Like gujo-odori said, it depends on the agent. My wife & I just bought a house last winter and our agent was outstanding. She didn't pressure us into anything. She didn't show us houses we weren't going to like. She was very forthright with everything, and guided us through the whole process. She even had ideas for tweaks to make on the house once we moved in. She had great contacts for home inspections too.
We asked to look at one house, and she said "I haven't been in that one, but yeah I can show it to you." We got there, and before we were even inside the place, she told us "you do not want this place." We couldn't disagree - it was in shambles.
Our agent never tried to sell us on a house that she had listed. While she did suggest plenty of houses to look at, she also let us look ourselves and would set up a time to see a particular house that we had found and wanted to see.
My in-laws, OTOH, used their agent when they were buying their new home as their seller's agent on their old home. Once the offer on the new house was accepted, this woman barely did anything to sell the old one, sometimes even telling people bad things about the neighborhood ("oh, it seems like there's an accident at that intersection every time I'm out here"). Once the 6-month contract was up on that, they switched agents - and sold in 2 weeks.
Real Estate agents get a bad rap, and some of them deserve it. We talked to one seller's agent who wouldn't even talk to us until we had a pre-approval letter. Another was pushing us on a house he was selling, saying "it's not going to last on the market, if you think you want it you better get an offer in" but in our opinion, the house was overpriced - and now, 8 months later, it's still on the market. The seller's agent on our house was a complete airhead, as was her client. But our agent handled her so we didn't have to.
If you're in the market, go to open houses and talk to a few agents before settling on one. References are always good. Get a feel for how the agent works. If they ask you more questions than you ask them, you're in good shape. If they offer to set you up w/ an MLS feed tailored to you like ours did, you're in really good shape. She got a rough idea of what we wanted, and then every few days we got an email from her system with some new listings. We'd pick which ones were contenders and which we weren't interested in, and the filtering got progressively better.
If this runs using wine internally, then couldn't we have run Picasa using Wine before anyway?
Apparently not, since it took 225 WINE patches to get things working.
Google funded 225 WINE patches. How many people who won't even use Picasa will benefit from that? IMHO, that's more important than Google releasing a package that lets Picasa run on Linux.
Management IS OVERHEAD. You can run a company profitably with only workers (it will most likely be inefficient, but it WILL run). If you only have management, you will not survive.
Tell that to the management at my last company. They've told all the IT staff that they're going to be outsourced, no one will be a "worker" anymore, they'll just be telling someone else (contractors, offshore) what needs to be done.
My next computer will be a Mac. I'm perfectly capable of understanding all the PC components (I used to build & spec out PCs regularly), I just don't have time to anymore, nor do I want to spend a week ordering parts from all over the web and waiting for everything to show up, dealing with RMAs on bad parts, assembly time, component conflicts, etc.
Plus, I want to be able to run OS X.
Pick up a Mac and it's all taken care of; the hardware WILL work with the software, it's all done in one package, and the hardware is nicely designed. I certainly could build a PC, or buy from one of the big vendors, but (to be blunt), I just don't want to bother with it.
I recently started visiting an independent butcher shop and the difference in meat quality - and prices - is astonishing. Very trim cuts, great flavor, lower prices per pound, and a guy behind the counter who knows his stuff.
I can't wait till the local farmer's markets open up for the summer. One of our local MegaMarts "features" food from local growers, almost directly off the farm, but I'm expecting that going right to the source will get me even better produce.
And watch your SPAM levels increase exponentially as it's instantly confirmed that your address is valid. This is the kind of address verification that email harvesters/list sellers would kill for.
EZPass will. You have to give them your account number and PIN (used for the website as well) when you call in, and have to give it to a human. That human then looks at their screen, where your account number and PIN are displayed in plain text. I'd feel less uncomfortable if they asked you for the PIN and then keyed it into a system to find out if it was right, but that's not the case (the CSR actually TOLD me that she was looking at the PIN on her screen).
Either your PIN isn't being stored encrypted at all, or it's being stored in such a way that it can be retrieved to plaintext.
Movie ratings are voluntary. There is no criminal penalty for allowing a 15 year old into an R-rated movie without someone of age accompanying them.
Which is basically where the on-box game ratings are today. Voluntary, done by the industry, but if the store clerk or parent doesn't stop the sale to a minor, there's no criminal penalty.
This law makes it illegal to sell GTA to a minor, but it'll still be legal to let them into the theater to see Showgirls (and allowing anyone, whether they're 16 or 60,to watch that movie should be a crime).
It's an election year, and it's a "hot-button" issue. They don't need to think beyond "how can I use this in my campaign?"
We already have laws covering inattentive driving, cell phone use is already covered under that. This is purely a law to help small municipalities generate revenue (it's a $100 ticket in NY, and you can't bargain it down or get the charges reduced) and get incumbents re-elected.
