My friend, you're too late for the parade. The United States of America has been judging and questioning moral characters for many years. Don't believe me? Look at the immigration documents that you need to fill in before coming to this country or becoming a citizen. Apart from many "yes" or "no" boxes you need to state that you are a person of good moral character. At least this is true for the naturalization form.
A person cannot claim to have good moral character if that person is found guilty of a crim of moral tirpitude. Crimes that fall into this category must show intent to commit act against the law, cause harm or violence, or be outside of the norms of the society represented by a person. One may argue that a gay person who lives in a straight-only county commits crimes of moral tirpitude since he or she does not act straight (whatever that means). Ditto for a person who steals baby food in order to feed a starving baby (stealing is an act against the law). So yeah, the moral police has been at it for ages. We have not seen the iceberg because only a very small top is visible to most of the people.
I hear you there. This case is a classic outlier where emotions took over any seeds of a rational process and Lori Drew was effectively sentenced not for the breach of the contract, but for killing Megan. I said it many times and I will say it again: I hope the charges get tossed out on the appeal.
I doubt that a prosecutor has to have a precedent in order to give you a harsh sentense. Judges may use discretion when it comes to sentencing regardless of the actual conviction. There was a case where a guy pretendted to be an FBI agent, a surgeon, etc. in order to attrack chicks on Match.com. He met many girls who claimed, although years later, that they had been drugged and raped by this Bond-wannabe. Due to the lack of physical evidence the trial turned into the "he said, she said" testimony and the jury found the defendant not guilty. In order to bypass one charge that had some physical evidence the defendant plead to a lesser crime that could carry as little as 50 hours of community service. The final verdict? 10 years in jail. In this case the judge believed that the person deserved a harsh sentence and that's what the defendant got. That's all it takes.
Sorry dude, murder it is not. She was not charged with a murder or a homocide. She was not charged with anything but a breach of the terms of service. That is it. The charge was and is fair. If you want to prosecute somebody for murder you need to find an appropriate indictment. In fact, one could argue that this woman is not going to get a fair trial due to the extreme publicity of this case and thus these charges could be tossed out on an appeal. All a good laywer has to do is to find a hole in defense that shows how being accused of murder affected the outcome of the trial. I hope that this happens becuase we cannot mis-apply the law no matter what.
It sucks that our law does not cover every particular situation but that's the way things work. That's why we cannot legally detain people for longer than X hours without pressing the charges or deport individuals who have no home state if the gov't strips them off their citizenship/legal residence. That's why we have statutes of limitations on everything but the most grusome crimes. That's why we select a group of piers who will debate on a case and produce a verdict. Emotion has never been or should be any part of the criminal procedure by design and it is our duty to make rational decisions based only on the facts that pretain to the case. If we don't do that we break the same justice system we want to "fix."
On the plus side this woman can still face civil charges. Also, the facts that were not admissable in the criminal court can be used in civil trials and various hearings which could impact further fines.
I fail to see how this is a big deal. Did you read the article? If so, you would not panic as well.
First of all, everything is transported in hashes. You do not compare the actual URLs that customers visit, only the hashes. Google has no actual links that indicate the banks that you use and the pr0n sites you have browsed. Only hashes.
Also, this is a configurable option. Apple does not force you to use Google. Apple does not force you to use this feature. I think it would be easier if Apple has explained this feature in the release notes to a greater extent and if users had to accept some sort of a license agreement when enabling this feature. Nothing else beyond it.
I wonder what will happen to old and future cases if this woman is convicted. From the article:
Prosecutors say Ms Drew violated MySpace's "terms of service" that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, using accounts to obtain personal information about juvenile members and using MySpace to "harass, abuse or harm other members".
If I recall correctly there was a case of a girl, age 14, who claimed to be 19. Her MySpace page stated that she was a single mother as well. That girl used the social site to meet people and eventually she met two two men who had sex with her. Later one of the guys talked to the girl's dad and found out her real age. Her dad was furious and both of the guys she met ended up doing time. The girl did not face any charges for mis-representing herself and her fake page was up online for many weeks after the prosecution was over. So my question is: If Lori is charged for using fake information what happens to other people who constantly lie on MySpace, Facebook and other social networks? In the case that I have described above it is clear that the girl's lie led to two innocent men ending up in jail.
Please don't get me wrong. I believe that this woman is clearly lacking some brain cells required for normal functionality but if the jury finds her guilty, it will open a new can of worms for better or for worse.
I am into digital photography and so far I found only one platform that is robust and good enough for photo processing. Yes, it is Mac OS X.
It is hard not to be a Mac fan when the platform is capable of supporting color profiles with ease. I run GIMP + plug-ins + color balancing software and while my setup cost me extra it is well worth it because I get my pictures just the way I see them on the screen. I will be honest with you. My friend's Ubuntu box is much faster and cheaper than my MacBook but I still refuse to move to Linux as long as I can't find any decent program that can help me with color synchronization. The lack of a united platform and color management is a real killer. It may not be significant enough if you print pictures of your pets and loved ones, but it is absolutely necessary when you start playing with colors. I guess I will keep my MacBook for photo editing and consider Ubuntu for my other machines at home.
The best thing that we can do is to forget the DST completely and continue to live the way we do. Just the sole fact that we leave it up to governments to determine what is DST should scare you. Don't believe me? Ask Sun how much effort it took to re-compile all the Java crap in order to respect the new DST rules.
Here is the way I see it. If you live close to equator, then you probably do not care about DST. It is so darn hot in many countries that people are accustomed to get up early in the morning and work while the sun is not hot. In many countries people take a break during afternoon because it is so darn hot to be outside. Then they keep on working during late afternoon.
