Unless of course you graduate during a tech recession, as I did in 2002 (BSEE from UT Austin). Then you A. change careers B. put off real life in grad school C. Take whatever technical jobs come your way (what I did). Consequently, from my less than rosy experience, I am a complete mercenary.
Unlike the other response, I see the value in what you are saying. Personally, I am an EE not a CS guy, so now that I have been thrust in to software engineer, spending time learning things like data structures, OS concepts, algorithm development,optimization, etc, would be more valuable than learning another language. These concepts are widely applicable.
I'm curious about your nickname.. I read it, and I thought it looks like "I'm kow".. Which is like "wo kao"... Which is what I said when I stepped into something interesting in the streets of Beijing...:)
Before I read the article, I guessed the real reason is elitism.. Technology savvy people want to use technology in such a way so as to set ourselves apart from people who need their hands held. But, alas, I am wrong. Using Linux is simply fun.
I went to a Catholic hs in Fort Worth, Texas, and evolution was taught, so your broad assertion is false. If you had stated that creationism was largely perpetuated by southern evangelicals, that would have some weight.
I'm pretty much in the same boat, though I have been out of school for 5 years. I do have some embedded experience under my belt, but typically companies need somebody with 10 years of experience. The biggest problem I have seen is that companies with a need for embedded people are totally unwilling to invest in budding embedded engineers. So, here I am writing Labview code for a living and coding for Pics and ARM7s in my spare time.
I would venture a guess that they were shy because of their crappy English. They probably studied their asses off for the Toefl and barely scored the minimum for graduate study. I'm an engineer, and I was quite shy while living in China 'cause my Mandarin sucks. The poster in my room in China was of the Olsen twins:D
Truly, if one has the masochistic desire to experience cringe-worthy job requirements, go to rentacoder. You too can develop code for $50 that would otherwise be worth thousands of dollars. A few years ago, I thought I would join and make some extra cash.. But it turned out to be an opportunity to troll assholes trying to get something for nothing.
Some projects I recall off the top of my head: -Write software that will take in a.wav and convert it to a midi ring tone. Guy in India wants it done for $50-ish dollars. I've written something similar in Matlab, so I know how freaking non-trivial it is. - Create a solid state disk drive for somebody's extra RAM. Willing to pay $300. Har har. I, ahem, told them I could make a prototype for $50k, plus the cost of Xilinx tools.
I've done bits of consulting, and doing projects for small, clueless companies is by far the worst job you can do as an engineer. They are technically clueless, don't understand that engineering costs money and want it done yesterday. Rentacoder and its ilk only magnify these problems, because they troll for technical people who will work for relatively nothing.
Recently, I offered to hire myself out as an embedded systems engineer at $60 an hour, and that is pretty much whoring myself out compared to what other people charge for consulting, but the Indian dude who wanted to hire me only wanted to pay $20 an hour. F off.
All I can say is, if these site works for somebody, good for them. I have bigger fish to fry. It's quite hard for me to see how this attracts any real talented people.
I worked at a small company here in Dallas, TX that made manufacturing equipment that goes into bi-stable lcd assembly lines. That was five years ago. So, as with many products of this type (Ipod), the marketing hype has caught up with the technology.
Furthermore.. I'd be surprised if there is a big market for an ebook reader these days with cheap laptops everywhere or PDAs. My Palm IIIe was able to read text files just fine with great battery life. So.. Where is the benefit to the consumer? Will Amazon distribute digital copies of their books to Kindle for a cheaper price? Will Kindle do much else besides read books?
I remember back in the day, circa '00, I remember seeing Malda's salary publicly stated as about $90K... I'm not sure which is more frightening, that I remember such minutiae instead the Taylor series for e^x or that I still read slashdot.:P
Agreed. Every international flight I had in to and out of Shanghai was at some god-awful hour, and guess what? The train shuts down at 6pm. Useless. Which is a shame because my girlfriend's old apartment was just across the street from the terminal.
I've been wondering where to find used recent versions of software. Anyone know of an auction site that caters to this niche? Maybe such a site needs to be created... Biz opportunity!
Technically speaking yes, but those personal relationships are used for personal gain, right? There is usually some economic incentive, even if it is bartering or job referrels.
I would say that all the mainland Chinese I talked to see Taiwan as part of China. Chinese people are barraged with one view on the topic through all their media, and I suppose even intelligent thought can be worn down that way. If you engage them in an argument, they tell you that Taiwan has been a part of China for thousands of years (they say the same thing about Tibet). It is a matter of national pride to the Communist party, because they did not decisively win the war for total control of China. Therefore, they have spun the argument that Taiwan has always been a part of China, Taiwanese are Chinese and that the Taiwanese people want to reunified with China but their government is run by extremists or somesuch. Most mainland Chinese cannot form an informed opinion on the matter, because their travel to Taiwan is restricted. And if they can travel to Taiwan, it has to be done through tour groups.
