Darren New wrote:
> Mueen Nawaz wrote:
>> [ lots of stuff ]
> 
> I'll second everything she said, including helping you find and get 
> involved in the right place if you want.
 >
> [lots more stuff]

I'll add my voice to this and third it. I don't know if anyone has 
already said this, but the UK *is* the same - most PhDs in the sciences 
and engineering (including CS) are fully funded, and I highly recommend 
following this path if you're interested.

I have a PhD in materials science. I did it because I wasn't sure what I 
wanted to do beyond not moving to London for some faceless graduate 
program. I also wanted to stay in programming (I'd just finished a CS 
MSc). Ha, materials doesn't sound like programming, I hear you say. 
Well, speculative emails brought me to the attention of my prof-to-be, 
who was looking for someone to do some numerical modelling. The rest is 
history; a postdoc project followed and in total I spent 7 years in 
flexible, fun and stimulating work with interesting people.

And of course many of them are geeks, in the best possible sense!

Although I no longer work in that field, or even academia (I was 
drifting away from the programming - experimental research is 
interesting but not my first love!), I made sufficient contacts that I 
could easily have found something had I wished it.

And despite what you say, you *can* write technical documents. You keep 
posting them here, and they are well-written. Style and structure is 
something you pick up whilst reading around the subject, and most 
institutions will offer formal training for students and staff.

The holiday allowance isn't too shabby either ;-)

Post a reply to this message