Day: March 26, 2013

Kelly just texted me with the news that she was offered a job at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as a Statistical Intern.  They made her a better offer than Caterpillar and she will be doing things like design of experiments, sample size calculations, data cleaning, and other stuff that is dead center in the subject area of her degree and the type of work she wants to do.  We are very excited.  Tonight we will talk about her options.  So far, she lost out on the NIEHS position, but she has two hard internship offers with a third from a financial services company still up in the air.

Day 582 of 1000

A guy at work made an interesting comment about the Microsoft Surface when I asked him whether he liked it.  He bought one on eBay for $250.  I told him I had heard it was really lousy for typing.

He said, “That is true, but that is not how I use it.”

I said, “How do you use it?”

He uses it as a tablet.  He said that if you think of it as a computer like any other laptop, you are not going to like it.  If you think of it as a tablet with a keyboard that is better for typing than on-screen keyboard, then you will be much happier with it.

I said, “OK, then.  How does it compare with other tablets.  Is it as good as a Nook or a Kindle?”

He said, “It is not fair to compare the Surface to that class of tablets.  The Surface is WAY better than tablets like the Nook and the Kindle.”

I said, “Wow,” because I love my Nook.

I thought about that a little and said, “Well, then, how does it compare to the iPad.”

He said, “As only a tablet, I like it a LOT better than my iPad.  It is just as easy or easier to use, the form factor is better, and, in a pinch, you can use it as a computer.”

Now I am really tempted to buy a Surface on eBay.  It would be great on airplanes.