Posts by Corinne 418 publicly visible posts • joined 5 May 2011
"You could order a car for you without all the predefined package garbage. Sure it took a few weeks longer to get your car "
Last new car I ordered was brand new, pre-defined package (had everything I wanted & more included) and I still had to wait 15 weeks for it :(
It's a word with a specific biological meaning related to a part of the anatomy a woman has & a man doesn't. I was therefore making what I thought was a miuldly amusing comment about how inappropriate that word was when referring to a man, but "whoosh" clearly over some people's heads.
Unless of course the correct meaning of the word wasn't known when it was used.....
I think it's which words one uses. The "C" word can't be biologically correct anyway, as there can't be any question that Eadon is male (just read his posts).
I've seen plenty of posts suggesting that Eadon is a touch misguided, maybe to the degree of being certifiable, which is why I've never had to bother myself, so maybe it's just the use of an biological abusive word?
People who genuinely need a stick to walk with (rather than just carry one for image reasons) tend to walk a bit differently from most e.g. leaning a bit on the stick, walking stooped over or limping. These factors sort of counter the "deadly efficiency" view you're suggesting.
ANY walking stick can be used as a weapon, and illicit items can be carried inside a modified walking stick - does this mean every person carrying one needs to have "special" attention by the TSA?
Comediennes are allowed to be cuddly, or even plain looking; it's the big exception. Plus we were talking about presenters whose whole job is to put forwards other people's work or introduce other acts.
Then again, anyone remember all the rude comments addressed at Mary Beard when she did her series about Roman everyday life? Screeds of rude and insulting comments all addressed at her appearance, nothing to do with the content at all.
Sadly that's exactly what happens. All other things being equal, a more attractive person will get a job over a less attractive one (both male & female). The problems come when the attractiveness or otherwise becomes one of the selection factors other than the very last "tie breaker"...
Me bitter at losing jobs or promotions to younger, more attractive, less qualified & much less experienced people? You bet I am!
Ah so the typical failure of outsourcing contracts, the failure to realise the amount of stuff done by in-house staff that never gets onto the official call log, and is therefore not costed in when the outsourcing justification is calculated.
The other fail here, common again to outsourcing and just about all other "rationalisation" efforts, is the "one size fits all" view. I've been on both sides of the table and always try to insist there's at least a 2-tier change control system in place (had to put in 3-tier in one place due to the nature of the programme), and the first stage of either is a sanity check that it really is a change rather than a simple procurement or service request with zero impact on anything else.
".. and one thing that really meant was that when the BBC said 'can you just?' the answer was usually 'not without a change request, project review, and management sign-off, no."
Well yes, that's not just a BBC thing it should be embedded in every project and I'd be somewhat surprised if Siemens didn't do this as a matter of course whatever client they are working for. "Can you just" may in many cases genuinely involve a few hours of developer time & no impact on anything else, but multiply that a few hundred times & there's a fair cost attached. And if you don't do proper impact assessment how can you be sure it isn't going to affect other areas?
Any large project that doesn't have proper change control embedded, especially one involving external suppliers, is doomed to failure. And scope creep is probably the biggest reason why public body projects go over budget.
@AC 18:39
Yes these squatters ARE trespassers by your own definition- they have entered someone else's property without permission. They have not been forcibly evicted from their own home, they've been evicted from someone else's (non-residential) property. They weren't late with any rent, as there was no. agreement and no rent being paid.
Your example relates to someone with a contract to rent a property for residential purposes. Computercenter had no such agreement in place with anyone and weren't anyone's "landlords", and therefore had legal reason to assume the property was not occupied. As such, they have every right to do what they wanted to the property.
"I suspect this is a misrepresentation of the situation - I still have not found anyone who works anywhere where the policy is that they must buy their own kit with the business thinking it will save money as a result. In all cases that I am aware of the business is permitting and enabling the use of personal devices to access business services"
I once worked (briefly) at a company that didn't supply mobile phones to anyone below a certain grade or to any contractors (I fell within both categories). Fine you say, there's plenty of companies who do that and very few who supply mobiles to contractors. The problem with THIS company was that they were occupying temporary space (for temporary read about a year) and had NO desk phones available, so I was expected to make loads of calls including conference calls where they only supplied an 0800 number, using my personal mobile.
