Stephen Hawking Looking For Personal Techie 289
kaptink writes "One of the great grandmasters of space, time and the history of our existence is seeking an assistant to help develop and maintain the electronic speech system that allows him to communicate his vision of the universe. An informal job ad posted on Stephen's website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel and able to repair electronic devices 'with no instruction manual or technical support.' He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but has something based on NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesizer mounted on his wheelchair that helps synthesize speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesizer's robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking's wheelchair — isn't just for speaking. It can connect to the internet over mobile phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office. It's a complicated, tailor-made system, as the ad makes clear. A photograph of the back of Hawking's wheelchair, loaded with coiled wires and electronic equipment, is pictured under the words: 'Could you maintain this? If your answer is "yes", we'd like to hear from you!'. Hawking's website says that the job's salary is expected to be about $38,500 a year."
also (Score:5, Funny)
also he will steal your girlfriend if you have one.
Re:also (Score:5, Funny)
The pay is pretty low, all things considered. I guess Hawking is relying on his rock star status. Would be a helluva thing to put on your resume, though. "Maintained Stephen Hawking's cyborg interface."
Re:also (Score:5, Insightful)
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working with SK would be great!
I'm not so sure I'd accept living (and traveling in/out of) the UK.
yes, that, itself, is a show-stopper.
it wasn't always that way with me; I used to travel somewhat regularly (business paid travel) to the UK. but that was before they started studying orwell's 'instructions' a bit too much and using it as a model for their new society.
Re:also (Score:5, Funny)
working with SK would be great!
Yes, but this is SH. He's cool too, but his books are less realistic.
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"It's an honor to work for you Mr. Hawking. Now you could please help me go over my high school physics textbook? I still don't know the fucking difference between an Ohm and a Watt. Something about the resistance? Are they talking about Solidarity?
Re:also (Score:5, Funny)
On the plus side, somebody on the "care team" gets to wipe his ass once or twice a day.
What I see is "Make sure your job contract does not state "and other duties" in small print". Also, the paycheck is miniscule... $18.50 an hour for someone who has IT and electrical engineering knowledge? He obviously agrees with Sheldon Cooper's view on engineers :)
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What is the logical fallacy in question?
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I'd wager Hawking doesn't say "God did it."
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What in modern physics (I assume you refer to the Big Bang theory?) describes gravity as "making decisions"?
I mean, you could possibly interpret it that way, but it would be as meaningful as saying that things fall down "because gravity decides so".
Re:also (Score:5, Insightful)
[citation required]
Valid point (Score:5, Insightful)
The circles that he would travel in would be quite prestigious. In the science community he'd be regularly in the presence of some of the greatest minds alive today. In the political community, he's among the "Rock Stars" that politicians want to have pictures of themselves standing next to... as if the association would make them smarter.
On top of that... companies focused on making hardware/software solutions would almost certainly consider a person who worked directly with Steven Hawkings on his accessibility solutions as an ideal CTO for their company. If a person is interested in accessibility solutions as a career and would be interested in starting a business, obtaining government grants or simply raising money for the company would be simple having had that position earlier.
I'd imagine that there are even some great UN posts for someone who held this position. Technical adviser or chairman of this committee of another.
So... while the pay sucks majors balls... if a person sticks around in this position for 4-5 years... they can almost certainly gain the visibility and even a certain level of prestige which would secure their future indefinitely.
Oh... the fact that the person could in theory learn something along the way or even have the opportunity to test their system upgrades by having high level conversations about theoretical physics with a person, who though not as amazing as the press makes him, but still certainly capable of holding his own might be a big bonus for some.
If I weren't married with kids, I would seriously consider this position.
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Is it really? I don't imagine that the hours would even close to approach a part time job. You are only maintaining a very small amount of electronics.
Getting paid $40K a year for re-soldering a handful of wires is hardly a small amount.
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it sounds like you are *always* on-call and if he travels, you travel with him. you're the repair guy and can't be some plane ride away if his shit breaks down.
at least that's my take on what the job is about. its tech support, high pressure, and you have to be not-to-far-away from where he is at all times. that sounds pretty style-cramping, to me.
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I would pay for this !!
