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Saint-Gervais GIFT Card : Birthdays, Bachelor(ette) parties, Parties, Work council.

Saint-Gervais GIFT Card : Birthdays, Bachelor(ette) parties, Parties, Work council.

Baptême parapente Mont Blanc - Haute savoie

1 to 20 people

Caliente GIFT Card 15-25 Minutes flight
Salsa GIFT Card 30-40 Minutes flight
Fuego GIFT Card 50-70 Minutes flight

We fly as we live! Life is not simply breathing, but it is also creating moments that will leave you breathless !

This is how paragliding will allow you to discover the new feeling of freedom and the worl of eagles and other gypaète !

Forget classics presents : chocolates, perfumes or even sexy underwears are over! Dare to choose the unforgettable, make the choice of the senses memory with this amazing, but still so accessible, GIFT. This might be the beginning of a new passion. Let's make this moment unforgettable also thanks to A2L-Parapente GIFT card!

By choosing to discover the paragliding activity in the WONDERFULL Mont-Blanc area, you will opt for an amazing ramble in the air, discovering and getting close to the beautiful landscape, mountain flora and flying fauna!

You could either be the "tempted but still not too sure about it" or the "aerobatic adict", every body has their limits and our pilots will respect it!

You and your pilot will become a crew ready to discover this new dimension, these new memories that you will be able to RECORD in a mix of pictures and full HD movie, thanks to our special on-board equipment!

A MUST DO during your alpine vacation : the only thing left to do : DARE to make the first step, we will organize the following.

ACCESSIBLE FOR EVERYONE : A2L-Parapente is very happy and proud to suggest the special wheelchair designed for paragliding! Great opportunity for our SENIORS and their tired knees and hips or person with reduced mobility to consider getting up there!

How it works

1- CHOOSE YOUR FLIGHT : select between the different options :

Children over 7 years old and between 20 and 35kg

=> Pitchoune flight 70€ : 12-18 minutes discovery,

Adults options :

=> Caliente flight 80€ : 15-25 minutes flight;

=> Salsa flight 110€ : 30-40 minutes of a great ramble in the air, alongside the FIZ Chain;

=> Fuego flight 160€ : 40-60 minutes of an unforgettable adventure in the whole valley, includes the video package.

To do so, you will have to :

=> choose a date and time, this actually correspond to the date YOU WILL OFFER the gift card! ( you can choose a random timing)

=> make the full payment on our secure website. You will then get within 48h PDF file, that you will print, personalize and where you will write down the activation code (including the use-by date eg. 310819 : use before August 31, 2019)

=> the receiver will then call us 1 week before he wants to do the flight with his activation code, to actually book the flight.

=> make sure to fill in carefully all the passenger's details :

  • First name
  • Last name
  • Weight
  • Phone number (with international code)
  • The time period spent in Saint-Gervais (in case a new appointment, due to poor weather conditions, is needed!)

3- Communicate the technical informations :

You are now in charge of transmitting the technical details :

=> The receiver HAS TO CALL US

  • One week before to actually book the flight : 06 85 52 13 03
  • On D-day, 1 hour before the flight for weather and timing updates : 07 89 80 09 80

=> For the passenger's wellness, we will ask to:

  • To wear good and tightened walking shoes (at least trainers),
  • To wear "altitude proof" clothes : long trousers, fleece, wind stopper jacket,
  • To take your jewelry off : no long necklaces, bracelets or long earrings.

In case of doubts about your motion sickness resistance, WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND you to prevent from any inconvenience and get some medicine to fight it! (Mercalm, cocculine...)

NO flights will be scheduled without prior payment or deposit!

Once your appointment is confirmed, please follow precisely the procedure so you will enjoy smooth and unforgettable adventure !

We are using 3 different meeting points, depending on the weather conditions at the moment of your flight. Mainly we are using #3

DIRECT LINK APPOINTMENT MAP, click here: here is a reminder on how to find us

#1 CHEDDE landing area :

359, rue Paul Corbin 74190 PASSY-CHEDDE

#2 BATISTOCK landing area :

135, avenue Grange Vallet 74190 PASSY

#3 Tribal' SHOP :

226 avenue du Mont d'Arbois 74170 SAINT-GERVAIS-LES-BAINS

  • Shuttle to the take-off
  • Specific Free Flight Gear
  • Flight Diploma
  • 10% discount in the twinned school
  • 4 or 8 GB SD card depending on the chosen option
  • Rigor and cheerfulness of the team

Good to know

By trusting A2l-Parapente, and we thank you a lot for that, you are making the clever choice of the expertise and the knowledge of a now reference paragliding school.

You will benefit :

  • The best price/flight time rate of the valley,
  • Privileges with many different partners,
  • Our signature relation : Warm Welcome-Respect-Rigor-Humor!

You will also benefit from :

A2L-Parapente CEO and founder Sam SPERBER supervision, known as :

  • One of the very few professionals practicing the 4 major paragliding techniques : thermaling, soaring, Hand'Icare and ski-flying.
  • 2017 French vice-champion of ski-flying;
  • Member of the French Accuracy team;
  • 3rd place at the 2017 Accuracy French championship;
  • Participation at the Accuracy Albainian World championship and Slovenian European championship;
  • 9 French titles in solo and tandems ski-flying between 2002 and 2010.
  • More than 27 000 flights, including 19 000 tandems, over the past 30 years!

Meeting place

359, rue Paul Corbin 74190 PASSY-CHEDDE

135, avenue Grange Vallet 74190 PASSY

226 Avenue du Mont d'Arbois 74170 Saint Gervais les Bains

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About American Alliance Drug Testing

Established in 1995, American Alliance Drug Testing (AADT) is a nationwide nonprofit organization with strong ties to the commercial transportation industry. We specialize in providing employers and owner-operators with convenient, cost-effective support to facilitate regulatory compliance with their drug and alcohol testing program and/or their drug free program.

We offer consortium/third party administration (C/TPA) services for companies regulated by federal and state governments. We help transportation companies of all sizes to comply with legal requirements. Whether it is managing the testing program of an intrastate owner-operator motor carrier or managing the testing program of a large and diverse interstate DOT/FMCSA-regulated transportation company, AADT is a committed partner. We will help you implement quality substance abuse prevention with a testing program that will meet or exceed federal, state and industry standards.

AADT also provides support and services for Drug-Free Workplace testing. If you are interested in a professional drug and alcohol testing service for your non-regulated employees, you will find AADT flexible enough to accommodate your specific needs; no client or program is too large or too small.

AADT Is  an active participant in many industry trade associations. We also monitor and actively participate in relevant state and federal rulemakings that affect DOT mandated drug and alcohol testing programs. When you choose AADT you can be assured that our services comply with all state and federal requirements.

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Jonathan Ochshorn

Jonathan Ochshorn is a registered architect whose teaching specialties are in the areas of construction technology and structures. Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell in 1988, he taught at City College of New York while serving as associate director of the City College Architectural Center, a research center supplying technical assistance to community groups in New York City. Since 1976, he also has practiced architecture and urban design in New York and California. Ochshorn's academic background is in structural engineering (M.I.T.) and urban design (M.U.P., City College of New York), as well as architecture (B.Arch. '75, Cornell).

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Architectural technology
  • Structures in architecture
  • Sustainability

Related Pages

Related News

Classes (Selected)

  • ARCH 2614/5614 Building Technology I: Materials and MethodsBuilding construction is examined from the following standpoints: life safety (including fire safety and zoning constraints on site planning); building service systems (plumbing, electrical, vertical transportation, security, fire protection); materials, sustainability, and life-cycle analysis; accessibility; technical documentation and outline specifications.
  • ARCH 2615 Building Technology II: Structural ElementsConcepts and procedures for the design, manufacture, and construction of structural components (e.g., walls, columns, beams, slabs) in steel, concrete, masonry, and timber.
  • ARCH 4621 Sustainable Architecture: The Science and Politics of Green BuildingStudents will examine the five basic components of sustainable building design (site, water, energy, materials, and IEQ) from both a historical perspective and as implemented through the LEED/USGBC rating system, in each case comparing the issues raised by building and environmental science with the political context within which those issues are considered.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Fulbright Scholar Award, Tianjin University School of Architecture, Tianjin, China (2016)
  • Design Abstraction and Building Construction, session topic for annual meeting of the ACSA (2009)

Publications (Selected)

  • "Sullivan’s Eagle: Form and Function Artistically Considered," 108th ACSA Annual Meeting, San Diego (2020)
  • "Experiencing Urban Infrastructure in Tianjin," Narrative Inquiries from Fulbright Lecturers in China: Cross-Cultural Connections in Higher Education, first edition, edited by Shin Freedman, Pat Munday, and Jeannette Cockroft (Routledge, 2019)
  • Structural Elements for Architects and Builders, second edition (Common Ground Publishing, 2015)
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Exploring Northern Ireland

The third and final post about our trip to Ireland has, of course, got to feature our little trip to Northern Ireland. We had just one night and two days in Northern Ireland, but it was only an hour or so from Dublin to Belfast. One of our days was spent at the SS Nomadic and Titanic museum and mooching around Belfast, but the other day that we spent there was about an hour more north of Belfast as we explored the causal pathway all around the coast. It had been on my bucket list for ages so I was so thrilled that we were finally able to get to go and see the area.

The first stop from Belfast was to the Dark Hedges, that is one of the most striking places to see.

The beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century and how the trees has grown is just so fascinating. The tree lining was intended as a landscape feature to impress visitors, but the trees remain a truly magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland. In fact, the iconic trees have been used as a filming location in Game of Thrones, representing the King’s Road. I haven’t seen it myself by the hubs assures me that it does feature in the series!

