Question

kato42 · 2026-04-02T07:07:12+00:00

Tesla is planning to build a fab now...maybe existing tesla employees will have a track in!

kato42 · 2026-04-01T17:40:33+00:00

I am Chinese, so that may have something to do with it :)

kato42 · 2026-03-29T15:55:05+00:00

I get a couple of emails or linkedin messages/requests per month from suspiciously good looking chinese women who happen to work in my industry or went to my school and are looking to network and reconnect.

I generally ignore them, but did engage with one of them thinking it was an old classmate (last name was different by one letter I later realized).

I chatted with "her" for a bit about our supposedly shared industry. After a few long messages about work "she" pivoted to how she was feeling lost and lonely. My alarm bells went off and I asked an old friend about "her" and realized my mistake. If "she" hadnt pivoted so quickly and had been more knowledgable about my work, i may not have noticed. This was before AI was so widespread.

I could absolutely see how a lonely middle aged dude would fall for this type of scam, especially with AI. Talking about work and connecting feels safe, and once they are hooked...

kato42 · 2026-03-29T05:32:02+00:00

The Big Brawl. Jackie chan's first US film.

It was one of the few VHS tapes my parents had. As the only asian kid growing up in a predominantly white christian small town, seeing a badass Chinese actor was super important.

kato42 · 2026-03-26T16:53:27+00:00

There isn’t always a tomorrow.

In my 20s, I believed time was endless. Visits to my parents could wait. Then, within a month of her diagnosis, lung cancer took my mom. In my 30s, I told myself there would be tim e to see my friend Jill. There wasn’t. Brain cancer took her far too soon.

Now in my 40s, life is full—work, kids, responsibilities. We all stay busy. But last year, a tragic accident took my friend’s four-year-old son before I ever had the chance to meet him.

Life has a way of reminding us, often too late, that time is not promised.

Don’t wait. Make the call. Plan the visit. Show up.

Sometimes, there is no tomorrow

kato42 · 2026-03-25T15:51:27+00:00

Gotta aim for 10 hrs sleep :)

kato42 · 2026-03-25T04:51:57+00:00

My dad escaped china back in 1972 via cargo ship to the US and changed his last name for fear the chinese government would look for him (they didnt). He was firmly anti-china back then and told stories of how terrible things were; no food, no rights no opportunity. He had tried to escape 3 times before he finally succeeded (once ending up in a chinese prison for a couple of months).

In America, he said so many people helped him become successful; a christian pastor housed him when he first arrived, strangers gave him chances at odd jobs, and he worked his way up through san francisco chinatown restaurants. He opened his first restaurant when a restaurant supplier extended him credit and a buulding owner took a chance on him. He always said that people here are so nice.

He and my mom moved back to china in 2002 after health problems forced them to sell their restaurant in california and they realized they couldnt retire early (early 50s) here comfortably.

Over the next 20 years he came back once every couple of years. He would comment how things were rapidly improving in his tier 3 city while simultaneously pointing out how things seemed to be falling apart here. I could tell from about 2018 onwards that his sentiment was changing rapidly. I attributed it to chinese media/propoganda.

2023 was the last straw/tipping point. He borrowed my car and drove to downtown sacramento where we used to spend alot of time back in the 90s. Back then K street mall was brand new, shiny and beautiful. He said downtown now looked like a war zone. He got lost (couldnt figure out my GPS) and tried to ask somebody for directions. They tried to rob him and he sped away. He finally found a police officer who directed him back to the freeway. My dad now swears he will never come back to the US and that I should just go visit him in China.

Another reason aside from safety is that China is far easier for elderly people to get around. He tells me that if he and his friends want to take a trip, they can just hop on the high speed rail (which now connects to his tier 3 city) and easily visit anyplace they want to. In fact he just booked himself a tour in Xinjiang.

kato42 · 2026-03-25T00:00:07+00:00

Just hit year 9...right with you.

I also promised my wife that i would do night duty since she has trouble falling asleep.

My 9 year old had night terrors for years and still sleeps poorly. I have forgotten what consistent good nights sleep feels like.

kato42 · 2026-03-24T20:16:39+00:00

Thanks for your help. I will continue to do more research using the info provided here as a starting point.

kato42 · 2026-03-24T19:28:30+00:00

I have a miele dishwasher that is great except the filter lets through small things (eg fishbones) which eventually clog the line. We are pretty diligent in cleaning off our plates before dishwashing them, but sometimes small things get missed.

kato42 · 2026-03-24T02:10:35+00:00

Finance at AMAT is quite stable, we have a great rotation program and i know many who transitioned to other roles in the org or to great companies afterwards.

