jrtom

found here: http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/09/19/1223213.shtml

referencing

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5146727.html

and if you want to go straight to the posting:

http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=62398554&AVSDM=2007-09-18+00%3A00%3A04&Logo=0&sort=rv&vw=d&brd=3876&ss=0&customapplicant=15513,15514,15515,15669,15523,15512,15516,45575&q=astronaut

This is really happening at the wrong time of my life. Dang it.

(Screw "where's my flying car?", I want to know where my trip to Alpha Centauri is. Or even the Moon. Or, hell, even LEO.)

My friend fdmts recently posted a brief note regarding some unexpectedly positive feedback from one of his customers. Apparently he's somewhat taken aback (albeit partially in jest) at this.

In the comments, I noted that this sort of thing is why I like working on JUNG.

More fundamentally, though, it's occurred to me that this is part of why I like working in a setting in which I have "customers" of some sort or another. In academia, positive feedback arrives in the form of accepted papers, citations, promotions, and perhaps occasional positive comments after presentations ("that's really cool--I wonder what happens if you..."). This is all cool...but rarely, however, will you hear something of the form "hey, what you did really helped me solve this problem--thanks!"

It's not just that I want to work on real problems, but I like being _seen_ to be have helped people with real problems. Vain, perhaps, but there you go.

Somehow I'd received the impression that Google researchers don't publish a whole lot, and considered this a reason to be less enthusiastic about working there (in part because I'd like to leave my options open for an academic career later). Then I found this page: Papers written by Googlers

Now, one good question is how much of this was written before the respective authors started working at Google (among other things, I notice Russell and Norvig's AI text on the list, which I know has been around since before Norvig (?) started there). But it's somewhat encouraging, nonetheless.