tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91626492012-01-17T16:28:06.756-05:00HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.comBlogger761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1146535203851751212006-05-01T21:37:00.000-04:002006-05-01T22:19:05.043-04:00

Despite my efforts to remain oblivious to current events, I noticed that today (courtesy of the radio announcers talking instead of playing music) was supposed to be a day of protests, walk-outs and boycotts by immigrants: "A day without immigrants". As I've previously mentioned, I'm the only one in our lab who isn't an immigrant; so you might expect that I'd have a lonely day today.Well, not so

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1145924979750252972006-04-24T20:28:00.000-04:002006-04-24T20:29:39.763-04:00

This morning while I was driving in to work, an old Tom Petty song came on the radio. This reminded me of a time, not the first or the last, that I'd heard it: sitting with some friends around a dying campfire in the middle of the woods. Just relaxing, sitting on some wet leaves and rotting logs, but it was one of those moments that just stuck with me.There have been quite a few moments that have

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1145319846173326532006-04-17T20:22:00.000-04:002006-04-17T20:24:06.186-04:00

It's that time of year again. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the girls are walking around with few enough layers of insulation that it's possible to tell they're female. So of course, the government decides to try and suck some happiness (and some money as well) away from us peons. Well, the better-organized peons have taken care of this months or weeks ago, but I don't count as

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1143860002268900372006-03-31T21:42:00.000-05:002006-03-31T21:53:22.286-05:00

Not only is there so much that needs doing, but there's such a wide variety of it. For example, this past week I ended up doing: plumbing, making figures, attempting to interpret gels and beta-gal assays. That's in addition to the usual problems that come with working with computers most of the time (problems with data file formats; programs either not compiling or failing in bizarre ways).My big

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1141266903683528452006-03-01T21:06:00.000-05:002006-03-01T21:35:03.716-05:00

First, I should point out that I've been using the internet since before there was an internet (using BBSes longer back than I care to put a year to...yes, I know the internet was probably around then; but it was in a research lab). Anyhow, over this period of time I've noticed any number of websites decide to redesign themselves. From these observations, I have noticed one consistent theme: all

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1141005396518895652006-02-26T20:55:00.000-05:002006-02-26T20:56:36.540-05:00

There's a surefire way to tell when a scientific person is lying (for that matter, this may apply to any research or academic type).If this person says that something they're working on (a paper, or a set of experiments) is almost done, they're lying.Well, maybe not lying, but almost done doesn't mean what you'd normally expect it to mean in terms of how much time is left until it's actually,

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1135223216284120312005-12-21T22:39:00.000-05:002005-12-21T22:46:56.326-05:00

Just because I tend to get very irritated by Christmas season is no reason for everyone else not to enjoy themselves. So, to any imaginary remaining* readers, Merry Christmas, happy Hananuka, winter solstice, or whatever your other favorite holiday is.Unless of course you're someone responsible for any of the annoying christmas ads (aka all of them). In that case, I'm asking Santa to bring you an

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1131849337729369682005-11-12T21:29:00.000-05:002005-11-12T21:35:37.743-05:00

Well, today was a nice, relaxing Saturday. I slept late, did my recycling, and did a lot of cleaning that I've been putting off since...well, basically since I moved in (I'm still not done yet, but my main room is starting to look like a room instead of a storage facility).However, it soon became obvious that one group of people was hard at work. Specifically, telemarketers. Despite the fact

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1130975603792493332005-11-02T18:45:00.000-05:002005-11-02T18:53:23.823-05:00

I was reminded of this last weekend when I went hiking. One of the things I learned when backpacking, is that you don't look at the ground while walking. Why not? Because it looks like the ground. There's no point to going hiking for that, all you'd have to do is go find part of somebody's lawn where the grass has died. The other reason is that you don't really need to. You just pay

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1130114902533387602005-10-23T20:35:00.000-04:002005-10-23T20:48:22.540-04:00

I think it's a generic requirement for college towns to point out the number of used bookstores they have (that and the number of bars, but that's another story). A few years back, when I was visiting Bumfsck as a prospective grad student, I was told that this town had the most bookstores per capita of some geographical region (I don't remember if it was the state, northeast, or specifically

