I have tried calling Direct TV, and written numerous emails to them over the last few months trying to get someone who actually works there to verify the "they will upgrade your equipment for free" rumor. For months now I have been put off and told to "stay tuned" for more information, but through it all not one person who works for Direct TV has said that they will in fact upgrade a thing. The rumor mills and cable/satellite forums online abound with this message but nobody at Direct TV will own up to it. Until I actually see it on their website, or get it in writing from one of their staff I am having a hard time swallowing this pill.
Direct TV's continued putting off of every customer who asks them what about equipment upgrades has lost them months of revenue from me and other customers who would have happily signed the dotted line months ago. Hopefully they will get their act together soon enough before cable finally wins those of us who need answers and all the Voom converts over.
Well, I have worked as a recruiter for technical positions for the last 5 years or so. In doing so, I have watched the boom and the bust, and the one commonality is that the landscape continues to change. We do regional recruiting as well as national hiring for a few publicly traded firms. All of them are having more and more trouble finding talent then they did last year, or even a few months ago. I think it is because a lot of companies, both big and small, have done some hiring over the last year or so. All alone, each of these firms does not amount to much, but multiplied across the nation time and time again, and you wind up with the available talent pool drying up pretty quickly.
Much like a buyers or sellers market in real estate. This thinner pool of available or candidates is driving a better job market for the job seeker, better wages and more opportunities. All someone needs to do to be in this situation is put their resume on job boards like, Monster, Dice, Careerbuilder and such. They also need to open the paper every Sunday and apply to openings. An added plus is that with a lack of candidates, compensation, which was on the decline for a couple years, is finally going the other direction; and employees who hired on to do high level work at minimum wage are moving on to better jobs and better pay. Overall, I think the hiring outlook in technical fields is really heating up and the prospects are good. From what I have seen even people who had there jobs outsourced overseas are able to find work if they are willing to relocate.
Granted Apple has had a great year. Many converts (including myself) and cool new products. Having recently jumped on the Apple bandwagon though I find that everyone likes to be a cheerleader for the company. Few users and fans ever point out some glaringly obvious downfalls of using Apple products.
First and foremost in my mind is an unbelievably shoddy quality control system for new software releases. The much-touted new operating system Panther created about as many problems for its users as it has new features. This is after replacing a buggy 10.2.8 OS that never has been patched up for users that did not upgrade! Before flaming my Karma, take a look yourself, at some of the threads on Apple's own support website and read about long startup times, the dock disappearing, Powerbook backlight dysfunction's, printer's not working, etc, etc... Here's the link:
These are obviously not one-time issues affecting one or two users, here and there. They affect everyone, including myself. I have spent I don't know how many hours scouring these discussion boards trying to figure out how to fix one bug or another that Apple's "new and improved" software has caused on my system.
The fact that this happens in the first place is ridiculous. Even more frustrating though is that this unfriendly user experience does not get any limelight. So far in my Apple software is as bug prone and glitchie as windows. The only consolation is that you can look over discussion boards to try and figure out how to fix it. One would hope that Apple would have fixed it before releasing it in the first place though, and that those who buy and upgrade to their products would not need to go through these headaches!
Then comes the hardware. You pay a premium price for Apple products, why then are there so many complaints about this problem or that. Again I will refer interested readers to Apple's own discussion boards where users talk about display problems, poor working latches, loose laptop lid's, dissatisfaction with G5's, and all sorts of other problems on their top of the line, ultra expensive Apple toys. Here's the link (dig down into any thread):
http://discussions.info.apple.com/
These problems abound and hopefully Apple will get their act together to resolve them. Unfortunately at this time I do not find Apple to be any more stable or less of a headache than windows. Rather it is like a shinny new sports car that one loves to show their friends, but that winds up breaking down and sitting in the shop more than they will ever admit.
I am just one user here, but after upgrading from 10.2.7 several of the apps that I had working fine before Panther do not want to run any more. For example, I used to be able to hook up my Brother 1440 laser to my airport base station and print just fine. Now that is a no go. Simcity 4 used to play just fine, now it doesn't. Since upgrading, the fancy backlite on my Powerbook's keyboard works sometimes and sometimes not. As a recent convert who was sold on the idea of buying a system that is alleged to be top notch and "stable" (let alone priced near the top of the class) these little incompatibilities are starting to add up to a more and more sour tasting Apple. This combined with the fact that my new Powerbook has a loose lid, and two small dime sized washed out spots in the screen do not do much to build my trust in Apple's Hardware or Software QA.