Yes there was the capacity to claim the costs back, but only those itemised on my bill. And as I have a contract, all the calls for the company made at the start of my billing month weren't claimable as they just said inclusive. Personal calls at the end of the billing month that cost me because I'd gone over my contract allowance making work calls naturally were also not claimable.
Whichever way you define it Sam, they want someone who has a full career in one subject to be very highly qualified in a completely different career at the same time. It takes years full time to be qualified in any of those medical professions you list, and equally it would take years to become qualified in the IT stuff they want.
Just how many people specialise in one area then make a complete change in direction & specialise in something totally unrelated? There may be a very few in the country, but so rare as to be negligible.
" I meant that he fills it in there and then and lets you leave once he's "committed it to the system" "
That assumes that you are seeing the doctor every time you get a prescription. People on long term or permanent drugs don't usually see the GP every 2 months, instead they just get a repeat prescription from the surgery when they request it and have a check up every year or so
"everybody makes a mistake every now and them. Cut those managers some slack. They are only humans."
Yeah everyone makes mistakes every now & again - buying clothes you end up never wearing, making mistakes at work, possibly even expensive ones like using your credit card on a dodgy web site. But these guys are paid (note spelling please) very well indeed to run the company & make decisions on exactly this kind of purchase. If you or I acted in a way that we lost our employer even 1/1,000th of the capital value of the company we'd be out on our ear with no future in the industry, there's be no cutting US some slack. Whereas the HP board are keeping their jobs & may well go on to other high paid jobs in the same industry for devaluing HP by nearly 1/5th.
That's been suggested but apparently not the problem, if anything I didn't water plants enough.
Tried an experiment with a neighbour at a previous house (same row of houses), she checked my soil was the same as hers, both gardens faced the same way, planted the same seeds/seedlings, both let nature take it's course i.e. they were watered when it rained, hers thrived mine died. Though I did have a rampant golden globe buddleia she was jealous of, couldn't keep the damned thing under control despite hacking it practically down to the ground at the time of year they tell you NOT to because that may kill them!
A friend used to tend my flowers & shrubs for me, even if I did anything to them under her strict instructions with her watching they would die whereas the ones next to them that she tended were fine. plants just don't like me :(
Unfortunately when it comes to horticulture I have what can only be classed as "brown fingers", i.e. everything I try to grow dies - except certain weeds & grasses, which won't die even if I poison them thoroughly.
I tend to them according to what I've read, I ask advice from successful gardeners, I've tried checking I have the right soil balance and everything, but nothing I want to grow ever thrives. If I let someone else plant & tend for them then certain things like heathers & conifers may survive provided I don't touch them myself.
I do however have a fine crop of couch grass that so far has survived digging up and multiple applications of different appropriate weedkillers, and in a previous house the garage was completely smothered by Japanese Knotweed.
No, to watch "Game of Thrones" legitimately WITHOUT WAITING FOR THE DVD TO BE RELEASED you have to buy a subscription to Sky. Or you can have a bit of bloody patience & wait for the DVD.
I have back problems that mean visits to the cinema are not worth the pain they cause, so I wait until the films I want to see are available on DVD or Sky. Am I suffering by having to wait? Not really, I get to watch the film and be entertained by it eventually - just a few months later than some people see it. I also end up spending less on it because I waited.
I agree that $2.99 per episode is expensive, but I doubt that the DVD will cost that much on a per episode rate so it's a case of paying more for instant gratification, or paying less when having the patience to wait.
In general the view of many companies seems to be that anyone over the age of about 40-45 is just marking time until retirement and won't bring the drive, energy and enthusiasm that younger people can. Working on this theory I dropped 10 years of not very relevant work from the bottom of my CV and more than doubled the interest in it.
My bad, £1.35 for the mustard powder, £1.40 for the Nutmeg, shade under £6 for the vanilla, so a bit under £9 not over £10. But still painful on my current budget.
It was the decent quality vanilla extract that did it, most things I'll go for a cheaper option, but when it comes to my vanilla it needs to be the real stuff rather than the 80p little bottles of watery "flavouring" (except in meringues, then the cheap crap does OK).
