I agree with the general sentiment of this discussion, that hiring temporary workers is cutting costs for the big companies -- and my dumb company is doing it backwards!!
We're currently going through layoffs, and today's announcement was to freeze all consultants. Adding even more to the mystery, our IT dept. is infamous among my group (we're somewhat auxillary to both the IT and marketing depts.) for their internal billing -- regularly quoting higher dollars than it would cost for a consultant to do the same job. Add benefits cost to that, and it just begs the question: wtf?
Is anybody else working for a laughably backwards company like this? I'm splitting my time between working on my resume and laughing my head off.
I had a friend in college who was given, as a joke, one of those clappers (Clap On...Clap Off...Clap On Clap Off....). So he plugged it in an forgot about it, until a guy down the dorm hall got a new stereo system and liked to turn the bass way up. Suddenly my friends lights started flash on and off all night....the thing picked up the vibrations through the building!
Their technology seems inherently different from your run-of-the mill living room air conditioner. An AC doesn't even try to convert heat to electricity, yet their device (according to their claims) is able to do this. In the example of an AC, the device is basically a heat transfer device, moving heat from one area to another. This coolchip device would seem to convert heat energy into electrical energy. Transfer vs. conversion. Not the same thing.
We've recently changed from a scheme to the .<last name> scheme, and it's generally been a pain because of 1) the extra typing, and 2) we now must know exactly how to spell those long and difficult last names, instead of just needing to memorize the beginning six letters.
As for a security issue, I would say the <first name>.<last name> scheme would make it easier to get back at a certain individual, but not so practical for automated actions. For instance, if your least-favorite person in the world is at john.doe@company.com, it would be easy to direct every piece of SPAM into the world to his email box with only the basic knowledge that he works at company.com.
That would make quite a weapon -- except for the fact that it would take a proportionally enourmous quantity of fuel to move the thing. So tiny projectiles are more or less out of the question -- most of the volume of modern day missles is fuel.
Although I agree that this would create excellent opportunity for study. It sounds like a good candidate for testing of string theory....
this is why I keep my games on my iPaq. Most of the time when I don't have anything to do, I'll be playing solitare on my iPaq in the cradle next to my computer
I'm fortunate right now in that my manager is very good -- although everyone above him are idiots....
But in the past I've had some amazingly dumb people manage my projects. I was working for a company a few years ago as a web designer. We were trying to attract this one client (on the other side of the country) by setting up a homepage for them, as a sample of the complete site they would get later.
My job was to create the page, but also to create their branding. Including business cards, company colors, and their logo design. But...the company was very new and they hadn't completely decided on a name yet. My manager told me to do what I could with the web page and we'd hear from them later after they set their name.
But when I emailed in the design (I telecommuted) my manager's first comment was "where's the logo?" I retorted with, "what's their name?" My manager said, "they still haven't decided on it yet, but we need a logo! can you have one by this evening?"
To compound my confusion, my manager starts YELLING at me, furious that I hadn't created the logo yet! "Just make the design, or you'll loose your job! We'll plug the name into it later!"
Forget for the moment that HP probably just buys extra licenses for each machine, and probably doesn't have actually have that many copies of the XP discs. But for all intents and purposes, they actually do.
So now look at it like this. HP buys a copy of XP. They install it, and a recovery version onto a machine. Then they sell the machine, and keep the XP installation discs.
In what country is this not the equivalent of software piracy?
I've never liked data presented with statements like "with two million more each month". That simply will not hold as a predictive model, because there is a limited population to work with.
You might as well say, "In three years, we expect that 150% of the population will be online"
How many people do you see walking around with portable DAT players? Not many. Whoever concocted the idea of D-VHS forgot the number ONE feature of DVD, that's even better than the quality:
When I graduated from high school in '96, I *knew* I was going to be a physicist.
That lasted three weeks. Tops.
Suddenly I knew I wanted to do computer design in a big way. I wanted more than anything to created 3d special effects - primarily animation - for the movies. But what to do about college? Well, I decided that I could handle the artistic and technical side by myself, what I really needed was grounding in cinema. Cinematography, editing, lighting, etc. So, I switched from a physics major to a cinema/media studies major -- with which I graduated in 2000.
But that's not the end. About a year and a half before I graduated, I got fed up with my campus job (doing tech support for a university business group) and decided to look for a real job -- off campus. But what?
See, the 3d design eventually led to me working some in photoshop, and I loved photoshop. I knew I couldn't get a job doing 3d at my current experience level, but anything with photoshop would be terrific. And then it occured to me -- I could make web pages! I got my first job by lying about being able to write HTML, and showing my 3d work as 'design'.
