mardi 22 avril 2008
lundi 21 avril 2008
FANTASTIQUE !!!!
HOW to BECOME a GOOD THEORETICAL PHYSICIST
by Gerard 't Hooft
Gerardus ("Gerard") 't Hooft (born July 5, 1946, Den Helder) is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions".
"This is a web site (still under construction) for young students - and anyone else - who are (like me) thrilled by the challenges posed by real science, and who are - like me - determined to use their brains to discover new things about the physical world that we are living in. In short, it is for all those who decided to study theoretical physics, in their own time.
It so often happens that I receive mail - well-intended but totally useless - by amateur physicists who believe to have solved the world. They believe this, only because they understand totally nothing about the real way problems are solved in Modern Physics. If you really want to contribute to our theoretical understanding of physical laws - and it is an exciting experience if you succeed! - there are many things you need to know. First of all, be serious about it. All necessary science courses are taught at Universities, so, naturally, the first thing you should do is have yourself admitted at a University and absorb everything you can. But what if you are still young, at School, and before being admitted at a University, you have to endure the childish anecdotes that they call science there? What if you are older, and you are not at all looking forward to join those noisy crowds of young students ?
It should be possible, these days, to collect all knowledge you need from the internet. Problem then is, there is so much junk on the internet. Is it possible to weed out those very rare pages that may really be of use? I know exactly what should be taught to the beginning student. The names and topics of the absolutely necessary lecture courses are easy to list, and this is what I have done below. It is my intention to search on the web where the really useful papers and books are, preferably downloadable as well. This way, the costs of becoming a theoretical physicist should not exceed much the price of a computer with internet connection, a printer, and lots of paper and pens. Unfortunately, I still have to recommend to buy text books as well, but it is harder to advise you here; perhaps in a future site. Let's first limit ourselves to the absolute minimum. The subjects listed below must be studied. Any omission will be punished: failure. Do get me right: you don't have to believe anything you read on faith - check it. Try alternative approaches, as many as you can. You will discover, time and again, that really what those guys did indeed was the smartest thing possible. Amazing. the best of the texts come with exercises. Do them. find out that you can understand everything. Try to reach the stage that you discover the numerous misprints, tiny mistakes as well as more important errors, and imagine how you would write those texts in a smarter way.
I can tell you of my own experiences. I had the extreme luck of having excellent teachers around me. That helps one from running astray. It helped me all the way to earn a Nobel Prize. But I didn't have internet. I am going to try to be your teacher. It is a formidable task. I am asking students, colleagues, teachers to help me improve this site. It is presently set up only for those who wish to become theoretical physicists, not just ordinary ones, but the very best, those who are fully determined to earn their own Nobel Prize. If you are more modest than that, well, finish those lousy schools first and follow the regular routes provided by educators and specialized -gogues who are so damn carefully chewing all those tiny portions before feeding them to you. This is a site for ambitious people. I am sure that anyone can do this, if one is gifted with a certain amount of intelligence, interest and determination.
Theoretical Physics is like a sky scraper. It has solid foundations in elementary mathematics and notions of classical (pre-20th century) physics. Don't think that pre-20th century physics is "irrelevant" since now we have so much more. In those days, the solid foundations were laid of the knowledge that we enjoy now. Don't try to construct your sky scraper without first reconstructing these foundations yourself. The first few floors of our skyscraper consist of advanced mathematical formalisms that turn the Classical Physics theories into beauties of their own. They are needed if you want to go higher than that. So, next come many of the other subjects listed below. Finally, if you are mad enough that you want to solve those tremendously perplexing problems of reconciling gravitational physics with the quantum world, you end up studying general relativity, superstring theory, M-theory, Calabi-Yau compactification and so on. That's presently the top of the sky scraper. There are other peaks such as Bose-Einstein condensation, fractional Hall effect, and more. Also good for Nobel Prizes, as the past years have shown. A warning is called for: even if you are extremely smart, you are still likely to get stuck somewhere. Surf the net yourself. Find more. Tell me about what you found. If this site has been of any help to someone while preparing for a University study, if this has motivated someone, helped someone along the way, and smoothened his or her path towards science, then I call this site successful. Please let me know. Here is the list.
