CodeSheikh

If you are a decent software developer there is a guaranteed job for you, unless you code in COBOL or FORTRAN. Heck, people are jumping ships and we hire people from English or Humanities background who go and do 6 months intensive coding boot camps. Wake up and go find opportunities for yourself. Jobs don't come to you. Get yourself out there and be known. Put your hobby projects on Github. Attend Meetups and network with people. People hire a lot at tech meetups.

"..the company can’t prevent the departure of Americans.." this is part of the problem. I have seen people (especially young ones) jumping ships in less than six months from startup to startup in SV because of the competitive market salary. Even though larger companies can take this hit but for a startup of <10 employees this can prove to be very detrimental. I agree that Indian consultancies have been abusing the H1B program for a while now, and even though American companies pay them same or actually more (consultant hourly rates are always on the higher end), these consultancies keep the lion share to themselves and pay minimum to the consultant. The problem is not just with immigrants (both educated from US colleges and brought in by the Indian consultancies) but also nomadic nature of young American tech labor. Should there be some sort of collateral such as one year contract? Probably not a welcoming idea in a free market of USA.

I am a bit confused about $130,000 limit. A $130,000 salary in NYC is way different than a small town in Mississippi. Should not it be regional average?

Yup this seals the deal for this proposal. If you are a student who obtains a degree at a USA college and if you can find a competitive job then "Welcome to the USA". So basically as a foreigner you have to be an above average student.

How is this to your advantage? Are you having hard time securing a full-time dev job with a US tech company? Last time I checked, there was more demand and shortage of supply for smart programmers (I have been interviewing a lot). Do you happen to work in a region where there are less tech jobs?

Imagine living under the fear that your visa can be canceled the next business day and you have to leave US soon before you have enough time to make alternative plans. Especially when you are a newcomer in the USA, a overwhelmingly unknown land. If this happens, then you have I believe 30 days to find another company who is willing to sponsor you and then you have to go back to India to reapply for another H1-B visa with new employer. Also, your outsourcing company keep a close eye on you in terms of if you are job hunting, in some s=cases there is some sort of collateral kept backhome as well. Also, if you are an average skilled employee then you don't have much leverage to jump ships.

And don't solely rely on node.js as a backend. It can be a gateway to backend dev but not the best option out there.

Just because ACLU is late along with most of the communities and people in realizing things they could have done better that does not mean we need to question their every future step for the betterment of the society. Along with your positive critique, you can donate to them or any other org. of your choice and make sure your voice is heard. Oh btw ACLU was always active with whatever limited funds they had. . Please try researching on them.

Edit 1: Deleting unnecessary comment.

"Rights to the London treatment were sold to the biotech company Cellectis, and the treatment is now being further developed by the drug companies Servier and Pfizer."

And that's when it will get sunk into an abyss of bureaucratic processes and this treatment probably won't see sunlight for another ten years.

If their fear is true then it proves that they were wrong and abusing the H1-b system which many have raised fingers already.

How other schools will suffer? Endowments from rich parents? Being rich does not mean your kid is smart and these gifted schools should be very selective to whom they admit.

Hiring MBAs at tech companies as managers directly managing engineers has not proved to be effective. MBAs have traditionally worked in finance, oil and other Wall Street companies and everyone thought that bringing in MBAs to tech world (partially pushed by investors) would be a good idea. As with any new experiment, you just have to wait and let the time decide the results. And it has been few good years now since MBAs have flooded tech industry and as many like minded engineers have experienced, MBAs with no technical background are a bust as your decision making managers. Sure they can thrive at duties such as managing supply chain management of a large tech companies such as Apple or Amazon. Or dealing with international clients where your "prized" skills such as charisma, emotional intelligence and thinking on the feet matters.

A whole article on an actual phenomenon.

Allow me to explain in plain English. People born in 1981-1999 are getting older and moving out of cities. Thus reversing a trend that was never meant to be ever-increasing.

Long time coming! I use Google voice very often to make international calls (I was a Grand Central subscriber before Google acquired them). Their iOS app was just a design nightmare (ios 6 UI aesthetics). Functionality of the app was also limited. Setting section of the app was just passive, you can't change much and you have to login ona desktop version.

I am not going to lie but as a Google Voice customer for a long time, I am very disappointed with this update. It is just a design change and I hope they will roll out several new features slowly.

For example I still would like them to add a feature where I can add credit to my Google Voice account through the phone app.

Among the top three features they have listed as new in the blog post, I feel like that those functionalities already exist on the current iOs app. Lets see.

1: Easily check messages, calls and voicemail(s)

Already there. Using the same top left corner main menu.

2: Keep in touch with group messages

This already exists as well. You can start message threads with multiple people. Except the media support I guess.

3: Save time with transcribed voicemail

This feature is already available. In current version, go to Menu -> Voicemail and you will see transcribed messages in your inbox.

I am honestly very confused if this just a teaser in to what is about to become a major project within Google or just a marketing team being busy.

I am happy to work at a tech company where your BS can be easily surfaced using pure logic. If you can't code and don't do good coding or designing then it does not give you enough leeway to BS.

Might be a bit off-topic, but here it goes. This article gave me reassurance how I resisted using e-readers and stuck to the notion of using an actual book. Waste of paper? Yes. But then we are wasting papers in many other ways as well (another debate). Plus books hardly get recycled and they often get passed on (used bookstores). Also, my another issue with Kindle-esque books or even buying paperbacks from Amazon is that now I always rely on reviews before purchasing my new book. I remember when I was young and in school, I would just go and browse through books in my school library and pick whatever interests me.