Now comes the $129/yr upgrade scheme. One reason I decided to go with Apple was to boycott the Gates empire's idea that someday I will pay an annual fee to keep my operating system/applications running, current and supported. All that Apple is doing by implementing this upgrade a year program is repackaging the exact same Microsoft business model in different colors. They are not forcing me to upgrade through a subscription fee but rather through the idea of incompatible systems, software and user conveniences. If any of you are also planning on switching from a wintel system like I just did. I think that is great, but I would also recommend that you not rush blindly into the switch (or even an OS upgrade) thinking that all problems will be solved and you will have a seamless running system. Experience with Apple teaches me that all you really do is replace one flavor of problems and frustrations with another and that though the Apple problems have a sweeter flavor they still result in a pit in your stomach as you try to resolve the technical problems thrown at you.
Yea, I used to live by the credo of "buy American" when I can, and lived with a Motorola for entirely to long because of it. Comparing their top of the line model with the LG was like comparing a one button mouse with a new trackball that has 5 buttons, a scroll wheel and is wireless to boot. It was a hands down win for LG
My experience with LG phones has been very good. Before switching from my basic Motorola which had mediocre reception and even worse style I did quite a bit of research. The site www.howardforums.com can provide switchers with some exceptional feedback on mobile phone performance and cellular service providers.
Feature for feature the LG phones rate as good or better than most and I have been nothing but impressed with the LG6000 that is my pocket right now. I did not think that I would use the camera much, but it has turned out to be a really nice feature. Grandma gets pictures, and when I go for a bike ride and see one of those WOW panoramas I can just pull out my cell phone and take a shot (vs. remembering to load a camera into my bag and actually use it, etc.). Also, by forwarding all my office email to the text-messaging feature of my phone I can read the first 154 or so characters of any email that I get when I am out on one of those bike rides or otherwise away from my desk. This is nice when someone is away from their desk but expecting an important message as it tracks you down wherever you are. Finally, I just bought an adapter that allows me to hook it up to my laptop and use it as my modem to surf the web. Granted it is not blazingly fast, but it let's me hook up from ANYWHERE. This just takes from my regular minuets and is not some "special data service" that my provider sells. The cool part is that after 9:00 PM and all weekend, every weekend I get free airtime, so my web surfing is free on these off peak hours. Adding all this stuff up makes that silly little phone and all those superfluous features pretty attractive.
Yea, convince the entire group to go, then when you have one of your coworkers with 3 kids and another on the way who is six months out of work, behind on his mortgage and starving because of your "idea" then you can see how good of an impulse this is.
I work in recruiting and staffing and can say for a fact that NOBODY in an organization (this even goes for an entire group) is irreplaceable. Many premadonas think they are, but with the market the way it is there are more than a few starving IT professionals out there who will take anything right now, including your job.
I have met more talented folks than I can count in the last 12 months who have been out of work for along time... and the way things looking are I don't see alot of them getting back into it any time soon. So yea, go ahead and create a mass exodus. You won't get unemployment if you walk out (nomatter the reason), because you quit. Afterwards, you and your friends can learn what it feels like to have more month than money, and talk to recruiters who will keep telling you nothing is available, but to âoejust hang in there.â
Another strong factor that must play into this is the fact that the Northern America/Eurasia areas have the highest concentration and greatest diversity of coniferous trees anywhere on the globe. Coniferous trees metabolize CO2 all year round because they don't loose their leaves every fall. Because they metabolize all year round they are more productive than temperate deciduous regions.
After my own stint in the realms of an RPG I think that an inordinate amount of time being poured into a game is not a sign of a "geek" or any other demographic stereotype. Rather, experience tells me that it is a sign of needing an escape. Another reality to get away from the stresses of a bad job, bad marriage, tough homelife or whatever.
I used to spend most every waking moment playing, or thinking of how to better myself in my game of choice. When my personal life became more balanced my gaming time dropped to zero. I think many people use it and the "social interaction" excuse to just feed the beast, when in fact many of the problems a player has in their life are created by the inordinate amount of time I spent gaming. It is a terrible cycle that feeds on itself and goes something like: Have to many problems... escape into a game... game time creates more problems... escape deeper into the game... etc...
