I have some sympathy for your story because the individuals were elderly and as such are in a demographic that is frequently taken advantage of. However, Telus has offered this program for several years now, and they don't try to mask it or hide it as much as other major telecoms will.
If you sign up for Telus internet service you are typically offered two things:
- the option for free stuff (modem, ipod, monitor, etc.)
- a 2 or 3 year 'Rate Protection Plan'
Both of those should set off alarm bells.
If a company is offering you free goods - it's not free. Always ask why it's free. This has been true forever and your grandparents should have been aware of this.
If a company offers a deal that includes a specified time in the agreement, it's a fixed term contract. There is no reason why a company would specify a time unless you are signing a fixed term contract.
To add to that, all of the literature on the rate plans clearly indicates that 'some conditions apply.' You can see their rate plans here: http://www.mytelus.com/internet/highspeed/prices.d o They aren't hiding (much) and they make it fairly obvious what you are getting into. They also offer the option to not get the free stuff or the 3-year protection plan and they don't make it difficult for you to do so.
All-in-all, your Grandparents signed up for a service and signed up for a contract. They weren't tricked or lied to, but they may have been taken advantage of. Sadly, taking advantage of people that don't know better is not a criminal offence, it's just our world works.
One danger I've found with music is that if it has words that I can listen to or a tune that I can hum along to, I will. Meaning, I will sing or hum instead of actually working. To get around that problem, while also repeaing the benefits of using music to help me focus, I've started being very selective about the sort of music I listen to.
- Electronica tends to be good (no words). I like Groove Salad on SomaFM.com
- Non-english music works well for me. Particularly Hindi and Mandarin. The tricky part is finding music in other languages that's in a genre you don't mind listening to (Mandarin music, for example, tends to fall into the 'adult favourites' category. Chinese John Tesh is just as bad as English John Tesh).
- Very, very loud punk. If it gets loud enough, I stop listening to the words.
- Some Jazz and some classical.
The other trick that I've found useful (although it sounds silly) is that I wear my headphones even when there is no music playing. I find that they damper sounds enough to keep minor distractions away. Also, they provide a psychological trigger that helps me to work. It's weird - but it works for me.
Mostly on a personal level or in a classroom. The number of MBA receiptients/applicants I've met and worked with is substantially lower than the number that I've lived/drank/taken classes with.
I do. Every word. Every person that I've ever met that has taken an MBA (only 80-120 people, so a small dataset) has done it for one of two reasons:
1. To make lots and lots of money
2. To advance in their career (not to do more interesting things, just to move up the ladder).
And I don't fault them for it one bit. It is very true that adding the letters M, B and A to the end of your business card will increase your odds of a high salary tremendously.
Also, there are some positions (typically top tier business positions) that are far to difficult to work your way up to without an MBA -- it's not that you can't, it's just that it's much easier to do if you have the training, and the prestige that comes with the designation. As far as reasons for moving up the ladder? Let's be honest, jab satisfaction is a huge part -- but so is compensation.
I'm sorry -- I don't really understand the point you are trying to make. I think that it is true (and arguably obvious) that education does not equal intelligence, but how does that relate to the original posters comment?
I worked at the Canadian Equivalent of Best Buy for a while (Futureshop). To answer your question, I believe that the best candidate for a job on the tech support team was someone with mid-low level technical ability (if you can install a processor and remove a virus you are fine) and good sales ability.
The people that were great techs were welcome, but it wasn't necessary.
The people that were great at selling were sent to the sales floor -- since Futureshop is commissioned it was in your best interest to be on the sales floor anyways.
For us, the department was funded on a per unit basis. If you could get a unit in and out, great. If you could get a unit in and out, and convince the person that they should buy some ram, awesome! (Repair fee + hardware cost + hardware installation cost)
So yeah, to answer your question, play up the sales experience. That's what they are looking for. Selling makes both you, and the company, more money.
>> Also, consider physically removing the semicolon from your keyboard. Between the giggles over the misspelled title and the confusion of the above sentence, I have no idea what this article is about.
Parent touches on a good point. No offense meant to original poster; but, if this post is any judge of your writing it might be wise to consider hiring a professional technical writer... at least an editor. No offense meant, but your english could use a little polish.