If for some darn reason you chose to live in a place far away from the Equator, then you just deal with it. I mean you deal with cold weather and other stuff already, why not add short days and long nights to the list of things that are pronounced in high latitudes?
As for the rest of the electronic world, switch every damn thing to UTC. If you need to display your computer clock in a local time, configure it to add the offset to UTC and you're done. That way software vendors have a clear standard and people don't have to spend time figuring out what is going on.
I did live in those areas and I can fully backup your statement with one small exception.
A university degree form a prestigious Russian school has always equated with Masters in the U.S. Just like in the U.S. there are many schools that let you slack and "earn" a degree by spending X number of years behind classroom doors. But that's not the point of the post. You're totally right about the number of smart, dedicated individuals who can totally think for themselves and decide what is necessary to move forward.
This is an excellent move from any points of view. In fact, I predict that countries like Russia will soon lead Open Source movements because for developing economies it makes sense on many levels. Here is my take on one of the points.
If I lived in Russia, I would be afraid of running anything but a Linux distro or software that I legally purchased in the U.S. or other developed countries. This is because software piracy is so wide spread that even competent people may not be able to tell you what is real and what is not. Go to any market and you can get a "genuine" copy of Windows bundled with many other goodies for pennies on the dollar. All you have to do is to run a file "crack.exe" to make things work. I shit you not, this is exactly what some of the README files supplied with the software will tell you to do. Don't ask me how I know that. The question is: How can you sleep comfortable knowing that your business secrets and your reputation may be at risk for running software of unknown origin? This is not about Windows v. Mac OS v. Linux. This is about knowing where your software comes from. If they setup a department in charge of creating a secure Linux distribution suitable for public schools, they eliminate any intentional or unintentional damage that could be caused by pirated software.
The alternative is to team up with software vendors that can distribute proven valid copies of the software at the market prices that is acceptable to the population. We've heard that Russia's economy is on the rise but they're nowhere near reaching the point of incomes seen in the U.S. and Western Europe. So somebody has to step it... Case closed.
You're right. All these things are in my dreams. The outcry of American public when gas shot past $140 is never going to happen again because oil will always be cheap and plentiful. We will always rely on cars and planes to get us from point A to point B becuase unlike the rest of the world we are number one and who cares that we are years behind may other developed nations.
I am sorry for stating that Mid-West and Easter U.S. are primary candidates for a rail road. The reality is that the whole freaking United States is a good candidate. I know several truck drives who were not able to engage in profitable business activities during the recent spike in gas prices. An extremely large fraction of goods is delivered by trucks and if we face another round of gas prices hoovering close to $150pbl, then many businesses may lose money becuase goods will not be delivered to customers at reasonable costs. This is no longer a matter of people like me getting to work w/o using a car. This is a matter of national security. This whole damn country runs on cars and there is absolutely no leverage if cars become useless. A train can haul a butt load of goods at a fraction of the cost. Why not use it? Yes, trains will require maintenance and spare parts. But then we will have highways, planes, boats AND trains; hence a stress in one area of transportation is going to have a lesser impact on the whole economy. By no means I suggest that everything that is done in Japan can be done in the United States. But at the very least we should give it a thought.
And once again you're right about me being ignorant. It is extremely hard to be objective when your government spends billions of dollars on a useless war in somewhere far away while cutting local programs. I am not against helping other countries with infrastructures but let's do ourselves a favor and help this country first.
Slow and expensive? I agree with the first point, but not with the second. I loved working in the city because I could spend $100/month on a commuter ticket vs. a car loan, gas and insurance which add up to more than $500/month.
Unfortunately, yes, trains are slow mostly because Americans unlike European or Asians are not willing to put newer systems in place.
Have you traveled around the United States? In many places we have geology for that too. Unfortunately, many of these cutting edge ideas won't get off the ground because of the current deficits and millions of Joe Plumbers who will fight for every cent spent outside their pocket. I will not be surprised to hear that things like high speed trains and ability to use cell phones for purchases will be linked to socialism and "'em Asians." While the whole world is trying to march forward this country seems to be taking one step back at a time.
But let's focus on geology for now. There are many valleys and flat places around the U.S. that scream "give me a train!" You can put a train between San Francisco and Los Angeles without fighting the terrain too much. Will Californians do it? Does not look like it because nobody wants to give money. Mid-west and Eastern U.S. are prime candidates for more rails as well. Hell, even if somebody put a high speed train between Silicon Valley and some place in low Sierra I would love to commute on that every day. If I can spend one hour on a train and live 250 miles away from my place of work, that would be awesome. We don't have to focus on extremely long distances. Why not build trains to connect places that can be connected? Fewer cars on the road, shorter lines in airports. It is not about building socialism or taking away your car. It is all about leverage. If we ground our aircraft for some reason or if there is a problem with a major highway it will only make sense to take a train. Currently we put all our eggs in one basket and when oil shoots past $140pbl everybody goes ape shit because we are simply forced to pay the price. We can't avoid it. We can't say "Gee dear, I will be taking a train today since there is no need to stop by for groceries after work."
But yeah, leave it to Japan and other socialist countries to leave the world. Let's focus on 9/11, terrorism and THAT ONE with his ties to Arabs and Muslims.
I can give you an advice: Fire your HR or whoever does interviews.