BTW, the one time I actually did pull to the shoulder to make/take a call because I didn't have a handsfree setup, a cop actually pulled up behind me and approached my car to find out what I was doing - despite the fact that I was obeying the letter of the law! He actually had to ask me, even though he clearly saw the phone pressed to my ear.
OSHA (assuming you're in the US) has regulations that should cover poor ergonomics in one's workspace.
Even if they don't, most companies I've been exposed to make a point of telling employees about the value of good ergonomics and how to properly set up one's workspace. Until they eliminated the position, my former employer's company nurse would come to your desk, help you get everything adjusted, and if money needed to be spent (modifications, equipment, etc.), she'd get it pushed through your boss to make it happen. She even gave me a few pages out of a catalogue for me to select rubber mats to put in front of our server consoles to ease the back pain from standing on the hard raised floor for long periods.
How do they manage this with all the Sarbanes-Oxley controls that are required for public companies?
I'm lucky that I'm even able to see the code for an app I'm responsible for; my read-only access to its database has been removed (SOX fears) so I can't even do analysis or troubleshooting, and I need approval from a VP before I can actually commit anything pertaining to the functionality of the app to the source code repository.
This is very typical of the pervasive attitude of saving $10 today by getting the cheaper model which costs $1/month more to operate - buy cheap, it'll cost more in the long run. Most consumers in the US only look at their out of pocket, "what does it cost me today?" costs.
I bought a house earlier this year and every major purchase I make for it, I'm balancing the reduced energy costs/improved efficiency/lifespan against that immediate cost.
Interesting that you bring up washing machines; I've been casually shopping them for a couple months now (ours is old, but still works). To get anything close to a high-efficiency model (Euro-style), you're looking at double the price of the "regular" ones. But I also know a washer should last 10 years, minimum - so it'll pay off in the energy savings. Dryers aren't quite as bad - going gas instead of electric means a $50-$100 price premium, but you'll save on the electric bills twice - once on the heat energy, once on the fact that gas dries faster than electric-heated models (less time for the motor to run).
CBS Radio isn't making a dime now that you-know-who went to Sirius, and they'll have to pay for all his legal bills when the lawsuit they filed against him gets dismissed - or the massive countersuit that'll be filed if it isn't dismissed due to a clueless judge.
I, too, live in NY, at the opposite end of the state from you (though I grew up very near where you live now). I cannot tell you how many recuiters I had calling me without even comprehending where I live. Apparently to most of the world, NYC == NY, and they can't get their head around someone with an NY address not living in Manhattan.
Even recruiters located in NYC couldn't reconcile that someone living near Rochester wouldn't be interested in working in midtown.
Is it too much to ask that these people look at a map? Or even recognize that the area code on my phone number is nothing even remotely close to what you'd see for a downstater?
I routinely get job offers for Southern California and the East Coast. Although I explicitly state everywhere else I'm looking for something in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County. It got to the point that I would cut off a recruiter before they get into the sales pitch to ask them where first before wasting time for either one of us.
I had this exact experience while searching for a job change (search ended last fall). The very first line of my resume below my name & address indicates, in bold, that I am only available in one metropolitan area. I would get the standard "I'm $name with $body_shop, I have a great opportunity that I think you'd be a great match for" spiel. My first question, just like yours, was "where?" When they told me, I'd ask them to look at the top line of my resume again. If they didn't have it with them in the first place, that's 5 points off right there. One even admitted that he doesn't actually read the whole resume! 20 point deduction.
It's really, really bad out there. Most of these "recruiters" do nothing more than spam the top 100 people who hit on their Monster.com keyword searches. To the point where you have to start taking things off the resume just to avoid getting spammed for jobs using technologies you have no interest in using. Once you realize that the ones who blindly email you would never net you a real hit on a decent job, it becomes fun screwing with them. Or at least cathartic. Just the other day I replied to a "hi, I came across your resume..." email with "thanks for coming across it. Now please read it."
o what programmer bozo would default such a data entry field to yes? Was he/she not thinking or was it sadistic humor?
2 options from what I've seen in my experiences:
#1 - Outsourcing. Programmer codes exactly what the spec says. #2 - Management. Programmer says "hey, uh, this really doesn't make sense" when he sees the spec. Management says "we don't pay you to question the process, write what the doc says."
Re:And they've dropped prices twice since I signed
on
Vonage IPO
·
· Score: 1
TW bundles for price? Hardly.
I just established new service a couple weeks ago. There is NO price break for getting their "all in one" package as opposed to getting RoadRunner, digital cable and VoIP separately (I asked about this exact point). RoadRunner is still $29.95/month for the first year (promotion). Digital cable is still $55.82/month. VoIP is still $39.95. You just get one bill instead of three.
