OT: Where? and What?

I think it is time for me to come out of retirement and relocate to the US. The first question is: Where should I target? The second is: What sort of work should I look for?

Where?

I want to work on interesting stuff with smart people. That would make the Bay Area an obvious choice. Lot's of smart people. Close to VC's etc. It's easy to stay tapped into the latest industry trends there etc.

But I hear horror stories about how expensive housing is getting in CA. My dogs have 4 acres to run in here, and it would seem cruel to move anywhere without at least a large yard.

Other technology centers like Austin or RTP might be good, but I wonder if the same housing cost issue would apply there too?

While I have a preference for warmer places [he types from a drafty old house in Canada during a frigid windstorm], I would relocate anywhere in the US for interesting work and good pay.

What?

Something interesting of course. But things are getting interesting in a lot of areas. Data volumes are getting interesting. Pattern inference and machine learning are getting more mainstream--everything from fraud detection to gene/drug discovery. Distributed computing and parallel processing are real up and comers.

I wouldn't mind taking on something entirely new to me that might force me to open a textbook or read a research report or two.

No travel or government work though. I did the whole travel thing for a decade, and I hated that I couldn't have dogs. Now, I have my dogs making regular travel a non-starter.

Does anyone here have any suggestions? Or any information about any places that might have a good quality of life near smart techie people? Received on Thu Feb 15 2007 - 22:18:15 CET