My company has been looking for great candidates for a long period of time. Eventually we found some people with, to put it politely, modest skills. I am sure that there are more people out there who could fill the jobs, but due to the extremely fubared interview process and lack of people with enough balls to say "no" we ended up with the folks closer to the left end of the bell curve in terms of IT skills.
Things were pretty good when our leads had time to interview and hire people. During that time we managed to hire qualifed folks but once the leads became too busy with projects (and that is a fair statement), the HR + several not-so-qualified people fucked things up all the way. When I talked to these guys about the pipeline it was obvious that we had problems hiring because of bad hiring practices.
Of course, we managed to fix the process but what was done cannot be undone and now we have quite a few wall flowers. But please never ever say that you cannot hire qualified candidates. If you can't then your HR and the hiring managers are overpaid.
It would be nice to live in the world that respects your statement. Unfortunately, it is not the case because many countries require the same boring stuff -- visas, etc. -- from Americans seeking jobs overseas.
If one could move anywhere around the world, I would be typing this message from my home office in Patagonia or from a ranch in South Africa. Unfortunately, I can't hop on a plane, move there and say "respect me, betches." Many countries protect their citizens and legal permanent immigrants with laws that govern not only what a potential immigrant may do, but also what industry he or she needs to work in. I have thought of dedicating my life to working in less fortunate places and it was quite a shock to find out how many restrictions some third world countries place on skilled employees who want to move in. We do exactly the same and until the wold opens up, it is going to be quite hard to live in only country with open borders.
I hear you on your thought, but seriously good luck on that.
The concept of skills, pay and visas will be largely irrelevant in the distant future. The United States was a good gig for many, but its time is up. The trend of reverse migration is slowly staring to happen and I will give it another 5-10 years before things will settle down where U.S. imports of qualified IT workers equal the exports of the same.
There is nothing to do in the U.S. nowadays. If you are qualified, you have a great chance of getting a job in India or somewhere in Asia that pays you way more in terms of purchasing power. Why would you move to Silicon Valley or elsewhere in the U.S. to enjoy high real estate prices and things such as paid medical services and extremely expensive child care? This does not make sense to foreigners. In fact, there is a growing market for IT workers who have experience in the U.S. Many Asian companies realize that crunching Java code does not get you ahead. Leadership and knowing how to do business do that. And the U.S. is the country you go to start a business or learn the ropes of capitalism. It is pretty simple to start a business here and general rules of conduct are lax as well. Why not learn things here and bring them abroad? Things are getting worse here and better in India and China. It only makes sense to go back!
The second aspect that will drive foreign workers back is the fact that many of them, just like many Americans, are not really matched well with jobs. If I had to pay a sum of money to get a certain job done, as an employer I would prefer the lower sum. However, if the job does not get done for what I am paying an employee, then I must select a new employee and possibly offer more money to broaden the pool of interested candidates. The selection process is really what counts. If there is a qualified candidate from India, China or Russia, then be it. If there is a qualified American there is no harm in hiring that person as well. Competition only makes things better and if we can hire good candidates from across the globe, then why the hell not? I see no point in hiring a *cheap* visa-based employee over expensive native if the visa-based worker cannot get his shit done. And this is where Americans tend to win. Based on my non-scientific observations a large fraction of H-1 employees are in IT because they had a choice between screwing with computer software or becoming doctors (their own words). Anything else would equal to them not succeeding in the eyes of their parents (usually Indian). I know quite a few former IT professions -- all Americans -- who left the field to pursue other interests. They did not care about their careers because in U.S. there is no stigma associated with not being an engineer. It appears that things are different in countries that supply most of the H-1 visa employees as many of them simply did not have a choice about their profession due to some cultural or family norms. As a result we have crowds of mindless candidates who went to C-level schools and who have no interest in the field. I say fuck them. Nothing really against those people, but I do not mean to treat them any differently from U.S. born citizens or legal immigrants who just do not match with the jobs in IT.
Things will eventually settle down. If you are competent in your field you'll find a job either here or somewhere abroad.
Years ago I spent quite some time to reduce booting time. I was not able to get anywhere close to 5 seconds (damn old PIIIs), but I was able to shave off a considerable fraction of time by doing everything the old way: Custom kernel.
Actually, things were much easier in FreeBSD where I could edit the configuration file as opposed to jumping through multiple primitive interfaces provided by Kernel. I gave up my hobby because finally I started getting paid enough to buy faster hardware. Plus, my girlfriend was not to keen on spending time watching me recompile kernel.
Here is a thought: Compile kernels specific for the users at your company and increase productivity. Otherwise, guys like me will continue enjoying 20 minute boots while we drink coffee:)
All replies on this site are nice and they have a point. Don't worry. Be happy. Read books and learn as much as you can. However, there is one more point: Know when to get out.
Let's face it, not everybody is cut for software development. If you succeed then great. If you feel like you're not enjoying yourself at work then it is time to go. Many people do not know how to do it and as a result we have a large number of dissatisfied IT workers who basically drag everybody else down. Don't be one of them.
My office is 100% ergonomic. The quality of furniture you find there is not present even in VP offices of our company.
A faster connection to the Internet.
24" color calibrated monitor. Easy on the eyes, plenty of real estate.
A Mac. I don't have to reboot it. It is alaways on. Does not blue screen. All UNIX power tools are there. Cygwin still requires a lot of Vaseline.
I write memos in RTF or PDF formats if necessary. Platforms are never an issue.
Good coffee.
I can do 120% of my daily work within a few hours. In the office, I have to spread the work through 8 hours by pretending that I am busy. At home I can do my work and then go and slack off knowing that I am still more productive than many peers.