But TW's marketing sure makes you think you get a break. "I saved $30/month on my phone bill!" - sure, because you got free long distance for your $40/month that TW phone service gives you. But you could have gotten the same from Vonage for $30/month. Or built right into your cell phone service.
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Like gujo-odori said, it depends on the agent. My wife & I just bought a house last winter and our agent was outstanding. She didn't pressure us into anything. She didn't show us houses we weren't going to like. She was very forthright with everything, and guided us through the whole process. She even had ideas for tweaks to make on the house once we moved in. She had great contacts for home inspections too.
We asked to look at one house, and she said "I haven't been in that one, but yeah I can show it to you." We got there, and before we were even inside the place, she told us "you do not want this place." We couldn't disagree - it was in shambles.
Our agent never tried to sell us on a house that she had listed. While she did suggest plenty of houses to look at, she also let us look ourselves and would set up a time to see a particular house that we had found and wanted to see.
My in-laws, OTOH, used their agent when they were buying their new home as their seller's agent on their old home. Once the offer on the new house was accepted, this woman barely did anything to sell the old one, sometimes even telling people bad things about the neighborhood ("oh, it seems like there's an accident at that intersection every time I'm out here"). Once the 6-month contract was up on that, they switched agents - and sold in 2 weeks.
Real Estate agents get a bad rap, and some of them deserve it. We talked to one seller's agent who wouldn't even talk to us until we had a pre-approval letter. Another was pushing us on a house he was selling, saying "it's not going to last on the market, if you think you want it you better get an offer in" but in our opinion, the house was overpriced - and now, 8 months later, it's still on the market. The seller's agent on our house was a complete airhead, as was her client. But our agent handled her so we didn't have to.
If you're in the market, go to open houses and talk to a few agents before settling on one. References are always good. Get a feel for how the agent works. If they ask you more questions than you ask them, you're in good shape. If they offer to set you up w/ an MLS feed tailored to you like ours did, you're in really good shape. She got a rough idea of what we wanted, and then every few days we got an email from her system with some new listings. We'd pick which ones were contenders and which we weren't interested in, and the filtering got progressively better.
Google funded 225 WINE patches. How many people who won't even use Picasa will benefit from that? IMHO, that's more important than Google releasing a package that lets Picasa run on Linux.
It may sound like a joke, but this basically happened just this week to a kindergartener.
So glad I'm out of that environment.
And yet the TV manufacturers aren't being held responsible for what "slips through" when the V-Chip isn't enabled.
Why should filtering software/websites be different?
My next computer will be a Mac. I'm perfectly capable of understanding all the PC components (I used to build & spec out PCs regularly), I just don't have time to anymore, nor do I want to spend a week ordering parts from all over the web and waiting for everything to show up, dealing with RMAs on bad parts, assembly time, component conflicts, etc.
Plus, I want to be able to run OS X.
Pick up a Mac and it's all taken care of; the hardware WILL work with the software, it's all done in one package, and the hardware is nicely designed. I certainly could build a PC, or buy from one of the big vendors, but (to be blunt), I just don't want to bother with it.
You went to the local MegaMart, I'm guessing?
I recently started visiting an independent butcher shop and the difference in meat quality - and prices - is astonishing. Very trim cuts, great flavor, lower prices per pound, and a guy behind the counter who knows his stuff.
I can't wait till the local farmer's markets open up for the summer. One of our local MegaMarts "features" food from local growers, almost directly off the farm, but I'm expecting that going right to the source will get me even better produce.
And watch your SPAM levels increase exponentially as it's instantly confirmed that your address is valid. This is the kind of address verification that email harvesters/list sellers would kill for.
http://www.flock.com/
EZPass will. You have to give them your account number and PIN (used for the website as well) when you call in, and have to give it to a human. That human then looks at their screen, where your account number and PIN are displayed in plain text. I'd feel less uncomfortable if they asked you for the PIN and then keyed it into a system to find out if it was right, but that's not the case (the CSR actually TOLD me that she was looking at the PIN on her screen).
Either your PIN isn't being stored encrypted at all, or it's being stored in such a way that it can be retrieved to plaintext.
Movie ratings are voluntary. There is no criminal penalty for allowing a 15 year old into an R-rated movie without someone of age accompanying them.
Which is basically where the on-box game ratings are today. Voluntary, done by the industry, but if the store clerk or parent doesn't stop the sale to a minor, there's no criminal penalty.
This law makes it illegal to sell GTA to a minor, but it'll still be legal to let them into the theater to see Showgirls (and allowing anyone, whether they're 16 or 60,to watch that movie should be a crime).