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1128998516183376582005-10-10T22:25:00.000-04:002005-10-10T22:41:56.190-04:00

Well, now that September is over, I have time to deal with the little things in life. Things like doing laundry, and cooking. I'm a good cook, in a sense. And I do enjoy cooking. Unfortunately, the sense in which I'm a good cook is that nobody's every gotten sick from eating something I've cooked. In most any other sense, I'm pretty bad at it. The first thing I do when I before I start

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1128423293643965022005-10-04T06:52:00.000-04:002005-10-04T06:54:53.650-04:00

I recently noticed Christmas trees for sale in one of the local grocery stores. It's barely October, and there are at least 2 other major holidays between now and Christmas. I wonder if this is part of a marketing strategy that actually works (aka gets people to buy more crap they don't need), or if it's purely designed to irrate people who try their best to ignore Christmas.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1127350167863710192005-09-21T20:30:00.000-04:002005-09-21T20:49:27.873-04:00

In honor of Misspent, and another friend of mine from undergrad (who will remain nameless for the moment), I figured I should give some advice after my time in grad school. Granted this probably would have been better timed to before they started, but with my way of scheduling things I'm lucky to get it posted before they graduate.Neither of them is going into science programs, so most of the

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1127349041336318382005-09-21T20:21:00.000-04:002005-09-21T20:30:41.343-04:00

Well, I don't. Every now and then you hear some technology pundit talking about one of the advantages microsoft has is that it's so easy to program on it. This may be true if the comparison is to toaster ovens. When compared to anything else, this is crap.Yeah, there's no way to put that tactfully...

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1126974322590233432005-09-17T12:19:00.000-04:002005-09-17T12:25:22.596-04:00

As anyone who's met me can tell, I tend to ignore aesthetic aspects of things. You could probably tell by the way the state of by apartment or car (both of which are complete messes, despite my regular schedule of cleaning them every 6 months or so). I can appreciate aesthetics in some rare occasions, but making something that looks good isn't something I'm philosophically well suited to.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1124936870466683992005-08-24T22:15:00.000-04:002005-08-24T22:27:50.480-04:00

Listen carefully...can you hear a faint rumbling noise? Almost like distant thunder...Or, maybe, it's the sound of thousands of people all deciding to move in on the exact same day.Hmm...there are reasons why I'm not a writer. See what happens when I try to use poetic imagery?Anyhow, if you're near a college or university, you probably know what I'm talking about. All of the undergrads are

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1124638989967428792005-08-21T11:41:00.000-04:002005-08-21T11:43:09.970-04:00

Today I learned why it's not a good idea to keep your coffee cup near the stuff you're trying to bake for breakfast...baking soda in coffee is not something I'd recommend.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1124243054459518682005-08-16T21:42:00.000-04:002005-08-16T21:44:14.463-04:00

Ok, so this is probably old news to anyone else. But, the NHL has decided to play hockey this year, instead of sitting around and not talking.I guess this means I should get my cable hooked up....

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1122824677287844682005-08-15T21:42:00.000-04:002005-08-15T21:44:01.036-04:00

While camping, a friend of mine pointed out that I normally don't have a very healthy lifestyle. Physically, I'm the healthy one in the family, despite the fact that I smoke, and get most of my exercise from going up and down the stairs during smoking breaks (there's an occasional weekend hike thrown in). However, he meant psychologically unhealthy, which is no doubt true. My normal way of

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1124154701945092592005-08-15T21:11:00.000-04:002005-08-15T21:11:41.946-04:00

n/t

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1124154494055110662005-08-15T21:06:00.000-04:002005-08-15T21:08:14.063-04:00

It's time for me to vent some more frustration at the headlines for science news. To start with, the rice genome sequencing project recently finished. Very impressive, especially seeming as they finished a few years early. Of course, the headlines talk about cracking the rice genome (or any other sequencing project that gets reported), which is quite possibly the most misleading way possible

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1122822689658906372005-07-31T11:07:00.000-04:002005-07-31T11:11:29.663-04:00

Obviously, I'm back from the woods. Actually, not only am I back from vacation, but I'm back from a lab-related trip too.Anyhow, one of the things that I noticed was that things worth writing about tend to happen to me when I'm not near a computer, or at least an valid internet connection (I don't do any posting from lab-related computers). Now I've got time, however. I'm doing an OS upgrade

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1120870051230883862005-07-08T20:44:00.000-04:002005-07-08T20:47:31.233-04:00

It feels like it's been a while since I've had a vacation. Well, I get a week off, and I probably won't be using a computer the whole time (unless someone's invented a white-gas powered computer).If I'm motiveated, there'll be pictures when I get back (in other words, it's most likely not happening).

