Re:I don't mind the wait if it's done right...
on
Breaking the Visa Backlog
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· Score: 2, Informative
One way to reduce the backlog would be to shoot the monkey who designed the forms and processes, and hire someone with half of a brain. Perhaps they tried, but the only candidate they had needed an H1B candidate and gave up.
A few of my favourite questions from the application forms...
List all countries you have visited in the last 10 years, and the date of the visit. Followed by a box about 1.5 inches by 0.25 inches - enough space to write 'see attached page'
Do you have any special skills, eg nuclear or biological. Is this a trick question? By definition, to be applying for an H1B, I MUST have special skills - you have my resume. Do I know how to make a nuclear bomb? no, my special skills are in different areas.
Are you a nazi war criminal? (paraphrased but only refers to Nazi war criminals, not others). I would suggest that very few H1B candidates were born early enough to be able to have been Nazi war criminals, why bother asking the question? If you get a 90 year old German applying for an H1B, ask him at the interview, asking 30 year olds this is a waste of time.
If the forms are this bad, I would hate to think what they backend processes are like. All government forms are bad, it is one of those universal rules, but INS forms have to rank up there as some of the worst in the world.
The US has the most expensive health care system. This does not mean the best. Only in one developed nation is the top cause of personal bankruptcies healthcare costs. I will let you guess which one it is.
Americans like to eat...bad food... Anyone who claims that the French do not like to eat lives under a rock. They just feel quality is a little more important.
If you had ever been to France, you would notice that they smoke too. Everywhere, all the time. Compared to most of Europe, the US is a non-smokers paradise.
Unless you have actually got out of the country and looked at how things work in other countries, stop claiming your system is the best, it just makes you look like an idiot.
This reminds me of a comment regarding aircraft autopilots and removing humans entirely from the cockpit.
Because a computer is never distracted, never breaks up under stress or extreme workload, or forgets the emergency procedures or have a sudden burst of excess ego, then it is much less likely to crash into the side of a hill while attempting to fix a different minnor problem (actual example). It is however much more likely to have a random bug which causes the plane to fall out of the sky in perfect weather. We would rather have 10 pilot caused accidents a year than one computer caused one. We also don't like to admit it, but a significant number of fatal air accidents are simply caused by the pilots messing up under stress.
People accept the first accident as it is human. The second is unforgiveable, as it could have been prevented simply by putting pilot in a uniform in the front seat. Of course this ignores that the fact that a pilot, by virtue of being human, would cause 10 accidents for the one they save.
No, I am not claiming that our computer controls are to the point where pilots could be replaced today, but they will be eventually.
The threads in this discussion illustrate this point:
A guy I knew found the ABS exception on gravel and his garage door completely ignoring the fact that different cars stop in different distances - if you trade from a Porsche to a Buick the latter may be expected to stop a little slower, and prudence would suggest testing the party trick with the garage door up first.
(Still don't trust ABS since I hit that deer.) The machine did not avoid an incident, therefore the machine must be in error, a human would have avoided it.
Some lady slowed to a stop without her tail lights working, so I noticed it at the last moment. I deliberately fish tailed my car, and I was about a foot from her rear bumper. If I had ABS or anti-fishtailing, I would have been in an accident. As I managed to avoid an accident without the use of ABS, ABS would have resulted in an accident. ABS allows you to retain steering ability while breaking very heavily - sounds like it would have been useful here.
BTW, your comment about a human driver being more likely to notice a deer on the side of the road assumes a competent, attentive driver with no distractions. I would like to live where you do, because the ones round here certainly ain't like that (except me of course!)
Chronoswiss Opus. Yes, pricey, but to see all of the bits inside moving is a joy appreciated by few.
Seriously though, if you are wanting to do the watch geek thing you MUST get at least one automatic. Digital watches are just not the same. Listen to the difference in the sound, that will tell you. Digital watches are quality manufacturing. Automatics are engineering. There is plenty to geek about with automatics if you want to. If not, might as well stop reading now.
