God, I remember when the Dream Act was first introduced. I wrote a story about it for my school newspaper, then started a GeoCities site, and then a newsletter. I thought it would be no time before it would get through. That was over 10 years ago! If it were passed 4 to 10 years from now, which is its apparent trajectory, it would be too late for me to benefit from it. I'm getting less and less optimistic with every year. Nothing changes, man. Nothing. I can hang on for the moment, but just barely. :(
We got very close to the passage of the bill during the lame duck session (dec 2010). Twenty ten especially was filled with energy and action; that's what got us there.
I've seen one thing consistently, we, as a movement, are getting older, smarter, and closer to our goals. Not unlike starting a startup in high school, you are bound to fail, but after 10 years of failing you learn a thing or two. The timeline for the passage of the bill is not some constant or range. It is a linear function of how smart we work and how much energy we put into it. If I learned one thing, is that Congress has absolutely zero interest in passing the bill, either party. They all just want to get elected again. You work from there.
If by "too late for me," you are referring to the age limit in the bill, the Dream Act usually gets introduced without the limit and the 30 year old age limit is sometimes tacked on as a "compromise" in the process. Also, the number I keep seeing lately is 35, simply because its taking this long to pass the bill. I want the limit gone, it makes zero sense from any angle. It is only good for marketing the bill to hypocrites who'll never support it anyway, "look only kids will benefit." Fucking load of shit, we were kids when this mess started!! Just because you've been in legal limbo for 20 years, doesn't make you less American. Eh... You give a finger you get nothing, you give a hand, you get nothing, you give half your torso, and you still get nothing. That is the dynamic of party relations in the Senate right now. Democrats compromise, Republicans just keep saying "No" because that will get them elected. The age limit is a compromise not worth making and we'll make sure the Senators know about it. I see more and more people who are already over the proposed limits, they deserve this more than I.
Personally, I'm not ruling out "going back." Although, it's not really going back is it, its leaving everything and everyone you know behind to go to a place you barely remember, if at all. I have the same problem, not having done mandatory military service, I'd probably be arriving into a jail cell. That is unless I arrive after a certain age. The country of your origin may have a similar rule, look into it. Coincidentally, this is the strategy of our opposition, they call it "attrition." Make our lives so miserable that we leave on our own. Look at the AZ bill. Look at the Georgia bill that will be signed by the governor in a couple of days. We leave, they win. I don't know what they win exactly, you and I are clearly American and have something to contribute to society. But, I don't care about the principle of this thing much, I just want to breathe free for once (ironic isn't it.)
What helped me deal with this situation personally, is just not being afraid anymore. That sounds cliche, but something just snapped one night somewhere around the time where my friend was going to be deported (a few days later, Sen. Dick Durbin has personally acted to stop his deportation), and I just said you know what fuck it all. I know I'm worth something as a human being. I know I'm a competent "product" guy that loves what he does. If the worst thing that I have to be afraid of is getting shipped out clenching my American diploma, then fuck em. Ship me out and let me live my fucking life already. Or do what you have been doing and pretend that I don't exist. I'll be fine either way, so fuck you. You can see I was angry, not bitter, I think I have it easy compared to others and certainly the rest of the world, just angry. That night I made a pact with myself, fear will never be a factor again. It worked. Somehow accepting the possible consequences and not being afraid of them anymore has helped me get a grip on this situation emotionally. Over the years I've developed a really thick skin, nothing ever surprises me anymore. In addition, overcoming this fear -- I can't even say concretely what I was afraid of, it's just this perpetual state that you are in as an undocumented person -- has given me a ton of confidence. You want to bring me down? It will take you a lifetime; enjoy the ride.
So my advice is please do ALL you can to change your status, but if no avenues are available, do what you can to improve your quality of life. Come to some kind of an arrangement with your co-founders and keep going, keep doing what you love, live your life as fully as you possibly can, we are still incredibly fortunate. Just look at yourself as you, not as the system sees you.
While the American laws are comparatively flexible and open (compared to a few other countries), it is many of our mistakes we make as people (whether in the system or not) to define ourselves as folks by the law instead of by ourselves, by our own capabilities.
With the OP, I can say that if they went to some other developing country, they would still make a good living. It won't be America but that is where the equalization will improve over time, might be long,
MEANWHILE, don't forget yourself as a person, as a person with capability rather than a person with disobedience to the law.
Create the company, if it does not meet the startup visa requirements, no worries, just create it anyway. Supportive people will help you with your issue, your co-workers, your friends. Folks visiting HN support you too!
Thanks, bro. Reading this made my day. You're awesome for standing up for your friend and giving hope to strangers like me on the internet. With some luck, we'll get through this. My only consolation right now is that I'm not going through this alone. :)
Yes, I have. I was attacked and roughed up by some thugs when I was 15. We reported the case to the police, so I'm sure there is a case about this. Please let me know if you find anything on this!
Aren't controller level tests called functional tests? I'm still new at this, but I thought unit tests are to the model as functional tests are to the controller. And integration tests mimic user behavior.
They are, but the naming convention is a rails-specific quirk.
Usually functional testing is defined as checking functionality vs. requirements, and it is done with something like selenium, or Quick Test Pro when it is automated. And usually, since requirements don't deal with controller functionality but are most often written about the system as a whole, functional testing would be what Rails calls "integration" tests, or Rails/RSpec calls "request" tests.
When the controller tests were named "functional tests" I think integration tests in Rails were not implemented yet, and controller tests were the highest up the stack you could test, so the name made more sense then.
I was also making around 70$ to 80$ an hour. I decided to get in to Wall St (Investment Banks/Hedge Funds) and now I am able to make more than 100$/hour. In NYC, other than finance industry, I haven't seen anyone paying more than 100$/hour.
It depends on what you do, but if you're a freelancer, finding your own clients, managing your own projects, and paying for your own social security and benefits, then 100/hr is fair for a good programmer in NYC. It is comparable to 100K full-time, full-benefit work, which is at around what one of USV's NYC portfolio companies will offer you if you're a good programmer w/ 6 years experience.
If you feel you are underpaid, then apply for one of those positions on USV's portfolio jobs page. All of their NYC companies are awesome.
This could be due to the strong emphasis Western culture places on "integrity." This term originally comes from the same Latin root as "integer," which itself means "whole, entire." Having integrity implies that your private self and public self are one and the same.
Multicultural roots of Western culture may have made integrity an important signifier of trustworthiness. Even going back to Shakespeare, you saw the theme of split identities everywhere in Western literature, and most of Shakespeare's villains are noted for their two-facedness.
The modern day implication of that cultural legacy is our cult of authenticity. For a rap singer to be taken seriously by his peers, he has to be "real." The realness is a hard earned credibility by showing a singular identity, and not being perceived as the real thing for someone immersed in that culture would be the equivalent of "losing face" in Eastern cultures. Something akin to social isolation and even death.
Another, perhaps more relatable example, is something I often hear Americans say. It's said that in America you can be who you say you are. That is at the heart of the open society for which Americans are praised, and Americans take your word at face value, until you say or do something contrary to their expectations of your self-proclaimed "role."
So thinking over what I wrote, I think the reason why role-playing works in Japan and doesn't in America is because Americans have a culture of self-invention, a culture built on appearances, they also have a wariness about being taken in by people who change their appearances often.
I'm a programmer in NYC who doesn't have a work visa. (But I've worked as a freelancer in the city for years, so I have lots of experience.) How should I bring that up to potential employers? During the application or during the interview or after I get hired? How much would it affect my compensation?
Nothing makes sense.