@PhysicalAlan

Geek and amateur photographer. Views are my own. Professor of Physics with a heavy admin load.

Joined June 2013
  • Tweets1.6K
  • Following180
  • Followers109
50Media
Dear @virginmedia it’s really dumb to offer existing customers a package that costs £56/month, when the same package for new customers is available on your website for £29, and the competition is selling an equivalent package of £26. We’ve been with you 18 years. Toodle-pip!
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I’ve probably just killed a proposal. The EDI section had “we will limit workshop hours to 4” so that those with care responsibilities are not disadvantaged. The workshop actually runs 9am-6pm for 5 days. The Prof. Sir blah blah FRS doesn’t get EDI and adjustments needed for it
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University finance sucks. We have a policy to include a cost on all grants as directly incurred. DI items can only be reclaimed if invoiced within the grant period. These costs can only be invoiced before the grant starts, so ineligible, but we must include them.
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The irony is this is a capped budget call and I am at that cap. If I had extra directly allocated costs, which do not need an invoice, then the university would get more overheads (profit). This DI cost prevents that. Finance: the tail that wags the university dog.
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Dear students: why you should read AI generated text before submitting. Human in the loop is important. “Production calculations will exploit the embarrassingly parallel nature of Monte Carlo radiation transport on [HPC]” (The name of the HPC machine has been redacted by me)
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Me: there is a mistake on the accounts Finance: it wasn’t approved on time. It’s your problem not ours Me: I submitted for approval the same day I was asked to. Finance are the approvers Finance: yes, but it’s still your problem not ours
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Me: please can you tell me the name of your manager so I can see if anything can be done Finance: I’ve looked into it, yes we made a mistake, but it’s your problem not ours Me: The name….? Finance: I’ve fixed it University Support Services 101
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I am very impressed with @Apple Intelligence. It just summarized a 2 hour long @IOP group meeting (that I am secretary for) into 1 page very well. The only minor amusement is the committee will be starting a war next year as one of our small outreach events.
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Here’s the offending quote from the Apple Intelligence summary: “The committee discussed organizing smaller events, such as a war, to attract more attendees. “ 🤣🤣🤣
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One has to wonder….. less than the minimum wage for examining another university’s student. It’s the same across the sector. It isn’t part of our paid job, but a necessary part of the university ecosystem. Should be paid better by the universities that rely on it.
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Dear @hotelsdotcomuk - I do a lot of travelling for work. I’ve tended to book hotels with you because of the 10% reward. The new scheme turns £545 of spend of a future trip into a £9 reward, way lower than the old scheme. Just thought I’d let you know you’ve lost my business.
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Incidentally, I booked the hotel under the old scheme, but now you’ve changed me to the new one. Pretty sure that’s a breach of contract, or if it isn’t because of the small print, it’s certainly not good optics. I’ve spent nearly £2.5k on hotels last year.
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To those of you who think we shouldn’t make goods to EU standards, I’m sitting here with an Ambassador to Vietnam. He just said that Vietnam manufacture to EU standards so they can sell to the EU. This is why Labour recently announced the UK would do the same. It’s stupid not to
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Why is twitter asking for my birth date? Fuck that.
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One would hope so since I’m a professor!
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“I am the Managing Editor of Jnl of Optics and Photonics Research and your article titled coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity… as revealed by muon spin rotation is highly related to our scope” No, it really isn’t. You’ve just trawled researchers with nature papers.
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So there’s an international fellowship scheme just announced, for early career international talent to come to the UK for a year to do research. Funded by the UK government (DSIT). Salary is £29k, which is more than £10k below the skilled worker visa requirements. #UtterMuppets
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Fabulous team at the NBRI, an Indonesian charity I founded 3 years ago. It’s our anniversary today, so I took everyone out for a meal. Bringing sustainable energy independence to Indonesia!
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If ever there was a classic example of the UCU entirely failing to realise a major point, this is it
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Just had to send some documents to Japan. @PostOffice was £70 for 5-7 day delivery. @DHL was £38 for 4 day delivery. I fully support the @RoyalMail being sole delivery agent for the PO, but they must up their game. Because they haven’t, they’ve lost custom. Time to merge the two?
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