I am unfortunately probably not good enough for a start, and then, children, house to pay,
But 15 years ago, I can't imagine I wouldn't have tried very hard to get such an opportunity
I'd be right there with my paper saying
Will do it for food (*)
(*) food is negotiable
Also, what is it with all those posts somehow diminishing Stephen Hawking's value
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You know... (Score:5, Interesting)
The significant drop in salary could well be worth it. Being able to talk to the man every day, see how he works. What an interesting job indeed!
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
You could also probably supplement it later by writing a book or something about being Stephen Hawking's techie. It's a nice attention-grabber to have on your resume, too.
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You seriously don't think this would be a daily affair do you? $38k for a "johnny on the spot" maintenance and upgrades guy is a pretty good pay scale for P/T work.
However, this guy's time is valuable and I highly doubt you'll be afforded any private time to converse and pick his brain on the few occasions you do get around him
Especially since he wont be able to converse while you do your work since his means of talking is what you'll be repairing.
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Given the system description- a bunch of cobbled together bits with no documentation- I'd be surprised if it could actually make it more than an hour or two without crashing.
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I don't know -- I get the impression that he's bitter about his ALS and says there's no God b/c he has his condition.
Well at least he's doing something about it. Trying to prove there is no god and all.. Most people are to lazy to try...
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I don't know -- I get the impression that he's bitter about his ALS and says there's no God b/c he has his condition.
Well at least he's doing something about it. Trying to prove there is no god and all.. Most people are to lazy to try...
It's a misnomer to say physics presumes the non-existence of a god. I further fail to see a link between studying black-holes and anything related to god.
That's a difference between science and religion, by the way. All scientific hypothesis must be testable for them ever to become theories. TESTABLE. If a hypothesis can never be tested...it's slipped over to the religion side of things.
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Not really. There's an enormous gulf between a religion and the more esoteric parts of string theory. One of them is a religion, and the other is, well, a more esoteric part of string theory. I think it's probably better to say that if a hypothesis can never be tested... it's slipped over to the maths side of things.
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I think it's probably better to say that if a hypothesis can never be tested... it's slipped over to the maths side of things.
In other words, God just adds up.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know -- I get the impression that he's bitter about his ALS and says there's no God b/c he has his condition.
Got a reference to back that up?
I've heard he's not a pleasant person to work with in the past. But, I think it's a stretch to say his work in physics has been fueled by some deep hate of his condition and a rage toward some guilty god... ...I bet it's more likely a chance to explore the universe outside of his rather confined body.
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His work on atheism isn't physics. It's philosophy, and from what I've seen so far, he's particularly bad at it. He should have stuck to physics.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You know... (Score:5, Funny)
I followed him into the hole, falling down a thousand feet and landing on my ass next to this car that also kinda looked like a tank. The keys were left in the ignition, so I drove it around and used its ability to fly and climb walls to blow shit up. I finally found Fred, but he wasn't looking or acting the same as he used to (he was trying to kill me), so that made me so sad I had to kill him in self-defense -- once in level 4 and again in level 7.
I lost everything in that hell. I had to kill the frog I loved, twice, and now my car broke down on me so I'm sitting on a hilltop in this strange underword wondering what the fuck I'm gonna do. There, you happy?
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It used to drive me insane when I was at a catholic school. Now, really who cares. If you believe in god, you'll be easier to manipulate. Your loss.
Downside (Score:5, Funny)
If you make a mistake the world will say you broke Stephen Hawking.
Re:Downside (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine, you can make him say anything you want. I would make him speak in 'Mars Attack' martian voice: tak tak taaak. Or maybe random obscenities a la Tourette...
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link to the picture (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.hawking.org.uk/ [hawking.org.uk]
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"These pages have been designed to make your access to the information as straight forward as possible."
Written in a small, fuzzy, white on black font as a gif image *facepalm*
But then again, I guess a screen-reader is kind of the opposite of Steven Hawking and could theoretically (no pun intended) be considered his nemesis...
pay is low what is the budget for hardware (Score:2)
How much will he pay to just on the hardware costs? If he can't pay a good rate to get a good person much will he pay on the up keep costs?
The story behind this (Score:5, Funny)
most likely goes like this:
- some genius put that original backpack computer together
- he barely made it work, but he was not sure why it worked and he never bothered to write any documentation
- he left as soon as it was up and running, out of fear that it might break any moment and he had no idea what to do then
- now it is breaking apart and the genius is gone.
- it is your job to fix it, good luck
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"he barely made it work, but he was not sure why it worked and he never bothered to write any documentation"
From the site:
'Maintenance of "black box" systems with no instruction manual or technical support '
Alarm! Alarm!
