There's not enough bitching

[Merc]

He lived long, and he surely prospered. But all things come to an end.

So long, Mr. Spock.

[Kaldrak]

So there I was, adventuring in one of the minecraft mods called Runic Dungeons with my brother.  We found a strange room with only one block inside of it. Wary of a trap I entered alone and examined the block. Would it trigger some sort of explosion? Spikes? Monsters? A boss?

Alas, no.

Instead, it crashed the server and corrupted the world. So now we can't get back on. Good game Runic Dungeons. Good game.

Others have complained of this problem in this thread here:
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/1-0-2-corrupts-world-runic-dungeons-guardian-noclassdeffounderror.65195/

And the first few comments on the mod describe the bug as well:
http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/227065-runic-dungeons

I'm sorry Hal. It's not my fault, I swear. The first thread details some possible solutions.

Hey Drac, could you show Hal this post? I'm not sure when you guys are going to get up, but it'll probably be before I do.

[Dracos]

Sent him an email.  He's got a business conference he's at today, so dunno when he'll read it.

[Kaldrak]

Problem fixed. Thanks.

[Dracos]

Not quite getting stuff done.

[Kaldrak]

I know how that is, Drac. I know that feeling quite well. >_<

[Anastasia]

Ditto. I have so much to do but I'm being lazy.

[Anastasia]

I hate the adjustment period for new glasses.

[KLSymph]

Going to a research convention tomorrow. Laptop with presentation data spontaneously cracks monitor today.

Best Buy can't fix without sending somewhere for repair. Undesirable, because convention.

Spent two hours walking around downtown carrying laptop (can't close laptop to fit in backpack without cracking further), trying to find any computer repair shop using Google Maps. Failed, because Google Maps is filthy liar.

Had to stop because smartphone was running out of battery, because smartphone eats battery life like EA eats development studios.

Train home delayed extra fifteen minutes by rail work because why not.

Contemplates eating ice cream for dinner. Afraid stove will stab owner if used. On the other hand, afraid freezer will stab owner if opened. Afraid of spoon stabbing in general.

Technology.

[Dracos]

Yeah, not sure what's up with Google Maps lately, but I had a bunch of problems this weekend with it not being able to reliably show things.

[Anastasia]

I hate waking up early for appointments.

[Arakawa]

Decided I might want to try for a CS PhD from Top5University.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Go through admissions rigmarole. Accepted! (Yay.) Go for visit and look Potential Supervisor (or two) in the face. Have awkward conversation that leads to getting serious cold feet.

Send follow-up email with Penetrating Questions about What The Hell Am I Being Hired to Do. No straight answers follow, and I think I turned the guy off. (Doubly awkward when I'm the one holding the offer and making final decision.)

Maybe I do not understand this PhD thing. I think my problem is that I am thinking of a fairly specific project area, which is hard to push through when Supervisor has own (fairly arbitrary) research agenda (which I can't get anything out of him beyond vague generalities; our conversation consists of me telling him how I would guess he would pull off X thing he says he is trying to pull off, and me staring at his face and trying to divine if I guessed remotely right). Am getting a suspicion he wants me for something different, but isn't willing to say outright. Don't have enough political skill to contemplate going to manoeuvre my project into existence in spite of official agenda. (Know this from bitter experience already trying to do so once at GenericCo. Maybe grad school has more leeway for this, but seriously doubt it.)

Go and talk to old undergrad research supervisor (high-octane source of recommendation letter) about my qualms and get a "how can you be so crazy to throw away an offer from Top5" pep talk. Feel ridiculously guilty and awful, as if I've wasted everyone's time. I have about a month to try to do... whatever to turn my apathy for the whole thing into enthusiasm, wrangle answers out of the professor, find a different professor, I don't know. Is it really worth bothering, tbh?

*sighhhh*

[Arakawa]

I think that prior bitching may also just demonstrate that my real-life social skills are not up to scratch....

[Anastasia]

My opinion as someone who has never dealt with this? Follow your gut. If your gut is telling you NO NO NO, it's usually best to listen to it. If you get a bunch of people in the know telling you that you're wrong, that's one thing, but barring that I feel you're best following your instincts.

[Arakawa]

My opinion as someone who has never dealt with this? Follow your gut. If your gut is telling you NO NO NO, it's usually best to listen to it. If you get a bunch of people in the know telling you that you're wrong, that's one thing, but barring that I feel you're best following your instincts.

My gut tells me Top5 has to employ grad students as wage labour just like anywhere else, but admitting such (which would allow for some sensible negotiation as to what I'm wage-labouring at -- what type of leeway I'll have to decide) does not fit with their image of "hiring self-driven people to come up with groundbreaking research". It does not make a difference in practice because most people who apply to grad school don't have as clear opinion what to work on, so are easy to steer into the correct type of project for the supervisor. (Look at the admit candidates and count how many are there because "I want my PhD from Top5" and they have a good undergrad research trail -- with no real specific interests.)

Maybe the goal of the wage labour here is not so much "produce specific product" as "produce fashionable research", but research fashion is a helluva constraining thing, in many ways more constraining than "useful product". (not to mention it keeps changing, sometimes with no rhyme nor reason) It makes me wary when being offered to work on a topic which is already having 50 zillion papers produced in it, which seems unlikely I'll end up noticing anything interesting, let alone real-world-impact, with my tiny brain. (Logic: if they are producing 50 zillion papers and not getting anywhere, they are trying to solve an important question in a way which is inherently flawed. I might like to spend some time to study this to understand what they're doing wrong, but committing myself to be involved in this particular paper pileup seems rash.) In the end the questions I would prefer to jump into, are ones people are ignoring, which a priori requires a supervisor willing to be pushed outside their comfort zone in what they let a student work on.

Luckily I have a less ambitious offer closer to home that's more worth considering. Somehow "lower on the food chain = more freedom", or at least more honest about what the constraints are (so I can seriously think if I fit there or not).

And, of course, CS is rather unique in that a single person can do a decent project. Obviously, if I was doing Nuclear Engineering, I would not conceivably have any type of leeway in proposing what should be done.