I'm one of many here in canada who have said screw cable/sat and just watch CBC over the airwaves sometimes and get the rest of our entertainment through the internet. I really do not understand this "But we f**king need it!" for cable or satellite.
Theres always some sort of full motion video entertainment in the end known as Eyes(tm). Combined with Legs(tm) there is a surprising array of content. (yes yes, unless blind, i'm an insensitive clod, etc).
That WOULD be brilliant, and the only reason it would piss off the religious right is the whole reason it exists to begin with. Faith and Belief has moved far beyond the realms of just religion these days, and pointing out the odder things that people exalt would definitely be worthwhile.
The only downside I could see is it'd probably fall into the hands of an extremist left producer who overdoes the whole thing for shock value and ruins the point for everyone.
I personally wish American Gods and Good Omens would become something along the lines of highschool curriculum reading. Gaiman has a ton of skill at reducing a complex feeling into a few words, and has an amazing depth of perspective when it comes to seeing things from the other blokes point of view. If you've read nothing else of his, read these two if you have the chance.
Granted Good Omens was a partnership with Terry Pratchett, but that's almost seems more of a selling point than a detraction =).
Re:Are books like this relevant any more?
on
Practical Ruby Gems
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· Score: 1
In certain rare cases, a hardcopy can be vastly more worthwhile than an electronic copy. (Ever try to keep a system running in a shop filled with steel and aluminum dust? Let me tell you this, power supplies + metal dust + grease/oil residue == really interesting arcs if not properly contained in an enclosed office) Granted this doesnt really seem to be THAT kind of a case unless theres a large market of Ruby coders working in environments that preclude having a net connection (which would be mindboggling =)).
Heh, no surprises to me there. I think those of us with our mindset are pretty common. Just think of the high amount of turnover you saw while at the tech jobs. Many of those heading out the door are exactly like us.
as they are today running wild and ripping off their customers. I rarely delight in the misery of others, but i'm glad its not just us canadians getting bent over in the mobile market (with the US market getting penetrated to a lesser extent).
Hopefully this means that more and more people are realizing that the pricing schemes of mobile companies are completely out of whack, even taking into consideration capital costs of network construction (especially here in canada where Bell was able to pump a LOT into mobile R&D while they were still a government backed monopoly.)
I do not know about callcenters you have seen but having worked in cellphone customer service, tech support, and now insurance sales. What i've seen is the quality requirements of most HR departments depends entirely on the possibilities of liability.
The company i worked with for celphone customer service did NOT want #3's. #3's lead to long handling times, people noticing the spin on marketing, and setups that are efficient (read: low margin). The #1's are perfect so long as they meet statistics requirements, as the clueless and "care less" rarely suggest the most efficient setups.
In this industry we were basically a liability buffer to keep customers busy for as close to 90 days as possible in the event of any billing error (thanks to Canada's Consumer "Protection" Act, which states that once 90 days have gone by from an invoicing date the charges can be considered valid regardless. Now I dont know if this has even been challenged in court as of yet myself, as I still don't understand how a service providor can force one to pay for a service it can be PROVEN they did not use. This was what we had to tell our clients though)
In tech support, you could be correct. From people I've spoken with, and the company I worked with, it seems to vary quite a bit. The peril here was that I worked for a subcontractor who was publicly traded. This led to one goal for the company: Meet or Beat the contract requirements, or else (as they would pay punitive amounts if they failed to meet the metrics). This led to the most horrible practices amongst other reps to find ways to dump callers, give easy answers, etc. #3's are especially hated here as doing the job RIGHT is failing to meet the metrics.
In both of the above cases, the company had a clause disclaiming all liability of the agents on the phones actions (unsure if that had been tested in court here in canada either). In both cases, the bottom of the barrel is perfect, so long as the scrapings keep up with the metrics. Indecipherable accents[1] or poor attitudes are pretty much an ASSET in these situations as they indirectly lower your average handling times significantly (people hanging up angry, people giving up in general, etc).
In insurance sales however, it seems to be the exact opposite. The sold policies are audited every which way from tuesday, and any imprecision is immediately coached. The particular company I work for seems to be aware that Insurance companies going to court against a client is NEVER going to be in a favorable light, so everyone HAS to know a fair a mount and HAS to care about the customer. You still run into average handling time type issues but its a secondary concern to accuracy (unless you cant become accurate AND reasonably quick).
I really do not know how anyone can compare these types of call centers "qualities" either, as they all perform VERY different tasks. Tech support has to be the biggest shot in the dark in the history of support (see the various posts about complex general purpose systems).
Good call! I hadnt really been keeping up at all with the Sealand consideration, I more meant host yourself out of aggressive governments jurisdiction.
all we'd need is a means to harness the motion of ice and tides for energy, hydroponics for food and recreation, and we'd have an eco-friendly communal self sufficient data center.
The more who know how it works, the more likely it is to be compromised?
The assets required in terms of hardware and manpower are too costly for wide scale implementation?
Government agencies and hierarchies do not tend to play well together, so perhaps office a threw a hissy fit over office b demanding certain protocols be restricted to certain levels of access?
It is a technical example and not a well written story but it was designed to prove and in essence broadcast a loud STFU to all the maya and lighwave weenies that still proclaim that blender is not a professional tool capable of anything decent. You fail to meet the second requirement. No need for the weenie label sir!
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, take it another step.
Show me an example of a truely communist government.
I'm one of many here in canada who have said screw cable/sat and just watch CBC over the airwaves sometimes and get the rest of our entertainment through the internet. I really do not understand this "But we f**king need it!" for cable or satellite.