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most likely goes like this:
- some genius put that original backpack computer together
- he barely made it work, but he was not sure why it worked and he never bothered to write any documentation
- he left as soon as it was up and running, out of fear that it might break any moment and he had no idea what to do then
- now it is breaking apart and the genius is gone.
- it is your job to fix it, good luck
Is this going to be the next Half-life story line?
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Sounds like a opportunity to reverse engineer it and make it available more generally for those in a similar situation.
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Don't worry; we don't have state licensing or certification for EEs over here.
Diverse skills (Score:5, Informative)
This entails a lot more than just technical aspects:
Sounds like a lot of direct PR stuff is involved, including scheduling and logistics, and even graphics design, which are probably not skills the typical techie would be strong in. Also, the pay sounds kind of low considering it's a whole lot more than just maintaining his technology.
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He's pretty much looking for a personal assistant.
Re:Diverse skills (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like a lot of direct PR stuff is involved, including scheduling and logistics, and even graphics design, which are probably not skills the typical techie would be strong in. Also, the pay sounds kind of low considering it's a whole lot more than just maintaining his technology.
I agree, there's a lot of people in this thread saying that complaining about the pay is ridiculous but for all you're expected to do and all you'll have to know to do it it's actually very little money. It's grad student money. It's fucking insulting, is what it is. If you have some serious physics problems he promises to help you with, it might be worth it. We're talking about maybe only one job's worth of work, but it's three careers' worth of skills, and inadequate pay for any of them.
Good luck (Score:5, Insightful)
Finding someone for that kind of pay who is able to do all of this and do it well won't be easy:
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I suspect if they get someone it'll be for one or two years, after which they'll drop all the technical requirements and hire someone to focus on just the PR stuff, hoping that the rejigged machine outlasts Hawking.
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Finding someone for that kind of pay who is able to do all of this and do it well won't be easy:
Academics have a name for such people. They're called "grad students".
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Finding someone for that kind of pay who is able to do all of this and do it well won't be easy:
Academics have a name for such people. They're called "grad students".
Basically, yes. But then you'll be responsible to keep all that tech not only maintained but also up and running while replacing and updating it, and this with someone who has (probably) only very limited years to live and work. Breaking this old tech and then working half a year on a real new, real good, full-featured modern replacement for it is not really an option.
Well, I'm not saying he won't find someone. Could be a cool and rewarding job anyway.
Jedi Hand Wave (Score:3)
Are you all kidding me? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is for a graduate assistant to STEPHEN HAWKING.
My stipend was 1/4 of that at best and, oh yeah, did I mention... This is for a graduate assistant to STEPHEN W. HAWKING.
I know you guys are all so F'ing incredible that you don't need resume bullets or care about other peoples' ideas, but how's about
Um, if I were eligible I'd be making them KNOW I was their man!
Re:Are you all kidding me? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is for a graduate assistant to STEPHEN HAWKING.
No, not really. It is for a personal assistant who has some technical skills to maintain the assistive devices he uses.
A graduate assistant position is a part-time position that is used to fund PhD or MS students while they are studying, and the webpage is quite explicit in saying that this is NOT a position for someone who wants to study physics. This position has nothing to do with a graduate student.
One thing universities are quite clear on, at least those I've attended and worked at, is that if you aren't a graduate student you aren't eligible for graduate assistantships. In fact, we just had a student graduate who needed a short-term position until her real job started, and she was not allowed to be a GRA, she had to get an appointment as a faculty assistant.
Not that this job wouldn't be interesting, but it would be more of a caretaker than an academic relationship.
He needs an upgrade. (Score:2)
It's truly amazing what having to think before you speak can accomplish.
If I remember correctly he was stuck on some long discontinued TI speech synthesis chip. I remember the initial story when they first did it in particular because I also was playing with a similar part at the time in High School.
Finding parts and people has to be getting difficult.
At the same time I can completely understand him not wanting to upgrade his system, from the GUI he's used very successful for 25 years or Voice that has now
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Worst case it can be done as a series of recordings from the original chip.
No, worst case would be having Majel Barret record the voice. Or would it be worst? Imagine, one of the most famous scientists of all time speaking in the voice of one of the most famous computer systems of all time?
