Saturday, February 07, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Five Dials - Rather Splendid
Sometimes I should just keep quiet but I have to share this with you... rather clever... here.
Sad but true
This Telegraph article highlights many of the things I am seeing around me. I fail to understand the logic of people who retire here with such little foresight, forethought, or preparation... here.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Let me remind you
Well, not ME actually. Rather, let ReSnooze remind you. Here. This free service (donations are welcome) sends you e-mails at whatever frequency you tell it -- daily, weekly, annually, or any other frequency.
Some rather splendid music
To be found here. Fripp & Eno, David Sylivan, Michael Hutchens, Tom Waites, amd much, much more...
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
It's the economy, Stupid
I am a contractor. I am dependent for employment and my income (for a large part) upon agencies. These agencies advertise jobs that they have sourced through established and establishing contacts with companies in search of temporary employees to fill a short to medium term need for staff with a specific skill or specialty. The majority of agencies and agents are professional and good at what they do. Like all things in life though there are always the few who fail abysmally and give contracting and agencies a bad name. I often joke that the relationship between a contractor and an agent is similar to that of a pimp and prostitute.
For those who know me, I am often astounded at how bad some agencies can be at managing their databases and the primary source of their income, the contractor. I could give many examples of this but will focus on one I received to day that truly highlights the reality of the economic downturn as well as how an agency can (and normally does) really screw things up. It is self-explanatory.
=========================
Dear ________,
I am sure that there will be many more of these 'reassuring' emails that are somehow empty yet full of false promise. we are in tough times.
This is not why I am mentioning this though. This email was sent to me by an agency who I have never even worked for in the past. While I admire them for their honesty and forthright approach to their problems I am amazed that this has gone out. There appears to be no knowledge on the part of the agency as to who works for them and, as a contractor who depends on my income from an agency paying me, I have asked them to remove my details from their database. I am totally astounded.
Here, by the way, is the contractor / agent pimp/prostitute analogy:
As a contractor:
1. You work very odd hours.
2. You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy.
3. Your pimp gets most of the money.
4. You spend a lot of your time in a hotel room.
5. You charge by the hour but your time can be extended for the right price.
6. You are not proud of what you do.
7. Creating fantasies for your clients is rewarded.
8. You have no job satisfaction.
9. If a client beats you up, the pimp just sends you to another client.
10. You are embarrassed to tell people what you do for a living.
11. People ask you, "What do you do?" and you can't explain it.
12. Your friends have distanced themselves from you and you're left hanging with only other "professionals."
13. Your client pays for your hotel room plus your hourly rate.
14. Your client always wants to know how much you charge and what they get for the money.
15. Your pimp drives nice cars like Mercedes or BMWs.
16. You know the pimp is charging more than you are worth but if the client is foolish enough to pay it's not your problem.
17. When you leave to go see a client, you look great, but return looking like hell (compare your appearance on Monday AM to Friday PM).
18. You are rated on your "performance" in an excruciating ordeal.
19. Even though you get paid the big bucks, it's the client who walks away smiling.
20. The client always thinks your "cut" of your billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from you.
21. When you deduct your "take" from your billing rate, you constantly wonder if you could get a better deal with another pimp.
22. Everyday you wake up and tell yourself, "I'm not going to be doing this stuff the rest of my life."
23. Your client and pimp seem more concerned about how you look than what you know.
24. Your pimp doesn't care what you have to do to please the client.
25. Your pimp can't perform your job.
26. You're required to play roles for money.
27. Your customer doesn't always want others to know everything they request.
For those who know me, I am often astounded at how bad some agencies can be at managing their databases and the primary source of their income, the contractor. I could give many examples of this but will focus on one I received to day that truly highlights the reality of the economic downturn as well as how an agency can (and normally does) really screw things up. It is self-explanatory.
=========================
Dear ________,
Firstly, if you are not a freelancer or have not worked with ________ for a long time then please ignore this email.
We have decided to email everyone on our database in order to get this important info to those that do need to know!
Some of you may have received this already, but apologies in advance for the short notice of this news. However, as I'm sure you will appreciate in these credit crunching times, swift decisions are needed to ensure the survival and long term future of businesses - and we are no exception at ________.
