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2005-10-31

 

Infocom

Thanks to Atul, I've got a paper in Infocom now! They have received again over 1400 submissions and accept around 18%. Looks like I am more lucky submitting to confereces in Europe, getting a track record of 4/4 instead of... x/y in US, where y»x. Now the question is, am I going to Spain?

2005-10-30

 

Worst Hair Cut

I saw a grand opening banner in this store of Great Clips, with hair cuts for $2.99, tax included. It was so cheap, and I thought I only needed some basic hair cuts before my interviews, I thought, I couldn't go wrong trying it.

I was wrong. You can hardly notice that I had a hair cut. But if you do, you'd thought that it looks so much worse...

2005-10-27

 

twngan 2 HR 0

Dealing with HR people sometimes is a pain. Particularly when they try to play mind games with you, or at least think that they're playing with you. Here are some highlights.
Maybe this is the normal strategy for HR. But somehow I don't feel like working for those companies. Perhaps I should just ignore them altogether and interview with one of the research labs of The Colored Giant?

2005-10-25

 

And Your Freaking Final Answer is...

What should you do when the convicted monopoly offers you much lower than expectation?
  1. Thou shalt have no other god before Bill. No-brainer, accept it and thank god (Bill)!
  2. Accept it and keep shopping around. It's better than being unemployed. Moral? What is that?
  3. Decline at once. Dignity is more important than anything else.
  4. Who needs their offer when you can get an interview at Mountain View?
And the freaking final answer is... D!

2005-10-22

 

Oishii


Oishii Japanese Restaurant
was a nice little surprise for me last night. I was driving around hungrily, and decided to give this small place a try. The sushi there was really great, yet the price was unbelievably low. It was still at its happy hour, so they have buy one get one free rolls (and other appetizer) at $3.5 and beer for just one buck each. They also have free Wifi. The only issue I had with them is that they don't have much parking on the front, and parking on its parking lot right next is a pain.

It wouldn't sound like a review from me if there's nothing funny about it. Here's one. The name of the restaurant, Oishii, really sound like pooping (屙屎) in Cantonese. This is really really weird, since at least one waiter and one waitress there can speak Cantonese...

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2005-10-20

 

Sushi at Campus

I know for a while that the convenience store right next to Smoothie King and the new sandwich place that replaced Subway at Rice has sushi, but I never realized that their sushi is from Cafe Japon, the best sushi place within 10.371[1] miles from Rice. Now that I know, I have to try it out very soon.

[1]Why 10.371? Because I say so. Nah, this is just arbitrary. I don't really know if there is another sushi place around is better than it. Maybe Musashino in Austin is better. Anyway, just don't post comment to ask where the number comes from.

 

Non-Evil

Today is the interview for the company that tries to stay away from being evil. As expected, the questions are more difficult than any other companies I have interviewed...

2005-10-18

 

Weirder

Maybe I put out this entry too soon. Things could be even weirder. I just got an email from a company that asked me to do a test and then never replied after I agreed. Turns out, their recruiter has moved on from their company. I guess it is better to have the HR people to work in weird hours than quitting, as this would give some hints about the company to people applying for the jobs...

2005-10-17

 

Not Only Geeks Work in Weird Hours

From what I have noticed lately while dealing with people from Human Resource departments, I can safely conclude that it is not only geeks like us who work in weird hours. In fact, HR people also tend to send emails all around the clock, 6pm, 8pm, midnight, and even Sundays. Is it really what it takes to hire geeks?

2005-10-14

 

New Network Setting

I have a lot on my TODO list, including research, writing teaching and research statements, finishing my CV, spamming people with my resume, planning my trip to Europe, etc, yet I keep wasting time on stupid thing. Today, I'm working on my home network, after my Mac Mini joins the family.

Mac Mini: If you think about it, there are a lot of software that you'd need to add to it to make it a reasonable desktop. This list includes Firefox, Aduim, Acrobat Reader, X, a LaTeX distribution, and Xcode (which includes cvs, gcc, make, just to name a few).

Linux box: I put together some old parts on separate machines to make an uber downloader called, well, downloader. This has to run my favorite distribution, namely, Gentoo. Setup was easy, except for installing my PCI wireless card, AT&T 6550G. Turns out, this bastard doesn't have a linux driver, and I have to use ndiswrapper to make it run on linux. Of course, having this machine is purely for "research" purpose.

Windows box: This was my desktop machine. Now, it is just a game console with a special browser that can work with my bank's web site, among a few others.

The network: The goal is to put the Mac and the game console close to each other to connect to my router and share my LCD. But more importantly, I have put the linux box as far from my bed as much, so that it can run 24/7 without bothering me.

Now I have my dream setup! The next goal is to waste time using it!

2005-10-12

 

More on Offer

Now it gets more interesting... I have to choose a team before seeing the offer...

2005-10-10

 

Offers

Wow, these things are coming fast... unlike their software...

2005-10-09

 

Interview Trip

(I am writing this blog with my shiny Mac Mini. Hurray!)

There are a lot to talk about for this trip. Let me try to talk in the following categories.

The travel: I originally didn't like the trip, since due to their travel policy (i.e., $), they can neither fly me with my preferred airline (meaning no direct flight and arriving late), nor to a closer airport (meaning longer drive, yet with a mileage reimbursement of less than 3/4 of the current government rate). But the Inn was really comfortable, with nice breakfast, and close to their campus.

The interview: I only had six interviews, lasted for a total of only seven consecutive hours. There was a lot of interesting discussions on my research work and the work they do there. One thing I realized was that unlike most other companies, people there are extremely passionate and enthusiastic with the work they do. Anyway, in my last interview, I was sitting in a couch. I don't remember much about that interview. I just hope that I didn't fall into asleep or mumbled much...

The food: Since I have a $40 budget for dinner, and taxi vouchers for getting to and from a restaurant, I looked in CitySearch for the best place to spend my money. I was immediately attracted by the high 9.8 score of the dinner-only, Italian-ish Tosoni's Restaurant. It didn't disappoint me; I had a tasty soup, but that was nothing comparing to my main dish: a rack of lamb. It was the best lamb I have ever tasted, hands down. I ended up needing to pay $4, but that was way worthy.

2005-10-05

 

Interview...

I'm flying to Seattle to inteview with a convicted monopoly on the East side today. Stay tuned, and if I had fun I might write something here about the trip.

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