Or maybe as Hal? "What's the equation for the sixth string dimension, Stephen?" "I can't do that, Dave".
I'd offer my FSW Votrax unit, if I knew which box I had it stored in and it still works.
Re:He needs an upgrade. (Score:5, Informative)
If he can get Majel to record the voice, then he will have once again turned our understanding of the linearity of time completely upside down.
Does he read /.? (Score:4, Insightful)
Does he read /.?
That may be important to consider, before you post.
Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems the Green-Eyed Monster (and this global recession) has ruined a lot of folks. The way I see it, the fact that Hawking is likely footing the bill for the room, board, and travel expenses of whoever gets the gig (as they would be considered a member of his 'care team'), not to mention getting to hang out with Stephen fucking Hawking, $38,000 per annum seems like a pretty damn good deal.
Now, if only I could get my wife on board... I wonder if he needs an economist, too...
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Sad, isn't it? And if it's not about the money, it's because "I think he's wrong about X." As if agreeing with a guy is a necessary condition for respecting a guy. I'm not putting Hawking on a pedestal -- I'd gladly take $38k to work for any of a number of top scientists.
I understand that people with families and debts and complicated lives can't just drop everything... But I get the feeling most of the whiners in here are obnoxious 20-somethings. Older people can recognize the value in this, even if there'
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Old people on the other hand have a better idea of how much their expertise is worth.
Older people should also have a better understanding of what friends and colleagues are worth.
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But young people won't have the expertise. At this pay rate, we will either get a senior person who is unmarried, noone to support, and is willing to take a pay cut, or someone who wuill need 2 years to get up to speed.
And after your hero has drooled on you for enough hours, demanding you 24/7 and you had to deal with other 'situation' after a couple of years a new job will be looking pretty nice. For most people.
Some people can dedicate themselves to this for a fraction of what they could make elsewhere. A
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thinking he is and actually is are two totally separate things, a lot a below average salary break fix job is going to do anyone when you have to spend 3 weeks in a 200+ dollar a night hotel
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
So, here we have a golden opportunity to work for one of the most brilliant humans to ever exist, tinkering with an amazing if poorly documented system, jetsetting around the globe, being paid to attend sold-out physics lectures... and all half the /. community can think to do is bitch about the pay grade.Seems the Green-Eyed Monster (and this global recession) has ruined a lot of folks.
I am the sole earner for my family. When I can pay the bills for their food, clothing, shelter medical, education and transport by saying I work for Steven Hawking (let alone having anything on the side to buy luxury items like gadgets) you can call me greedy. In the mean time grow up and stop calling people greedy when it is clear you don't have much of a grasp on what it might be like to really struggle. This is a job. Unless you're independently wealthy, you do it for the pay. You are not going to be paid to smoke a pipe and discuss the universe with Hawking - you are going to be his servant.
This may come as some surprise to you, but many people manage to support a family on "only" $40K a year - without public assistance. Maybe they don't live in a house as nice as yours or drive a car as nice as yours, but there's no reason why you can't support a 4 person household on $40K/year. But they don't buy many gadgets.
I'm not independently wealthy, but I chose to take a job working for a non-profit for less pay. It's not all about the money for all people. I do get paid (and it's more than $40K/year), but I think the cause of the non-profit is worth taking a lower salary.
I don't think this job is Hawking's servant any more than I am the servant of my current boss.
The way I see it, the fact that Hawking is likely footing the bill for the room, board, and travel expenses of whoever gets the gig (as they would be considered a member of his 'care team'), not to mention getting to hang out with Stephen fucking Hawking, $38,000 per annum seems like a pretty damn good deal.
Now, if only I could get my wife on board... I wonder if he needs an economist, too...
If you're seriously considering perhaps your wife would do better with a counsellor or failing that a divorce lawyer. You are suppose to be the bread winner for your family - travelling and getting free board may appeal to you but you are displaying a non-financial form of greed by not thinking about your family.
What do you mean he is supposed to be the bread winner for his family? Do you live in the 1950's when every wife was destined to stay home, raise the kids, and every day, touch up her makeup and meet the man of the house with his martini every night? A father doesn't have to buy his kids gadgets to show he's thinking of him - how about taking his son to work to help him refurbish a famous physicist's wheel chair? How about exposing his daughter to an extremely accomplished disabled man to show her that she can be anyone she wants to be - she doesn't have to relegate herself to being a housewife solely dependent upon her husband as the breadwinner for the family.
