The lousy consulting company I have worked for in the US for the last 2.5 years has a site in Bangalore. After they ran out of projects here in the US, and I had being on the bench for 2 months, they were willing to send me over to Bangalore with a 1000$/month salary (which I know is extremely good over there).
So I do not really agree with the original post about being that difficult being sent over to India to work.
... after 10h to get out from there. I was lucky enough to find out about a bus going to Jersey City from the Ferry site, and from there I took a taxi to Harrison where I had taken the Path in the morning, and where I had my car parked.
The most shocking thing has been the total ausence of authorities any where. Basically, the presence of police controlling the situation was minimum. Also, it was impossible to get any reliable information from any transport official.
So I wasn't just dissapointed by seeing something like this happening but also by the reactions I saw from the authorities.
I have been a virtual lecturer for around 5 years now for a Venezuelan university. I am responsible for one subject belonging to an online masters degree in Technology Management (sort of like an MBA). Some of the comments I would like to note based on my experience are the following:
It is very easy to get away as a teacher without doing much. I have noticed that many of my colleagues do not even keep their course web pages updated. The worst part of this is that many students do not seem to care about it.
Related to my previous point, many students clearly do not put the same quantity of effort on the online courses as they would put in real-world courses. They seem to think they will get an excellent grade without much effort. That is one reason why every semester I have trouble with some students who were expecting a much higher score.
Students think that because they do not have to phisically attend, they can get away easily. I require that they send a few e-mail messages a week, and participate in the chat sessions I arrange. However, it is pretty normal for some students to "disappear" in the beginning of the semester, not participate at all in discussions, etc. and believe they will pass because they hand in the final dissertation at the end of the semester.
I am amazed on how many students believe that the teacher is plain stupid. Two years ago I started searching through google for random paragraphs of the dissertations I receive at the end of the semester, and was surprised to find out how many times I receive copied stuff. Those student get a straight 0 (the score system goes from 0 to 20). They believe they are the only ones who know how to use google;-)
As far as I know, there are three different countries in South America where Guyana is part of their names: Frech Guyana, Surinam or Dutch Guyana, and British Guyana. But I might be wrong. Can you clarifiy it for me? Thanks.
Well, my Ghanian counterpart would sit there in front of a problem and just blindly try to apply the last thing I taught him. It took a lot of drawn out silences and lots of me sitting on my hands to get him to be a beginner programmer. But this was a success story, a year later he got into an American university for CS.
I honestly find your comment condescending. I wonder why going to a US university to study is such a success, as though per se, US universities are better than those in Ghana. You just assume that, which is not right. You also seem capable, after spending just a few months in another country, to determine how good or bad professionals they are, how well they think, how well they reason... I wonder how much previous "western" teaching experience you had before going into Ghana, because you would be surprised about how many stupid people we have in Europe and the US.
By the way, I am not trolling, I spent a few years working in Africa (Argelia and Morocco) working in this kind of projects until I realized how easy to do the wrong thing is, and how extremely difficult it is to really be helpful going there.
Not really. Two years ago we started to use electricity. They say that in just 50 years we will have computers and Internet. Sorry, I will continue later with this post... I have to go down to the river for some water.
It is virtually impossible to find a Spaniard who doesn't know what and where exactly Andalucia is. It would be as extremely rare as, for example, finding a British who doesn't know about Wales or Scotland. Obviously, mentioning that in the article wasn't intended for the Spanish audience.
I had the same significance then as it has now: none. I was just pointing out an somewhat interesting coincidence. That's all. Do not think too much about it.
I don't really understand why there are so many enraged, obnoxious people around. I just exposed what I believe is an interesting coincidence, and there you are foaming through your mouth!
I would agree with your statement. I am also European, from Spain, but currently living in the USA. Here, I am paying around 30% of my salary with no benefits (I do not include here the health insurance, vacations, umployment insurance, etc.). With the same level of salary, in Spain I would be paying around 35% but getting many more benefits that here I cannot even think about.
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So I do not really agree with the original post about being that difficult being sent over to India to work.
... after 10h to get out from there. I was lucky enough to find out about a bus going to Jersey City from the Ferry site, and from there I took a taxi to Harrison where I had taken the Path in the morning, and where I had my car parked.
The most shocking thing has been the total ausence of authorities any where. Basically, the presence of police controlling the situation was minimum. Also, it was impossible to get any reliable information from any transport official.
So I wasn't just dissapointed by seeing something like this happening but also by the reactions I saw from the authorities.
As far as I know, there are three different countries in South America where Guyana is part of their names: Frech Guyana, Surinam or Dutch Guyana, and British Guyana. But I might be wrong. Can you clarifiy it for me? Thanks.
Yeah, too bad people has to eat some way. Those greedy bastards!
No, you just assume that. You probably know even less about Ghana than myself (and I haven't the faintest idea on that country).
I honestly find your comment condescending. I wonder why going to a US university to study is such a success, as though per se, US universities are better than those in Ghana. You just assume that, which is not right. You also seem capable, after spending just a few months in another country, to determine how good or bad professionals they are, how well they think, how well they reason... I wonder how much previous "western" teaching experience you had before going into Ghana, because you would be surprised about how many stupid people we have in Europe and the US.
By the way, I am not trolling, I spent a few years working in Africa (Argelia and Morocco) working in this kind of projects until I realized how easy to do the wrong thing is, and how extremely difficult it is to really be helpful going there.
Or maybe not. I don't really the relevance of Linux on that issue.
Not really. Two years ago we started to use electricity. They say that in just 50 years we will have computers and Internet. Sorry, I will continue later with this post... I have to go down to the river for some water.
It is virtually impossible to find a Spaniard who doesn't know what and where exactly Andalucia is. It would be as extremely rare as, for example, finding a British who doesn't know about Wales or Scotland. Obviously, mentioning that in the article wasn't intended for the Spanish audience.
Exhibiting your ignorance on a public forum is not usually a good idea.
Of course not. It is a markup language, hence its name.
Another excellent (although only available for Windows AFAIK) P2P system is WinMX.
I had the same significance then as it has now: none. I was just pointing out an somewhat interesting coincidence. That's all. Do not think too much about it.
I don't really understand why there are so many enraged, obnoxious people around. I just exposed what I believe is an interesting coincidence, and there you are foaming through your mouth!
A good example of how the term 'Anonymous Coward' can suit somebody so perfectly.
It is interesting how incrementing each of the letters in VMS gives WNT. It is something similar to IBM and HAL.
Just FYI, the H1-B is a non-immigration status.
I bet you will continue paying the same (or more) taxes whatever the goverment funds or not.
I think the CIA think doesn't work on me, because I am well aware of how little I am getting for all the money I pay in taxes ;-)
I would agree with your statement. I am also European, from Spain, but currently living in the USA. Here, I am paying around 30% of my salary with no benefits (I do not include here the health insurance, vacations, umployment insurance, etc.). With the same level of salary, in Spain I would be paying around 35% but getting many more benefits that here I cannot even think about.
I have a never used copy to sell of "Starting Forth" from Brodie, in case someone is interested.