A minore point -- the Chinese Yuan is not hard currency. You can exchange into it (through state banks), but not out. It's possible to exchange overseas, etc, but I don't think a real forex market (i.e. billion dollar transactions) has been developed yet.
This leads to situations where companies that are actually making money in China (precious few) can't repatriate the earnings to the mother ship -- they have to invest it in the local economy, or stick it in the stock-market casinos.
Part of the reason companies love this is that it gives them a stable revenue stream. Instead of selling products which may generate huge profits one quarter, and nothing the next, subscriptions deliver reliable revenues.... and the market rewards reliability.
I was just in HK last week -- it was really cool to see this thing in action. Since it's relatively contactless, you can just place your entire wallet on the censor and walk through.
Yo --
It's too bad for you that your story didn't get picked,etc. I've had a few turned down, as well...
On the other hand, I've got a feeling that oftentimes they get a whole shitload of duplicate submissions, and it is only by getting more than submission of the same article that they realize that people find it important. In this case, it makes sense to take an article that isn't immediately newsworthy (this is not a huge thing) and wait and see how many article submissions "vote" for it.
It's too bad for you, but hey -- maybe the system works after all.
Yeah, this guy must be one of those "rich dad poor dad" people or something -- that guy says cars aren't assets because you've got to pay for upkeep, etc.
It's an interesting point, but in finance, a car is asset.
At work we use our machiens for some pretty heavy math computations... and we're not really looking into Solaris anymore. The fact is, that e6500 costs a SHITLOAD, and for similarly priced low-mid range hardware, Linux wins hands down.
Actually, I'm quite curious -- what do you guys need that monster machine for. You don't have to give away everything, but I can't really imagine too many uses for something that heavy. (esp. that couldn't be done with a more distributed architecture)
You know, you'd think if there's that much radiation there, then it'd be reasonably visible by future technology.
I realize that there's a chance that the technology might not happen, but it's relatively logical to think that people will still be dealing with radiation in the future (it'll probably be even more significant).
Who knows, maybe civilization will take a dive backwards, and we'll forget our tech,etc. Even then, though, there's a chance that a nuke was involved somewhere (and that would keep the idea of radiation in the civilization?).
I guess the last thing is, if people at a particular point in time don't have the tech to read the signs we put up, then they probably won't know about radiation, either... Then, if the place were not really interestingly marked, people who randomly decided to settle there would just die relatively quickly, and "the valley of death" would soon be discovered for what it was. If, however, it was something interesting, then people might not notice the connection between the people dying around them while they're exploring/bringing back objects from the place.
Your point about "living there" is really important. While travelling, reading articles, etc. are all good ways to learn about a culture, I've found that there's really nothing like _living there_ (and speaking the language, and working, and having local friends).
I was just reading one guy's travelogue about his time in China, and I was amazed at how little he understood. Sure, he saw some local people and ate some local food, but you can do that and still understand little about your environment. When you've got a job, more-than-aquantainces-friends, and deal with one area for an extending amount of time, lots of the nuances of the culture unfold before your eyes.
For those that teach English in foreign countries, I recommend you guys get out as much as possible, and have local friends from varying social strata, not just other foreign friends. Living in expat-society is a bit unnatural, and if you don't break free or mingle, you'll never see the country you've come to see (even though you'll probably meet some nice Australians and Americans, and that British guy with the local wife and lots of locals who don't like their home country, etc).
I'd teach them 6 or 7 commands (cat, grep, top, df, du, sort, man, jobs), &, , and |. Maybe pico for an editor. "Everything is a file or process". Shell script (the idea). That'd be day one.
On day 2, it might be intro to X, telnet, ssh, ftp (if they don't know how to do it manually).
Personally, I think all of the other stuff is candy (Jpilot?). Maybe you can spend 1 hour showing them this stuff (like "Look at this, isn't it special?"), but I'd stick to the basics, the parts where unix really excels, instead of trying to show unix as the newest version of windows.
