Since most Americans can't read or write Canadienese, even if the text of HP&THBP is released on the Internet, they won't understand it. No doot aboot it, eh.
Do you mean when dealing with clients or management?
Actually, both. I don't work in a call center any more. Thank God!
because it often makes them "go away"
Bingo!
a refusal to address the problem
Refusal doesn't enter into it. As soon as you discover that you can't actually fix the problem, you do what's necessary to get rid of the unhappy customer. You've obviously mistaken me for someone who cared. Go work in a call center and then you'll understand what a shithole they are. With any luck, the unhappy customer will take their business elsewhere and the call center would go out of business.
Who wants to listen to people bitch eight hours a day?
I've got a real job now. Thank God! I'm recovering my moral center. I now have the resources and training to do my job. I can actually fix problems. And I care about my customers and management. I supposed the lesson I learned in the call center is that survival outweighs morality. Not a lesson that I wanted to learn.
It's not a technical issue. Those can be solved. Before Challenger blew up, engineers voiced concerns about it being to cold to launch, but management ignored it. When foam hit Columbia, engineers wanted the wing inspected, but again management ignored it. If it weren't for wanting to save Hubble, I'd say retire the Shuttle now. I know the ISS is only about half built, but would completing it give us a better scientific return on our investment?
You gotta hand it to our astronauts. Even with bad management decisions they are still willing to take the risks to go into space. I'm dissapointed with NASA's current handling of the manned space program. I wish they'd take a lesson from the unmanned side with all of its spectacular successes.
As Richard Feyman said in his appendix on the Challenger disaster report: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
What did NASA Learn? The shuttle is not a succesful technology, and although Nature can't be fooled the public can.
What a curios title, How Clichés, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language by Don "The Australian" Watson.
Choking the chicken of discontent, are we? Well, if you've ever worked in a call center, weasel words (lies) and management speak (bullshit) are survival tools. Leverage them wisely.
--
What would you hear if you crossed an Australian with a Canadian? G'day, eh. (OK. You think of a better question to make the answer funny!)
'Our culture no longer bothers to use words like appropriation or borrowing to describe those very activities. Today's audience isn't listening at all - it's participating. Indeed, audience is as antique a term as record, the one archaically passive, the other archaically physical. The record, not the remix, is the anomaly today. The remix is the very nature of the digital.'
Worst case of chronic verbal masturbation I've seen lately.
After hearing statements coming out of the G8 summit, I am reminded of a scene in Babylon 5 episode
Acts of Sacrifice:
Sheridan: G'Kar, everyone in this room knows too well that the first casualty of war is always the truth.
Franklin: Unfortunately, the rest tend to be too small or too weak to defend themselves.
--
The events in London were terrible. Those who committed those horrific acts they believe they are fighting a just war. And to them anyone is a legitimate target; no one is innocent. To them it is total war. We are caught between idiots and madmen. Our leaders say, the terrorists won't win, but how many will die before they lose? Is George Orwell's vision of perpetual war, becoming a reality? I hope not.
I watched the PBS special "In Search of Ancient Ireland." They talked about dark ages that coincided with the dark ages in classical Greece, 12th century BC. Not the more well known one in the 6th century AD. One scholar pointed out that in times of stress, people become more warlike and more religious. I was stunned to see that is the parallel with today's events.
I would say their is an art to programming. And that good programming is as much art as it is science. But it's a lot like asking if mathematics is art? We do have things like
Perl Poetry and
Literate Programming.
Other than that I think this is yet another stupid question.
Well if humor is art then this old Unix sex joke is art:
# unzip ; strip ; touch ; finger ; mount ; fsck ; more ; yes ; umount ; sleep
managed to shut down "stealthisemail.com" (Steal This Email.com) because the URL coincidentally contains the word "stealth".
I had an acquaintance who worked at a company called Via Grafix in Pryor, OK. The company has been around at least since early nineties. Their website is viagrafix.com. He complained to me that they would get all this email about people asking about viagra. He said those people thought it said ViagraFix not ViaGrafix. I guess it was lucky they got the domain long before viagra came along.