Though it is just a lining of trees, it is stunning, and about a mile walk once you’ve gone back and forth. So it makes a great spot to take break, stretch your legs, and take plenty of photos, of course.

The second spot on our little road trip around the coastal area of Northern Ireland, was to The Giant’s Causeway. This is something I have been fascinated with for a while, I mean look at it! So I was super excited to see it all.

It is a National Trust site, so we renewed our membership and off we went. Every ticket gets you an earpiece to talk you through the geological side of things, even for the kids (but in a much less scientific point of view). It points out different things to you, and as everything else is self-guided, it was good to have a little background to all things Giant’s Causeway. The site itself is so much bigger than I had imagined it, and it was so cool to see. It is pretty windy out there, so hold onto your little ones.

The costal causeway route has plenty of different things to see and do, and there are different bays and beaches to stop off at. But our favourite thing to do was to stop off at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. I have seen so many photos of this, where the rope bridge straddles two rock ‘islands’ and always wanted to see it. I am not normally afraid of heights, but seeing it close up was actually a little daunting. It wasn’t that bad going over it, though, but due to high winds some parts of the island were out of bounds, so it was more of a walk over the bridge, have a quick look and then go back. I would still recommend it though, the whole thing is a bit of an experience and such a stunning location.

If I’m honest, I think I preferred Belfast to Dublin, so would definitely be a place I’d like to go to again and spend a little longer looking around. Have you ever been to Northern Ireland before?

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text:
Man with schizophrenia missing from Rogers Park health care center

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Ben Gerena, 52, has schizophrenia and is missing from the Rogers Park health care center where he lives.

Gerena's family said he was last seen Monday, Feb. 27, around 11 a.m. when he went to a store down the street from the Atrium Healthcare Center in the 1400-block of West Estes Avenue. Gerena is allowed to come and go from the facility.

Family said his daily routine is to go to the store, but this time he did not return.

The family has filed a missing person report with Chicago police. If you see Gerena or if you have information about his whereabouts, contact Chicago police.
Copyright © 2020 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Chicago Blackhawks sign Alex DeBrincat to 3-year contract extension

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Blackhawks have signed star forward Alex DeBrincat to a three-year contract extension, the team announced Thursday.

DeBrincat's contract runs through the 2022-23 season with an average annual value of $6,400,000.

The Blackhawks drafted DeBrincat, 21, in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft. Last season, DeBrincat scored 41 goals and had 35 assists.

The Blackhawks announced the deal one day before they open the season with the Philadelphia Flyers in the Czech Republic.
Copyright © 2020 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.


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research and development image of metal industry

Research and Development Tax Credit

Since 1985, ABGi has been providing the highest level of service for the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit  for our clients. By using our unique Business Component Approach with an established nexus, ABGi maximizes the  R&D Tax Credit, while at the same time providing superior documentation to ensure that the claim stands up to the highest level of IRS scrutiny.

In a recent IRS published article, the following facts were posted in regards to actual R&D credits claimed:

  • $11.6 Billion in R&D Expenditures were reported on individual and corporate tax returns;
  • Manufacturing was actually the largest sector to claim, but only 6,219 of 15,873 Manufacturers actually took the credit (39%);
  • Businesses of $250 Million of sales or more account for 14% of all claims made, but this 14% accounts for 84% of the total credits claimed;
  • Companies with less than $50 Million in sales account for 72% of all filers, but this represents only 11% of the credits claimed.

Clearly the R&D Credit is severely underutilized; this is where ABGi USA can help you!

R&D Tax Credit Benefits

  • Provides a dollar for dollar reduction on federal and some state income tax liability;
  • Taxpayers can claim Federal R&D Tax Credits retroactively, and receive cash back by filing amended returns for the past three years;
  • Approximately 36 states have their own R&D Tax Credit programs to reduce state tax liability;
  • Eligible small businesses previously limited by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) can use the R&D Tax Credit to offset AMT, and effective as of 2016, they can use the R&D Tax Credit to reduce their tax liability;
  • Incentivizes innovation in the USA by ensuring the retention of highly skilled personnel in the USA;  and
  • Any R&D Tax Credit not used can be carried forward up to 20 years.

Have a question? We’re happy to help!


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Village By Village, The Quest To Stop Female Genital Cutting In Somaliland

by Belinda Goldsmith

When Mumtas Khadar turned nine she couldn’t wait for the ritual undertaken by every woman in her village in Somaliland in northeast Africa that she believed would make her more beautiful.

But the traditional practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) left her in agony, bedridden for a week then with painful periods every month and troubles conceiving when she married.

“I was happy as I thought it would be a great dignity for my wedding night,” Khadar, now 45, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Sanani village on the outskirts of Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

“It was our culture. Everyone did it. But I’d never do this to my daughters,” she said via an interpreter as she sat with other women on the concrete floor of a bare meeting room of the semi-arid village where goats roam the dusty streets.

Khadar, who now has three children, is one of thousands of women being targeted by health workers going village-to-village and even door-to-door in Somaliland which has one of the world’s highest rates of FGM, a practice which can kill or maim women.

U.N. agency UNICEF estimates about 98 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 have undergone the procedure in the breakaway Islamic state of four million, which has operated independently of Somalia since 1991, but is not globally recognised as a country.

The World Health Organization estimates about 200 million women globally have undergone FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia. In Somalia and Somaliland, the vaginal opening is typically sewn almost closed.

Six African countries – Chad, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan – do not criminalise FGM, which world leaders pledged to end under a set of global goals agreed in 2015.

Somaliland last year passed a fatwa, or religious order, to condemn the two most severe forms of FGM, but this left mixed interpretations on lesser forms of FGM and no law has been introduced to punish those responsible.

But Somaliland government spokesman Mukhtar Mohamed Ali said eradicating FGM was a priority and a proposed law – that was amended after opposition from Islamic clerics – is before the president and could be passed by the end of the year.

“We are committed to ending all these practices,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in his office in the government district of Hargeisa, a sprawling dusty city of nearly one million people with few tarmac roads.

“This has been a cultural practice for many years and it is not easy to stop such a tradition … but there is a lot of respect for the laws in Somaliland.”

Khadan Abdilahi talks about the negative impact of FGM with a group of women in the village of Sanani, near Hargeisa, Somaliland on June 30, 2019. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Claudio Accheri

At the Sanani meeting, organised by the Somaliland Family Health Association (SOFHA), all 35 women present had been cut.

Khadan Abdilahi, a manager of a SOFHA clinic who organises awareness sessions in Hargeisa and nearby villages on the harm caused by FGM, said it was a major task to change cultural views and to clarify to women there was no religious basis for this.

Abdilahi, a 32-year-old mother of three, recalled how she was lured onto her grandmother’s lap with sweets at the age of five, confused as her screaming sister shouted at her to run.

“I was too young to run away. I did what they wanted,” said Abdilahi, whose personal experience drove her to train as a nurse and midwife at Hargeisa’s Edna Adan University Hospital.

She said talking to women in villages and medical clinics was starting to have an impact as women for the first time realised many of their health problems were linked to FGM.

This had led to increasing numbers of women opting for less severe types of FGM for their daughters although Abdilahi admitted this was a long way from meeting the U.N. zero goal.

A survey by the Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeisa in 2002 found 98 percent of women with FGM had faced the most severe type, but a second survey in 2013 found this had dropped to 76 percent. The results of a third survey are due out later this year.

“We need to go to every village to explain the complications that arise from FGM. Only then will it stop,” Abdilahi said.

“Everyone says this is traditional and you can’t stop it and they are still cutting but at least they’re now not butchering.”

Armed with laminated A5 posters, Abdilahi and other SOFHA and health workers travel the country to explain to women that FGM has no health benefits and can led to painful periods, problems urinating, cysts, infections, and birth complications.

Women sit in the streets of Sanani, Somaliland on June 30, 2019. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Claudio Accheri

Women at the sessions were encouraged to share their health issues and labour stories, often only then realising that their abdominal pain and increased risk of stillbirth were not normal.

“It was only a few years ago that I realised all the pain I faced and the operations were due to FGM,” said Degma Nassan, 60, a mother-of-five from Abdi Idan village on the other side of Hargeisa, dressed in a bright pink Islamic hijab or headscarf.

But other women were harder to sway from the traditional views held by their mothers and grandmothers with some even accusing health workers of being paid – particularly by foreign organisations – to disrupt Somaliland’s culture.

“We get mothers who no longer want to cut their girls but the grandmothers insist,” said Roda Mohamed Elma, 50, an anti-FGM campaigner on a child protection committee aided by Save the Children at Hargeisa’s largest camp for displaced people.

Awo Mohamed, who said she was about 50, said she recently told her son to arrange for his two young daughters to be cut.

“This is from our culture and we don’t want to change our culture,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a traditional hut or bull in the remote, pastoral village of Abdigeedi, 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Hargeisa.

“I got this from my mother, my father, my family.”

Veteran anti-FGM campaigner Edna Adan Ismail, who was Somaliland’s former first lady and the first female foreign minister, was confident views were slowly changing.

Adan, who trained as a nurse and midwife in Britain in the 1950s after she underwent FGM as a young girl, set up the Edna Adan University Hospital in 2002 to take the lead on training women on healthcare and spreading the word, particularly on FGM.

“When I started to talk about FGM in 1976 no country would let me talk about it publicly on their stage,” said Adan, who lives in an apartment on the hospital complex.

Adan said at least now the issue was raised on the global stage but it needed to be taken more seriously.

“I want men to join the fight now and it is not just a woman’s affair,” said Adan, whose business card features a map of Africa with an arrow pointing to Somaliland.

Abdilahi from SOFHA said it was her dream that one day Somaliland would be free from FGM.