This is much more of a pandoras box than it appears on the surface. Many firms will require pre-employment screening of their employees of one sort or another (drug testing is a good example of this). The law allows this type of testing.
When it comes to credit checks the story quickly gets more complicated. For starters, while not advocated, many companies will use the simple fact that they conduct pre-employment testing to "screen out" undesirable applicants. In other words, if you use drugs you are not likely to take (or apply to) a job where they do drug screening, or if you refuse the credit check your credit's got problems. If you doubt the validity of this approach, look how many people have said "walk out now" or tell them to "take this job and &#@! It" as their ultimate solution. So it is a good indicator. Now the question comes up if it is LEGAL to use a credit check and the answer is almost always NO!
This employer already knows something is amiss if you have made such a big deal about it. What they don't realize is the legal problems that they have put upon themselves. You see credit checks can only be "required" for folks who are in finacially sensitive positions (the actual term is not "finacially sensitive" but something else where you will have monetary/credit responsiblities - for a full description go to www.shrm.org and have fun looking it all up). A company cannot just do a credit check on everybody and use it as a screening tool. In fact it is illegal to use information on the report as a screening tool for non sensitive or non "financially" related roles. So your potential employer already has a large legal problem if they are screening everyone with a credit check. Even if an employer uses a credit check and then finds something bad, the law states that they need to let the candidate know that they were refused a position because of the information on the report. As stated earlier most employers simply will just skip this step and say they found a better candidate or whatever. A lawsuit though will bring this to the surface with supponead records and the like.
Because, from the sounds of it they already chose to hire you and are asking for a report after hire your situation is even more complex. In this situation you would want to talk to a good lawyer who specializes in "employment law" and see what they have to say about it being legal. I can share my oppinion though and that is if you were to do the report and they chose to terminate or not hire you based on the report they have A LOT of legal explaining to do - and if your position is one that does not deal directly with finaces then they have most likely legally discriminated against you and you have a court case that would cost them!
I am not an advocate of suing a company who is kind enough to offer you a job, but perhaps you could approach them with some of these points (and back them up with resources from the SHRM site and legal oppinions) which would change their views on using credit reports for hiring decisions.
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I have tried calling Direct TV, and written numerous emails to them over the last few months trying to get someone who actually works there to verify the "they will upgrade your equipment for free" rumor. For months now I have been put off and told to "stay tuned" for more information, but through it all not one person who works for Direct TV has said that they will in fact upgrade a thing. The rumor mills and cable/satellite forums online abound with this message but nobody at Direct TV will own up to it. Until I actually see it on their website, or get it in writing from one of their staff I am having a hard time swallowing this pill.
Direct TV's continued putting off of every customer who asks them what about equipment upgrades has lost them months of revenue from me and other customers who would have happily signed the dotted line months ago. Hopefully they will get their act together soon enough before cable finally wins those of us who need answers and all the Voom converts over.
Well, I have worked as a recruiter for technical positions for the last 5 years or so. In doing so, I have watched the boom and the bust, and the one commonality is that the landscape continues to change. We do regional recruiting as well as national hiring for a few publicly traded firms. All of them are having more and more trouble finding talent then they did last year, or even a few months ago. I think it is because a lot of companies, both big and small, have done some hiring over the last year or so. All alone, each of these firms does not amount to much, but multiplied across the nation time and time again, and you wind up with the available talent pool drying up pretty quickly.
Much like a buyers or sellers market in real estate. This thinner pool of available or candidates is driving a better job market for the job seeker, better wages and more opportunities. All someone needs to do to be in this situation is put their resume on job boards like, Monster, Dice, Careerbuilder and such. They also need to open the paper every Sunday and apply to openings. An added plus is that with a lack of candidates, compensation, which was on the decline for a couple years, is finally going the other direction; and employees who hired on to do high level work at minimum wage are moving on to better jobs and better pay. Overall, I think the hiring outlook in technical fields is really heating up and the prospects are good. From what I have seen even people who had there jobs outsourced overseas are able to find work if they are willing to relocate.