My company has a totally screwed up performance metric that anybody can meet and exceed.
You right in terms of describing program make-up and salaries for interns. At least in my experience suggest the same: Most companies in Silicon Valley that I know pay decent wages to interns and yes, American-born students are underrepresented in the programs. And this is not a bad thing at all.
I believe that a person should be passionate about his or her job. If you do not have passion, you will never ever perform well for a long period of time. Creative types usually have enormous amount of interest in their work. You can always see how real professionals -- in any field I must say -- put their souls into everything they touch. People who simply follow their parents' advice are a plague... They make everything harder because they exist, they want jobs and unfortunately they may not be invested into their jobs because they have no passion. As somebody who has been looking to hire new candidates for my team I am struggling with this aspect because I am sick of people who let somebody else carve a career path for them. A person without any biological interest in a job is a pretty bad candidate even if the G.P.A. and keywords on the resume say otherwise.
That's why I am not too worried about the numerous clones that are flocking into this country.
Why do you want to work in the U.S.? I have to ask this question because unless you come from a piss poor country, there is no reason to move here. In your situation, you'll be much better of in Europe anyway.
Work in the U.S. sucks. In many cases companies will offer you 2-3 weeks off on start. That's it. Yeah, they may attract you with a flashy salary, but then you'll have to pay for benefits, insurance, etc. and you're an at-will employee. Means that an employer can dismiss your ass w/o any reason. There is no such thing as taking 3 weeks of vacation at a time and then having 2 more weeks left over. Oh, and judging by the latest stats our European friends are just as productive as us, so I really doubt that you'll benefit from knowing how Americans do it here.
Silicon Valley may be a flashy name, but you must check your brains before moving there (trust me, I am a local). As a young person you probably want to meet young interesting people in nice social settings. Well, this is definitely not the place. The area is too expensive to live if you're young and there are not too many colleges around. Meeting chicks, especially the ones who are ready to party (if you know what I mean), is hard. So if you want to have some fun, SF area is not for you. Try Boston, Seattle or something more hip and less Indian than the Valley. Sorry if I offended anybody, but that's the truth. Also, every metro area is going to be expensive for somebody who is an intern. You must find roommates and have some stash of cash just to move in (first + last month of rent and a security deposit). You may try something in North Carolina's scientific triangle. It is more affordable and I hear that the quality of life is awesome compared to Silicon Valley.
If I were you, I would forget about moving to the U.S. Try to find a company that employes people who are passionate about technology and you'll learn a lot more than by working for a large company (in the U.S.) where your intern position will be one step above bean counting (if you are lucky). European countries are heavy on the next big things like eco technology, alternative sources of fuels, etc. This is where you would like to be. Just because you have a degree in IT, it does not mean that you can start working in a different industry. Judging by the articles that I read, places like Norway kick butt when it comes to leaping into the future.
Finally, if you want to do something totally outrageous, see if you can go to a place like India to work there. As a Westerner who has worked in South Asia in the past, I can tell you that it is nothing like you have experienced in the past.
Good luck.
Show your idea to a friend of yours. Select somebody who you can trust and then show the demo or paper drawings and make sure that the witness signs off. Then show the same to a lawyer who can come up with some legal document showing that the idea is yours. Only then talk to a company.
If you do not protect it, people will rip it off and you'll be left with zero $$$. While most of us do work because we like it, there is no reason not to get paid for cool ideas.
I have gotten a lot of static about my views on this case. I'll repeat myself later in this post, but let me state my case first.
A friend of mine, let's call him Chris, became involved with a lady who had an ex-boyfriend. That ex-boyfriend thought that there was a change of them getting back together. The girl thought otherwise and she started a relationship with my friend. The ex-boyfriend committed a suicide. Holy. Shit.
My buddy felt really bad about what happened. He knew about the ex, but he did not know anything about the mental state of the guy who killed himself over a girl. Chris was in a questionable state for some time because he did not know what to make out of the situation. Did he affect somebody's life by that much? Did his relationship cost a life?
Of course, charging Chris with anything will be pretty dumb. He was not a keeper or a legal guardian of the person who decided to check out early. He was just a guy dating just a girl with just an ex. How many people have had relationships that went sour? How many people had dated while their former partners were still lingering around? How many people were dumped for somebody else? Who should we blame? Parents? Life? Match.com? Bush?
Okay, let's blame Bush for some things, but the real deal is simple: We are our own keepers. If people jump off the bridge, you don't follow them (at least not right away until you figure out what is going on). If people tell you to go fuck yourself, do you do it? The same thing applies to this case as well. Somebody on the Internet told you to kill yourself. Honestly, what do you think you should do? Do you go and slit your wrists because some MySpace freak wants to see your dead body? Is your brain not a result of millions of years of evolution?
Yeah, I know that kid was depressed. I know that the person who pretended to be a cute boy next door is a fucking retard and we should have some sort of punishment for that. However, the girl killed herself and if we can blame anybody for that, let's look at the parents. WTF did they do to prevent that? They let a depressed kid with odd tendencies to sit on the Internet without supervision. No soccer. No family trips or evening talks. No fucking counseling. What do you expect? While the focus has been largely projected on the woman who is now being charged with all sorts of problems, we have heard very little about the girl who is no longer with us. The information that came out about the girl suggests that she needed a friend, a counselor and some Prozac far more than unrestricted access to the Internet.
