Do you know your way to San Jose? Hundreds of engineering and science students and professionals do as they made their way to San Jose, California, this weekend for the Mexican American Engineers and Scientists' (MAES) 31st Annual International Symposium and Career Fair. The theme for this year's symposium was "Excellence in Engineering and Science." The symposium industry host was Lockheed Martin and our academic host was San Jose State University (SJSU). As a proud San Jose native, grateful SJSU-SOLES alumnus, and professional techie I volunteered my time for the symposium as part of the presentation committee and the whatever-needed-to-be-done committee. [more]

I recently read remarks made by Justice Carlos Moreno of the California Supreme Count at the International Association of Trial Lawyers. I just want to highlight here some of his remarks. Justice Moreno being a judge for the California Supreme Court could send me for death row for copyright infringement, so I plea the fifth, the fourteenth, the tenth, (which is the amendment that allows a man to have multiple wives?), and the zeroth! What follows are fragments of judicial insight from Justice Moreno's speech: [more]

Jury duty is torture. By the time a jury is called to the courtroom they are ready to convict. Today I was summoned to do my duty. I waited from 10am until nearly 2pm before they assigned my jury panel to a judge. By the time the assigned us I was ready to put the alleged in the chair. The jury had no snacks, no fresh air, and just bored out of the minds. How can a Chicano get a fair trial when the jury is kept in such conditions? The county needs to hook up the jury waiting room with some freaking cable, a foosball machine, and some freaking cappuccino makers. Here is a picth I have for NBC. Law and Order: Jury Duty. [more]

Politics is a family business. Since the times of Charlemagne, young princes where groomed to inherit the crown. In the United States we have eliminated nobility but have still keep the essence of regal nepotism. We all know that President George H. W. Bush, the 41st president, is the father of President George W. Bush, the 43rd president. But this was not the first father and son to both hold the presidency. President John Adams, the second president, was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. [more]

In building a .NET web application, the Repeater Control comes in really handy when building a table from a ResultSet or DataCollection. The Repeater Control has five templates, which can contain HTML code. In this short essay I will talk code reuse and not code repeat with the .NET Repeater control and go over the HeaderTemplate, the ItemTemplate, and the AlternatingItemTemplate to show how you can reduce the amount of redundant HTML. [more]

Having gone through the interview process a few times as a recent grad I wanted to write down some general hints and tips about the interview process. Aside from your skill set, I feel that employers are looking for the same thing that you are looking when you go clubbing, to meet someone whom you have chemistry with. You might hear interviewing manager call this chemistry the "right fit." So fit right in and take a look at my experience through the interview process. [more]

There is a great article on Wired magazine published on the April 2005 issue. The article is entitled La Vida Robot and it is about four high school students from the wrong side of the west side of Phoenix, AZ. The four students are Mexican, undocumented, immigrants, and extremely smart. The four students and two faculty members from Carl Hayden Community High School formed an engineering team and entered into the third annual Marine Advanced Technology Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition sponsored by NASA and the U.S. Navy. The students, Lorenzo, Cristian, Oscar, and Luis, designed and developed a robot that was to go through a specially designed underwater obstacle course. These four students with their faculty advisors decided to enter the college level Explorer class instead of the beginner Ranger class not because they expected to win but because they expected to lose. They figured that it was better to lose at the advance level than to lose at the beginner level. [more]

I recently attended the SHPE 2005 Region 1 Regional Student Leadership conference at Cal Maritime. I attended a very helpful workshop on interview skills given by Marina Gonzalez of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. I definitely thought the workshop was helpful maybe because I am actually looking for a job. I think it is vital to know the interview process, not only if you are the one doing the hiring, but especially if you are looking to be hired. So if you ever get a chance to attend a workshop on the hiring process and interviewing skills take it. If you don't get the chance to attend such a workshop read on for a few tips. [more]

I went on a field trip to NASA Ames Research Center yesterday. I haven't been there since I was in elementary school, and I am as excited about being there now as I was then. The fieldtrip was organized by the Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists at San Jose State University (SOLES-SJSU). About ten of us SOLES members got a tour of the wind tunnels at NASA Ames. NASA Ames contains several wind tunnels; some are used to test models of vehicles such as jet fighters, helicopters, and even the space shuttle. These models are tested at varying wind speeds. Some of the tunnels here at NASA Ames are used to test high wind speeds of over mach 1 while others wind tunnels focus on sub-mach wind speeds. NASA Ames claims to have the largest wind tunnel in the world. [more]

Over 500 middle and high school students eagerly attended Saturday school at San Jose State University for the fourth annual Science Extravaganza. But the Science Extravaganza is not some kind of academic punishment it is an academic encouragement. The Science Extravaganza is intended to be a hands-on one-day event which is put together by the Bay Area Professional Chapter of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAES), the Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists (SOLES) at San Jose State University (SJSU) and the kind donations from many technology related companies. [more]

Certain places have certain names, sometimes named after the pioneers that settled the area, often named and renamed and yet named again. For example, in Latin America, the towns and villages are named, or better yet prefixed with the name, of a saint, a conquistador, or that of a town in Spain. For example, in Castile La Macha, Spain there is a city by the name of Guadalajara and also in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Since we brought up Mexico, let me mention where the word Mexico comes from. [more]

Marx's Communist Manifesto is often read in college. I haven't read the Communist Manifesto myself but last semester I read, studied, and discussed the views of Marx in three different courses. We covered Marx in Anthroplogy 160, Bussiness Ethics 186, and Philosophy 12. From my limited knowledge here are what I understand about Marx and his manifesto. [more]

As part of my anthropology class this last semester, we had three geography quizzes. The last quiz involved the entire continent of African. The first two quizzes dealt with Latin American and Asia, including the Middle East. In studying for these quizzes I made a few observations on the names of certain countries. For example in Africa there are two countries whose names remind me of things I enjoy. The country of Togo reminds me of Togos, a fast food sandwich franchise, and the country of Djibouti reminds me of JLo's booty. Djibouti is pronounce similar to 'yo booty.' [more]

Today President George W. Bush, 43, is sworn in for to second term in as President. The President's father, George H. W. Bush, is himself was a former president. The President's brother, Jeb Bush, is the current the Governor of Florida. The President's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. The Bush family is an American political Dynasty. The dynasties of ancient China lasted at most three hundred years. The United States is only a little over two hundred years and the Bush dynasty has had an influence in the political arena all the way back to about a hundred years. It is also speculated that the current President will not be the last Bush to hold the office of the President of the United States. [more]