Entries Tagged 'Silicon Valley' ↓

When I was in Southern California there was a truly bewildering story of a man who dressed up as Santa and murdered nine members of his ex-wife’s family, and when I came back to the Bay Area I read about something even more disturbing. In the past week the most bizarre and tragic story in the Bay Area has been the shooting of 22 year old Oscar Grant by a young BART police officer.  I only saw the more “conclusive” cellphone videos today and I have to say it is truly incomprehensible.  The young man was clearly on the ground and secured by more than one officer, and then the second officer stands up and pulls out his gun and fires into the victim’s back.  It took several seconds for the officer to take out the gun and the whole thing really looked like an execution and it is just unbelievable.

A lot of people including myself are wondering why the officer did what he did.  Apparently in the past there had been two more incidents where BART police blew away unarmed people, but this is the first time when citizen reporting with cellphone cameras have brought so much attention to a BART shooting.  According to this blogpost the police immediately started to confiscate cameras after the incident, but a few people managed to keep their phones since their traincar left the station just in time.  Technology has made it possible for everyday folks to watch the watchmen, and that is comforting and yet disturbing at the same time.

The aftermath of the incident is yet to be played out.    Right now there is a protest at the Fruitvale BART station and trains are passing the station in both directions. According to IndyMedia more than 500people have showed up around 6pm and the station was closed since protesters blocked the fare gates.  The protest is scheduled to last another 2 hours.

Then there is the lawsuit a lawyer filed on behalf of the family.  The family is seeking $25 million dollars from BART, and it’s sad to say that this will be a Pyrrhic victory at best since no amount of money will bring Oscar Grant back.  BART could probalby cover the costs of the lawsuit with their liability insurance, but I am sure more public funds will be spent and ridership might even decrease a bit.  This is not good for the public since BART is such a vital service for so many people here in the Bay Area, but there has to be some accountability.

These horrible stories just show that you may never know when you will meet your maker, and you are never as safe as you think.  The police are supposed to be peace keepers, but some people let power get to their heads.  The classic Stanford Prison Experiment showed that ordinary people who are put in positions above others stepped over the boundaries and I am sure it happens every single day.  Thankfully the internet gives the people a little bit of power back.

Finally, I offer my condolences to both the families of Oscar Grant and the officer.  I hope noone else gets hurt in the midst of this and we don’t have  full scale Rodney King-esque riots here.

Share This

Happy new year everyone!  I have been away from my blogs for a while since I spent the last couple weeks in our new home down in Southern California.  My inlaws are moving to the Philippines in about 10 days and this may be the last Christmas we will spend with them in California.  This year we do  plan to go to the Philippines to visit them for Christmas.   The last two weeks was filled with a flurry activity.  We saw my sister in law get married in Temecula to her Navy seaman and then my parents made a drive down for a couple days.  We took them to the San Diego Zoo and also Hollywood Blvd.  My husband also had the chance to see quite a few friends and have dinner with them.

Christmas was lean last year because everyone is trying to save money.  The only shopping trip we went on was after Christmas at the local mall.   I lounged a bit in the Bath & Body Works since they were having a sale, but ultimately did not buy anything.  In the end, we went to  TJ Maxx with my parents since my mom is a big fan of that store, but I have never been in one.    TJ Maxx is kind of like Ross where brand name goods  are heavily discounted for consumers. I was surprised that they had a huge selection of beauty products including AHAVA brand moisturizers that my hubby got me from Israel one year.  My mother often buys the cosmetics there as gifts for friends in China because they are really into brands in China.   Anyway, this was the place I did the bulk of Christmas shopping.  I bought two large bottles of shampoo, a camera case for my dad, a shirt for my mom, and a pair of  PJs for myself.  Everything came under $45 since the store is so discounted.  You do have to dig a bit through the many multicolored shelves, but there are plenty of heavily discounted goods to be found.

For my inlaws we waived their rent payment on the house for these last few days and didn’t really buy anything new for them because they are  trying to get rid of everything in the house right now.  They actually gave us one of the presents we got them last year for Christmas because they can’t bring it to the Philippines.  Every single day we were doing some packing and sorting because a lot of things had to go.

On New Year’s day we drove a caravan back up here to Northern California with quite a bit of furniture and kitchen goods.  My inlaws also sold one of their cars to an aunt so they’re going home with less stuff.  It took us another half day to sort everything into our closets and storage spaces.   So basically we have been quite busy.

