About me

My name (in case you missed it) is Lorin Hochstein. I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I attended Wagar high school, got my DEC in Pure & Applied Sciences from Marianopolis College, my BEng in computer engineering from McGill University, and my M.S. in electrical engineering from Boston University. I'm currently a fourth year PhD student in computer science at University of Maryland, College Park.

Somewhere along the way, despite my father's advice about avoiding work, I managed to hold down a real job for a while. I worked as a software developer for Xiphos Technologies for about a year, working mainly on virtual private network software.

Here's a picture of me and my lovely wife, Stacy.

Academic interests

My primary area of  interest is software engineering. After spending a number of years programming (as a professional developer writing network software and as a research assistant writing DSP software), I said to myself, "There must be a better way to do software development", and so I decided to switch from software development as an end to software development as an object of study. The Experimental Software Engineering Group really appealed to me because of their empirical approach.

In a previous life, my primary academic interest was digital signal processing (DSP). I really love DSP, probably because it's one of the best answers to the eternal undergraduate EE question of "What's the point of taking all these calculus courses?" However, after two years of grad school in EE at Boston University I discovered that the research aspects of DSP aren't really my cup of tea. On a more general level, I'm interested in aspects of science that directly affect us, both as individuals and as a society. Along these lines, I find current research in genetics and biotechnology to be particularly fascinating. I also have a passing interest in philosophy, particularly philosophy of mind. Unfortunately, the career prospects in this area are too dim for me to have ever considered seriously. However, this isn't deterring my brother, who has decided to pursue philosophy at the University of Ottawa. Here is some advice I've given him about moving out for the first time.

Other interests

The more I live in the US, the more closely I find myself following American politics. However, I really can't stand watching TV news. There's only one news channel I can watch for any amount of time. I enjoy playing squash, though there never seems to be enough time for that. Once upon time I enjoyed skiing, though a deficit of time and decent skihills within range has put a damper on that.

Stuff about Canada

Being a Canadian and living in the United States is an interesting experience. In some sense, it's the worst of both worlds: I get all of the disadvantages of being a foreign student (not eligible for many fellowships, limits on employment), and none of the benefits (living in the US is pretty darned similar to living in Canada). I've found that the differences between Canada and the US are pretty subtle. After all, we Canadians watch American TV and American movies, read American books and American magazines, listen to American music, etc.

We seem to speak the same language, with a few subtle differences. Here are some exceptions to the rule that Canadian English = American English (expressions with an asterix (*) are more regional).

Canadian American
garberator
 disposal
invigilator
 proctor
autoroute*, expressway
 turnpike, parkway
grade three
 third grade
soft drink*
 soda
water fountain
 bubbler*
washroom
 bathroom
beaver tail
 fried dough
pogo
 corn dog
depanneur*
 7-11
chocolate bar
 candy bar
user fee
 co-payment
quarter to seven
 quarter of seven
Kraft Dinner
 mac & cheese
Anglican
 Episcopalian
white seed (bagel)
 sesame seed
black seed (bagel)
 poppyseed
brown toast
 wheat toast
open the light*
 turn on the light
sprinkles
 jimmies
check-up
 physical
cutlery
 silverware
tap
 faucet
stage
 internship
hydro
 power
line-up
 line
humidex
 heat index
opscan
 scantron
soccer baseball kickball

There are also some words that are spelled the same in Canada and the U.S., but are pronounced differently. For example: gas, against, aunt, drama, pasta, salami.

Aside from the above, and some minor quirks (you get mail on Saturdays and newspapers every day of the year, but you can't get milk in bags), there are only three major differences I've found

Weather

In the US, it gets much hotter in the summer and not nearly as cold in the winter. In the US people talk about air quality, and in Canada it's how much exposure time until frostbite. I used to think that too hot was much better than too cold, but after living through August in Maryland, I'm starting to change my mind.

Food

My biggest complaint about not being home anymore is the food. This isn't really a Canada/US thing, but more of a Montreal/not-Montreal thing. Montreal has a lot of great food that you just can't get anywhere else. Montreal bagels are vastly superior to the American counterparts. Ours are much sweeter and less doughier. Montreal also has really great delis, featuring items you can't seem to get anywhere else: smoked meat, karnatzel, and dill pickles. Smoked meat is a deli meat which is better than, but not entirely unlike, pastrami. Oddly enough, though several Montreal delis will have pastrami on the menu, I've never seen anyone order it. I imagine it's for tourists. Karnatzel is a kind of cross between salami and beef jerkey, usually eaten with a piece of rye bread and some mustard. As for the pickles, I know that they sell "dill pickles" outside of Montreal, but they really taste like half-sours. You can only get a really sour dill pickle in Montreal. Not to mention the hot dogs... in Quebec, they sell steamed hot dogs with cole slaw on them. Yum!

Politics

The biggest difference between Canada and the US is really the politics. Besides having different systems (Canada has a parliamentary system similar to England's), Canadians and Americans generally have a different outlook on things. The US definitely leans more to the right, with more emphasis on the individual. This means that Americans tend to put up more of a fuss about things like individual rights and the role of government. Heck, Canada didn't even have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms until 1982! This is both good and bad, I think. On the one hand, Americans tend to be a lot more sensitive to the risk of government abuse of individual rights, which is something I wish we Canadians had more of. On the other hand, people in the US tend to go nuts about issues like gun control and separation of church and state. As an outsider, I find these debates amusing, if somewhat silly. Canadians just don't get that worked up over this stuff.