed, and the scientists in this field (not myself) are discussing using directed evolution with organisms with an expanded codon base. Very interesting.
bWbhy blbeave bibt btbo bab bcbomputer bwbhen bab bhbuman bcban bdbo bab bbbetter bjbob?
Who was the DUMBASS from this school's administration that decided to sell 1000 laptops for less than 1/15th of what they could have fetched on eBay?
The same person that was first in line.