Ah yes my pet peeve about cooking programs is the "store" ingredients they assume everyone has at all times and are rarely costed in e.g. 15 different fresh herbs & spices, an unlimited supply of citrus fruits to get juice & zest from, 8 different types of sugar etc etc.
I finally needed to replace a couple of "store" items recently like mustard powder (for cheese scones), vanilla extract & ground nutmeg, & just those 3 cost over a tenner. OK the mustard powder & the nutmeg will last me literally for years, but they do have to be bought in the first place (and stored).
Unless you like your tea exceedingly strong, you should be able to get at least 1.5 mug's worth of tea from each tea bag. Just make sure you remove the bag before adding the milk then put it to one side on a saucer or similar, and it will keep even overnight and still give off some amber goodness next time you brew up.
@Wowfood - depends on how fussy you are about your eggs. Asda has 15 eggs for £1.34 if you don't mind them being not free range, & a couple in each box being on the small-ish size (but still around medium). Morrisons are a little more expensive, but still around £1.65 for the same number of slightly smaller eggs.
Though I agree with you about Hollywood NOT doing computers very well, could it be that they are displaying a number that isn't technically possible on purpose - rather like if someone says a telephone number on screen it always starts with "555" and there are no numbers that start that way (in the US at least)?
The purpose of this kind of thing is to prevent some poor innocent person being harassed by an idiot who phones the number etc....
So the "poor cancer stricken mom who cannot work and is afraid of losing her dole" works, in significant amounts of pain & distress, and the perfectly fit person doesn't get a job.
When will some of the commentators here understand that there just aren't enough jobs to go around, and that there are many multiples of people genuinely trying to get a job than there are vacancies? Jobs are being cut all around with mass redundancies, and very few new jobs are being created. Add to this the number of disabled people who have been declassified "as an incentive to find work", and the fact that the retirement age is rising so people are working longer, and you can see how things don't add up any more.
Oh and the "feel no shame" thing? Try being out of work & signing on, they seem to use every trick in the book to try to make you feel shame if you don't manage to get a job within a couple of months.
You're missing one important point there AC - there just aren't enough jobs for all the people chasing them. So even if someone from your 4th group does get a job they may not have got otherwise, it will be at the expense of the person who would have got the job.
The number of jobs available doesn't change, the number of people looking for work doesn't change, it just means person A gets the only job in town rather than person B.
Um doesn't your argument rely on the assumption that people who are out of work are self-entitled layabouts who don't see the point in working if they can live off the state? And presumably live quite well, as you recommend cutting benefits thereby implying that people could still keep a roof over their heads, eat, and even occasionally have luxuries like toilet roll, or washing powder, or shower gel, on less money than the current JSA.
"I have taken frequent stands in the face of strong opposition."
This just can't be answered out of context. Have I taken these frequent stands because I'm willing to fight for what is right, or have I taken them because I'm a stubborn bitch who won't ever admit I could be wrong? Does my job require me to challenge others, or does it require me to keep clients happy?
Plus, please define "frequent" - are we talking about 2-3 times every year on average, or 2-3 times every day?
"as someone present is more clearly aware of the context and able to see what's going on so driving actions are seamlessly accepted interruptions,"
Ha ha ha. My ex wasn't a driver himself, and he was so unaware of what was going on around him in the car that he would spill coffee if we went round a tight roundabout because he hadn't noticed we were about to take a sharpish left turn followed by a right. A mate of mine however who used to drive but hasn't for many years is aware enough so she can hear any distraction in my voice if I'm talking on the phone to her while driving. So it's more down to the person you are talking to rather than whether they are physically present.
Oh and kids in the back seat are rarely aware of what's going on and can be incredibly distracting, more so IMO than talking on the mobile (assuming hands free).
Actually I have seen such books - children's books made of cardboard rather than thin paper just about always have rounded corners. The theory there is that small children are more likely to damage themselves being careless with books, so the hard corners are rounded to prevent them putting out their eyes or similar.
@Julian - the US Patent Office tends to work by granting any patent that is applied for, then having it's validity tested in court. So it was screwed up then, and still is screwed up now.
Of course there may have been another reason why they asked you all those questions - if they can get the solution to a load of problems at the interview stage, why bother hiring anyone?
