Daniel Stenberg, author of the ubiquitous URL fetcher cURL and the libcurl multiprotocol file transfer library, and recipient of the 2017 Polheim Prize, has been blocked again from attending a US-based conference. Daniel has written a post in his blog about his two-year odyssey through the byzantine US bureaucracy to try to get permission to attend a work-related conference in California. He has been in the US nine times previously but despite pages of paperwork, hundreds of dollars in fees, and personal visits to the embassy, no dice. As a result the conference will have to move outside the US and probably Canada too if it wants to stay open to the world's top talent.
Earlier on SN:
US Visa Applications May Soon Require Five Years of Social Media Info (2018)
Reducing Year 2038 Problems in curl (2018)
cURL turns Seventeen Today (2015)
Related Stories
Daniel Stenberg lets the world know that cURL, the little command line utility that lets you download stuff off the internet via HTTP along with a bunch of other protocols, has turned 17 today (March 20). Considering that it is also available to all of us for use in our programs as a nifty little library called 'libcurl', and that PHP, the most common web development language depends on libcurl for handling HTTP requests, we can be happy that cURL exists. I personally cannot count the number of times it has saved me and the machines I administer.
curl is a text-based utility and library for transferring data identified by their URLs. It is now year-2038 safe even on 32-bit systems. Daniel Stenberg, the orginal hacker of curl, has overseen a year-2038 fix for 32-bit systems. Without specific modifications, 32-bit systems cannot handle dates beyond 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. After that date, the time counter flips over and starts over again at zero, which would be the beginning of the UNIX epoch known as 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970. Given the pervasiveness of 32-bit embedded systems and their long service lives, this is a serious problem and good (essential) to have fixed decades in advance. The OpenBSD project was the first major software project to take steps to avoid potential disaster from 32-bit time and awareness has since started to spread to other key software project such as curl.
Previously the State Department had required only visitors to the US who where coming from specific regions to turn over more social control media information. Now Engadget and CNN tell of the following proposed changes which are now posted in the Federal Register and entering their 60 period for public comment.
From Engadget:
In documents that the department will file to the Federal Register tomorrow [ed: 2018-03-30], it proposes that nearly every individual applying for a US visa be required to hand over any social media handles used on certain platforms in the past five years as well as submit any telephone numbers and email addresses used during that same time period.
The State Department will accept public comments until near the end of May.
Sources:
Engadget: US visa applications may soon require five years of social media info
CNN: US to require would-be immigrants to turn over social media handles
[ed: no actual DS-160 or DS-156 forms seem to be available for download or review.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/forms/ds-160-online-nonimmigrant-visa-application.html ]
Ross Anderson, a British professor who was recently denied entrance to the US, well-known for his extensive background in cryptography and computer security research, is in the process of writing a new edition of his book on computer security engineering. So far, the preface and two chapters of Security Engineering, 3rd edition are online available for review. Other chapters will follow online as well. The first and second editions will remain available too.
Today I put online a chapter on Who is the Opponent, which draws together what we learned from Snowden and others about the capabilities of state actors, together with what we've learned about cybercrime actors as a result of running the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre. Isn't it odd that almost six years after Snowden, nobody's tried to pull together what we learned into a coherent summary?
There's also a chapter on Surveillance or Privacy which looks at policy. What's the privacy landscape now, and what might we expect from the tussles over data retention, government backdoors and censorship more generally?
Earlier on SN:
Sustainable Security for Durable Goods (2018)
Daniel Stenberg, Author of cURL and libcurl, Denied US Visit Again (2018)
curl developer Daniel Stenberg has gone through his project's security problems and calculated that 51 out of curl's 98 security vulnerabilities have been C mistakes. The total number of bugs in the database is about 6.6k, meaning that not quite 1.5% have been security flaws.
Let me also already now say that if you check out the curl security section, you will find very detailed descriptions of all vulnerabilities. Using those, you can draw your own conclusions and also easily write your own blog posts on this topic!
This post is not meant as a discussion around how we can rewrite C code into other languages to avoid these problems. This is an introspection of the C related vulnerabilities in curl. curl will not be rewritten but will continue to support backends written in other languages.
It seems hard to draw hard or definite conclusions based on the CVEs and C mistakes in curl's history due to the relatively small amounts to analyze. I'm not convinced this is data enough to actually spot real trends, but might be mostly random coincidences.