It's a significant investment to rewrite an entire user manual. Your company (and you) would be wise to invest the little bit extra to hire someone to do it right the first time. It will make a world of difference.
I tried this out last year for an international flight from Vancouver to LA. I wouldn't recomend it.
As a bit of background, my license had just expired and I was in the process of getting a new one. I checked the law ahead of time and discovered that for a Canadian citizen to travel to and from America via land, sea or air the only identification that you *need* is a birth certificate. Picture ID is strongly encouraged. A Passport is an even better idea.
I got stopped at just about every possible interval on the trip - checking my bags, passing through security, getting through customs, getting on the plane, getting back through customs when I landed - by people that apparently had no understanding of the law.
Every single person insisted that I could not travel without a Driver's license. Flashing the yellow sheet of paper that passes as a temp license in BC didn't get me very far. I even had to ask the customs official to ask their manager to look up the information. Neither one of them knew what was going on.
It is possible to do these trips without proper identification, but it's such a pain in the neck it's not really worth it.
Don't suppose you could post a link? This is the same card that was used in the MacMini (I think) and, IIRC, it was inadequate for 3D applications but wicked for 2D applications. However, every Mac person that I've talked to has been clueless when it comes to games/3d Benchmarking.
When I asked the guy at the apple store if the Mac Mini was powerful enough to play WoW he told me that I can install Windows on my mac and play games. Not quite what I was looking for. I would *love* to get some accurate specs from people in the know.
>> Integrated graphics? >> >> It's the low-end consumer machine. Having integrated graphics is common, just >> look at other machines in the same price range.
Well -- it did replace the iBook, that's true. It also replaced the 12" powerbook. The 12" powerbook was not marketed as a lower end machine, just a smaller machine. If you look at this as a replacement for the iBook, it makes sense. As a replacement for the 12" powerbook (this is what I am looking for) it totally sucks.
The 6-18 months thing is accurate. When I put my resume up (14 months ago) I got a hit from about 10 of the 50 employers I applied at; however, the first bite came 5 months after my initial letter/follow-up letter/follow-up phone call/etc.
I got the hits, I got the job, but I had to wait until the employer felt like following up on their leads.
I'm not saying that this is typical, (I updated my resume last week and I got 4 bites in the first day). Depending upon the market your results may vary - but I think that it's a little to optimistic to expect exact results every time in every economy in every city.
Seriously though, there is nothing fun or amazing about the windows world (aside from games that aren't available on OSX). The only 'must have' applications are only 'must have' because my IT department says so.
I'll tell you straight up - If you are using a mac happily now, you probably aren't missing anything.
One thing you should try to keep in mind is that, typically, the delivery of your message trumps the actual content of your message.
As an example, take a look at stand up comediens. Often, the best comediens don't actually have great jokes -- they just have fantastic delivery. (To test this out, try retelling a joke or two from a couple of different comediens without mimicing their delivery - not that funny, eh?)
This fact resonates through all communication forms but is especially prevelant in oral communication. If your delivery is great, even bad news can be well received. If your delivery sucks, even good news will fall flat.
Sadly, part of the delivery factor is speaking to your audience. To deliver the most effective message, you need to use language that your audience is familiar with.
I agree... I think that the reason that the stereotype of 'Computer Science = Math' exists is because the people teaching computer science today started their degrees in the Math department. However, there is a huge side of CS that does not involve mathematics.
Spend some time looking for the 'softer side of CS' in your department. The easiest way to do this is to look at department staff list, and see what each prof has a degree in. If it's Math, Engineering or Physics, they probably believe that CS=Math. If it's Computer Science, Biology or *gasp* a BA go have a chat with them to see what they think. They will likely have a very different approach to things.
A friend of a friend recently went through this. In their situation, the online gaming had started as a way for friends and family to get together and socialize across long distances. After a little while it became apparent that one of the people had developed an unhealthy addiction to the game - to the point that the parent post describes.
While I'm not familiar with the entire recovery process that they use, I know that a portion of the process was that everyone involved cancelled their accounts. i.e. if Karl is addicted to WoW, and he plays with Mary, Stan, and Jim, then Mary, Stan and Jim all cancelled their accounts in an effort to encourage karl to cancel.