That the USA figures into the picture annoys some Chinese. Our military presence in Asia is a deterrent to invasion of Taiwan, so our presence is seen as meddling in their internal affairs.
Taiwan is a biggie. China sees Taiwan as a rogue province, and mainland Chinese people are acutely aware that the USA does not, ahem, see eye to eye with Beijing on the matter. I've traveled to Taiwan and lived in the mainland, and I frankly got sick of talking about it. They have their propaganda, the Taiwanese have theirs, and we have ours(USA). The question of independence is a matter of national pride in China and Taiwan...Basically an extension China's most recent civil war.
Nothing happened to me when I talked about Taiwan. People were curious to know what I though. I expressed myself tactfully. Usually they stfu'd after I told them I had been to Taiwan, and people there use their own laws, currency, etc etc.
Now if I had gone on national tv in china (it is ridiculously easy these days for a westerner who speaks chinese) and called for Taiwan independence, well.. Maybe I would have been asked to leave... If I was Chinese, the result might be different- jail.:P
Did you hear clicking noises on your phone while in China, too?:D
Regarding the Chinese system of business relationships, it is called guanxi. I term it a euphemism for corruption. But hey, Chinese culture is 5000 years old, or so they claim, and things do not change swiftly there.
Regarding discretion of speech, some of my chinese friends were not afraid to says "fuck the communist party" in front of other chinese. It is not a big deal anymore. Just don't say something dumb on live tv or make yourself a big target.
The government will become interested if you try to foment an insurrection and challenge their power. Small scale chit chat probably does not register a blip on their radar these days. Now that we are in the 21st century, I assume that all communication is monitored, no matter where you are. Email is sent in plain text, IM in plain text as well, etc etc.
As to the Beijing olympics... I think the government's main problem at the moment is smog. A clear blue sky is a rarity there these days, and this does not create the best impression of the city. I *loved* living in Beijing, but the air quality is terrible.
It was not blocked when I was in Shanghai three weeks ago.. Though Wikipedia was blocked for most of my year in china from August 2005 to August 2006. So annoying...
Slashdot Mirror
Alternatively, you could develop Yellow Fever in college like I did.. There are some Asian hotties in engineering :D
Unless of course you graduate during a tech recession, as I did in 2002 (BSEE from UT Austin). Then you A. change careers B. put off real life in grad school C. Take whatever technical jobs come your way (what I did). Consequently, from my less than rosy experience, I am a complete mercenary.
Unlike the other response, I see the value in what you are saying. Personally, I am an EE not a CS guy, so now that I have been thrust in to software engineer, spending time learning things like data structures, OS concepts, algorithm development,optimization, etc, would be more valuable than learning another language. These concepts are widely applicable.
Hen gao xing ren shi ni, wo hao peng you.
:)
I'm curious about your nickname.. I read it, and I thought it looks like "I'm kow".. Which is like "wo kao"... Which is what I said when I stepped into something interesting in the streets of Beijing...
Before I read the article, I guessed the real reason is elitism.. Technology savvy people want to use technology in such a way so as to set ourselves apart from people who need their hands held. But, alas, I am wrong. Using Linux is simply fun.
I went to a Catholic hs in Fort Worth, Texas, and evolution was taught, so your broad assertion is false. If you had stated that creationism was largely perpetuated by southern evangelicals, that would have some weight.
Name a country where a fair, balanced perspective of history is taught in high school. Your country perhaps?
Step 1: I bought an iphone in Dallas, TX.
Step 2: I sent it via US mail to my friend in Shanghai.
Neato, eh?
I'm pretty much in the same boat, though I have been out of school for 5 years. I do have some embedded experience under my belt, but typically companies need somebody with 10 years of experience. The biggest problem I have seen is that companies with a need for embedded people are totally unwilling to invest in budding embedded engineers. So, here I am writing Labview code for a living and coding for Pics and ARM7s in my spare time.
I would venture a guess that they were shy because of their crappy English. They probably studied their asses off for the Toefl and barely scored the minimum for graduate study. I'm an engineer, and I was quite shy while living in China 'cause my Mandarin sucks. The poster in my room in China was of the Olsen twins :D
Hmm, yeah. Good one. I remember Slashdot started using userids sometime around 99.
Truly, if one has the masochistic desire to experience cringe-worthy job requirements, go to rentacoder. You too can develop code for $50 that would otherwise be worth thousands of dollars. A few years ago, I thought I would join and make some extra cash.. But it turned out to be an opportunity to troll assholes trying to get something for nothing.
.wav and convert it to a midi ring tone. Guy in India wants it done for $50-ish dollars. I've written something similar in Matlab, so I know how freaking non-trivial it is.
Some projects I recall off the top of my head:
-Write software that will take in a
- Create a solid state disk drive for somebody's extra RAM. Willing to pay $300. Har har. I, ahem, told them I could make a prototype for $50k, plus the cost of Xilinx tools.