They made a piece of software called DesignCAD, which is a stupid name, because CAD means Computer Aided Design.
Global Warming causes ice to melt. Duh! Who posts this crap? Next they'll post a story about why a watched pot never boils.
You heard the one about the Southern gentleman in a northern bar. He says to the Yankee waitress: "Excuse me Maam, I'd like a piece of ice."
A short while later.
"Well thank you, maam, but my drink's still warm."
And if you don't get it, you have never heard a southerner say the word 'ice'. It rhymes with bass.
Oh and people in Biloxi, MS think anyone who lives north of I-10 is a damnyankee.
They haven't even scratched the surface. How about:
Why do dogs have wet noses?
If oranges are called oranges because of their color, why isn't a banana a "yellow?"
Can God make a rock so heavy he can't lift it?
Did Adam have a belly button?
Gallagher: Do single people have dirty backs?
Gallagher, again: What kind of wood were George Washington's false teeth made of?
From South Park's Sexual Harrasment Panda episode - Skeeter: No! I wanna know something from Mr. Panda Bear here! If you pandas are from mountainous areas of China and Tibet, how come you eat bamboo which is prone to grow only in dryer more arid regions?
of America's 285 million TVs only 12 percent (33.6 million) are used for watching OTA broadcasts.
OK, and ow many of the other 88% (250.8 million) watch OTA broadcasts through their cable boxes? We have twice as many OTA broadcasters here than before cable arrived in the late 70's.
Anyway, I care. When they rolled out FM radio they didn't force AM to go away. AM radio is still a viable medium. There is no compelling reason to make analog TV go away for the consumer.
Oh well, as Arthur C. Clarke wrote: "Whom the Gods would destroy they first giveTV."
aims to operate at a record-breaking 223 miles per hour -- faster than many propeller airplanes
The train only needs to be fast enough to outrun Godzilla the next time he decides to stomp Tokyo. Of course, they'd need some kind of shielding to protect against his breath which they can't outrun. I don't think those really cute Hello Kitty ears really help with aerodynamics.
During
prohibition people were allowed to make "near beer". That is beer with less than 0.5 percent alcohol. The recipe for it gave explicit instructions on what not to do because if you did you would be making something illegal.
Like prohibition this ruling will be just as effective. Oh, well. America already has
two million people in jail. Why not throw a few million more behind bars? We aren't the worst, but it's nothing to be
proud of.
Good Lord! The USPTO has gone completely batshit. Who knew that granting software patents would lead to this? You know it wasn't some Einstein that granted this patent.
"After reading Geoff Ryman's Mundane SF website, where he promotes a new form of science fiction based on real science,
In other news, Geoff Ryman's grandfather after reading his grandson's website decides to goes back in time and kill his younger self before he has any kids....
Slashdot Mirror
Since most Americans can't read or write Canadienese, even if the text of HP&THBP is released on the Internet, they won't understand it. No doot aboot it, eh.
Do you mean when dealing with clients or management?
Actually, both. I don't work in a call center any more. Thank God!
because it often makes them "go away"
Bingo!
a refusal to address the problem
Refusal doesn't enter into it. As soon as you discover that you can't actually fix the problem, you do what's necessary to get rid of the unhappy customer. You've obviously mistaken me for someone who cared. Go work in a call center and then you'll understand what a shithole they are. With any luck, the unhappy customer will take their business elsewhere and the call center would go out of business. Who wants to listen to people bitch eight hours a day?
I've got a real job now. Thank God! I'm recovering my moral center. I now have the resources and training to do my job. I can actually fix problems. And I care about my customers and management. I supposed the lesson I learned in the call center is that survival outweighs morality. Not a lesson that I wanted to learn.