After the stats and methodology, he goes into more detail about the nature of the 51 bugs and the areas in the program (and library) where they occur. In general, the problems sort out into buffer overreads, buffer overflows, use after frees, double frees, and NULL mistakes.
Previously:
(2020) curl up 2020 and Other Conferences Go Online Only
(2019) Google to Reimplement Curl in Libcrurl
(2018) Daniel Stenberg, Author of cURL and libcurl, Denied US Visit Again
(2018) Twenty Years of cURL on March 20, 2018
(2018) Reducing Year 2038 Problems in curl
(2017) Eric Raymond: "The long goodbye to C"
Daniel Stenberg of cURL fame has written about the impact of fake, LLM-generated bug reports has on his project, cURL. The main problem with LLM-generated bug reports is that they tend to be bunk while at the same time looking close enough to a real bug report as to end up wasting a lot of developer time which could have been used triaging and addressing real bugs.
A security report can take away a developer from fixing a really annoying bug. because a security issue is always more important than other bugs. If the report turned out to be crap, we did not improve security and we missed out time on fixing bugs or developing a new feature. Not to mention how it drains you on energy having to deal with rubbish.
Often wannabe security consultants will take the output of an LLM and modify it with their own language, thus intentionally or unintentionally obscuring some of the telltale warning signs of LLM-generated bunk.
Previously:
(2023) "cURL", the URL Code That Can, Marks 25 Years of Transfers
(2023) Half of Curl's Security Vulnerabilities Due to C Mistakes
(2020) curl up 2020 and Other Conferences Go Online Only
(2018) Daniel Stenberg, Author of cURL and libcurl, Denied US Visit Again
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:02PM (10 children)
Maybe IT conferences shouldn't happen on US soil after all.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:27PM (5 children)
You know what is fucking awesome,
Miles Davis and the 'Trane Jammin' [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:00PM (2 children)
That sucks donkey balls. And it's stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:41PM (1 child)
Well it did come from EF, pretty much the og sn troll. Too bad he has developed a following, though i am not convinced he is not using multiple accounts.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Subsentient on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:47PM
All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled... All hail Ethanol Fueled...
In all seriousness, I find his deliberately offensive, racist, xenophobic brand of trolling to be... downright hilarious.
If Ethanol Fueled left, I'd miss him dearly. Keep doing your stuff EF!
We believe in you.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Monday July 30 2018, @05:09AM
+1 fuck yeah:)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @07:10PM
You fucking mariachi lover
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:42PM
FTFY. And I'm surprised it's taken so long for people to start realizing this.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:44PM (2 children)
D'you want to really kick them where it hurts? Move Comic-Con to a less oppressive country.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:09PM (1 child)
Steinberg is a Jew. What Jews like are good war songs. [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @09:59AM
FYI censored in Israel
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @07:58PM (8 children)
This is the new America, where we only want white European immigrants. In fact, our illustrious Grand Poobah has specifically stated that he'd like more immigrants from countries like Norway. Sure, Stenberg is from Sweden, which is kind of like Norway, but not enough for us to let those people in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:05PM (4 children)
You realize he is a white european, right?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:32PM (3 children)
I read it as an ironic and insightful joke. If this individual was not white, this story would get vastly more coverage and undoubtedly be framed as a racist action. But because he's white, you're reading this on his blog instead of nytimes.com.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:44PM (1 child)
Meh i doubt it. He is in tech, no one gives a shit about us unless there is more to the story. There are so many brown people waiting for visas that your point becomes yet another lame attempt at a political point.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @07:10AM
He has outstanding, as in the literal - out standing, qualifications. Most do not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @06:16AM
I read it as a sub-standard troll. D+, left disappointed.
(Score: 3, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:08PM (2 children)
Look what happened in Malmo this morning. Dangerous Country, dangerous people!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday July 30 2018, @12:37AM (1 child)
(cont) One of the critical lessons of 9/11 is that immigration enforcement saves lives. We must enforce the rules against visa fraud, illegal overstay, illegal entry and other immigration violations and crimes. And crimes they are. Believe me, crimes they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:46AM
You'd certainly know all about crime.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:05PM (15 children)
Why on earth would you want talent when there is an unlimited supply of Mediocrity?
Now, even the mediocre can become president, you know!