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1120529641934145032005-07-04T22:11:00.000-04:002005-07-04T22:14:01.936-04:00

Well, not that anybody noticed I was gone. Anyhow...I was on an extended math binge. I still have to make sure everything fits together correctly on paper, and then pound on it for a while. But surprisingly enough, after about two weeks I haven't managed to break it yet; although I'm still not sure if that's a good sign or not.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1118366786428042042005-06-09T21:10:00.000-04:002005-06-09T21:26:26.433-04:00

This was somewhat surprising to me, as I've been known to describe myself as a professional science nerd (to high school kids, because it's better than the alternates). But according to theNew York Daily News(link from Slashdot), I must have been wrong. Why?First off, nerds are apparently considered sexy. This is news to me. Second, golfing and acting in Hollywood are apparently common

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1118109163319603762005-06-06T21:49:00.000-04:002005-06-06T21:53:10.653-04:00

Everybody knows about Murphy's law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.Apparently, some days Murphy decides to remind people, and today was my day.It started around lunchtime. My pda beeped at me, interrupting my usual activity of sitting in the dark staring electron density maps, and reminding me I had to go deal with some paperwork for renewing my lease. With my well-known organizational

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1117072114515491302005-05-25T21:29:00.000-04:002005-05-25T21:48:34.520-04:00

It's slowly starting to enter my mind that I'm not going to be in grad school forever. Either I'll graduate (hopefully), or burn out sufficiently that I get booted. That means that I have to figure out what to do next. The obvious thing is to stay in research, and try and find a post-doc somewhere. I could try something else as well, but don't really have any good ideas as to what. And even

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1116291437738309142005-05-16T20:55:00.000-04:002005-05-16T20:57:17.740-04:00

I was visiting the engineering library tonight (because my fft's aren't working quite right), and what did I see but large numbers of undergrads studying for finals.Ah....Happy thoughts.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1115687633954102082005-05-09T21:12:00.000-04:002005-05-09T21:13:53.956-04:00

Well, one hint is that you keep programming until you realize you've been having nicotine craving for about an hour without realizing it...

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1115683422441251822005-05-09T20:01:00.000-04:002005-05-09T20:03:42.673-04:00

Well, you (my imaginary readers, but that's another topic) might remember me complaining a while back about the lack of virtual desktops on Windows. Well, it turns out they do exist. Of course, you're limited to 4, but I can't complain about that too much, because tru64 does the same thing (kde doesn't, fortunately).Yes that was my excitement for the day....

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1115344906080729562005-05-05T21:51:00.000-04:002005-05-08T21:54:49.290-04:00

I sometimes wonder about the quality of the undergrads at this university. Some of them are smart enough; but they seem to lack some common sense (and they seem too normal). So, I thought I'd volunteer some classes they should be taking.Crossing the street: It's simple. Cross near a crosswalk, look to see if there are any cars coming, or at least show some basic awareness that cars exist and

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1115344217333918212005-05-05T21:38:00.000-04:002005-05-05T21:50:17.370-04:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted. Anyhow, I've made a few discoveries that I figured were worth talking about:1. I'm apparently invisible to infrared sensors. This was courtesy of the new auto-flusher installed in the building I work in. It never works for me. So much for automatic; but anyhow it's got a button.2. I can't play tetris anymore. I played tetris to try and relax last fall

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1111272094925237582005-03-19T17:38:00.000-05:002005-03-19T17:41:34.926-05:00

It's kind of funny how writing 5 pages for something scientific requires reading through about an inch of journal articles. Especially considering that writing a 5 page paper for one of my undergrad classes would require reading maybe 5 pages.Go figure...of course, if this was about something I was working on, it would require reading no additional papers and I could probably come up with 5