OceanStore is much more than what you suggest. It's self-routing/self-healing/self-caching/self-everyt hing -- it's designed to make things as low maintenance as possible. There are processes to defend against compromise (a small but sig. number of corrupted/hacked hosts can't bring it down). There are oceanstore processes that look into the oceanstore and make optomization decisions. (introspection, I believe).
Check it out -- AFS is good for corporations/etc, but Oceanstore is somewhat viable for _everything_.
I tried to change xdb_sql for a training project at the company I work for -- it was very, very difficult, and although it sortof worked in the end, I wouldn't doubt they threw away my work.
Because the XML is extendable, it's a pain in the ass to place inside a "useful" database (i.e. queryable for the extensions). My team and I looked at the docs for quite a while, but the message flow (and the configuration to send the xdb packets over from the "main" jabber server to the xdb server) was very unclear. A lot of my time was spent comparing log files and making very minor changes in XML structures.
There's a java xdb out there that I ended up hacking with to make my stuff almost work, but it was rough going, too. I think the real technical problem (besides coping with Jabber's formats, etc) is difficult -- mapping XML queries ->SQL queries, XML->relational format, and relational format->XML are all very difficult operations, with no real proven way to work with yet.
It does seem like xdb is the great missing point in the OS version of jabber -- perhaps that's on purpose to encourage large users to go for the commercial version. It's easy enough to edit config files, etc, for a server for 10-100 people... but when you're talking about firmwide/production usage with thousands of users (and batch migrations, and failover, etc) having a db at the backend becomes really important.
Besides my xdb troubles, though, I was pretty impressed by the system. The clients aren't the best, but the protocols looked like they had some serious promise....
Best of luck to those tackling xdb, though!
I guess you just have to think of it in terms of cost-structures, and not arch. For them, it's a different breed of horse, money-wise, and that's what matters.
Wall street pumps around an enormous amount of data (tick history from the markets, all sorts of execution statments, backend clearing, etc). Not only does this stuff need to be moved around, but a lot of things need to be computed in real time. How much is a stock option worth? volatility? Better bust out the black-scholes equation and work it out. What is the risk of my portfolio? Answering that type of question takes a huge amount of processing. For wall street firms (trading firms), execution speed and depth of analysis are what makes money.
For these types of things, I think companies might find it cheaper to use linux than normal UNIX. Computation, number crunching. I doubt anybody'd start messing around with the email infrastructure (if it works, then don't mess with it), but computational requirements are always growing, and instead of buying sun boxes, compaq/dell linux looks mighty atractive.
Did you know that tibet is a strategic land/good national border?
I'm not a big "free tibet" guy, but remember, in 1959 China was still in the throes of continuing the revolution -- the great leap forward, and all that jazz (~10-30 million dead from famine?). After that, the Cultural Revolution wasn't a great thing to be a part of either (although tibet was supposedly affected much less than the rest of China). I can see how they might be a bit bitter --
Empires rise and fall, grow and contract. I tend to look at China somewhat like Europe (a consolidated mass of cultures, some very different than each other). Chinese nationalism (as in "weida de zhonghua minzu") is a bit of a joke as well -- what to tibetans have in common with Uighers? Hainan people with Anhui people? Beijing with Guangzhou?
Can you come around to all the computers at my office and install it? That's where the real cost comes in. Things like that take lots of money, and are usually a pain in the ass (something might break, people might need to use their computer, might be union issues, etc).
I took a class from UC Berkeley online, and it was a pretty unexciting experience (especially after having attended the school for 5 years). Organization is poorer, inter-class interaction is a joke (perhaps because there are only so many people at the same time/same place in an online class, where normal classes have everyone in lockstep).
re: the need for a degree at all --
I graduated with a degree in Chinese literature (minor in CS), and I had no problems getting offers from selective companies (for very technical positions). You're much more than your IT skills -- you might want to round yourself out (you'll have IT jobs on the side, or during summer) or learn about something new. The money/career will probably be there when you're done, if that's what you're looking for.