Granted Apple has had a great year. Many converts (including myself) and cool new products. Having recently jumped on the Apple bandwagon though I find that everyone likes to be a cheerleader for the company. Few users and fans ever point out some glaringly obvious downfalls of using Apple products.
i D1 aR7gq6B.1@.599b3149
First and foremost in my mind is an unbelievably shoddy quality control system for new software releases. The much-touted new operating system Panther created about as many problems for its users as it has new features. This is after replacing a buggy 10.2.8 OS that never has been patched up for users that did not upgrade! Before flaming my Karma, take a look yourself, at some of the threads on Apple's own support website and read about long startup times, the dock disappearing, Powerbook backlight dysfunction's, printer's not working, etc, etc... Here's the link:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@112.t
These are obviously not one-time issues affecting one or two users, here and there. They affect everyone, including myself. I have spent I don't know how many hours scouring these discussion boards trying to figure out how to fix one bug or another that Apple's "new and improved" software has caused on my system.
The fact that this happens in the first place is ridiculous. Even more frustrating though is that this unfriendly user experience does not get any limelight. So far in my Apple software is as bug prone and glitchie as windows. The only consolation is that you can look over discussion boards to try and figure out how to fix it. One would hope that Apple would have fixed it before releasing it in the first place though, and that those who buy and upgrade to their products would not need to go through these headaches!
Then comes the hardware. You pay a premium price for Apple products, why then are there so many complaints about this problem or that. Again I will refer interested readers to Apple's own discussion boards where users talk about display problems, poor working latches, loose laptop lid's, dissatisfaction with G5's, and all sorts of other problems on their top of the line, ultra expensive Apple toys. Here's the link (dig down into any thread):
http://discussions.info.apple.com/
These problems abound and hopefully Apple will get their act together to resolve them. Unfortunately at this time I do not find Apple to be any more stable or less of a headache than windows. Rather it is like a shinny new sports car that one loves to show their friends, but that winds up breaking down and sitting in the shop more than they will ever admit.
I am just one user here, but after upgrading from 10.2.7 several of the apps that I had working fine before Panther do not want to run any more. For example, I used to be able to hook up my Brother 1440 laser to my airport base station and print just fine. Now that is a no go. Simcity 4 used to play just fine, now it doesn't. Since upgrading, the fancy backlite on my Powerbook's keyboard works sometimes and sometimes not. As a recent convert who was sold on the idea of buying a system that is alleged to be top notch and "stable" (let alone priced near the top of the class) these little incompatibilities are starting to add up to a more and more sour tasting Apple. This combined with the fact that my new Powerbook has a loose lid, and two small dime sized washed out spots in the screen do not do much to build my trust in Apple's Hardware or Software QA.
Now comes the $129/yr upgrade scheme. One reason I decided to go with Apple was to boycott the Gates empire's idea that someday I will pay an annual fee to keep my operating system/applications running, current and supported. All that Apple is doing by implementing this upgrade a year program is repackaging the exact same Microsoft business model in different colors. They are not forcing me to upgrade through a subscription fee but rather through the idea of incompatible systems, software and user conveniences. If any of you are also planning on switching from a wintel system like I just did. I think that is great, but I would also recommend that you not rush blindly into the switch (or even an OS upgrade) thinking that all problems will be solved and you will have a seamless running system. Experience with Apple teaches me that all you really do is replace one flavor of problems and frustrations with another and that though the Apple problems have a sweeter flavor they still result in a pit in your stomach as you try to resolve the technical problems thrown at you.
Yea, I used to live by the credo of "buy American" when I can, and lived with a Motorola for entirely to long because of it. Comparing their top of the line model with the LG was like comparing a one button mouse with a new trackball that has 5 buttons, a scroll wheel and is wireless to boot. It was a hands down win for LG
Is that a new LG Smartphone in your pocket... Or are you just excited to see me???
My experience with LG phones has been very good. Before switching from my basic Motorola which had mediocre reception and even worse style I did quite a bit of research. The site www.howardforums.com can provide switchers with some exceptional feedback on mobile phone performance and cellular service providers.
Feature for feature the LG phones rate as good or better than most and I have been nothing but impressed with the LG6000 that is my pocket right now. I did not think that I would use the camera much, but it has turned out to be a really nice feature. Grandma gets pictures, and when I go for a bike ride and see one of those WOW panoramas I can just pull out my cell phone and take a shot (vs. remembering to load a camera into my bag and actually use it, etc.). Also, by forwarding all my office email to the text-messaging feature of my phone I can read the first 154 or so characters of any email that I get when I am out on one of those bike rides or otherwise away from my desk. This is nice when someone is away from their desk but expecting an important message as it tracks you down wherever you are. Finally, I just bought an adapter that allows me to hook it up to my laptop and use it as my modem to surf the web. Granted it is not blazingly fast, but it let's me hook up from ANYWHERE. This just takes from my regular minuets and is not some "special data service" that my provider sells. The cool part is that after 9:00 PM and all weekend, every weekend I get free airtime, so my web surfing is free on these off peak hours. Adding all this stuff up makes that silly little phone and all those superfluous features pretty attractive.