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1110852734277717432005-03-14T21:06:00.000-05:002005-03-14T21:12:14.280-05:00

Genetic therapy is one of those things that sounds more useful than it is. In theory, it's a good idea: fix a disease by putting in the correct gene. Problem is it doesn't work out too well. Getting the new DNA into the cells is tricky enough. But there's another problem...you've got to get that DNA integrated without screwing another gene (hey, look...we just trashed on oncogene).So,

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1110334077305754102005-03-08T21:02:00.000-05:002005-03-08T21:07:57.306-05:00

In the category of things that were obvious, but I never noticed before...When I was walking in from the parking lot, I noticed that women's shoes leave different track in the snow than men's. Made me wonder why someone's going to wear high heels when there's several inches of snow on the ground.Later on this morning, I was outside smoking. Beautiful day: below freezing, snowing, windy, and a

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1110241881706477932005-03-07T19:30:00.000-05:002005-03-07T19:31:21.706-05:00

You know how sometimes you have a bad day for no reason. Today I had a good day for no reason. I have no idea why; but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1109643037502587492005-02-28T20:51:00.000-05:002005-02-28T21:10:37.503-05:00

It's time for another exciting game of "Guess the Variable"...Ok, so my sense of humore is slightly more skewed than normal. You'd think that the people that distribute scientific programs for dealing with their particular file format would make sure that their stuff works and is clearly documented.You'd be wrong. If there was a checklist that people followed before giving distributing software

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1109125510418941992005-02-22T21:21:00.000-05:002005-02-22T21:25:10.420-05:00

I have no idea how people actually get anything useful done on Windows. Why, exactly, are there no virtual desktops? It's not like this is anything new. Every unix desktop I've ever seen has had them; this is something that was old 10 years ago.Come on, is this supposed to be an operating system for a toaster oven or a computer?

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1108696306515850472005-02-17T22:20:00.000-05:002005-02-17T22:20:58.813-05:00

Ever since I was a kid, I've enjoyed taking things apart. Because nobody wants to have a kid take apart something that works, I'd generally end up with stuff that was going to be thrown out to screw around with. It's lots of fun: you get to open up something and figure out how it works. And if it doesn't work, you don't have to worry about breaking it.It's even better when you actually figure

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1108352476248315792005-02-13T22:15:00.000-05:002005-02-13T22:41:16.250-05:00

Recently, Mathforge posted a story about a proposed proof claiming P!=NP. For those of you who don't follow math, P and NP are two different complexity classes for algorithms; there's some overlap here between pure math and computer science in this area. But P vs NP is a topic for another post. I skimmed the paper, and noticed that it didn't look like most math papers I'd read. The author

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1107998044340679202005-02-09T20:03:00.000-05:002005-02-09T20:14:04.340-05:00

Specifically, the list of things I don't understand and the list of things I don't get. The difference between them is that things I don't understand I could learn to understand, if I took enough time or had someone explain them to me well enough. Things I don't get are things that I probably won't understand regardless of how much somebody tries to explain it. Today's entry to the list of

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1107706978705667832005-02-06T11:16:00.000-05:002005-02-06T11:22:58.706-05:00

Sometimes you go looking for a pattern, and find another one entirely. I was trying to see if I could get somehow use self-similarity to get around the non-convexity problem. Didn't get that to work, because I was looking for self-similarity in the wrong places. One of these days I'm going to have to figure out how to make group theory do something useful. But probably not today; it's sunny

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1107219964435058922005-01-31T19:27:00.000-05:002005-01-31T20:06:04.436-05:00

So, you may be wondering what a grad student does all day. Actually, that's a literary fiction (aka complete lie). If you're bored one day, go to a bar in a non-academic area and tell a member of the opposite sex that you're a grad student. Then time how long it takes them to find an excuse to leave. In any event, there are days when your typical grad student acutally does useful stuff. For

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1107039914825708612005-01-29T17:36:00.000-05:002005-01-29T18:05:14.826-05:00

I saw a good caption of one of the Mars Lander pictures a few days back. This was early, and I hadn't had enough coffee and cigarettes to remember to bookmark it, or even save the image. And, half an hour with google and my browser history didn't turn up, so here's my best guess: Remember, extra-terrestrial planets are only theory image from Opportunity Mars Lander The original post was