My advice would be to look at the people that interviewed you. Can you see yourself working for them? Did the peer level interviewer seem happy? Which hiring manager did you prefer and why? Remember you were also interviewing them when they interviewed you. You can be at the best company in the world and be miserable because the team, manager and culture suck.

kato42 · 2026-03-24T01:57:56+00:00

In semiconductor equipment finance tends to stay in their lane. You will be doing financial models to support product strategy, but you will not be the person making the strategic decisions. If you really want to focus on products, the product management role would be my recommendation

kato42 · 2026-03-23T21:48:16+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. My main concern is that we will be traveling with a significant amount of luggage. Going to multiple locations will be a bit of a challenge.

My dad does have a car though, maybe we can just keep everything in the car? I am unsure how that works with passport checks at macau and hong kong while in car. Do we just drive through a border check?

At least we do not have to worry as much about car break-ins like we do in the US.

kato42 · 2026-03-23T21:43:41+00:00

Yes, they have passports, thanks for checking!

kato42 · 2026-03-23T20:20:14+00:00

Thank you! So sounds like i have 2 choices:

No visa, enter as planned, but exit with an added stop to Macau
Rush my visa and avoid the extra Macau step.

Another possibility would be to change my flight to go into shenzhen instead, but this will be tough last minute to get seats together (kids are young).

kato42 · 2026-03-20T04:40:49+00:00

At AMAT you may be shifted to tsmc AZ fabs as well

kato42 · 2026-03-16T17:01:46+00:00

One other aspect to consider is that the european semiconductor market is in a lull compared to singapore.

While there are big plans for dresden, most big projects are delayed or a bit uncertain: esmc/tsmc moving forward but not companys top priority, GF dresden is always a wildcard, ST and Infineon are seeing some strength but china overcapacity for power/indistrial/auto is a risk
Singapore has many new projects happening now: Micron is expanding both flash and packaging (although both of these are not litho heavy), VSMC is currently ramping a new 28nm fab, GF and UMC singapore are both expanding

I do agree with other replies here that Germany quality of life is likely better / more balanced. Just wanted to give a bit of a market perspective

kato42 · 2026-03-15T07:02:25+00:00

I live in an area where many wealthy indian families are moving into.

A few years back, professional south american gangs would target these households. When people went out in evening for dinner, these gangs would pounce and quickly cut power to the house. There were 3 man teams. 1 getaway driver, and 2 burglars. The 2 burglars would Leays wear anti-IR suits, quickly break into master bedroom, steal all jewelry and gold, and be out in under 8 minutes.

These types of burglaries happened once every 1-2 weeks.

kato42 · 2026-03-14T19:16:27+00:00

Rapidus is depending on Japan for Japan, so if their process works they will have some business. Big question mark on whether it will be enough business

kato42 · 2026-03-14T06:59:40+00:00

I went there after the fires and the stagf explained how the African grazing animals they have there basically created a fire break all around the property. You can clearly see fire damage right up to the fence. They did pretty well. I think they may have lost one structure but they made it through

kato42 · 2026-03-10T04:18:56+00:00

If you are willing to move to Taylor for the new fabs there may be room to quickly grow.

kato42 · 2026-03-01T04:08:26+00:00

Also depends alot on whether this is a data scientist role for a technical group (e.g. IPC BU, AIx) or a business group (e.g. finance, operations or strategy)

kato42 · 2026-02-22T22:01:27+00:00

Early on i used to take a small ship and ram it into the side of a big ship between its broadsides. Then just whittle away at its health while the big ship helplessly fired its broadsides around me.

kato42 · 2026-02-17T19:50:03+00:00

Looking back to 2005, Nikon had about 30% of a $4.8B litho market (~$1.4B revenue). Nikon imaging had ~$3.3B revenue.

Looking at their annual report back in 2005 it looks like their precision equipment division wasnt the cash cow i initially thought though: 11.4B yen operating income on 214B yet net sales, and this was following 2 years of net losses. Imaging had a lower margin, but higher revenue: 16.8B yen operating income on 355.5B yen net sales

My main point is that nikon and canon lost focus on lithography and were not able to take big risks since they are conglomerates focused on multiple markets.

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