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:53PM (12 children)
Barry Soetoro proved that.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:12PM (11 children)
Ah, Baraq Hussein Soetoro. Good to see him again. I still don't regret voting for his first term, however, he wanted to deviate from the wants of the deep state. Powerful people beLIEve that he knows too much. Let's hope he
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:50PM (9 children)
Obama wasn't nearly as terrible a president as I expected him to be. He was actually passably decent. Definitely not in the top 10 worst presidents.
Compared to the corruptor-in-chief we got now, I'd give my left nut to get someone like Obama back in the white house.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:58PM (8 children)
Whom did you vote for?
Did you vote for Trump and now regret your vote?
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Monday July 30 2018, @12:06AM (7 children)
I voted for Jill Stein. I couldn't stomach Hillary either. In retrospect, looks like it didn't matter anyways.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Whoever on Monday July 30 2018, @12:30AM (6 children)
Jill Stein had precisely zero chance of winning. Hillary would have been a terrible president, but much, much better than Trump.
It depends what state you are in. If your state has a strong slant (either way), then sending a signal by voting for Stein makes sense. If you live in a swing state, then you screwed yourself (and millions of others).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @12:53AM
No she wouldn't have been. With the anointed one, we would have regime changed Syria by now and turned it into a Libyan shithole.
I voted for Stein because she was the best available candidate after Sanders yielded. Fuck you if that does not coalesce with your wishes. That's democracy.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by realDonaldTrump on Monday July 30 2018, @01:00AM
Remember, we won the election. And we won it easily. You know, a lot of people say "oh, it was close, and oh..." And by the way, they also like to always talk about Electoral College. Well, it’s an election based on the Electoral College. I would rather have a popular election, but it’s a totally different campaign. It's as though you're running — if you're a runner, you're practicing for the 100 yard dash as opposed to the 1 mile. The Electoral College is different. I would rather have the popular vote because it's, to me, it's much easier to win the popular vote. But it was what the Democrats used to try and make an excuse for their loss of an election, for their loss of the Electoral College that they should never lose, because the Electoral College is set up PERFECTLY for the Democrats and this was an ABSOLUTE TOTAL BEATING in the Electoral College. They should never lose the Electoral College, and they did.
I would rather see it, where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes, and somebody else gets 90 million votes, and you win. There’s a reason for doing this. Because it brings ALL THE STATES into play. Not just those swing states!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @01:40AM (3 children)
Your post illustrates exactly why you got Trump. Pretty much noone wanted either Trump or Clinton. Had all of you cast your partisan bullshit aside for a minute and agreed on an acceptable third party candidate, you might have had a chance. But you Yanks just keep believing the fairy tale of the wasted vote and the legendary two one true parties to bring you democracy and freedom. Voting "for the lesser evil" is not just throwing your vote away, it's a betrayal of democracy.
Grow some balls, take to social media, or hand out leaflets in the street, tell everyone which third party you're gonna vote for and why. Get some friends to do as you do. Tell them to tell their friends. Watch as a storm in a teacup turns into a blizzard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:19AM (1 child)
Ah, demonstrated by the Republicans taking power from the Whigs.
Perhaps it is time for another party to take power from the Democrats.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 30 2018, @01:24PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @03:57PM
It isn't a myth, it is a fact of the type of system we have.
If we could get a run-off system (instant run-off is my preference) this wouldn't be an issue. With the system we have, it is.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:13AM
Ethanol-fueled gains a +5 against lizard people for 4 hours.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:06PM (1 child)
"Now, even the mediocre can become president, you know!"
Yes, thank you for pointing this out. I, for one, am *proud* that even those with mental and psychological disabilities now have a role model in the Whitehouse they can look up to. Now people with mental disabilities can see that man in the Oval Office and say to themselves " someday, that could be me". Those who are mediocre at everything can say "it doesn't matter how much I slack off, I still got a chance". He's making America great again!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @04:24PM
Gee! Score "Flamebait", huh? What's the matter? Did I hit a little too close to home for someone? Maybe next time you shouldn't vote for a Doofus to be the President. Just sayin'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @08:07PM (11 children)
He's a foreigner. He has no right to come to the US. Much like I have no right or recourse to visit Russia or China, when they deny me even after completing an onerous visa application. Yeah, I can say they're being assholes, but it is their own country.
With respect to Swedish data protection laws, have his relatives given consent that their data is provided to a foreign government to mine?
