Jim Lux wrote: > Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, on Fri 28 Mar 2008 > 05:45:41 AM PDT: > > Some tongue in cheek comments below > > >> It is off topic so I manfully resisted, but I'm glad Jim or whoever >> asked this question as I don't think one could live in the US on a >> salary of $1500/month unless it were completely tax free. Post tax this >> is likely no more than $1100. Driving a car is likely to cost $200-300 >> a month, assuming that you already own one and don't have to make either >> payments or pay excessive taxes on it. > > Off campus apartment in the student ghetto within walking/public transit > distance? > > An apartment is perhaps >> $600-1000/month unless you share it (far more in certain locales), and >> postdocs shouldn't "have" to share to survive. > > Why not? The carwasheros working for tips and migrant farmworkers > following the crops do it. Research work and grants are just another > crop, and your fingernails don't get as dirty, but you don't get to > spend time in the healthy outdoors. Adversity inspires creativity, or > something like that. > > And then food, even for >> a single person, is almost certainly going to cost $10/day or more. > > Here, the migrant farmworker DOES have an advantage since they're > standing in the midst of the food. A 70 pound sack of oats runs about > $15-20 at the feed store (2x-3x times that at the health food store), > and I can speak from personal experience that one can eat oatmeal for > many, many days from that sack. And what about Ramen noodles? > > > Add >> it up and you're already spending your salary on room and board and >> transportation, leaving one nothing for clothes, > > One really needs to buy your bulk oats in cloth bags, so you can wear > them to the lab. The modern trend towards those sort of poly fabric > materials is really putting a crimp in "dustbowl farm chic" clothing. No > more soft muslin flour sacks or burlap sacks. > > > fees and taxes, >> incidental expenses, car payments or repairs, > > What car? > > entertainment (yes, even >> postdocs need vacations and entertainment). > > The sheer joy of research and creation aren't enough? Back to the salt > mines, you slacker. At least you're not digging Emeralds in Colombia. > >> >> Honestly, I think it more likely that this posted salary is a typo of >> some sort. > > I thought the same. that's why I asked. > > > > >> I'm not sure this is truly irrelevant. Non-technical, sure, but the >> economics of clusters is a wholistic endeavor; one of the most often >> omitted factors in the discussion of cluster cost-benefit is the human >> cost of running it. At $18K canadian (which is currently within a >> percent or so exchange value with the USD) this is a low-water mark for >> the estimated cost of a human to run a cluster, actually CHEAPER than a >> graduate student who would have to make this plus (somewhere, even as a >> bookkeeping entry ) the cost of tuition > > > This is order of magnitude of >> $100/node/year for cluster sizes of 50-200 nodes for management, down >> there with the cost of power and a maintenance contract, an even better >> deal of the postdoc ever did any real "research" on the side. I'd be >> very interested in whether or not they fill the position at this price. > > And this is why a standard sort of "per desktop computer" fee of a > couple hundred bucks a month in most companies isn't all that unreasonable. > > > > > >> >>> Joe (a free-market capitalist) >> >> rgb (ditto, but remember Adam Smith's invisible hand WILL just "work") > > But not necessarily in a way that will be pleasant or desirable for YOU. > And I don't know that Smith contemplated the concept of multiple hands > with mutual interactions. > > Jim
Have you ever considered a turn on the comedy circuit? This is brilliant sardonic humour. -- Geoffrey D. Jacobs _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
