Archive for the ‘Pop Culture’ category

“Do as We Say, Not as We do…”

July 28th, 2010

There is a very wide range of free, high quality videoconferencing options available to employers to utilize when interviewing out-of-market job candidates.

Both economical and environmentally friendly, videoconferencing allows the hiring managers and candidates to visually meet and interact with each other during an interview, with the candidates participating from the comfort of their home laptops/pcs.

Hiring managers and job seekers I know who have utilized this options prefer this over traditional phone interviews, and also over taking two or three days off their current jobs to interview for at most 4 or 6 hours at a distant location, only to have one or both sides determine this would not be a good match.

If the company and candidate then agree there is still mutual interest, the final one (or even two) candidates can travel and meet the team/tour the local area in person before deciding whether or not to accept the job offer.

One of my friends is currently interviewing with an out of state company which heavily promotes multiple products which it delivers via web-based streaming media; yet they insist my friend fly to the company’s headquarters twice, to interview in person; the hiring manager and team are not comfortable with video conference/online interviewing.

Oh.

Ironic – or hypocritical?

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Posted in Every Day Life, Friends, Pop Culture, Strange but True, Think Green, Work

Tags: area home Ironic laptops videoconferencing

A Rose By Any Other Name….

June 24th, 2010

might smell just as sweet – but perhaps there is some truth to the school of thought that a person’s name does help define their life destiny:

From CNN, today:

Alleged Jamaican drug lord arrives in United States to face charges

White Plains, New York (CNN) — Alleged drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke was extradited Thursday from Jamaica to the United States, where he is to face drug and weapons charges

….”At Coke’s direction and under his protection, members of his criminal organization sold marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, and sent the narcotics proceeds back to Coke and his co-conspirators,” the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.”

Or – a “coke king” whose last name really is… Coke?

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Posted in Fun, Pop Culture, Strange but True, Unique Job Opportunities

Tags: area customer experience pragmatic chaos U.S. Attorney whom the bell tolls

Yet Another Job Opportunity too Good not to Mention…

April 3rd, 2010

Note: The translation of the acronyms and “ideal candidate description” is at the bottom of this post.

Title : Technical Partner Lead (Company X)
Location : Redmond
Job Type : Contract
Date : 04/03/2010

Good morning!

The Technical Partner Lead (TPL) at (Company X) is a fun role, for the right person. The person who loves this role will work well in a very dynamic enviornment.

Purpose:

This Partner Technical Lead will specifically support consumer Product support vendors in India. Acts as a technical and process management resource for broad and complex issues. Provides technical or process planning, training and guidance to (Company X) support partners. Proactively works to circumvent roadblocks and to provide solutions. Primary responsibility is to raise the technical expertise of our Partners and Support Professional staff by providing timely, technical, and professional mentoring in a leveraged manner.

The ideal candidate has -

- 5+ years experience working at (Company X) PSS/CSS (product support), and understands the processes and tools
- 3+ years developing management-level reports and reviews
- 5+ years in a content development role
- 3+ years developing/delivering courseware

Responsibilities:

–Support Partner Interaction–
Mentor support partners on technical support issues, process issues, delivery and problem solving processes. Monitor and responds to critical questions on technical aliases. Immediately resolve any issues that do not meet high standards of delivery. Participate in beta programs as appropriate.

–Analysis–

Conduct statistically valid sample of case reviews and call monitors. Output is data-driven report of Support Partner technical skill/process gaps.

–Communication/ Business Relationships–

Use a mixture of analysis, technical acumen, experience and judgment to make recommendations to high level decisions as necessary. Consistently establishes and maintains working relationships with support partners, internal support delivery teams, and on occasion with partner executive management. Consult / collaborate with NA PTLs to determine and develop training for product. Assist in high visibility issues including Press, Legal, and Hot customer situations. Communicate business results (written and verbal) to business group leadership

–Strategy and Development–

Act as Expert or Liaison with (Company X) Resources. Coordinate with third parties (ISPs, OEM, and TSANet) on technical issues. Provide supportability recommendations to Supportability Program Managers within this team. Design and implement team service delivery processes and / or projects.

–Content–

Perform research, acquire information, write and revise articles, white papers or other types of technical content for all products in a given cluster/segment. Respond to technical questions, provide training on leading-edge technologies and effectively communicate technical content to support partners. Develop and deliver content training and provide coaching for Service Delivery and other Content Delivery personnel. Key contributor and participant in product releases and post-launch activities and initiatives.

Qualifications:

Demonstrated expertise in Office applications and Windows Operating Systems.
In-depth knowledge of one or more of the following: Outlook, Office Setup, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, FrontPage.

Proven professional and interpersonal communication skills.

