Um, companies actually have to post the "going rate" in their location before hiring an H1-B. And H1-B employees legally have to be paid withing the "going rate" average. Sure some companies are manipulating the system, but legally, and H1-B employee should be making about what an American worker would be making.
I can't disagree with you. It's like the people who scream about geneticly engineered crops - what do they think selective brreding programs are? We've been geneticly engineering food for thousands of years now. I don't know about you, I happen to like not worrying about the next great potato famine.
The only vegetarians I've hear on this subject are very against it. They consider vat grown meat "unhealthy". Much in the way non-organic veggies are "evil". Apparently they feel that anything created by science must inevitably be worse that what we were doing 200 years ago.
The first time you come across important, but undocumented code you hire two guys to learn is and document it. You do the same thing with anyone who is the only person who knows whatever. Never be dependant on one person's knowledge.
My company has been emphasizing the "wear you ID at all times" policy lately. Which would be wonderful if our division had been issued IDs! We're supposed to check if someon has an ID before letting the in, but how can you when there's nothig to check... It's nice to make a policy and then fail to follow through.
Hmmm, accurate content descriptions. How many times have we heard something similar? "All we want is ratings" or "accurate content descriptors". Next thing you know things are being banned because of their "accurate content descriptors".
I may remind you that back in the Tipper Gore days people were trying to sue heavy metal bands for causing their kids to comit suicide. Which was one of the reasons congress decided to look into the music industry. By blaming the music we once again abrogate personal responsibility.
Do you remember back in the 80s when Tipper Gore had her own little witch hunt to eradicate naughty language in music? The Democrats have been just as bad about censorship as Repoublicans. Let's face it, there are worse things out there than dirt pictures/books/songs, and I wish the government would concentrate on what they're constitutionally allowed to do rather than trying to save us from ourselves.
They built a huge plan in Colorado right before the Tech Crash. The the crash came they abandoned the plant (the most expensive building ever in the state). Is this building unusable? It was supposed to be a "nest generation" chip plant after all!
It also has to do with birthrates. During the Civil war over 60% of the US's population was under 20. We lost hunderds of thousands of lives in the War and didn't blink. In Vietnam the percentage of people under 20 was under 50, and we started screaming bloody murder after a few thousand lives were lost. Now, the population under 20 has again dropped and we're terrified of doing anything that might kill someone. With big families you could "afford" to lose a child or two. Now, losing a child may mean you have no children left, or have halved your numbers. So people are more risk adverse.
Just a year of Latin significantly improves your language skills since so many English words have Latin roots.
In addition have less "cultural" days and more actual learning days! Last year our local elementary school had a "African American awareness week", a "cross-cultural week", a "women's week", etc... No school work was done during these weeks - instead, "awareness" projects were the goal...
Teachers need to be competent. Mandatory competency tests should be given to all new teachers and periodically to current teachers. Anyone who fails would be put on probation and tested in the next year. Fail again and you're out.
Hmmm, getting all coutries to be "in line" with each other seems to deprive each country of it's own individuality. Aren't countries supposed to be self-determining? If every country is "in line" with everyone else then they're not coutries anymore.
I'm suprosed the black helicopter croud hasn't started screaming about how this is letting in a world government through the back door....
I'll start out by acknowledging that labor unions have done some good in the past. Now, however, they are bastions of mediocrity. They actually punish the exceptional, but treating them the same as the rank and file.
Now, ego not withstanding, I'm better than the average software developer (well, mybe not when it comes to spelling, but who says that's important?). And I refuse to be lumped in with the incompetents and barely there people that I encounter from time to time. I think I can do a lot better on my own than with the help of any union.
So I'm kinda hoping for the whole organized crime thing to happen. I always wanted to be a crimial, I just never had the nerve!
In fact there is a waiting list for adopting a baby with Downs-Syndrome. So even the children often considered "non-viable" are wanted by someone. Last I checked the waiting list for down-syndrome babies contained more than 10,000 families. It's an option not often considered, and not often publicized.
I have a Roomba Discovery and most of those problems have been solved. I have no issues with the battery and it always returns to it's home station. The colection bin is 3 times the size of the first generation - adequet for my needs. I do agree about the pet hair - having a long-haired double-coated dog means that not only do I have to continually clean the brushes, but the hair ends up destroying the rubber brush. A self cleaning docking station would be wonderful!
Most of my house is carpets, and I adore my Roomba, although I probably have less than 200 sqft of tile floor, I'll be buying a Scooba - I have two dogs and live where it rains alot. I have to clean up muddy footprints everyday. Well no more! I hate cleaning my tile floors and this finally gives me a way out. My friend and I we're giggling like schoolgirls over the idea. Neither of us care about "special" solutions - we just want to not mop any more.
First off, are you in a right to work state? If so, you can leave if you want. Otherwise, you're stuck keeping to your official notice.
Having been in similar situations (far too often I'm afraid) I would recomend being the mature adult. Show everyone by your actions that you are a responsible person who others watching the situation may wish to employ in the future. Sure, your current boss never will, but who know which one of the silent watchers might remember you later.
