Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the tech world live in an isolated bubbled insulated from the rest of society?
Yes why should tech people be deprived of my cat pictures? My cat is delicious!
Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
131–140 of 195 posts
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
The intriguing thing is that out of about 15 US trips only one had a bad border experience (and that was a work trip where we took our own equipment, which was understandable).
A group of us colleagues were heading into SFO for a work conference. This one guy who was a Sihk but no turban got asked what did he do for a living, so he said a C++ software engineer. The border guard then asked a few C++ questions like what is a virtual function.
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes why should tech people be deprived of my cat pictures? My cat is delicious!
Who said anything about cat pictures? And why are they relevant? But what is pretty fucking relevant to tech and business in general is how the US's attitude to foreigners/visitors will impact investment and trade.
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
When a man with a swarthy complexion and a huge beard wearing faded camo gear shows up at your border and shuffles through a selection of passports before deciding which one to try, then hands you one that looks nothing like him, you can be a little suspicious ;-) Then again at another FSR border I was extremely drunk and insisting to the guard that despite what my passport says I was in fact Dutch and they just roll…
Is my imagination running wild, or did you just say you bought a fake passport in Mexico?
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#135everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)
Business travel to the US is extremely relevant for anyone working in hi-tech. Esp. when carrying expensive/electronic equipment.
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#136everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)
Band together (e.g. private mailing list) with like-minded people and upvote each other's submissions until the culture has changed. EDIT: Hey, that's the only reasonable answer to the parent's question so far, as far as I can see. I don't like the idea either, but it's a reasonable idea, downvotes be damned!
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if you come from one of these countries: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#... or a few miscellaneous others (Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, etc).
Ah, thanks. I am embarrassingly un-travelled.
OP's original statement that he requires a business visa to attend & speak in a conference is just ridiculous.
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#138everyone is utterly paranoid Everyone? I have bit my tongue for a long time about this great community's slipping quality, but honestly, how does shit like this make it to the top of Hacker News. Flagged. Any suggestions for how to get back to having hacker news on Hacker News? (And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.)
I try to go to http://news.ycombinator.com/newest and upmod tech-related submissions once in a while. I should probably do it more often. Also, flagging stuff that could be on TV or Reddit.
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is my imagination running wild, or did you just say you bought a fake passport in Mexico?
FSR == Former Soviet Republic
Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US
#140I will tell another personal experience. I am based out of India and have been invited to speak at a conference in San Francisco. I applied for a business visa and was denied that visa because apparently I am young (23) and they have not heard about my startup (it is of course not an IT service giant like Infosys, TCS or Wipro) or conference (it's about A/B testing). Mind you: my startup is doing quite well financial…