For a video that had no training value at all. Zero. Pretty good use of cash then, right? If this had ANY productive use, people wouldn't be this upset about it.
The health care sector can dig up what ever they want on me and they can even publish it for all I care
I'd rather look like innocent guy because I'm forth comming with it, rather then look like the guilty guy because I hide behind laws and rights that don't really protect me.
If a customer service rep says something to me like "I'm sorry about this. It's our fault and we're trying to correct it as soon as possible." that goes a long way, and will buy them some time (the amount of time depending on how critical this service is to me). Even more important is getting *real* tech support when you need it. A warm body answering the phone and telling me they will pass it along to someone else is not sufficient. If I have those two things I'll be very forgiving, because I know how hard it is to get them.
Back in the day, my dial up internet provider was bought by another company that was obviously unprepared to handle the workload. It was pretty bad, so I tried to cancel. The service was down constantly, the customer support line was always busy, and the answering service message was "this voice mailbox is full". Emails bounced back with "this user is over the quota", and there was no other way to contact them. Even a registered letter was never picked up because the post office was unable to make delivery. Apparently they decided that it wasn't important to have live people, a physical office, or any contact at all with their customers. It took 2 months to make them quit billing me. After finally managing to cancel my service, I sent them a goodbye present to the corporate office. It was a medium size box lined with plastic, and filled with all the dog feces I could collect from my back yard, and a laminated picture of a random guy flipping the bird. The note said "Thanks for the shitty service".
On the other end of the spectrum, my current web hosting service had some issues that caused them to shift servers proactively for performance reasons. One of my PHP scripts broke, and I contacted support via chat. The guy who answered got the URL from me, looked at the code, and helped me fix it on the spot. It really wasn't even their problem. It was crappy coding on my part. That's the only time I've ever had to talk to their support in 10 years, so I don't know if that's typical or not. Because of that, I'd stay with them if they were out for a month, maybe even two.
"Lots of people have been faced with worse time than this and don't kill themselves"
Many more people have been faced with much less trouble than this and have killed themselves.
It's gallant to defy circumstances and rise above them. That makes for great movies. In the real world, most people aren't that strong. The fortunate few who gaze upon the beauty of logic and reason are sadly, hopelessly outnumbered.
Let me understand this... Al Gore, Eco Warrior, founds Current TV, a left leaning political news cable channel. It is (last year) put up for sale.
An offer from a conservative group is rebuffed, with the Current spokesperson saying, "the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”
Instead, they sell it, for $500 million (of which Al Gore gets $100 million), to the Government of Qatar, one of the top producers of fossil fuel in the world,
a country were women have no voice, and homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death. As icing on the cake, apparently Mr. Gore tried to push for the sale to be complete before the new year, so he could take advantage of expiring tax laws.
"we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”
Slashdot Mirror
Then you think this $60k was well spent?
"The company you work for" hopefully doesn't extort money from its clients by force.
The IRS does. Therefore, it should be a bit more sensitive about how it spends the money it stole from us.
That works out to about .65 cents per employee
For a video that had no training value at all. Zero. Pretty good use of cash then, right? If this had ANY productive use, people wouldn't be this upset about it.
I'd love to know the name of the IRS manager that approved production of this.
Anyone who is willing to drop 60k on fluff like this should have the opportunity to address the fans of their work.
My company has a timestamp class that contains 2000 lines of code.
:(
And 150 methods, some of which are duplicates, but just misspelled.
Headed over to The Daily WTF right now.
The health care sector can dig up what ever they want on me and they can even publish it for all I care
I'd rather look like innocent guy because I'm forth comming with it, rather then look like the guilty guy because I hide behind laws and rights that don't really protect me.
The Nazis loved people like you.
If a customer service rep says something to me like "I'm sorry about this. It's our fault and we're trying to correct it as soon as possible." that goes a long way, and will buy them some time (the amount of time depending on how critical this service is to me). Even more important is getting *real* tech support when you need it. A warm body answering the phone and telling me they will pass it along to someone else is not sufficient. If I have those two things I'll be very forgiving, because I know how hard it is to get them.
Back in the day, my dial up internet provider was bought by another company that was obviously unprepared to handle the workload. It was pretty bad, so I tried to cancel. The service was down constantly, the customer support line was always busy, and the answering service message was "this voice mailbox is full". Emails bounced back with "this user is over the quota", and there was no other way to contact them. Even a registered letter was never picked up because the post office was unable to make delivery. Apparently they decided that it wasn't important to have live people, a physical office, or any contact at all with their customers. It took 2 months to make them quit billing me. After finally managing to cancel my service, I sent them a goodbye present to the corporate office. It was a medium size box lined with plastic, and filled with all the dog feces I could collect from my back yard, and a laminated picture of a random guy flipping the bird. The note said "Thanks for the shitty service".
On the other end of the spectrum, my current web hosting service had some issues that caused them to shift servers proactively for performance reasons. One of my PHP scripts broke, and I contacted support via chat. The guy who answered got the URL from me, looked at the code, and helped me fix it on the spot. It really wasn't even their problem. It was crappy coding on my part. That's the only time I've ever had to talk to their support in 10 years, so I don't know if that's typical or not. Because of that, I'd stay with them if they were out for a month, maybe even two.
The "We immediately convened an emergency council blah blah blah" thing just reeks of pre-teen chat rooms or IRC channels (back in the day).
The video was pretty good quality, and I agree with the message. But *please*.
Jonathan Coulton is a member of the geek community with honors. He's given to us often, and freely.
I hope someone with lawyer skills steps up to help pay back the debt. Let me know where I can donate.
"I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2."
Help... I'm missing some knowledge that sounds interesting. Googled FoS and got way too many hits.
Can you explain FoS? Thanks.
"Lots of people have been faced with worse time than this and don't kill themselves"
Many more people have been faced with much less trouble than this and have killed themselves.
It's gallant to defy circumstances and rise above them. That makes for great movies. In the real world, most people aren't that strong. The fortunate few who gaze upon the beauty of logic and reason are sadly, hopelessly outnumbered.
Anyone who wants to make sure they are OK to drive.
Let me understand this... Al Gore, Eco Warrior, founds Current TV, a left leaning political news cable channel. It is (last year) put up for sale. An offer from a conservative group is rebuffed, with the Current spokesperson saying, "the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.” Instead, they sell it, for $500 million (of which Al Gore gets $100 million), to the Government of Qatar, one of the top producers of fossil fuel in the world, a country were women have no voice, and homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death. As icing on the cake, apparently Mr. Gore tried to push for the sale to be complete before the new year, so he could take advantage of expiring tax laws. "we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”
Wow you win. You're so angry that we should all just agree with your view. Well played sir.
You're right. We should probably get the government to regulate this kind of thing. Game companies inflicting emotional pain on kids is unacceptable.
Perhaps a new payroll tax?
Cancelling a game is "inflicting emotional pain"?
You need to get your kids out more.
bye bye
"OWS had one unforgivable sin: it offered a working and likable alternative narrative"
Unless the money they wanted to take away was yours, in which case it wasn't likable at all.
"Today all that's done by subcontractors that cost 5-20 times as much as having the grunts do it"
Any documentation to back that up? Does that figure include the cost of training a new grunt every 4 years?