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106618952597223302005-01-24T21:06:00.000-05:002005-01-24T21:09:12.596-05:00

Roses-Fixed something that I'd been working most of last week on. Thorns- 1. The undergrad horde has returned; 2. I've got a headache; 3. Too tired to actually write a good post.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106444171800339882005-01-22T20:26:00.000-05:002005-01-22T20:36:11.800-05:00

One of the things that irritate me (and there are many that do), is websites that require cookies for no apparent reason. For sites that need to do login stuff (ie blogger, webmail sites, etc). Same with sites when you're buying something online. Normally I browse with cookies off, because I generally don't feel like letting everybody and their dog track where I go online. If I need to login

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106273037949754882005-01-20T20:53:00.000-05:002005-01-22T20:23:28.930-05:00

Now that President Bush has been inagurated, it's fair to say that the 2004 election is definately over. This election provided an excellent source of information for refining the political theory described by the great sage Scott Adams[1]. Like all good theories, Adams's theory of presidential elections makes definative predictions that are suceptible to experimental confirmation or refutation.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106190776681332402005-01-19T22:03:00.000-05:002005-01-19T22:12:56.680-05:00

When you're trying to get a router set up, it helps to not screw up your networking so badly that you can't even log into the router. Which is of course what I did the other night. This isn't helped by the helpful installation instructions. Instead of saying something like, "Use DHCP or you won't be able to connect", you get "Make sure windows will automatically connect" Wonderful. If I was

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106189911224064482005-01-19T21:57:00.000-05:002005-01-19T21:58:31.223-05:00

Thorns-It's fscking cold. Roses-It's so cold that none of the snow on my car melts, meaning no chipping ice off the inside of the windsheild (at least so far).

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1106009052249220322005-01-17T19:40:00.000-05:002005-01-17T19:44:12.250-05:00

When I wasn't looking, it somehow became the middle of January. Anyhow, I haven't died or gone completely offline. I just lost track of time again. However, I haven't forgotten the year yet. That's probably one of the most stupid-sounding questions to ask, "What year is it?" Shortly followed by "What time zone am I in?" More to follow...I'm trying to configure some stuff at the moment.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1104840854245775872005-01-04T07:11:00.000-05:002005-01-04T07:14:14.246-05:00

1. Not adding coffee (or the coffee filter) when making coffee 2. Not adding water when making coffee 3. Putting cream cheese in the coffee instead of on the bagel 4. Searching through your collection of >=3 alarm clocks to hit snooze....and then realizing it's your neighbors alarm going off.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1104715301514628292005-01-02T20:20:00.000-05:002005-01-02T20:21:41.513-05:00

I was poking around in my old bookmarks, and checked out Humorix for the first time in a few months. Good stuff...Humor for Computer Nerds, and people who were annoyed by Christmas.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1104713075117573692005-01-02T19:39:00.000-05:002005-01-02T19:44:35.116-05:00

Well, out of Suburbia and back to Bumfsck. Actually, I got back a few days ago. It's been a little slow since I've gotten back; maybe post-new year's hangover. New Year's Resolutions I should make: 1. Quit smoking 2. Exercise more 3. Eat better (more often and more healthy). 4. Try to be less of an anti-social bastard. Hmm...except that there's not a chance in hell of my actually keeping any

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1103824344699901252004-12-23T13:49:00.000-05:002004-12-23T12:52:24.700-05:00

Well, it's time to go back to suburbia for the family Christmas gathering. Hopefully it won't be too horrible. When I get back, it'll be time to get back in touch with people up here that I haven't seen for months/years.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1103673430980692632004-12-21T18:24:00.000-05:002004-12-21T18:57:10.980-05:00

Most of the time, I'm all for better international communication. Science and the internet are excellent examples of this (I could go on for a while about this, but I won't right now). However, this does have some downsides. Like the fact that people from all over the world have the opportunity to try and break into my computer systems. Ok, the lab computer systems are the ones I'm really

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1103548763804636592004-12-20T08:14:00.000-05:002004-12-20T08:19:23.803-05:00