Yea, convince the entire group to go, then when you have one of your coworkers with 3 kids and another on the way who is six months out of work, behind on his mortgage and starving because of your "idea" then you can see how good of an impulse this is. I work in recruiting and staffing and can say for a fact that NOBODY in an organization (this even goes for an entire group) is irreplaceable. Many premadonas think they are, but with the market the way it is there are more than a few starving IT professionals out there who will take anything right now, including your job. I have met more talented folks than I can count in the last 12 months who have been out of work for along time... and the way things looking are I don't see alot of them getting back into it any time soon. So yea, go ahead and create a mass exodus. You won't get unemployment if you walk out (nomatter the reason), because you quit. Afterwards, you and your friends can learn what it feels like to have more month than money, and talk to recruiters who will keep telling you nothing is available, but to âoejust hang in there.â
Another strong factor that must play into this is the fact that the Northern America/Eurasia areas have the highest concentration and greatest diversity of coniferous trees anywhere on the globe. Coniferous trees metabolize CO2 all year round because they don't loose their leaves every fall. Because they metabolize all year round they are more productive than temperate deciduous regions.
After my own stint in the realms of an RPG I think that an inordinate amount of time being poured into a game is not a sign of a "geek" or any other demographic stereotype. Rather, experience tells me that it is a sign of needing an escape. Another reality to get away from the stresses of a bad job, bad marriage, tough homelife or whatever.
I used to spend most every waking moment playing, or thinking of how to better myself in my game of choice. When my personal life became more balanced my gaming time dropped to zero. I think many people use it and the "social interaction" excuse to just feed the beast, when in fact many of the problems a player has in their life are created by the inordinate amount of time I spent gaming. It is a terrible cycle that feeds on itself and goes something like: Have to many problems... escape into a game... game time creates more problems... escape deeper into the game... etc...
Nice laugh!
This is much more of a pandoras box than it appears on the surface. Many firms will require pre-employment screening of their employees of one sort or another (drug testing is a good example of this). The law allows this type of testing. When it comes to credit checks the story quickly gets more complicated. For starters, while not advocated, many companies will use the simple fact that they conduct pre-employment testing to "screen out" undesirable applicants. In other words, if you use drugs you are not likely to take (or apply to) a job where they do drug screening, or if you refuse the credit check your credit's got problems. If you doubt the validity of this approach, look how many people have said "walk out now" or tell them to "take this job and &#@! It" as their ultimate solution. So it is a good indicator. Now the question comes up if it is LEGAL to use a credit check and the answer is almost always NO! This employer already knows something is amiss if you have made such a big deal about it. What they don't realize is the legal problems that they have put upon themselves. You see credit checks can only be "required" for folks who are in finacially sensitive positions (the actual term is not "finacially sensitive" but something else where you will have monetary/credit responsiblities - for a full description go to www.shrm.org and have fun looking it all up). A company cannot just do a credit check on everybody and use it as a screening tool. In fact it is illegal to use information on the report as a screening tool for non sensitive or non "financially" related roles. So your potential employer already has a large legal problem if they are screening everyone with a credit check. Even if an employer uses a credit check and then finds something bad, the law states that they need to let the candidate know that they were refused a position because of the information on the report. As stated earlier most employers simply will just skip this step and say they found a better candidate or whatever. A lawsuit though will bring this to the surface with supponead records and the like. Because, from the sounds of it they already chose to hire you and are asking for a report after hire your situation is even more complex. In this situation you would want to talk to a good lawyer who specializes in "employment law" and see what they have to say about it being legal. I can share my oppinion though and that is if you were to do the report and they chose to terminate or not hire you based on the report they have A LOT of legal explaining to do - and if your position is one that does not deal directly with finaces then they have most likely legally discriminated against you and you have a court case that would cost them! I am not an advocate of suing a company who is kind enough to offer you a job, but perhaps you could approach them with some of these points (and back them up with resources from the SHRM site and legal oppinions) which would change their views on using credit reports for hiring decisions.