You are the dumbest guy in the room! Rejoice!
This is the perfect environment for you and you should be thankful for it and here is why...
1) You are the idiot so no one really expects anything good to come from you. It's just a job, if you are treated like a human resource then they are just a paycheck.
2) Failure is a great teacher. Bu being the "dumb" one you can make mistakes and no one will make a big fuss. Your mistakes will likely never get committed because everyone will make it their mission to find all your errors.
3) "keeps me silent for most of the meetings" & "By night I" have a quick dinner and bury myself in intense study." --Boo HOO, it's about damm time! where have you been? If your parents knew that all they had to do to shut you up get you motivated to study is a bit of emotional abuse, then they would have started when you were a kid. I bet you a really regretting spending high school chasing after Mary Jane Rottencrotch.
4) "Do all star/ninja/rock-star software developers have rotten attitudes?" No. These guys sound like total tools.Collect a paycheck until you are fired, cram as much information as you can into your head and remember in your next job what it was like to be the idiot in the room and don't abuse the next generation.
5) "Is it normal to be hired as a junior and just being thrown to the lions, with no help or time to ramp up?" Yes.At the higher levels of code slingers this happens way to often. Graduating with a CS degree is just a license to ramp up the learning curve. I can say that I have honestly performed and written about 5 Dissertations in the last 5 years where the first one took me 3 years.
6) "how should I act in order to maintain my dignity but also be humble enough to acknowledge the co-worker's knowledge?" - Don't be humble, you are not good enough to be humble. Be yourself. Study as hard as you possibly can and try to catch up. It is a "win win" for you. If you crash and burn, you might be able to find a job that is more suitable for you by riding the borrowed glory for you smarter team members. If you succeed, congratulations! You will be considered the nicest ninja rockstar developer in comparison to your a-hole co-workers.
The pressure is off. The level of expectations is low and you are getting paid to learn. You will probably not be there long because you will quit due to the social situation or be fired for not cutting it.
The H1B visa system needs to be abolished. I am not worried about foreigners or Americans competing for my job, if they have the skill set they are welcome to it. Being an American is not a technological achievement and should count for nothing when hiring a tech worker.
All I am seeing in the original article is that dumb foreigners who cheat in school are willing to work for less money so let's keep them out. Maybe foreigners are willing to work for less because they don't have crippling student debt? or maybe their degree programs are more concerned about maximizing the profit for the University than creating industry-ready engineers? Maybe the system is geared so heavily towards stifling innovation that a country like Israel is the leader in venture-capital investment per person ($140 vs. $70 in the US. And it is no surprise that they spend 4.5% of GDP on R&D vs. the 2.2% of the US)
Limiting the number of people who are coming here to work might be stupid, immoral and careless(no one cares about that) but the worst offence in this case is that it is ineffective. This policy has been around for a long time and it hasn't worked for us yet.
You are not very intelligent.
1)Considering the CEO or CHO went to MIT Sloan Business school I would try [email protected]
2) Since the company's website is www.consumerphysics.com I would try googling [email protected] and you will find this gem: http://www.bezalel.ac.il/alumni/workforgrads/?thread=9142
It is in Hebrew but according to google translate it has the Phone and email of the founder.
So I called him and talked to him. I said I think it is a scam. HE CAME TO MY HOUSE here in the US, I am not kidding!!!
He sat at my table with the gadget and I had a bunch of pills, fruit and just random stuff from the fridge. He let me use it while he was on the phone, no gimmicks, no sales pitches, no hovering, no excuses.
It works pretty well for a prototype. Did not detect the alcohol percentage in the wine. Had no problems with pills and fruit.