The time has come, The College said,
To empty your own trash.
It's now ev'ry professor's job,
For we are low on cash.
There will still be a custodians
So don't have any fear
That you will have to mop the floors
At least until next year.
@quantumdot2.bsky.social
Professor of Chemistry, Shawnee State University. Real Ale fan. Chemistry nerd. Power BI, SharePoint, and Power Platform geek.
The time has come, The College said,
To empty your own trash.
It's now ev'ry professor's job,
For we are low on cash.
There will still be a custodians
So don't have any fear
That you will have to mop the floors
At least until next year.
Yeah, that's true - and very sad to see line trending in the wrong direction. :(
(I was thinking 350 was a more pleasing round number as someone with obsessive-chemistry-compulsive-disorder.)
I just filled out the web form about a new position in our department. Feel free to DM/email me if you need details for your spreadsheet. 350 is a pretty good number of TT jobs it seems! :)
16.12.2025 20:42 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0You can download the NIST MS Search program and a sample database of about 2k compounds for free!
This website has some details, hints about purchasing the library (shop around!!), and even links to some FREE database collections. Highly recommended!
littlemsandsailing.com/2023/10/free...
I might have to try that, too! I find the light pot roast soup a bit "brothy" and it needs a little something extra. I love sauerkraut so this is going into my next one of these soups!! Thanks for the inspiration
06.12.2025 22:23 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Never thought to mix sauerkraut with this soup... spur of the moment or secret family recipe?!
06.12.2025 18:42 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0This Thursday I'm at the Leeds Waterstones Christmas evening - they'll have a bunch of authors from around the area. If you're in town, come along and get a book signed! www.waterstones.com/events/water...
02.12.2025 00:56 โ ๐ 48 ๐ 11 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 2We keep learning the same lessons, again and again. // โA buzzy school promised to transform education. Parents say their children suffered. - WIREDโ www.wired.com/story/ai-teachโฆ
01.11.2025 01:15 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Love this! One of my favorite rants, too!!
12.11.2025 17:14 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0The national museum of Prague has one of the most impressive stone and mineral exhibits Iโve seen!
09.10.2025 15:50 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0They look so cool... and I can't wait to show them off to my gen-chem and p-chem students this fall! ๐คฉ
23.08.2025 00:11 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0I definitely don't need any more coffee mugs, but gosh darn it - now I own two more for work. ๐คฃ
Wonderful designs!
If I see anyone else saying you donโt need to learn Excel formulas anymore thanks to the new =COPILOT then I will do absolutely nothing except cry silently into the abyss.
22.08.2025 14:33 โ ๐ 11 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 0That sucks! Starting to feel old now that The O, F&F, Uncle Sam's, Peter's Pub, etc. are all gone. What's left?
20.08.2025 20:55 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Sorry summer but I'm over you -- already thinking about fall. Loved this story about the chemistry of pumpkin spice by @carmendrahl.bsky.social for @cenmag.bsky.social. And now I know what cinnamic aldehydes are! cen.acs.org/articles/92/...
18.08.2025 15:28 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0For @seafury.bsky.social. ๐
Original post: aus.social/@dgar/115044...
๐๐
17.08.2025 13:54 โ ๐ 4 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Now that's a word I haven't heard in a long time! I don't believe it's used here in the US, but it was definitely in common use in the early 90s when I still lived in the UK.
16.08.2025 15:37 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Sounds like it came on a "Microsoft Entertainment Pack" from what I can read: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkiFree
I'm pretty sure I still have the original Win 3 install media that came with our UV-VIS. I'll have to check out if they included this! Might have to fire up DOSBox and give it a whirl. :)
Ha - I don't remember that! :) I think maybe it just came with Othello and/or Klondike if memory serves?
That skiing game sounds pretty amazing, though!
I work at a small public university. We're too cheap to get rid of working instruments! :)
16.08.2025 15:11 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0And just to clarify - we kept the instrument (HP8453), but upgraded the PC three times:
- Win 3.11, ISA GPIB/HPIB card
- Win XP, USB > GPIB
- Win 10, Ethernet
UV-VIS Chemstation looks and feels about the same running over a 30 year timespan! ๐คฃ
I should elaborateโwe kept the instrument (it's still running today), but upgraded the PC three times:
- Win 3.11 ISA GPIB card
- Win XP, USB > GPIB adapter
- Win 10, Ethernet connection
The old 8453 works like a charm! And UV-VIS Chemstation looks about the same same on all the OSs
A screenshot of Windows 3.11 for workgroups from: https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-3/311
We had an HP diode array spectrophotometer that was running on a Windows 3.11 for workgroups PC. Honestly it worked great!
We upgraded it bc our undergrads were confused about the OS. They'd never seen anything more ancient than Win 95 before (and that was 15 years ago)
Aww, you're a good dad! โค๏ธ
Sounds like you've working on this story mentally for quite the time. It showed. A lot of what you wrote resonated with me (and probably a good fraction of the OG PBI community). Thanks and hope all is well with you! ๐
We get 0.4 workload hrs per credit of research, up to a max of 3.0 (?!) total per semester. No research funds though, although that would admittedly be smart.
All of our sci degrees max out at 4-hr of research that can count for their program, although they can use it for free electives after that.
YES! About half the time my fingers smash Ctrl +, I zoom in, then I remember to hit SHIFT to fix it. Annoying.
I just realized that you can actually redefine the keyboard shortcut on Mac/PC *back* to super/sub-script instead of zoom. Oh, that felt so good! ๐
support.microsoft.com/en-us/office...
Gosh, that was such a good read! I shudder to think how long you worked on that. It's so refreshing to hear these more nuanced takes about AI.
I get tired of seeing 100% hype or 100% demonization articles.
Are you going to start blogging again on your data-goblins site, or was this a passion post?