In their situation it really helped 'karl' beat the addiction. They socially segregatted him in the online world, and would only talk to him in RL. While he still had online friends, some of the appeal was lost when his RL social network dropped away. He eventually realized that he too had a problem, and when he looked up from the keyboard he found a supportive network of family and friends (the same ones that he used to play with online) to help him in RL.
I feel that by creating a social void online that could only be filled by going offline that the process was hastened. You may experience different results.
I was. I know that I need buy a laptop for work this year, and if Vista *had* supported EFI that laptop would have been a MacBook Pro. Instead I'll buy something from Dell and wish I had a MacBook.
Dokuwiki has a those features already. It's not a behemoth like MediaWiki, but it does a pretty good job. It's intention is to allow developers to document their work without having excessive overhead.
Also, OWA is much better in IE than it is in Firefox or Opera (it makes me very sad, but it's true). So if you are going to test it out to see how you like it -- try it in both IE and Firefox (or your browser of choice).
The three games that pull me back time and time again are:
Final Fantasy 3 (Or 6, depending on who you ask)
It's like a favourite book - even though you know what happens, and where the story's going, you enjoy the telling of the story so much you keep picking it up.
Tetris
Must. Fill. Holes. With. Falling. Blocks.
Quake 3
OK. So it's hopelessly outdated compared to other FPS's, but it's got just the right level of complexity (that is, almost none) for me to keep at it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for rocket tag - and I don't like games that make me think or require patience (like Rainbow 6, Counterstrike, Splinter Cell, etc.)
I live in Vancouver -- which is the second largest Canadian city and has one of the highest costs of living in Canada (next to remote northern cities). I make the equivelant of $22 USD / hour and consider myself to be paid well considering education, duties, and experience. Most of my peers from University with ENGR or CSC degrees are making less than $16 usd/hour.
Canadians will happily compete against $100 USD/hour workers, or heck, even $35/hour.
Slashdot Mirror
I have some sympathy for your story because the individuals were elderly and as such are in a demographic that is frequently taken advantage of. However, Telus has offered this program for several years now, and they don't try to mask it or hide it as much as other major telecoms will.
d o They aren't hiding (much) and they make it fairly obvious what you are getting into. They also offer the option to not get the free stuff or the 3-year protection plan and they don't make it difficult for you to do so.
If you sign up for Telus internet service you are typically offered two things:
- the option for free stuff (modem, ipod, monitor, etc.)
- a 2 or 3 year 'Rate Protection Plan'
Both of those should set off alarm bells.
If a company is offering you free goods - it's not free. Always ask why it's free. This has been true forever and your grandparents should have been aware of this.
If a company offers a deal that includes a specified time in the agreement, it's a fixed term contract. There is no reason why a company would specify a time unless you are signing a fixed term contract.
To add to that, all of the literature on the rate plans clearly indicates that 'some conditions apply.'
You can see their rate plans here: http://www.mytelus.com/internet/highspeed/prices.
All-in-all, your Grandparents signed up for a service and signed up for a contract. They weren't tricked or lied to, but they may have been taken advantage of. Sadly, taking advantage of people that don't know better is not a criminal offence, it's just our world works.
One danger I've found with music is that if it has words that I can listen to or a tune that I can hum along to, I will. Meaning, I will sing or hum instead of actually working.
To get around that problem, while also repeaing the benefits of using music to help me focus, I've started being very selective about the sort of music I listen to.
- Electronica tends to be good (no words). I like Groove Salad on SomaFM.com
- Non-english music works well for me. Particularly Hindi and Mandarin. The tricky part is finding music in other languages that's in a genre you don't mind listening to (Mandarin music, for example, tends to fall into the 'adult favourites' category. Chinese John Tesh is just as bad as English John Tesh).
- Very, very loud punk. If it gets loud enough, I stop listening to the words.
- Some Jazz and some classical.
The other trick that I've found useful (although it sounds silly) is that I wear my headphones even when there is no music playing. I find that they damper sounds enough to keep minor distractions away. Also, they provide a psychological trigger that helps me to work. It's weird - but it works for me.
Mostly on a personal level or in a classroom.
The number of MBA receiptients/applicants I've met and worked with is substantially lower than the number that I've lived/drank/taken classes with.
I do. Every word.