A few points to note: 1/ Don't buy a cruddy automatic like you see advertised in the magazines planes. Closeup they look like they are worth 1/2 what you paid for them. Instead go for a solid brand that been around a while (even if you have never heard of it). 2/ Don't be afraid to buy second hand. Mechanical/automatic watches are engineered to last. To have a watch that can be passed down a generation doesn't take a 2nd mortgage. I bought my everyday watch used about 10 years ago. It still looks great, and has a classic design which hasn't dated. 3/ To get a very solid & lasting watch you don't need to buy a Rolex or Omega. Other brands have equivalent quality at a fraction of the price. 4/ You can often get substantial discounts from grey market dealers on the web. Nothing shady, but you may not get the full manufacturers warranty. 5/ If you get an automatic, buy a winder. Otherwise your watch will be stopped all of the time, and you will not end up wearing it as ofen as you should.
I only wear a quartz when I am going somewhere I am likely to hurt my automatic or be hurt for it. Other times I rotate through a couple.
I think the major thing holding back Linux from the desktop is hardware support.
A Google OS (or any new OS) is going to be a very hard sell... I also think that the new OS deal is a hard sell. Joe 6pack does not know or care what OS is on his machine, and there is no way that he is going to change it. J6: "You are asking me to repaint my car & change some of the controls around, and then my scanner won't work any more?" Geek: "Yes" J6: "Why would I?" Geek: "Because then it would be more secure" J6: "Secure?, will my camera still work?" Geek: "Maybe" J6: "Can I still run my favourite program X?" Geek: "No, you will have to find and learn something else" J6: "No thanks - if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Now when purchasing a computer Joe 6 pack is faced with 2 choices: Windows - costs slightly more, runs everything albeit slighty erratically at times, can plug any consumer device into it Google - slightly cheaper, sketchy device support, all different programs to learn (even if they are free), claims to be more secure.
The other question that you need to look at is WHY does google want to release it's own OS. 1/ To spend a lot of money to piss off Microsoft 2/ To increase the number of ads that Google can serve users & therefore increase revenue
1, while probably quite appealing, can be acheived more cheaply by Sergei walking up to Bill the next time they are both at some event and kneeing him in the bollocks. 2 is why Google is in business. This implies that GoogleOS will want constant internet connection in order to serve those ads. What does this imply for laptop & dial up users? More importantly what does this mean for your data?
You currently trust all of your searches to an advertising company. Would you REALLY trust all of your data to an advertising company? Would you trust your companies data? I wouldn't.
Four accounts? Bah, amateur. I have four as well. In three countries.
Sometimes it appears that the bank security people do not realise that I am not their ideal customer, who makes simple transactions with them only, from the comfort of my home.
To me (I am from New Zealand, lived in the UK for a while, now the US - no it is not THAT uncommon), the advantage of online banking is that I can access my money from ANYWHERE. When I am in Slovenia and need to transfer some cash from my savings account to my current account to continue with my trip I can do it. All I need to do is find an internet cafe & go. If their system cannot do that, it locks me out of my money.
Current security on my NZ account will text me a pass code for transactions over a certain amount. Wonderful if it works, which requires a/ you to have a cellphone & b/ it works. b/ cannot be taken for granted (thanks US for having cellphones which don't work outside the bloody country).
The key fob will work everywhere, until you lose it, break it, leave it behind, or get sick of having to carry around a small backpack to hold them all. I think I will pass. I will not go into the implications for blind people & others who may not fit the 'normal' box.
Some people have suggested plug in USB devices - will it support Linux. In Slovenia? In an internet cafe? If it doesn't, you may be stranding me without access to my money somewhere far away, and that REALLY pisses me off.
Of course security is good. But it comes at a cost, more is not necessarily better. You only have 1 lock on your car? But two would be better, or 10! If the cost of using the security is greater than the reasonable probablity of loss, then do without it.
Lloyds - A for effort, C for results - next please.
If the banks are serious about reducing fraud, then they should look to their own actions. Wells Fargo regularly sends me an email with a whole lot of useless shit about the offerings that their marketing drones decide need to be pushed at the moment. Complete in fugly HTML glory, AND A LINK TO LOG ON TO MY ACCOUNT! It is effectively indistingishable from the phising emails, except it is real. I would like to see the liability suits from that one "But Wells Fargo always sends me emails that look like that, how was I to know this one was from a bad man".
Slashdot Mirror
After all, it isn't just for breakfast any more.
