On Sep 18, 2005, at 9:12 AM, Charles Lockhart wrote:
This is probably mostly off-topic, and I apologize for that. If
this is not apreciated, feel free to blast me publicly or
privately, and I'll keep it strictly to Linux stuff from now on, no
hard feelings at all.
I live in Hilo, and I work for the NASA IRTF, the second oldest
telescope up on the mountain. Heh, I spent almost all of last week
living and working on the mountain. Altitude doesn't bother me for
the first few days, but by Thursday I'm really starting to burn
out, and by Friday I'm almost brain dead. Part of the problem is
that when you're up there, there isn't all that much else to do, so
you can end up working 14+ hour days without realizing it.
I do that now (at 25' ASL).
All the computer people that I know that work for an observatory
mostly work in either Hilo (I spend 98% of my time at the IfA,
which is off Komohana) or in Waimea. Note, that's just in terms of
people that I know, which doesn't range too far out.
I don't know how it is for all the other facilities, but working
for the IRTF is pretty good. The pay is decent. The hours are
decent. The vacation/sick leave are pretty good, and you actually
get to take the time off.
For the projects we work on, well, on the upside fundage is usually
reasonable, the projects are interesting, and pretty challenging.
On the downside, well, specializations for insects, I've found that
I need to know something about everything, and sometimes I don't
know enough about a particular subject and the learning curve is
frustrating (someday I'll actually KNOW something, instead of
having to LEARN something, and then I'm going to go out and get
really, really drunk). Often there's nobody around to help you.
When you search the web, you find that maybe 20 other people asked
the same question, and nobody got an answer. So you look at it,
and dig, and dig, and sometimes you still have to make your best
guess of what's going on, and why.
This sounds so much like what I've done my entire career... (OK, we
didn't have the web 20 years ago, but we had USENET!)
And yes, I meant the "getting drunk" part. :-)
I've had more practice in analytical and exploratory programming in
the last two years than I ever wanted. And then there's always a
certain amount of fear that you're going to program something wrong
and burn it up.
You get over this when you finally do.
All of our instruments and systems at the IRTF are running either
Solaris or Linux, and the general trend is for going 100% Linux.
The biggest downside I have with the job is that because it's so
tightly tied with academia, there is a certain social structure,
almost a caste system. It's a little wierd. Probably because it's
so different from Adtech/Spirent where I used to work.
I suggest a reading of Gordon MacKenzie's "Orbiting the Giant Hairball".
Not all the observatories are the same, some are worse to work for,
some are better.
This whole thread is.... just so wrong. If you don't like the
price thats offered, say so (or stay silent). But kibitzing from
the side about the Cost of Living in Hawaii? Well, its not really
any worse than Boston, or other parts on the mainland.
That was my fault. Completely. I brought it up, though I can't
remember why.
ok, now completely off topic
(Are there good schools for the kid in Hilo?)
Good schools in Hilo. Well, my kids aren't that old yet (all three
under 5), so I'm mostly relating what other people have told me.
Private school-wise I think the best in Hilo is Saint Joseph's.
They have a website. I know a few astronomers/PhD types that send
their kids to St. Jo's. It's Catholic, but you don't have to be
Catholic, but they do talk some about G*d, which some people don't
care for.
For public schools, the general sense that I get is there's a lot
of variety. At some schools, if you're kid doesn't get noticed as
being particularly smart or particularly dumb, he/she is going to
get pretty much no special treatment or notice. At other schools
they have what seem to be fairly reasonable AP courses and better
opportunities.
My personal take is that it depends a lot on the parent. The
elementary school nearest to me is only about a block away, but
it's one of the ones that probably won't give him second glance,
it'll just roll him in as another drone. If I put in a little
effort and take him to a better school, help teach him, show an
interest, and push a little here and a little there, I think he'll
do just fine.
We should probably take this part off-line. You're where I was when
Hunter was 3-4 years old. I can provide dozens of stories that might
change your mind about working with the public school teachers. But
here's one example. We do that (teach him outside the classroom,
'cause he's innately curious, as are most kids.) So, we work a lot of
math problems at home. Last year, when Hunter was in the first
grade, he caught on that "2 x 2 is 4" and "3 x 3 is 9", and then
wondered *out loud* what numbers you could multiply together to get
5, or 6 or ...
So, we explained it to him, and then gave him a name to use. "square
roots". No, we didn't teach him Newton's method, or Gauss' method
or the Binomial Theorem. (Jamie has a M.S. in math from OSU. I'm
the dumb one in the family.)
So the next day we get the angry note from his first grade teacher.
"Please don't teach Hunter advanced math concepts." I guess he'd
spouted off "I know square roots" in class. During the resultant
Parent-Teacher conference, the teacher admitted that she "didn't
remember" what square roots were. This was at Oahu's "premier blue
ribbon Elementary school".
Frankly, having a kid in class who challenged her scared her, and
that scared us, so Hunter doesn't attend public schools any more.