Stephen Hawking Looking For Personal Techie 289
kaptink writes "One of the great grandmasters of space, time and the history of our existence is seeking an assistant to help develop and maintain the electronic speech system that allows him to communicate his vision of the universe. An informal job ad posted on Stephen's website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel and able to repair electronic devices 'with no instruction manual or technical support.' He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but has something based on NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesizer mounted on his wheelchair that helps synthesize speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesizer's robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking's wheelchair — isn't just for speaking. It can connect to the internet over mobile phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office. It's a complicated, tailor-made system, as the ad makes clear. A photograph of the back of Hawking's wheelchair, loaded with coiled wires and electronic equipment, is pictured under the words: 'Could you maintain this? If your answer is "yes", we'd like to hear from you!'. Hawking's website says that the job's salary is expected to be about $38,500 a year."
link to the picture (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.hawking.org.uk/ [hawking.org.uk]
Re:Peanuts (Score:5, Informative)
That salary is peanuts.
The salary is for a "Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking".
Most Graduate Assistants don't make 38k...
Diverse skills (Score:5, Informative)
This entails a lot more than just technical aspects:
Sounds like a lot of direct PR stuff is involved, including scheduling and logistics, and even graphics design, which are probably not skills the typical techie would be strong in. Also, the pay sounds kind of low considering it's a whole lot more than just maintaining his technology.
Re:Peanuts (Score:5, Informative)
The summary actually overstated the technical aspects, the actual job advert [hawking.org.uk] states that maintaining the speech system is only part of the position.
Managing national and international travel for Prof. Hawking and his care team. Expect to spend around 3 months per year abroad! Development and maintenance of Professor Hawking's communication and speech systems Procurement and maintenance of his wheelchairs and accessible van Preparation of lecture graphics and public speaking Dealing with the media and press Answering inquiries from the public and maintaining the website
Re:$38500? (Score:2, Informative)
Christ you're a prick.
1. Cambridge is not California. Californian salaries - or, indeed, any other salaries - are utterly irrelevant.
2. The salary is actually about the level of a first postdoctoral position. It's not that low.
3. The salary is higher than the UK national average salary.
4. It's unlikely to be for a very long time.
5. It will increase the impact of the CV of the guy who gets the job quite impressively.
Someone who wants more money doesn't apply for the job. Someone who thinks the money is OK and thinks that two years' working as Hawking's mixture of web admin, techie and travel organiser might look good on their CV, does.
Re:He needs an upgrade. (Score:5, Informative)
If he can get Majel to record the voice, then he will have once again turned our understanding of the linearity of time completely upside down.