It's not a technical issue. Those can be solved. Before Challenger blew up, engineers voiced concerns about it being to cold to launch, but management ignored it. When foam hit Columbia, engineers wanted the wing inspected, but again management ignored it. If it weren't for wanting to save Hubble, I'd say retire the Shuttle now. I know the ISS is only about half built, but would completing it give us a better scientific return on our investment?
You gotta hand it to our astronauts. Even with bad management decisions they are still willing to take the risks to go into space. I'm dissapointed with NASA's current handling of the manned space program. I wish they'd take a lesson from the unmanned side with all of its spectacular successes.
As Richard Feyman said in his appendix on the Challenger disaster report: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
What did NASA Learn? The shuttle is not a succesful technology, and although Nature can't be fooled the public can.
What a curios title, How Clichés, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language by Don "The Australian" Watson.
Choking the chicken of discontent, are we? Well, if you've ever worked in a call center, weasel words (lies) and management speak (bullshit) are survival tools. Leverage them wisely.
--
What would you hear if you crossed an Australian with a Canadian? G'day, eh. (OK. You think of a better question to make the answer funny!)
illustrating why they are not just mindless kneejerk technophobes."
As opposed to mindless kneejerk slashdot technophiles?
Anyway time to get out Weird Al's Amish Paradise.
...allegedly wrecked Delta Airlines' systems in Atlanta for seven hours, leading to the cancellation of 40 flights. Around the world,
How is this any different than a normal day on Delta Airlines? They probably figured they could blame their low industry rankings on Sasser.
Skip quote to avoid eyes glazing over:
'Our culture no longer bothers to use words like appropriation or borrowing to describe those very activities. Today's audience isn't listening at all - it's participating. Indeed, audience is as antique a term as record, the one archaically passive, the other archaically physical. The record, not the remix, is the anomaly today. The remix is the very nature of the digital.'
Worst case of chronic verbal masturbation I've seen lately.
After hearing statements coming out of the G8 summit, I am reminded of a scene in Babylon 5 episode Acts of Sacrifice:
Sheridan: G'Kar, everyone in this room knows too well that the first casualty of war is always the truth.
Franklin: Unfortunately, the rest tend to be too small or too weak to defend themselves.
--
The events in London were terrible. Those who committed those horrific acts they believe they are fighting a just war. And to them anyone is a legitimate target; no one is innocent. To them it is total war. We are caught between idiots and madmen. Our leaders say, the terrorists won't win, but how many will die before they lose? Is George Orwell's vision of perpetual war, becoming a reality? I hope not.
I watched the PBS special "In Search of Ancient Ireland." They talked about dark ages that coincided with the dark ages in classical Greece, 12th century BC. Not the more well known one in the 6th century AD. One scholar pointed out that in times of stress, people become more warlike and more religious. I was stunned to see that is the parallel with today's events.
I predict if Neanderthals are cloned:
A) Geico will offer them car insurance, but they won't buy because of their Caveman commercials.
B) Neanderthals will be pissed to find out were replaced by people on the B Ark.
C) Sales of backrazors will double.
D) Grunthag and Duna will top Neanderthal baby names lists just above Rena, Gort, Bob, and Winona.
I would say their is an art to programming. And that good programming is as much art as it is science. But it's a lot like asking if mathematics is art? We do have things like Perl Poetry and Literate Programming.
Other than that I think this is yet another stupid question.
Well if humor is art then this old Unix sex joke is art: # unzip ; strip ; touch ; finger ; mount ; fsck ; more ; yes ; umount ; sleep
managed to shut down "stealthisemail.com" (Steal This Email.com) because the URL coincidentally contains the word "stealth".
I had an acquaintance who worked at a company called Via Grafix in Pryor, OK. The company has been around at least since early nineties. Their website is viagrafix.com. He complained to me that they would get all this email about people asking about viagra. He said those people thought it said ViagraFix not ViaGrafix. I guess it was lucky they got the domain long before viagra came along.
They made a piece of software called DesignCAD, which is a stupid name, because CAD means Computer Aided Design.