Ballmer and Co. are lunatics dedicated to winning the battle with Google, Apple, etc. After watching Ballmer talk about iPhone and competition, I am fully convinced that the man is trying to compensate for something. Remember the rivalries that you had in the third grade? Yeah, for those guys it was never over:)
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My friend, you're too late for the parade. The United States of America has been judging and questioning moral characters for many years. Don't believe me? Look at the immigration documents that you need to fill in before coming to this country or becoming a citizen. Apart from many "yes" or "no" boxes you need to state that you are a person of good moral character. At least this is true for the naturalization form.
A person cannot claim to have good moral character if that person is found guilty of a crim of moral tirpitude. Crimes that fall into this category must show intent to commit act against the law, cause harm or violence, or be outside of the norms of the society represented by a person. One may argue that a gay person who lives in a straight-only county commits crimes of moral tirpitude since he or she does not act straight (whatever that means). Ditto for a person who steals baby food in order to feed a starving baby (stealing is an act against the law). So yeah, the moral police has been at it for ages. We have not seen the iceberg because only a very small top is visible to most of the people.
I hear you there. This case is a classic outlier where emotions took over any seeds of a rational process and Lori Drew was effectively sentenced not for the breach of the contract, but for killing Megan. I said it many times and I will say it again: I hope the charges get tossed out on the appeal.
I doubt that a prosecutor has to have a precedent in order to give you a harsh sentense. Judges may use discretion when it comes to sentencing regardless of the actual conviction. There was a case where a guy pretendted to be an FBI agent, a surgeon, etc. in order to attrack chicks on Match.com. He met many girls who claimed, although years later, that they had been drugged and raped by this Bond-wannabe. Due to the lack of physical evidence the trial turned into the "he said, she said" testimony and the jury found the defendant not guilty. In order to bypass one charge that had some physical evidence the defendant plead to a lesser crime that could carry as little as 50 hours of community service. The final verdict? 10 years in jail. In this case the judge believed that the person deserved a harsh sentence and that's what the defendant got. That's all it takes.
Sorry dude, murder it is not. She was not charged with a murder or a homocide. She was not charged with anything but a breach of the terms of service. That is it. The charge was and is fair. If you want to prosecute somebody for murder you need to find an appropriate indictment. In fact, one could argue that this woman is not going to get a fair trial due to the extreme publicity of this case and thus these charges could be tossed out on an appeal. All a good laywer has to do is to find a hole in defense that shows how being accused of murder affected the outcome of the trial. I hope that this happens becuase we cannot mis-apply the law no matter what.
It sucks that our law does not cover every particular situation but that's the way things work. That's why we cannot legally detain people for longer than X hours without pressing the charges or deport individuals who have no home state if the gov't strips them off their citizenship/legal residence. That's why we have statutes of limitations on everything but the most grusome crimes. That's why we select a group of piers who will debate on a case and produce a verdict. Emotion has never been or should be any part of the criminal procedure by design and it is our duty to make rational decisions based only on the facts that pretain to the case. If we don't do that we break the same justice system we want to "fix."
On the plus side this woman can still face civil charges. Also, the facts that were not admissable in the criminal court can be used in civil trials and various hearings which could impact further fines.
I fail to see how this is a big deal. Did you read the article? If so, you would not panic as well.
First of all, everything is transported in hashes. You do not compare the actual URLs that customers visit, only the hashes. Google has no actual links that indicate the banks that you use and the pr0n sites you have browsed. Only hashes.
Also, this is a configurable option. Apple does not force you to use Google. Apple does not force you to use this feature. I think it would be easier if Apple has explained this feature in the release notes to a greater extent and if users had to accept some sort of a license agreement when enabling this feature. Nothing else beyond it.
I wonder what will happen to old and future cases if this woman is convicted. From the article:
Prosecutors say Ms Drew violated MySpace's "terms of service" that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, using accounts to obtain personal information about juvenile members and using MySpace to "harass, abuse or harm other members".
If I recall correctly there was a case of a girl, age 14, who claimed to be 19. Her MySpace page stated that she was a single mother as well. That girl used the social site to meet people and eventually she met two two men who had sex with her. Later one of the guys talked to the girl's dad and found out her real age. Her dad was furious and both of the guys she met ended up doing time. The girl did not face any charges for mis-representing herself and her fake page was up online for many weeks after the prosecution was over. So my question is: If Lori is charged for using fake information what happens to other people who constantly lie on MySpace, Facebook and other social networks? In the case that I have described above it is clear that the girl's lie led to two innocent men ending up in jail.
Please don't get me wrong. I believe that this woman is clearly lacking some brain cells required for normal functionality but if the jury finds her guilty, it will open a new can of worms for better or for worse.
I am into digital photography and so far I found only one platform that is robust and good enough for photo processing. Yes, it is Mac OS X.
It is hard not to be a Mac fan when the platform is capable of supporting color profiles with ease. I run GIMP + plug-ins + color balancing software and while my setup cost me extra it is well worth it because I get my pictures just the way I see them on the screen. I will be honest with you. My friend's Ubuntu box is much faster and cheaper than my MacBook but I still refuse to move to Linux as long as I can't find any decent program that can help me with color synchronization. The lack of a united platform and color management is a real killer. It may not be significant enough if you print pictures of your pets and loved ones, but it is absolutely necessary when you start playing with colors. I guess I will keep my MacBook for photo editing and consider Ubuntu for my other machines at home.
The best thing that we can do is to forget the DST completely and continue to live the way we do. Just the sole fact that we leave it up to governments to determine what is DST should scare you. Don't believe me? Ask Sun how much effort it took to re-compile all the Java crap in order to respect the new DST rules.