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The only thing I can think to add is that perhaps OP is the one who has some growing up to do.
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Well, I had intended to respond to this royal asshat's baseless assumptions regarding my rationale, but you've done a fine job of covering the major points quite succinctly. Commendable, sir.
The only thing I can think to add is that perhaps OP is the one who has some growing up to do.
Thanks, I just hate it when someone says "Well, if you don't subscribe to my narrow world view, then you aren't doing it right". Just because one person thinks it's important to have enough money to buy gadgets or "sports programs" (what is that? TV pay per view wrestling? Soccer camp?) for their children doesn't mean that someone is a bad parent if he does not.
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get buy on 40k, but support?
For me support means College, sports programs, and some luxury. Living in an apartment, paycheck to paycheck and your kids needing to work and probably end up in the same rut is not supporting them.
That wasn't a made up example, one of my siblings raised a family of 5 on no more than $40,000/year (combined income, many years it was lower - I know this because I helped them with taxes for years). They lived in a small town, originally in a mobile home, but through an FHA guaranteed loan they were able to purchase a small house (and now own it outright). Their eldest son chose a trade school (which his parents helped him to pay for). He's making a decent living as a carpenter. Their middle child start
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Just to clarify my own post:
That wasn't a made up example, one of my siblings raised a family of 5 on no more than $40,000/year (combined income, many years it was lower
That's a household of 5: 3 children + 2 parents.
If only (Score:2)
If only I were about 10 years younger (back when I had my hands into more hardware and with no house payment or wife), I'd take that job, work on improving most of his cobbled together hardware with something a little more modern (and software controlled) and open source it so others can benefit from the same thing.
Getting paid £25k/year to hang out with Stephen Hawking sounds like the geek chance of a lifetime.
Better interfaces (Score:2)
Link the EEG from a Force Trainer into a computer with a eye scanning device and a android tablet in front of him. He could use the EEG device to let the eye scanning computer to know when to start looking at his eye movements, it would track wher
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It's more or less the average wage in the UK.
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It's on the low-end in southern California. That's around what most grocery store clerks make out here.
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Good thing the job isn't being advertised in southern California then. Unless something dramatic happened, Hawking divides his time chiefly between Cambridge and Waterloo.
Seriously, what?
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It's actually towards the higher end of average for a technical position.
The thing to keep in mind with UK vs US wages, however, is that we get a LOT more holiday time. Legally it's a 28 days/year minimum: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10029788 [direct.gov.uk]
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You don't pay the average wage for highly skilled IT work. If you did, nobody would go into it.
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Junior lecturers (assistant professor in US-speak) in the UK start on about the same -- and they will normally have PhDs. It's not a bad salary for a recent graduate, which seems to be what Hawking is looking for.
Re:Peanuts (Score:5, Informative)
The summary actually overstated the technical aspects, the actual job advert [hawking.org.uk] states that maintaining the speech system is only part of the position.
Managing national and international travel for Prof. Hawking and his care team. Expect to spend around 3 months per year abroad! Development and maintenance of Professor Hawking's communication and speech systems Procurement and maintenance of his wheelchairs and accessible van Preparation of lecture graphics and public speaking Dealing with the media and press Answering inquiries from the public and maintaining the website
Re:Peanuts (Score:4, Insightful)
Easy £50K for an EE? You're not talking about the the UK, are you?
So, it's totally irrelevant to a job based in the UK.
Re:Peanuts (Score:5, Informative)
That salary is peanuts.
The salary is for a "Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking".
Most Graduate Assistants don't make 38k...
I' (Score:2)
The salary is for a "Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking".
Most Graduate Assistants don't make 38k...
Not to mention graduate assistants generally put up with anything and everything that will get them better connections and research experience, typically with little regard to pay, and Stephen Hawking is a big frickin connection. I'm sure there are dozens of graduate students who would pay him to get that job, even take on loans to do it. Hell, I'd do that for this job and I don't give a rats ass about engineering or physics.
Re:I' (Score:5, Funny)
Which might explain why he's got a totally undocumented piece of shit to begin with.
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That salary is peanuts.
The salary is for a "Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking".
Most Graduate Assistants don't make 38k...
You wouldn't know this, since neither TFA nor TFS bothered to link to the actual post [hawking.org.uk], but most Graduate assistants also don't have to "Expect to spend around 3 months per year abroad", or all the other things on this page. You not only have to maintain his gear, but also have to be his travel agent, his press agent, his web designer, and his auto mechanic.