(Score: 5, Informative) by choose another one on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:34PM
Equally the conferences have the right to move to other countries if the attendees can't get into US.
If the loss is big enough things will change - White House guarantees that athletes from all countries (must have included Trump-muslim-ban ones) would be allowed in were apparently required to get LA the 2028 olympic games. IOC and other international sporting organisations face this sort of problem all the time - IJF recently suspended events in Tunisia and UAE over the issue, and threatened to cancel the world championships in Morocco last year in order to get some athletes visas.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:56PM (8 children)
So?
The USA benefits from his visit to the USA.
The USA has the right to deny entry to all non-citizens. Do you think that would be a good move for the economy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @12:14AM
MAGA! Keep this alien out, he's stealing our jobs!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @12:56AM (6 children)
Not your call.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:15AM
I don't need no arms around me
I don't need no drugs to calm me
I have seen the writing on the wall
Don't think I need anything at all
No don't think I'll need anything at all
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall
All in all you were just bricks in the wall
(Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 30 2018, @02:26AM (4 children)
Then whose call could it possibly be? This is the typical problem with authoritarian logic. Once someone gets in charge, they magically gain the authority to make all kinds of bullshit "calls" without explanation or accountability.
My view on this is that even non-citizens have rights to just do stuff, like enter the US, without this sort of bullshit. Sure, regulate their entry and such to protect the delicate security theater the US has set up. But to reject entry (and stonewall on a second application for over three months) without explanation is bullshit. This guy is obeying the laws of the US and has a good reason for being in the US. Why isn't he being allowed entry? We need more than some bullshit about rights.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @05:13AM (1 child)
Simple. The executive branch under president Trump, who has generally unrestricted authority to ban foreigners from entering the United States. Actual decision is through a mix of inputs from department of state, homeland security, FBI and a bunch of other TLAs whose information can be reasonably classified.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 30 2018, @12:50PM
I agree that's the problem. But how to fix it? I suggest eliminating most of those TLAs and making much less of that information "reasonably classified" so that citizens and non-citizens have more information about how they can get things done and still comply with whatever decision-making processes are going on.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Monday July 30 2018, @07:21PM (1 child)
What if it wasn't anyone's call? But rather this outcome being solely result of bureaucratic SNAFU? After author of cURL wouldn't be near as important as some Olympic athlete, so forgetting to process him in timely matter wouldn't even result in diplomatic incident. With the amount of sods trying to enter US for whatever reason there's no wonder that government workers would become bored..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 31 2018, @05:20AM
If it's not important enough for them to care, it's certainly not important enough for me to support.
(Score: 5, Informative) by driverless on Monday July 30 2018, @01:27AM
I've been to all three. It is far, far, far easier to get a visa to Russia or China than the US. In my case for both it's been a pure formality, send in paperwork, pay a fee, and get your visa, and that was before the APEC business travel card, now I just walk in without needing paperwork. For the US it's so painful that we ended up cancelling the trip, since the pain of that was less than trying to get a visa to get in. The business ended up going to a European company instead of a US one.
I've heard many, many more stories like this one. What a way to run your trade policy!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @10:33PM
Mr Stenberg shouldn't have interfered in U.S. politics. He's a foreigner and the constitution makes it clear that foreigners are not allowed to meddle in U.S election. If you meddle, you don't get allowed in as Mr Stenberg just learned. But if you don't meddle, you get invited to the White House like Mr Putin. So stop meddling.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:54PM (1 child)
This is simply a trap. The USA knows where you have traveled and when, better than you do. What they are doing is looking for an opportunity to deny you entry (now or in the future) because you lied in an application.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @01:43AM
Came here looking for this [encyclopediadramatica.rs]. Left disappointed.
-1 star, would not fap again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @12:52AM (2 children)
The minority that elected this nutbag regime in the U.S. deserves to have all of these conferences leave. None of the best and brightest should come here, because we are sinking into a vat of ignorance as fast as possible. You don't want to be dragged down with us.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Monday July 30 2018, @02:41AM (1 child)
The people who elected "this nutbag regime" will be happy to see these conferences leave US soil.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @04:19PM
Yeah! Because, as any fool know, my "common sense" is just as good as your fancy book larnin'! MAGA!