This story is extra sensationalized here. I am sure Zuck will let go a $100 Million investment to avoid negative publicity. We cam all wait and see how this pans out. If anyone is a culprit here is the middle party aka realtors, as usual.

"Oracle was far more likely to hire Asian applicants - particularly Indian people - for product development and technical roles than black, white or Hispanic job seekers."

Can the DOL back up this claim with salary data to see if Oracle is abusing the H1-B visa system by purposefully keeping wages low?

Most of the time it is just easier to hire Asian/Indian employees because they are readily available (larger proportion of population entering tech filed via education or change of career).

It would be interesting to see how far DOL can stretch this.

Edit 1: Improvement

Hmm reading this article gave me closure about all those random people from India, Vietnam and certain South American countries that I sometimes get as a Facebook friend suggestion. A friend (a good source) once told me that if a person looks up you on Facebook then Facebook consider it as a "potential" acquaintance.

Any builders/newly constructed home owners out here?

I am thinking of building a new house instead of buying a used one. This is most likely going to be my biggest investment ever. I am looking at lands in upstate New York/New Jersey region, basically a region with 3 months of frost weather. I am not really a big fan of wooden houses. I have read all sorts of material online how wood is cheap, suitable of expansion/contraction weather, and contractors are cheap who build wood frames. But part of me just wants a durable concrete house.

I was thinking of getting a slab or raised slab concrete foundation with concrete pillars (non cylindrical) protruding upwards that would make up entire foundations of the house. Instead of wooden frames I can go for steel frames (new kid on the block). Then for the rest of the stuff, I can use wood and combination of other materials.

It would be nice hear someone else' similar experience and/or suggestions.

This move is only going to affect large and small Indian consultancy firms, who bring in tech people from India under H1-b visas with given hopes to file their Green Cards. They are usually deployed on 3-6 months projects across the US. These firms pay them minimum allowed wages by keeping lion share of the hourly consultancy rate.

Foreign graduates from US colleges are not going to be affected as they are interested only in working full time with US companies who are going to pay them market rate anyway if they can't find an American skillful enough to fill the job.

This move will also in return, loosen up the H1-B pipeline hence getting rid of the lottery system. I think it is a good move in a better direction.

These are my two cents as a beneficial of H1-B visa system, who went to US college.

How did you tweak your Snapchat? Spare me Google research.

Well it can be. I notoriously don't follow most of my friends newsfeed except the ones i see or talk to often. Then I follow pages that are of interest to me. Socioeconomic pages, tech pages, science ad medicine related, sports team I like and Oatmeal :)

As far ads are concerned, I use ad block on desktop browsers and Sponsored content can be tweaked to the point by continuous reporting that you will stop getting obnoxious Sponsored storied from Facebook.

When you use Snapchat you will notice that most of the top "news" publishers are the sort of Daily Mail and other tabloids infested with celebrities and kardashians bogus stories. It does not allow you to curate newsfeed per your taste. The publishers I want to read/watch/follow are not on Snapchat or I can't pick and create my selection. Unlike Facebook, where my wall is full with informational posts catered towards me, by me. This can tell you a lot about who is paying for advertisements on Snapchat and what type of audience they are catering to with what kind of content. It reeks desperation.

Edit 1: Grammar

Yellow cabs work when you hail it at point A and get dropped off at point B. Addresses are recorded but not the identity.

Uber cabs work when you request it at point A and get dropped off at point B. Addresses are recorded and the identity.

Yellow cabs share its data. All journeys along with their start, end coordinates. No identity issues as their platform could not record it.

Say if Uber cabs could share its data. All journeys along with their start, end coordinates. No need to share identity of the person associated with that journey.

Using Yellow cabs data set, if I have an address of my friend's place then I can figure out his journeys pattern when I see a frequency of his apartment address (minus the home number) either by data crunching around his address or the nearest corner intersection where he can potentially hail a cab.

I really don't see what's a huge deal here, unless Uber really does not want to expose its $ amount for a variety of reasons that I don't want to get into. Uber can strip off identity data, they can even strip off building numbers by normalizing pinpointed building numbers to nearest intersections. Sure every place can not have a nearest intersection. In that case, provide macro geo-information for the neighborhood. Trust me, every address has a nearby intersection in the city of New York.

Edit 1: spellings

And yet they are cutting back costs on services and have hired cheap third party concierge service providers who are not as good as Emirates original staff used to be and are very discriminatory with passengers coming from certain regions. My uncle was denied a wheel chair when his flight landed in Dubai because apparently 78 years old forgot to register "special request" online at the time of check-in. Their reason, Dubai International Airport, a world class facility, ran out of wheel chairs! I have heard/read similar stories about how Emirates is loosing its grip when it comes to services (especially inside the economy class)

Why I posted this rant here? Because I don't agree it is justifiable enough for a business to hide its short-comings behind an expensive PR campaign.

Let's say that in the midst of current political climate in the US, if the new administration does succeed in bring back manufacturing jobs (questionable) to the US and take credit for this new momentum, we all should take a step back and give Tesla's Gigafactory its due credit for pioneering this momentum.

We do 9-5 or 8-4 and everyone "kind of" take lunch during those 8 hours and managers don't throw a fit about it. Unlike my last employer, where managers were sticklers about covering lunch hour or favored eat your lunch at desk kinda deal. I would be totally fine with a 8am-7pm -- disciplined 10 hours day. I don't have a family, but i can see people appreciating and spending a three day weekend with their kids. Also for young people, this can take the concept of "seekender" to more literal levels.

I would take a 10 hours day, 4 work days and a three days long weekend over a 6 hours workday routine.

Edit 1: 9-6 is 9 hours -_-