I went to Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. It's an English-language institution, somewhat unique in Germany, as all courses are entirely in English and the curriculum is structured like at an American/Anglo-Saxon university. There's a nice big green campus with wild parties, very cheap booze etc. They have a pretty large CS dept (relative to the size of the university, 1200 students only!). Moreover, they are very open to the idea of exchange/visiting students, though it might be harder to just go there without worrying about the tuition unless your university has some sort of agreement with them (but very much doable, if you can afford it).
You can find more info here. The undergrad CS courses are quite technical and you can usually take courses at all levels, as long as the professor is convinced that you have the prerequisite knowledge.
Studying abroad is a really good idea and I encourage it quite a bit! Good luck.
Canadians do not need a J-1 visa, just a 'J-1 visa status'. Basically, you need to get a DS-2019 (+some other documents) at the port of entry and you'll get the J-1 visa status automatically, without ever having to go to a US consulate to get a visa stamped. Everybody else does the latter.
Even as a PhD student with a unique skillset, you need authorization to work in the US:)
The big companies that I have done internships with (Microsoft, soon Google) have official ways of applying online for such jobs. Applications are usually accepted year-round, but there is obviously more interest for summer internships. It's possible that emailing directly will help too: 3 out of 4 internships that I've done so far were obtained this way.
Once accepted, the company will usually get you the required papers in order to work in the US (typically a DS-2019 in order to get a J-1 'exchange' visa, which you will need unless you're Canadian). Btw, formally, it's not the company that sponsors you, but some other organization, with which the company might have a special relationship (why they're doing things like that in the US is beyond me).
Unlike other countries (Germany, I am looking at you), my impression in that US internships in CS/IT are well paid. MS and Google pay VERY competitive salaries to their interns, on par with what beginning full-time employees get (minus benefits such as health insurance) + moving expenses and stuff like that. I am assuming that similar companies pay similar salaries.
Bottom line: apply early, to at least a few companies, look out for special internship application forms on the website and don't worry too much about the visa unless the company specifically says on their website that they won't bother.
Well, I tried to buy something with a Canadian credit card and it worked (here's my original post). My guess is that they are in the business of maximizing the profits so they might not check the billing address too thoroughly.
Just try getting the album - if it works, then great, you got yourself a DRM-free mp3 album! If not, well, you don't lose anything.
I just downloaded a song using a Canadian credit card with a billing address that matched the billing address of the credit card, except for the state and zip code (I put CA and 90210, obviously:)). My guess is that they only check the name, expiry date and maybe the phone and they simply don"t care afterwards. Have fun!
Are you actually suggesting that true AI comes in the form of a Gaussian kernel and a maximum-margin linear decision surface in the feature space defined by it? Just because SVMs can solve well some trivial vision problems does not mean at all that we got closer to "true AI".
In fact, there is a trend in Machine Learning right now that suggests getting back to "mimicking" the neuron, perhaps in a smarter way than just using back-propagation...
Pubmed is very domain-specific. You won't find scientific articles on international relations or machine learning via Pubmed. But Google Scholar is excellent in this respect -- it has been of tremendous help to me (and I know of very many other people from different fields in the scientific community who use it daily).
It's how people greet in Northern Germany (especially Bremen). I guess it comes from "Morgen" (morning), but people say "moin-moin" pretty much all the time.
... and he might have a good sense of smell, but he certainly has problems with English -- [...]and all I managed to do was make myself persona non-gratis at HP -- even though he wrote for WSJ/Forbes/whatever.
Well, then, we should change the Linux logo, too, right? Cause according to the latest news, they tend to be gay and some religious groups might be offended...:)
Searching for 'crime' and 'Latvia' (something I did to help illustrate the point) shows on the first page of results from Google that the US Departement of State has even issued a travel notice for all US citizens going to Latvia. The state.gov web site says amoung other things
Reading the The US State Dept travel advisories is like reading the mind of a paranoid person. Basically every country in the world is described in pretty negative remarks in these travel advisories. Check out the description of the crime situation in Canada:
Although criminal activity in Canada is more common in urban areas, violent crimes such as murder, armed robbery, and rape can occur infrequently throughout the country. Visitors to large cities should be aware that parked cars are regularly targeted for opportunistic smash-and-grab thefts, and they are cautioned to avoid leaving any possessions unattended in a vehicle, even in the trunk. Due to the high incidence of such crimes, motorists in Montreal and some other jurisdictions can be fined for leaving their car doors unlocked or for leaving valuables in view.