Here is the way I see it. If you live close to equator, then you probably do not care about DST. It is so darn hot in many countries that people are accustomed to get up early in the morning and work while the sun is not hot. In many countries people take a break during afternoon because it is so darn hot to be outside. Then they keep on working during late afternoon.
If for some darn reason you chose to live in a place far away from the Equator, then you just deal with it. I mean you deal with cold weather and other stuff already, why not add short days and long nights to the list of things that are pronounced in high latitudes?
As for the rest of the electronic world, switch every damn thing to UTC. If you need to display your computer clock in a local time, configure it to add the offset to UTC and you're done. That way software vendors have a clear standard and people don't have to spend time figuring out what is going on.
I did live in those areas and I can fully backup your statement with one small exception.
A university degree form a prestigious Russian school has always equated with Masters in the U.S. Just like in the U.S. there are many schools that let you slack and "earn" a degree by spending X number of years behind classroom doors. But that's not the point of the post. You're totally right about the number of smart, dedicated individuals who can totally think for themselves and decide what is necessary to move forward.
This is an excellent move from any points of view. In fact, I predict that countries like Russia will soon lead Open Source movements because for developing economies it makes sense on many levels. Here is my take on one of the points.
If I lived in Russia, I would be afraid of running anything but a Linux distro or software that I legally purchased in the U.S. or other developed countries. This is because software piracy is so wide spread that even competent people may not be able to tell you what is real and what is not. Go to any market and you can get a "genuine" copy of Windows bundled with many other goodies for pennies on the dollar. All you have to do is to run a file "crack.exe" to make things work. I shit you not, this is exactly what some of the README files supplied with the software will tell you to do. Don't ask me how I know that. The question is: How can you sleep comfortable knowing that your business secrets and your reputation may be at risk for running software of unknown origin? This is not about Windows v. Mac OS v. Linux. This is about knowing where your software comes from. If they setup a department in charge of creating a secure Linux distribution suitable for public schools, they eliminate any intentional or unintentional damage that could be caused by pirated software.
The alternative is to team up with software vendors that can distribute proven valid copies of the software at the market prices that is acceptable to the population. We've heard that Russia's economy is on the rise but they're nowhere near reaching the point of incomes seen in the U.S. and Western Europe. So somebody has to step it... Case closed.
You're right. All these things are in my dreams. The outcry of American public when gas shot past $140 is never going to happen again because oil will always be cheap and plentiful. We will always rely on cars and planes to get us from point A to point B becuase unlike the rest of the world we are number one and who cares that we are years behind may other developed nations.
I am sorry for stating that Mid-West and Easter U.S. are primary candidates for a rail road. The reality is that the whole freaking United States is a good candidate. I know several truck drives who were not able to engage in profitable business activities during the recent spike in gas prices. An extremely large fraction of goods is delivered by trucks and if we face another round of gas prices hoovering close to $150pbl, then many businesses may lose money becuase goods will not be delivered to customers at reasonable costs. This is no longer a matter of people like me getting to work w/o using a car. This is a matter of national security. This whole damn country runs on cars and there is absolutely no leverage if cars become useless. A train can haul a butt load of goods at a fraction of the cost. Why not use it? Yes, trains will require maintenance and spare parts. But then we will have highways, planes, boats AND trains; hence a stress in one area of transportation is going to have a lesser impact on the whole economy. By no means I suggest that everything that is done in Japan can be done in the United States. But at the very least we should give it a thought.
And once again you're right about me being ignorant. It is extremely hard to be objective when your government spends billions of dollars on a useless war in somewhere far away while cutting local programs. I am not against helping other countries with infrastructures but let's do ourselves a favor and help this country first.
Slow and expensive? I agree with the first point, but not with the second. I loved working in the city because I could spend $100/month on a commuter ticket vs. a car loan, gas and insurance which add up to more than $500/month.
Unfortunately, yes, trains are slow mostly because Americans unlike European or Asians are not willing to put newer systems in place.
Have you traveled around the United States? In many places we have geology for that too. Unfortunately, many of these cutting edge ideas won't get off the ground because of the current deficits and millions of Joe Plumbers who will fight for every cent spent outside their pocket. I will not be surprised to hear that things like high speed trains and ability to use cell phones for purchases will be linked to socialism and "'em Asians." While the whole world is trying to march forward this country seems to be taking one step back at a time.
But let's focus on geology for now. There are many valleys and flat places around the U.S. that scream "give me a train!" You can put a train between San Francisco and Los Angeles without fighting the terrain too much. Will Californians do it? Does not look like it because nobody wants to give money. Mid-west and Eastern U.S. are prime candidates for more rails as well. Hell, even if somebody put a high speed train between Silicon Valley and some place in low Sierra I would love to commute on that every day. If I can spend one hour on a train and live 250 miles away from my place of work, that would be awesome. We don't have to focus on extremely long distances. Why not build trains to connect places that can be connected? Fewer cars on the road, shorter lines in airports. It is not about building socialism or taking away your car. It is all about leverage. If we ground our aircraft for some reason or if there is a problem with a major highway it will only make sense to take a train. Currently we put all our eggs in one basket and when oil shoots past $140pbl everybody goes ape shit because we are simply forced to pay the price. We can't avoid it. We can't say "Gee dear, I will be taking a train today since there is no need to stop by for groceries after work."
But yeah, leave it to Japan and other socialist countries to leave the world. Let's focus on 9/11, terrorism and THAT ONE with his ties to Arabs and Muslims.
I can give you an advice: Fire your HR or whoever does interviews.
