:: The Ruminant ::

The Ruminant's first visitor, amayamaya, left a nice comment requesting more posts. Just as retailers often display their first dollar, I am going to display this first comment for a while. Rest assured, amayamaya, when I get my thirty minutes of fame, you will have your fifteen. I hope I'm not too selfish to keep some of the fame for myself.

:: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 ::

I haven't been blogging in a while due to massive technical difficulties. First my machine went haywire. I fixed it; but then the networking services mysteriously disappeared in the grad student office where I work. It took me three weeks to figure out why. When I finally found the right people to ask, they were pretty angry with me.

"All http access is down in our office, and has been for weeks," I said.

"That's because you guys are spewing viruses!" was the reply.

Campus Network Services had "black holed" us because there are viruses circulating on some computers in the office. It was apparently rediculous that I would inquire about network access when, from their perspective, I know damn well what I'm doing. The nerve I must have to request network access when I'm only planning to use it for criminal purposes.

The network is back up now, but I have to authenticate in order to use it. The new setup is extremely slow because all the traffic is now routed through some sub-standard hardware. I suppose I should be happy to get anything at all. The department here has made it resoundingly clear that "students" are at best freeloaders and at worst security threats. "Staff," on the other hand, are bright, useful people who can do no wrong.

The student/staff distinction is a puzzling one, particularly concerning the difference between a "PhD candidate" (such as myself) and a "Research Assistant." Both positions require a Master's degree in engineering. A PhD candidate, though, is expected to do work of greater significance than a Research Assistant. The PhD candidate is expected to work perhaps twice as much as the Research Assistant. The PhD candidate is expected to produce novel results which significantly contribute to the knowledge of electronics engineering; this is not expected of the Research Assistant.

Nevertheless, the Research Assistant is referred to as "staff." This affords him a salary of perhaps five times that of the PhD candidate. The Research Assistant also has access to office supplies and billing codes. He can sign purchase orders. The secretaries will cooperate with him. He gets keys to special offices. He can get security access to most floors (including the secretive faculty floor). He can access the special staff stairwell. And most importantly, he can access the special staff kitchen.

I just don't understand why he can be trusted to make Xerox copies and long distance phone calls and faxes, but I can't.

I better wrap this up. The bell rang and I don't want to get caught without a hall pass...


:: Chris 1:00 PM [+] ::
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