We also found a family that agreed to be caretakers for our house after my inlaws leave.  We reserved the right to use the downstairs guest room at anytime and they will be taking care of the gardening, pool, and utilities.  It is really an awesome deal for them, but we’re hoping it will not be long term.  The hubby is really contemplating moving down south, but we would need to secure employment there and that seems to be a lot tougher than getting jobs in the Silicon Valley.  Also, the hubby is waiting for his company’s games to be published this year so that he could say on his resume that he has shipped a couple games.  So basically we won’t be moving for at least one year.   Honestly speaking, if we both had jobs with comparable pay the quality of life is a lot higher there because the cost of living is quite a bit lower.   We could actually just live on one income if we moved into our house because it’s cheaper than renting a two bedroom apartment here.  The public elementary and middle schools there also have pretty high ratings so my hubby says that it’s more likely we’d move after we have kids.   As my friend Michael jokingly (or maybe seriously)  said once, “the Bay Area is where you work really hard for a crappier life”.

Even though this year  has just begun, I already have a list of things I’m planning to do.  First, I am seriously looking into a refinance even though we just bought the home a few months ago.  The reason is that interest rates have come down significantly in the last month because of the Fed’s plan to buy mortgage backed securities.  If you have significant equity in your home, good credit, and good income then it may be a good time to refinance, also.  I’m specifically looking into a no-cost refinance and right now I’m watching the rates at IndyMac and Technology Credit Union.  IndyMac quoted me a no-cost refinance rate of 4.75% a couple weeks ago but it was impossible for me to get all the paperwork through and their phonelines are always busy. They’ve also been sold to a bunch of private investors so I’m not sure the rates will ever get that low again.   Technology Credit Union is a local Silicon Valley credit union and they have a pretty straightforward online application so I’m watching the rates there.  They also answered phone calls pretty quickly when I called so I may do the no-cost refinance with them when the rate drops a little lower.  Their rate is currently at 5.25% for the no cost and lower than 5% with costs.  This credit union is for people who work or live in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Contra Costa, and Alameda, so pretty much most Bay Area folks can qualify for membership.

The next beast on my list is taxes for the year of 2008.  I may hire a professional this year to do it because I exercised some stock options last year and  bought the house with the hubby.  Seriously, I really hate taxes.

I think the rest of 2009 should be quite interesting since Barack Obama will be the new president.  Will the United States be revitalized or go down the tubes?  No one knows yet, but we will be okay as long as we trust God and be responsible with our own actions.  This is a year that will be filled with challenges for everyone around the world, and hopefully these events make us stronger and more prudent in the years to come.

Share This

Today the Dow Jones Industrials dipped below 9000, and it seems that there is no end in sight. Believe me, I am feeling the pain in my 401ks and IRAs, but life goes on, and I still have a job and I am still quite busy. I truly believe that the reason I and many others have a job right now in the Silicon Valley is because of the last bubble. When the NASDAQ lost more than half of its value and dot coms died left and right the Valley returned to frugality and good business practices and we all should be thankful for it.

When the last bubble happened I just started at UC Berkeley, so I missed all of the crazy IPOs and block parties. After I graduated, I did join a startup, but it was clear that it operated very frugally. It was profitable and maintained a positive cash flow with only one round of venture funding. This company is still operating right now. Since then I have joined two more small private companies and both operated the same way. Overall, I think the companies thriving in the Valley now are better quality businesses than those companies that shot up to $300 a share on the Nasdaq and then died in an ignominious fashion complete with auctions of office furniture.

As a result of the dot com bubble, even venerable technology companies became more frugal than they were and held onto their cash. This is why Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are able to do stock buybacks this year. My last company actually issued a stock dividend because they had the cash to do so. At least technology companies became more aware of the importance of having a cash reserve for a rainy day, and it sure is pouring right now.

Another thing that happened in the Valley is that IPOs became as elusive as albino koalas. Again, I believe this is a positive thing because if there were rampant IPOs then companies would have overhired again and the fall would be very very hard. A more popular exit strategy for small companies was to be purchased by Google/Yahoo/Microsoft, and again, these large companies were able to do these acquisitions because they held onto oodles of cash.

I hope the housing bubble will serve as a lesson to everyone involved just like the dot come bubble did to the tech industry. The technology sector has become wiser and is now on more solid footing than a lot of other industries. We will all feel pain from the fallout of this financial crisis, but hopefully banks will return to better business practices and people will learn to live more frugal lives. That is actually exactly what happened after the Great Depression. We had a generation of extremely frugal folks and decades where the middle class prospered, but unfortunate history is often forgotten, and repeats itself over and over again.