“But the only way this will stop is for everyone in our community – women, men, health professionals, village elders, religious leaders – to come together on this,” she said. (Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith @BeeGoldsmith; Editing by Emma Batha and Claire Cozens.

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text:
Dec 18 2010 - Aug 11 2013

Resolutions 2011: 2010-12-18

  1. Improve my skills as a chef, be more creative in the kitchen and take a bigger stand.
  2. Be with Diana the entire year.
  3. Actually write something.
  4. Read more, as that helps me write creatively.
  5. Do something with the basement.
  6. Undertake a home improvement project, something ambitious.
  7. Create something on my site, game, math program, etc.
  8. Make love to Diana more.
  9. Quit drinking pop.
  10. Exercise somewhat.

(2) Comments:

You KNOW who this is. - 2010-12-25 02:28:55:

Yesterdays potatoes with cheese= more creative?... lawl :P im just bugging you. And yay for number 10, i've already asked you to exercise with me!I love the "somewhat". And i'm pretty sure 8 is actually number 3. Anyways I hope you accomplish many of your resolutions if not all of them. And I wish you and Diana the best for the new year. Hell, I wish you both the best starting now. Fuck waiting till the new year :P

You KNOW who this is. - 2010-12-25 02:30:16:

LOL I was so mad I didnt write the blue backwards and everything disapeared that I just wrote when i hit comment. I was super happy it came back when I hit the back button.

Name (30 Characters or less):

Comment (2500 Characters or less):

GiGi Valid HTML 5


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I am a postdoc helping in the supervision of a PhD student who is finishing his 2nd year now. This is in Europe, meaning the student came in with a MSc degree and these 2 years have been of research. "Helping in the supervision" actually means here that my professor is nominally appointed as supervisor but I am doing all of the actual supervision (my professor is not familiar with the details of our project, just the "big picture").

The project is on computational physics/chemistry, and the PhD student has a background in chemistry with no prior computational knowledge. At the time of hiring we were under pressure to get the project going and complementing my physics background with someone who actually knows chemistry seemed like a good idea back then. Also the student was very motivated.

I have been spending a large amount of time teaching this student lots of physics and programming/scripting, which is needed to carry out the project. I assumed I would need to spend a lot of time at the beginning because of the background mismatch, so that was no problem. I thought things would improve with time. Unfortunately, they have not. The student is terrible at any kind of programming and has a lot of trouble learning new concepts, but what worries me the most is his attitude.

He basically is obsessed with getting results but is overlooking learning, in the form of reading books and papers and working hard on a problem for a period of time. If I tell him to "bang his head against the wall" for a couple of weeks trying to crack a problem before seeking advice from me (like we all have done during our PhDs), he gets frustrated after one or two days and starts sending me lots of desperate emails begging for me to intervene. This is a "gimme teh codez" kind of student, looking to avoid any problem which is of any real difficulty. I spend long meeting sessions explaining the theoretical and practical details of some approach, but he only seems interested when I write code that he can copy paste and use to get results (without even understanding the code, let alone the underlying physics).

Because of this I have to do lots of debugging and finding the same little (and large) mistakes that arise now and again because the student does not understand what he's doing. I have discussed many times with him that he needs to focus on understanding theory and code, instead of just getting results. But this is to no avail. I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's job rather than a scientist's job, but still get a PhD out of it.

As a result, I find myself working personally on any part of his project which has any hint of difficulty in it, spending way too many hours a week doing supervision, and getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress on the project. At this point, it would be fair to say that I could myself get everything he has to do (and more) done just in the time I spent meeting with him.

I have brought some of these concerns up, but the student won't accept they need to adjust how they work, instead claiming the tasks are too complicated (believe me, they're not), the professor does not help enough, the project is not well organized, etc. I don't know what to do - this student is getting easily 10 times more help than I did during my PhD (and I had a good experience).

To complicate things, I am just a postdoc so I have not a wide experience supervising different students that would tell me whether this case is common or isolated.

Am I expecting too much from my student? Is the problem I'm having a common one? How can I improve his attitude towards learning and working? How to deal with a bad research student?

  • 1
    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – ff524 Oct 22 '17 at 2:06

13 Answers 13

Since I have been that student at the beginning of my PhD, I think I can give you some perspective. I was very motivated when I started, but I didn't know anything about research, so I lost my motivation when I had to be on my own.

I tried the same approach as your student with my PhD adviser, and he told me he's not going to do my work or homework because I have to be able to do everything myself. Obviously, everything I did as a PhD student, I can still do now, so it worked.

But, you have to establish your boundaries. You have to set some discipline, and the first thing is to reduce the interaction with your student. Set a meeting, once a week. One day before the meeting, your student should put in writing, briefly, what progress he made, and what problems he encountered -- that should be discussed in the first half of the meeting. The rest of the meeting will be you telling him what needs to be done next. You should not talk with or help your student outside these meetings, and you should ignore those abusive "help now!!!" emails he's writing you.

If your student just wants to do his job quick, as you describe, you have to realize his output won't be something you can rely on. You need to give him two types of assignments. Some imply things he already does well, so he doesn't lose completely his courage, and the others imply him learning new stuff. The latter have to be easier. You do not help him with them beyond suggesting papers or books to look things up. In case of programming, suggest SE for him to look for help, and give him some examples to get him started and nothing else. Under no conditions you should do his work.

There are things you should demand from your student. If he has to present data to you, the data should be in the format your group is already using, if there is code that he needs to write, it should be documented, and he has to present tests that it's working. If you assigned him to read a certain paper, you have to make sure he read it. If you told him to search for literature, he needs to be able to discuss what he found and how is that relevant for the project and so on.

Since you are a postdoc, you probably can't enforce things properly. If you were his adviser, you could tell him to follow your discipline, or find another adviser. As a postdoc, you could go to the boss, tell them about what's going on and that the student consumes too much of your time. Tell them you are thinking of setting a discipline and ask them to back you up, especially since you are doing their job. Anyway, whatever you do, once you set your new set of rules, don't let him cross them, or break them yourself.

Edit - in response to @CaffeineAddiction comment claiming that, as an adviser you need to introduce the student to the basics.

The job of the adviser is not to introduce you to the foundations of whatever field. Part of that job is to teach the student how to introduce themselves to the basics. In other words, you don't teach the man to fish, you teach the man to teach himself how to fish. The basics should have been covered in classes. If they were not, you do have to make a compromise, and intervene when the student seems to have a block and doesn't make progress. But, you do that simply because you don't want to lose the student.

That's what I do. If my student has no background, I give him an easy test case, I suggest them a class to take, I recommend a book, or two, and give them one of the not so complex code that works. The code is a model, and might contain a few layers of complexity. My job is to make the student aware of this, and guide them to search for the knowledge they need to improve the code, or write their own.

I took the code as an example, since that was the original question. But, when you start research in my field, you don't get a code. You get a paper with a bunch of formulas. To understand those formulas, you need a few years of reading textbooks and other research papers. It's very easy to get lost in the process, in other words, spending 6 months on trying to understand something completely irrelevant. The adviser's job is to offer limited guidance to understanding that paper, help you recognize your blocks and address them. The heavy lifting is still yours.

As far as I understand, there are only two valuable skills that an adviser is responsible to teach a PhD student. The first is to teach the student how to learn on their own a completely new subject. The second skill an adviser must teach is how to do research. Many advisers skip the first skill because of many reasons, but mostly because of the lack of time. Then they complain about students with technician mentality. But, learning that first skill, also teaches you the right attitude towards the unknown, which is essential in research.

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  • Your third paragraph is very similar to a scrum / agile methodology. You have a daily standup that is nothing more than "Yesterday, I _____. Today, I plan to _____. I am blocked from ____ by ____." Takes no more than 30-60 seconds per person. It's useful for most people to write this down or say this because it forces you to at least have a general direction for the day. You also get a trail of "I was hoping to ___ and ___ today. I did those. It was a good day." Or "I was blocked from doing ___ by ___, but I was able to resolve the block by ___." – corsiKa Oct 24 '17 at 17:17
  • I think talking explicitly about the importance of being independent is essential. For example, I come from a culture where people are used to being told how to do things rather than what to do. It took me some time to adapt. But I realized it is a problem only when my bachelor thesis supervisor told me explicitly that I'm expected to be more independent. Your student could be coming from such a culture and simply does not comprehend that he's not as independent a he should be. – Mohamed Khamis Oct 24 '17 at 18:23
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    I am a BS in Comp Sci, taking someone from another field and throwing them at code is a recipe for disaster ... even within my field programmers with less than 2 years of experience are not to be trusted. Your student most likely doesn't have the foundation he needs for computer science ... maybe instead of doing code for him instead introduce him to very simplistic parts of the foundation aspects of computer science ... like flow control, data structures, and abstraction. Maybe point him at the first 50 or so problems of projecteuler.net ... teach the man to fish and you help yourself. – CaffeineAddiction Oct 24 '17 at 20:59
  • To answer to your edit : then maybe the advisor need to help the student in settings up deadlines, like "you have 6 months to learn what you need into programming for our job". With eventually a bit more details "1st month, languages, data structure, basic algorithms,...". I'am the kind to panic if we don't tell me that I have two weeks and that I'am stucks since two days. Also because programming is such large fields, he can help the students to focus on what he really need (forget the web, forget the UI, you need raw calculations, loop through datas, recursion) – Walfrat Oct 25 '17 at 13:28
  • @Walfrat Setting up realistic deadlines is, to some extent, the adviser's job. What you are talking about, is what I would tell the student during our bi-weekly discussions. It would be unrealistic for me to expect results before the students are trained to some extent. You are also right that you need to help the student keep focus on what is important, but keep in mind that this is also a skill that they need to acquire by doing research. So you can help the student with that, but you can't overdo it. – user21264 Oct 25 '17 at 15:52

I am currently on my second PhD since I dropped out of the first one. I was the "nightmare student," and so I'd like to give you my perspective. This may not be relevant, but I started out as highly enthusiastic and motivated but got disillusioned as the level was much higher than I anticipated. Like your student I was moving into a physics field with a different background (biology) and had no real coding experience.

