Mike Raiford wrote:

>> 2. What actually *is* Slashdot? I keep hearing about it, but I'm still 
>> unclear on what it's supposed to "be".
> 
> That tears it! Your geek license is officially revoked. :P

What, *again*? o_O

> It's a tech news site.

Oh, is *that* what it's supposed to be?

> The comments section is famous for "First Post" 
> type posts and disguised links to disgusting pictures. You think 
> rickrolling is bad? Try a goatse. It was born on slashdot.

And trolls and endless flamewars and apparently clueless people and 
arguments about text editors and... Yes, this is well documented. I 
wasn't aware that the site has actual *benefits* though. I just avoid it.

> Shame, shame. You don't know what slashdot is...

Now I'm left wondering what the hell rickrolling is...

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Invisible wrote:

> 
> Now I'm left wondering what the hell rickrolling is...

Use the Goo ...
-- 
~Mike

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I'm always interested in geeking out over obscure algorithms and such.
> But I rather doubt that's what a PhD is actually about.

We-ell, depends on the project, depends on the subject. The important thing of
course is to find something that interests you sufficiently to spend three+
years on it. And you don't have to be limited to subjects you already know;
ideally you want to be learning continuously as well as applying previous
know-how.

> And you say you
> get paid, but how much? Not a lot, I'd expect. I'm always on very low
> money - that's why I'm trying to get hold of a job that pays real money.

Last I heard, PhD students in my old department were getting upwards of 15k a
year - that was the standard EPSRC stipend that any engineering PhD student
could expect, which won't vary much between universities. And that's tax-free.
I imagine it's similar or better in mainland Europe or the US.

> > And despite what you say, you *can* write technical documents. You keep
> > posting them here, and they are well-written.
>
> Well, at least somebody has something nice to say about me. :-}

Everyone says it, if they're sufficiently interested to read it!

> > Style and structure is
> > something you pick up whilst reading around the subject, and most
> > institutions will offer formal training for students and staff.
>
> My college and my uni *did* offer (indeed, require) formal training. I
> still suck at it!

I didn't do it myself. I had good supervisors and colleagues.

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> Last I heard, PhD students in my old department were getting upwards of 
> 15k a
> year - that was the standard EPSRC stipend that any engineering PhD 
> student
> could expect, which won't vary much between universities. And that's 
> tax-free.
> I imagine it's similar or better in mainland Europe or the US.

Yeh, when I was at Universtiy (5 years ago) it seemed that 12-14k tax free 
was the norm.  15k tax free is equivalent to about 19k gross, so it's not at 
all that bad.

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Bill Pragnell wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> I'm always interested in geeking out over obscure algorithms and such.
>> But I rather doubt that's what a PhD is actually about.
> 
> We-ell, depends on the project, depends on the subject. The important thing of
> course is to find something that interests you sufficiently to spend three+
> years on it. And you don't have to be limited to subjects you already know;
> ideally you want to be learning continuously as well as applying previous
> know-how.

Yeah. "Nerding out over the latest algorithms" isn't terribly specific, eh?

>> And you say you
>> get paid, but how much? Not a lot, I'd expect. I'm always on very low
>> money - that's why I'm trying to get hold of a job that pays real money.
> 
> Last I heard, PhD students in my old department were getting upwards of 15k a
> year.



> And that's tax-free.

OK, that's somewhat better...

>>> And despite what you say, you *can* write technical documents. You keep
>>> posting them here, and they are well-written.
>> Well, at least somebody has something nice to say about me. :-}
> 
> Everyone says it, if they're sufficiently interested to read it!

Heh. If there's one thing I've learned, it has to be this: Nobody gives 
a **** about Haskell. Seriously. Nobody cares.

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Mike Raiford wrote:
> rickrolling is bad? Try a goatse. It was born on slashdot.

Goatse was around long before HTTP, let alone slashdot.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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Mike Raiford wrote:
>> Now I'm left wondering what the hell rickrolling is...
> Use the Goo ...

Heh. Now *that* would be something for google to implement as a joke, 
wouldn't it?  You know what I'm talking about...

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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Darren New wrote:

> Goatse was around long before HTTP, let alone slashdot.

I do not even want to *know* why you know that. Seriously.

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Invisible wrote:
> Heh. If there's one thing I've learned, it has to be this: Nobody gives 
> a **** about Haskell. Seriously. Nobody cares.

Maybe nobody in "industry", sure. People in academia go all ga-ga over 
things like that, tho.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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Darren New wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> Heh. If there's one thing I've learned, it has to be this: Nobody 
>> gives a **** about Haskell. Seriously. Nobody cares.
> 
> Maybe nobody in "industry", sure. People in academia go all ga-ga over 
> things like that, tho.

Yeah, well, nobody on this server cares - and certainly nobody IRL is 
going to care either. :-P

(One or two outspoken game developers rate it - but just as many think 
it's a cute toy with no real applications...)

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