This job occupied more and more of my time, and eventually I knew that there was no longer a future in the movies for me -- I was too hooked on the net. But it was too late to change my major again.
Eventually my web design led to Flash animation, which suddenly hit home for me. It combined computer-based design, my first love, with animation, my second love, and web design, my third love. It also encapsulates scripting, which is my newest love.
And suddenly my degree in Cinema/Media Studies from the University of Chicago WASN'T A WASTE! I was able to focus my education in cinema, and adapt it to flash animations. The result is, I get comments all the time, that my animations play more like movies.
The moral of the story is, do what you love. If you love more than one thing -- figure out a way to combine them. If you become unhappy with it, don't be afraid to evolve, but keep your past because you can always learn from it.
As a Lindows.com Friend, we at Microsoft hold you responsible for encroaching on the Microsoft brand with the naming of the Lindows product. Microsoft is shocked and appalled at the countless number of people that each made the executive level decision of approving this product name, and plan on holding every one of you responsible. In addition, you will be added to all of the Microsoft, MSN, and MSDN mailing lists to further convince you of the uniqueness of the Microsoft brand. We also might forward all of the blocked SPAM at Hotmail.com to you, since we now have your email addresses.
Salvador Dali was known to practice a similar method as in the Winston Churchill story, but for a different purpose. There is a small boundary between drifting off to sleep and when sleep finally settles in, where the mind tends to hallucinate. These are called hypnogogic hallucinations.
Dali would hold a spoon in one hand as he drifted off to sleep on his couch. When his body entered the hypnogogic state, he would drop the spoon and would awake. Much of the inspiration for his work came from the memories of his interrupted hypnogogic hallucinations.
Let's get somebody out there to the 'crash site' with a camcorder, and stream a live broadcast so everybody can see the final moments of ancient space history.
James Cameron (yeah, the Terminator/Titanic dude himself) is reportedly going to be staying onboard Mir for a while. Don't believe me? Look at this and see for yourself. Surely he can come up with 7-10M.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with the general sentiment of this discussion, that hiring temporary workers is cutting costs for the big companies -- and my dumb company is doing it backwards!!
We're currently going through layoffs, and today's announcement was to freeze all consultants. Adding even more to the mystery, our IT dept. is infamous among my group (we're somewhat auxillary to both the IT and marketing depts.) for their internal billing -- regularly quoting higher dollars than it would cost for a consultant to do the same job. Add benefits cost to that, and it just begs the question: wtf?
Is anybody else working for a laughably backwards company like this? I'm splitting my time between working on my resume and laughing my head off.
I had a friend in college who was given, as a joke, one of those clappers (Clap On...Clap Off...Clap On Clap Off....). So he plugged it in an forgot about it, until a guy down the dorm hall got a new stereo system and liked to turn the bass way up. Suddenly my friends lights started flash on and off all night....the thing picked up the vibrations through the building!
Their technology seems inherently different from your run-of-the mill living room air conditioner. An AC doesn't even try to convert heat to electricity, yet their device (according to their claims) is able to do this. In the example of an AC, the device is basically a heat transfer device, moving heat from one area to another. This coolchip device would seem to convert heat energy into electrical energy. Transfer vs. conversion. Not the same thing.
indeed, I was asked the last 4 digits of my SSN as a verification during a phone call less than 24 hours ago
if you read my monitor from the glow, I'll sue you for decrypting my wall's reflection algorithm!
We've recently changed from a scheme to the .<last name> scheme, and it's generally been a pain because of 1) the extra typing, and 2) we now must know exactly how to spell those long and difficult last names, instead of just needing to memorize the beginning six letters.
As for a security issue, I would say the <first name>.<last name> scheme would make it easier to get back at a certain individual, but not so practical for automated actions. For instance, if your least-favorite person in the world is at john.doe@company.com, it would be easy to direct every piece of SPAM into the world to his email box with only the basic knowledge that he works at company.com.
That would make quite a weapon -- except for the fact that it would take a proportionally enourmous quantity of fuel to move the thing. So tiny projectiles are more or less out of the question -- most of the volume of modern day missles is fuel.
Although I agree that this would create excellent opportunity for study. It sounds like a good candidate for testing of string theory....
this is why I keep my games on my iPaq. Most of the time when I don't have anything to do, I'll be playing solitare on my iPaq in the cradle next to my computer
I'm fortunate right now in that my manager is very good -- although everyone above him are idiots....
