Messages

And congrats!

The fact that some these posts are over a decade old still blows my mind

Work. Apps. School forever!

Work. Recovering from a breakup. Minecraft!

I'm sorry :(. but y'all can do better ;)

What do you do?

It's certainly unusual work. We research, develop and productize algorithms for use in medical image analysis. The tasks are certainly not trivial and we primarily focus on automatic segmentation of structures in the body in several modalities and employ a mixture of machine learning and computer vision approaches. It's really cool that brand spanking new algorithms end up in practical use very quickly (rather than rotting in journals for years).

Here's our problem: Our team is comprised purely of scientists, all of which are currently expected to research, develop, maintain, document, productize, test, and follow delivery procedures for a variety of customers. We have trouble maintaining a balance between the software engineering/architecture aspect, and the research aspect due to tight deadlines. It would be helpful to have a software engineer who could focus on the software side of the development, and that would include, for example:

• Deliveries (e.g. TFS, ClearCase, Productization, Testing)
• Helping to maintain our code base.
• Developing new interfaces and tools in the code base.
• Improving existing interfaces.
• Helping us document existing interfaces.
• Quality control (e.g. maintaining review information, source analysis, etc...)

EDIT: We work primarily with C++, Visual Studio, CMake, and Subversion. The code base is computer vision and machine learning oriented and some of it is mathematically involved (so some numerical analysis could be helpful).

Hey! This was actually a large part of my analysis during my days of research at college. Image registration / segmentation of phase & fluorescent time-lapse data. It was for analyzing 2D cell contours though, nothing as complex as tissues or bone. And it was written in MATLAB. Could you elaborate a bit on what you're doing?

Also are you looking for: 1. Interns / Non-committing Hires (Could work for at most 1 yr.) and 2. Recent CS(ish) graduates with no professional experience 3. People in the Bay Area? If so you should rendez all my vous

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324688404578541582428920860.html

What do you all think about it? Do you think it was treasonous?

yeah, i don't think 'bro kiss' is a thing man. :)

It's okay if you say "no homo!"

(Where were these things when *I* was in highschool? :) )

Some jocks still like to say that at my school. It's always fun to reply, "..but really, homo"

Random question here. I know many of you on these boards aren't Christian. I was wondering if anyone here espoused any radical ideologies // beliefs they think people would find questionable? There must be at least one transhumanist here..

Whats yo thesis and describe your tediums. And where/when in SF?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(album)

Not a soundtrack, but inspired by them

Sounds like a Bayesian fallacy to me. The probability that a deadbeat dad is a black man is not the same as the probability that a black man is a deadbeat dad. In an extreme example, if the only terrorist you've ever seen was Chinese, would you stereotype all Chinese people as terrorists (because obviously, 100% of the terrorists are Chinese), even though you haven't seen the 1.5 billion remaining Chinese people? I think stereotypes are like caricatures - they exaggerate the striking/pronounced behavior exhibited by only a minority of people. That, or maybe I have a penchant for child abandonment.

Yep, the alternative being going into industry. As fun as working for a startup was, I could tell there would be plenty of times it would still feel like the grind. Grad school affords me a lot of free time (granted, much of that can probably be attributed to the fact I go to a pretty sub-par school. I chose it for its location, not its academic reputation. :)). It's been a really pleasant couple of years.

I believe that all schools (above some minimum threshold) provide roughly the same education. The curriculum is generally the same, and in my opinion, so is the instruction. Honestly, most of the worst lecturers I've had were usually the most decorated. I think too many people, not meaning you of course, equate intelligence, even notability, with professorial excellence. They eventually come to find they're sadly mistaken. I've found that the major difference lies in the number of  'opportunities' on campus, which admittedly is almost circular logic because good students go to schools that recruit, while recruiters go to the schools that have good students... this is kind of how I think of academic reputation in general. Things like USNews & WorldReport have created simulacra, reputations that exists simply because we believe them to. And I agree, people don't value location enough when making this sort of decision. I've lived my entire life in a mediterranean-subtropical climate, and that's not likely to change  :P.

Sounds like it might be worthwhile for you. If you feel like you're lacking some fundamental skills that would give your competition an edge, then I'd say it's probably a worthwhile investment.

What is your major anyway?