One of the things I've frequently noticed, with either amusement or irritation, is that online weather reports seem to be confused about the meaning of the phrase "Today's Low Temperature". Now, I've always though that this phrase meant something along the lines of the coldest it would get during the day. Some weather sites apparently don't think so, leading to the interesting situation where

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1103496973121562862004-12-19T17:37:00.000-05:002004-12-19T18:04:56.583-05:00

One mistake new grad students tend to make happens when they go home to visit, after starting research. A friend or relative innocently asks, "So, what do you do in grad school?" I remember the first time this happend to me. I was naturally excited about research, and x-ray crystallography in specific. It gives you a biologically relevant excuse to use all kinds of cool math, and visit particle

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1103340747398334432004-12-17T22:24:00.000-05:002004-12-17T22:32:27.400-05:00

Well, I've got whiskey and coke, a fresh carton of cigarettes, and a new programming language to learn. It's strangely relaxing. And life is good, because I skipped out on a Christmas (excuse me, holiday) party. I was contemplating a long rant about adversive conditioning and holidays. But in all honesty, it's not something I want to go into right now... -Argh- Where's the whiskey again? Oh, and

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1102940391048240582004-12-13T07:16:00.000-05:002004-12-13T07:19:51.046-05:00

-sigh- No posting from me in a week or so. Why? Well, a friend of mine has been having some personal issues (this is more common in grad school than you might think), and I've been attempting to help out. Of course, this is one of those times when it would be nice to be able to offer useful advice, instead of just being able to listen and commiserate.

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1102337614221923022004-12-06T07:53:00.000-05:002004-12-06T07:53:34.220-05:00

Sunday, I was planning to do/have a math binge to try and figure out some stuff about Grobner bases (how to calculate them, and what to do with them when you've got them). Unfortunately, this didn't happen. I'd been drinking Sat. night, and was just a little hung over on Sunday. Note to self: Do not attempt serious math while hungover. So I cleaned my appartement instead. While it's still a

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1102205917359344022004-12-04T19:06:00.000-05:002005-01-24T21:04:14.696-05:00

So, what's it like where I live? In northern NJ, where I grew up, it would be a moderately large suburb. Here, it's a city. Since it's mostly a college town, the population density varies widely. In the summers, and during breaks, it's nice. Not too many people around, and those you meet are generally polite. Drivers actually stop at stop signs, and will usually let you in traffic (which

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1102205119105958942004-12-04T18:53:00.000-05:002004-12-04T19:05:19.106-05:00

Only one, but it may take several days. A few days ago, one of my overhead lightbulbs went out. No problem, break out the spare bulbs, climb up on the chair. Take the light apart, switch bulbs, but everything back together and turn it back on. Hmm, it's still out. Check the fuse box; no problems. Take out the bulb I put in, put it into another light, and it works. Go back to the original

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101856866045567102004-11-30T18:10:00.000-05:002004-11-30T18:21:06.046-05:00

Roses- I had to modify one of the programs I use for data processing, because it didn't have an option that would have made my life easier (I'll skip the details). This program has interactive graphics, and the part I needed to change was somewhere within ~250000 lines of fortran and c code that I'd never looked at before. Why is this a good thing? Because I started this morning at ~10am, and

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101818858376421592004-11-30T07:38:00.000-05:002004-11-30T07:47:38.376-05:00

The only sport I follow to any degree anymore is hockey. I used to be a baseball fan when I was younger; but I stopped caring during their lockouts and labor disputes. Hopefully the same thing won't happen with the NHL. So, to the owners and players: sit your asses down in a room somewhere, and negotiate. Stop when you reach an agreement, or run out of food (I'm sure there are plenty of fans

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101730972226230182004-11-29T07:14:00.000-05:002004-11-29T07:22:52.226-05:00

That would be me. I didn't have any serious plans to do so (they've got a synchlotron out there; but I'm pretty much stuck at my current location for at least the next few years). But something like this(Wired News) has me making sure to remind myself if it ever comes up. Why is this bad? Let's see: 1. collect DNA from people who are arrested, not necessarilly convicted, 2. Not possible/easy

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101730182613036272004-11-29T07:08:00.000-05:002004-11-29T07:09:42.613-05:00