I experienced something that can only be described as "turbulence." I became so paranoid and insecure that I couldn't do anything by myself. My supervisor and project postdoc would send me some code, or a task they needed to do, and I would freeze. I'm an intelligent person but my brain couldn't focus. I'd read Stack Exchange and be unable to implement the solutions. If a solution varied even slightly, I wouldn't be able to implement it.

There was some underlying psychological problem. Insecurity, anxiety, stress -- whatever it was, I was a nightmare to be around. I never became independent and the more boundaries people tried to put up with me, the worse I got.

When I eventually quit, it was the greatest relief of my life. My postdoc hated me and was openly criticising me for my lack of independence. For some people that works, but for me it made me freeze even more. I'd panic, I was desperate for validation, and just couldn't concentrate.

Objectively I agree with every other comment here: set boundaries, he needs to become independent, don't exhaust yourself. But for me, those responses made me worse. Deep down I didn't think I was capable but couldn't admit it to myself so was stressed out and needy. Paradoxically, what would have helped me most would have been to be reassured that I could do it as a person. E.g., that I was fundamentally worthy and deserving of my place in the department, and that my weaknesses were not inherent parts of me, but skills that could be overcome.

Sounds so stupid!!! I'm sure many people will feel cynical about that, with good reason. But if I'd had that space to feel emotionally secure I would have felt more grounded, safe and able to solve my problems. In the end, feeling valued and secure would have saved my PhD when being criticised only made me more insecure, but that's just my experience. I know this must sound ridiculous. It was just my situation.

The only positive for me is that I now know everything to avoid on my second PhD. But it would have been preferable to get here without wasting 3 years' of public funding and annoying a lot of people.

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    I don't think it sounds stupid at all. Furthermore, I think this answer is at least as valuable as the other ones which do not really take into account the human side of the question. – YYY Oct 20 '17 at 14:16
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    I think it's a very important point you make. If the adviser is worth his salt, they should recognize that you have some psychological hangup and try to help you address it. I also had many of my own, and most of my advisers didn't even realize. – user21264 Oct 20 '17 at 16:23
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    This is a very valuable perspective. Probably worth noting that "set boundaries" and "provide positive and hopeful comments" are not necessarily mutually exclusive! – AJK Oct 20 '17 at 22:51

I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's, rather than a scientist's, job but still get a PhD out of it.

From what you've described, this seems like a very accurate assessment, and it's the crux of the matter. You need to get this message across to your student. Magicsowon's answer does a great job covering the practical aspects of how to (attempt to) get the student out of their bad habits. I think also explaining the situation to them very clearly is an important component. You have already brought up some concerns with him, but perhaps there is room to be more blunt/direct. You need to get the following points across:

  • The difference between a technician and a researcher, as alluded to in the quote above. A PhD is not awarded just for putting in a certain number of hours. It is a certification that you have the ability/potential to be an independent researcher. Merely working through a set of tasks with one's hand held throughout does not demonstrate that ability.
  • Someone who has been showing no initiative and requires that much help is going to really struggle in their thesis defence.
  • Difficulties such as "tasks are too complicated..., the professor does not help enough, the project is not well organized" are ones that will crop up throughout a scientific career. If the student cannot find strategies to cope with them, they cannot be a successful scientist.
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    No offense but many PhD students are like that "...getting PhD with technician mentality..". Great answer (+1). – Coder Oct 20 '17 at 14:08
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    Is this 'project' the student is working on really synonymous with their full capacity as a PhD student? I think it unfair of both you and the OP to confound the two competencies. If you hate your boss, your job, or programming that doesn't mean you won't be a world-class doctor of chemistry. The OP is telling us how the situation is inconvenient for him, not what the graduate student is experiencing. Rather than attacking (and then dismissing) the student's capacity the comments here should be about mediating the working relationship. – Quixy Oct 24 '17 at 4:53
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    @Quixotic I take your point; sorry if my answer came across as excessively harsh. However, while you are quite right that this student may have abilities that are not coming to the fore in the current project, unfortunately for them, the current project is what they are going to be judged on. – user2390246 Oct 24 '17 at 8:15
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    @User2390246 And I understand your point that intellectual weakness in one area may be predictive of overall deficiency, however university employees are meant to be managers and expert educators. The OP is not demonstrating traits of either, nor are most commentators; everyone is venting and predicting student doom. Just because the OP is in the position of authority it doesn't mean that he is doing a good job or his judgment of the student is accurate. The student deserves a structured, ethical environment. – Quixy Oct 25 '17 at 2:35

Some people just don't get coding. If he's one of them, he's in the wrong PhD.

With a chemistry background he probably hasn't written any real code since school (and then only if you're lucky), but might have done a "computational chemistry" module writing simple scripts for a pre-written model or commercial software. Signing up to a computational PhD was probably an error. I've found that people don't realise how unsuited to coding they actually are until they really have to do it.

At this point you've done what you can and it's up to the real supervisor. You may need to document the bits you've done that the student is relying on It's possible he's heading towards a form of plagiarism if you wrote the code and he claims or implies that he did if/when he writes up, but even setting that aside if the progress he appears to be making is actually based on work you did, it's time that was made clear.

The supervisors options are rarely restricted to making him quit or you spend even more time on the project. There's often the possibility of changing the project to something more suitable. You could take some time to think about what skills he does have, and whether there's a role for them in your group, especially if it's not a purely computational group and there's experimental/theoretical work that would be more suitable. You don't have to find a solution but as a responsible postdoc it doesn't hurt to look for some positive possibilities.

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The project is on computational physics/chemistry, and the PhD student has a background in chemistry with no prior computational knowledge. [...]

I have been spending a large amount of time teaching this student lots of physics and programming/scripting, which is needed to carry out the project. I assumed I would need to spend a lot of time at the beginning because of the background mismatch, so that was no problem. I thought things would improve with time. Unfortunately, they have not. The student is terrible at any kind of programming and has a lot of trouble learning new concepts, but what worries me the most is his attitude.

As someone with a master's in computer science who works as an industry programmer, red flags went off for me as soon as I read this in your question - but not for the student. For the way you're managing him.

Programming is an exceptionally difficult skill to learn. I would say it is equally as difficult as learning how to do research - but it is also a complete skill in and of itself. In order to get to the point I am now, as a professional programmer, I took four years of programming classes in high school, four years of a CS program in undergraduate, over 12 months in total of internships, and two years of grad school. To get to the point you want your student to be at, where I could teach myself what I needed to to write my own non-trivial programs, took me at least through high school and an entire summer spent teaching myself how to write Android apps. I know that you've gone through a similar process yourself, so this is just a reminder to you, someone who is now on the other side, that programming is very difficult to someone who doesn't have much experience.

If you want your student to be successful, you need to step back and give him a chance to actually learn how to program. The good news is that, since he is a grad student, he is both smart enough and at the level where it should only take a semester or two before he starts being productive. (Emphasis on starts - he won't be at the same level you are for years, for better or for worse.)

From your question, you've been teaching your student how to program for the last two years. I'm very glad to have read that. On my first read, it seemed to me that you had largely just thrown him into the deep end and asked him to swim, and there's absolutely no way that could have worked. However, to be honest, I still believe that programming is a difficult enough skill that you're not going to be able to teach it to him yourself. This isn't a failing on your part at all. It's just an acknowledgement that you're busy with your own research and the other aspects of managing this student, so your capacity to teach is limited, and your student is also taking classes, learning to read papers, learning how to carry out research - his capacity to learn programming on top of all of that is also limited.

To make sure he has an opportunity to learn programming in a way that overcomes those limitations, I strongly recommend that you ask him to take introductory computer science classes. He can probably skip some of the earliest courses and jump into 150 level courses. Then, while he is taking those, please stop giving him as many tasks that require him to be a productive programmer for a while. Is there other work he can do that exercises more of the background in chemistry you originally hired him for?

I certainly understand being frustrated that your student isn't being productive and doesn't seem to be willing to learn on his own. My point isn't that you should tolerate any student who isn't being productive. My point is that, in the specific situation you've described, I strongly suspect that the core issue is you're expecting a bit too much out of someone who has not had the time to learn a very difficult skill.

To emphasize, I think the reason you're expecting too much is because you're asking someone who has no background in programming to be an effective programmer on top of doing research. Either one of those presses an individual to their intellectual limits. There are many other things it is reasonable to ask a student to learn on their own - how to carry out an experiment, how to use the correct statistical analysis, etc. Programming is sufficiently difficult that it's in its own category, though.

If, after taking programming courses, your student is still not being productive, then I think your case that the problem is with the student's attitude is much, much stronger.

ImportanceOfBringErnest commented on my answer:

I think there is a big discrepancy between what a physicists call programming and what a programmer call programming. Mostly, if you show a code some physicist has written to a real programmer they start crying and run out of the room. So I would interprete the skills the questions talks about as really really basic and the real problem seems to be rather the attitude of the student.

I absolutely agree that the student does not need to be at the level of a professional programmer. He only needs to be able to bang out a script in a few hours that calculates some value and is done with it. Even so, I still strongly believe that it is unreasonable to expect a grad student to reach that late beginner level of programming ability on their own.

