I am finishing my 8-month co-op at Intel (Folsom, CA) and I feel like giving an insight on my experience at Intel, especially the interview process. I remember wanting to find a blog comment about someone’s experience at Intel but I could never find one! Seriously?! At times when everything is on the web? Anyway here it goes.

First of all, this may sound obvious but your best shot at getting an Intel Internship is to go to their job search website. Do not waste time going to Intel career fairs as they rarely help at all. . Once you are on the search job website, apply to all jobs that you think you qualify for and do not worry if there are a few skills you do not feel comfortable with. Just apply. Intel recruits all year long but especially in the spring semester.

Intel pulls out resumes with the right keywords from their database so I would advice you to have a resume with keywords such as “Computer Architecture,” “Microprocessor,” “Intel,” “Perl,” “Scripting,” etc. Another thing you have to know is that Intel is known to hire juniors, seniors and graduate students more than freshmen and sophomores so do not get discouraged if you are barely starting your undergraduate studies. Also, it really helps if you have some experience in the field you are applying to such as previous internship experience, TA or in small school projects and if you are willing to do an extended internship for a full semester. In any case, the more jobs you apply for the better chance you have to get contacted by a manager. I probably applied to 30+ jobs and got contacted by about 5 managers.

If interested, the manager will first setup an appointment to have a 1-hour long phone interview. The interview is pretty standard and follow a similar procedure. During the first 10 to 15 minutes the manager will simply asks questions about your preferences or school background. The rest of the interview will focused on technical questions with some time at the end for Q&A about the job itself.
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[2 votes, avg: 5.00 / 5]

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Through my long and tedious process of studying for the GRE (~ a month), I believe I have come up with the best tips that will help you ace the test–or at least help you do reasonably well. Personally I do not “believe” in the GRE but if you need to score high in math or english the following tips should help.

Best GRE Tips

1. Buy “Cracking the GRE” from Princeton Review (<$20).  This is by far my best tip. The math part is excellent. It teaches you not only the basics of all the things covered in the GRE but also a easy and quick way to do the problems. The book also stresses why it is good to follow the “easy way” and fall into the trap of working the problem in a “proper” way. As far as the verbal section, the books the covers all the essentials you need to know. However, you will quickly find out that the verbal part is 90% vocabulary knowledge. The book provides a “Hit Parade” list of about 300 popular words used in the the GRE. These words are a good starting point to increase your vocabulary.  In addition, Cracking the GRE provides the best analytical review section out of all the GRE tutorial books out there.

2.  Buy Kaplans’ Vocabulary Box ($12).  This is the best way to improve your vocabulary.  The box contains 500 flashcards of popular GRE words.  The flashcards are a great way to test yourself and they save you a great amount of time (trust me on this one).  Each flash cards includes: 1) a popular GRE word, 2) its definition, 3) a sentence using the word, 4)  Synonyms of the word and 5) its grammatical use (adjective, noun, verb).   The flashcards are practical and you can carry them anywhere.   My advice is to look at the most important cards first.  One way to do this is to first look at the words that are included in both Kaplan’s and Baron’s top GRE words lists; this website points out these words.  Next, I would look at the words that are used in the list from Kaplan and Cracking the GRE.  Finally, if you have time look at the rest of the words in the box.  500 is not that bad as you might think.  If you memorize 30 words per day you will be done in less than 3 weeks!

3.  Take Cracking The GRE’s online test prep.  The prep test is definitely 3x harder than the actual test.  This is a good thing though.  After taking this test you will definitely be more confident for the actual GRE test, especially for the math part.  The prep provides answers and solutions to all the questions and gives you a feedback score.

4.  Take the free practice tests from ETS.  This will help you practice and I have heard from many people that this test will give an accurate idea of what get on the actual test.

5. Buy Kaplan GRE Premier Program book. This book is not as good as Cracking the GRE but it does cover some points that other books don’t cover.  Plus the DVD included in the book offers several practice tests.  The more practice, the better!

6.  Improve your time management.   I cannot over-emphasize how important this is.  Definitely learn to time yourself while taking the prep tests.  Also, make sure you spend more time and attention on the first 10-15 questions of each section.  These questions  weight more and have a bigger impact on your final score.
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As some of you may know, the site was down for quite a while due to a virus that got into my site.  This, added to the fact that it has been a busy, yet exciating year, made it quite impossible to update the site .  Nevertheless, I am glad to announce that caesarnation.com is back!!

As an update, I am currently working for Intel in Folsom, California finishing some exciting projects related to NAND Flash memory.

thanks for all the comments about the site and for the +40,000 visitors!  I will try my best to post more often.

[2 votes, avg: 2.50 / 5]

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Good bye 2008! and Hello 2009!

Here are my new years’ resolutions for 2009.  Make your own list too! It definitely helps  maintain a productive year.

