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asdfx3

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    2013 Fall

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  1. Like fuzzylogician I prefer 13 (or even 11) inch for laptops because portability is #1 and for a single window 13" is more than enough (two windows are usually ok depending on the app). If I need a larger screen I either use a desktop or have the laptop hooked up to a monitor and keyboard/mouse.
  2. After you've narrowed down your list of labs somewhat, you should definitely talk to current students. Especially more senior one's who have been able to see the ups and down's of the PI and had time to become bitter.
  3. I have a 4gb Acer C720, so my opinion is based on that. If I had the money I would have gotten a MBA. If I didn't care about portability or battery life I would have gotten a comparatively priced Windows laptop. At the time (can't say how things have changed since ~November) there weren't any ultrabooks that could match it's strengths. Pros: + Extremely light + Excellent battery life (10 hours of use easy, sometimes 12+, loses about 5% battery overnight) + Can easily load a linux distro using crouton (very important to me so that I can set up a real email program, dropbox, firefox, PDF editor, openoffice, etc). If you want dropbox, I recommend getting one of those tiny usb drives and setting your dropbox directory to be on it so you don't take precious harddrive space. Can do the same for Zotero, and probably other reference managers that have large files. + IMO decent keyboard + 11.6" is a solid size for one full-screen app + Includes some bonuses (Google drive upgrade, google music, GoGo flight passes, some others I think) + 4gb ram is more than enough for my use + Can edit Office documents (Word and Excel for sure, never tried Powerpoint) out of the box. Can also use SkyDrive if you don't like the baked in capability. Negatives: - Screen is usable but not great, worst part for me is the contrast. In ChromeOS you'll need to position the screen just right to see things very vividly. In linux you should be able to change the contrast in the display settings depending on your desktop environment (KDE and GNOME should be able to, at least). - SSD space is limited (16gb on mine). Not a concern with just ChromeOS but you'll chip into it if you put actual linux on it. As I said in the pro's, I recommend having apps that store a large amount of disk space store it on a usb. - Trackpad is usable and comparable to a lot of windows laptops, but doesn't compare to Mac's - The speakers are extremely weak, don't know if it's just the one I got or if all C720's are like that. With headphone's it's fine. - Obviously if you stick to ChromeOS you'll only have access to web apps, and with crouton you're still limited to what's available on Linux. Overall, a solid device depending on what's important to you. If you're willing to put linux on it (putting it on is easy, using it depends on whether you have experience with linux or not though it's become much more user friendly) it's a very good device for most on-the-go usage. That said, I'm planning on selling mine because I no longer need a hyper-portable laptop. I'm done with classes, my desk at lab has a computer now, and if I ever have an absolute need for a laptop I have an old MBP.
  4. My old PI would list whenever he was featured on TV or radio or if a major publication wrote about one of our papers (usually just the website reusing the press release for the article).
  5. Personally I wouldn't have done it. It seems like your issue was with the poor writing rather than the actual content, so ethics aren't an issue and I don't think anyone will hold a weak publication against you if you are further down on the list of authors (which I assume you are if you didn't have input into the initial drafts of the paper). That said if you're already in a graduate program and starting in a new lab this one publication is unlikely to make or break your career.
  6. I'm going to go against the grain on this one because of what my PI recommended. He said that admissions committees don't really care about the specifics of what you did or the projects you worked on. Instead he said to focus on what has driven you as a person to decide you want to pursue a career in science and why you will be successful as a future PI. My SOP ended up having very little about my actual research or future projects, mostly how I've grown through my experiences and a short bit about my accomplishments (papers, posters, awards). Whether this method is better or worse I can't say since I got both admissions and rejections above and below my perceived qualifications.