Note that this site is NOT meant to be very pedagogical.
I avoid texts with lots of colorful but distracting pictures from authors who try hard to be funny. Also, the subjects included are somewhat focused towards my own interests."
LIST OF SUBJECTS, IN LOGICAL ORDER (not everything has to be done in this order, but this approximately indicates the logical coherence of the various subjects. Some notes are at a higher level than others).
Languages
Primary Mathematics
Classical Mechanics
Optics
Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
Electronics
Electromagnetism
Quantum Mechanics
Atoms and Molecules
Solid State Physics
Nuclear Physics
Plasma Physics
Advanced Mathematics
Special Relativity
Advanced Quantum Mechanics
Phenomenology
General Relativity
Quantum Field Theory
Superstring Theory
More resources
by Gerard 't Hooft
Gerardus ("Gerard") 't Hooft (born July 5, 1946, Den Helder) is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions".
"This is a web site (still under construction) for young students - and anyone else - who are (like me) thrilled by the challenges posed by real science, and who are - like me - determined to use their brains to discover new things about the physical world that we are living in. In short, it is for all those who decided to study theoretical physics, in their own time.
It so often happens that I receive mail - well-intended but totally useless - by amateur physicists who believe to have solved the world. They believe this, only because they understand totally nothing about the real way problems are solved in Modern Physics. If you really want to contribute to our theoretical understanding of physical laws - and it is an exciting experience if you succeed! - there are many things you need to know. First of all, be serious about it. All necessary science courses are taught at Universities, so, naturally, the first thing you should do is have yourself admitted at a University and absorb everything you can. But what if you are still young, at School, and before being admitted at a University, you have to endure the childish anecdotes that they call science there? What if you are older, and you are not at all looking forward to join those noisy crowds of young students ?
It should be possible, these days, to collect all knowledge you need from the internet. Problem then is, there is so much junk on the internet. Is it possible to weed out those very rare pages that may really be of use? I know exactly what should be taught to the beginning student. The names and topics of the absolutely necessary lecture courses are easy to list, and this is what I have done below. It is my intention to search on the web where the really useful papers and books are, preferably downloadable as well. This way, the costs of becoming a theoretical physicist should not exceed much the price of a computer with internet connection, a printer, and lots of paper and pens. Unfortunately, I still have to recommend to buy text books as well, but it is harder to advise you here; perhaps in a future site. Let's first limit ourselves to the absolute minimum. The subjects listed below must be studied. Any omission will be punished: failure. Do get me right: you don't have to believe anything you read on faith - check it. Try alternative approaches, as many as you can. You will discover, time and again, that really what those guys did indeed was the smartest thing possible. Amazing. the best of the texts come with exercises. Do them. find out that you can understand everything. Try to reach the stage that you discover the numerous misprints, tiny mistakes as well as more important errors, and imagine how you would write those texts in a smarter way.
I can tell you of my own experiences. I had the extreme luck of having excellent teachers around me. That helps one from running astray. It helped me all the way to earn a Nobel Prize. But I didn't have internet. I am going to try to be your teacher. It is a formidable task. I am asking students, colleagues, teachers to help me improve this site. It is presently set up only for those who wish to become theoretical physicists, not just ordinary ones, but the very best, those who are fully determined to earn their own Nobel Prize. If you are more modest than that, well, finish those lousy schools first and follow the regular routes provided by educators and specialized -gogues who are so damn carefully chewing all those tiny portions before feeding them to you. This is a site for ambitious people. I am sure that anyone can do this, if one is gifted with a certain amount of intelligence, interest and determination.