Global Warming causes ice to melt. Duh! Who posts this crap? Next they'll post a story about why a watched pot never boils.
You heard the one about the Southern gentleman in a northern bar. He says to the Yankee waitress: "Excuse me Maam, I'd like a piece of ice."
A short while later.
"Well thank you, maam, but my drink's still warm."
And if you don't get it, you have never heard a southerner say the word 'ice'. It rhymes with bass. Oh and people in Biloxi, MS think anyone who lives north of I-10 is a damnyankee.
Do hackers and geeks just not care about communicating effectively?
That's H4X0rs and g33ks you insensitive clod. Besides if the leader of the free world can invent new countries like Lebalebanon, who am I to judge?
Thats why everyone needs to install this super dooper greasemonkey script: De-Piquepaille Slashdot. It blocks stories submitted by Roland.
I am reminded of when I first started reading USENET and learned how to set up a killfile for the infamous Serdar Argic.
of America's 285 million TVs only 12 percent (33.6 million) are used for watching OTA broadcasts.
OK, and ow many of the other 88% (250.8 million) watch OTA broadcasts through their cable boxes? We have twice as many OTA broadcasters here than before cable arrived in the late 70's.
Anyway, I care. When they rolled out FM radio they didn't force AM to go away. AM radio is still a viable medium. There is no compelling reason to make analog TV go away for the consumer.
Oh well, as Arthur C. Clarke wrote: "Whom the Gods would destroy they first giveTV."
OK. This is pretty lame, but it must be posted:
I do not like weblogs and spam.
I do not like them RAM-I-am.
Do not like them here or there
I do not like them anywhere.
Not on a site, nor click with a mouse
Not here or there, not anywhere
I do not like weblogs and spam
I do not like them, RAM-I-am
Could you? Would you? With a goatse.cx?
Could you? Would you? On a VPN?
Could you? Would you? Behind a firewall?
Could you? Would you? On a wi-fi?
Not with a goatse.cx. Not on a VPN.
Not behind a firewall. Not on a wi-fi.
Not on a site. Nor click with a mouse.
Oh, no!
Not in a linux box. Not with firefox.
Not in a B-tree. You let me be!
I do not like weblogs and spam!
I do not like them, RAM-I-am!
I do not like weblogs and spam!
Mmmm - and with that sulphur-tainted mountain water you can really taste it in the Coors.
At least then you'll be ABLE to taste something.
Coors, the best beer-flavored water you can buy!
So now it's illegal to discuss illegal activity?
Yeah, and there ought to be a law making it illegal to break the law.
aims to operate at a record-breaking 223 miles per hour -- faster than many propeller airplanes
The train only needs to be fast enough to outrun Godzilla the next time he decides to stomp Tokyo. Of course, they'd need some kind of shielding to protect against his breath which they can't outrun. I don't think those really cute Hello Kitty ears really help with aerodynamics.
During prohibition people were allowed to make "near beer". That is beer with less than 0.5 percent alcohol. The recipe for it gave explicit instructions on what not to do because if you did you would be making something illegal.
Like prohibition this ruling will be just as effective. Oh, well. America already has two million people in jail. Why not throw a few million more behind bars? We aren't the worst, but it's nothing to be proud of.
peri-anal hygiene
Good Lord! The USPTO has gone completely batshit. Who knew that granting software patents would lead to this? You know it wasn't some Einstein that granted this patent.
"They have become the first to create a new type of matter, a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity."
Sounds like they've been lighting farts again.
Japan's lunar robots would do work such as building telescopes and prospecting and mining for minerals
And giant robot overlords. I for one welcome our giant Japanese lunar robot overlords. All hail MechAsimo!
"After reading Geoff Ryman's Mundane SF website, where he promotes a new form of science fiction based on real science,
...er... ...ah...
...what were we talking about?
In other news, Geoff Ryman's grandfather after reading his grandson's website decides to goes back in time and kill his younger self before he has any kids....