Visa and its stages man !!!

Thought of writing this post just as an update to the previous one .. My finace's H1B made it through the lottery process !! Whoosh !! Thanks to all of your best wishes and prayers ... However, job is just half done yet !

why you ask ? well the application is stuck in whats called the 'RFE' (Request for Evidence) stage.. To sum up, this is the step where in the USCIS requests additional information from either you or the company you have applied H1 from. Its a long process and still ongoing ... The company we have applied through, is still working on it and hopefully we should know something within a couple of weeks !!

Hopefully will get to post the 'H1B mission impossible - successful !!" soon !!! :)

Play to win an H1B Visa !

Yes ! Starting this year every April 1st, you can play the all new USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immegration Services) Lottery ! And yes, its totally different from the normal lotteries ... If you are the chosen one, you get an H1B visa but even if you lose, you get all your money back !! Do you have it in you ? Do you have what it takes ?

Seriously, this could very well be a new ad for USCIS H1B visa process !! Ok, enough of fun ! But, seriously, isnt this the state of the current H1B application process ? Ok, let me start from the beginning... H1B is the work visa USCIS offers to a US non-resident which allows one to work in US for a period of 3 years at a time. However, you can only apply for a new H1B visa during the period of April 1st - October 1st. Not only that, the total H1B visas given every year is also fixed and called as the 'H1B cap'. This cap is currently set to 65K (This was initially 195K and was changed to 65K in 2004) This appplies for ANY international student and NOT just for Indians.

Well, as most of you might be aware of (if not, read this), this year USCIS received 150K applications on April 2nd itself for the H1B visa. This quota of 65K, the cap was reached on day 1 of the allotted 6 months period !!! And USCIS was expecting another 150K applications to be made on April 3rd. Thats 300K applications, 5 times the quota !! So, USCIS announced that it will reject (!!) all applications made after April 3rd onwards. But that does NOT solve the real problem, does it ?

The real problem is choosing those lucky (!!) 65K candidates out of the 300K !! So, USCIS has decided on a 'random' selection process. All those chosen will get H1B this year and those who are not so lucky (at least) get their money back ...

So what went wrong ? Suddenly how come there are so many applicants ? Well, the market is much better right now ! All the companies are hiring big time !! So, all the Masters students are graduating as early and as fast as they can ... The offshoring is going on but I think its close to its saturation level and hence, the hiring here has accelerated ... Also, already working people are getting married and trying to get their spouses to US on H1 (including me :) ) ... All those who missed out on the opportunity last year are trying it now ... also there are the visa conversions ... H4 to H1, F1 to H1, L1 to H1 and so on ...

You will ask so what ? well, a hard limit of 65k was never gonna be enough .. As more and more people come to US (and there is no limit on the number of F1(student), L1 (exchange work) visas issued), one day 65K was gonna seem like just a small drop of water in front of ocean of thursty people ... Its just that that day is here already !! Sooner that expected ... So, all of the applicants have to play this lottery ... Appplying for premium processing helps in a way as the processing is done faster and you get to know the result faster ! At least, you are informed earlier - accepted or not ! So at least you can act accordingly on your backup plans !

So, hang in there in guys and gals ! My full sympathy is with you ... Will you make it in the 20% ? Unless, USCIS decides to change it back to 195K or more, its gonna be the story every year ... This is funny ... On a normal day, I would never think like this but now I just hope this 'random' selection is as 'random' as the selection for 'bag security check' at the airports !! I am almost confident of getting selected every year - let them make the chances down to 5% :) !!

Well, jokes apart, I myself am trying for my fiance' ! so wish us luck :) ...

Where are we headed ?

It is a world of quickness & swiftness ... 'slow and steady wins the race' just doesnt cut it anymore ... its more like 'fast and accelerating has a chance to win the race ' ... everything around you is about being ahead of time, ahead of everyone around you and if thats not enough, its about being ahead of yourself ! And as they say, this is just the beginning ... Though all this sounds very energizing and very happening, you really need to take a break and ask yourself, where is this going ? Where am I going with this ? Am I making the right decisions or just making quick decisions .. worse enough hasty decisions ?

