One thing I find extremely helpful in my research, is the ability to download citations for articles my co-workers send. I like to import them into BibDesk and auto-file the journal articles by first-author. Unfortunately, not everyone has Bibtex export abilities. This isn’t too bad, as BibDesk imports most major citation files. One thing that I do abhorr, is when a major company decides not to offer a citation download option! Science Direct is the fellow who gets my wrath this evening. It’s so bad I’ve been looking for other companies who keep track of journals that have downloads for the ones that Science Direct publishes!
I wonder if you pay their absurd journal prices, if you get citation downloads…
For more on Absurd Journal pricing, see: Knuth and “Trapped…”
Quick one for today. Social shipping/retailer company ShopATron seems like a great way to sell things with minimal hastle. Why? Because you’re not actually selling them- little shops around the country are filling the orders for you. There’s just one problem- today’s consumer is used to fast and smooth transactions with good and fast communcation between seller and buyer. If that’s what you want as a consumer, it sounds like ShopATron may not be the way to get it.
To read the story about my experience and a post by a Faber-Castell representative, read on… Read More »
Here’s a quick post. I saw on my affiliate store last night that if you click through my link and try out an Amazon Prime membership, you get the following:
Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of Amazon.com Items
Overnight Shipping upgrades for only $3.99 per item
Ability to share benefits with up to 4 household members
1 Month Free Trial
Now, a small warning- after 1 month, this is a paid-for membership service from Amazon. But, you get it free for 1 month. You just have to remember to quit before the month’s up. If you click through my link below, I get some cash! [Amazing!] Now, for any of my readers, this is not important, but if you want to try out Amazon prime, that’s awesome. [I tried it, and it's like Christmas with the 2-day shipping on every item eligible on Amazon (Amazon shipping products).]
Those of you who know the Rockett group well, have likely seen this video. It’s completely hilarious. Anyone who’s ever been in Graduate School will love it…
This post is not exactly the status quo for this blog, but I wanted to share with you two things. First, that there are some wonderful companies out there that are very helpful. Second, that sometimes spammers do anything they can to spam.
I’ve been receiving a few SMS messages from number 83960 that were pretty much junk, nothing useful there at all, and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Perhaps it’s a company I recently decided to try out (beta software for phone productivity applications), or perhaps it’s a spammer. My bet right now is a spammer.
This is a tale of amazing customer service, and what the real skinny on 83960 is… (read more by clicking through below)
Here’s a great Chemistry PSA that reminds me of a teacher I had at Grand River Collegiate Institute in Ontario. I’ll have to dig up his name. He described all the different types of bonding pretty much in terms of relationships. It was simplistic but genius. If I remember his name, or dig out the old year book, I’ll update this post with it.
For those of you who have known me for a significant amount of time, you have likely received some form of Apple iCard from me. I used to love that service dearly. It was part of the .Mac suite of webpages from Apple. The beauty of the site is that it was populated with beautiful images, enabled you to use it whether on a mac or IBM (shudder), included absolutely no spam whatsoever, and was embedded as an image into an e-mail message that was sent to the e-mail you specified. It was simple, beautiful, and just darn worked.
Now, I have the unfortunate frustration of trying to find another solution that is similar and as easy on the receiver as iCards was. No fun, Apple. So, Apple iCards is no iMore because of the introduction of Apple’s often frustrating often hated MobileMe push service for the iPhone. [ptooey]
A very quick one for today. I’ve recently attempted a compile of the open-source program QCad (Community Edition). Unfortunately, even with QT3Mac installed (via Fink) and a patch applied, QCAD is still not compiling under 10.4.7.
I was hoping to use it to edit and draw CAD files for the machine-shop. I may have to use the 10minute demos of the professional version to get the job done quickly. Sad, as I was really looking forward to a good open-sourced CAD software package. I use it infrequently, and definitely don’t need AutoCad.
Here’s the error I recently received. [Will edit this post with more info as I get it...] main.cpp: In function `int main(int, char**)':
main.cpp:233: error: parse error before `(' token
make[1]: *** [obj/main.o] Error 1
make: *** [qcad] Error 2
Building qcad binary failed
One of the things that makes a Scientist good at what he does (and sometimes gets him serious accolades) is effective communication and visualization of his data, results, and concepts. This is helpful for everyone from the business researcher to the teaching professor (to the graduate-student).
(You’ll never guess where this discussion is going, so click on through to read more and be surprised…) Read More »
I'm a graduate student (PhD Candidate) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I've studied and researched in two fields of Materials Science and Engineering (Polymers and Semiconductors). My interests are as diverse as my musical tastes and I usually have my hand in some crazy project during my free time.
I'm available for consulting and have access to a world-renown materials research user-facility supported by the D.O.E. If you would like to know more, please contact me.
Tropical storm Gustav is making it’s way past Jamaica today (
No fun, Apple. So, Apple iCards is no iMore because of the introduction of Apple’s often frustrating often hated MobileMe push service for the iPhone. [ptooey]