All that being said, if your boss does withold your final paycheck you can talk to a labor lawyer, or just your state labor board - the one time I did this I had the president of the company calling to make things right! Mention his irrational behavior to the head of HR, if he knows his business he'll have kitten-fits over what is going on and fix it very quickly.
I've been pretty lucky in that it didn't matter what sex I was. One job it mattered what religion I was though....
You're right, women to tend toward certain high tech fields. I'm pretty hard core - embedded systems and protocols. Not many women around here.
I'm sorry your experience has been so disapointing. Most of my coworkers are smart capable men. Usually there's one idiot, but that's about it. I sat down at lunch and went through all the women programmers I've worked with. Including me a little less that 50% are what I'd call comptent. I'm not talking brilliant, I'm merely aiming for competent. On one project we had three people sustaining a product - 2 women and a man. The women left, and the guy did all three jobs and made the product better! I never saw the women contribute.
I'm not saying women are dumb. Heck no! I'm saying that women who shouldn't be in CS are having their hands held through the process simply because they are women. And this is the worst form of bigatry - allowing substandard behavior because of someone's sex or race.
I don't disagree that women can be as competent as a man in the field, it merely seems that the ones who would be good are discouraged, and the medocre are helped along. For instance we had this intern (okay the daughter of the VP of MechE) who was very smart and capable. But she was going to college to be a teacher! What a waste, this girl would be brilliant in CS (I finall go her to change her major to math which I regard as a success) but she was told it wasn't appropriate for a girl. This was from her father, who was an engineer himself.
Contrast this with one of the female SEs I had to work with - a masters in CS from Stanford. Didn't know what 0x in front of a number meant. Didn't know why you'd set a pointer to NULL. Turns out she was "helped" all the way through her BS and MS. So a lot of time was wasted mentoring and tutoring someone who should have been directed toward a different field.
So why is it that many women are directed in the wrong directions? And are we so desperate to have women in high tech that we won't tell the incompetent that they might be better off elsewhere?
I have worked with only a few other women. WE're not common. You know what? Only about 50% of women in the field seem to be competent. Compare that to about 85% of men in the field knowing what they're doing. Maybe women who feel incompetent and out of touch shouldn't be encouraged to stick it out! When I tutored programming classes I had all of one male programmer - and he was a MechE trying to get some wider experience!
The real question is: why do so many women go into a field they're not suited for? Not just CS, but millions of other fields.
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Naturally, some group of concerned citizens has spoken out that this is "proof" that these systems should be mandatory...
Not to mention that you need a minimum of 15 grams of fat a day to keep your gall bladder working.
Um, companies actually have to post the "going rate" in their location before hiring an H1-B. And H1-B employees legally have to be paid withing the "going rate" average. Sure some companies are manipulating the system, but legally, and H1-B employee should be making about what an American worker would be making.
I can't disagree with you. It's like the people who scream about geneticly engineered crops - what do they think selective brreding programs are? We've been geneticly engineering food for thousands of years now. I don't know about you, I happen to like not worrying about the next great potato famine.
The only vegetarians I've hear on this subject are very against it. They consider vat grown meat "unhealthy". Much in the way non-organic veggies are "evil". Apparently they feel that anything created by science must inevitably be worse that what we were doing 200 years ago.
The first time you come across important, but undocumented code you hire two guys to learn is and document it. You do the same thing with anyone who is the only person who knows whatever. Never be dependant on one person's knowledge.
My company has been emphasizing the "wear you ID at all times" policy lately. Which would be wonderful if our division had been issued IDs! We're supposed to check if someon has an ID before letting the in, but how can you when there's nothig to check... It's nice to make a policy and then fail to follow through.
Hmmm, accurate content descriptions. How many times have we heard something similar? "All we want is ratings" or "accurate content descriptors". Next thing you know things are being banned because of their "accurate content descriptors". I may remind you that back in the Tipper Gore days people were trying to sue heavy metal bands for causing their kids to comit suicide. Which was one of the reasons congress decided to look into the music industry. By blaming the music we once again abrogate personal responsibility.
Do you remember back in the 80s when Tipper Gore had her own little witch hunt to eradicate naughty language in music? The Democrats have been just as bad about censorship as Repoublicans. Let's face it, there are worse things out there than dirt pictures/books/songs, and I wish the government would concentrate on what they're constitutionally allowed to do rather than trying to save us from ourselves.
They built a huge plan in Colorado right before the Tech Crash. The the crash came they abandoned the plant (the most expensive building ever in the state). Is this building unusable? It was supposed to be a "nest generation" chip plant after all!
It also has to do with birthrates. During the Civil war over 60% of the US's population was under 20. We lost hunderds of thousands of lives in the War and didn't blink. In Vietnam the percentage of people under 20 was under 50, and we started screaming bloody murder after a few thousand lives were lost. Now, the population under 20 has again dropped and we're terrified of doing anything that might kill someone. With big families you could "afford" to lose a child or two. Now, losing a child may mean you have no children left, or have halved your numbers. So people are more risk adverse.