Regrettably, following the next pay run on ________ February 2009, we have to make an important alteration to the way that you, as a freelancer or contractor, will be paid for work you have done via ________ for our clients.
To date ________ has undertaken to pay you every four weeks provided you have submitted your timesheets on time to ________, together with an invoice where appropriate if you're a Limited Company.
Because several of our clients are taking much longer to pay us, and in line with some of our competitors, ________ will in future only be able to pay you once we have received the monies owed to us from our client with whom you have been temporarily employed on site. I do assure you that once we receive these funds, we will pass them on to you promptly. To ensure swifter payment to you, it is vital that you send copies of your invoices and/or timesheets on a WEEKLY BASIS to ________, so that we, in turn, can invoice the client quickly and get the monies in faster.
This decision has not been taken lightly, but is designed to safeguard the financial health of ________ and, therefore, you, as a much valued candidate.
I hope that you will understand the reasons behind this change, but if you would like to talk this through, then please do not hesitate to contact your ________ consultant who will be more than happy to discuss this matter with you.
Kind regards,
=================I am sure that there will be many more of these 'reassuring' emails that are somehow empty yet full of false promise. we are in tough times.
This is not why I am mentioning this though. This email was sent to me by an agency who I have never even worked for in the past. While I admire them for their honesty and forthright approach to their problems I am amazed that this has gone out. There appears to be no knowledge on the part of the agency as to who works for them and, as a contractor who depends on my income from an agency paying me, I have asked them to remove my details from their database. I am totally astounded.
Here, by the way, is the contractor / agent pimp/prostitute analogy:
As a contractor:
1. You work very odd hours.
2. You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy.
3. Your pimp gets most of the money.
4. You spend a lot of your time in a hotel room.
5. You charge by the hour but your time can be extended for the right price.
6. You are not proud of what you do.
7. Creating fantasies for your clients is rewarded.
8. You have no job satisfaction.
9. If a client beats you up, the pimp just sends you to another client.
10. You are embarrassed to tell people what you do for a living.
11. People ask you, "What do you do?" and you can't explain it.
12. Your friends have distanced themselves from you and you're left hanging with only other "professionals."
13. Your client pays for your hotel room plus your hourly rate.
14. Your client always wants to know how much you charge and what they get for the money.
15. Your pimp drives nice cars like Mercedes or BMWs.
16. You know the pimp is charging more than you are worth but if the client is foolish enough to pay it's not your problem.
17. When you leave to go see a client, you look great, but return looking like hell (compare your appearance on Monday AM to Friday PM).
18. You are rated on your "performance" in an excruciating ordeal.
19. Even though you get paid the big bucks, it's the client who walks away smiling.
20. The client always thinks your "cut" of your billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from you.
21. When you deduct your "take" from your billing rate, you constantly wonder if you could get a better deal with another pimp.
22. Everyday you wake up and tell yourself, "I'm not going to be doing this stuff the rest of my life."
23. Your client and pimp seem more concerned about how you look than what you know.
24. Your pimp doesn't care what you have to do to please the client.
25. Your pimp can't perform your job.
26. You're required to play roles for money.
27. Your customer doesn't always want others to know everything they request.
Britain in Decay
I left the UK about 12 years ago. This Guardian article really hits it on the head regarding what the UK has become in mine and many other ex-pats eyes. There is a line in the national anthem 'Britons never shall be slaves'. Unfortunately, I think many, if not most, already have.
Don't get me wrong here. I am proud, very proud to be British. I am just not proud of what Britain has become.
Here is the REAL national anthem although others would say that this is.
Don't get me wrong here. I am proud, very proud to be British. I am just not proud of what Britain has become.
Here is the REAL national anthem although others would say that this is.
Eulogy
Sometimes, there are bits of the interwebtubenets that allow you into peoples hearts and minds. This eulogy by Scott Edelman is one such moment.
Many men fail as fathers, many as sons. Personally, I think I failed at both...
Many men fail as fathers, many as sons. Personally, I think I failed at both...
My surname is BIG in Texas...
I think this web site is 'interesting' although, like many of the social networking and 'give me your personal information and lots of it' sites, it has the potential for abuse through data-mining or seizure. Here.