(Score: 1) by Hardness on Monday July 30 2018, @01:03AM (5 children)
The whole sad tale is here:
https://youtu.be/KPgyTzqDJhM?t=1m6s [youtu.be]
(Score: 2) by John Miller on Monday July 30 2018, @07:05PM (4 children)
"Although Federal law provides a mechanism to designate and sanction foreign terrorist organizations and foreign state sponsors of terrorism, there is currently no analogous mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations." petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/formally-recognize-antifa-terrorist-organization-0 [whitehouse.gov]
(Score: 1) by Hardness on Tuesday July 31 2018, @02:53AM (3 children)
Department of Homeland Security seems to Think Different. How much more formality do you need? ^_^
(Score: 2) by John Miller on Wednesday August 01 2018, @02:11AM (2 children)
President Trump loves to listen to the American people. And hundreds of thousands of Americans, almost 400,000, said "Formally recognize AntiFa as a terrorist organization." But according to the official statement from the White House, that didn't happen. President Trump didn't write it, but it's on his site.
In that video, the guy says it happened. He shows a webpage and says "domestic terrorist organization" over and over. But look at what the webpage in his video really says. It doesn't say that. The guy made a mistake when he read it. You listened and you got fooled.
YouTube can be a lot of fun, but sometimes a video is made by just one or two people on a small budget. It's easy for a mistake to slip through. The White House has a large production staff. Not many mistakes get through. There was a mistake with the transcript for the Helsinki Summit. It got caught and it's already fixed.
(Score: 1) by Hardness on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:46AM (1 child)
You mean this article, right:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/01/antifa-charlottesville-violence-fbi-242235 [politico.com]
You're correct. Lunduke says, "domestic terrorist organization" but the article says "...the Department of Homeland Security formally classified their activities as “domestic terrorist violence,”
Gosh, My mistake. Well that clears up everything. I guess Daniel's gonna get his Visa any day now!
Whitehouse.gov:
"Nonetheless, law enforcement has many tools at its disposal to address violent individuals and groups. The Department of Justice routinely charges violent individuals, of all types, with a variety of offenses, including arson, threats, fraud, tax violations, hate crimes, murder, and offenses related to the misuse or illegal possession of firearms and explosives."
Oh...
(Score: 2) by John Miller on Friday August 03 2018, @01:29PM
I don't know for sure why Mr. Stenburg hasn't received a visa. I don't have that information. I know that Secretary Tillerson made our State Department much smaller. He wanted to save money, but it caused problems. President Trump had to fire him. Secretary Pompeo is hiring more people, but he's only been in office since late April. Mr. Stenburg applied in early April. I don't pretend to know what's happening with his application.
Otherwise, you understand now. I'm glad I could help. Don't worry about Mr. Stenburg or his colleagues at Mozilla. If our Justice Department finds out they've been committing crimes, charges will be filed, just like the White House says. We have an agreement with Sweden. Swedish citizens who commit crimes against the United States can be brought here and brought to justice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @04:03AM
i suppose the best way to get to 'murka is to complain openly about your home countries government, for example about human-rights.
if you're from a country on the "ev1l twin" list then the open arms are even wider ... ^_^
(Score: 2) by eravnrekaree on Monday July 30 2018, @05:48PM
I support ending the H1B system since it results in Americans being displaced from jobs by cheaper foreign workers, who are often less qualified. even if they are more qualified, we should give preference to American workers instead because our society benefities from increased employment of Americans.
This does not seem like an H1B case. H1B and other like things are for working and living in the US. If he is just visiting, it seems like a tourist visa would be fine. Unless he is being paid for this visit, it seems a little ridiculous to not give him a few weeks tourist visa for an unpaid speech or what have you. If its a paid speech, thats more of a problem because it could be an American that might have that opportunity instead.
I also note the irony that a computer programmer of all things would need to physically visit some place to communicate with people on the other side of the pond as if this was the 18th century. In the days of telecommunications and video conference there is absolutely no need to physically visit a place to communicate with people.
i would also note there are plenty of computer programmers in America and we need to have incentives furthermore to fix our school systems to train people for these kinds of jobs in America. Its not like the country will shrivel and die. We need to create the necessity to do so by taking away the complacency that can come from bringing in foreign workers. Kill H1B, fix the education system, is what i am saying.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday July 31 2018, @10:48PM
Canada probably won't have much problem admitting him.
We've already welcomed 10.000 Syrian refugees recently.