My major is Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Neuroscience. I didn't want to complicate the question, but I'm also pre-medical, and I'm considering a MD/Ph.D in Neuroscience. I can dream about it anyway. That's a separate path from what I asked you though, since I could just learn whatever CS I needed while doing that. The basic theme in all this is that I never really knew what I wanted to do in high school or college, I never had that 'click' that actually goes off in a lot of people, the one that immediately decides their fate.

I originally wanted to do your major, as I think its curricula is the most aesthetically pleasing, in a fucked didactic sense. If educational reform ever becomes a reality, many people think that there will be a far greater emphasis in math and CS, particularly in childhood. Anyway, double majoring in Math/CS is very difficult here, as I'm sure it is every else. One big reason is you can't double-count classes, and there is too much overlap. At least I couldn't take it  :P. Also, biology is great now. In the last few years it has become highly rigorous/quantitative, which is always a good thing. It's at the point some mathematician can just go in with rudimentary biological knowledge and still fuck shit up. So basically my interests are broad, which made the specificity and depth of the MS appealing.

It might be worth looking at other schools. It's understandable if you're unwilling to relocate, but most schools I'm familiar with (including some pretty good CS schools) pay tuition in full if you do an assistantship.

That's true, and if money becomes the deciding factor I'll probably consider doing so. However, there's pretty huge (as in almost guaranteed if you don't fuck up) advantage in applying here as a student. It's also simpler -- 3 recommendations and the GRE. I wouldn't mind moonlighting as well, since like you said, your workload isn't actually that large. Trickin' in Oaktown brings in large $ anyway.

Do you work at Google?

Haha, I do not. I meant that searching the interwebs wasn't especially helpful. Somewhat amusing story though: I went to a Google party in SF last year, as my friend from home was interning there during the summer. I was expecting the typical bourgeoisie bullshit, but instead we happened upon the most crunk (no other way to describe it) party I've ever been to here. Bitches stripping, product managers popping AND locking--even the software engineers appeared sociable at times :P. It was interesting to say the least. Particularly since someone there might end up interviewing me someday.

From a software engineering perspective, certifications don't do much for you in my experience.

Word.

"Irregrettable" is not a word so I suggest you spend the money you would be investing in a masters of CS into some English lessons

Good point, I'll look into it. Frankly it never hurts to expand your skill set.

Hey people. I hope all has been well with all. I know many of you are now well into your respective computer science careers. Congratulations! If y'all will oblige, I would like to know if anyone here has pursued (or has to decided to pursue) a M.S. (or higher?) in CS? What are your thoughts/reflections about it? I've heard that it's completely unnecessary if you're simply looking to make more money. However I feel that perspective lacks the whole "fulfillment" factor. So basically I want know if (a) was it worth your time, (b) worth your $, (c) completely (ir)regrettable. None of these are necessarily mutually exclusive of course. Believe it or not, the diversity of opinion around here is very lacking, so I'm keen to hear the opinion of people with, iirc, diverse backgrounds (I'm looking at you Joe). I'm asking this here since I've known (sort of) many of you for a long time, and since you're all nerds like I am.

If you feel generous enough to chat, I can still be reached via AIM@ProfessorTruth69, or whatever the kids are using these days. Anyway, someone hit me back! And by look of these boards, preferably this year...

Thanks.

Hey, you ended up at Stanford, right? How many years do you have left? I ended up working with a couple of people from Stanford last summer. I dunno how many people are in your program... is it possible you'd know them?

I'm graduating next winter (M.S. - would do PhD, but tired of being poor). Would've been sooner, but I put off finding a thesis topic until this semester.

(a) Yes, I'd say so. I learned some things, but depending on where you go, I think it's probably a more pleasant life than the alternative. I've really enjoyed my time here.

(b) Well, in my case (and in most cases, as far as I'm concerned), you don't generally pay to go to graduate school. You get an assistantship. I've been a TA for the CS department's discrete math course, which covers tuition and pays a stipend. It's enough to live on without having another job if you're sufficiently frugal.

That said, however, one has to consider the opportunity cost. I could've very easily gone into industry with a nice starting salary. Not doing so has probably cost me on the order of $100k. That sucks.