I classify holidays 2 ways: ones that I ignore, and ones that piss me off. There is no middle ground here. I don't mind the occaisonal day off, but I do mind th e expetation that holidays are times when I should go home and visit the family. I get annoyed when everytime I go to the grocery store, or go to the mall, from early Oct. to at least Jan. everything is set up to get people to buy

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101730104140221732004-11-29T07:07:00.000-05:002004-11-29T07:08:24.140-05:00

Why no posts in so long? Let me explain (or rant as the case may be)... Well, the morning after my last post, I had gremlins in my computer. Hit the pow er switch, and it complains about an invalid boot device. I check, no floppy in the drive, and no CDs either. Ok, I figure one of my hard drives went bad. I fig ure I'll bring my Knoppix CD back from lab, and see if I can repair the MBR or if

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101123881243281302004-11-22T06:30:00.000-05:002004-11-30T18:20:37.503-05:00

This story (found by way of InstaPundit, which you probably read anyway) brough up something interesting. The title quote (not the title of the story), points out that blogs are more or less (or entirely) unedited, and report un-verified stuff. One of the most significant things I've learn, applicable to research, religion, and life in general: Don't take things on authority. If you find

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1101123008343029512004-11-22T06:26:00.000-05:002004-11-22T06:30:08.343-05:00

Back on the day shift (almost), and Avoiding Burnout One of the cool things about being an apprentice crystallographer is going to synchlotrons to collect data (for background, synchlotrons accelerate an electron or positron beam around in a circle, and at various points they've got hardware to make x-rays. Originally the physicists build used synchlotrons for collisions, but now they seem to

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100905171033578762004-11-19T17:57:00.000-05:002004-11-19T17:59:31.033-05:00

Thorns-Annoying paperwork. Roses-It's the weekend, and I'll probably have time to write up some interesting posts (mainly cleaning up stuff I've written in the past, cringing, and deciding it's not worth posting).

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100904933063829422004-11-19T17:46:00.000-05:002004-11-19T17:55:33.063-05:00

Well, in a platonic sort of way. Python (the programming language, not the snake) make my life a lot easier sometime. For people who aren't computer geeks (like me, when I'm not being a math or physics geek...occaisonally I even try my hand at biology), python is a cross-platform intrepted language. Which means that I can write something on a linux machine, and run it on an alpha or windows

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100904353498692822004-11-19T17:42:00.000-05:002004-11-19T17:45:53.496-05:00

Mistake on my part that they weren't enabled in the first place...

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100735123425845472004-11-17T18:08:00.000-05:002004-11-17T18:45:23.426-05:00

I don't know how many people would agree with me on this, but most science news I notice seems like it should be filed under the politics of scientific issues. Why? Over the past few months/years, there are three general catagories of science news that get reported: environmental/global warming; stem cells; somebody won a Nobel. Well, I do macromolecular crystallography, so the first two

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100562218320292492004-11-15T18:37:00.000-05:002004-11-15T18:43:38.320-05:00

I started trying out FireFox last night. So far so good; of course I'm switching from Mozilla. The only thing I've used IE for in the past year or so has been to run windows updates (which I do about once every few months, for whenever I actually boot into windows...most often I'm on linux or unix). It's a little bit faster, configuration's a little different. If you're using IE, you should

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100561794469217362004-11-15T18:28:00.000-05:002004-11-15T18:36:34.470-05:00

What's "Thorns & Roses"? It's something I picked up while camping...at the end of the day, the crew gets together around a fire and mentions something good and bad about the day. It's more poetic than what I'd've called it (which I don't think I could describe without swearing, and at the moment I'm trying to avoid that online). In any event, just a habit to get me posting pseudo-regularly (

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9162649.post-1100500145439249302004-11-15T01:23:00.000-05:002004-11-15T01:29:05.440-05:00

Well, I've been planning to start blogging for a while. As usual, it didn't happen for a while (fun with procrastination...but hey, this is only 5 months later; not bad for me). If I was programming, or writing documentation, this would be a stub. Meaning that there's nothing useful here yet, but there will be eventually. As far as what kind of posts to expect...Probably a mix of random

HardHatChipmunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14348162307451984078noreply@blogger.com0