From: c23st@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com (Spiros Triantafyllopoulos)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: Bleak news from the academic job market
Keywords: Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be scientists...
Date: 9 Nov 92 15:40:03 GMT
Organization: Delco Electronics Corp.

In article <Nov.9.09.33.27.1992.22518@cadenza.rutgers.edu> masticol@cadenza.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) writes:
>More so. I have a chance to do my own thing on my own schedule, under
>my own supervision, and with smarter people, and in a livelier place.
>And work on some stuff that's new enough not to have been put in the
>cookbooks yet, i.e., research. And teach people a few things that may
>help them get along in life.  And, while I admit it's a long shot,
>what I do might just do somebody some good sometime.

Perhaps an academician's dictionary would help:

Schedule: whenever we %%^&&&% get done. (if EVER)
My own supervision: report not only to the dean but to the folks who
	gave us the grant, half a dozen different commitees, etc, etc.
Smarter people: eternal students (i was one, 10 years, 3 degrees)
Livelier place: New Joicey! (Sorry, could not resist..)
Teach people: have the TA do it.
Do somebody good: take off two bytes from the bubble sort algorithm
	or invent yet another method to parse a tree

>Enjoy Delco, Kokomo, and Monday Night Sportsball, Spiros. (Smiley-like
>mark indicating irony.)

Not football, for Gawds Sake! This is NBA country! As far as smarts go
locally, the patents wall (patents awarded to my organization) is quite
plentiful. They were adequate to, say, guide the Apollo to the moon and
back, most 747's, do the moon rover, or produce around 10,000,000 
computers a year.

>We now return you to the science research careers portion of our program.

Don't be so quick to dismiss industry. Here projects are driven by
market needs, not by some guy at the National Science Foundation or 
the Congress. While Kokomo is not the cultural haven of the United
States (hell, I live in Indianapolis, a cool 30 miles/minutes away),
it does have a few niceties. And to me at least, the satisfaction of
seeing my software used in production by real people doing real work
(and exciting work at that) is very gratifying.

I've done my share of research thru a NASA res.assistantship,
published a couple of (I think) interesting papers, worked for a
couple of years at the research labs of my employer working on
interactive development environments and visual languages, and used to
think JUST like you till I walked the floor and saw my software being
put to use by people I don't know, they don't know me, and have no
problem cursing me if my software does not work.

But to each his/her own I guess.

>      _/_/_/    _/_/_/_/    _/        _/  Stephen P. Masticola          .^.
>    _/         _/     _/   _/_/    _/_/  ProLangs  Research  Group     /   7
>   _/         _/     _/   _/ _/  _/ _/  Dept. of Computer Science     (   C 
>    _/_/     _/_/_/_/    _/  _/_/  _/  Rutgers University              \   `J
>       _/   _/          _/   _/   _/  Hill Center, Busch Campus        ,>   /
>      _/   _/          _/        _/  New Brunswick,  NJ  08904        (    //
>_/_/_/    _/          _/        _/  masticol @ cs.rutgers.edu 	       \  //
>                                   Voice:   (908) 932 - 4070 		`U   
>                                  Fax:     (908) 932 - 0537              '
>_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
>_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

And, of course, Academia lets you get away with longer signatures :-)

Spiros
-- 
Spiros Triantafyllopoulos                    c23st@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com
Software Technology, Delco Electronics       striantafyll@kosds1.gm.hac.com
GM Hughes Electronics, Kokomo, IN 46904      [A Different Kind of Disclaimer]