One way to reduce the backlog would be to shoot the monkey who designed the forms and processes, and hire someone with half of a brain. Perhaps they tried, but the only candidate they had needed an H1B candidate and gave up. A few of my favourite questions from the application forms... List all countries you have visited in the last 10 years, and the date of the visit. Followed by a box about 1.5 inches by 0.25 inches - enough space to write 'see attached page' Do you have any special skills, eg nuclear or biological. Is this a trick question? By definition, to be applying for an H1B, I MUST have special skills - you have my resume. Do I know how to make a nuclear bomb? no, my special skills are in different areas. Are you a nazi war criminal? (paraphrased but only refers to Nazi war criminals, not others). I would suggest that very few H1B candidates were born early enough to be able to have been Nazi war criminals, why bother asking the question? If you get a 90 year old German applying for an H1B, ask him at the interview, asking 30 year olds this is a waste of time. If the forms are this bad, I would hate to think what they backend processes are like. All government forms are bad, it is one of those universal rules, but INS forms have to rank up there as some of the worst in the world.
Almost...
The US has the most expensive health care system. This does not mean the best. Only in one developed nation is the top cause of personal bankruptcies healthcare costs. I will let you guess which one it is.
Americans like to eat...bad food... Anyone who claims that the French do not like to eat lives under a rock. They just feel quality is a little more important.
If you had ever been to France, you would notice that they smoke too. Everywhere, all the time. Compared to most of Europe, the US is a non-smokers paradise.
Unless you have actually got out of the country and looked at how things work in other countries, stop claiming your system is the best, it just makes you look like an idiot.
This reminds me of a comment regarding aircraft autopilots and removing humans entirely from the cockpit.
Because a computer is never distracted, never breaks up under stress or extreme workload, or forgets the emergency procedures or have a sudden burst of excess ego, then it is much less likely to crash into the side of a hill while attempting to fix a different minnor problem (actual example). It is however much more likely to have a random bug which causes the plane to fall out of the sky in perfect weather. We would rather have 10 pilot caused accidents a year than one computer caused one. We also don't like to admit it, but a significant number of fatal air accidents are simply caused by the pilots messing up under stress.
People accept the first accident as it is human. The second is unforgiveable, as it could have been prevented simply by putting pilot in a uniform in the front seat. Of course this ignores that the fact that a pilot, by virtue of being human, would cause 10 accidents for the one they save.
No, I am not claiming that our computer controls are to the point where pilots could be replaced today, but they will be eventually.
The threads in this discussion illustrate this point:
A guy I knew found the ABS exception on gravel and his garage door completely ignoring the fact that different cars stop in different distances - if you trade from a Porsche to a Buick the latter may be expected to stop a little slower, and prudence would suggest testing the party trick with the garage door up first.
(Still don't trust ABS since I hit that deer.) The machine did not avoid an incident, therefore the machine must be in error, a human would have avoided it.
Some lady slowed to a stop without her tail lights working, so I noticed it at the last moment. I deliberately fish tailed my car, and I was about a foot from her rear bumper. If I had ABS or anti-fishtailing, I would have been in an accident. As I managed to avoid an accident without the use of ABS, ABS would have resulted in an accident. ABS allows you to retain steering ability while breaking very heavily - sounds like it would have been useful here.
BTW, your comment about a human driver being more likely to notice a deer on the side of the road assumes a competent, attentive driver with no distractions. I would like to live where you do, because the ones round here certainly ain't like that (except me of course!)
$2K is a lot of coin. You can save some serious money by checking out www.lasikathome.com
Best money I ever spent. Just don't blink.
Mostly agree, but a few points...
Chronoswiss Opus.
Yes, pricey, but to see all of the bits inside moving is a joy appreciated by few.
Seriously though, if you are wanting to do the watch geek thing you MUST get at least one automatic. Digital watches are just not the same. Listen to the difference in the sound, that will tell you. Digital watches are quality manufacturing. Automatics are engineering. There is plenty to geek about with automatics if you want to. If not, might as well stop reading now.
A few points to note:
1/ Don't buy a cruddy automatic like you see advertised in the magazines planes. Closeup they look like they are worth 1/2 what you paid for them. Instead go for a solid brand that been around a while (even if you have never heard of it).