It's almost like a report from FoxNews or smth. Anyway, back to my point. You say
Just because it's a small nation, doesn't mean it's not notiously dodgy - it is, and it is known for online fraud as well as quite a few other tyes of crime (people trafficing being another that springs to mind). So as a European I'd have to say I agree with the article and think it's accurate in it's assertion.
I'm already tired of saying it, but Latvian "cybercrimes" represent probably a very insignificant proportion of the total. Perhaps on a per capita basis the number of these "cybercrimes" is indeed larger, but I bet it's nowhere near places like Romania or Bulgaria. And I can assure you the people-trafficking problem is MUCH more rampant in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, or Bulgaria (plus the Balkan countries) where it has become a national problem in the last years...
I've deviated though from my initial point -- the/. summary makes it sound like ex-USSR countries are place where "there be dragons". Which is not really true, at least not for all of them.
Look, I didn't say that Latvia is a model of honesty for all countries in the world. Just that compared to other ex-USSR countries it is in excellent shape (hence the use of the phrase 'is not marred by corruption', which does not mean 'it has no corruption').
I'm glad though that my comments made some people read more about Latvia:)
i believe part of the problem is the rampant corruption in government and law enforcement, so that financial fraud in those countries is out of control. it's easy for criminals to operate in those countries with no fear of being prosecuted.
As I said already several times, being part of the EU, Latvian law enforcement agencies are simply required to be less corrupt than their counterparts of the other ex-USSR countries. EU, you know, is not the Wild Wild Old Europe:)
If you want to change the reputation these countries have, maybe you should encourage their government to take out the garbage and promote their strengths.
I think that you still didn't get my point -- Latvia is in the EU and is not, therefore, marred by rampant corruption or a careless government. Other ex-URSS countries -- Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Belarus -- and so on have a loooong way until they reach the standards of Latvia (or the Baltic countries in general) in terms of quality of life, (lack of) corruption, etc. To be fair, Latvia has a long way until reaching the standards of the Scandinavian countries, for instance, but that's another discussion.
What I was "protesting" against is simply the automatic labeling of all possible "dens" for "cybercriminals" as such. Some countries are different than what your local newspaper -- or ignorance -- might imply.
Although I understand your point, your indignation is rather ironic. Moldova gained some unwanted publicity in the US as being a favorite for calls from hijacked modems for porn sites.
Yes, I heard about that. You'll also note that I did not say anything positive about Moldova -- in many respects, that country is still in the URSS, if not worse.
But Latvia? Come on! Moldovans, for instance, would love to enjoy the standards of life from there. My point was that just because a country was in the ex-URSS, it doesn't mean that it's full of "villains and hackers" or that it's ruled by some authoritarian communist dictator and that you should automatically be overly cautious about money transfers to it.
Have you people ever been to Latvia (the country in question)? It is by no means a country of "villainy and hackerdom", it is a member of the European Union, for God's sake! I sometimes have the feeling that many/. readers are still in the Cold War era with their mindsets. Even the article mentions how Latvia is "known" for its "cybercriminals" (and Latvia, mind you, is a very small country, compared to behemoths like Russia or Ukraine, where the real bulk of "cybercriminals" from the ex-USSR resides).
PS: And, yes, if you're wondering, I come from one of those "notorious" ex-URSS republics (Moldova to be more precise).
Slashdot Mirror
The same thing happens between Moldova and Romania. It's loud and time-consuming, but definitely quite an experience.
I went to Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. It's an English-language institution, somewhat unique in Germany, as all courses are entirely in English and the curriculum is structured like at an American/Anglo-Saxon university. There's a nice big green campus with wild parties, very cheap booze etc. They have a pretty large CS dept (relative to the size of the university, 1200 students only!). Moreover, they are very open to the idea of exchange/visiting students, though it might be harder to just go there without worrying about the tuition unless your university has some sort of agreement with them (but very much doable, if you can afford it).