But in the past I've had some amazingly dumb people manage my projects. I was working for a company a few years ago as a web designer. We were trying to attract this one client (on the other side of the country) by setting up a homepage for them, as a sample of the complete site they would get later.
My job was to create the page, but also to create their branding. Including business cards, company colors, and their logo design. But...the company was very new and they hadn't completely decided on a name yet. My manager told me to do what I could with the web page and we'd hear from them later after they set their name.
But when I emailed in the design (I telecommuted) my manager's first comment was "where's the logo?" I retorted with, "what's their name?" My manager said, "they still haven't decided on it yet, but we need a logo! can you have one by this evening?"
To compound my confusion, my manager starts YELLING at me, furious that I hadn't created the logo yet! "Just make the design, or you'll loose your job! We'll plug the name into it later!"
they have no clue....
Forget for the moment that HP probably just buys extra licenses for each machine, and probably doesn't have actually have that many copies of the XP discs. But for all intents and purposes, they actually do.
So now look at it like this. HP buys a copy of XP. They install it, and a recovery version onto a machine. Then they sell the machine, and keep the XP installation discs.
In what country is this not the equivalent of software piracy?
I've never liked data presented with statements like "with two million more each month". That simply will not hold as a predictive model, because there is a limited population to work with.
You might as well say, "In three years, we expect that 150% of the population will be online"
DAT
How many people do you see walking around with portable DAT players? Not many. Whoever concocted the idea of D-VHS forgot the number ONE feature of DVD, that's even better than the quality:
You don't have to rewind a TAPE!
When I graduated from high school in '96, I *knew* I was going to be a physicist.
That lasted three weeks. Tops.
Suddenly I knew I wanted to do computer design in a big way. I wanted more than anything to created 3d special effects - primarily animation - for the movies. But what to do about college? Well, I decided that I could handle the artistic and technical side by myself, what I really needed was grounding in cinema. Cinematography, editing, lighting, etc. So, I switched from a physics major to a cinema/media studies major -- with which I graduated in 2000.
But that's not the end. About a year and a half before I graduated, I got fed up with my campus job (doing tech support for a university business group) and decided to look for a real job -- off campus. But what?
See, the 3d design eventually led to me working some in photoshop, and I loved photoshop. I knew I couldn't get a job doing 3d at my current experience level, but anything with photoshop would be terrific. And then it occured to me -- I could make web pages! I got my first job by lying about being able to write HTML, and showing my 3d work as 'design'.
This job occupied more and more of my time, and eventually I knew that there was no longer a future in the movies for me -- I was too hooked on the net. But it was too late to change my major again.
Eventually my web design led to Flash animation, which suddenly hit home for me. It combined computer-based design, my first love, with animation, my second love, and web design, my third love. It also encapsulates scripting, which is my newest love.
And suddenly my degree in Cinema/Media Studies from the University of Chicago WASN'T A WASTE! I was able to focus my education in cinema, and adapt it to flash animations. The result is, I get comments all the time, that my animations play more like movies.
The moral of the story is, do what you love. If you love more than one thing -- figure out a way to combine them. If you become unhappy with it, don't be afraid to evolve, but keep your past because you can always learn from it.
Dear Lindows.com Friend,
As a Lindows.com Friend, we at Microsoft hold you responsible for encroaching on the Microsoft brand with the naming of the Lindows product. Microsoft is shocked and appalled at the countless number of people that each made the executive level decision of approving this product name, and plan on holding every one of you responsible. In addition, you will be added to all of the Microsoft, MSN, and MSDN mailing lists to further convince you of the uniqueness of the Microsoft brand. We also might forward all of the blocked SPAM at Hotmail.com to you, since we now have your email addresses.
Sincerely,
*******, Head of Corporate Branding
Salvador Dali was known to practice a similar method as in the Winston Churchill story, but for a different purpose. There is a small boundary between drifting off to sleep and when sleep finally settles in, where the mind tends to hallucinate. These are called hypnogogic hallucinations.
Dali would hold a spoon in one hand as he drifted off to sleep on his couch. When his body entered the hypnogogic state, he would drop the spoon and would awake. Much of the inspiration for his work came from the memories of his interrupted hypnogogic hallucinations.
Let's get somebody out there to the 'crash site' with a camcorder, and stream a live broadcast so everybody can see the final moments of ancient space history.
Did anyone else notice that these doomsday concepts were: © Copyright 2000 The Walt Disney Company?
James Cameron (yeah, the Terminator/Titanic dude himself) is reportedly going to be staying onboard Mir for a while. Don't believe me? Look at this and see for yourself. Surely he can come up with 7-10M.