My damned smoke detectors go off every time I bake something.... It's a much more frequent test!
Just a year of Latin significantly improves your language skills since so many English words have Latin roots. In addition have less "cultural" days and more actual learning days! Last year our local elementary school had a "African American awareness week", a "cross-cultural week", a "women's week", etc... No school work was done during these weeks - instead, "awareness" projects were the goal... Teachers need to be competent. Mandatory competency tests should be given to all new teachers and periodically to current teachers. Anyone who fails would be put on probation and tested in the next year. Fail again and you're out.
Hmmm, getting all coutries to be "in line" with each other seems to deprive each country of it's own individuality. Aren't countries supposed to be self-determining? If every country is "in line" with everyone else then they're not coutries anymore. I'm suprosed the black helicopter croud hasn't started screaming about how this is letting in a world government through the back door....
I'll start out by acknowledging that labor unions have done some good in the past. Now, however, they are bastions of mediocrity. They actually punish the exceptional, but treating them the same as the rank and file. Now, ego not withstanding, I'm better than the average software developer (well, mybe not when it comes to spelling, but who says that's important?). And I refuse to be lumped in with the incompetents and barely there people that I encounter from time to time. I think I can do a lot better on my own than with the help of any union. So I'm kinda hoping for the whole organized crime thing to happen. I always wanted to be a crimial, I just never had the nerve!
In fact there is a waiting list for adopting a baby with Downs-Syndrome. So even the children often considered "non-viable" are wanted by someone. Last I checked the waiting list for down-syndrome babies contained more than 10,000 families. It's an option not often considered, and not often publicized.
I have a Roomba Discovery and most of those problems have been solved. I have no issues with the battery and it always returns to it's home station. The colection bin is 3 times the size of the first generation - adequet for my needs. I do agree about the pet hair - having a long-haired double-coated dog means that not only do I have to continually clean the brushes, but the hair ends up destroying the rubber brush. A self cleaning docking station would be wonderful!
Most of my house is carpets, and I adore my Roomba, although I probably have less than 200 sqft of tile floor, I'll be buying a Scooba - I have two dogs and live where it rains alot. I have to clean up muddy footprints everyday. Well no more! I hate cleaning my tile floors and this finally gives me a way out. My friend and I we're giggling like schoolgirls over the idea. Neither of us care about "special" solutions - we just want to not mop any more.
First off, are you in a right to work state? If so, you can leave if you want. Otherwise, you're stuck keeping to your official notice.
Having been in similar situations (far too often I'm afraid) I would recomend being the mature adult. Show everyone by your actions that you are a responsible person who others watching the situation may wish to employ in the future. Sure, your current boss never will, but who know which one of the silent watchers might remember you later.
All that being said, if your boss does withold your final paycheck you can talk to a labor lawyer, or just your state labor board - the one time I did this I had the president of the company calling to make things right! Mention his irrational behavior to the head of HR, if he knows his business he'll have kitten-fits over what is going on and fix it very quickly.
I've been pretty lucky in that it didn't matter what sex I was. One job it mattered what religion I was though.... You're right, women to tend toward certain high tech fields. I'm pretty hard core - embedded systems and protocols. Not many women around here.
I'm sorry your experience has been so disapointing. Most of my coworkers are smart capable men. Usually there's one idiot, but that's about it. I sat down at lunch and went through all the women programmers I've worked with. Including me a little less that 50% are what I'd call comptent. I'm not talking brilliant, I'm merely aiming for competent. On one project we had three people sustaining a product - 2 women and a man. The women left, and the guy did all three jobs and made the product better! I never saw the women contribute. I'm not saying women are dumb. Heck no! I'm saying that women who shouldn't be in CS are having their hands held through the process simply because they are women. And this is the worst form of bigatry - allowing substandard behavior because of someone's sex or race.
I don't disagree that women can be as competent as a man in the field, it merely seems that the ones who would be good are discouraged, and the medocre are helped along. For instance we had this intern (okay the daughter of the VP of MechE) who was very smart and capable. But she was going to college to be a teacher! What a waste, this girl would be brilliant in CS (I finall go her to change her major to math which I regard as a success) but she was told it wasn't appropriate for a girl. This was from her father, who was an engineer himself. Contrast this with one of the female SEs I had to work with - a masters in CS from Stanford. Didn't know what 0x in front of a number meant. Didn't know why you'd set a pointer to NULL. Turns out she was "helped" all the way through her BS and MS. So a lot of time was wasted mentoring and tutoring someone who should have been directed toward a different field. So why is it that many women are directed in the wrong directions? And are we so desperate to have women in high tech that we won't tell the incompetent that they might be better off elsewhere?
I have worked with only a few other women. WE're not common. You know what? Only about 50% of women in the field seem to be competent. Compare that to about 85% of men in the field knowing what they're doing. Maybe women who feel incompetent and out of touch shouldn't be encouraged to stick it out! When I tutored programming classes I had all of one male programmer - and he was a MechE trying to get some wider experience! The real question is: why do so many women go into a field they're not suited for? Not just CS, but millions of other fields.