Theoretical Physics is like a sky scraper. It has solid foundations in elementary mathematics and notions of classical (pre-20th century) physics. Don't think that pre-20th century physics is "irrelevant" since now we have so much more. In those days, the solid foundations were laid of the knowledge that we enjoy now. Don't try to construct your sky scraper without first reconstructing these foundations yourself. The first few floors of our skyscraper consist of advanced mathematical formalisms that turn the Classical Physics theories into beauties of their own. They are needed if you want to go higher than that. So, next come many of the other subjects listed below. Finally, if you are mad enough that you want to solve those tremendously perplexing problems of reconciling gravitational physics with the quantum world, you end up studying general relativity, superstring theory, M-theory, Calabi-Yau compactification and so on. That's presently the top of the sky scraper. There are other peaks such as Bose-Einstein condensation, fractional Hall effect, and more. Also good for Nobel Prizes, as the past years have shown. A warning is called for: even if you are extremely smart, you are still likely to get stuck somewhere. Surf the net yourself. Find more. Tell me about what you found. If this site has been of any help to someone while preparing for a University study, if this has motivated someone, helped someone along the way, and smoothened his or her path towards science, then I call this site successful. Please let me know. Here is the list.
Note that this site is NOT meant to be very pedagogical.
I avoid texts with lots of colorful but distracting pictures from authors who try hard to be funny. Also, the subjects included are somewhat focused towards my own interests."
LIST OF SUBJECTS, IN LOGICAL ORDER (not everything has to be done in this order, but this approximately indicates the logical coherence of the various subjects. Some notes are at a higher level than others).
Languages
Primary Mathematics
Classical Mechanics
Optics
Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
Electronics
Electromagnetism
Quantum Mechanics
Atoms and Molecules
Solid State Physics
Nuclear Physics
Plasma Physics
Advanced Mathematics
Special Relativity
Advanced Quantum Mechanics
Phenomenology
General Relativity
Quantum Field Theory
Superstring Theory
More resources
dimanche 20 avril 2008
à propos d'INFORMATIQUE en écoles d'ingénieurs
Google et Facebook s’arrachent les meilleurs diplômés en Informatique; les salaires flambent
Rédigé par Michael Arrington (adaptation: Ouriel Ohayon)
Google et Facebook se disputent les meilleurs diplômés en informatique; et cela commence par Stanford. L’année 2008 est loin d’être terminée et la majorité de la promotion a déjà des propositions d’emploi.
L’année dernière, $70 000 était un salaire presque commun. Facebook se dit prêt cette année à offrir $92 000 et Google $95 000. Les étudiants avec une maîtrise en Informatique se verront offrir $130 000 pour un poste de directeur de produit chez Google.
Apparemment la Facebook Applications class attire l’attention d’autres startups aussi. Slide et RockYou recrutent intensivement. Une source précise que RockYou approche les étudiants en leur annonçant qu’ils ne les embauchent pas mais “acquière” leur “société” et les laisseront continuer de travailler sur leurs applications après le diplôme; même s’il est fort à parier que les codes sur lesquels ils travaillaient en classe seront “avalés” par RockYou. C’est en tout cas très malin; faire croire aux étudiants qu’il s’agit en fait d’une sorte de fusion-acquisition.
Il semblerait que les étudiants de Pitzer qui se sont inscrits dans la classe de YouTube ne reçoivent pas le même type d’offre.
note d’ouriel: Facebook n’est pas encore présent en Europe mais quand ce sera le cas la compétition sera plus lourde. Et chez nous que font les géants pour s’arracher les ingénieurs? si vous êtes une startup qu’observez vous? avez vous du mal à recruter?
# Commentaire de ola — 31 janvier 2008 @ 12:15 pm
En france, dans les plus grandes écoles d’ingénieur l’informatique ne passionne pas les foules. Ceci permet aux quelques personnes qui ont choisi l’informatique de trouver très facilement un emploi réménuré 10% environ au dessus de la moyenne, mais cela reste bien inférieur aux salaires proposés aux Etats-Unis ou en Angleterre, cependant le coût de la vie n’est pas non le même et il est important d’avoir ceci en tête.
Rédigé par Michael Arrington (adaptation: Ouriel Ohayon)
Google et Facebook se disputent les meilleurs diplômés en informatique; et cela commence par Stanford. L’année 2008 est loin d’être terminée et la majorité de la promotion a déjà des propositions d’emploi.
L’année dernière, $70 000 était un salaire presque commun. Facebook se dit prêt cette année à offrir $92 000 et Google $95 000. Les étudiants avec une maîtrise en Informatique se verront offrir $130 000 pour un poste de directeur de produit chez Google.