In grad school, I was a TA and often helped students with introductory CS homework. I have seen students starting out their programming careers take 10-15 minutes doing things like determining which arguments to pass into a function or writing a for loop that iterates over an array - and that only after banging their head against the problem until they realized they weren't going to get it on their own, sought me out for help, and got some hints from me. This stuff is truly very, very difficult to pick up, and it takes time and patience on the part of everyone involved for a new programmer to be successful.

Introductory programming courses are designed to guide students past the true beginner level to the point that they can write basic programs on their own. This is what the OP wants. The OP's student doesn't need to get a full computer science degree or be able to architect an enterprise system. But I still strongly believe that the only reasonable way to get the OP's student to the level the OP wants him at is to give him a chance to go through at least one introductory CS class.

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    I think there is a big discrepancy between what a physicists call programming and what a programmer call programming. Mostly, if you show a code some physicist has written to a real programmer they start crying and run out of the room. So I would interprete the skills the questions talks about as really really basic and the real problem seems to be rather the attitude of the student. – ImportanceOfBeingErnest Oct 20 '17 at 21:47
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    I definitely agree that the OP's student doesn't need to be at the same level as an experienced programmer to carry out the research asked of him effectively. But I think getting to the point where you can figure out how to write a non-trivial program on your own, even if it is ugly code, is still more difficult than most of these answers assume. It takes time to wrap one's head around how a computer "understands" a programming language, how to break a problem down into what it's possible for a computer to do, and to really grok ideas like functions and working with arrays/classes. – Kevin Oct 20 '17 at 22:01
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    Yes, but there is a problem with expectations. In the US, you aren't expected to have ever written code before, but if you're going for a PhD in computational XYZ, and you don't know beforehand that there will be scripting and/or development that's bad. Worse when you are unwilling to sharpen the proverbial saw in order to improve your productivity because it interferes with doing research every waking minute. That is the attitude a lot of people have. It's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to. – pentavalentcarbon Oct 21 '17 at 17:34
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    @Kevin That depends on the student. I did a degree in chemical engineering where the only formal computer "training" was a 2 week course in Fortran. I went on to become a professional programmer having taught myself Assembler, C, C++ and Java mostly from just reading textbooks and writing programs in my spare time while I was learning. – DavidPostill Oct 21 '17 at 21:28
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    @ImportanceOfBeingErnest Considering the fields and we talk about computations, they may have to learn specific stuff, like "how to do when Matlab "\" is not enough". And that is damn hard. As said Kevin, I though totally the same when reading OP's post. The student couldn't know it would be that hard, OP and his supervisor should know it. Furthermore lerning programming don't require only to read, it requires a hell lot of practices with failures in order to be able to understand throughly how to do things right, basically, it's very time consuming. – Walfrat Oct 24 '17 at 13:18

You say you are based in Europe, but the PhD system of mainland Europe is much different to the UK, where I live. For example I completed my PhD in 3 years, whereas my European colleagues generally tend to spend (at least) 6 years on a PhD, if this is the case then this student is still just starting out and could probably afford to take some time out to catch-up on the basics. Even if you are in the UK, 3 years to complete is an absolute minimum it would benefit him to learn these skills even if it means delaying thesis submission.

Perhaps there are some external courses for the student to attend on the more technical skills like programming, I had £3k per year to spend on training during my PhD. I would also imagine there are undergraduate courses at your institution which the student can 'sit-in' on the lectures in physics and programming, I would encourage him to attend.

Rather than giving him direct answers to his questions and coding demands, point him in the direction of published work (papers/textbooks) on the subject, be ready to discuss these with him after he has had time to absorb them (not just to read them, but to really understand the authors message). Make clear that it is not your job to do his work for him, and that he will become a much stronger scientist if he perfects these skills now.

What happens when he starts writing his thesis and he still doesn't fully understand what he is doing, the method used, and as an extension the results. He will either misrepresent results or simply miss important conclusions, unless you also write his thesis for him.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for supporting the student, especially if it is a difficult or technically challenging project, but babying them will just result in more pain in the future.

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    I am not sure which Europe you are talking about, most PhD in Europe are 3-4 years. Italy is 3 years, Switzerland 4 years, France 3-4 years, Germany 3-4 years. – Herman Toothrot Oct 20 '17 at 12:10
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    @user4050: many places are in practice minimum 5 years. (dont forget 20% "institutional duties" which are supposed to pay for the employment, and which often can accidentally take up a bit more than that percentage.) – mathreadler Oct 20 '17 at 12:15
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    @mathreadler I don't see where you got this 5 years information, I have never seen that and I am familiar with different systems. – Herman Toothrot Oct 20 '17 at 12:33
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    @user4050 : Where I got that information? You must be kidding. I have seen many students on that five year journey. 5 is the minimum, quite many who end up professors take 7,8 or even up to 10 years. – mathreadler Oct 20 '17 at 13:01
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    @user4050 In Belgium, a PhD can take 6 years if you are hired by the university as teaching assistant. – Arnaud D. Oct 20 '17 at 15:46

I have been a PhD student, and then an advisor. I had an excellent advisor, and learned a lot from him. The key to being a successful advisor has two major components:

  • Know when to kick ass
  • Know when to provide encouragent/comfort

Those are your only responsibilities. Basic skills are the responsibility of the student. You can discuss ideas with the student, help with insights, and set expectations. If the student fails to meet expectations, he is on his way to being a former student long before he hits thesis mode. You are not responsible for saving him by doing his work.

What is critical now has already been suggested: meet once a week, set goals, in writing, and demand progress reports in writing. Email works very well for this. It also provides a CYA audit trail, protects you from being diagnosed as failing because you are doing his work as well as yours, and makes it very clear that his failure is his own problem, not yours. So when decision time comes, he can be let go because there is a written record of his failures. This is not unlike the requirements for employee evaluation that you will face if you end up in industry.

It is also worthwhile to keep time sheets on how you spend your day. I kept a simple text file. This includes time you have spent “doing his job”, that is, writing code that is critical to you but he was supposed to have written. The “virtual paper trail” is important. As observed, a PhD student is expected to work well on his own. Not have you do all his work for him.

I once had a student who was not even capable of basic freshman tasks and apparently earned their undergraduate degree by letting others do their work for them. I went to their supervisor and explained this, but nothing came of it. It took another year of wasted salary before they fired by a new supervisor.

You are not doing your grad student any favors by doing all his work, you are not doing your school any favors by covering up his failures, and you are not doing your profession any favors by churning out someone deeply unqualified to be a professional. And you are not doing yourself any favors by doing two jobs. It is time to fledge this bird.

You can’t save everyone. Some people cannot be saved because they do not understand (or refuse to admit) how unqualified they are.

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No, you are not expecting too much from your student. Your expectations are in line with the basic concepts of a PhD pretty much anywhere - which requires the student to be capable of independent learning and problem solving, and an understanding of the underlying fundamental concepts of his technical work. It appears you have taken the time and effort to steer him in the right direction, to no avail. If you were a PI in this situation, I would have suggested a long and frank discussion, and a discussion for the student to leave the group. Perhaps he is not suited for theoretical work, or any kind of PhD level work - in either rate he would not be a suitable fit for the current group. (Perhaps a reprieve can be given to a new PhD student, but two years is too much.)

However, as you are not the PI, perhaps the best you can do now is to establish basic but strict guidelines. As a previous answer pointed out, set times for meetings per week or bi weekly would be sufficient. Don't cave in an answer to emails between that time, but save them and address them during the meetings only. Finally, avoid giving him any kind of code directly but only provide high level direction and advice on how to proceed. By applying a 'denial of accessibility' you will have to force the student to learn on his own.

You should not have to sacrifice your own productivity to help a lazy student, and you should definitely want to avoid doing his work for him but letting him take the credit for it!

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    -1 I strongly believe the OP is, in fact, asking too much. I explain why in my answer. In short, programming is roughly as difficult as research, and it doesn't seem the OP has given their student quite enough space to get caught up on programming. That's not a matter of meeting expectations at all, and neither is it "in line with the basic concepts of a PhD." – Kevin Oct 20 '17 at 19:31
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    @Kevin it appears you are viewing at this from the perspective of a professional programmer. I'm a computational chemist and the person being described is also in the field of computational chemistry/physics. I am also familiar with computational chemistry groups which range from programming heavy to programming light. In none of these situations does it take the seven years you have described in order to do basic research in the field. Two years spent under the guidance of a hereto patient guide (OP) should be more than enough to get started independently. – user44476 Oct 20 '17 at 20:08
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    Furthermore the issue at hand is the attitude of the student in question, which suggests that even if someone were to give him several years 'alone' to spend time learning programming (the idea itself is patently ridiculous), he would much rather be given the code and obtain results from it. 2 years is roughly the time to candidacy for most chemistry PhD programs, and almost half of the total 4-5 years of a PhD, fyi. – user44476 Oct 20 '17 at 20:15

As someone who is a PhD student in computational chemistry who was new to programming when I started the PhD: Please try and be aware how alien and different coding, computer science, computer theory, etc is to someone who is used to being a physical scientist. It was a whole new world when I started and it was very difficult to motivate myself to put all my focus into learning coding and programming, when what I really felt I should be doing (and what I wanted to do) was learn about atoms and molecules. It's difficult to get over the shock at being in a position of serious research, and yet knowing basically no more than a high school senior (about coding). Most grad students I know in my friend were in similar positions as me; very, very few were CS people beforehand or had done anything more than screw around in perl or python for a few hours. I don't know how long your student has been with you, but there's a huge barrier to entry in this kind of situation, so don't set your expectations too high in regards to coding learning speed + enthusiasm, especially if they seem genuinely interested and motivated to learn in other areas.