To me, though, it's been worth it. It's afforded me the time to do a few more internships, which has very likely influenced my desired work environment. Before starting here, I was pretty sure I'd like to end up working for IDA or something similar. After interning at a reasonably well-established startup, I'm pretty sure that's more my cup of tea.

It's been nice to relax. It's given me time to work on some projects that I probably wouldn't have been able to get around to otherwise.

This is important, though: don't pursue a graduate degree in CS if your aim is higher starting salary. It's pretty much useless for that. You'll probably start with a slightly higher salary, but in the amount of time it took you to earn the degree, a person who went straight into industry after undergrad has probably had sufficient promotion opportunities to more than make up for it. Not to mention the fact that the industry person is better established than you and will probably have an easier time moving to companies of his or her choosing.

(c) Neither, really. If faced with the decision again, I'd do the same thing, but I don't think life would've been much better or worse had I chosen to go into industry after undergrad.

Thank you for the thorough response. I have one more year left here until I graduate, but the application process starts this summer. I'm actually not a CS major, so the chances I know your co-workers aren't that great. Drop a couple names and some would probably ring a bell though. Anyway, what exactly do you mean it was more pleasant than the alternative? The alternative being going into industry?

Also to clarify, my question about money was moreso about justifying doing the degree--its not my motivation. The fact is my major is kind of broad, so I've only taken a handful of serious CS courses (the 'core', so to speak), so I'm pretty sure I'm lacking in some key undergrad-level areas. That's why I'd like to take a year to basically just dedicate myself to catching up + doing graduate level shit.

Fundamentally, I'd learn the material for its own sake, but I won't play with you and pretend that money is not a factor. A M.S. here generally is not paid -- TAships actually (i.e. anecdotally) cover only about 50% of tuition, + stipend. So that's definitely an issue, as the idea of being saddled with debt is never appealing (particularly since I don't have a job / significant savings). The upside is that it would only take a year. The opportunity cost is not an issue - I'm probably going to be in school for a long time whatever I decide to do. The main things for me is that it get me some of the more interesting internships / work experience, which generally require more previous experience than I have (Aside: Factual is one of the cooler startups I've seen. Basically the type of company I'm all about).

I was hoping an MS would unlock some sort of 'higher tier' of job opportunities, but I guess it doesn't really. It seems from what you've said that its probably better just to find a job immediately. It's weird, I was very set on doing one until it struck me to ask for a second opinion -- virtually every reply has been along the lines of yours, i.e., that 'it's nice but not necessarily worth it'. It's kind of sad that the CS MS is not as differentiated from the BS, like in other fields. I think it definitely has the potential, given the breadth of the subject. Anyway, it was good to finally hear a cogent opinion from a non-sycophant (slight exaggeration, but not really). Thanks.

So what have you decided to do now? Out of curiosity, was money your only reason for not pursuing a Ph.D? I'd definitely understand not liking the time commitment either. On the other hand, its 100% free...

P.S. If one you bosses would like to give me the DL on certification (which ones actually matter and for what), I'd be much obliged. Google can be a difficult wench at times.

Hey people. I hope all has been well with all. I know many of you are now well into your respective computer science careers. Congratulations! If y'all will oblige, I would like to know if anyone here has pursued (or has to decided to pursue) a M.S. (or higher?) in CS? What are your thoughts/reflections about it? I've heard that it's completely unnecessary if you're simply looking to make more money. However I feel that perspective lacks the whole "fulfillment" factor. So basically I want know if (a) was it worth your time, (b) worth your $, (c) completely (ir)regrettable. None of these are necessarily mutually exclusive of course. Believe it or not, the diversity of opinion around here is very lacking, so I'm keen to hear the opinion of people with, iirc, diverse backgrounds (I'm looking at you Joe). I'm asking this here since I've known (sort of) many of you for a long time, and since you're all nerds like I am.

If you feel generous enough to chat, I can still be reached via AIM@ProfessorTruth69, or whatever the kids are using these days. Anyway, someone hit me back! And by look of these boards, preferably this year...

Thanks. 

The Wire. Damages. Fringe. Weeds. Nip/Tuck. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Futurama. How It's Made.

I watched the first 3/4s, gonna finish it tomorrow. I like what he says; he's a great speaker.

He came to my school to speak on this a few days ago. His voice is butter to my ears.