is that they're more special by NOT working for Apple.
One of the biggest main lines in the Apple store I worked for (and left - i started between $11 and $12 an hour in Northern VA btw) was that you were SPECIAL by working for Apple, and you were giving people a world, etc. So what if they paid more, etc.
I was one of the few people there that didn't own a Mac (the discount would have been great to use, but they didn't pay me enough to buy it in the first place) so whenever someone would talk about switching from Windows, I was the one to sell them - or not sell them - a Mac.
Honestly most of the times I sold Macs were because they could dual boot windows and go to the mac side if they felt like it.
was very very very happy to leave Apple after the corporate hiding of sexual harassment, the divulging personal info to managers that were fired for said sexual harassment, and many many other things.
i was employed in the retail part of Apple for almost a year, and in that time, I had two customers, both with older Mac Pros, one of which almost started a fire, and the other customer had to take his dog to the vet to be checked out and given a breathing treatment.
No real explanation why it happened, and we flat out replaced the machine instead of repaired it, as they were far too gone. Closer inspection on the first was that either wires were crossed, or something plain ol' busted and went haywire with the power supply. The 2nd unit we couldn't even get the door open, it was messed up that bad.
And we actually put them on the loading dock for a bit, they smelled that awful. None of this surprises me.
It *is* however, a different smell than a MacBook / PS overheating. Those are just burning smell. MP is a putrid stench that basically makes your eyes water and your nose hurt.
I've been doing the mall retail thing since roughly 1999 or so, you don't want to know the number of times I've seen this. While what you say is completely and 100% true, it's still annoying as everything to know that despite all my years of practical experience, no company - at least, so far - is willing to put me in a full time position, so here I am, approaching 30, and I'm still working for under $8 an hour with no benefits.
It's really more of a problem / epidemic in the US at least than most people realize.
are one of the weirdest places I have ever worked.
Notice, this is past tense.
I was a part time employee, working 35-40 hours a week. I was doing their inhouse training - all of it, getting within the top 50 company wide - outselling everyone in my store, getting commendations from Corporate because my customers kept contacting them saying how good of a job I did, all of this that sounds like a good retail "slave" would do. I was not late (when some people had over 50-75 late arrivals in 6 months, and were not fired), I did my job, and I did it very well. And yes, I still have documentation from the customers I did work with.
But I was told I was, basically, not kissing enough ass - ie: I didn't feel special to work for Apple, nor did I think I was - I was not able to get full time. They would encourage a process where you are *supposed* to be able to give and receive feedback openly and honestly, and it ended up this wasn't the case. Basically, if you dared to tell a manager or one of their worker flunkies anything but sunshine, rainbows, and clowns, you were on a blacklist.
They didn't want to give benefits, but they still wanted me to work full time.. needless to say, I left the company within a month after this. At the time, I had worked full time hours for approximately 3 months. The other 6 months I was not making enough money to pay rent, much less anything else. The stress from working at an Apple Retail Store was not worth the "cool shirts" and the "cool people".
There are a lot more extenuating circumstances to this, but I'm still considering talking to Corporate, and by Corporate, I mean at the top, so I'll leave it at the beginning. (Mismanagement, Harassment, from the top down, and coverups from Corporate from that matter too, including the fact I basically got railroaded and told my problems didn't matter, when I was going through the handbook and pointing out violations.)
Did they give great discounts? I'm sure. But for working there 9 months, all I still own made by Apple is an iPod. Because they sure as hell didn't pay enough to pay bills, much less buy their products.
I think there could be something more to this story if you look past what he called it, and actually looked at the business practices and violations that are maintained and held - and defended - by Corporate.
Agreed. However, how could anyone / everyone decide how to implement it? It'd also have to be compatible with the current mode as well. the problem is similar to the HDTV/Analog TV debate in that eventually the old style simply won't work.
can't we just beat the stupid people that actually respond to spam, thereby making the spammers more money to keep berating me to get my cock enlarged?
that it could just be an easy answer (aside from cost)?
They're outsourcing the work to people who *actually* work, instead of just get paid and act as if they do. Real workers instead of drones.
