@waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

waltman

@waltman@hachyderm.io

I'm a recovering recovering ivory tower computer scientist. I work in Columbia’s Radiology Dept. looking for better imaging biomarkers for breast and lung cancer.

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timbray, to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

I glanced at this and ended up spending 20 minutes reading it and I regret nothing: https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/cobol-controls-your-money

(Mostly of geek interest: About the continuing survival/blessing/curse of COBOL)

waltman,
@waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

@timbray I'm a former COBOL programmer who's given some talks at tech conferences on the language, so everyone I know keeps pointing me towards your toot and the article. I finally had a chance to read it and it’s really great. Thanks for promoting it!

As for the problem itself, if VC money keeps getting tighter some of these stable, non-sexy jobs in finance might seem more tempting.

Mina, to usenet German

deleted_by_author

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    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Mina @philw I’ve been wondering about the same thing. In many ways reddit is just with a fancy web front-end, right?

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @grammargirl I just listened to this week’s podcast and I have a couple of things to add about "et al.”. First, I'm also in academia, and one thing I've heard people say instead of “and others" is "and colleagues". I think I like that better, especially in non-academic settings like podcasts.

    Also, what are your thoughts on whether “et al." should be in italics? My postdoc advisor did that, and it always looked wrong to me. (He also italicized "etc.”, which looks even more wrong!)

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @grammargirl That's certainly the rule I learned about foreign words. I think it might have been a house style at some publications, but I'm not sure. Mostly I figured since it was his lab, I'd let him set the rules. Gotta pick your battles!

    nixCraft, to linux
    @nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

    , , , and users often underestimate the usefulness of awk and sed - the two most powerful tools out there.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @nixCraft This user doesn’t, because he knows Perl. 😎

    drdrang, to random
    @drdrang@fosstodon.org avatar

    I’m not watching the keynote, just seeing its reflection on Mastodon. I guess the headset price is high? People seem too shocked to type out the number.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @drdrang We need @jamesthomson to make some updates to PCalc to support numbers that large.

    jamesthomson, to random
    @jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

    Sadly, I didn't get the call to put PCalc on it early. But you know I will.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @jamesthomson I want to fill my entire NYC loft workspace with dice!

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    I’m looking forward to @jamesthomson‘s PCalc will prompt me to journal about how it helped me with some arithmetic!

    jamesthomson, to random
    @jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

    If you're not interested in my Apple keynote hot takes, I'd say it’s probably best to just mute me for the whole day. Maybe do that anyway, I would mute me.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @jamesthomson I only got an account here to follow your Apple keynote hot takes! Bring it on!

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    Is everyone looking forward to the Apple WWDC keynote today?

    darkuncle, to random

    one of the things I really love about the technical governance of the Internet is that it's open to anybody - I joined the Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group (IPNSIG) of the Internet Society, and they have a number of presentations and videos on networking considerations at very great distances that are quite interesting. https://ipnsig.org/ipnsig-academy-events/

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @darkuncle A few years ago I attended a talk at a conference on what it would be like to design internet access for future Martian colonists. After a few minutes I realized that old store-and-forward protocols like NNTP would work great for space, and I was surprised to discover that the speaker had never even heard of USENET. Does IPNSIG have any graybeards who can mine protocols of yesteryear for new ideas?

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    A meeting was canceled at the last minute, so everyone in the lab just got to enjoy the free lunch that was already ordered for it. It doesn't get much better than that in academia! 😋

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    Idly wondering what the Apple press would write and podcast about for the two months leading up to WWDC if Mark Gurman got hit by a bus.

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @ivory I’ve got a yearly subscription for iOS and iPadOS. Is it possible to add the new macOS app to the subscription? If so, what’s the process?

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @ivory Thanks! I’ll give it a try when I get home tonight!

    waltman, to random
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    This week's episode of is all about how basic engineering tools like nails and springs have changed the world. I learned that the wheel was first invented to spin clay to make pots, and that it took another 1000 years before anyone turned it on its side and used it for transportation.

    This is how we can tell that Star Wars takes place "a long time ago."

    deafferret, to random

    TIL that hearses don’t look like hearses anymore. They look like long minivans. Presumably my neighbor passed last night. I met him a couple times, but didn’t know him well.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @deafferret One of the paths to my lab takes me past Penn’s hospital. There’s a driveway I never paid much attention to until one day I was on campus during the height of the pandemic and saw a hearse pulling out of there. Turns out that’s where the hospital’s morgue is. I don’t recall exactly what it looked like, but it was obviously a hearse.

    ChristosArgyrop, to Perl
    @ChristosArgyrop@mstdn.science avatar

    WTF is wrong with people and their hatred for ?
    @Perl

    image/jpeg

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @deafferret @mjgardner How did you miss seeing any of the COBOL talks I’ve done at YAPCs over the years?

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @deafferret @mjgardner If you should ever find yourself needing to parse fixed-length records with no delimiters (some legacy government data is provided in this format) then that might be a good excuse to learn a little COBOL.

    waltman,
    @waltman@hachyderm.io avatar

    @deafferret @mjgardner Someday I should write a module that can do something similar using COBOL picture statements as input!

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