I work as an office equipment repairman (copier tech.). We have been told quite clearly that the company will not pay OT. But we are still to meed the call load and be working (call into the the auto-dispatch) by 07:30 and on the job at 17:00.
I have been told that to make my stats (required workload) that I need to do what the other techs do and work through lunch. Or, if hungry, to go through a drive-through and eat in my car in-route. That is an hour that they are TELLING me to give them right there.
On the other end of the day we are to be at a account at 17:00. If any of you have ever watched a copier tech work you would realize the being at work at 17:00 means finishing about 17:30-17:45. That extra time is all unpaid. The theory is that we get comp time but it is pretty clear that requesting comp time would be a bad idea. The companies often reply that summers are slow so we are not logging a full eight hours during those months, as if it is our problem that they cannot come up with a steady workload.
The management answer is real simple, "If you think you can do better somewhere else then go there." All this for $10usd/hour (and don't even get me going on auto reimbursement). No need to say, "go back to school." I have a B.A. (as do about 1/5 of techs. The number of new hires with degrees is increasing (or should that be,without degrees laid off). I am going back to finish my masters, not so much as that I feel it will improve my situation as for something to do.
In general we need unions but the unions will not even talk to us. I was part of an effort that tried to interest the unions in copier techs nd the response was that if we were not members of a union then they could (would) do nothing. Having my minor in H.R. I know that there are too many pitfalls for people who try to unionize on their own.
Basicly it is an exploitive situation that ignores labor law. And yes, I am looking for another job
They are not going on the offensive, they are going on the defensive. Any action is still good action but it is still defensive.
Counter-Offensive actions will be wbe when they propose and push roll backs of DMCA and the Bono/Disney copyright extension.
Offensive will be if they push for guarantees of new rights to access material.
quote:Their specific target is a bill by Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., which was introduced last year but has yet to be introduced to the 108th Congress, which began its session this month. By demonstrating broad opposition to the idea, and by enlisting libertarian and conservative advocacy groups in their coalition, the firms hope to bottle up any similar proposal this year.
As a result the free press, word of mouth, and (dare I say it) the internet, would have a much greater relative impact on voter education and commentary
Does it bother you that the first pick in this persons selections for having "greater relative impact" (and I do feel that he/she is right on this) are huge corporations that a majority of Americans consider to be strongly biased?
As far as I know, the batteries are still not available as a replacement part and are estimated to cost between 4k-6kusd (www.cartalk.com). Most electric cars need a full battery replacement between 3-6years depending on usage.
On a hybrid the performance and mileage will degrade over the years without this replacement part. This will limit the life of the car and definitely reduce it's value to a second owner.
They are interesting but need to have replaceable batteries. A TDI engine instead of a gasoline engine would also help.
So I am a slow typist... When I started responding there were only three posts total on this topic. I also spent some time checking out some articles to use for reference and making sure that the links were good. If you are tired of responding to the same point, then stop.
It's difficult to enforce, due to the lack of similar laws in neighboring cities and townships.
It is easy to enforce. Remember black boxes in cars? compare the time of the accident to the court ordered copy of the cell phone record. The enforcement can even be automated.
The trouble with cell phone safety is not in the nature of the handset (or hands free set) it is in the conditioned response to phone calls. All this article seems to be pushing is another hands free approach to cell phones. This article http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm reports that, "hands-free kits were almost as dangerous as hand-held phones."
The point of this article is that, "Reaction and stopping times were much slower Talking on a mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than being over the legal alcohol limit, according to research."
This article http://http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/n ews/2001/01/25/Consumers/cellphones_study010125 provides this quote on the issue
"The bandwidth of the brain is actually quite limited," says Dr. John Vavrick, the research psychologist in charge of the study.
"Time sharing and multi-tasking does not come easily to the human brain."
The study used 41 drivers and gave each a series of tests to perform while answering questions through a speaker in the car.
Researchers found the driver's mental state was equally affected whether he or she was using a hands-free phone or not.
This is just a small sampling of the articles of the danger presented by using a cellphone while driving. The risk just isn't worth it, hang up and drive!.
I'm tired of watching TV shows that are crummy to start with, and has more commercial time than acting time in any given.5 hour period
Right about 1990 I dot rid of my TV. I have not had one since. It took a while to get used to but I am glad I did. I read a lot more and my two daughters are constantly reading.
I think that our house works better without it and I do not really understand where people get the time to watch TV in the first place.
Another great one is http://www.blackmask.com he has a lot of great stuff in a variety of formats so that you do not have to format it to your reader to use it.
I have a Sony Clie with about twenty ebooks on it right now. I use it to read daily. The narrow screen is actual better than dead trees for reading fast because there is less need to move the eyes side to side, just up and down. With the back light I am able to read in bed at night without bothering my wife (and that is a big plus because she has to get up about two hours before I do).
