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Comment Masters won't help you in many places (Score 1) 834

I recently hired a CS masters graduate. He's really bright; otherwise, we wouldn't have hired him. He's doing the usual new guy "toilet-licking" tasks; massive integrates of required-but-unpopular technologies, whitebox testing, automation and application profiling. Someday, he'll get to work on tasks specifically related to his masters. Hopefully, his masters will prepare him for success in those pursuits. For today, he gets to earn his stripes, like any other recent hire.

Comment Counterpoint: I really, really enjoy Anathem (Score 1) 356

While it's not exactly paced to keep the MTV generation glued to their seats, I adore Stephenson's writing style. Postulate: Maybe he's INTENTIONALLY making you go slowly, providing you with a surfeit of information, and making your brain work to place those made-up words. Maybe, by complaining about having to actually take time and experience the novel instead of flying through it like a Heroes marathon, you've identified yourself as...Extramuros. I enjoy the first-person viewpoint of the open-minded-and-curious-yet-emotionally-retarded main character, as he fumbles his way through profound events in his life. Not that it reminds me of anyone I know personally, mind you... Few writers actually USE language as deftly and deeply as does Stephenson. He gives me hope, and reminds me that we're not ALL illiterate yet. :) Of course, I haven't finished yet. If a Shaftoe character crops up, I officially withdraw the nice things I've said about Anathem.
Social Networks

Submission + - Turning E-Mail into a Social Network

Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Saul Hansell at the NY Times has an interesting article on his technology blog about his conversations with executives at Yahoo and Google about how they plan to turn their e-mail systems and personalized home page services into social networks. Web-based e-mail systems already contain much of what Facebook calls the social graph — the connections between people. That's why social networks offer to import the e-mail address books of new users to jump-start their list of friends. Yahoo and Google realize they can use this information to build their own services that connect people to their contacts. Yahoo is working on what they call "Inbox 2.0" which will display messages more prominently from people who are more important to you, determining the strength of your relationship by how often you exchange e-mail and instant messages with him or her. "The inbox you have today is based on what people send you, not what you want to see," says Brad Garlinghouse, who runs communication and community products for Yahoo. "We can say, here are the messages from the people you care about most." There will also be some sort of profile system attached to Inbox 2.0 with a profile users show to others and a personal page where they can see information from their friends. "The exciting part is that a lot of this information already exists on our network, but it's dormant," Mr. Garlinghouse added."

Feed Science Daily: Consider Supplemental Math Programs For Children (sciencedaily.com)

Parents of school-aged children might want to think of giving their children an enduring holiday gift this year: enrollment in a supplemental mathematics program. While it can cost anywhere from $80 to $110 a month, the results of practicing mathematics nearly daily is rewarding and builds self-esteem.

Feed Science Daily: How Poisonous Mushrooms Cook Up Toxins (sciencedaily.com)

Scientists have identified genes that produce the poison of the death cap mushroom -- a unique pathway previously unknown in fungi. Reported in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work not only solves a mystery of how some mushrooms make the toxin -- but also sheds light on the underlying biochemical machinery. It might be possible one day to harness the mushroom genes to make novel chemicals that would be useful as new drugs.

Feed Science Daily: Early Teen Sex May Not Be A Path To Delinquency, Study Shows (sciencedaily.com)

A new study by clinical psychologists has found that teens who have sex at an early age may be less inclined to exhibit delinquent behavior in early adulthood than their peers who waited until they were older to have sex. The study also suggests that early sex may play a role in helping these teens develop better social relationships in early adulthood.

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