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You had a lot of great a "kind" answers which may work for most of the people, but success isn't for everyone. It's a fact you've gotta admit.

I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's, rather than a scientist's, job but still get a PhD out of it.

As sad as this would be for him, he may not be built to be anything else than a technician, and if that's the case you need to let him fail. He'll need that lesson the sooner possible.

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  • If his field requires programming, how would being a technician change that? – JAB Oct 20 '17 at 14:21
  • @JAB I don't think his field necessarily requires programming, although in more and more technical jobs it's a very helpful side-qualification; neither is programming the main problem OP identifies. It's the fact that the student lacks the endurance to delve deep into a topic where he needs to learn a lot on his own before he can apply his knowledge and get some practical results. That's why he seems to much better fit a "technical" job, where tasks are typically smaller and following proven paths. – Frank Hopkins Oct 20 '17 at 15:58
  • @JAB He's coming from the chemistry field and is trying to go further. To go further he needs to learn to get out of his confort zone, and learn new things even if they're not directly related to his field. Here, when the OP says "I get the impression the student wants to do a technician's job" he's speaking about a chemistry technician, aka doing lab stuff. So this is my point, maybe he's just not built to be more than a chem-lab dude, or simply not ready yet. – Rolexel Oct 21 '17 at 17:50

Your best option is probably to guide him in a way that both helps him go forward with his work and helps him develop the resilience and perseverance that are part of a good scientist.

The best way I see to do this is to link him a set of papers containing what is needed for him to reach the solution he asked you for, maybe even in the form of a query on one of your field`s research archives.

This way you avoid being "milked for teh codez" while still being a competent supervisor, teaching him how to approach problems in a correct manner.

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My professor is nominally appointed as supervisor but I am doing all of the actual supervision (my professor is not familiar with the details of our project, just the "big picture").

No one is benefiting from this supervisory relationship. It's time to pull the plug. Tell your professor that it's not a good fit and that you can't supervise this student any longer. If he wants more detail, tell him that the student

  • does not have prior experience with programming, is not applying himself to learn programming, and doesn't have a natural aptitude for it

  • doesn't understand the underlying theoretical underpinnings of the project

  • is not able to work independently

If at some point your professor assigns you a different student to supervise, please don't wait so long to report back about how things are going.

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Most of the 'answers' here suggest that the post-doc "save himself," but they do not provide constructive manager-employee conflict resolutions.

I want to outline some suggestions. Try to honestly, objectively assess the following:

  1. Does your employee have a learning/language barrier? If yes, seek specialist assistance for clarifying instructions to the employee.
  2. Does the employee have adequate resources to understand and execute instructions? (Consistent computer, software, textbook, tutorial access).
  3. Is the employee failing to perform due to poor scheduling? If yes, is it due to his own choices (procrastination, under-estimating time needed), or because management has failed to allocate appropriate planning stages for the project?
  4. When confronted with a new problem to solve, is there a consistent stage at which he is failing? Consider requiring documentation or a lab journal for employees so that they can demonstrate what steps they took to resolve issues.
  5. Is the employee/manager conflict emotional? An employee that dislike his boss may engage in active sabotage, while a manager who personally dislikes his employee may engage in exaggerated fault finding.
  6. Does the employee have adequate pre-requisite training/skills to perform at the level required? Consider having a third party participate in a meeting to determine if you are being unreasonable in expectations. If employee has skill inadequacies have a skill-set expert advice on a learning plan, do not invent one on your own. Refer employee to appropriate tutoring, courses, or online tutorials where he can be held accountable for completing a training session.

Motivating and correcting the student should come, once a week, in timed, structured meetings. The student should also be given time to state his own concerns, ask questions or offer solutions without interruption or ridicule. Consider the following:

  • If this is a chemist, perhaps the tutorials closer to their area of expertise.
  • If the programming is unrewarding consider offering short-term incentives, for example allow him to present a successful model or GUI to undergraduates and get a round of applause for it.
  • Find bait. If he is publication motivated, use it. If he enjoys educating others, have him write a tutorial, if he likes editing graphics, assign those.
  • Consider partnering the graduate student with a successful undergraduate who has programming expertise. Ask the graduate student to provide chemistry insight in exchange for the undergraduate learning/practicing programming at a more advanced level. If possible, hire an undergraduate to collaborate with the graduate student. Having an ally or a position of authority may invigorate both.
  • Praise what can be praised. When the student does solve a problem or does something that demonstrates initiative signal gratitude and do not be sarcastic or condescending.
  • Network the student, if possible, with someone who could have experienced a similar learning curve and motivation challenges, but who is now successful.

When positive reinforcement fails, or falters, here are some appropriate negative reinforcement techniques:

  • Document your weekly expectation and give instruction on what the employee should do to "self troubleshoot" before the next meeting. When reviewing work consider if step 1 and 2 were taken, if applicable; if 0/2, report to overhead supervisor.
  • Ask employee to be responsible for correcting his own errors. Provide annotated code, not corrected code such that he has to go in and implement corrections directly.
  • Provide task specific deadlines and meeting agendas (even if one-sentence long e-mail). If your employee is failing to respond to milestone requests through procrastination or disrespectful attitude to your position, document it and show this to the professor and/or department chair. Harassment or personal attacks are not okay.
  • Ask the student to present/summarize the purpose of individual experiments or coding that is being performed. If there is a failure to comprehend the project, ask a (qualified, objective) third party or additional participant to provide feedback. If the third party agrees there is a comprehension gap, report this to the professor.

I am not doubting that you are in a difficult, time consuming situation, but I do think you might be failing as a manager and educator if your two solutions are "do his work for him" or "fire him." Learn to manage, motivate, and document your efforts. After documenting the experience, allow the professor to make the hiring/firing decision.

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Tag Archives: it’s a wonderful life

It’s A Wonderful Life (sometimes)

It’s A Wonderful Life was released in 1946 but its uncanny ability to have such a direct, emotional connection with audiences has allowed it to be programmed 68 years later in a prime-time slot on network tv in 2014. Sadly, few films … Continue reading

Posted in Essays | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment


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Analyze Web Server's Default Page

Page load speed analysis

  • 79/100

    Good result
  • 6

    Successful tests
  • 2

    Failed tests
  • First response

    388 ms

  • Resources loaded

    524 ms

  • Page rendered

    1 ms

  • Total page load time

    913 ms

Click here to check amazing Web Srv1 Blitz Stream content for Germany. Otherwise, check out these important facts you probably never knew about

We analyzed page load time and found that the first response time was 388 ms and then it took 525 ms to load all DOM resources and completely render a web page. This is an excellent result, as only 5% of websites can load faster.

Page optimization

  • HTML 1.6 kB
    Images 0 B
    Javascripts 0 B
    CSS 735 B

    In fact, the total size of main page is 2.3 kB. This result falls within a big category (top 100 000) of medium weight web pages. Only a small number of websites need less resources to load. HTML takes 1.6 kB which makes up the majority of the site volume.

    • Original 1.6 kB
    • After minification 1.6 kB
    • After compression 849 B

    HTML optimization

    HTML content can be minified and compressed by a website’s server. The most efficient way is to compress content using GZIP which reduces data amount travelling through the network between server and browser. HTML code on this page is well minified. It is highly recommended that content of this web page should be compressed using GZIP, as it can save up to 738 B or 47% of the original size.

    • Original 735 B
    • After minification 701 B
    • After compression 342 B

    CSS optimization

    CSS files minification is very important to reduce a web page rendering time. The faster CSS files can load, the earlier a page can be rendered. needs all CSS files to be minified and compressed as it can save up to 393 B or 53% of the original size.

Network requests diagram

  • style.css
  • fbds.js

Our browser made a total of 3 requests to load all elements on the main page. We found that 67% of them (2 requests) were addressed to the original, 33% (1 request) were made to The less responsive or slowest element that took the longest time to load (388 ms) belongs to the original domain

Additional info on

The browser has sent 2 CSS, Javascripts, AJAX and image requests in order to completely render the main page of Web Srv1 Blitz Stream. According to our analytics all requests are already optimized.

Possible request optimization

Good result

IP address uses IP address which is currently shared with 4 other domains. The more sites share the same IP address, the higher the host server’s workload is. It is strongly recommended that the host server should be changed or the hosting provider should be requested to give a different (separate) IP address for this domain.

Poor result

IP Trace

DNS records

Type Host Target/ip TTL Other
A 296

Language and encoding

Normal result

EN en language flag

EN en language flag

Language claimed in HTML meta tag should match the language actually used on the web page. Otherwise can be misinterpreted by Google and other search engines. Our service has detected that English is used on the page, and it matches the claimed language. Our system also found out that main page’s claimed encoding is . Changing it to UTF-8 can be a good choice, as this format is commonly used for encoding all over the web and thus their visitors won’t have any troubles with symbol transcription or reading.

HTTPS certificate

SSL Certificate has no SSL certificate. Web browsing can be safer with HTTPS connection, so we suggest that it should be obtained for this site.

Normal result

Visitor World Map

Country of origin for 89.9% of all visits is Germany. It’s good for that their server is also located in Germany, as that enables the majority of their visitors to benefit from a much faster page load time.

Good result

Poor result

Social Sharing Optimization

Open Graph description is not detected on the main page of Web Srv1 Blitz Stream. Lack of Open Graph description can be counter-productive for their social media presence, as such a description allows converting a website homepage (or other pages) into good-looking, rich and well-structured posts, when it is being shared on Facebook and other social media. For example, adding the following code snippet into HTML <head> tag will help to represent this web page correctly in social networks:

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Page load speed analysis

  • 60/100

    Normal result
  • 7

    Successful tests
  • 1

    Failed test
  • First response

    638 ms

  • Resources loaded

    5.4 sec

  • Page rendered

    399 ms

  • Total page load time

    6.5 sec

Visit now to see the best up-to-date ORGANIC MUSIC content for Japan and also check out these interesting facts you probably never knew about

We analyzed page load time and found that the first response time was 638 ms and then it took 5.8 sec to load all DOM resources and completely render a web page. This is a poor result, as 75% of websites can load faster.

