It would have been easier to select which OS's are not a part of my computer ecosystem.
Laptop is OS X(but dual-boot into Win7 as needed), work workstation is Win7, work servers are Linux, HTPC is a chomeOS (box), phone, tablet and 2nd HTPC are Android.
I'm a workaholic with ADD. I'm using any number of the above devices at the same time whether at the office or on the couch.
As a senior in high school, a pair NASA mech. engineers allowed me to shadow them. I had no experience in the field, nor current acceptance into an engineering program. They took me in and let me to work with flight hardware (presently taking 3D images of the sun [1]). They had to jump through hoops to get me in the door. The jobs were reserved for UC Berkeley students, and for some reason, they picked me.
It was an amazing, life changing experience. I got through some of my hardest engineering exams knowing I'd one day get to do something as cool as them. I now build research instruments for physical oceanography. I'm not at all surprised I stayed in a field of exploratory science.
If you've got a staff ID and a paystub I imagine you're good. Definitely bring a paystub if your ID doesn't have validity dates printed on it. A friend works for a university and his ID alone was insufficient as it just had his name and photograph on it; he had to get on his smartphone and call up his paystub on the university HR website.
Also they say they won't let you convert an academic ticket to a full price ticket, so if you quit your job before I/O it sounds like they'll just turn you away at the door for not being eligible.
The last 10% has little to do with the number of remaining items, and all to do with the type of tasks and mental blocks. Project fatigue sets in.
Within the last 10% are small details pushed aside as the pace was chugging along for the other 90%. Seemingly trivial problems are hidden until the end, during which, developers/engineers are most eager to move on to the next mentally stimulating new project.
I think there is a reason why in schooling, 'A' level work requires a completion of that last 10%.
I often hear beginner programmers state they cannot program, only write code that will work. I hear this commonly among Elec. and Mech. E fields, where coding is secondary in the education.
It takes reading other peoples code to realize plenty of poor code has shipped and generated revenue. Yours may not be so bad.
I'm guilty of the SSD fear. My first Intel (320) drive was meticulously maintained in fear of shortened life span and performance losses. I went so far as to question every file copied to the drive vs. mounting an external HDD. The thing bricked itself due to a firmware bug in less than 12 months.
Using a Samsung drive now. I don't think about read/writes anymore. I just use the darn thing.
> The thing bricked itself due to a firmware bug in less than 12 months.
Was it an OCZ, by any chance? The exact same thing happened to me. I scrupulously avoided unnecessary wear, disabled swap (though I've been disabling swap for years), mounted /tmp on a RAM disk, and the accurs't thing killed itself stone dead waking from sleep due to a firmware bug.
The 320 had a brickable fw bug? I have 5-10 or so in production and have no issues. Maybe mine have a newer FW. I always update them when I give them out.
It's pretty well documented. The supposed firmware fix doesn't fix the issue [1]
This drive came with my x220 (160gb), shipped March 2012. I have a second Intel 320 (120gb) which is older, and hasn't exhibited issue. Lenovo replaced the 160gb 320 under warranty. I opted to go with a 256gb Samsung 840 pro. The 320's are now external drives.
Recently started using the chicklet one. The layout is ok, but not as good as the classic, for me, mainly because the home/end keys are harder to find and they are quite useful. Apart from that, it's not bad, although I preferred having a menu button on my thumb than a print screen button.
I preferred the feel slightly on the classic thinkpad keyboards, but these keys feel bigger in use which is nice too. Having the arrow keys separated slightly is a big win. So yeah, while I do slightly prefer the classic keyboard, I don't think there's much in it, and the underlighting is quite nice.
Mac as well. Small Mac keyboards has this, big has ctrl in the "correct" position. On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.
>On the Mac there is no setting "bios" or otherwise to remap it though.
That might be literally true for some sense of the word "setting", but its certainly misleading: in the lower levels of OS X, the function key can almost certainly be remapped to control.
The only reason I had to add the qualifier "almost certainly" is that I never had to learn how to use OS X's analog to loadkeys or xmodmap because for my purposes it sufficed for Emacs to swap function with control.
But since Emacs has access to the "raw scancode" for the function key, OS X must have it, too.
In other words, the Mac is not like one of those PC laptops where the interpretation of "the function modifier bit" takes place at a level lower than the OS. Consequently I would be shocked if there were no way to swap function with control OS-wide if one is willing to research the question on the net.
On the other hand, you can trivially remap CapsLock to control, and then why would you care about the bottom-left control when you've got a big one right in the (vertical) center of the left-hand side?
Probably because those of us who grew up with PC keyboards instead of workstation keyboards are used to pressing Ctrl with our pinky or palm. Still, Caps Lock remains an essentially useless key ripe for remapping.
Probably the piece I was missing. I grew up on PC keyboards but never hit Ctrl with my palm (I can't even figure out how I'd do it). And thus never understood the love some have for a control key in the bottom-left corner (with Fn between Alt and Control): even without the Caps remap, Ctrl next to Alt (as on thinkpads and macs) means easier pinkie travel (almost solely vertical versus an awkward stretch to the bottom and side) compared to a Ctrl stuffed in the far corner.
I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand. It's more difficult to do this on a laptop keyboard than my Model M.
> I guess it's not exactly my palm that I use, but the first joint where the pinky meets the hand.
Yes, that's how I figured it'd work (as the palm would require having the fingers over the top of the keyboard), but I still find it odd.
Then again, my "desktop" keyboard has been an MS Natural Ergo 4000 for the last decade or so, so it's got a very small control key with precious little definition compared to the surrounding keys, can't help either.
> I've just found their service on hardware to be abysmal for replacement or fix. I had a T430 that I spent over 1 month trying to RMA the box.
I've owned a number of thinkpads (t41p,t61p,x220) and all have been depo repaired under warranty at one time or another. Turn around has NEVER exceeded 4 business days from time of calling the support center. Replacements include the logic board, screen, or just them sending me a replacement hard drive.
Laptop is OS X(but dual-boot into Win7 as needed), work workstation is Win7, work servers are Linux, HTPC is a chomeOS (box), phone, tablet and 2nd HTPC are Android.
I'm a workaholic with ADD. I'm using any number of the above devices at the same time whether at the office or on the couch.