My company has been looking for great candidates for a long period of time. Eventually we found some people with, to put it politely, modest skills. I am sure that there are more people out there who could fill the jobs, but due to the extremely fubared interview process and lack of people with enough balls to say "no" we ended up with the folks closer to the left end of the bell curve in terms of IT skills.
Things were pretty good when our leads had time to interview and hire people. During that time we managed to hire qualifed folks but once the leads became too busy with projects (and that is a fair statement), the HR + several not-so-qualified people fucked things up all the way. When I talked to these guys about the pipeline it was obvious that we had problems hiring because of bad hiring practices.
Of course, we managed to fix the process but what was done cannot be undone and now we have quite a few wall flowers. But please never ever say that you cannot hire qualified candidates. If you can't then your HR and the hiring managers are overpaid.
It would be nice to live in the world that respects your statement. Unfortunately, it is not the case because many countries require the same boring stuff -- visas, etc. -- from Americans seeking jobs overseas.
If one could move anywhere around the world, I would be typing this message from my home office in Patagonia or from a ranch in South Africa. Unfortunately, I can't hop on a plane, move there and say "respect me, betches." Many countries protect their citizens and legal permanent immigrants with laws that govern not only what a potential immigrant may do, but also what industry he or she needs to work in. I have thought of dedicating my life to working in less fortunate places and it was quite a shock to find out how many restrictions some third world countries place on skilled employees who want to move in. We do exactly the same and until the wold opens up, it is going to be quite hard to live in only country with open borders.
I hear you on your thought, but seriously good luck on that.
The concept of skills, pay and visas will be largely irrelevant in the distant future. The United States was a good gig for many, but its time is up. The trend of reverse migration is slowly staring to happen and I will give it another 5-10 years before things will settle down where U.S. imports of qualified IT workers equal the exports of the same.
There is nothing to do in the U.S. nowadays. If you are qualified, you have a great chance of getting a job in India or somewhere in Asia that pays you way more in terms of purchasing power. Why would you move to Silicon Valley or elsewhere in the U.S. to enjoy high real estate prices and things such as paid medical services and extremely expensive child care? This does not make sense to foreigners. In fact, there is a growing market for IT workers who have experience in the U.S. Many Asian companies realize that crunching Java code does not get you ahead. Leadership and knowing how to do business do that. And the U.S. is the country you go to start a business or learn the ropes of capitalism. It is pretty simple to start a business here and general rules of conduct are lax as well. Why not learn things here and bring them abroad? Things are getting worse here and better in India and China. It only makes sense to go back!
The second aspect that will drive foreign workers back is the fact that many of them, just like many Americans, are not really matched well with jobs. If I had to pay a sum of money to get a certain job done, as an employer I would prefer the lower sum. However, if the job does not get done for what I am paying an employee, then I must select a new employee and possibly offer more money to broaden the pool of interested candidates. The selection process is really what counts. If there is a qualified candidate from India, China or Russia, then be it. If there is a qualified American there is no harm in hiring that person as well. Competition only makes things better and if we can hire good candidates from across the globe, then why the hell not? I see no point in hiring a *cheap* visa-based employee over expensive native if the visa-based worker cannot get his shit done. And this is where Americans tend to win. Based on my non-scientific observations a large fraction of H-1 employees are in IT because they had a choice between screwing with computer software or becoming doctors (their own words). Anything else would equal to them not succeeding in the eyes of their parents (usually Indian). I know quite a few former IT professions -- all Americans -- who left the field to pursue other interests. They did not care about their careers because in U.S. there is no stigma associated with not being an engineer. It appears that things are different in countries that supply most of the H-1 visa employees as many of them simply did not have a choice about their profession due to some cultural or family norms. As a result we have crowds of mindless candidates who went to C-level schools and who have no interest in the field. I say fuck them. Nothing really against those people, but I do not mean to treat them any differently from U.S. born citizens or legal immigrants who just do not match with the jobs in IT.
Things will eventually settle down. If you are competent in your field you'll find a job either here or somewhere abroad.
Years ago I spent quite some time to reduce booting time. I was not able to get anywhere close to 5 seconds (damn old PIIIs), but I was able to shave off a considerable fraction of time by doing everything the old way: Custom kernel. Actually, things were much easier in FreeBSD where I could edit the configuration file as opposed to jumping through multiple primitive interfaces provided by Kernel. I gave up my hobby because finally I started getting paid enough to buy faster hardware. Plus, my girlfriend was not to keen on spending time watching me recompile kernel.
Here is a thought: Compile kernels specific for the users at your company and increase productivity. Otherwise, guys like me will continue enjoying 20 minute boots while we drink coffee :)
All replies on this site are nice and they have a point. Don't worry. Be happy. Read books and learn as much as you can. However, there is one more point: Know when to get out.
Let's face it, not everybody is cut for software development. If you succeed then great. If you feel like you're not enjoying yourself at work then it is time to go. Many people do not know how to do it and as a result we have a large number of dissatisfied IT workers who basically drag everybody else down. Don't be one of them.
nt
My office is 100% ergonomic. The quality of furniture you find there is not present even in VP offices of our company.
A faster connection to the Internet.
24" color calibrated monitor. Easy on the eyes, plenty of real estate.
A Mac. I don't have to reboot it. It is alaways on. Does not blue screen. All UNIX power tools are there. Cygwin still requires a lot of Vaseline.
I write memos in RTF or PDF formats if necessary. Platforms are never an issue.
Good coffee.
I can do 120% of my daily work within a few hours. In the office, I have to spread the work through 8 hours by pretending that I am busy. At home I can do my work and then go and slack off knowing that I am still more productive than many peers.
