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Archive for December, 2011

“This is my first time, since my first time. ”
- Jim, from the movie ‘American Pie 2?

In order to acquire an education in the United States, there are several necessary documents one must have.

One needs to acquire a student visa and a certificate of eligibility and to fill up several other forms aside from the applications one is to send out to prospective academic institutions.

Ok – try not to get overwhelmed.

Let’s take this one step at a time.

First a foremost, before one can be issued a student visa, there are several requirements one must obtain, forms one must fill up and submit.

(*taken from UnitedStatesVisas.gov)

1. A certificate of eligibility which you must get from your sponsoring educational institution in the U.S. If you are a regular student (an F visa) you’ll get Form I-20. If you are part of an approved exchange program (a J visa) you’ll get Form DS-1920.

* Further clarification will be made regarding student visas in an upcoming post.

2. Application Form DS-156

3. Form DS-158

4. Current, valid passport or travel document

5. Photograph. Requirements are strict for photograph size, type and quality. Please check with your nearest consulate for specifications before you get your picture taken.
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Pursuing an online IT degree can not only add to your education and beef up your resume; it can also boost your career and put you on the fast track to success. If you are tossing around the idea of going back to school, here are 5 reasons why an online IT degree is the right choice for you.

Good Reason #1: Convenience

There’s no doubt that getting an online IT degree is more convenient than getting your degree the traditional way. It used to be that going back to school required you to rearrange your schedule, risking or perhaps even leaving your job so that you would be able to attend classes. And as if that weren’t enough, you also had to sacrifice valuable time normally spent with your family and loved ones.

An online format changes all of that. Instead of planning your life around your degree, plan your degree around your life: Log in, check messages, and do coursework all at your convenience. If you want to “go” to class in the middle of the night in your pajamas, no one will be the wiser for it. If you want to take advantage of the time you save not having to commute, you can even take an extra class or two and finish your degree a little faster.

Good Reason #2: Job Security

These days, you have your choice of online degrees you can pursue. Information technology personnel are in demand. The more businesses turn to computerized systems to run everything from inventory lists to complicated company networks, the clearer it becomes that information technology is the way of the future.

Businesses in particular need IT personnel in three specific areas: computer systems, programming, and networking. Most businesses have computer systems that need to be set up and maintained. In addition, some businesses, particularly large companies, program their own systems in-house. And with any moderate or large sized business, there is a network that allows everyone’s computers to network, which will also need to be set up and maintained.

No matter what happens to other industries, these jobs are not going to go away, because they handle the things businesses are founded on. An online IT degree will ensure you job security, by making you eligible to work in one of the most necessary industries in today’s business world.

Good Reason #3: Earning Power
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Artificial Intelligence as a research field was born in the summer of 1956 during a seminal workshop at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was just a year before that when Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, Claude Shannon and John McCarthy proposed that they should hold a workshop to put together a roadmap about how to make machines think and learn similarly to humans. The ultimate goal was to discover computational models in order to enable machines to do commonsense reasoning. Today, John McCarthy is rightly considered the father of AI. I should note that the term “Artificial Intelligence” appeared for the first time in the proposal put forth by the previously mentioned scientists. And so this new discipline that would eventually captivate everyone’s imagination was born.

Artificial Intelligence had its ups and downs in the last 50 years. Early success solving small problems in simulation ignited a flurry of predictions about super intelligent machines taking over the world before the coming of the 21st century. Hampered by a lack of a good understanding of how commonsense reasoning works in people and a lack of computational resources, computers being very slow up until the mid nineties, AI research stalled in the 80s. Many people rushed to dismiss it as nothing more than hot air.
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Personality traits are enduring, usually rigid patterns of behavior, thinking (cognition), and emoting expressed in a variety of circumstances and situations and throughout one’s life (typically from early adolescence onward). Some personality traits are harmful to both oneself and to others. These are the dysfunctional traits. Often they cause discomfort and the person bearing these traits is unhappy and self-critical. This is called ego-dystony. At other times, even the most pernicious personality traits are happily endorsed and even flaunted by the patient. This is called “ego-syntony”.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) describes 12 ideal “prototypes” of personality disorders. It provides lists of seven to nine personality traits per each disorder. These are called “diagnostic criteria”. Whenever five of these criteria are met, a qualified mental health diagnostician can safely diagnose the existence of a personality disorder.

But important caveats apply.

No two people are alike. Even subjects suffering from the same personality disorder can be worlds apart as far as their backgrounds, actual conduct, inner world, character, social interactions, and temperament go.
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