  7. Agreed with the rest that aligned text reads better than justified.
  8. I use Zotero, although I primarily use it for journal articles rather than books.
  9. I had a low UG GPA (2.8) and did a masters where I still didn't do great (3.0). Unlike a lot of people my UG grades didn't show an upward trend or sudden drop after a big personal event, instead it was pretty consistently getting B's and a few C's. I did research for four years, accumulating a few papers as coauthor (one as first author but after the decisions were made) and several conference posters. I was very quickly rejected by a few schools which made me question whether I'd ever get into a PhD program and if I should re-evaluate what I want to do with my life. In the end I was accepted by three very strong programs in my field and actually had the luxury of turning down interview invites. My advice would be: #1 Be sure you want to do research. The best way to be sure is to do it for a few years. All of my interviewers were impressed with my background and stressed how it showed I could handle doing academic research and know what it entails, which is a big question mark for applicants that have little or no experience. #2 Spread your applications far and wide. I got a lot of rejections to go along with my acceptances and all of them without interviews. You don't know how strongly a school will weigh GPA vs experience and even though it's easy to tell yourself that experience is all that matters, your GPA is always a factor. Some schools also have official/unofficial GPA cutoffs that will make it very difficult to get in (that's what happened at my current institution which I don't mind so much now that I got into better programs).The toughest hurdle for a low-GPA high-experience candidate is the first one, the one that get's you to the interview step. In person you can wow the professors with your knowledge and enthusiasm and come off as the perfect future mentee.
  10. When you say "subscribe," I hope you don't mean paying for an actual subscription, since your university should have subscriptions to most journals and you can access them either on campus or from home through a VPN or the library website. Which ones you read will 100% depend on your field of study.
  11. There is a paid app called hovernote that makes a text box that goes over any running app, allowing you to take notes while reading a web page, PDF, or video. You can save the notes as txt files on your device or send it to a cloud storage device like dropbox. I've been using Google Reader to keep up with journals that are relevant to my field. I flip through the titles and short summaries and star the ones that are interesting and would like to read later. Unfortunately Google Reader is being shut down in June, so I'll need to find another cross-platform RSS reader.
  12. I agree with Fuzzy. Unless there are a number of details you're leaving out you seem to be reading too much into things. Also, I doubt the professor really cares that much about the dropped class. The flirting would be the issue and source of the trash talk, but more likely he's cold towards you because he realized (either upon personal reflection or prodding from someone else) how inappropriate and professionally dangerous his actions were.
  13. I'd consider an app called "hover note." It makes a pop up text box that goes over any app that's running (Web browser, pdf viewer, video, etc). You can save the text as a txt file either on your device or send it to cloud storage like Dropbox. It's really nice to take notes on whatever I'm reading.
  14. I don't think there any "pro's" to a smaller department per se, so much as a lack of some of the con's of going to a bigger program. I think the biggest con of a large program is that you may get lost in the shuffle if you need help with administrative stuff. On the other hand a smaller program probably has fewer resources available and fewer potential collaborations. I would be more concerned with the fact that your hypothetical "big program" is admitting three times as many graduate students as they have faculty. Depending on the ratio of PhD's to Master's that could definitely present issues when it comes to finding a lab you want to go to that actually has space for you, as well as funding.
  15. Really it shouldn't matter. If anything a non-tenured professor should have a greater reason to put themselves last and their mentee's names first because a high impact paper by their post-doc/graduate students reflects well on their abilities as a mentor, which is what their job is. By putting themselves first they are basically regressing to the post-doc level in the eyes of the scientific community and the tenure committee. A last author pub shows they're doing their current job well, a first author pub shows they're doing their last job well (which the school knew already). IMO the biggest risks of joining a new(ish) lab are: #1 Risk of the prof not getting tenure, if the tenure review is coming up during the years you'll be doing your PhD #2 In a new lab everything is new and needs to be set up more or less from scratch. The projects are new and exciting, but also uncertain because you don't have years of established methods and results that built up to it. There are some established professors that can basically list off several potential projects for their students that they know (or as close to know as you get in science) will work out and lead to a publication. You don't have that kind of confidence with a new lab, which can be frustrating but also rewarding because your work will largely be your own.
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