Posts by WorkingFromHome

Re: Don't believe the hype

Yeah, it's nothing they said, don't be a wimp they said. Well, when I had mine done it turned out the doctor was sick so I had a trainee and a new guy, who calmly assured me he had been doing this "for over a week now". The nurse assisting tried to break the ice by telling me that they had found her in McDonalds. I was reassured as you can imagine. Just the conversation you need when your junk is hanging out and someone is holding a scalpel.

The op went well, or so I thought, but a few days later I had a haematoma the size of a large egg down there and an infection that split the stitches...

Happy days :)

Re: Meanwhile, back in the real world....

Teiwaz - that's me definitely not middle then - out of interest if the wine doesn't make it through the night does that make me upper or lower? And what if the beer gets it too?

Re: when will this madness stop?

I rather suspect that you are correct with the make a quick buck angle. As the article says:

The pressure group claims "Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright in the Monkey Selfies in the same manner and to the same extent as any other author."

And who exactly would administer those benefits on behalf of dear old Naruto, PETA perhaps? Or someone rather closely linked to them?

Gosh, wouldn't that surprise us all :)

Re: @ecarlseen

@Turtle, Except that (as I'm sure a 100 people will shortly scream) owning means I can keep playing after that single purchase, streaming requires an ongoing subscription so isn't owning.

If we are going to compare streaming to owning then surely each track should only pay out once per subscriber - just as owning would. I stream a track, the artist gets paid and from then on subsequent plays pay nothing.

Personally I think the problem is that streaming is neither owning nor radio - it is its own beast and needs its own model. What that should be I don't know. All I do know is that it is (to me at least) worth more than nothing but less that the cost of the CD.

Re: Customer Service

Yes the local Co-Op used to have those when I was a kid. It is interesting that they seem to have died out.

No point to make - just joining in :)

Re: Norks "Act of War"

Not saying whether they are or they aren't responsible, but North Korea claims something or other is an act of war, or will suffer dire consequences on an almost daily basis.

It's taking that comment seriously which is not credible.

Re: You mean the government bodies are feeling the heat??

DrXym - understand your point but I believe people have a very unrealistic view of what vetting means.

If I pass a vetting process is doesn't mean that I am "safe", it simply means that I have never been caught. Very different thing.

For example, I flag down a black cab on the street, I am essentially taking it on trust that the driver is honest and will not bury my body in the woods etc.

However if I book via a system like these (and Hailo) there is a clear record of me booking a ride, where I was going and who the driver was. Doesn't stop the body in the woods thing but seems a bigger safety net than point in time vetting.

Just my 2p

I disagree

Fido L Dido - I have to disagree with the idea that you can't have those in the middle earning more than those "higher up".

I started life as a techie as well, and have now moved into management. I now run a department with revenue running into the £16m space and staff spread across multiple countries. However there are people working for me who are paid more than I am - I don't see this as wrong in any way, indeed I was the one who put them on those salaries.

The salary you give is, as you say, based on the value someone brings to the organisation, along with the ease with which they can be replaced, and that is the key point.

Now I consider myself a good manager, we have grown well, I have kept the team on track and kept focus, I have made those multi-million pound decisions. However if I look through my teams, there are a number of other who could also have done that, and indeed are part of my "hit by a bus" succession plans. There are also people who have skills that are not easily found and no easily developed, therefore they are paid more.

For me, the question of salary isn't about "rank" or status, it's about skills, commitment, and the ease with which those skills can be replaced. Management, for me, is an easier skill to replace (even at a high level) than a true hairy arsed techie who can plan whole datacentre architectures and migrations or can handle mission critical infrastructure where there are million pound SLA penalties on the line.

Just my opinion of course.

Re: No to offshoring

But when talking about jobs paid for by the tax payer the maths is never as simple as which salary is lower when off shoring.

If the job is done in the UK the salaries will almost certainly be higher but the government gets to claim a significant chunk back, both through income tax and the myriad of other taxes that impact our daily lives (VAT, fuel duty, alcohol tax etc etc). Plus if the salaries are paid to UK people then it further supports the economy through the things they buy and services they use.

However if the job is sent offshore the money is gone.

It's a difficult calculation but public money can't counted in the same way as a private business would because the picture is much bigger.

Re: I had the Sharp PC-1500 in 1992

Didn't have the Sharp but I did have a Casio one - as you say, great fun at the time.

Think mine is still in the loft somewhere and I now feel like I should get it out and start playing :)

Re: breakfast

I don't think anyone is effectively saying women shouldn't use the internet, simply that you should expect idiots.

I think men get just as many issues it's just done in a different way - when the idiots have a go at a women they tend to use sexual context, when they have a go at men they use a different approach generally aggressive, but not sexual, and hence it doesn't get reported in the same way (if at all).

As others have said, this is the problem when angry people with no life get to hide behind a keyboard. Not sure there is any good answer...

To be fair most people (men or women) don't need any special treatment. It's just a small, but very vocal few, who then poison everything.

Were the jokes these made a little crude - yes. Should they have refrained from saying them in a public room - maybe. Was anyone made a "victim" - no, not at all.

I used to work in an office full of women and the conversations and jokes they made would make anything these guys said sound like a children's story. Every other comment was about sex.

Where I work now there are several women who can (and regularly do) out-crude anything the men say.

Nobody complains. Nobody gets in trouble. Nobody is offended.

It's just really worrying that there is a small group of people who make a purpose of being offended whenever possible. And instead of telling them to get over it and grow up, and maybe reminding other people to show a little respect, we validate their stance and stick it all over the media.

