vette982

I'll be starting at Google in a few months and I'm debating between living in SF or nearby in Mountain View/Palo Alto/Sunnyvale.

I do like living in the city, but worry that commuting back and forth may get tiring on a daily basis. If I live in the cities around Google, I'll have to get a car, whereas living in SF I probably won't need one. What are everyone's thoughts?

Where does everyone in the Bay Area live/work?

I'm a Canadian citizen and I'll be graduating and working full-time in May. Is it possible to do an internship on a J-1 Visa, and then start a full-time position with a different company on a TN Visa immediately after?

I'm thinking of doing a 3 month internship before starting full-time at another company.

I've been thinking lately about the topic of using ad networks vs. managing ads on your own on a website that you've built.

There are obvious benefits to both, but I'm curious to hear from others about their experiences with ads.

I'm interested in doing some freelance work for a few extra bucks, but I'm not really sure what my "skill" level is in terms of freelancing. I have 2-3 years experience with PHP (and CakePHP), CSS, Javascript, jQuery, and I'm pretty good with Photoshop. I'm also pretty good with C++ and Java, but I don't think that would be of much use for freelance-sized projects. For the most part, if I'm given some desired web project, I'll be able to put it together with a little Googling if I don't already know exactly what to do.

In terms of my level of design skill, it's tough to say... I don't have any live projects at the moment to show off, but I'd definitely say I'm an above average designer.

What are some of your recommendations?

A friend of mine has been running a fairly successful e-commerce operation for the last 3 years, and he's been having trouble with sending emails to a mailing list of between 700 and 800k email addresses. Basically, the volume of emails is starting to bog down his servers and T1 lines. Does anyone have suggestions for 1) balancing he load when sending the emailers out to minimize the impedance of email campaigns on the servers and connection or 2) a cost-effective alternative to which the email campaigns can be outsourced.

Thanks!

I'm going to be moving to the Palo Alto/Mountain View area in May to start an internship. I'll be making close to $15/hour and I'm wondering how much of that will be deducted for taxes or other reasons? Also, in Canada (I'm from Toronto) there are TD1 tax forms that students who are still in school and paying tuition can fill out to lessen their tax deductions. Is there anything similar in California?

Any help is appreciated! I've never been to California and I can't wait to move out there. Also, does anyone have advice on finding a cheap place to live for one person in the Palo Alto/Mountain View area?