I've done bits of consulting, and doing projects for small, clueless companies is by far the worst job you can do as an engineer. They are technically clueless, don't understand that engineering costs money and want it done yesterday. Rentacoder and its ilk only magnify these problems, because they troll for technical people who will work for relatively nothing.
Recently, I offered to hire myself out as an embedded systems engineer at $60 an hour, and that is pretty much whoring myself out compared to what other people charge for consulting, but the Indian dude who wanted to hire me only wanted to pay $20 an hour. F off.
All I can say is, if these site works for somebody, good for them. I have bigger fish to fry. It's quite hard for me to see how this attracts any real talented people.
I worked at a small company here in Dallas, TX that made manufacturing equipment that goes into bi-stable lcd assembly lines. That was five years ago. So, as with many products of this type (Ipod), the marketing hype has caught up with the technology.
Furthermore.. I'd be surprised if there is a big market for an ebook reader these days with cheap laptops everywhere or PDAs. My Palm IIIe was able to read text files just fine with great battery life. So.. Where is the benefit to the consumer? Will Amazon distribute digital copies of their books to Kindle for a cheaper price? Will Kindle do much else besides read books?
It should be "It's funny. Laugh"
Oh man, you beat me to the Aggie joke detail!
What is good enough for you, reel tape? :P
For reference, you might be able to dig up some public filings from the dot com days..
:P
For example: http://www.secinfo.com/dsvRx.52xn.htm
I remember back in the day, circa '00, I remember seeing Malda's salary publicly stated as about $90K... I'm not sure which is more frightening, that I remember such minutiae instead the Taylor series for e^x or that I still read slashdot.
Agreed. Every international flight I had in to and out of Shanghai was at some god-awful hour, and guess what? The train shuts down at 6pm. Useless. Which is a shame because my girlfriend's old apartment was just across the street from the terminal.
I've been wondering where to find used recent versions of software. Anyone know of an auction site that caters to this niche? Maybe such a site needs to be created... Biz opportunity!
Technically speaking yes, but those personal relationships are used for personal gain, right? There is usually some economic incentive, even if it is bartering or job referrels.
I would say that all the mainland Chinese I talked to see Taiwan as part of China. Chinese people are barraged with one view on the topic through all their media, and I suppose even intelligent thought can be worn down that way. If you engage them in an argument, they tell you that Taiwan has been a part of China for thousands of years (they say the same thing about Tibet). It is a matter of national pride to the Communist party, because they did not decisively win the war for total control of China. Therefore, they have spun the argument that Taiwan has always been a part of China, Taiwanese are Chinese and that the Taiwanese people want to reunified with China but their government is run by extremists or somesuch. Most mainland Chinese cannot form an informed opinion on the matter, because their travel to Taiwan is restricted. And if they can travel to Taiwan, it has to be done through tour groups.
That the USA figures into the picture annoys some Chinese. Our military presence in Asia is a deterrent to invasion of Taiwan, so our presence is seen as meddling in their internal affairs.
The last part is a bit silly. When have you ever had a slashdot post censored in china? :P
Taiwan is a biggie. China sees Taiwan as a rogue province, and mainland Chinese people are acutely aware that the USA does not, ahem, see eye to eye with Beijing on the matter. I've traveled to Taiwan and lived in the mainland, and I frankly got sick of talking about it. They have their propaganda, the Taiwanese have theirs, and we have ours(USA). The question of independence is a matter of national pride in China and Taiwan...Basically an extension China's most recent civil war.
:P
Nothing happened to me when I talked about Taiwan. People were curious to know what I though. I expressed myself tactfully. Usually they stfu'd after I told them I had been to Taiwan, and people there use their own laws, currency, etc etc.
Now if I had gone on national tv in china (it is ridiculously easy these days for a westerner who speaks chinese) and called for Taiwan independence, well.. Maybe I would have been asked to leave... If I was Chinese, the result might be different- jail.
Did you hear clicking noises on your phone while in China, too? :D
:)
Regarding the Chinese system of business relationships, it is called guanxi. I term it a euphemism for corruption. But hey, Chinese culture is 5000 years old, or so they claim, and things do not change swiftly there.
Regarding discretion of speech, some of my chinese friends were not afraid to says "fuck the communist party" in front of other chinese. It is not a big deal anymore. Just don't say something dumb on live tv or make yourself a big target.
The government will become interested if you try to foment an insurrection and challenge their power. Small scale chit chat probably does not register a blip on their radar these days. Now that we are in the 21st century, I assume that all communication is monitored, no matter where you are. Email is sent in plain text, IM in plain text as well, etc etc.
As to the Beijing olympics... I think the government's main problem at the moment is smog. A clear blue sky is a rarity there these days, and this does not create the best impression of the city. I *loved* living in Beijing, but the air quality is terrible.
Hope you enjoyed Beijing!
It was not blocked when I was in Shanghai three weeks ago..
Though Wikipedia was blocked for most of my year in china from August 2005 to August 2006. So annoying...