J is, within the APL family of languages, the one I have always found the most useful. I reach for it as I used to reach for my HP calculator in the past, to quickly compute or numerically model things. I always have it running in a terminal window.
Contrary to popular belief, its learning curve isn't steep. I once introduced it to high school freshmen who had no real experience with programming. I recommend the series of booklets by Kenneth Iverson himself: Arithmetic, Algebra, Calculus — there is even a Concrete Mathematics companion to accompany the book of the same name by Graham, Knuth et alii. They're all available for download on the site.
> Civic institutions—the rule of law, universities, and a free press—are the backbone of democratic life.
I disagree. The backbone of democratic life are the rule of law and freedom of speech, which makes a big difference. The press has historically been a counter-power inquiring into privileges and breaches of the rule of the law and thus promoted freedom of speech but almost only inasmuch it served the interest of the emerging merchant bourgeoisie . And we are long past that. Universities never have been liberal forces: they backed the Church and refused paradigm shifts. They still are very conservative even though in a peculiar sense, as leftist conservatives.
The value of HN lies in its community, which you won't — most probably — be ever able to reproduce.
After almost fifteen years of skimming once a day or two through the comments on the topics that interest me most, I am still amazed by the wide of range of old-and-new school engineers of all trade who share their experience and opinions. This is invaluable and does not necessarily need any fancy UI.
I refrained to install Bartender on a new machine (despite having a license) because of the scary permissions it want me to grant it. I found an open source alternative that fits my needs. Check if fits yours.
The cleanest explanation I read of information / state linearity properties of quantum operators. Thanks! (Working through Brian Hall's Quantum Theory for Mathematicians and Frederic Schuller's course at the moment, both highly recommended).
Unfortunately, PV market price drops do not reach the EU market, due to the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on crystalline silicon modules and cells originating from China in place since 2013. These protective measures have caused the solar module prices to even rise during the last two years (and certainly hampered solar deployment in Europe).
I remember that a significant part — up to a fifth, I would say — of the researchers and lecturers whose seminars I followed in the late 80s in France, either did not hold a doctorate or used to publish a big thing only once in a while but were nonetheless respected by their peers for their knowledge and commitment to science, and enjoyed secure academic positions. Nowadays, surviving in the academy without a PhD (or even, in countries like Germany, without the higher "habilitation") and without abiding to the "publish or perish" rule has become increasingly unrealistic.
But it still happens, albeit at the margins. I have been working myself as a scientist in the academy for the last twenty years and even held assistant professorship positions in prestigious universities in Germany for almost ten years without a PhD and without much publications. In my case, that was most of the time due to a combination of factors: 1) the need for an outsider in the lab (particularly to avoid conflicts over scarce tenured professorship positions) 2) being able to teach and research topics for which more than one person would have been needed otherwise 3) being (a little) known in the field, and known as eccentric but proficient at the job.
Funding is certainly an issue. You do need an academic affiliation (at least a formal one) to apply for grants. But I do not feel I have been less successful in securing funding from European and German research funds than colleagues with PhDs and habilitations and lots of publications. As soon as past projects were successfully completed, it has never been a big issue. The real problem is that in my field only fashionable and pointless projects are being funded lately.
As a consequence, I have come to carry my research almost completely independently. Coding and data analysis for private corporations and casual teaching at the university pay the bills. From time to time, I still rely on academic grants to fund field research. My wife and I work together and we have a very spartan way of life, dedicated to science and study.
Doing science at the margins of the academy implies its share of abnegation, is certainly viewed as bizarre by many but it happens. Although I do not complain, I won't recommend it either.
Contrary to popular belief, its learning curve isn't steep. I once introduced it to high school freshmen who had no real experience with programming. I recommend the series of booklets by Kenneth Iverson himself: Arithmetic, Algebra, Calculus — there is even a Concrete Mathematics companion to accompany the book of the same name by Graham, Knuth et alii. They're all available for download on the site.
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