Such a shame people of the type don't come with attached warning labels so the rest of us can just ignore them...

Re: Database as filesystem is so 1980

Yes, exactly.

Maybe I missed the point but the whole line that this was a revolutionary idea and so ahead of its time seemed odd to me. However I too spent a fair bit of time working on the old Pick boxes, and then the Power95 version on AIX, then on the UniData version.

Re: $852,000,000,000,000,000

Couldn't they just make the moon look like a Death Star?

That way all you would need is a load of old toilet rolls, yoghurt pots and some double sided sticky tape.

It could even count as recycling...

Re: Men of Great Britain

I believe there was a study a few years back.

Or at least they told me it was for a study.... hmmm...

too right

A couple of TV's, both still excellent and going strong, a microwave that just won't die, cordless phones and a pretty decent Lumax camera. All in all I have to say that Panasonic has been the most reliable stuff I have ever bought. Solid stuff and it would be a shame to see them go.

People like a new toy

I think the reason the lack of changes to iOS could start to impact Apple is because people like new toys.

Personally I'm of the same view as you on this, I don't want change unless its shows a real improvement, but then I tend to keep my kit (be it phones, laptops, cars) until they stop working properly or the company makes me have a new one.

However a lot of people like to buy the latest stuff, they like to have a new toy, and there's nothing wrong with that. However if they see the last few versions of their current choice is basically the same as the last one, with just a few improvements then they will naturally start to look at what else is there to play with.

Maybe I'm wrong but an awful lot of people I know like to play with something new, even if they eventually decide they don't like it.

Re: We are

Alternatively consider these options:

1.) None of the other civilizations are advanced enough to create these von Neumann probes, just as we aren't.

2.) None of the other civilizations feel the need.

The problem with all these theories is that they assume the all other life thinks the same way we do. I can't see why that should be the case.

Re: I blame it on the ice-cream...

I have to say that I have similar feelings here.

It seems that "traditional" environmental concerns of lowering pollution, reducing waste, protecting habitats etc have become second to CO2. However surely if you deal with these issues then CO2 kind of falls into place anyway as a consequence.

Just my 2p anyway.

Re: @J.G Harston

I also worked in the states for a while and noticed the obsession with long hours in the office. The thing was that the productivity didn't seem any better, so I would go in 9-5 or so and get the same amount of work done as those turning in at 7am and staying until 8pm or later.

It was all very odd and I'm glad I'm not there any more - even if I do miss many of the people I knew.

Re: Welll...

"The thing that's sick with society is celebrity culture" - Exactly Nigel. Spot on.

Many kids I meet are under the impression that they will all become famous and sing songs and act in movies. All these "talent" and celebrity shows have created a completely false impression of what life is likely to hold. Only a vanishingly small number of people will ever make a real living out of "begin famous".

We once interviewed one girl and asked her the classic "where do you see self in the future?" - the answer - "I want to be famous".

Most of the world does a job which is probably repetative and generally dull. The enjoyment comes from the people, the culture and the occasional challange, but most of the days will not constant excitement. The quickest route to misery is constantly dreaming of what can never be!

Re: Self-service checkouts

The real issue with these is the delay encountered if you dare to buy a dangerous item like a kitchen knife, bottle of wine or a chess set (*)

I recently went to the local Argos to buy a chess set - basic thing, nothing special - reserved it online and went to pay at the automatic kiosk. Wouldn't let me, said it was a "restricted item" and I had to queue at the till to show some ID... seriously. Maybe you could kill a man with a pawn or something...

Re: Where

Quite. They seem to have become the standard in most schools these days. When I was at school in the 70/80's your food was served on a plate, like a civilized meal should be. You wouldn't think much of a restaurant or cafe which served your food like this so why do it at school?

Maybe I'm getting old and grumpy but these things look like something from a prison, you can't treat kids like items on a production line and then complain when they don't learn how to behave.

Like I say, I'm getting old...

Re: Which Magazine: "Don't pay for debt advice - use free alternatives"

Exactly - isn't there a general saying "never take financial advice from someone who wins when you lose" ?

Seems like sound advice to me.

Re: The familiar cry of the freetard.......

The idea that this is just a typical cry from those who don't want to pay for something isn't entirely true.

I don't know how old other people here are but when I was a kid we would all record songs from the radio and swap LP's. If that had not been possible then we still wouldn't have bought any more - the number of LP's we bought (and we all bought plenty) was limited by the money had, not what we wanted.

I agree that this idea that the ideology that everything should be free is silly, but the idea that every single download is a lost sale is equally silly. It just adult discussion of the problem impossible as the numbers become ridiculous. If you want to fix a problem you have to work the real problem, not a made up fantasy one.

Just my 2p

Not always

Our team has people working from home and people who work partly from home. It works well - most of the time.

Obviously working from home has it's problems and people could skive off, but people can come in the office and effectively do nothing too.

The key to home workers is to manage results not time - set a number of required tasks, a deadline and there is your basis for managing them. It kind of depends on your line of business, but assuming it doesn't have to be done 9-5 then who cares if they decide to work one evening so they can go to the park the next morning?

Results count.

Re: Publicity Stunt

A publicity stunt is all it is - at the end of this Mudoch will claim that he has "done the right thing" and that his News International business is clean.

The government will then happily wave through the BSkyB takeover - delighted at excuse they have been handed.

All the great and good will be smiling and happy while the rest of us can get lost as usual...