btrettel

22 ms·

211.
by btrettel 4y ago
> You give up salary for huge amounts of autonomy. The "autonomy" is a facade in many instances. Professors have to do what can be funded. For a lot of professors that means doing what's trendy or what panders to moneyed i
212.
by btrettel 4y ago
USPTO patent examiner here. I don't think that being a patent examiner (clerk is the historical term) would be a good choice, and it probably wasn't a great choice when Einstein was an examiner either. The USPTO is based on a quot
213.
by btrettel 4y ago
Any tips for searching DiscMaster? If I'm looking for a particular file, I'm finding it useful to know the filename used back in the day. I didn't pay that much attention to the specific filename until now.
214.
by btrettel 4y ago
I haven't tried it yet but https://tmsu.org/ is actively maintained and looks nice.
215.
by btrettel 4y ago
I think this effect has been recognized in science for decades, even if it wasn't talked about much in print. Recently I thought about trying to combat this effect myself by using multiple different analysis methods. For example, in my
216.
by btrettel 4y ago
> Hm, a venv with interpreter is good enough and setup from nothing within 30 minutes still.. then if you have the right libs you are ready to go. Still doing that. I'm hoping that you're right as I'd like to eventually im
217.
by btrettel 4y ago
> [Fortran] is great for technical and numerical codes that need to run fast and are intended to be used for decades. The libraries listed above will not stop working in a few years. An extremely complicated Fortran application can be re
218.
by btrettel 4y ago
As an administrator of a few small online forums, I've tried hard to minimize the burden of running the forums. Running even a single small online forum can take a considerable amount of time. The forum software is best kept as standar
219.
by btrettel 4y ago
This behavior makes me extremely suspicious of anything produced by someone who displays it. Back when I was in academia, I had a similar experience. Someone gave a talk and I immediately had doubts about the method used. It was known in a
220.
by btrettel 4y ago
On the subject of consistent keyboard shortcuts, does anyone here have a copy of the complete Common User Access documents? What I can find online (linked to from Wikipedia below) is incomplete. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
221.
by btrettel 4y ago
I think spam to email addresses found in data breaches is more likely. An address I used only for Comcast Xfinity gets a surprisingly large amount of spam. (I'm no longer a customer and have disabled the address.) I'm not the only
222.
by btrettel 4y ago
I don't agree with that article. I previously wrote about my disagreement on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29141107 To summarize, a PhD often (maybe even typically) does not bring someone to the edge of huma
223.
by btrettel 4y ago
Also: Don't wear a backpack as you will sweat on your back when it's hot. I imagine messenger bags would have similar problems. I recommend using something like a milk crate or panniers to hold anything you're taking with you
224.
by btrettel 4y ago
I regularly rode when it was over 100 degrees. It honestly was not a problem. I know a lot of drivers find this hard to believe, but it's true. - Being in good shape reduced how much I sweat in the first place. If an average driver sta
225.
by btrettel 4y ago
> Don't even get me started about the time it takes to find parking in this city... I am guessing that that time consideration is not in this study. For a while when I lived in Austin, cycling to work from where I lived would be com
226.
by btrettel 4y ago
Turbulence can be accurately solved by simulating the Navier-Stokes equations on powerful enough computers. [0] The problem is that the computational complexity is enormous. Even relatively simple turbulent flows may exceed the capabilities
227.
by btrettel 4y ago
Researchers as a whole need to do more checking. While I agree that errors like the one identified in the link are rare, they are not so rare that one shouldn't spend the time looking for them or assume that everything was done properl
228.
by btrettel 4y ago
Until the legal standards change, look into submitting prior art. The examiner and public will appreciate it.
229.
by btrettel 4y ago
Unfortunately the US doesn't work on that legal standard, though I think that's a nice approach. In practice, almost no third parties submit prior art, which is a lot simpler than submitting solutions. So I doubt people will submi
230.
by btrettel 4y ago
How to challenge a patent application that hasn't been granted yet based on prior art: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/initiatives/third-party-preiss... Note that I'm not aware of any way to challenge an a
231.
by btrettel 4y ago
As usual, the media doesn't read the claims, which are the legally enforceable part. To those without a background in patent law, how similar the abstract, drawings, or parts of the specifications are to prior art doesn't matter i
232.
by btrettel 4y ago
Some previous discussion of this writing/coding style (though not of this particular page, which didn't go online until today): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31695393 https://rhodesmill.org/
233.
by btrettel 4y ago
My research is in fluid dynamics, though my day job does not involve research. How much time someone in academia can devote to research depends a lot on their position. Your average professor seems to only dedicate around one day per week t
234.
by btrettel 4y ago
How good or bad a PhD is depends on the field. I think CS right now is probably a good field to get a PhD in, at least if in a subfield that will get you a job after graduation. I think that's probably the only place getting a PhD woul
235.
by btrettel 4y ago
Regarding writing "one-sentence-per-line", I've noticed that style before in LaTeX. While I don't use that style, one advantage that I like is the ability to include comments on the sentence level in LaTeX. So instead of
236.
by btrettel 4y ago
Thanks for the information. I figured someone here might know something.
237.
by btrettel 4y ago
And it seems that a lot of uuencoded content was removed at some point. You can see the text of the message, but the uuencoded part is mostly cut out. Here's an example: https://groups.google.com/g/misc.int-propert
238.
by btrettel 4y ago
Could be semantics, I guess. Patent examiners permit operation of monopolies in my view. > (Aside: I wonder what the effects would be of inventing and patenting environment-destroying technologies, then refusing to license them to delay
239.
by btrettel 4y ago
> Regardless of who you are in the government, the safest answer to anything is no. This is not always true. I'm a former patent examiner. At the US patent office, sometimes granting a patent (answering yes) is the safest response.
240.
by btrettel 4y ago
I've done this as well. Another issue I've noticed is that when a certain item is set to go to "all" addresses, the mail carrier will simply give one to everyone until they run out. This is probably right most of the tim

More ›