Re: Where do we stand? (was Re: SETI like tass project)

[Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

Dirk and all,

I have spent my life "managing" technical projects.  I have had from 1 to 
300 people working for me.  I liked the 1 best.  But I once wanted to do a 
big project, so I had to put up with 20-30.

I have found that the people that I can "manage" are not worth 
managing.  (This within the restriction of doing research projects.) The 
really good people never tell me what they are doing.  I think that they 
really don't know themselves.  So when you ask, "who is working on what?" 
that is almost an unanswerable question.  One can get some idea by 
following the list.  I certainly try to give a day by day, blow by blow of 
what I am doing.  But when I am really working, not much comes out.  One 
writes long notes about doing tiny things and terse lines about great 
accomplishments.  That is just the way it happens.  If you are really 
working the energy goes into the project.  When one is not doing much, then 
there is energy to write lots of words.

I direct anyone that wants to work on this to the Michael Richmond pipeline 
as a start.  Then read the technical notes for two or three other ways to 
do it.  Then try to do it yourself.  No one method has won yet.  I do not 
think we are even close to a "final" data pipeline.

For reasons that I keep trying to write up, tass is working in an area 
where there is not much previous work.  MACHO etc., only partially 
apply.  Due to our large pixel size (necessary to cover the whole sky in a 
finite time) we have problems that are a lot different from other 
photometry projects.  That is life in a field where there are not too many 
working.

Tom Droege


At 04:47 PM 1/30/02 -0700, you wrote:
>I'm ready to jump in. To be honest, I think the idea of a long-term
>monitoring project is even more important than the eclisping stuff and
>I'm willing to contribute to that. What I don't want to do is waste
>time duplicating something that someone else is working on, hence my
>desire to know who was working on what and what needed to be done.
>
>Dirk