In general it is a great device if you like to read. But, with the law purchased by Disney Corp. there is less Public Domain stuff than there should be.
I had (I think I still have) a C64 that would regularly shutdown due to heat when used for word processing and games.
I wound up taking the power supply (external) apart and attaching huge heatsinks to just about everything in the PSU. then I put the whole thing in a box and put a fam on it. And this was living in a house that the temps were regularly about 40f (I was sharing a place with a bunch of other students and we decided heat was too expensive). The only point if this is that the old computers also had heat problems.
I worked as a copier technician (a fun job, gears chains, and electronics. All in one little box) and we were trained in fair use and regularly provided instruction in fair use to customers. Fair use is, in simple terms, the rules under which one can make copies of copyrighted materials.
I do not donate books to the library because I do not want to see them sold 3/$1usd instead of being shelved. I would rather give them away to friends and people at church.
The library, at least where I live, does not shelve donated books. They sell them. I have asked the librarian about this practice and I was told that they do not have the time to look at donated books the see if they want them and if they are of sufficient quality to shelve.
By way of example of this I once found a couple of new books, with quality binding, in the book sale pile. I opened one of them and it still contained a letter from the publisher asking them to shelve that book. They clearly hadn't even opened the book to look at it. If they had then they would have seen the letter.
More support of this. This is also true where I live and as a result I will not donate books to libraries.
I once found a couple of matched and new books on the used book shelf, out of interest I opened them, and the letter from the publisher offering them as complimentary copies was still in the books. These were new well bound books.
Read the FAQ on this air car, 50 mile range at real speeds and about $2 for a refill. This has no advantages over Direct Injection Diesel. And. is still limited by range (the bane of nearly all alternative fuel vehicles).
It does have an advantage over electrics in that there are no batteries. The batteries used in electrics are; unsafe, heavy, very expensive to both charge and replace, and need frequent replacement. Yes, I have built and owned an electric car.
One other area that the air car has an advantage over the electric car may be cold weather operation. Conventional batteries loose a large amount of their storage capacity in cold weather, making the poor range even worse. In theory, air tanks increase their storage capacity when cold.
IN general, the air car is interesting as an alternative to the electric car. But it is still not a reasonable alternative to a TDI.
Slashdot Mirror
I work as an office equipment repairman (copier tech.). We have been told quite clearly that the company will not pay OT. But we are still to meed the call load and be working (call into the the auto-dispatch) by 07:30 and on the job at 17:00.
I have been told that to make my stats (required workload) that I need to do what the other techs do and work through lunch. Or, if hungry, to go through a drive-through and eat in my car in-route. That is an hour that they are TELLING me to give them right there.
On the other end of the day we are to be at a account at 17:00. If any of you have ever watched a copier tech work you would realize the being at work at 17:00 means finishing about 17:30-17:45. That extra time is all unpaid. The theory is that we get comp time but it is pretty clear that requesting comp time would be a bad idea. The companies often reply that summers are slow so we are not logging a full eight hours during those months, as if it is our problem that they cannot come up with a steady workload.
The management answer is real simple, "If you think you can do better somewhere else then go there." All this for $10usd/hour (and don't even get me going on auto reimbursement). No need to say, "go back to school." I have a B.A. (as do about 1/5 of techs. The number of new hires with degrees is increasing (or should that be,without degrees laid off). I am going back to finish my masters, not so much as that I feel it will improve my situation as for something to do.
In general we need unions but the unions will not even talk to us. I was part of an effort that tried to interest the unions in copier techs nd the response was that if we were not members of a union then they could (would) do nothing. Having my minor in H.R. I know that there are too many pitfalls for people who try to unionize on their own.
Basicly it is an exploitive situation that ignores labor law. And yes, I am looking for another job
They are not going on the offensive, they are going on the defensive. Any action is still good action but it is still defensive.
Counter-Offensive actions will be wbe when they propose and push roll backs of DMCA and the Bono/Disney copyright extension.
Offensive will be if they push for guarantees of new rights to access material.
quote:Their specific target is a bill by Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., which was introduced last year but has yet to be introduced to the 108th Congress, which began its session this month. By demonstrating broad opposition to the idea, and by enlisting libertarian and conservative advocacy groups in their coalition, the firms hope to bottle up any similar proposal this year.
As a result the free press, word of mouth, and (dare I say it) the internet, would have a much greater relative impact on voter education and commentary
Does it bother you that the first pick in this persons selections for having "greater relative impact" (and I do feel that he/she is right on this) are huge corporations that a majority of Americans consider to be strongly biased?