They tell you, this current world is about you and you only ... whole world centered around you .. its the so-called 'individualism' that matters and nothing else ... while following and creating an identity for yourself, dont you think we are losing our identities altogether ? Identity is merely how many pages of results does google return when your name is typed ... right ? Tell me, how difficult is it for someone to steal your identity these days ? Take any way of communication, emails, phones, letters, online services like orkut ... anything and everything is full with scams and people hacking profiles and stealing identities ... So its NOT about individualism then ... right ? Its more like saving your identity than to make a new one ... thats why you shouldnt put your snaps on orkut .. thats why you shouldnt chat with a stranger ... and the list of dont's just goes on ... If this is just the beginning, then where are we headed ?

They tell you, its about advancement ... Its about moving ahead ... is it really ? Finding new weapons to threaten each other, kill each other and better (rather worse) ways of mass destruction ... is that what the development is all about ? Is it about providing a safe world to everyone or is it about a world filled with fear ? Are we entering the new era of development or destruction ? Why do we still have the hanging sword of global warming then ? I have touched this topic in one of my recent posts as well ! again, where are we headed ?

They tell you, its about being a winner ... and how does one define the term 'winner' ? is it someone who just goes ahead in his life at the cost of his/ her loved ones or by pressing everyone else down ? Or is winner a person, whos good at everything and not just one thing ? Gone are the days of 'jack of all and master of none ' ... you need to be a 'master of all' or if not, 'jack of all' at least to get some kind of recognition ! 'Master of one' is a complete loser ... A winner is someone who has achieved all the wealth at a young age or is it someone who faces life happily and is satisfied ? Do you know what you are ? which category you are in ? again, where are we headed ?

Who cares if you are a good friend, a good person, a good son, a good father, a good mother, a good person overall ? No one has time for that ! Relationships is whats better known as 'networking' these days ! Its about your network and who you know these days than who you care for and who care for you in return ... 'uski pahuch bahut lambi hai bhai, usse bach ke rehna' tells us something .. doesnt it ?

Dont get me wrong... Its not like I am against this whole advancement and this happening age.. I like it too but then I would like to pause for a bit ... think it over .. take some baby steps for a while, give it a rest and then get back in the game with a definite plan ... based on the previous experiences ... I do understand, when there is something positive figured out by 10 ppl after years and years of research, a thousand minds think about how to use it negatively ... there are always dangers while crossing road but we dont stop walking on roads... I am aware of that .. but then if we all become good drivers and pedestrians, we can walk safely ... without fear .. isnt it ? It has to start from one person .. power of one is beyond imagination ...

Life is funny and it gets at you fast .. Its better to be prepared for the rainy day !! You need to be fast for the world and steady for yourself to not outrun yourself .. your thoughts ... your goals .. your life ! As far as I think, thats when you will be a winner !

and yes, I never said its easy ! :)

Trigger: Orkut - Storm Warning by Selma

Change your future ?

Today I was watching Krishh ... (The Indian SuperHero :) ) for the second time in the afternoon just for fun and some laugh (again) with a friend of mine ... The movie is partially copied from the Hollywood movie 'Paycheck' where Ben Affleck is the scientist who works hard and creates a machine to view / change future. During the testing phase (I guess ;) ), Ben Affleck finds out that he is going to be killed in the future and leaves a few clues for himself so that he can cheat his death and change future....

Ok. That said, my friend and I debated over this a lot ... How can one change his future ? The trick here is that if you change your future then it was not your future in the first place !! right ? If you predict that you are gonna be dead & that thats your future and you somehow cheat your death & are still alive, then death wasnt your future at all !! And well, if you die then, that was your future and you didnt change it ? It makes sense, isnt it ?

The machine if one is built ever, will show you your future ... If that did not happen, then all it means is that machine is faulty and it was a false positive ! thats all ... A true machine should show you all revisions of your future that you make ... what I mean is, it should show you the predicted future and then the one you changed it to and then you saw that one too and then the next attempt of changing it and so on ... First of all, this depends on person to person & secondly this could become uncontrollable as there could be 'n' number of revisions - n depends upon each person's IQ, his luck in changing the future successfully and his foolproofness of the plan each time ... The factor that needs to be considered here is that, we live in a society and hence, changing one's future is going to affect thousand other futures !! Who is taking that into account ?

So, if you ask me, you can NEVER change your future ! If you do, then there can not be a machine which can show you the future !! What do y'all think ?

p.s. Also given a choice, would you change your future ?

Teleportation

Does "The Fly" ring a bell ? I remember watching that movie when I was in India like 6-8 years back ... I completely freaked out by the end of the movie ... the movie gets very gruesome at the end ... I had almost forgotten about it till today when I read a little bit about "teleportation" ...

