What are the prerequisites for understanding that textbook? Would someone with an EE degree be able to get something out of it?
It sounds like an interesting read, but I hope that I wouldn't need a strong background in biology or chemistry to understand it, as I have neither.
at least it "feels" a bit like that 1980's Games Workshop game I had on ZX Spectrum.
Ha, I grew up on ZX Spectrum, too... learned how to program on its rubber keys
That's why I haven't heard of Dishonored, most likely. 2012 release? It's just starting to come into my "look it up, see if it was actually any good, set aside a few quid on Steam" considerations. Wouldn't be able to play it without thinking of Shadow Warrior, most likely, or even Thief.
I don't know, that argument doesn't work for me. It's like saying that you can't play Quake without thinking of Wolfenstein?
Dishonored mechanics will obviously be very much based on previous first-person games, but with its own twists and additions, and has a very interesting story. That makes it a good game -- it doesn't have to be a groundbreaking original work that has never been seen before. There hasn't been anything like that since.... well, Wolfenstein, probably.
You can say that pretty much every first-person game that's got a story and character development reminds you of Ultima Underworld, and miss out on a lot of really good stuff. Just because modern game designers churn out a lot of worthless crap, it doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of really good things available, too. It's just like movie, TV, and music industries.
This saga illustrates exactly what the H1-B program is designed to accomplish: disenfranchise highly skilled US workers and replace them with cheaper foreign workers.
It's not at all designed to do that. The fact that some companies are (mis)using it that way doesn't mean that it was created with that (mis)use in mind. The loopholes need to be closed, or rules enforced (or changed) to limit the undesired uses, and promote the desired ones (i.e. bringing in highly skilled workers to fill in critical positions).
I'm getting old, too, yet Fallout and Dishonored are amazing games. The original Fallout is a classing from '97, so unless you were already very old in '97, you're probably not much of a gamer if you've never played a Fallout game.
All the big-name games I have wanted in the last ten years that were hyping me up - disappointed in them all. Aliens:CM, Elite:Dangerous, you name it.
I can name plenty of them, but let's start with Fallout and Dishonored
But in order to hire H1Bs, I thought a company needs to demonstrate that they have advertised locally for the positions and can't find any sufficiently qualified people to take them.
Well, two things -- first, they are not hiring any of these guys directly.. They have hired a "service provider" (HCL) that is providing a service through these workers. These workers are HCL's employees, and not Disney's.
And, second, these employees are very likely not on H1-Bs, but on L1-Bs. H1-Bs are a popular bashing topic these days, so the article writer threw that in without doing much research. Reading other articles on the topic, it's clear that neither HCL nor Disney have provided any visa-related information, and there are no public records of 250+ H1-Bs being brought in for these jobs. (There are, however, 60 or so labor certifications filed in the area, which are used for green card applications of either L1 or H1-B workers)
2) H1-B's aren't hired just for their cheaper salaries. They also come with a number of other perks. For one thing, they are indentured servants, meaning they can't leave your employ no matter how badly you treat them. If they quit or try to go somewhere else, they lose their visa.
That is not true. H1-B holders are free to switch jobs. They can't just quit and stick around in US, but they most certainly can transfer their visa to another job.
In this case, it's unlikely to be the L1 visa. Back when I had one, the L1 was sub-titled as the "executive transfer visa".
There are actually two sub-categories -- L1-A, and L1-B. The L1-A is the "executive" one, which is harder to get and carries great benefits (such as getting a green card fairly quickly).
The L1-B is the "run of the mill" corporate transfer. It's fairly trivial to get, and is often used even for very temporary work (i.e. bringing somebody in for a week from a foreign office to help out with silicon bring-up).
The author of the article is guessing (*) (and presenting it as a fact) that they are on H1-B visas, since they happen to be unpopular... Most likely, though, these are L1 visas, used by foreign companies with offices in US to do intra-company transfers.
The L1 visa has no caps and no requirements for prevailing wages, and makes it much easier to bring in foreign workers into US.
It's why once you start going to Alamo, you can't watch movies anywhere else. There are still cartoons and funny clips before the movie, no commercials, zero policy on noise and phones...
And, of course, great selection of beer and food.
I wish I could tell my young self to go find a promising startup or start something on his own... I didn't know, at the time, how much harder that would be once I have a family with children.
Being young & single, you can move any time, you can switch jobs any time, you can work 16 hour days and actually enjoy it, and you can lose your job and not care too much.
That's the time to go for it, to chase the big ideas, to go for broke. You don't get that chance again without very significant risks.
Or better yet, untie H1Bs from a company, make it a 2 year visa, and let them go wherever they want. My guess is the companies will not be so hot on using H1B labor at that point.
A lot of people (including, obviously, you), don't understand that that's how H1B works already:
I myself competed in D1 college wrestling at an EIWA school while getting an engineering degree and I now have two master's degrees, one in business and one in engineering.
Not to take anything away from your achievements (I certainly couldn't compete in any sport at that level), but college wrestling isn't exactly "professional-level sports". Your athletic activity was still a part-time one while focusing on your education... The professional athletes, whose full-time job is to play sports, are exceedingly rarely accomplished academics at the same time.
Anywho; 4 out of 48 is a LOT.
Is it? What is the normal (i.e. cars with drivers) average?
A random Forbes article I googled says that on average, every driver gets into an accident once every 18 years. Cut that down to 1.5 years, and you get one out of 12 cars get into an accident in 1.5 year period... (which is same as 4 out of 48)
It seems about average.
I rode in one a couple of months ago, and it seemed like it was only a couple of seconds. It felt very strange for the car to go completely quiet on every red light.
The question is, as U.S. government revenue dries up from so many unemployed or underemployed - who's going to (1) pay for all the social costs to support U.S. citizens and, perhaps more important, (2) how will the U.S. government survive as its tax revenue shrivels up into nothingness?
The H1-Bs and L1s (and their spouses, L2s) all pay taxes. Why would tax revenue shrivel into nothingness?
And, how does L1 visa go after trade jobs? L1 has been around for a long time, why is it bad now?
BLISS is ignorance.
