jesusabdullah

On the other hand, most heat transfer relations are proportional to delta-T, so a T' = 1/T definition would make thing like

q = h (T_2-T_1)

become

q = h( 1/T'_2 - 1/T'_1 )

Perhaps unlike the case for pi, I think there's a good argument here for keeping temperature as-is.

I know this. They use dnode (https://github.com/substack/dnode) for most of their inter-process/inter-browser communication, which uses socket.io for the web action.

Forgot to mention: Git and irssi.

I'll start. Sorry if I don't make much sense--I'm coming down with a fever. :(

Who am I?: I'm a mechanical engineering grad student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My most interesting projects to-date are probably my thesis and an IRC bot that runs on node.js.

What Hardware Am I Using?: At home, I use a used Dell Mini 9. I really like it, though it chokes on some Java apps (minecraft) and some visually intensive stuff. It also only has about 6 GB of SSD, so space often becomes an issue. Awesome battery life, though!

I used to have a desktop, but it recently died and I'm not really willing to spend the money to fix it yet. At work, I have an older Dell Dimension with dual 19" (or so) screens.

I also just recently bought a Linode instance. I've found having a server accessible over ssh is really really handy.

And what software?: I'm running Fedora 12 on both my work computer and my laptop. I previously ran Ubuntu, but my boss gave me a Fedora disk and I decided to give it a shot. It's alright, though I've decided that I like apt-get better. Long ago, I used to dual boot windows on my old desktop, but I found that I hate having to reboot, and most of the time there isn't really anything on the windows computer that I want, excepting for the odd game or two. But Linux is getting better for games anyway, especially the casual types that I tend to play these days.

For browsing, I use Google Chrome (v8 <3), and for text editing, I tend to use either vim or gedit depending on my mood and the context. I prefer writing papers using LaTeX, and I actually adore Gnumeric for spreadsheets. I tend to use python/numpy for data crunching (and ipython for testing out ideas and as a calculator), and node.js for my side-projects. I haven't really used node.js for any serious projects yet, but as a toy I really like it. On the netbook I use xmonad for window management (netbooks and xmonad make a great combination), but on my "workstation" I've stuck with metacity. For image editing, I tend to use Gimp, though I've been trying to get into Inkscape lately. I've also considered PGF/Tikz but haven't gotten around to it.

What Is My Dream Setup?

If my netbook had like three times the storage, I'd be pretty happy with it. In an ideal world, I'd have a workstation and a massive desk (similar to what I have at work but with more ponies) as well. I also wish I had my own scanner again.

When it comes to software, I'd wish apps came with defaults that suited my workflow. For example, vim's defaults (on Fedora) don't really do it for me, but I've been too lazy to change them myself. I know, I know. I also wish there wasn't such a delineation between operating system-based software ecosystems. While I love the Linux ecosystem, there's some stuff on the Mac side of things (and on Windows too--for example, Irfanview), and it's a shame that you have to pick your programs based on your OS (or whatever virtualization you decide to run).

When it comes to UI, I wish there wasn't such a fine line between the Real World and the Computer World. The reason I wish I had a huge desk is because I tend to work in piles and scraps of paper. I'm really messy in the Real World, but it works for me. While I'm not terribly disappointed in computing these days, it'd be really awesome if computer use and desk use somehow mashed together a bit better.

Finally, I want really fast internet. While "cloud" is definitely a buzzword, I'm really liking the idea of having my computers being this sort of abstract thing, where I don't have to consider there being an actual box in my house somewhere, and the lower latency is between you and your servers, the better integration can be between The Cloud and your "thin clients" (such as my netbook).

I'd also like to see a node.js/html5-based irc client. the cgi and java ones I normally see around, well, really suck, and it's not like someone hasn't already written an irc client lib.

"I find html is often located on web servers..."

Comedy gold, f00li5h.

This might be the ticket: http://inventwithpython.com/ . I haven't gone through it really, but the goal of teaching through making games is similar, and I do know he wrote a pretty good clone of gorillas (http://github.com/jesusabdullah/gorillas is my own copy, if it interests you).

> Did you have to clear this with your university/advisor?

I don't know if I had to, but I did discuss it with my advisor, mostly due to the "someone could steal my thunder" issue, and we were basically in agreement. I actually have a really cool advisor--I lucked out there.

I'm currently an engineering masters student, and the code I've written is available on github, if not properly licensed (I'm seriously considering slapping the CRAPL onto it now that I'm aware of it). I don't really care too much about polish, since, I mean, it does what I want, I have the excuse of working around other peoples' software, and at worst someone finds out that I did something wrong, and we all benefit. Plus, having it on github makes it really easy to work on it from different locations, and version control helps me document just where all my friggin' time went.

The biggest concerns I've heard from other researchers (ie, professors) has to do with being beaten at a publish. I think that as long as your paper itself isn't easy to find pre-submission, then you're okay, especially if nobody will really understand what you're doing anyway. So, I'm not too nervous about the prospect. It's just code for now.

Unfortunately, even if scientists release their own code, it's often just a small part of the big picture. In engineering, at least, MATLAB, Mathematica and commercial Finite Element packages are everywhere. My own project uses MATLAB and COMSOL in tandem, meaning that what I wrote only really serves to glue a bunch of completely closed algorithms together. Personally, I'd love to see a completely open, usable and documented FEA stack (which would ideally include an adaptive mesher, some FEM algorithms, a post-process visualizer, and both a gui and a not-shitty scripting API).

Am I the only one that dislikes the business model of the bloomberg terminal?

I'd like to see this tested on known datapoints--that is, public companies that disclose number of employees and profit revenue.

Oh yeah, definitely not gonna be getting a php job anytime soon. I think the problem is less that you can't list these kind of things on a resume, but you can't name your category "Seen Before:" y'know? Resumes have a certain expected level of formality to them, and it's sustaining this formality that frustrates me.

Maybe the "cool people should submit their github repos as their resumes" group has a point. :)

Looks neat, though I don't have a smartphone. Someday maybe, huh?

I guess my question (and I find myself asking this question of pretty much any free service) is: If it's a startup and it's free, how are you going to make money off it?

I always worry about the balance of my resume. I don't mean to lie, of course! But, there does sometimes come a situation where I've worked with something before, but aren't very good at it. For a not-so-good example: I used php for a web site once, know generally how one can use it for simple stuff, but definitely wouldn't call myself well-versed in the subject (I only really used it once, right?). So, probably I shouldn't list it as something I know--that'd be lying. On the other hand, what if that small bit of knowledge that I do have is relevant and useful? How do I say, "I saw this a few times" on a resume?