Page optimization

  • HTML 40.9 kB
    Images 596.5 kB
    Javascripts 104.5 kB
    CSS 28.5 kB

    In fact, the total size of main page is 770.4 kB. This result falls beyond the top 1M of websites and identifies a large and not optimized web page that may take ages to load. 45% of websites need less resources to load. Images take 596.5 kB which makes up the majority of the site volume.

    • Original 40.9 kB
    • After minification 40.6 kB
    • After compression 5.5 kB

    HTML optimization

    HTML content can be minified and compressed by a website’s server. The most efficient way is to compress content using GZIP which reduces data amount travelling through the network between server and browser. HTML code on this page is well minified. It is highly recommended that content of this web page should be compressed using GZIP, as it can save up to 35.4 kB or 87% of the original size.

    • Original 596.5 kB
    • After optimization 532.6 kB

    Image optimization

    Image size optimization can help to speed up a website loading time. The chart above shows the difference between the size before and after optimization. Obviously, ORGANIC MUSIC needs image optimization as it can save up to 63.9 kB or 11% of the original volume. The most popular and efficient tools for JPEG and PNG image optimization are Jpegoptim and PNG Crush.

    • Original 104.5 kB
    • After minification 100.9 kB
    • After compression 36.2 kB

    JavaScript optimization

    It’s better to minify JavaScript in order to improve website performance. The diagram shows the current total size of all JavaScript files against the prospective JavaScript size after its minification and compression. It is highly recommended that all JavaScript files should be compressed and minified as it can save up to 68.3 kB or 65% of the original size.

    • Original 28.5 kB
    • After minification 17.3 kB
    • After compression 4.0 kB

    CSS optimization

    CSS files minification is very important to reduce a web page rendering time. The faster CSS files can load, the earlier a page can be rendered. needs all CSS files to be minified and compressed as it can save up to 24.5 kB or 86% of the original size.

Network requests diagram

  • cross-border-cart.css
  • index.css
  • jquery.min.js
  • cart.js
  • product_stock.js
  • li.php
  • li.php
  • right_bg.gif
  • bg.gif
  • head_bg.gif
  • header_space.gif
  • home.gif
  • twitter.gif
  • annai.gif
  • h_r_space.gif
  • toiawase.gif
  • side_bg.gif
  • logobg.gif
  • toplogo.gif
  • keyword_search.gif
  • go.gif
  • dot_spacer.gif
  • shopping_cart.gif
  • view_cart.gif
  • selections.gif
  • contents.gif
  • information.gif
  • topbunner.jpg
  • title_bg.gif
  • center_topics.gif
  • center_newarrivals.gif
  • frame00.gif
  • 100085866_th.jpg
  • 100085967_th.jpg
  • 100086091_th.jpg
  • 100086217_th.jpg
  • 100086333_th.jpg
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  • center_recommended.gif
  • 90331575_th.jpg
  • 91803514_th.jpg
  • 93176153_th.jpg
  • 93713590_th.jpg
  • 93713784_th.jpg
  • 93927542_th.jpg
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  • 96185266_th.jpg
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  • 97351054_th.jpg
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  • 97853165_th.jpg
  • 98076042_th.jpg
  • 98177103_th.jpg
  • 98177215_th.jpg
  • 98177269_th.jpg
  • 98300766_th.jpg
  • 98578177_th.jpg
  • 98782633_th.jpg
  • 98948670_th.jpg
  • 98948810_th.jpg
  • 98949102_th.jpg
  • 99069402_th.jpg
  • 99216796_th.jpg
  • 99216829_th.jpg
  • 99216864_th.jpg
  • 99758234_th.jpg
  • recordstores.gif
  • ead.gif
  • losapson.gif
  • bamboomusic.gif
  • lighthouse.gif
  • newtone.gif
  • pigeon.gif
  • my_account.gif
  • mail_magazine.gif
  • grading_policy.gif
  • hold.gif
  • freeshipping.gif
  • foreigner.gif

Our browser made a total of 97 requests to load all elements on the main page. We found that 4% of them (4 requests) were addressed to the original, 93% (90 requests) were made to and 1% (1 request) were made to The less responsive or slowest element that took the longest time to load (2.1 sec) relates to the external source

Additional info on

The browser has sent 96 CSS, Javascripts, AJAX and image requests in order to completely render the main page of ORGANIC MUSIC. We recommend that multiple CSS and JavaScript files should be merged into one by each type, as it can help reduce assets requests and as a result speed up the page load time.

Possible request optimization

Normal result

IP address uses IP address which is currently shared with 4 other domains. The more sites share the same IP address, the higher the host server’s workload is. It is strongly recommended that the host server should be changed or the hosting provider should be requested to give a different (separate) IP address for this domain.

Poor result

IP Trace

DNS records

Type Host Target/ip TTL Other
A 300
NS 86400
NS 86400

86400 Mname:
Serial: 2008071669
Refresh: 60
Retry: 3600
Expire: 1209600
Minimum-ttl: 86400
MX 86400 Pri: 10

Language and encoding

Normal result

JA ja language flag

JA ja language flag

Language claimed in HTML meta tag should match the language actually used on the web page. Otherwise can be misinterpreted by Google and other search engines. Our service has detected that Japanese is used on the page, and it matches the claimed language. Our system also found out that main page’s claimed encoding is euc-jp. Changing it to UTF-8 can be a good choice, as this format is commonly used for encoding all over the web and thus their visitors won’t have any troubles with symbol transcription or reading.

HTTPS certificate

SSL Certificate has no SSL certificate. Web browsing can be safer with HTTPS connection, so we suggest that it should be obtained for this site.

Normal result

Visitor World Map

Country of origin for 85.8% of all visits is Japan. It’s good for that their server is also located in Japan, as that enables the majority of their visitors to benefit from a much faster page load time.

Good result

Normal result

Social Sharing Optimization

Open Graph data is detected on the main page of ORGANIC MUSIC. This is the best way to make the web page social media friendly. Here is how it looks like on Facebook:

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text:
Salus Digital Jobs

Page load speed analysis

  • 58/100

    Normal result
  • 5

    Successful tests
  • 3

    Failed tests
  • First response

    1.3 sec

  • Resources loaded

    2.4 sec

  • Page rendered

    449 ms

  • Total page load time

    4.1 sec

Welcome to homepage info - get ready to check Jobs Salusdigital best content for United Kingdom right away, or after learning these important things about

We analyzed page load time and found that the first response time was 1.3 sec and then it took 2.8 sec to load all DOM resources and completely render a web page. This is a poor result, as 50% of websites can load faster.

Page optimization

  • HTML 106.5 kB
    Images 281.0 kB
    Javascripts 1.1 MB
    CSS 262.2 kB

    In fact, the total size of main page is 1.7 MB. This result falls beyond the top 1M of websites and identifies a large and not optimized web page that may take ages to load. 60% of websites need less resources to load. Javascripts take 1.1 MB which makes up the majority of the site volume.

    • Original 106.5 kB
    • After minification 97.1 kB
    • After compression 25.1 kB

    HTML optimization

    HTML content can be minified and compressed by a website’s server. The most efficient way is to compress content using GZIP which reduces data amount travelling through the network between server and browser. HTML code on this page is well minified. It is highly recommended that content of this web page should be compressed using GZIP, as it can save up to 81.5 kB or 76% of the original size.

    • Original 281.0 kB
    • After optimization 266.9 kB

    Image optimization

    Image size optimization can help to speed up a website loading time. The chart above shows the difference between the size before and after optimization. Jobs Salusdigital images are well optimized though.

    • Original 1.1 MB
    • After minification 1.0 MB
    • After compression 343.5 kB

    JavaScript optimization

    It’s better to minify JavaScript in order to improve website performance. The diagram shows the current total size of all JavaScript files against the prospective JavaScript size after its minification and compression. It is highly recommended that all JavaScript files should be compressed and minified as it can save up to 708.2 kB or 67% of the original size.

    • Original 262.2 kB
    • After minification 227.3 kB
    • After compression 45.2 kB

    CSS optimization

    CSS files minification is very important to reduce a web page rendering time. The faster CSS files can load, the earlier a page can be rendered. needs all CSS files to be minified and compressed as it can save up to 217.0 kB or 83% of the original size.