Theres always some sort of full motion video entertainment in the end known as Eyes(tm). Combined with Legs(tm) there is a surprising array of content. (yes yes, unless blind, i'm an insensitive clod, etc).
Plus, you get people contesting a raid schedule and it becomes all out war.
So you're saying its more about the highest levels then?
That WOULD be brilliant, and the only reason it would piss off the religious right is the whole reason it exists to begin with. Faith and Belief has moved far beyond the realms of just religion these days, and pointing out the odder things that people exalt would definitely be worthwhile.
The only downside I could see is it'd probably fall into the hands of an extremist left producer who overdoes the whole thing for shock value and ruins the point for everyone.
I personally wish American Gods and Good Omens would become something along the lines of highschool curriculum reading. Gaiman has a ton of skill at reducing a complex feeling into a few words, and has an amazing depth of perspective when it comes to seeing things from the other blokes point of view. If you've read nothing else of his, read these two if you have the chance.
Granted Good Omens was a partnership with Terry Pratchett, but that's almost seems more of a selling point than a detraction =).
In certain rare cases, a hardcopy can be vastly more worthwhile than an electronic copy. (Ever try to keep a system running in a shop filled with steel and aluminum dust? Let me tell you this, power supplies + metal dust + grease/oil residue == really interesting arcs if not properly contained in an enclosed office)
Granted this doesnt really seem to be THAT kind of a case unless theres a large market of Ruby coders working in environments that preclude having a net connection (which would be mindboggling =)).
Radius, Dave. Radius.
What I want to know is why # is always equated as "She" then.
Plus, how dare they side with the evil ruskies just because of years of being jerked around from the spanish american war on up....
Heh, no surprises to me there. I think those of us with our mindset are pretty common. Just think of the high amount of turnover you saw while at the tech jobs. Many of those heading out the door are exactly like us.
Hopefully this means that more and more people are realizing that the pricing schemes of mobile companies are completely out of whack, even taking into consideration capital costs of network construction (especially here in canada where Bell was able to pump a LOT into mobile R&D while they were still a government backed monopoly.)
...Are there no work-houses!
Soylent Tupperware is made out of people! PEEEOPLLLLLE!
and what do we burn apart from witches?
I do not know about callcenters you have seen but having worked in cellphone customer service, tech support, and now insurance sales. What i've seen is the quality requirements of most HR departments depends entirely on the possibilities of liability.
The company i worked with for celphone customer service did NOT want #3's. #3's lead to long handling times, people noticing the spin on marketing, and setups that are efficient (read: low margin). The #1's are perfect so long as they meet statistics requirements, as the clueless and "care less" rarely suggest the most efficient setups.
In this industry we were basically a liability buffer to keep customers busy for as close to 90 days as possible in the event of any billing error (thanks to Canada's Consumer "Protection" Act, which states that once 90 days have gone by from an invoicing date the charges can be considered valid regardless. Now I dont know if this has even been challenged in court as of yet myself, as I still don't understand how a service providor can force one to pay for a service it can be PROVEN they did not use. This was what we had to tell our clients though)
In tech support, you could be correct. From people I've spoken with, and the company I worked with, it seems to vary quite a bit. The peril here was that I worked for a subcontractor who was publicly traded. This led to one goal for the company: Meet or Beat the contract requirements, or else (as they would pay punitive amounts if they failed to meet the metrics). This led to the most horrible practices amongst other reps to find ways to dump callers, give easy answers, etc. #3's are especially hated here as doing the job RIGHT is failing to meet the metrics.
In both of the above cases, the company had a clause disclaiming all liability of the agents on the phones actions (unsure if that had been tested in court here in canada either). In both cases, the bottom of the barrel is perfect, so long as the scrapings keep up with the metrics. Indecipherable accents[1] or poor attitudes are pretty much an ASSET in these situations as they indirectly lower your average handling times significantly (people hanging up angry, people giving up in general, etc).
In insurance sales however, it seems to be the exact opposite. The sold policies are audited every which way from tuesday, and any imprecision is immediately coached. The particular company I work for seems to be aware that Insurance companies going to court against a client is NEVER going to be in a favorable light, so everyone HAS to know a fair a mount and HAS to care about the customer. You still run into average handling time type issues but its a secondary concern to accuracy (unless you cant become accurate AND reasonably quick).
I really do not know how anyone can compare these types of call centers "qualities" either, as they all perform VERY different tasks. Tech support has to be the biggest shot in the dark in the history of support (see the various posts about complex general purpose systems).
Register.
Good call! I hadnt really been keeping up at all with the Sealand consideration, I more meant host yourself out of aggressive governments jurisdiction.
all we'd need is a means to harness the motion of ice and tides for energy, hydroponics for food and recreation, and we'd have an eco-friendly communal self sufficient data center.
and then the outsourcing to evil begins..
and then we get the power, then we get the....
wait...that should have been the quiet part.
Genuine Sealand Hosting Services.
If we find a gene that translates to GOTO or GOSUB...so help me....
The more who know how it works, the more likely it is to be compromised?
The assets required in terms of hardware and manpower are too costly for wide scale implementation?
Government agencies and hierarchies do not tend to play well together, so perhaps office a threw a hissy fit over office b demanding certain protocols be restricted to certain levels of access?
lots of possible reasons.
I've had it up to HERE with these lousy rickets!
*bowlegs away*
I mean, who migrates to a new world until at LEAST service pack 2
Well, you could ALMOST call it that heh. I mean ones biggest creditor tends to be seen as an adversary, no?