Every person that I've ever met that has taken an MBA (only 80-120 people, so a small dataset) has done it for one of two reasons:
1. To make lots and lots of money
2. To advance in their career (not to do more interesting things, just to move up the ladder).
And I don't fault them for it one bit. It is very true that adding the letters M, B and A to the end of your business card will increase your odds of a high salary tremendously.
Also, there are some positions (typically top tier business positions) that are far to difficult to work your way up to without an MBA -- it's not that you can't, it's just that it's much easier to do if you have the training, and the prestige that comes with the designation. As far as reasons for moving up the ladder? Let's be honest, jab satisfaction is a huge part -- but so is compensation.
I'm sorry -- I don't really understand the point you are trying to make.
I think that it is true (and arguably obvious) that education does not equal intelligence, but how does that relate to the original posters comment?
SQL Server Express ships with Reporting Services.
No other Express edition ships with any sort of reporting.
Visual Studio Professional ships with Crystal Reports; it might contain reporting services as well.
I worked at the Canadian Equivalent of Best Buy for a while (Futureshop). To answer your question, I believe that the best candidate for a job on the tech support team was someone with mid-low level technical ability (if you can install a processor and remove a virus you are fine) and good sales ability.
The people that were great techs were welcome, but it wasn't necessary.
The people that were great at selling were sent to the sales floor -- since Futureshop is commissioned it was in your best interest to be on the sales floor anyways.
For us, the department was funded on a per unit basis. If you could get a unit in and out, great. If you could get a unit in and out, and convince the person that they should buy some ram, awesome! (Repair fee + hardware cost + hardware installation cost)
So yeah, to answer your question, play up the sales experience. That's what they are looking for. Selling makes both you, and the company, more money.
Good point.
That was a bad assumption on my part.
>> Also, consider physically removing the semicolon from your keyboard. Between the giggles over the misspelled title and the confusion of the above sentence, I have no idea what this article is about.
Parent touches on a good point. No offense meant to original poster; but, if this post is any judge of your writing it might be wise to consider hiring a professional technical writer... at least an editor. No offense meant, but your english could use a little polish.
It's a significant investment to rewrite an entire user manual. Your company (and you) would be wise to invest the little bit extra to hire someone to do it right the first time. It will make a world of difference.
I tried this out last year for an international flight from Vancouver to LA. I wouldn't recomend it.
As a bit of background, my license had just expired and I was in the process of getting a new one. I checked the law ahead of time and discovered that for a Canadian citizen to travel to and from America via land, sea or air the only identification that you *need* is a birth certificate. Picture ID is strongly encouraged. A Passport is an even better idea.
I got stopped at just about every possible interval on the trip - checking my bags, passing through security, getting through customs, getting on the plane, getting back through customs when I landed - by people that apparently had no understanding of the law.
Every single person insisted that I could not travel without a Driver's license. Flashing the yellow sheet of paper that passes as a temp license in BC didn't get me very far. I even had to ask the customs official to ask their manager to look up the information. Neither one of them knew what was going on.
It is possible to do these trips without proper identification, but it's such a pain in the neck it's not really worth it.
Awesome! Thanks.
Don't suppose you could post a link?
This is the same card that was used in the MacMini (I think) and, IIRC, it was inadequate for 3D applications but wicked for 2D applications. However, every Mac person that I've talked to has been clueless when it comes to games/3d Benchmarking.
When I asked the guy at the apple store if the Mac Mini was powerful enough to play WoW he told me that I can install Windows on my mac and play games. Not quite what I was looking for. I would *love* to get some accurate specs from people in the know.
>> Integrated graphics?
>>
>> It's the low-end consumer machine. Having integrated graphics is common, just >> look at other machines in the same price range.
Well -- it did replace the iBook, that's true. It also replaced the 12" powerbook. The 12" powerbook was not marketed as a lower end machine, just a smaller machine. If you look at this as a replacement for the iBook, it makes sense. As a replacement for the 12" powerbook (this is what I am looking for) it totally sucks.
The 6-18 months thing is accurate.
When I put my resume up (14 months ago) I got a hit from about 10 of the 50 employers I applied at; however, the first bite came 5 months after my initial letter/follow-up letter/follow-up phone call/etc.
I got the hits, I got the job, but I had to wait until the employer felt like following up on their leads.
