hiring

to

Somehow things like that are too much abstraction for me.

Lots of people do. Here's one of them

Why should I bother?

It's listed at 224 in the pecking order I just dug out.

The best Dutch technical university is Delft at 103, followed by Eindhoven at 158 and Wageningen at 161. Nijmegen - which isn't a technical university , but does have some useful physicists - lists at 136.

I graduated from Melbourne University which sits at 36, was a post-doc at t he University of Southampton (at 73) and spent eleven years in Cambridge UK , which is number two in that list, and trying harder. Sadly, Cambridge gra duates often have a characteristic flaw, which is an obsession with present ation style over content. MIT, which is number one, turns out too many grad uates whose questions at seminars are more destructive than constructive - it's a hard life at the top, but I don't think that we can blame MIT for al l of Jim Thompson's character flaws.

These sorts of university rankings aren't worth much, but Twente really is unimpressive, even if it does occasionally employ a few individuals who are on their way to better places.

I've been around more than most.

Phhhhht ... who gives a hoot?

Those guys can't even design a proper web site. Laughable.

Well, if numerous people here tell you the same thing, chances are that they are right.

... because you don't seem to know a thing about them, yet you go ahead and judge them anyhow.

Quite a few people. My Dutch newpaper made the rankings front page news when the 2012 revisions came out.

It's clunky, but it works.

We also have enthusiasts for the 741 and the 555, not to mention the right of Americans to participate in a well-regulated militia.

There's not a lot to know. Getting well-informed on every crummy provincial "university" might be a career path for someone who wanted to spend their lives ranking universities, but I've had other interests.

South Of MArket. That was the old industrial area, roofing companies and meat cutters and car repair. Well, it was until the first dot.commies ran them all out. We're located in Soma West, the very last block of carpet stores and car repair and glass stores and sheet metal and motorcycle shops. But hipness is bearing down on us at a terrifying rate.

• BabyBird (Goo-Gull) sez:

Wow!

generous,

yet

about web

to help

unused

SOMA, which

presentations,

happening, and

what the

What product?? There is no product. Google or Amazon have already done it.

The "investors" are fools trying to cash in on the web boom long after it wound down to massive mediocrity. You seem to be in their ranks. Demand

?-/

Not what these guys seem to want to do. Do you think that every possible application has already been programmed? There are still big hits being developed, vast fortunes to be made, but only a minute fraction of the startups will survive.

You just made no sense. I let them use some space in our building and demanded nothing. Whether investors are smart or dumb, I'm not one of them.

A desk and chair around here rents for $350-600 per month. "Desk" might actually be a few feet on a shared table with wi-fi, and the chairs are typically cheap plastic. It's called "coworking" or something.

Wow!

generous,

yet

about web

idea to help

unused

SOMA, which

presentations,

happening, and

what the

startups

Really? How come no killer apps or vast fortunes have shown up in the last five (or twenty) years?

it

Demand

demanded

actually

cheap

So you are giving away a several hundred to a few thousand dollars per month (rent equivalent) and getting effectively nothing in return. And bragging about it.

They ain't gonna be the next big thing. You are getting taken to the cleaners.

?-)

Wehere have you been living?

Sometimes we have to support the next generation. After all, they are the ones who'll ultimately end up pay the nursing home for many of us.

A couple of month ago I spent considerable non-billed time building a tester for a university. Then many more hours to teach the folks there some stuff that (unfortunately) is no longer taught at universities, also for free. If we don't do it, who will?

Helping others is the only way for humanity to evolve beyond its present state. You did good.

Soma's also a drug from a Huxley novel.

_Brave New World_

Soma is an allusion to a ritualistic drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run 'religious' organizations; social clubs. The hypnopaedically inculcated affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State.

Never heard of Google, Facebook, Square, Twitter, or the iPhone? Craigslist. Amazon. eBay?

How much cash does Google have? How about Apple?

A bit under the radar are hundreds of specialty apps, for running lawn care businesses and restaurants and construction and hair salons, things like that.

Been to your local video store lately? Book store? Film processor?

Yup.

It's interesting and costs me nothing. Sometimes I get cookies.

"soma" is also a noodle >:-} ...Jim Thompson

I'm an engineer. I want to make things work. Money can be a useful tool in doing that, otherwise it doesn't matter much.

All sorts of people take credit for the good parts of modern life, like the unions who claim to have invented the living wage and the weekend. It was mainly engineers who actually did it. Electrical engineers, specifically.

But, in general, humanity isn't improving all that much. There's not much that engineers can do about that, so far.

Soba?

ot

he

Who made it possible for employers to offer adequate wages and a five-day w eek.

US employers still treat their employees relatively badly - worse than thei r German equivalents - and it's no coincidence that trade unions are more p owerful in Germany. This is part of a different social philosophy - the Wor ld Bank Gini index in Germany is 0.283, 0.45 in the US, and 0.47 in China

Very civilised countries - mostly in Scandinavia - get down to 0.25. Advanc ed industrial countries mostly come out at around 0.3. Russia more or less got rid of the Communist Party and its Gini index is 0.401 .

But there is a genetic engineer out there who has just thought up the genet ic equivalent of the 555, and the US Constitution ... we can only hope that it doesn't get installed in too many genomes before something better comes along.

Possibly not when he posted that.

soma is also a cube.

Yer search skills need honing. SoMa (South of Market St.). Similar acronym to SoHo in NYC.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

All true, plus the risk of getting shot at or mugged by youth gangs is virtually nil. In HK anyone can walk anywhere anytime without a problem.

Werner