Re:Peanuts (Score:5, Funny)
It's only temporary until you learn to make it say to give you a pay increase...
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You have to admit it would be funny at least once.
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The job is based in Britain, so the pieces of paper won't be quite as green as you'd expect.
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Sorry if I did not immediately jump for joy when I saw that "salary". If you're a janitor with that salary you might be underpaid.
Once you say "computers" and "maintain" you have to get ready to to pay a bit extra, add "without support" and "electronics" and you've just gotten a license to bleed from your wallet.
Goodluck with the search Mr. Hawking.
WTF? Really you wouldn't want to pimp his ride? I bet MTV would give you a show and shit... Dang!
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Even people that sweep floors on shows that "pimp rides" on MTV earn more. Perhaps the appeal is not in the salary but rather in proximity to the godemperor of text2speech cyborgs.
Of course, most of us poor bastards work for a salary, not "for the love". Some of us have kids to feed, bills to pay, taxes, that sorta thing. The rest, that have nothing better to do with the money just wanna get paid fairly. You can maintain nails with better pay. Dang indeed.
No no you are not thinking this out. Greed has gotten in the way of what is really important in life... Think about it, you will have total control of one of the most important physicist of our time! Just install a joystick controller and you can make him do your biding and say whatever you want.
You would win the Internet. Trolling people with statements like "By my calculations the LHC has already begun breaking down the fabric of our universe as was prophesied. Soon the great mighty Cthulhu shall return.
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Christ you're a prick.
1. Cambridge is not California. Californian salaries - or, indeed, any other salaries - are utterly irrelevant.
2. The salary is actually about the level of a first postdoctoral position. It's not that low.
3. The salary is higher than the UK national average salary.
4. It's unlikely to be for a very long time.
5. It will increase the impact of the CV of the guy who gets the job quite impressively.
Someone who wants more money doesn't apply for the job. Someone who thinks the money is OK an
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Re:VoiceHack (Score:4, Funny)
However, gets this Job needs to change the voice to glaDOS!!!!!!
I'd settle for a patch to the speech system that ends each sentence with "puny human".
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> Steve H's latest scribble, that the universe just popped into existence and didn't need a creator was lame.
Agreed. Energy can not be created nor destroyed yet his explanation is something came from nothing. Riiiiight.
> "We just don't fucking know, and we may never know!"
As a Mystic that's the height of scientific ignorance right there: "I don't know, and neither does anyone else." Uh, no, you don't know what I know. At least the agnostics are _honest_ enough to admit, that _they_ don't know.
Scie
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Have any of you that are so excited to "work with/around Stephen Hawking" considered that aside from name-dropping value, you probably won't get anything out of it unless you are somewhere near his intellectual level and are up to speed on his current work? That's assuming he's willing to take time to share/discuss his work with you (he won't be) besides just saying "fix it and gtfo". For what this rather weighty, highly skilled/experienced, multi-talented, round-the-world on-call job actually entails the money is pathetic. If you have the former qualifications wouldn't you already be working with him or doing your own research? And with the latter qualifications I'd expect you to be making a ton of money maintaining some crazy important systems.
In a previous job (as a university AV tech), I've had the opportunity to talk a number of renown scientists in their field, and they were always happy to make small talk with me backstage while I was helping them prepare for a speaking engagement, including talking about their field of expertise in language I could understand. It seems that people who spend their lives devoted to a single subject take great pride and pleasure in talking about it, even to people who aren't experts in the field. I've come acr
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yea because shining lights and amplified audio is exactly the same as an undocumented custom built computer system that has its base in the 1980's and has had all sorts of "upgrades" patched on
you would be lucky to document one subsystem so you could just figure out what is wrong for a known grump all packed up on a rolling platform traveling the world, this aint a Pentium with a voodoo2 needing an OS upgrade
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yea because shining lights and amplified audio is exactly
Not all AV departments are created equal. At my facility they maintain all public facing electronics - everything including light controllers, projectors (from an old film projector to a state of the art digital 4K theater), moving displays, animated water displays (with 1000 discrete valves, not built in-house, but the company that built it is no longer in business), custom LED displays, etc. Some of the technology dates back to the 70's. I have no doubt that any of the AV techs could handle an automated