Don't sell yourself short, and remember to keep your head about you -- it's not all about money.
It always cracks me up when people say "Yeah, this looks like a nice little computer to run as a server" or whatever. The size of the computer means nothing! and in this case, you might be better off with a gateway without TV out, etc...
I'm a Chinese major (CS minor) and I'm on "Wall Street" (and Canary Wharf) doing computer programming, as well (risk, althought I betcha yours is much more quant). Granted, I just started off -- we'll see how I do -- but from my experience you can get into almost anything you want if you're interested and if you work at it.
A chunk of advice for all those still in college -- study abroad if you get the chance. Studying abroad really helped me broaden myself out, and I don't think I'll ever forget the experiences I had overseas. You can do it and graduate, even if you're a science major, or you have loans, or you have met this wonderful girl and she's really the one and you're 20. If you're interested, go! Don't make excuses for yourself, everything else will work itself out.
to suit my needs really well. (usually better than Addall.com).
Bookfinder searches a bunch of other sites, and then gives you a bit list of new and used prices... Now, I buy most all of my older books used, both for cost, as well as environmental reasons.
You might want to migrate your systems sometime, right? What about companies switching from SunOS to linux? or Irix to NT? What we have today might not be around forever.
Slashdot Mirror
This leads to situations where companies that are actually making money in China (precious few) can't repatriate the earnings to the mother ship -- they have to invest it in the local economy, or stick it in the stock-market casinos.
It's too bad for you that your story didn't get picked,etc. I've had a few turned down, as well...
On the other hand, I've got a feeling that oftentimes they get a whole shitload of duplicate submissions, and it is only by getting more than submission of the same article that they realize that people find it important. In this case, it makes sense to take an article that isn't immediately newsworthy (this is not a huge thing) and wait and see how many article submissions "vote" for it.
It's too bad for you, but hey -- maybe the system works after all.
Yeah, this guy must be one of those "rich dad poor dad" people or something -- that guy says cars aren't assets because you've got to pay for upkeep, etc.
It's an interesting point, but in finance, a car is asset.
Actually, I'm quite curious -- what do you guys need that monster machine for. You don't have to give away everything, but I can't really imagine too many uses for something that heavy. (esp. that couldn't be done with a more distributed architecture)
I realize that there's a chance that the technology might not happen, but it's relatively logical to think that people will still be dealing with radiation in the future (it'll probably be even more significant).
Who knows, maybe civilization will take a dive backwards, and we'll forget our tech,etc. Even then, though, there's a chance that a nuke was involved somewhere (and that would keep the idea of radiation in the civilization?).
I guess the last thing is, if people at a particular point in time don't have the tech to read the signs we put up, then they probably won't know about radiation, either... Then, if the place were not really interestingly marked, people who randomly decided to settle there would just die relatively quickly, and "the valley of death" would soon be discovered for what it was. If, however, it was something interesting, then people might not notice the connection between the people dying around them while they're exploring/bringing back objects from the place.
Apologies for the randomness of these thoughts --
classmate from cs160.
I agree. It's funny how a few days back everyone was laughing at the failed AS/400, but today everyone's talking about ditching vendors.
I was just reading one guy's travelogue about his time in China, and I was amazed at how little he understood. Sure, he saw some local people and ate some local food, but you can do that and still understand little about your environment. When you've got a job, more-than-aquantainces-friends, and deal with one area for an extending amount of time, lots of the nuances of the culture unfold before your eyes.
For those that teach English in foreign countries, I recommend you guys get out as much as possible, and have local friends from varying social strata, not just other foreign friends. Living in expat-society is a bit unnatural, and if you don't break free or mingle, you'll never see the country you've come to see (even though you'll probably meet some nice Australians and Americans, and that British guy with the local wife and lots of locals who don't like their home country, etc).
Rambling, sorry.