Share This

Yesterday I just didn’t feel like getting dressed and after taking a teleconference at 10 am I decided to work at home.  I rarely work at home, but it is actually amazingly productive.  I did quite a bit of work, and also managed to do six loads of laundry and bake some chicken.

Today I went back work and I realized why I can’t concentrate very well there.  People are just talking constantly over each other and I hear them from my cube. Then I’m constantly distracted by people walking in the hallway because I happen to face the hallway.  Additionally, there are too many snacks and drinks in the breakroom so I find myself going there every hour or so.  You would think that an office environment lets you concentrate on work, but it is rather distracting.  Being in my home office is much more comfortable than coming to the office.  It is much quieter and much more relaxing.

Knowing this, I might ask my manager to let me work at home once a week.  Several of my coworkers actually work at home full time so it is not a huge request.  If I work at home once a week I could save a gallon of gas every week and also cook instead of going out.  I could also shave off some snack calories. We will see how this works out.

How about you?  Do you find working at home more productive?  Or do you need the human interaction at the office?

Share This

When I tell people that I am a release engineer I usually get a blank look. Then I explain the aspect of my job most people understand and say that I make programs that you double click to install software. Then most people say something along the lines of “oh you’re a software engineer”. I suppose that’s true, but a release engineer’s job is somewhat more specialized and it involves duties that are quite different from most software engineers’ daily routine of fixing bugs. So I decided to write a list of things I love and hate about my job, and I would love to hear what other release engineers think.

Here are the things I love about my job:

1. I am given a lot of responsibility and trust – Release engineers handle a lot of the critical systems like builds and version control in an engineering organization. Any screw up in those systems could potentially destroy a lot of other people’s hard work. So I learn to tread carefully and be an expert in these systems.

2. I learn a lot of random stuff - When you have to package builds for a bunch of different operating systems and programming languages you have to learn a bit about everything. I admit that I’m not an expert in any one programming language, operating system, or database, but I’ve picked up enough in the past few years to at least answer interview questions about a broad range of subjects.

3. I have an idea of the “bigger picture” – In my last company I was the sole release engineer, and now at my current company I am sort of moving into that role. This means that I have to be aware of all the product releases and the plans for these releases. Generally I like knowing what’s going to happen in the grand scheme of the company I work for.

4. I know what my purpose is - Release engineers serve a specific function so the job isn’t that ambiguous. As I have written before, a lot of people are disastified with their jobs because they don’t see the fruit of their work and they feel that it is pointless to work. Generally, I know what my deliverables are so my efforts don’t seem so useless.

5. I work with a lot of different groups – Release impacts a lot of groups including support,documentation, QA, and development. This means that I have to talk to a lot of people to get a good release. This makes the job less boring in a way.

6. I am special - When you search for software enginering jobs online most of the job descriptions are “software engineer” and the responsibilities section basically say that you will be a code monkey. There is nothing to distinguish one software engineer from another besides that they code different things. There are usually less job listings for the title of Release Engineer, and that usually means less competition and better compensation. So in terms of my career, I like being more specialized.

Now here are the things that are annoying:

1. The system administration aspects of the job – I hate setting up machines and monitoring their disk space. I hate upgrading software. I hate making images of machines and then deploying them on new machines that usually do not work right away. I hate power failures that mess up my fleet of build and test machines in mysterious ways. Basically, when you have to be a daily user of a bunch of different machines you generally end up maintaining them at least a little bit, and that could be a pain in the butt.

2. Broken builds - At my last company I kept a hall of shame for those who broke the build, and then I got bored of taking down people’s names because they were doing it every few hours. Someone emailed me once and said, “you’re like a zookeeper”. It really felt like that sometimes when I had to manage 30+ code branches with around 80 developers checking in code. At my current company we don’t have that many builds or developers and people seem to be more careful so it’s not so bad.

3. Telling people to fix stuff – I actually don’t like to send emails that tell people what they broke. However, this is really part of the job, too because the goal is to get a clean build every single time and I have to be whiny sometimes for the sake of product quality.

4. It is a tedious job – I think a good release engineer has to be somewhat obsessive compulsive to make sure a build contains exactly what is supposed to be there. In the most extreme case it involves manual inspections of hundreds of nasty code merge conflicts from various branches of code. If you ever used CVS for a large project with a crapload of branches you might have run into this problem. I have done that before and it was painful. Then again, a lot of other jobs are also very tedious so I don’t think tedium is a unique problem.

At the end of the day, I am pretty happy to be a release engineer because it is an important job in any engineering organization and I have a lot of autonomy to do my work. This job also helped me develop my organization and management skills that I could use in the future.

Share This