Whats teleportation ? ... its basically a (future) technology wherein an object can be transported from one place to another ... nothing great ? well, how about this ? moving it instantly without using any conventional techniques ... in an instant ...

There are a number of proposed ways to achieve this. e.g. e-teleportaqtion, q-teleportation, vm-teleportation, sf-teleportation etc ... e.g. q-teleportation in simple words is to fax the 3D object ... completely scan the original object and obtain its structure information ... then pass this information to the new location. At this new location, reconstruct the whole object again using the information to create replica of the original. Then the original copy is destroyed once this process ends. Much more complications arise when the original copy is not deleted ... but for now ignoring that ... so teleportation is like fax in 3D... Scientists have successfully teleported small particles such as photons so there is a ray of hope there in q-teleporting . The other techniques such as vm-teleportation is basically using wormholes & there is more that goes on ...

But the ultimate question is, is it possible to teleport human beings ? there are trillions & trillions of atoms in human body ... more than that, let the technique be anything, what will happen if teleportation of human beings comes true ? Wil it be good or bad ? Lets see ... hmm ... I guess, when the technology will arrive, it will be pretty expensive ... but consider it is affordable to general public then there will be no gas price increase tension (a big one especially now !), no time spent on travel ... no travel accidents (or is it ? different type of accidents ? ... some information is lost while travel & now reconstructed human is missing a hand ???? )

Anyone can go anywhere ... basically, its like apparate and disapparate as you Harry Potter fans would say ... is that good ? well, what it means is no privacy to anyone .. moreover, any thief can get inside any bank vault anytime .. well so can police .. but how will you secure your money / belongings ?

What about the ethical issues ? What if something goes wrong ? Will the new replica have the same emotions / soul as the original one ? will he / she be different in behaviour ? Most of the questions are solved / answered if the q-teleportation is not the one that is used ... instead if vm-teleportation is used, at least the original object is untouched ... but few big problems remain ...

I found this topic pretty interesting and a very nice one to discuss ... there is so much to talk & write here ... I will just wait for your comments ...

Further reads :

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/050708_teleportation.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/teleportation.html

Robots ... ?

Saw this movie 'I, Robot' a few days back.. a really nice movie (of course the animation etc effects are just superb in there !) Will smith & all robots of course are great in the movie .. do watch it if you get time ..

But what made me think is the theme of the movie .. as the movie shows, the machines try to take over the world from humans... this is so very possible ... looking at the current trend of developments in science, I dont think that day is too far away or I would say already at the doorstep knocking !

This has always been one of my favourite topics to discuss ... till 1 st yr engg, I did not have a computer at home and you wont believe I was doing just fine. I had taken 11 & 12th both vocational computer science subject but still I did pretty good both yrs without any computer at home ... but now I just cant think of myself without it ... Its like an obsession for me now.. Its become my 4th primary need. Not only computer for that matter; a cell phone, mixer, refridgerator, TV, fan ! they have become such an essential part of our life !

And now we are doing an active research on 'Robots' and getting our work done through them ... and not only that ! We want to give Robots emotions ! we want to make them human beings or should I say just like us ... U know what, its all fine to some extent where things which are impossible for a human being such as sustaining the several 1000 degree atmosphere or some ultra-prefection for a surgery etc. But for day to day use ? I dont think we need help of Robots for driving a car, making a cup of tea or washing clothes etc... ppl say we can always use some servants. My question is who is the servant here ? Arent we becoming the servants of these machines ?

And we all know this fact but just cant resist some luxury offered to us ... Luxury and getting work done faster and with lesser efforts, has always been the focus from the beginning ... I know what u r saying right now. This is how we develop and need is the mother of invention and so this is all happening for good etc etc .. but how much comfort do we want ? is there an end to that ?

In fact I sometimes feel that, entity - whom we call God - has created Robots (us - human beings) and we are trying to do the same ... just mimicking Him without our knowledge ... Isnt it a human tendency to mimick ? right .. just like that ... we are trying to take over this world in one way or the other ... we consider this world to be ours completely ... Same way why cant robots try to do the same ? especially since we are trying to make them just like us ?

Here is the million dollar important question ... Do we know everything there is to know about human beings ? about our own body, our own emotions .. our dreams / nightmares ? where they come from etc ? There are millions of things that we dont know yet about ourselves ... then is it wise to think about creating another one just like us ? is it ? what if the experiment fails ? Do we know what repurcussions can it have ? do we have a 'plan B' ?