Re: General advice beyond Org

[Gene]

On Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 8:29:06 PM UTC-4, ed...@openmail.cc wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> _I_ need help. I am in graduate school, and I keep having issues with my 
> advisor for my strong inclination to use free software. 

That you see it or characerize it this way might be part of your problem.
I've experienced similar problems when employed as a software and firmware 
engineer when The Pointy Haired Boss dictated which computer language to use.
Or was that to submit source code in?

This is no moot point ... for me THEN or YOU NOW.

Your perviser proclivities to use free software may be masked by whatever 
superficial formating of whatever file you provide to her as the fruits of your 
labor.
It's none of her effin' busyness how many intermediate steps occurred between 
your initial efforts and what her superficial highness SEES as the end results 
of your scholarly ever so academic efforts ... is it?

Open Office can read and write many Monopoly$oft Office formats.
So why not regard it as a laundering `compatibility' black box to which you can 
insert `content' generated by a wife variety of free software apps of your 
choosing?

That you're using org-mode means you have access to the lisp engine at the 
heart of emacs and can thus offload the steps used to automate the generation 
of the superficial files you hand over to your `advisor' -- indentured servant 
MASTER -- NOW ... as you're rehearsing the practice for re-use if/when you get 
out into the Real World where EVERY Pointer Haired Boss can demand this, and 
micro-manage that. 

That you even mention the perverse proclivity to use free software puts you at 
risk for `special treatment'.
Do you have any idea how many in positions of authority to constrain your 
freedom of choise OWN Monopoly$oft stock and have no qualms about misusing 
their positions of authority to specify proprietary products which benifit them 
as stock holders?!

Don't EVEN go there!

Just learn how to generate what they want to SEE and learn how to back progate 
changes you make to the bogus `official' documents as red-lined by THEM ... we 
know WHO they ARE.

> I am obviously not in position to refuse, ...

And indentured servant my any other name ...

> ... but she dislikes to have discussions about it. 

Rookie!  Keep your perversions to yourself.
Stop scaring the women and children needlessly.


>She pays a stipend to me every month, and my tuition is waved.

 
> Is anyone here aware of a place ...

Ummn ... in your HEAD and computationally within your computer equipment.

> where they do computational human biomechanics, mechanics, 
> materials or finite elements where I could 
> interact with free software? 

Think about it.
The more factors you have ANDed together the harder it is going to be to find 
the Goldly Locks `just right' solution you're looking for.
What makes emacs so wonderful is not org-mode, it's the elisp which props 
org-mode up.
One can load packages to facilitate the activities one exploits towards 
generating the eye wash The Boss needs to SEE to keep one's stipend flowing.
One can cobble together a specialized configuration to facilitate the special 
blend of functionality one requires.

> (having github, LaTeX, Python, etc.; avoid 
> Micro$oft products, Matlab, Mathematica, etc.). 

Let's suppose you know enough Latin to get you by in academia

U = No
topia = place



> Is there no place where 
> one can simply use free software on a daily basis?

Utopia == No Place
Pinch yourself; you're dreaming.

> It seems from her comments that I am, otherwise, a good researcher. 

Otherwise?
Funny stuff.
Those with the `right stuff' to BE a good researcher naturally resonate with 
the ethos underpinning free software -- the empirical method can be used to 
tweak the source code on an as-needed basis as with any other lab equipment.


> She is a nice person, but I fear that this may become an issue in the future 
> for me (whether with her or other people).

Right.  As I mentioned earlier, get used to this.
Get used to translating from YOUR ipsative inner world -- extended by use of 
free software -- into something or other which results in your SELF either 
`voluntarily-prostrating or involuntarily being-prostrated onto THEIR 
Procrustean Beds.

Please think of free software a belonging on YOUR side of the fence.
It's all weird and wonderful when we find those statistically deviant to share 
in our fetish.
But you're heading for disappointment and frustration hoping or expecting IT to 
displace Pop Culture, Business Culture, Mainstream Culture.

> As a student or junior faculty, how do you go about this? 
> Do you just nod and wave your freedom good bye?

You are FREE to think what you want and believe what you want.
Though when you EXPRESS as per `freedom of speech/expression' others have the 
same freedoms of expression to PUSH BACK, respond accordingly, etc.
Thus my suggestion to keep it to yourself and your statistically deviant 
friends.

As long as you can send and receive files in the formats of THEIR WORLD they 
have no grounds for `special treatment'; however IF YOU seek `special 
treatment' in the form of THEM accommodating YOUR deviant practices it's YOU 
are throwing the rock through the metaphorical hornet's nest.


> Thank you! (I will post this in other fora as well; don't let that to 
> discourage you from answering, please).

I hope my two cents had at least 1 cent of value for you.

Cheers!