2/ Don't be afraid to buy second hand. Mechanical/automatic watches are engineered to last. To have a watch that can be passed down a generation doesn't take a 2nd mortgage. I bought my everyday watch used about 10 years ago. It still looks great, and has a classic design which hasn't dated.
3/ To get a very solid & lasting watch you don't need to buy a Rolex or Omega. Other brands have equivalent quality at a fraction of the price.
4/ You can often get substantial discounts from grey market dealers on the web. Nothing shady, but you may not get the full manufacturers warranty.
5/ If you get an automatic, buy a winder. Otherwise your watch will be stopped all of the time, and you will not end up wearing it as ofen as you should.
I only wear a quartz when I am going somewhere I am likely to hurt my automatic or be hurt for it. Other times I rotate through a couple.
Enjoy what you buy
I think the major thing holding back Linux from the desktop is hardware support.
A Google OS (or any new OS) is going to be a very hard sell...
I also think that the new OS deal is a hard sell. Joe 6pack does not know or care what OS is on his machine, and there is no way that he is going to change it.
J6: "You are asking me to repaint my car & change some of the controls around, and then my scanner won't work any more?"
Geek: "Yes"
J6: "Why would I?"
Geek: "Because then it would be more secure"
J6: "Secure?, will my camera still work?"
Geek: "Maybe"
J6: "Can I still run my favourite program X?"
Geek: "No, you will have to find and learn something else"
J6: "No thanks - if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Now when purchasing a computer Joe 6 pack is faced with 2 choices:
Windows - costs slightly more, runs everything albeit slighty erratically at times, can plug any consumer device into it
Google - slightly cheaper, sketchy device support, all different programs to learn (even if they are free), claims to be more secure.
The other question that you need to look at is WHY does google want to release it's own OS.
1/ To spend a lot of money to piss off Microsoft
2/ To increase the number of ads that Google can serve users & therefore increase revenue
1, while probably quite appealing, can be acheived more cheaply by Sergei walking up to Bill the next time they are both at some event and kneeing him in the bollocks.
2 is why Google is in business. This implies that GoogleOS will want constant internet connection in order to serve those ads. What does this imply for laptop & dial up users? More importantly what does this mean for your data?
You currently trust all of your searches to an advertising company. Would you REALLY trust all of your data to an advertising company? Would you trust your companies data? I wouldn't.
Four accounts? Bah, amateur. I have four as well. In three countries.
Sometimes it appears that the bank security people do not realise that I am not their ideal customer, who makes simple transactions with them only, from the comfort of my home.
To me (I am from New Zealand, lived in the UK for a while, now the US - no it is not THAT uncommon), the advantage of online banking is that I can access my money from ANYWHERE. When I am in Slovenia and need to transfer some cash from my savings account to my current account to continue with my trip I can do it. All I need to do is find an internet cafe & go. If their system cannot do that, it locks me out of my money.
Current security on my NZ account will text me a pass code for transactions over a certain amount. Wonderful if it works, which requires a/ you to have a cellphone & b/ it works. b/ cannot be taken for granted (thanks US for having cellphones which don't work outside the bloody country).
The key fob will work everywhere, until you lose it, break it, leave it behind, or get sick of having to carry around a small backpack to hold them all. I think I will pass. I will not go into the implications for blind people & others who may not fit the 'normal' box.
Some people have suggested plug in USB devices - will it support Linux. In Slovenia? In an internet cafe? If it doesn't, you may be stranding me without access to my money somewhere far away, and that REALLY pisses me off.
Of course security is good. But it comes at a cost, more is not necessarily better. You only have 1 lock on your car? But two would be better, or 10! If the cost of using the security is greater than the reasonable probablity of loss, then do without it.
Lloyds - A for effort, C for results - next please.
If the banks are serious about reducing fraud, then they should look to their own actions. Wells Fargo regularly sends me an email with a whole lot of useless shit about the offerings that their marketing drones decide need to be pushed at the moment. Complete in fugly HTML glory, AND A LINK TO LOG ON TO MY ACCOUNT! It is effectively indistingishable from the phising emails, except it is real. I would like to see the liability suits from that one "But Wells Fargo always sends me emails that look like that, how was I to know this one was from a bad man".