• Learn how to play Go
• Visit Austin’s vineyards
• Be more patient
• Finish reading “Crime and Punishment”
• Read a book per month
• Write articles for my website.  Constantly!
• Run half a marathon.
• Go to a Spurs game every other month
• Visit Wisconsin.
• Design a Longhorns Firefox theme
• Try new night clubs down in 6th street (Austin)
• Make time to date someone seriously
• Eat at a Greek restaurant
• Play tennis every week
• Go on a date with a red head
• Stay in touch with my buddies in El Paso
• Less partying
• Learn Flash and Python
• Work on my own Microcontroller project
• Drink more water
• Roadtrip to Dallas
• Go to Church
• Be a better person every day

[1 votes, avg: 5.00 / 5]

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For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been away from my beloved Texas this summer as I’ve been working in an internship here in New York. Definitely an exciting and very entertaining state. With all the skyscrapers, museums and infinite other amounts of things to see in all its cities, New York is simply the place where most people would like to live in at some point in their life, even if its at least for a few months.

Many friends and relatives have asked me how my stay here has been. My automatic and obvious response is always “Great. It has been awesome!” Of course, I also tell them about places I have visited, people I’ve met, and so on. However, I always forget to tell them the true unique things about New York. Places and facts that make it somewhat different than other states. For this reason, I’ve decided to give you some of the some of facts people don’t normally know about New York.

New York is a True Democratic State (McCain haters are everywhere)

Speaking with an open mind view and with no political bias, I can honestly say that about 90% of the people I met in New York were hardcore democrats. Emphasis in the word hardcore. Not only were these people democrats, but they would openly talk bad about Bush and McCain. This was actually quite easy to notice considering I come from Texas, a republican state. Test this yourself. If you are in New York, ask other people from NY about their political point of view. I’ll bet you’ll be having an hour long conversation all the pros of being a democrat or, for that matter, all the cons of being a republican (ok, maybe not an hour but you get the point).

Finger Lakes Wine Tour

And you thought California was the only state with quality wineries? Think again. Surprisingly enough, there is more than 100 vineyards and wineries surrounding the lakes of Cayuga, Canandaigua, Seneca (my favorite), and Keuka Lakes, making New York’s Finger Lakes area the second largest wine producing region in the US only behind Napa Valley, California.

Consider this, I used to not care at all about wine. I sort of liked it, however, I would always prefer to have something else (i.e. beer) if I had the option. After only one visit to the area though, I automatically became a wine lover. No kidding, their wine is just fabulous. You learn to appreciate wine and distinguish the flavors between all the different kinds. Great, great experience. The lakes are only 15 minutes away from Ithaca, New York (home of Cornell University) which makes it an even better touristic tour.

New Yorkers Really, Really Like to Smoke Cigarettes

Having already lived in Mexico City, a city in which people smoke cigarettes a lot since tobacco laws allow people to smoke inside restaurants, night club and pretty much everywhere, I would think that in NY, a state where smoking is not allowed inside buildings and where prices reach $10 for a pack, people would not smoke nearly as much. Well, surprisingly I was wrong! The percentage of people that smoke in New York is extremely high. Maybe this is because of all the different immigrants and cultures that surround the area or the incredible amount of people that live in the city, or simply stress, but seriously you can’t walk around in the city without bumping into a dense cloud of smoke. While I was in NY one of my coworkers, for example, would smoke a pack day like nothing. I wonder what do you think the life expectancy of the state is.

Closeness to Other Cities

Obviously, if you look at a map and look around it, this would not seem sound to uncommon to you. Usually though, you don’t think or care about this fact when you travel to NYC because you know you will have your hands full with all the things you can do there. And I would say you are right, there is many, many things you can do in the city if you are planning a weekend or a full week trip.

On the other hand, if you are planning a road trip or long vacations I would suggest you let go of your plans of going to Europe and visit the New York area. Toronto, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Rochester, Baltimore, Maryland, Connecticut (state), Syracuse, New Jersey (state) and Cleveland are all withing 8 hours away from NYC. Only 8 hours away. That’s what I call a road trip.

Infinite Amount of Colleges in The State

After just a few days of talking to people from NY you can’t help but realize the incredible amount number of universities in the state. If you ask new yorker what school do they go to or where they graduated from they’ll come up with all sort of universities. In fact, there is so many Universities Read more…

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I was reading my top movies of all time article the other day, and I thought to myself, “hey, there is something missing here!” It is not only about knowing the “best movies ever,” it also about knowing films that have made impact in our culture. Movies that everyone ought see in order to die peacefully, knowing you at least were good at doing one thing: watching movies.

Isn’t it annoying when you are in a movie conversation and somebody goes like “oh my god! Are you serious? You haven’t watched it yet?” Well, I’ve made a list of movies that will make you a “movie critic” and the one making other people feel ignorant for not watching those movies. Forget Roger Ebert, you are gonna be more movie literate than he is after reading this 101 movie list.

Have in mind there are very high quality movies missing in the list. In fact, there a lot of good movies missing. I tried to include culture defining movies that will get you started in the fascinating world of film. Remember to append this list to your “bucket list.” You definitely have to watch these movies before you die.

I purposely made the list in a random order. I though I would be pretty lame and boring to have them order by year or alphabetized. Enjoy!