Apparemment la Facebook Applications class attire l’attention d’autres startups aussi. Slide et RockYou recrutent intensivement. Une source précise que RockYou approche les étudiants en leur annonçant qu’ils ne les embauchent pas mais “acquière” leur “société” et les laisseront continuer de travailler sur leurs applications après le diplôme; même s’il est fort à parier que les codes sur lesquels ils travaillaient en classe seront “avalés” par RockYou. C’est en tout cas très malin; faire croire aux étudiants qu’il s’agit en fait d’une sorte de fusion-acquisition.
Il semblerait que les étudiants de Pitzer qui se sont inscrits dans la classe de YouTube ne reçoivent pas le même type d’offre.
note d’ouriel: Facebook n’est pas encore présent en Europe mais quand ce sera le cas la compétition sera plus lourde. Et chez nous que font les géants pour s’arracher les ingénieurs? si vous êtes une startup qu’observez vous? avez vous du mal à recruter?
# Commentaire de ola — 31 janvier 2008 @ 12:15 pm
En france, dans les plus grandes écoles d’ingénieur l’informatique ne passionne pas les foules. Ceci permet aux quelques personnes qui ont choisi l’informatique de trouver très facilement un emploi réménuré 10% environ au dessus de la moyenne, mais cela reste bien inférieur aux salaires proposés aux Etats-Unis ou en Angleterre, cependant le coût de la vie n’est pas non le même et il est important d’avoir ceci en tête.
diurutundu
Death by PowerPoint
From: thecroaker, 8 months ago
Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.
SlideShare Link
jeudi 17 avril 2008
« Le monde est ma représentation »
Clair de Lune
On tangue on tangue sur le bateau
La lune la lune fait des cercles dans l'eau
Dans le ciel c'est le mât qui fait des cercles
Et désigne toutes les étoiles du doigt
Une jeune Argentine accoudée au bastingage
Rêve à Paris en contemplant les phares qui dessinent
la côte de France
Rêve à Paris qu'elle ne connaît qu'à peine et qu'elle
regrette déjà
Ces feux tournants fixes doubles colorés à éclipses lui
rappellent ceux qu'elle voyait de sa fenêtre d'hôtel sur
les Boulevards et lui promettent un prompt retour
Elle rêve de revenir bientôt en France et d'habiter Paris
Le bruit de ma machine à écrire l'empêche de mener son
rêve jusqu'au bout.
Ma belle machine à écrire qui sonne au bout de chaque
ligne et qui est aussi rapide qu'un jazz
Ma belle machine à écrire qui m'empêche de rêver à
bâbord comme à tribord
Et qui me fait suivre jusqu'au bout une idée
Mon idée
Blaise Cendrars se plongea dans Schopenhauer, ayant une révélation par cette sentence, qui illumina son rapport à la réalité : « Le monde est ma représentation ».
À partir de ce moment-là, il fit de sa vie un poème et écrivit la vie dans ses poèmes.
On tangue on tangue sur le bateau
La lune la lune fait des cercles dans l'eau
Dans le ciel c'est le mât qui fait des cercles
Et désigne toutes les étoiles du doigt
Une jeune Argentine accoudée au bastingage
Rêve à Paris en contemplant les phares qui dessinent
la côte de France
Rêve à Paris qu'elle ne connaît qu'à peine et qu'elle
regrette déjà
Ces feux tournants fixes doubles colorés à éclipses lui
rappellent ceux qu'elle voyait de sa fenêtre d'hôtel sur
les Boulevards et lui promettent un prompt retour
Elle rêve de revenir bientôt en France et d'habiter Paris
Le bruit de ma machine à écrire l'empêche de mener son
rêve jusqu'au bout.
Ma belle machine à écrire qui sonne au bout de chaque
ligne et qui est aussi rapide qu'un jazz
Ma belle machine à écrire qui m'empêche de rêver à
bâbord comme à tribord
Et qui me fait suivre jusqu'au bout une idée
Mon idée
Blaise Cendrars se plongea dans Schopenhauer, ayant une révélation par cette sentence, qui illumina son rapport à la réalité : « Le monde est ma représentation ».
À partir de ce moment-là, il fit de sa vie un poème et écrivit la vie dans ses poèmes.
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