The reasons :

1. less content (way less than before, 3 stories were on top news in 8 hour period)
2. very buggy (getting better)
3. the my news section being default (may be fixed shortly)
4. links don’t open in separate tab (may be a bug)
5. no picture section
6. no videos section
7. Digg is trying to be a like Facebook and/or Twitter (hint it’s not and shouldn’t try to be)

The less content/stories issue the biggest.  I use Digg as a filter for all the articles/pictures/videos on the internet.  If it can’t do that, then whats the point in Digg at all.

I really don’t understand organizations that take away features that many users/customers like or demand.  And when they don’t succeed they just try again latter.  Case-in-point the pictures section on Digg.  Digg got rid of it in a previous update and the users complained until it was put back, and now Digg has removed it again.

Accuview, Acclaro, OmniVUE, Cinema Display (LED version only) from Texas Digital

OI-7010, OI-753, OI-WF792, OI-WF910, OI-WF985, OI-WF590, OI-680, Calibration Station, from Otis Instruments.

Tolteq is located in Cedar Park, which is north of Austin.

Recommendations:

1. Analyze and control your finances.
2. Update your resume.
3. Have your resume in at least three formats: MS Word Document (.doc, NOT .docx), PDF, and plain text).
4. Have several versions of resume highlighting different aspects to apply to specific jobs.
5. Update your references.  Make sure you ask permission from the person first.  Have at least three.
6. Post your resume on emurse.
7. Have a personal web site with your resume in plain text so that it can be indexed by search engines (Google/Bing).
8. On your personal website have a pdf version of your resume.
9. List your references on the website.
10. Make sure your website is done in good taste.  Don’t post childish rants, cuss words, bad mouthing former employers, etc..
11. Use Linkedin.  Update it with industry contacts.
12. Create profiles on job search sites (monster, hotjobs, indeed,  regionalhelpwanted, dice, sologig, etc…).
13. Get in a routine and schedule of job searching; think of it as your new job.  I prefer indeed.com for daily job searching.

Observations (hind sight is 20/20):

If you work in a small city, like the College Station / Brian area, be observant of the number of and status of companies in your area.  In small cities the engineering jobs are usually few and far between.  It may sound obvious, but if you want to stay in a small city don’t be to picky with your job requirements.  Larger cities will provide more opportunities, especially for engineers.

It may take several weeks if not months for your first interview or contact with recruiters, depending on the state of the economy.  From my experiences, it seems that recruiters are now used heavily to hire engineers.  All the normal interview etiquette applies:

• be professional
• dress in a suits (unless they say different), sports coat my be optional
• take a nice folder with several copies of your resume and references
• don’t be late
• don’t be to early (10 minutes is ok)
• take notes during the interview
• learn all you can about the company before the interview (their website a good source)
• ask questions, but don’t over talk your interviewer
• don’t bring up salary on your first interview unless they do

These observations are from my personal experience, so yours will vary.

I went several weeks with little or no contact with anyone.  I then started to get two or three interviews a week usually through a recruiter.  That went on for about four weeks, but no offers.  Then, all of a sudden, I got three offers in one week.  Be prepared for the job offer to come at any time.  I was lucky and get a job I really like and with a company is a great place to work at (Tolteq).

See here for the un-offical cause of the problem:

“The digital video recorder or DVR relies on the i-Guide (digital channel guide) to tell it which TV show episodes are “new” and which are “repeats.” If a particular show is a repeat, but it’s not marked as a repeat in the i-Guide, the DVR assumes the show is new and records it.”

You can try to call tech support but you will get a different reason each time you call.  Either there tech support is not aware of the cause of the problem or Suddenlink is lying about the problem.

This is really frustrating as the fix should be very easy; 1 – make Rovi fix the issue, 2 – fire Rovi and get a new guide.

It’s really quite pathetic, as other cable/satellite companies and Tivo don’t have this issue.  Please leave comments if you are having this issue.

I’m an electrical engineer with more than eight years of experience including project manager, engineering director, analog and digital design, board layout, documentation, and product testing.

See my resume for details.   My resume on emurse.

EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

• Oversaw all product development
• Recruited and managed team of engineers
• Schematic entry and PCB layout
• Circuit design; analog, digital, and linear/switching power supply
• Gas sensor interface; electrochemical, inferred, and catalytic bead / pellistor
• PCB prototype assembly and test
• Production documentation; assembly, testing, and quality assurance procedures
• Class I Div 1 and ATEX Zone 1 explosion proof standards compliance design
• Legacy product maintenance
• Wireless product development; 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM band
• Oversaw all IT tasks
• Oversaw new ERP implementation
• Oversaw EN 13980 company implementation; based off of ISO 9001

• Project management
• Schematic entry and PCB layout
• Circuit design; analog, digital, and linear/switching power supply
• Production documentation; assembly, testing, and quality assurance procedures
• Bill of materials creation
• UL standards compliance design and RoHS compliance design
• Product testing for release
• Legacy product maintenance
• Microsoft XP Embedded design

• Project documentation
• System testing
• Data analysis
• Hardware and software management

• Network administrator
• Electronics design, repairs, and upgrade
• Software design, development and testing

TECHNICAL TOOLS

Software

• Altium Designer 6.0/2008
• Accel Tango Pro (PCB layout)
• Orcad (schematic entry)
• AutoCad 2004 LT
• Openoffice
• MS Office
• Drupal
• WordPress
• Linux (desktop and embedded)
• Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
• Windows XP Embedded

Hardware

• soldering (surface mount, through hole)
• DMM
• oscilloscope
• logic analyzers
• power supplies
• DAQs
• environmental chamber
• computers maintenance and repair

Best, Show, Ever!

I ripped the DVD to videos files to my server so I view them while I’m using the computer (second monitor).

• (-) install process froze on the background screen (most likley a video driver issue), used the video fail safe and proceeded with install
• (+) the rest of the install was very easy, well thought out, and simple
• (-) grub was installed on the wrong drive, had to change the bios to boot to grub
• (+) GDM login screen is nice
• (-)installed Nvidia graphics driver failed, with a “jokey” backend crash
• (-) Gnome theme is better, but just needs a log of work
• (-) Gnome takes up to much of the screen with overly large fonts, windows decorations, menu drop down selections, etc…
• (+) installed KDE4 was easy
• (+) new software install center is very nice
• (-) Firefox looks like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue since KDE 4.0, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firfox fonts like like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firefox is slow in Ubuntu, when compared to Firefix in windows, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) KDE crashed within 5 minutes of use
• (-) CTRL + ATL + Backspase does not appear to work, WTF Ubuntu, are you trying to make life harder for Linux users
• (-) Firefox launch feedback is broken in KDE, still an issue for years now!!!
• (-) QtCurve does not work, again WTF
• (-) KDE volume control does not preform as expected, also muted by default