I've been in interviews where it soon became very clear to me that they were picking my brains on a particular subject; they said little about the job itself, asked me very little about my CV, just straight into the "how would you approach this (very specific) problem" questions. In one particular case one interviewer would ask the question and the other 2 would madly scribble down just about every word I said, in fact I think one person was there just to take minutes as they were writing mostly shorthand & didn't say a word throughout the whole interview.
These vacancies always end up with no-one taken on, they decide that they don't need to fill the post for some contrived reason which is nothing to do with the fact they've got the solution to the problem that was bothering them.
Not just the public sector who think that way, many private companies have the same attitude. What, use the industry standard process/system that's been tried and tested over many years, and just tailor it to suit us? Never - we are soooo very special that we need to write everything from scratch!
I wouldn't recommend a permie job in a government department if you can get anything else. Yes your wage might not actually drop, but it will be pretty shite to start with & not go up. The pension may look decent (though not as good as it used to be by a long way) in percentage terms, but 50% of shite isn't that great in the long run. Don't forget there are things that are considered standard "perks" in private industry that you don't get in government jobs either, you even have to pay for your own tea & coffee, and supply your own mugs & spoons.
And there isn't the job security there used to be; chances are the job will be outsourced to someone like Capita or IBM, your job will be TUPE'd over, and 2 years later you'll be redundant because they've moved the function to India (or Mauritias, or Eastern Europe, or the far east).
The senior execs won't get a pay rise as such, they'll get differently categorised bonuses, share options, pension breaks etc that aren't part of the official package for the lower ranked staff. So there could be a 0% pay rise across the whole company, with 0% "standard" bonus awarded, and the execs get their special "exec only" bonus upped & a nice chunk of share options.
There are other ways they can improve the income without an official pay rise too e.g. rejig the company car scheme so people of grade X & above get a massive rise in car allowances, or let them have more things they can charge to expenses.
As many have said - what about the grower vs shower issue?
There IS such a thing as "too big"
The hand size to penis size ratio is a fallacy, as is foot size to penis size, as is nose to penis (all told to me in girly chats over the years)
Girth is as important (if not more so) than length
However much you have, it's how well you use it!
Surely it's weird to assume the genders WOULD gravitate to different interests if all other things are equal. Why on earth should the fact that men have dangly bits & women have lumpy bits affect areas of interest and therefore career choices?
We can all see that there IS an overall difference in interest areas, but that's going to be down to conditioning at an early age more than intrinsic differences between the sexes.
Asset stripping is defined as buying a company with the intent to profit from selling the individual parts for more than the purchase price of the whole.
Whether you agree or not with what Disney did, they did NOT buy the whole of the Star Wars empire from Lucas with the intention of stripping it of it's assets. In this case they have closed one very small part of the company that is apparently making a loss going by past records and the fact they have already "let go" a very large number of staff in the last few years and have outsourced much of the work they were doing. Closing down a division is if anything the opposite of asset stripping, in that they didn't sell anything let alone for a profit.
Yes it's very sad that people will be made redundant, people are losing their jobs every day in all industry sectors because the companies they work for are losing money or going under. Disney aren't a charity, they won't keep open a loss making part of the business out of the goodness of their hearts and there's no reason why they should. If there is the capacity in the games development market for the work the devs were doing then they will get other jobs (assuming they are any good), and if there isn't the capacity then Disney were right from their point of view to close the division.
".. you may be right, but the fact that Disney just bought it and then shut it down reeks of asset stripping. If you don't have plans for a business then don't buy it."
To be fair, they bought the whole of the Lucas empire of which LucasArt was just a small part of, it was bundled in with the whole deal.
If you buy a used car it may come with vile stretchy seat covers, bumper stickers & fluffy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. You bought the car for the car itself, you just remove & dump the additional stuff you don't want.
No training needed, there are enough out of work project managers and other IT staff claiming benefits as it is without adding to the hundreds applying for every job going already. Some of these out of work IT staff were recent government employees who were made redundant as part of a cost cutting exercise by the very same government.
You forgot to include lashed up excel spreadsheet with badly written code underneath that's been added to over the last 15 years as new legislation has come in, or whenever someone thought they might like an occasional non-standard report. With a few manual workarounds to transfer the data from the spreadsheet to an access database that holds a different subset of the data.
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