Clearly this is a concern of a lot of people. See the screen grab of their help site. I am waiting for the inevitable theft of personal data from one of the major social networking sites and the associated backlash that is likely to come from this.
Clearly this is a concern of a lot of people. See the screen grab of their help site. I am waiting for the inevitable theft of personal data from one of the major social networking sites and the associated backlash that is likely to come from this.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Snow on the Mountain
I took a trip down the mountain today. Weather on the coast was sunny but 'fresh'. I spent about an hour walking on the beach and was amazed at how much rubbish had been washed ashore during the recent storms we have had. The past few days we have had thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. Higher up the mountain this fell as snow. As I came back up I took a few shots to show how much snow has fallen. Remember this is southern Spain... The heavy rain resumed this evening...
Skype 4.0 released BUT...
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
I originally reported that Skype does TWO installations. This is WRONG. The new version works perfectly well. The problem is if you have Skype Portable on a U3 drive. See below.
I have identified the cause of the double installation. It had me totally foxed for a long time and I went through everything I could think of. Tearing my hair out etc. I had searched the registry, install logs etc to no avail. Having been in support myself in the past I went through everything systematically, removign any additional devices, checking back on what I had previously installed etc etc etc. I was even beginning to think that the recent MSoft update to .Net was the culprit.
As a tech guy myself I should have known better but it is very useful for you to know this one. I am sure that other people will encounter this.
First, the installation/upgrade of Sykpe to version 4 DID work properly.
Second, some time ago I purchased an 8Gb U3 drive to use the ReadyBoost cache feature available in Vista. Unknown to me (I did not check but should have done!), the memory stick contained a whole host of pre-installed portable software - OpenOffice, Firefox... and Skype portable...
When a computer (with a U3 drive connected and with Skype portable installed to run upon insertion) is switched on, the old version of Skype runs as well as Skype 4. It would appear that the new version of Skype (4) is unable to determine that the portable version of Skype is running. If Skype 4 is running and the U3 card is THEN installed, you will get the message that Skype is already running. This will not happen upon boot up though.
A couple of comments:
1. I have looked and nowhere does it inform the user that the icon colour has changed. this is I believe a major oversight.
2. The icon change also removes what was a particularly useful feature i.e. if someone has call forwarding the old icon used to show this. The new one does not.
Here.
I originally reported that Skype does TWO installations. This is WRONG. The new version works perfectly well. The problem is if you have Skype Portable on a U3 drive. See below.
I have identified the cause of the double installation. It had me totally foxed for a long time and I went through everything I could think of. Tearing my hair out etc. I had searched the registry, install logs etc to no avail. Having been in support myself in the past I went through everything systematically, removign any additional devices, checking back on what I had previously installed etc etc etc. I was even beginning to think that the recent MSoft update to .Net was the culprit.
As a tech guy myself I should have known better but it is very useful for you to know this one. I am sure that other people will encounter this.
First, the installation/upgrade of Sykpe to version 4 DID work properly.
Second, some time ago I purchased an 8Gb U3 drive to use the ReadyBoost cache feature available in Vista. Unknown to me (I did not check but should have done!), the memory stick contained a whole host of pre-installed portable software - OpenOffice, Firefox... and Skype portable...
When a computer (with a U3 drive connected and with Skype portable installed to run upon insertion) is switched on, the old version of Skype runs as well as Skype 4. It would appear that the new version of Skype (4) is unable to determine that the portable version of Skype is running. If Skype 4 is running and the U3 card is THEN installed, you will get the message that Skype is already running. This will not happen upon boot up though.
A couple of comments:
1. I have looked and nowhere does it inform the user that the icon colour has changed. this is I believe a major oversight.
2. The icon change also removes what was a particularly useful feature i.e. if someone has call forwarding the old icon used to show this. The new one does not.
Here.
An invented word
This one had me thinking for a while. Someone who is seeking 'refuge' is a refugee. Someone seeking 'asylum' is (to me and the OED at least) an 'asylum seeker'. Look at the screen grab from the US Citizen and Immigration Service.
Comments anyone?
Comments anyone?
Drive-by Chip and PIN nicking
If you have any form of official ID or bank card with an RFID you should be breaking out in a sweat over this... here.
Slight understatement
From the BBC web site.