On day 2, it might be intro to X, telnet, ssh, ftp (if they don't know how to do it manually).
Personally, I think all of the other stuff is candy (Jpilot?). Maybe you can spend 1 hour showing them this stuff (like "Look at this, isn't it special?"), but I'd stick to the basics, the parts where unix really excels, instead of trying to show unix as the newest version of windows.
Yeah.
Check it out -- AFS is good for corporations/etc, but Oceanstore is somewhat viable for _everything_.
Because the XML is extendable, it's a pain in the ass to place inside a "useful" database (i.e. queryable for the extensions). My team and I looked at the docs for quite a while, but the message flow (and the configuration to send the xdb packets over from the "main" jabber server to the xdb server) was very unclear. A lot of my time was spent comparing log files and making very minor changes in XML structures.
There's a java xdb out there that I ended up hacking with to make my stuff almost work, but it was rough going, too. I think the real technical problem (besides coping with Jabber's formats, etc) is difficult -- mapping XML queries ->SQL queries, XML->relational format, and relational format->XML are all very difficult operations, with no real proven way to work with yet.
It does seem like xdb is the great missing point in the OS version of jabber -- perhaps that's on purpose to encourage large users to go for the commercial version. It's easy enough to edit config files, etc, for a server for 10-100 people... but when you're talking about firmwide/production usage with thousands of users (and batch migrations, and failover, etc) having a db at the backend becomes really important.
Besides my xdb troubles, though, I was pretty impressed by the system. The clients aren't the best, but the protocols looked like they had some serious promise....
Best of luck to those tackling xdb, though!
willis.
I guess you just have to think of it in terms of cost-structures, and not arch. For them, it's a different breed of horse, money-wise, and that's what matters.
For these types of things, I think companies might find it cheaper to use linux than normal UNIX. Computation, number crunching. I doubt anybody'd start messing around with the email infrastructure (if it works, then don't mess with it), but computational requirements are always growing, and instead of buying sun boxes, compaq/dell linux looks mighty atractive.
I'm not a big "free tibet" guy, but remember, in 1959 China was still in the throes of continuing the revolution -- the great leap forward, and all that jazz (~10-30 million dead from famine?). After that, the Cultural Revolution wasn't a great thing to be a part of either (although tibet was supposedly affected much less than the rest of China). I can see how they might be a bit bitter --
Empires rise and fall, grow and contract. I tend to look at China somewhat like Europe (a consolidated mass of cultures, some very different than each other). Chinese nationalism (as in "weida de zhonghua minzu") is a bit of a joke as well -- what to tibetans have in common with Uighers? Hainan people with Anhui people? Beijing with Guangzhou?
I'm rambling -- excuse me.
re: the need for a degree at all --
I graduated with a degree in Chinese literature (minor in CS), and I had no problems getting offers from selective companies (for very technical positions). You're much more than your IT skills -- you might want to round yourself out (you'll have IT jobs on the side, or during summer) or learn about something new. The money/career will probably be there when you're done, if that's what you're looking for.
Don't sell yourself short, and remember to keep your head about you -- it's not all about money.
I guess people will be people.
A chunk of advice for all those still in college -- study abroad if you get the chance. Studying abroad really helped me broaden myself out, and I don't think I'll ever forget the experiences I had overseas. You can do it and graduate, even if you're a science major, or you have loans, or you have met this wonderful girl and she's really the one and you're 20. If you're interested, go! Don't make excuses for yourself, everything else will work itself out.
cheers-
willis/
Bookfinder.com
to suit my needs really well. (usually better than Addall.com).
Bookfinder searches a bunch of other sites, and then gives you a bit list of new and used prices... Now, I buy most all of my older books used, both for cost, as well as environmental reasons.
Hey there,
I'm a Chinese/Computer Science "fresh grad". I'm curious how one can get a job like yours -- any tips? Please email shoney at alum.calberkeley.org
Thanks!
scott/