As far as I know, the batteries are still not available as a replacement part and are estimated to cost between 4k-6kusd (www.cartalk.com). Most electric cars need a full battery replacement between 3-6years depending on usage.
On a hybrid the performance and mileage will degrade over the years without this replacement part. This will limit the life of the car and definitely reduce it's value to a second owner.
They are interesting but need to have replaceable batteries. A TDI engine instead of a gasoline engine would also help.
So I am a slow typist... When I started responding there were only three posts total on this topic. I also spent some time checking out some articles to use for reference and making sure that the links were good. If you are tired of responding to the same point, then stop.
It's difficult to enforce, due to the lack of similar laws in neighboring cities and townships.
It is easy to enforce. Remember black boxes in cars? compare the time of the accident to the court ordered copy of the cell phone record. The enforcement can even be automated.
The trouble with cell phone safety is not in the nature of the handset (or hands free set) it is in the conditioned response to phone calls. All this article seems to be pushing is another hands free approach to cell phones. This article http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm reports that, "hands-free kits were almost as dangerous as hand-held phones."
n ews/2001/01/25/Consumers/cellphones_study010125 provides this quote on the issue
The point of this article is that, "Reaction and stopping times were much slower Talking on a mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than being over the legal alcohol limit, according to research."
This article http://http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/
"The bandwidth of the brain is actually quite limited," says Dr. John Vavrick, the research psychologist in charge of the study.
"Time sharing and multi-tasking does not come easily to the human brain."
The study used 41 drivers and gave each a series of tests to perform while answering questions through a speaker in the car.
Researchers found the driver's mental state was equally affected whether he or she was using a hands-free phone or not.
This is just a small sampling of the articles of the danger presented by using a cellphone while driving. The risk just isn't worth it, hang up and drive!.
I'm tired of watching TV shows that are crummy to start with, and has more commercial time than acting time in any given .5 hour period
Right about 1990 I dot rid of my TV. I have not had one since. It took a while to get used to but I am glad I did. I read a lot more and my two daughters are constantly reading.
I think that our house works better without it and I do not really understand where people get the time to watch TV in the first place.
Another great one is http://www.blackmask.com he has a lot of great stuff in a variety of formats so that you do not have to format it to your reader to use it.
I have a Sony Clie with about twenty ebooks on it right now. I use it to read daily. The narrow screen is actual better than dead trees for reading fast because there is less need to move the eyes side to side, just up and down. With the back light I am able to read in bed at night without bothering my wife (and that is a big plus because she has to get up about two hours before I do).
In general it is a great device if you like to read. But, with the law purchased by Disney Corp. there is less Public Domain stuff than there should be.
I had (I think I still have) a C64 that would regularly shutdown due to heat when used for word processing and games.
I wound up taking the power supply (external) apart and attaching huge heatsinks to just about everything in the PSU. then I put the whole thing in a box and put a fam on it. And this was living in a house that the temps were regularly about 40f (I was sharing a place with a bunch of other students and we decided heat was too expensive). The only point if this is that the old computers also had heat problems.
I worked as a copier technician (a fun job, gears chains, and electronics. All in one little box) and we were trained in fair use and regularly provided instruction in fair use to customers. Fair use is, in simple terms, the rules under which one can make copies of copyrighted materials.
I do not donate books to the library because I do not want to see them sold 3/$1usd instead of being shelved. I would rather give them away to friends and people at church.
The library, at least where I live, does not shelve donated books. They sell them. I have asked the librarian about this practice and I was told that they do not have the time to look at donated books the see if they want them and if they are of sufficient quality to shelve.
By way of example of this I once found a couple of new books, with quality binding, in the book sale pile. I opened one of them and it still contained a letter from the publisher asking them to shelve that book. They clearly hadn't even opened the book to look at it. If they had then they would have seen the letter.
More support of this. This is also true where I live and as a result I will not donate books to libraries.
I once found a couple of matched and new books on the used book shelf, out of interest I opened them, and the letter from the publisher offering them as complimentary copies was still in the books. These were new well bound books.
Read the FAQ on this air car, 50 mile range at real speeds and about $2 for a refill. This has no advantages over Direct Injection Diesel. And. is still limited by range (the bane of nearly all alternative fuel vehicles).
It does have an advantage over electrics in that there are no batteries. The batteries used in electrics are; unsafe, heavy, very expensive to both charge and replace, and need frequent replacement. Yes, I have built and owned an electric car.
One other area that the air car has an advantage over the electric car may be cold weather operation. Conventional batteries loose a large amount of their storage capacity in cold weather, making the poor range even worse. In theory, air tanks increase their storage capacity when cold.
IN general, the air car is interesting as an alternative to the electric car. But it is still not a reasonable alternative to a TDI.