You can find more info here. The undergrad CS courses are quite technical and you can usually take courses at all levels, as long as the professor is convinced that you have the prerequisite knowledge.
Studying abroad is a really good idea and I encourage it quite a bit! Good luck.
Canadians do not need a J-1 visa, just a 'J-1 visa status'. Basically, you need to get a DS-2019 (+some other documents) at the port of entry and you'll get the J-1 visa status automatically, without ever having to go to a US consulate to get a visa stamped. Everybody else does the latter.
Even as a PhD student with a unique skillset, you need authorization to work in the US :)
The big companies that I have done internships with (Microsoft, soon Google) have official ways of applying online for such jobs. Applications are usually accepted year-round, but there is obviously more interest for summer internships. It's possible that emailing directly will help too: 3 out of 4 internships that I've done so far were obtained this way.
Once accepted, the company will usually get you the required papers in order to work in the US (typically a DS-2019 in order to get a J-1 'exchange' visa, which you will need unless you're Canadian). Btw, formally, it's not the company that sponsors you, but some other organization, with which the company might have a special relationship (why they're doing things like that in the US is beyond me).
Unlike other countries (Germany, I am looking at you), my impression in that US internships in CS/IT are well paid. MS and Google pay VERY competitive salaries to their interns, on par with what beginning full-time employees get (minus benefits such as health insurance) + moving expenses and stuff like that. I am assuming that similar companies pay similar salaries.
Bottom line: apply early, to at least a few companies, look out for special internship application forms on the website and don't worry too much about the visa unless the company specifically says on their website that they won't bother.
Kijiji is owned by eBay.
Well, I tried to buy something with a Canadian credit card and it worked (here's my original post). My guess is that they are in the business of maximizing the profits so they might not check the billing address too thoroughly. Just try getting the album - if it works, then great, you got yourself a DRM-free mp3 album! If not, well, you don't lose anything.
I just downloaded a song using a Canadian credit card with a billing address that matched the billing address of the credit card, except for the state and zip code (I put CA and 90210, obviously :)). My guess is that they only check the name, expiry date and maybe the phone and they simply don"t care afterwards. Have fun!
Are you actually suggesting that true AI comes in the form of a Gaussian kernel and a maximum-margin linear decision surface in the feature space defined by it? Just because SVMs can solve well some trivial vision problems does not mean at all that we got closer to "true AI".
In fact, there is a trend in Machine Learning right now that suggests getting back to "mimicking" the neuron, perhaps in a smarter way than just using back-propagation...
It could be a Firefox 1.5-only feature. I'm running 1.0.7 and I only have browser.sessionhistory.max_entries, too.
Nevermind me.. I had too much of sailing/railing it seems :)
It's funny cause you made the same mistake that I did -- Solar rail vs. Solar sail :)
:)
PS: I submitted the story yesterday. First story that I've ever submitted, btw
"Browse with ad / flash blocking tools or with an RSS feed reader" -- Good idea, but... http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/20/122322 2&tid=217&tid=98&tid=1
"The party adjourned to a hot tub, yes. Fully clothed, I might add. -- IBM employee, testifying in California State Supreme Court"
:)
Relevant? I say yes
Pubmed is very domain-specific. You won't find scientific articles on international relations or machine learning via Pubmed. But Google Scholar is excellent in this respect -- it has been of tremendous help to me (and I know of very many other people from different fields in the scientific community who use it daily).
It's how people greet in Northern Germany (especially Bremen). I guess it comes from "Morgen" (morning), but people say "moin-moin" pretty much all the time.
:)
Thank you for your attention
Well, for some reason I decided that clicking "Post Anonymously" is useful :-)
So if someone's curious, the above text is a piece of my creation.
... and he might have a good sense of smell, but he certainly has problems with English -- [...]and all I managed to do was make myself persona non-gratis at HP -- even though he wrote for WSJ/Forbes/whatever.
Well, then, we should change the Linux logo, too, right? Cause according to the latest news, they tend to be gay and some religious groups might be offended... :)
Searching for 'crime' and 'Latvia' (something I did to help illustrate the point) shows on the first page of results from Google that the US Departement of State has even issued a travel notice for all US citizens going to Latvia. The state.gov web site says amoung other things
/. summary makes it sound like ex-USSR countries are place where "there be dragons". Which is not really true, at least not for all of them.