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	1. Blade Runner (1982)
	2. Platoon (1986)
	3. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
	4. Star Wars (1977)
	5. Matrix (1999)
	6. Apocalypse Now (1979)
	7. Wizard of Oz (1939)
	8. Se7en (1995)
	9. Schindler’s List (1993)
	10. Halloween (1978)

[4 votes, avg: 5.00 / 5]

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Digital Signal Processing (DPS) is the method of representing real-world signals into digital form, meaning binary or other numeric values. Their applications have are of great significance and are widely use in today’s technology. For example, DPS devices are core part of cell phones, cars, security sensors, touch screens, hi-fi, computer animations in movies, medical scans such as MRIs, and audio manipulation, just to name a few.

Although not just limited to DPS applications, there are four main type of devices that are worth talking about since they make DPS applications possible, and they are: Microcontroller, FPGA, CPLD, ASIC. These devices have different system capabilities, level of performance, time-to-market, production costs and use different programming and simulation techniques. Because of all this different resources, deciding what type of devices should be used for what type projects can be somewhat difficult for hobbyist and wells as for engineers. All of them are popular so knowing pros and cons about each of them definitely doesn’t hurt.

Microcontroller

A microcontroller, or MCU, is a computer-on-a-chip capable of performing functions that are application-specific. They are made up of a processor, ROM, EEPROM, RAM, and I/O modules and unlike the other devices, they are inexpensive. They are incredibly useful and can be found digital technologies such as automobile control systems, power systems, robotics, appliances and remote controls. The learning curve is not as high as with FPGAs or CPLDs; most microcontrollers can be programmed in C or in assembly language. It is highly recommendable to know at least the basics of logic design to ease the process. Unlike FPGAs where the design run in parallel manner, microcontrollers, as all CPUs based architectures, run sequentially. In other words, modules in an FPGA design all run at the same time based on a clock input, while microcontrollers behave like normal software, they run instructions based on their position in memory.

FPGA

Field-programmable gate array, or simply FPGA, are devices containing logic blocks Read more…

[3 votes, avg: 4.33 / 5]

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Everybody seems to be a YouTube addict nowadays. Even though I am not one of them, I have to admit some of the videos can be quite hilarious. I’ve compiled a list of the best videos of the month for those of you who hate going to YouTube-like sites and spend countless and countless hours searching for videos. Take note that these are not the “most viewed” or “best rated” videos in YouTube or any other similar site, but rather the most interesting and funny ones I’ve come across.

1. Radiohead – House of Cards

This is Radiohead’s new video of the song House of Cards from their album In Rainbows. No Cameras and no lights were used! All was produced using 3D plotting technology. Wait till the city shows up, it is very impressive.

2. I Don’t Need Subtitles

OMG. This video is hilarious. A must watch.

3. Crazy Biker On Cellphone Lying Down

This is exactly the reason why there is high demand of nurses across the country and why hospitals’ emergency rooms are always packed.

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[3 votes, avg: 4.67 / 5]

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With all the buzz surrounding the new and improved Firefox 3, its worth talking about Firefox’s Add-ons. For those of you who don’t know, Firefox’s add-ons are small web applications that integrate with Firefox to add or change functionality. They are easy to install, incredibly useful and convenient. Moreover, some of them will just make you wonder how you used to live without them. No kidding.

I have generated a list of the most popular and recommended add-ons out there that you should know about. However, there plenty other very cool extensions so make sure to check the Firefox Add-ons webpage to find out more about them.

1. StumbleUpon

Arguably the best toolbar around. With StumbleUpon you can discover websites based on your interest and on what other people have “Stumbled.” The awesome thing about this is that by clicking the “stumble” button you will end up browsing very interesting and cool sites that you would have never been able to find without it. On the other hand, you can also use StumbleUpon to look up popular pages from within specific sites such as YouTube, CNN, Wikipedia and Wired. You can also use this toolbar to bookmark sites that you like and later be able to look at them from any computer. WARNING: Be ready to spend many hours using this tool. It is very addictive.
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[6 votes, avg: 4.83 / 5]

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When it comes to girls, most guys act with girls as cats act with dogs.  If we don’t like something about girls, we usually just run away and sprint to the finish line. Unless, of course, that girl is somebody as hot as Megan Fox.

Pay attention girls! If you are dating, here are some tips for you that should help you, I am sure you don’t want to end up single the rest of your life.

Wearing Too Much Make-up

Don’t abuse it and don’t slap it on please.  Men want to see the true girl behind the mask; we don’t want to see a clown standing in front of us.  They’re creepy.  We like girls that take care of themselves but pushing it too much and you might hear a scream from your guy.

Talk Trash About Your Ex

Worst thing girls can do is talk negatively about their ex-boyfriend. It doesn’t matter if its the first date or the 33rd.  Ex-boyfriends were part of your life, you spent time together, you had fun together (hopefully).  If you talk trash about them all you are doing is telling us one day you might do the same to us.  Why would we want to be with a girl that is going to talk trash about us if something goes bad?  Girls, rule number one: only talk about your ex-boyfriend when you are asked about him.  Rule number two: only talk about your ex-boyfriend when you are asked about him. Rule number three: If you are asked about him, just say something like “we had a good time while it lasted, we moved on.”
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[8 votes, avg: 4.75 / 5]

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