DISQUS

This feature annoys the living daylights out of me too. Especially when you have a calculation running in the background that really really needs to be done, and won't be finished for oh, say 15 hours. Ugh.

For ending IM conversations, I prefer something more definitive, like:
(that's end-of-thread for the acronym-challenged). :)

Now I'm expecting, an ackward "lol" followed by loss of signal. :)

Trickier than I expected... It took me quite a few iterations before coming up with this query string:

"most famous movie quotes" common

When I was on IM, I used (funny enough) an almost identical scheme, just labelled: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary. I think I was inspired by computer architecture.

For frequency based methods, I think the optimal number of tiers depends heavily on the structure of your communication space (for lack of a better term). At the time, if I grouped the contacts by frequency, it followed an exponential distribution -- as I suspect most people's communication space would. From this I could assign two thresholds, which partitioned by contact's list accordingly.

I remember briefly considering KC's additional subcategorizations, but felt it took away from the mathematical purity of the original scheme. :)

I second Heather's comments! And there are plenty of opportunities for both you and Kat here! What are you waiting for?!? :)

Seriously though, while you guys are still young enough to enjoy living in places like NYC and Tokyo, why not give it a try?

I've been buried under several metric tons of stuff, but I'll get back in touch as soon as it's over (a few weeks or so).

I particularly like the advice Audiophile gave: Where do you see yourself in 5yrs? This might really guide some of your decision making.

Also, it doesn't really sound like you have any concrete options -- you're thinking about options that you might have. I say you should loosely rank order your options and explore them, i.e. ask for applications to PhD programs, ask around for contacts at Google/MSR/PARC/CSR, ...

It may turn out that some of them are just not feasible, or in the process of finding out what's involved in attaining those ends, you may find more clarity. Just a thought...

I agree with most of what Audiophile posted, but I'd like a note that the average time to graduate is dependent on a lot of factors. Different programs have very different averages, and different specialties have different averages. For example, theory grads tend to either get out fairly early or very late (or not at all), while the hardware guys tend to plug along and get out with in a time that's Gaussian distributed with a mean between the bimodal peaks for the theory grads. Also if you're not switching fields, your MSc *might* cut down on your graduation time. But any way you slice it, you're going to be in school for a long time (if you do the PhD).

Being in a PhD program, I can offer this advice on getting a PhD: Unless have a really good reason and like doing research, don't do it. You're smart, talented, and resourceful enough, I'm not questioning that at all. But it's a grueling process, and you really ought to have a good reason for putting yourself through that. Especially when, I think you have a really good shot at getting a job at some of those places. And at the rate that OK/Cancel is taking off, those options can't be ruled out either. Regardless, you (and Kat) should move back to the states or more pertinently somewhere (anywhere)closer. :)

Woo-hoo! Academia is claiming back talent! Back in the days of the boom, academia was bleeding away talent to industry, it is oh so sweet and nice to see that trend reversing. Welcome to the fold Kevin. :)

So jealous... :) I was stuck in the States watching crazy time-delayed coverage on OLN (Outdoor Life Network) between commercials for the Redneck Olympics (Outdoor games) and Suicidally Masochistic Animal Lovers League (Running of the Bulls).

I'm with Wyatt. You guys are geeks -- well-organized geeks, but geeks nonetheless.

Is it just me or does the comment window have "less than desirable" width settings? I'm stuck in a fixed width window with a horizontal scroll for the last two words of every line. Bleh. I've gotten to the point where I'd rather guess at the last two words and be wrong that actually scroll. :)

Is it just me or does the comment window have "less than desirable" width settings? I'm stuck in a fixed width window with a horizontal scroll for the last two words of every line. Bleh. I've gotten to the point where I'd rather guess at the last two words and be wrong that actually scroll. :)