Maybe some of the kids whose jobs are being outsourced could learn something about a work ethic, which IS sorely lacking in today's business world.
just because of my recent experiences (see sig file). It also wouldn't surprise me iTunes wouldn't take PayPal - after all, eBay *IS* technically a competitor, and PP's parent company is eBay. Plus, for iTunes to take PP, they'd have to charge extra fees, on TOP of the fees that PP already takes out, to make up for the loss, if artists are to be adequately compensated.
But maybe iTunes has remembered something many forget - PP is *not* a bank. Nor anything near it. It could close one day, taking any money left in the account, and you wouldn't be able to get it back. Just some more food for thought - I believe iTunes is right in only taking from established companies with proven resources behind it. PP has so many holes, I've discovered, between knowledge and rules, that you could drive a truck full of CDs through it.
stereotypes are just that - stereotypes. they are usually not really valid, or partially valid.
i personally own 3 ataris (2600s), a c64 (whose monitor serves nicely as my tv and probably has a better, albeit small, picture than most hdtvs nowadays), game gear, gba, gba sp, dreamcast, ps1, ps2, gamecube, personal pc, laptop, and just got my parents to buy back my old nes that i sold to someone years ago.
to put it ALL in perspective: I'm a 23 year old woman. So where does that leave me? It still puts me in a minority, in fact a rather small minority in these parts, and in this minority I usually am completely pre-judged. I also code, and I've sold electronics in the past as well, and do things that aren't 'usually what girls do'. What *is* usual about what females do? (aside from be moody)... IMO there is nothing unusual about what I do. I just happen to be female instead of male. And it's nice to be a minority, especially when it comes to a Soul Calibur 2 tournament.;)
to hop on some service like mIRC or pIRCh, and go to #mp3, grab the IPs of the users, and go after them that way? I'm seriously wondering why places like IRC are being ignored - before the Foo Fighters latest CD came out, it was available on IRC but no where else. No p2p (aka KaZaa, WinMX, etc). I'd think it'd be easier to nab the kids directly from IRC, because log files there are in multiple places. Just a thought.
I find both Perl and PHP to have their own various uses. When I was a programmer for a NCAA university's admissions website I was given a rather large thick book on Perl and told to learn. I did, it took about 2 days, and it was really easy - at least, to me, as I was an 18 year old college girl that lost all care about computer languages after taking a C class (hah)....
I've been reading more about php lately as I'm thinking about making a new website, and it seems as easy, I just haven't tried it yet. Why? I guess it's because I'm LAZY, but more because there are *so many* sites that tell you how to do things. Um, it's hard for me to decide what *type* of php to start out with. Standardization is a Good Thing (tm).
Lilo and Stitch has a theme that's long been lost in today's society. I admit, i'm L&S obsessed (see my comment in another post in this forum) but no movie has inspired me to WANT to collect all the forms of stitch, and all the merchandise, etc. Granted, some of you may say that's great merchandising, but no movie ever has made me go see it in the theatre over 10 times, and L&S did. It's a beautiful picture with a great message, and it explains it in ways even little children can understand. Spirited Away was good, but it touched on so many things that little kids couldn't understand. Well, if I took myself to being 9 again, I'd still love L&S. I wouldn't understand Spirited Away. L&S is great because of the LACK of complexity. There ARE levels to the movie, but only if you choose to find them. You don't have to, and it's still a cute great flick. Of course, I also cry at the beach scene every time I see it (and I'm 22.)
Lilo and Stitch should win. Why? because it's some of the best that Disney has put out since.. oh, a long LONG time. It was (afaik) the most successful and definitely the best out of the 5. It used the best animation techniques. The most original, and the best plotline in a Disney movie since they quit yanking old classics (Aladdin, Hunchback, etc) and made up their own. Chris Sanders is a genius. "AN EVIL GENIUS!" (thanks Jomba) Of course, I could be a little biased, or maybe it's my 24 stuffed stitches (yes, 24) that are typing this entry....(struggles to free herself of the duct tape)
Much better.
I liked Spirited Away, but it's not even close to his best work. Period. Ice Age is the only other contender imo in the category, but shabby box office reviews won't help. The other two movies were only nominated because nothing else that was good came out this year.
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One of the biggest main lines in the Apple store I worked for (and left - i started between $11 and $12 an hour in Northern VA btw) was that you were SPECIAL by working for Apple, and you were giving people a world, etc. So what if they paid more, etc.
