Ryan Turcotte ([info]shunny) wrote,
@ 2009-06-29 02:15:00
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Current location:UMass, North 205A, in bed
Current mood: swell
Current music:hummmm of netbook fan
Entry tags:amherst, career, future, graduate school, job, life

Life is good, send job
I was trying to write a quick post on my netbook before going to bed. I failed before even getting to the livejournal page. Oh well.

I'm getting rid of/selling my car, well, at some point. My registration and insurance runs out at the end of the month, and it all around comes at a good time. My car is relatively crap. It runs well, but it still has issues that need to be fixed in order to pass inspection. And as two cops have found out in the past two months, those issues haven't been fixed for two years.

Basically, I think I'm done with cars. Oil prices will go back up; peak oil is an issue and while I'm uncertain about what will happen in the next few years--I know that gasoline prices will continue to be a problem. If I'm here at Amherst for one full year, I really do not need a car. I can get a Uhaul to move back into Amherst after my research internship at UMass is done, and then I wouldn't need to figure out what to do until next May. That will save me at least my $1000 insurance, not including the car problems, gas, etc. Money wise it's a no-brainer. Maybe it will turn out to be a mistake  (like it was to throw out my rusty, old mountain bike after I realize bikes are expensive), but its something I need to do.

Things are swell. Research is okay, but I'm not all gung-ho about computer science graduate school. Part of it is that I'm not a huge fan of the project I'm currently working on--I'd say power-saving computer architectures would be my ideal research field. Wireless networks are cool, but this project I'm looking at the data on just isn't mind-blowing enough for me. Note taken: proving obvious hypotheses are not my bag of tea. I definitely need to take some time off and work somewhere at something before making future decisions (and while paying attention to which way the world is falling apart at that time). But it would be cool to go to Montreal for graduate school.

Ahhh... living it up in the slow and steady lane.




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[info]ex_bastard124
2009-06-29 11:47 am UTC (link)
peak oil is an issue

"peak oil" is one of the greatest accomplishments of the public relations industry. misframe an issue and you ensure that nobody tackles it effectively. see also; climate change.

Research is okay, but I'm not all gung-ho about computer science graduate school. Part of it is that I'm not a huge fan of the project I'm currently working on

why do you need to go to grad school? are you worried about not having enough student debt? all the people i know in your industry who went the heavy academic route are surplus population pissing about with fatuous projects. the people who have ideas or something else to contribute got out of academia at the earliest opportunity and started doing.

just find some likeminded guys and start banging ideas together. when you have something worth working on, look for investment and make it happen. even if it turns out that you don't kick ass and aren't going to revolutionise anything, grad school wasn't going to change that but at least you got to work on a project that interested you, that you thought was useful. grad school can only hold you back.

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[info]perisoft
2009-06-30 01:22 am UTC (link)
I swear to god, Shun, if I hear you mention peak oil one more time, I'm going to personally hunt you down and smack you in the face.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]shunny
2009-06-30 04:37 am UTC (link)
If I was more argumentative I'd probably write you a paper right now.

But instead, I'll just say this : peak oil, peak oil, peak oil.

If you don't want to think about it, then don't. But oil discoveries haven't kept up with production, oil production isn't growing exponentially, and the world economy still wants to keep turning. I'm pessimistic about instant catastrophe. But I'm not seeing how we're going to fix declining oil supplies over a period of decades either.

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[info]perisoft
2009-06-30 11:13 am UTC (link)
1970: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1971: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1972: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1973: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1974: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1975: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1976: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1977: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1978: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1979: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1980: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1981: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1982: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1983: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1984: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1985: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1986: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1987: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1988: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1989: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1990: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1991: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1992: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1993: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1994: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1995: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1996: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1997: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1998: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
1999: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2000: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2001: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2002: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2003: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2004: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2005: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2006: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2007: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2008: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"
2009: "Peak oil has arrived! We have ten years, no more!"

Oil supplies are finite. However, getting your news from the guys who have advocated those previous positions is... inadvisable.

I suppose you're going to tell me that next year is the year of linux on the desktop, and that magnetic media is REALLY on the way out now?

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]ex_bastard124
2009-06-30 12:57 pm UTC (link)
I'm going to say one word to you, just one word. petrodollars.

we aren't reliant on oil for energy, The People Who Own You are reliant on oil for revenue. the world will be kept on an oil based economy for as long as there is oil for TPWOY to capitalise.

we already have a 400000000000000000000000000 W fusion reactor that's been giving us free energy for billions of years. the oil you're sold is a byproduct of organic processes powered by this reactor.

even if you only attempt to harness the energy that is already hitting the Earth, you're collecting 1.4 kW per square metre, or 1.4 GW per square kilometre.

on a planet that presents a surface of around 10^14 square metres. We have something like 175 PW to play with. put another way, to match the current power output of all the world's power stations, you'd need to collect all the solar radiation falling on a region approximately the size of delware.

that's how fucked we aren't.

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