"UN Food and Agriculture Organisation emergency co-ordinator Tim Vaessen said insect experts had realised the species was not armyworm during a field trip to Bong County in Liberia last week.
The army worms are among the world's most destructive pests. While armyworms feed on ground cereal like millet, rice or sorghum, he said, the unidentified insect favours munching the leaf of the Dohama tree. Mr Vaessen said the unknown species' cocoons are found on the surface beneath ground leaves, whereas armyworm casings are buried in the soil at a depth of several centimetres.
He also said the mystery caterpillar appears to rear up, making half circles in the air as it moves forward, which the armyworm does not do. The wings of its moth also appear different."
I wonder what he has been smoking. Certainly an appropriate place-name.
"UN Food and Agriculture Organisation emergency co-ordinator Tim Vaessen said insect experts had realised the species was not armyworm during a field trip to Bong County in Liberia last week.
The army worms are among the world's most destructive pests. While armyworms feed on ground cereal like millet, rice or sorghum, he said, the unidentified insect favours munching the leaf of the Dohama tree. Mr Vaessen said the unknown species' cocoons are found on the surface beneath ground leaves, whereas armyworm casings are buried in the soil at a depth of several centimetres.
He also said the mystery caterpillar appears to rear up, making half circles in the air as it moves forward, which the armyworm does not do. The wings of its moth also appear different."
I wonder what he has been smoking. Certainly an appropriate place-name.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Mike Errico
Here. I think his music is rather good. See what you think.
Also check out the animated GIF "Cheap Drugs" on his blog (extract above)
Skype Emoticons
Here is a list of the Skype Emoticons I am aware of. Some are (I believe) only functional in more recent versions of Skype.
Regular Skype Emoticons
ICO ANI Name Emoticons Codes
Smile :) :-) :=)
Sad :( :-( :=(
Big Smile :D :=D :-D :d :=d :-d
Cool 8) 8=) 8-) B) B=) B-) (cool)
Wink ;) ;-)
Crying ;( ;-( ;=(
Sweating (sweat) (:|
Speechless :| :-| :=|
Kiss :* :-* :=*
Tongue Out :P :-P :=P :p :-p :=p
Blush :$ :-$ :=$ :"> (blush)
Wondering :^)
Sleepy |-) I-) I=) (snooze)
Dull |( |-( |=(
In Love (inlove) (love)
Evil Grin ]:) >:) (grin)
Talking (talk)
Yawn (yawn) |-()
Puke (puke) :& :-& :=&
Doh (doh)
Angry :@ :-@ :=@ x( x-( x=( X(
It wasn't me (wasntme)
Party (party)
Worried :S :-S :=S :s :-s :=s
Mmm... (mm)
Nerd 8-| B-| 8| B| 8=| B=| (nerd)
Lips Sealed :x :-x :X :-X :# :-# :=x :=X
Hi (hi)
Call (call)
Devil (devil)
Angel (angel)
Envy (envy)
Wait (wait)
Bear (bear) (hug)
Make-up (makeup) (kate)
Covered Laugh (giggle) (chuckle)
Clapping Hands (clap)
Thinking (think) :? :-? :=?
Bow (bow)
Rolling on the floor laughing (rofl)
Whew (whew)
Happy (happy)
Nodding (nod)
Shaking (shake)
Punch (punch)
Emo (emo)
Yes (Y) (ok)
No (N) (no)
Shaking Hands (handshake)
Skype (skype) (ss)
Heart (H) (L)
Broken heart (U)
Mail (e) (m)
Flower (F)
Rain (rain) (london) (st)
Sun (sun)
Time (O) (time)
Music (music)
Movie (~) (film) (movie)
Phone (mp) (ph) (phone)
Coffee (coffee)
Pizza (pizza) (pi)
Cash (cash) (mo) ($)
Smirking (smirk)
Muscle (muscle) (flex)
Cake (^) (cake)
Beer (beer)
Drink (D)
Dance (dance)
Ninja (ninja)
Star (*)
Hidden Skype Emoticons
Bandit (bandit)
Drunk (drunk)
Smoking (smoking) (smoke) (ci)
Toivo (toivo)
Rock (rock)
Headbang (headbang) (banghead)
Bug (bug)
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