Reading the The US State Dept travel advisories is like reading the mind of a paranoid person. Basically every country in the world is described in pretty negative remarks in these travel advisories. Check out the description of the crime situation in Canada:
Although criminal activity in Canada is more common in urban areas, violent crimes such as murder, armed robbery, and rape can occur infrequently throughout the country. Visitors to large cities should be aware that parked cars are regularly targeted for opportunistic smash-and-grab thefts, and they are cautioned to avoid leaving any possessions unattended in a vehicle, even in the trunk. Due to the high incidence of such crimes, motorists in Montreal and some other jurisdictions can be fined for leaving their car doors unlocked or for leaving valuables in view.
It's almost like a report from FoxNews or smth. Anyway, back to my point. You say
Just because it's a small nation, doesn't mean it's not notiously dodgy - it is, and it is known for online fraud as well as quite a few other tyes of crime (people trafficing being another that springs to mind). So as a European I'd have to say I agree with the article and think it's accurate in it's assertion.
I'm already tired of saying it, but Latvian "cybercrimes" represent probably a very insignificant proportion of the total. Perhaps on a per capita basis the number of these "cybercrimes" is indeed larger, but I bet it's nowhere near places like Romania or Bulgaria. And I can assure you the people-trafficking problem is MUCH more rampant in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, or Bulgaria (plus the Balkan countries) where it has become a national problem in the last years...
I've deviated though from my initial point -- the
PS: Just out of curiosity -- are you from the UK?
Nobody claimed the opposite.
Look, I didn't say that Latvia is a model of honesty for all countries in the world. Just that compared to other ex-USSR countries it is in excellent shape (hence the use of the phrase 'is not marred by corruption', which does not mean 'it has no corruption').
:)
I'm glad though that my comments made some people read more about Latvia
i believe part of the problem is the rampant corruption in government and law enforcement, so that financial fraud in those countries is out of control. it's easy for criminals to operate in those countries with no fear of being prosecuted.
:)
As I said already several times, being part of the EU, Latvian law enforcement agencies are simply required to be less corrupt than their counterparts of the other ex-USSR countries. EU, you know, is not the Wild Wild Old Europe
Otherwise, I agree with you, of course.
If you want to change the reputation these countries have, maybe you should encourage their government to take out the garbage and promote their strengths.
I think that you still didn't get my point -- Latvia is in the EU and is not, therefore, marred by rampant corruption or a careless government. Other ex-URSS countries -- Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Belarus -- and so on have a loooong way until they reach the standards of Latvia (or the Baltic countries in general) in terms of quality of life, (lack of) corruption, etc. To be fair, Latvia has a long way until reaching the standards of the Scandinavian countries, for instance, but that's another discussion.
What I was "protesting" against is simply the automatic labeling of all possible "dens" for "cybercriminals" as such. Some countries are different than what your local newspaper -- or ignorance -- might imply.
Although I understand your point, your indignation is rather ironic. Moldova gained some unwanted publicity in the US as being a favorite for calls from hijacked modems for porn sites.
Yes, I heard about that. You'll also note that I did not say anything positive about Moldova -- in many respects, that country is still in the URSS, if not worse.
But Latvia? Come on! Moldovans, for instance, would love to enjoy the standards of life from there. My point was that just because a country was in the ex-URSS, it doesn't mean that it's full of "villains and hackers" or that it's ruled by some authoritarian communist dictator and that you should automatically be overly cautious about money transfers to it.
My 2 (canadian, I guess) cents
Have you people ever been to Latvia (the country in question)? It is by no means a country of "villainy and hackerdom", it is a member of the European Union, for God's sake! I sometimes have the feeling that many /. readers are still in the Cold War era with their mindsets. Even the article mentions how Latvia is "known" for its "cybercriminals" (and Latvia, mind you, is a very small country, compared to behemoths like Russia or Ukraine, where the real bulk of "cybercriminals" from the ex-USSR resides).
PS: And, yes, if you're wondering, I come from one of those "notorious" ex-URSS republics (Moldova to be more precise).