I was one of the few people there that didn't own a Mac (the discount would have been great to use, but they didn't pay me enough to buy it in the first place) so whenever someone would talk about switching from Windows, I was the one to sell them - or not sell them - a Mac.
Honestly most of the times I sold Macs were because they could dual boot windows and go to the mac side if they felt like it.
was very very very happy to leave Apple after the corporate hiding of sexual harassment, the divulging personal info to managers that were fired for said sexual harassment, and many many other things.
(For the record, I still only own an iPod.)
i was employed in the retail part of Apple for almost a year, and in that time, I had two customers, both with older Mac Pros, one of which almost started a fire, and the other customer had to take his dog to the vet to be checked out and given a breathing treatment. No real explanation why it happened, and we flat out replaced the machine instead of repaired it, as they were far too gone. Closer inspection on the first was that either wires were crossed, or something plain ol' busted and went haywire with the power supply. The 2nd unit we couldn't even get the door open, it was messed up that bad. And we actually put them on the loading dock for a bit, they smelled that awful. None of this surprises me. It *is* however, a different smell than a MacBook / PS overheating. Those are just burning smell. MP is a putrid stench that basically makes your eyes water and your nose hurt.
I've been doing the mall retail thing since roughly 1999 or so, you don't want to know the number of times I've seen this. While what you say is completely and 100% true, it's still annoying as everything to know that despite all my years of practical experience, no company - at least, so far - is willing to put me in a full time position, so here I am, approaching 30, and I'm still working for under $8 an hour with no benefits. It's really more of a problem / epidemic in the US at least than most people realize.
Yep, it's apparently next to the part in the Employee Handbook where having an opinion is like saying Windows Vista is awesome.
Notice, this is past tense.
I was a part time employee, working 35-40 hours a week. I was doing their inhouse training - all of it, getting within the top 50 company wide - outselling everyone in my store, getting commendations from Corporate because my customers kept contacting them saying how good of a job I did, all of this that sounds like a good retail "slave" would do. I was not late (when some people had over 50-75 late arrivals in 6 months, and were not fired), I did my job, and I did it very well. And yes, I still have documentation from the customers I did work with.
But I was told I was, basically, not kissing enough ass - ie: I didn't feel special to work for Apple, nor did I think I was - I was not able to get full time. They would encourage a process where you are *supposed* to be able to give and receive feedback openly and honestly, and it ended up this wasn't the case. Basically, if you dared to tell a manager or one of their worker flunkies anything but sunshine, rainbows, and clowns, you were on a blacklist.
They didn't want to give benefits, but they still wanted me to work full time.. needless to say, I left the company within a month after this. At the time, I had worked full time hours for approximately 3 months. The other 6 months I was not making enough money to pay rent, much less anything else. The stress from working at an Apple Retail Store was not worth the "cool shirts" and the "cool people".
There are a lot more extenuating circumstances to this, but I'm still considering talking to Corporate, and by Corporate, I mean at the top, so I'll leave it at the beginning. (Mismanagement, Harassment, from the top down, and coverups from Corporate from that matter too, including the fact I basically got railroaded and told my problems didn't matter, when I was going through the handbook and pointing out violations.)
Did they give great discounts? I'm sure. But for working there 9 months, all I still own made by Apple is an iPod. Because they sure as hell didn't pay enough to pay bills, much less buy their products.
I think there could be something more to this story if you look past what he called it, and actually looked at the business practices and violations that are maintained and held - and defended - by Corporate.
very interesting thought. New mail protocol.
I honestly don't think it'd be effective. Most spammers get the throwaway addresses from hotmail or yahoo or another free mail service.
now if THOSE mail services would require proof of identity, I think that would help as well.
but... my family in Nigeria needs your help... *sob*
after all, I am a female.
i have dead money that the consumer's going to be the one getting the biggest screwing.
that it could just be an easy answer (aside from cost)? They're outsourcing the work to people who *actually* work, instead of just get paid and act as if they do. Real workers instead of drones. Maybe some of the kids whose jobs are being outsourced could learn something about a work ethic, which IS sorely lacking in today's business world.
BBY HAS A THING ON THEIR COUNTERS where they say they do. Constantly. Daily. Whatever. How ludicrous.