I'm not saying that this is typical, (I updated my resume last week and I got 4 bites in the first day). Depending upon the market your results may vary - but I think that it's a little to optimistic to expect exact results every time in every economy in every city.
Right?
Seriously though, there is nothing fun or amazing about the windows world (aside from games that aren't available on OSX). The only 'must have' applications are only 'must have' because my IT department says so.
I'll tell you straight up - If you are using a mac happily now, you probably aren't missing anything.
One thing you should try to keep in mind is that, typically, the delivery of your message trumps the actual content of your message.
As an example, take a look at stand up comediens. Often, the best comediens don't actually have great jokes -- they just have fantastic delivery. (To test this out, try retelling a joke or two from a couple of different comediens without mimicing their delivery - not that funny, eh?)
This fact resonates through all communication forms but is especially prevelant in oral communication. If your delivery is great, even bad news can be well received. If your delivery sucks, even good news will fall flat.
Sadly, part of the delivery factor is speaking to your audience. To deliver the most effective message, you need to use language that your audience is familiar with.
So, in short: Yes, it is a necassary evil.
Sorry.
I agree... I think that the reason that the stereotype of 'Computer Science = Math' exists is because the people teaching computer science today started their degrees in the Math department. However, there is a huge side of CS that does not involve mathematics.
Spend some time looking for the 'softer side of CS' in your department. The easiest way to do this is to look at department staff list, and see what each prof has a degree in. If it's Math, Engineering or Physics, they probably believe that CS=Math. If it's Computer Science, Biology or *gasp* a BA go have a chat with them to see what they think. They will likely have a very different approach to things.
A friend of a friend recently went through this.
In their situation, the online gaming had started as a way for friends and family to get together and socialize across long distances. After a little while it became apparent that one of the people had developed an unhealthy addiction to the game - to the point that the parent post describes.
While I'm not familiar with the entire recovery process that they use, I know that a portion of the process was that everyone involved cancelled their accounts. i.e. if Karl is addicted to WoW, and he plays with Mary, Stan, and Jim, then Mary, Stan and Jim all cancelled their accounts in an effort to encourage karl to cancel.
In their situation it really helped 'karl' beat the addiction. They socially segregatted him in the online world, and would only talk to him in RL. While he still had online friends, some of the appeal was lost when his RL social network dropped away. He eventually realized that he too had a problem, and when he looked up from the keyboard he found a supportive network of family and friends (the same ones that he used to play with online) to help him in RL.
I feel that by creating a social void online that could only be filled by going offline that the process was hastened. You may experience different results.
Mariokart double dash is a good one. The co-op mode has a very low barrier to entry for the 2nd player, and a moderate barrier for the 1st player.
Thanks for the advice. I'll take a look at the toshiba products.
I was.
I know that I need buy a laptop for work this year, and if Vista *had* supported EFI that laptop would have been a MacBook Pro. Instead I'll buy something from Dell and wish I had a MacBook.
Dokuwiki has a those features already. It's not a behemoth like MediaWiki, but it does a pretty good job. It's intention is to allow developers to document their work without having excessive overhead.
Also, OWA is much better in IE than it is in Firefox or Opera (it makes me very sad, but it's true). So if you are going to test it out to see how you like it -- try it in both IE and Firefox (or your browser of choice).
The three games that pull me back time and time again are:
Final Fantasy 3 (Or 6, depending on who you ask)
It's like a favourite book - even though you know what happens, and where the story's going, you enjoy the telling of the story so much you keep picking it up.
Tetris
Must. Fill. Holes. With. Falling. Blocks.
Quake 3
OK. So it's hopelessly outdated compared to other FPS's, but it's got just the right level of complexity (that is, almost none) for me to keep at it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for rocket tag - and I don't like games that make me think or require patience (like Rainbow 6, Counterstrike, Splinter Cell, etc.)
I live in Vancouver -- which is the second largest Canadian city and has one of the highest costs of living in Canada (next to remote northern cities). I make the equivelant of $22 USD / hour and consider myself to be paid well considering education, duties, and experience. Most of my peers from University with ENGR or CSC degrees are making less than $16 usd/hour.
Canadians will happily compete against $100 USD/hour workers, or heck, even $35/hour.