Network requests diagram

  • style.css
  • responsive.css
  • jquery.js
  • jquery.flexslider-min.js
  • popbox.js
  • uisearch.js
  • addthis_widget.js
  • easyResponsiveTabs.js
  • css
  • jquery-ui-smooth.css
  • jquery.lightbox_me.js
  • generic.js
  • jquery-ui.js
  • Jqury_Ui_Combo_ext.js
  • LocationUk-NonUk.js
  • Sector.js
  • genericPopupSearch.js
  • jquery.flexisel.js
  • analytics.js
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • DynamicImage
  • phone-home.png
  • socialicon.png
  • logo.jpg
  • d1ada4a1-9977-4cab-ad72-79b534900dae130972368771572746.png
  • 210d6162-1f63-4ef8-bd11-aa73083da196130779869630181674.png
  • 948372bf-d74a-45a7-b280-846bb051f3c0130910494500267699.jpg
  • 03958e30-df39-4321-933e-307e889f3b85130826404658707519.png
  • gpt.js
  • bIcY3_3JNqUVRAQQRNVteQ.ttf
  • CcKI4k9un7TZVWzRVT-T8y3USBnSvpkopQaUR-2r7iU.ttf
  • xkvoNo9fC8O2RDydKj12by3USBnSvpkopQaUR-2r7iU.ttf
  • JbtMzqLaYbbbCL9X6EvaIy3USBnSvpkopQaUR-2r7iU.ttf
  • collect
  • pubads_impl_82.js
  • ads
  • container.html
  • 5163974846957589606
  • osd.js
  • banner.jpg
  • banner_digital.jpg
  • error-onvalidation.png
  • whiteinnerarrow.png
  • footer-shadow.png
  • 300lo.json
  • ui-bg_flat_75_ffffff_40x100.png
  • caret.png
  • sh.8e5f85691f9aaa082472a194.html
  • flexisel-arrows.png

Our browser made a total of 57 requests to load all elements on the main page. We found that 56% of them (32 requests) were addressed to the original, 16% (9 requests) were made to and 7% (4 requests) were made to The less responsive or slowest element that took the longest time to load (1.3 sec) belongs to the original domain

Additional info on

The browser has sent 52 CSS, Javascripts, AJAX and image requests in order to completely render the main page of Jobs Salusdigital. We recommend that multiple CSS and JavaScript files should be merged into one by each type, as it can help reduce assets requests from 20 to 1 for JavaScripts and from 4 to 1 for CSS and as a result speed up the page load time.

Possible request optimization

Normal result

IP address uses IP address which is currently shared with 4 other domains. The more sites share the same IP address, the higher the host server’s workload is. It is strongly recommended that the host server should be changed or the hosting provider should be requested to give a different (separate) IP address for this domain.

Poor result

IP Trace

DNS records

Type Host Target/ip TTL Other
A 600
NS 3600
NS 3600

10800 Mname:
Serial: 1592010000
Refresh: 28800
Retry: 7200
Expire: 604800
Minimum-ttl: 86400
MX 3600 Pri: 5

Language and encoding

Normal result

EN en language flag

N/A  language flag

Language claimed in HTML meta tag should match the language actually used on the web page. Otherwise can be misinterpreted by Google and other search engines. Our service has detected that English is used on the page, and neither this language nor any other was claimed in <html> or <meta> tags. Our system also found out that main page’s claimed encoding is utf-8. Use of this encoding format is the best practice as the main page visitors from all over the world won’t have any issues with symbol transcription.

HTTPS certificate

SSL Certificate has no SSL certificate. Web browsing can be safer with HTTPS connection, so we suggest that it should be obtained for this site.

Normal result

Visitor World Map

Country of origin for 100% of all visits is United Kingdom. It lies approximately 3410 miles away from the server location (Canada) and such a long distance can negatively affect website speed, as it takes some time for data to travel back and forth between those places. That’s why one of the best ways to speed up page load time for the majority of users is moving the server to United Kingdom or just closer to the user base.

Poor result

Poor result

Social Sharing Optimization

Open Graph description is not detected on the main page of Jobs Salusdigital. Lack of Open Graph description can be counter-productive for their social media presence, as such a description allows converting a website homepage (or other pages) into good-looking, rich and well-structured posts, when it is being shared on Facebook and other social media. For example, adding the following code snippet into HTML <head> tag will help to represent this web page correctly in social networks:

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text:
Analyze Schmidt Hammersmith Kitchens Designer, Schmidt Kitchens Hammersmith

Schmidt Hammersmith kitchens- Hammersmith’s premier kitchen and interior solutions showroom, please book your free kitchen design service with one of our dedicated kitchen designers. Call us: 020 3714...

Page load speed analysis

  • 57/100

    Normal result
  • 6

    Successful tests
  • 2

    Failed tests
  • First response

    13.5 sec

  • Resources loaded

    14.6 sec

  • Page rendered

    239 ms

  • Total page load time

    28.4 sec

Visit now to see the best up-to-date Schmidt Hammersmith content for India and also check out these interesting facts you probably never knew about

We analyzed page load time and found that the first response time was 13.5 sec and then it took 14.9 sec to load all DOM resources and completely render a web page. This is a poor result, as 90% of websites can load faster.

Page optimization

  • HTML 53.7 kB
    Images 499.2 kB
    Javascripts 599.0 kB
    CSS 371.6 kB

    In fact, the total size of main page is 1.5 MB. This result falls beyond the top 1M of websites and identifies a large and not optimized web page that may take ages to load. 55% of websites need less resources to load. Javascripts take 599.0 kB which makes up the majority of the site volume.

    • Original 53.7 kB
    • After minification 51.2 kB
    • After compression 11.3 kB

    HTML optimization

    HTML content can be minified and compressed by a website’s server. The most efficient way is to compress content using GZIP which reduces data amount travelling through the network between server and browser. HTML code on this page is well minified. It is highly recommended that content of this web page should be compressed using GZIP, as it can save up to 42.4 kB or 79% of the original size.

    • Original 499.2 kB
    • After optimization 472.3 kB

    Image optimization

    Image size optimization can help to speed up a website loading time. The chart above shows the difference between the size before and after optimization. Schmidt Hammersmith images are well optimized though.

    • Original 599.0 kB
    • After minification 587.4 kB
    • After compression 183.5 kB

    JavaScript optimization

    It’s better to minify JavaScript in order to improve website performance. The diagram shows the current total size of all JavaScript files against the prospective JavaScript size after its minification and compression. It is highly recommended that all JavaScript files should be compressed and minified as it can save up to 415.4 kB or 69% of the original size.

    • Original 371.6 kB
    • After minification 301.6 kB
    • After compression 54.4 kB

    CSS optimization

    CSS files minification is very important to reduce a web page rendering time. The faster CSS files can load, the earlier a page can be rendered. needs all CSS files to be minified and compressed as it can save up to 317.3 kB or 85% of the original size.

Network requests diagram

  • layerslider.css
  • css
  • styles.css
  • settings.css
  • bootstrap.min.css
  • bootstrap-responsive.min.css
  • prettyPhoto.css
  • font-awesome.min.css
  • style.css
  • animate-custom.css
  • responsive.css
  • css
  • sticky-popup.css
  • greensock.js
  • jquery.js
  • jquery-migrate.min.js
  • layerslider.kreaturamedia.jquery.js
  • layerslider.transitions.js
  • jquery.themepunch.revolution.min.js
  • modernizr.custom.js
  • jquery.form.min.js
  • scripts.js
  • scripts.js
  • themewaves.js
  • widgets.js
  • plusone.js
  • style.css
  • logo1.jpg
  • MARYVILLE5.jpg
  • Schmidt-Home.jpg
  • WHITE-II-270x240.jpg
  • WHITE-270x240.jpg
  • NOUMEA-CELLIER-270x240.jpg
  • NOUMEA-BLUE-URBAN-OAK-270x240.jpg
  • LATINO-ASH-MAGNOLIA-270x240.jpg
  • HABITAT2-270x240.jpg
  • PLACARD-150x150.jpg
  • LATINO-ASH1-150x150.jpg
  • ARCOS-WHITE1-150x150.jpg
  • STRASS-150x150.jpg
  • MOON-150x150.jpg
  • MIKADO-BRILLIANT-150x150.jpg
  • loader.gif
  • contact-background.png
  • cb=gapi.loaded_0
  • loader.gif
  • small_left.png
  • small_right.png
  • ajax-loader.gif
  • fontawesome-webfont.woff

Our browser made a total of 52 requests to load all elements on the main page. We found that 90% of them (47 requests) were addressed to the original, 4% (2 requests) were made to and 4% (2 requests) were made to The less responsive or slowest element that took the longest time to load (13.5 sec) belongs to the original domain

Additional info on

The browser has sent 50 CSS, Javascripts, AJAX and image requests in order to completely render the main page of Schmidt Hammersmith. We recommend that multiple CSS and JavaScript files should be merged into one by each type, as it can help reduce assets requests from 15 to 1 for JavaScripts and from 14 to 1 for CSS and as a result speed up the page load time.

Possible request optimization

Normal result

IP address uses IP address which is currently shared with 4 other domains. The more sites share the same IP address, the higher the host server’s workload is. It is strongly recommended that the host server should be changed or the hosting provider should be requested to give a different (separate) IP address for this domain.

Poor result

IP Trace

DNS records

Type Host Target/ip TTL Other
A 600
NS 3600
NS 3600

3600 Mname:
Serial: 2018092809
Refresh: 28800
Retry: 7200
Expire: 604800
Minimum-ttl: 600
MX 3600 Pri: 0

Language and encoding

Normal result

EN en language flag

N/A  language flag

Language claimed in HTML meta tag should match the language actually used on the web page. Otherwise can be misinterpreted by Google and other search engines. Our service has detected that English is used on the page, and neither this language nor any other was claimed in <html> or <meta> tags. Our system also found out that main page’s claimed encoding is utf-8. Use of this encoding format is the best practice as the main page visitors from all over the world won’t have any issues with symbol transcription.

HTTPS certificate

SSL Certificate has no SSL certificate. Web browsing can be safer with HTTPS connection, so we suggest that it should be obtained for this site.

Normal result

Visitor World Map

Country of origin for 100% of all visits is India. It lies approximately 8690 miles away from the server location (United States) and such a long distance can negatively affect website speed, as it takes some time for data to travel back and forth between those places. That’s why one of the best ways to speed up page load time for the majority of users is moving the server to India or just closer to the user base.

Poor result

Good result

Social Sharing Optimization

Open Graph data is detected on the main page of Schmidt Hammersmith. This is the best way to make the web page social media friendly. Here is how it looks like on Facebook:

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