I think I'm baking cookies for gifts this year.
'"This is not something the average consumer can do. You need to have very specialized software tools and very specialized skills," Stathonikos said.'
But maybe iTunes has remembered something many forget - PP is *not* a bank. Nor anything near it. It could close one day, taking any money left in the account, and you wouldn't be able to get it back. Just some more food for thought - I believe iTunes is right in only taking from established companies with proven resources behind it. PP has so many holes, I've discovered, between knowledge and rules, that you could drive a truck full of CDs through it.
Oops, I forgot that statistic that *could* actually mean something in the long term. How silly of me to forget it.
i personally own 3 ataris (2600s), a c64 (whose monitor serves nicely as my tv and probably has a better, albeit small, picture than most hdtvs nowadays), game gear, gba, gba sp, dreamcast, ps1, ps2, gamecube, personal pc, laptop, and just got my parents to buy back my old nes that i sold to someone years ago.
to put it ALL in perspective: I'm a 23 year old woman. So where does that leave me? It still puts me in a minority, in fact a rather small minority in these parts, and in this minority I usually am completely pre-judged. I also code, and I've sold electronics in the past as well, and do things that aren't 'usually what girls do'. What *is* usual about what females do? (aside from be moody)... IMO there is nothing unusual about what I do. I just happen to be female instead of male. And it's nice to be a minority, especially when it comes to a Soul Calibur 2 tournament. ;)
I wouldn't hesitate to wonder how many record execs also don't have a clue how to work a p2p program. IRC would probably be easier than some p2ps.
to hop on some service like mIRC or pIRCh, and go to #mp3, grab the IPs of the users, and go after them that way? I'm seriously wondering why places like IRC are being ignored - before the Foo Fighters latest CD came out, it was available on IRC but no where else. No p2p (aka KaZaa, WinMX, etc). I'd think it'd be easier to nab the kids directly from IRC, because log files there are in multiple places. Just a thought.
Admit it: you just like the pointy ears and the dominatrix outfits. :)
but Sony couldn't come up with an anti shock that could combat the recoil. I say the next model includes an mp5 with a minidisc mod. :)
I've been reading more about php lately as I'm thinking about making a new website, and it seems as easy, I just haven't tried it yet. Why? I guess it's because I'm LAZY, but more because there are *so many* sites that tell you how to do things. Um, it's hard for me to decide what *type* of php to start out with. Standardization is a Good Thing (tm).
(ftr: L&S got 85%, Spirit got 68% and Ice Age got 75%.)
Ice Age having a lower rating then TREASURE PLANET? .. do I really need to say anything to this? :D
Lilo and Stitch has a theme that's long been lost in today's society. I admit, i'm L&S obsessed (see my comment in another post in this forum) but no movie has inspired me to WANT to collect all the forms of stitch, and all the merchandise, etc. Granted, some of you may say that's great merchandising, but no movie ever has made me go see it in the theatre over 10 times, and L&S did. It's a beautiful picture with a great message, and it explains it in ways even little children can understand. Spirited Away was good, but it touched on so many things that little kids couldn't understand. Well, if I took myself to being 9 again, I'd still love L&S. I wouldn't understand Spirited Away. L&S is great because of the LACK of complexity. There ARE levels to the movie, but only if you choose to find them. You don't have to, and it's still a cute great flick. Of course, I also cry at the beach scene every time I see it (and I'm 22.)
Lilo and Stitch should win. Why? because it's some of the best that Disney has put out since.. oh, a long LONG time. It was (afaik) the most successful and definitely the best out of the 5. It used the best animation techniques. The most original, and the best plotline in a Disney movie since they quit yanking old classics (Aladdin, Hunchback, etc) and made up their own. Chris Sanders is a genius. "AN EVIL GENIUS!" (thanks Jomba) Of course, I could be a little biased, or maybe it's my 24 stuffed stitches (yes, 24) that are typing this entry....(struggles to free herself of the duct tape)
Much better.
I liked Spirited Away, but it's not even close to his best work. Period. Ice Age is the only other contender imo in the category, but shabby box office reviews won't help. The other two movies were only nominated because nothing else that was good came out this year.
DAMNIT!
The only reason they'd be knocking on my door? You know they're just coming to steal my massive porn collection. Damnit.