We already have laws covering inattentive driving, cell phone use is already covered under that. This is purely a law to help small municipalities generate revenue (it's a $100 ticket in NY, and you can't bargain it down or get the charges reduced) and get incumbents re-elected.
BTW, the one time I actually did pull to the shoulder to make/take a call because I didn't have a handsfree setup, a cop actually pulled up behind me and approached my car to find out what I was doing - despite the fact that I was obeying the letter of the law! He actually had to ask me, even though he clearly saw the phone pressed to my ear.
Sorry Calvin.
OSHA (assuming you're in the US) has regulations that should cover poor ergonomics in one's workspace.
Even if they don't, most companies I've been exposed to make a point of telling employees about the value of good ergonomics and how to properly set up one's workspace. Until they eliminated the position, my former employer's company nurse would come to your desk, help you get everything adjusted, and if money needed to be spent (modifications, equipment, etc.), she'd get it pushed through your boss to make it happen. She even gave me a few pages out of a catalogue for me to select rubber mats to put in front of our server consoles to ease the back pain from standing on the hard raised floor for long periods.
How do they manage this with all the Sarbanes-Oxley controls that are required for public companies?
I'm lucky that I'm even able to see the code for an app I'm responsible for; my read-only access to its database has been removed (SOX fears) so I can't even do analysis or troubleshooting, and I need approval from a VP before I can actually commit anything pertaining to the functionality of the app to the source code repository.
This is very typical of the pervasive attitude of saving $10 today by getting the cheaper model which costs $1/month more to operate - buy cheap, it'll cost more in the long run. Most consumers in the US only look at their out of pocket, "what does it cost me today?" costs.
I bought a house earlier this year and every major purchase I make for it, I'm balancing the reduced energy costs/improved efficiency/lifespan against that immediate cost.
Interesting that you bring up washing machines; I've been casually shopping them for a couple months now (ours is old, but still works). To get anything close to a high-efficiency model (Euro-style), you're looking at double the price of the "regular" ones. But I also know a washer should last 10 years, minimum - so it'll pay off in the energy savings. Dryers aren't quite as bad - going gas instead of electric means a $50-$100 price premium, but you'll save on the electric bills twice - once on the heat energy, once on the fact that gas dries faster than electric-heated models (less time for the motor to run).
Oh come on. This isn't even trying for 4/1.
If I don't recognize a phone number (what cell phone plan doesn't have CallerID now?), I press "ignore" and let it go to voicemail.
Taking it one step further, set all rings to silent, and wait for the legit callers to leave a voicemail - then call them back.
I really wish my phone let me set ringers for each group of contacts so I didn't have to do it for each person on a one-by-one basis.
CBS Radio isn't making a dime now that you-know-who went to Sirius, and they'll have to pay for all his legal bills when the lawsuit they filed against him gets dismissed - or the massive countersuit that'll be filed if it isn't dismissed due to a clueless judge.
They need the revenue stream.
I'll be in the Angry Dome.
I did it about a year ago. Went from at least one credit card or similar offer a a day to maybe 3 a month.
I, too, live in NY, at the opposite end of the state from you (though I grew up very near where you live now). I cannot tell you how many recuiters I had calling me without even comprehending where I live. Apparently to most of the world, NYC == NY, and they can't get their head around someone with an NY address not living in Manhattan.
Even recruiters located in NYC couldn't reconcile that someone living near Rochester wouldn't be interested in working in midtown.
Is it too much to ask that these people look at a map? Or even recognize that the area code on my phone number is nothing even remotely close to what you'd see for a downstater?
It's really, really bad out there. Most of these "recruiters" do nothing more than spam the top 100 people who hit on their Monster.com keyword searches. To the point where you have to start taking things off the resume just to avoid getting spammed for jobs using technologies you have no interest in using. Once you realize that the ones who blindly email you would never net you a real hit on a decent job, it becomes fun screwing with them. Or at least cathartic. Just the other day I replied to a "hi, I came across your resume..." email with "thanks for coming across it. Now please read it."
#1 - Outsourcing. Programmer codes exactly what the spec says.
#2 - Management. Programmer says "hey, uh, this really doesn't make sense" when he sees the spec. Management says "we don't pay you to question the process, write what the doc says."
TW bundles for price? Hardly.
I just established new service a couple weeks ago. There is NO price break for getting their "all in one" package as opposed to getting RoadRunner, digital cable and VoIP separately (I asked about this exact point). RoadRunner is still $29.95/month for the first year (promotion). Digital cable is still $55.82/month. VoIP is still $39.95. You just get one bill instead of three.
But TW's marketing sure makes you think you get a break. "I saved $30/month on my phone bill!" - sure, because you got free long distance for your $40/month that TW phone service gives you. But you could have gotten the same from Vonage for $30/month. Or built right into your cell phone service.