Grad school

Advice from Sven Koenig.

The essential PhD Comic.  Some people like xkcd, eg, why to go to grad school.

Robin Murphy has explicit expectations for her students.  I agree with most of them.

Matt MIght has a list of ways to fail a PhD, a list of recommendations, and a nice illustration of what getting a PhD is like.

Nick Smith's advice for undergrads applies to grad students too.

Corita Kent had a nice set of rules.

Marie desJardins has advice on grad school and also career advice

Gene Freuder has pointers to advice on giving talks, including a link to Simon Peyton Jones' advice.

Dave Patterson's advice for professors is probably useful for students to know too.

Ken Shan's old page has lots of links  Mihir Bellare has a nice page with some good questions to consider.

advice from PLoS Comp Biol on research, writing, grants, reviewing, postdocs, collaborating, speaking, posters, and being a student

Randy Pausch's old page has a nice talk on time management, in addition to his famous `Last Lecture' on how to live your life.

Books that some people find helpful: Feibelman's "A PhD is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science"; Peters' "Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an MA or a PhD"; Reis' "Tomorrow's Professor: Preparing for Careers in Science and Engineering".

A hazard of CS to take very seriously: RSI.

Some things not to be taken seriously: JMLG, AIR.

I recommend learning LaTeX and buying a manual for your editor (eg, emacs or vi).

Doing research

Dick Hamming's advice probably applies to how to live your life, too.

HT Kung has some good advice.

Writing

scientific writing (American Scientist)

How to get a paper accepted at OOPSLA

How To Get Your SIGGRAPH Paper Rejected

Some pet peeves of Margo Seltzer.

Boi Faltings on how to review: every paper needs: problem statement, your solution or insight, example that shows how it works, evaluation against existing techniques.  Also: must be correct, must leave reader having learned something new.  Helps if novel, important/significant, difficult to have obtained.

Giving talks

In my view, the number one thing is to know that about 95% of speakers get nervous, even very experienced professors who you would never imagine getting nervous. (I know since I always sit in the front row.) The key is to channel your nervousness into useful energy/excitement for the topic. Focus outwards, on helping your audience understand what you're explaining.

Norman Ramsey's advice

Pat Winston's talk on How to Speak is on-line!  Here is a list of his lecturing heuristics.

Advice on making good slides (and writing too)