My company has a totally screwed up performance metric that anybody can meet and exceed.
You right in terms of describing program make-up and salaries for interns. At least in my experience suggest the same: Most companies in Silicon Valley that I know pay decent wages to interns and yes, American-born students are underrepresented in the programs. And this is not a bad thing at all.
I believe that a person should be passionate about his or her job. If you do not have passion, you will never ever perform well for a long period of time. Creative types usually have enormous amount of interest in their work. You can always see how real professionals -- in any field I must say -- put their souls into everything they touch. People who simply follow their parents' advice are a plague... They make everything harder because they exist, they want jobs and unfortunately they may not be invested into their jobs because they have no passion. As somebody who has been looking to hire new candidates for my team I am struggling with this aspect because I am sick of people who let somebody else carve a career path for them. A person without any biological interest in a job is a pretty bad candidate even if the G.P.A. and keywords on the resume say otherwise.
That's why I am not too worried about the numerous clones that are flocking into this country.
Work in the U.S. sucks. In many cases companies will offer you 2-3 weeks off on start. That's it. Yeah, they may attract you with a flashy salary, but then you'll have to pay for benefits, insurance, etc. and you're an at-will employee. Means that an employer can dismiss your ass w/o any reason. There is no such thing as taking 3 weeks of vacation at a time and then having 2 more weeks left over. Oh, and judging by the latest stats our European friends are just as productive as us, so I really doubt that you'll benefit from knowing how Americans do it here.
Silicon Valley may be a flashy name, but you must check your brains before moving there (trust me, I am a local). As a young person you probably want to meet young interesting people in nice social settings. Well, this is definitely not the place. The area is too expensive to live if you're young and there are not too many colleges around. Meeting chicks, especially the ones who are ready to party (if you know what I mean), is hard. So if you want to have some fun, SF area is not for you. Try Boston, Seattle or something more hip and less Indian than the Valley. Sorry if I offended anybody, but that's the truth. Also, every metro area is going to be expensive for somebody who is an intern. You must find roommates and have some stash of cash just to move in (first + last month of rent and a security deposit). You may try something in North Carolina's scientific triangle. It is more affordable and I hear that the quality of life is awesome compared to Silicon Valley.
If I were you, I would forget about moving to the U.S. Try to find a company that employes people who are passionate about technology and you'll learn a lot more than by working for a large company (in the U.S.) where your intern position will be one step above bean counting (if you are lucky). European countries are heavy on the next big things like eco technology, alternative sources of fuels, etc. This is where you would like to be. Just because you have a degree in IT, it does not mean that you can start working in a different industry. Judging by the articles that I read, places like Norway kick butt when it comes to leaping into the future. Finally, if you want to do something totally outrageous, see if you can go to a place like India to work there. As a Westerner who has worked in South Asia in the past, I can tell you that it is nothing like you have experienced in the past. Good luck.
Show your idea to a friend of yours. Select somebody who you can trust and then show the demo or paper drawings and make sure that the witness signs off. Then show the same to a lawyer who can come up with some legal document showing that the idea is yours. Only then talk to a company.
If you do not protect it, people will rip it off and you'll be left with zero $$$. While most of us do work because we like it, there is no reason not to get paid for cool ideas.
I have gotten a lot of static about my views on this case. I'll repeat myself later in this post, but let me state my case first.
A friend of mine, let's call him Chris, became involved with a lady who had an ex-boyfriend. That ex-boyfriend thought that there was a change of them getting back together. The girl thought otherwise and she started a relationship with my friend. The ex-boyfriend committed a suicide. Holy. Shit.
My buddy felt really bad about what happened. He knew about the ex, but he did not know anything about the mental state of the guy who killed himself over a girl. Chris was in a questionable state for some time because he did not know what to make out of the situation. Did he affect somebody's life by that much? Did his relationship cost a life?
Of course, charging Chris with anything will be pretty dumb. He was not a keeper or a legal guardian of the person who decided to check out early. He was just a guy dating just a girl with just an ex. How many people have had relationships that went sour? How many people had dated while their former partners were still lingering around? How many people were dumped for somebody else? Who should we blame? Parents? Life? Match.com? Bush?
Okay, let's blame Bush for some things, but the real deal is simple: We are our own keepers. If people jump off the bridge, you don't follow them (at least not right away until you figure out what is going on). If people tell you to go fuck yourself, do you do it? The same thing applies to this case as well. Somebody on the Internet told you to kill yourself. Honestly, what do you think you should do? Do you go and slit your wrists because some MySpace freak wants to see your dead body? Is your brain not a result of millions of years of evolution?
Yeah, I know that kid was depressed. I know that the person who pretended to be a cute boy next door is a fucking retard and we should have some sort of punishment for that. However, the girl killed herself and if we can blame anybody for that, let's look at the parents. WTF did they do to prevent that? They let a depressed kid with odd tendencies to sit on the Internet without supervision. No soccer. No family trips or evening talks. No fucking counseling. What do you expect? While the focus has been largely projected on the woman who is now being charged with all sorts of problems, we have heard very little about the girl who is no longer with us. The information that came out about the girl suggests that she needed a friend, a counselor and some Prozac far more than unrestricted access to the Internet.
I could not agree more.
Ballmer and Co. are lunatics dedicated to winning the battle with Google, Apple, etc. After watching Ballmer talk about iPhone and competition, I am fully convinced that the man is trying to compensate for something. Remember the rivalries that you had in the third grade? Yeah, for those guys it was never over :)