Advanced verbal and writing skills, and ability to present ideas to groups.
Experience presenting business results to company executives.
Ideal candidate will have a background in, or exposure to, process & project control and management. Six Sigma (or DMAIC equivalent) approach to root cause and corrective action management preferred.
Demonstrated ability to understand and communicate related technical and business advantages in the deployment of (Company X) products within Consumer environments.
University or College degree in one of the following: Math, Computer Science, Business, or Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
Minimum 3 years work experience in an IT or equivalent, work-related environment (consulting, software development, 2nd or 3rd tier technical support, technical project management; training development/delivery, etc.)
Well-developed technical skills.

TRANSLATION:

The ideal candidate for this one is a former full time employee of (Company X) who likely was laid off last year and is now willing to work Indian Standard Time (i.e., overnight) hours for no benefits and less pay than they made when a full time employee for this same, or a very similar, job.

Or – hello, “new” economy…

Why a Salad Costs More than a Cheeseburger…

March 24th, 2010

(PCRM)

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Posted in Every Day Life, Pop Culture, Think Green

Tags: cheeseburger PCRM Salad

Make Mine a MacBook … x 20

March 6th, 2010

Justin Long may have retired from Apple ad campaigns, but at least several others want to claim his old role of Mac advocate:

Acrobatic thieves hit N.J. Best Buy avoiding cameras, motion sensors, alarms in daring heist
By Ryan Hutchins/For The Star-Ledger

March 04, 2010, 4:42PM

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — They never touched the floor — that would have set off an alarm.
They didn’t appear on store security cameras. They cut a hole in the roof and came in at a spot where the cameras were obscured by advertising banners.

And they left with some $26,000 in laptop computers, departing the same way they came in — down a 3-inch gas pipe that runs from the roof to the ground outside the store.

Police believe that’s how some brazen bandits managed to swipe 20 Apple notebooks early this morning at a Best Buy on Route 1 in South Brunswick without detection.

“High level of sophistication,” said Detective James Ryan, a police department spokesman. “They never set off any motion sensors. They never touched the floor. They rappelled in and rappelled out.”

Employees discovered the missing laptops, as well as a gaping hole in the ceiling, when they arrived to work around 6:30 this morning.

The thieves left boot prints on the gas pipe, which runs up the side of the building in Monmouth Junction, Ryan said.

On top of the building, they used a saw to cut through several inches of rubber and insulation, then sliced a 3-foot-wide square in the metal roof, he said.

Once inside, the burglars dropped 16 feet to 10-foot-tall racks — avoiding contact with the floor, where motion sensors would have set off an alarm. They snatched the notebooks from the racks, then went back out through the roof.

The effort was daring and unusual, said John Harris, an expert in security who has consulted on thousands of burglaries.

Read the full story here.

Walmart vs. Netflix…?

February 23rd, 2010

On Monday Wal-Mart announced it agreed to buy online streaming video service Vudu, which allows customers to select online from 16,000′s licensed films, then view movies instantly on their TVs.

“Combining Vudu’s unique digital technology and service with Walmart’s retail expertise and scale will provide customers with unprecedented access to home entertainment options as they migrate to a digital environment,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart (WMT,Fortune 500), said in a statement.

Vudu is developing hundreds of Internet applications and services that will allow viewers to stream movies to their TVs and Blu-ray disc players, and the video service has already partnered with Internet and media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and the Associated Press, Wal-Mart said.

“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.” – Oscar Wilde

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Posted in Innovation, Pop Culture, Technology, Think Green

Tags: blu ray disc players netflix retail expertise vudu wal mart wmt

Quote of the Week

February 20th, 2010

From “Bones,” Season 1, Episode 18, “The Man with the Bone”:

“Greed is the real curse.”

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Posted in Every Day Life, Fun, Pop Culture, Theory, Words to Live By

Tags: bones curse episode 18 greed quote of the week season 1

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

February 1st, 2010

“Every man has three characters – that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 – 1890)

“The more things change, the more they are the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 – 1890)

“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 – 1890)

“We can invent only with memory.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 – 1890)

“Uncertainty is the worst of all evils until the moment when reality makes us regret uncertainty.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808 – 1890)

And, three not by Karr:

“The more things change, the more they remain… insane.” - Michael Fry and T. Lewis, Over the Hedge, 05-09-04

“The squeaking wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced.” – Vic Gold

“The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” – Arthur Koestler (1905 – 1983)

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Posted in Pop Culture, Theory, Words to Live By

Tags: alphonse karr evils jean baptiste memory roses have thorns thorns have roses uncertainty

Running Back and Forth Forever Between Grief and High Delight

January 28th, 2010

The author J.D. Salinger died today. These are some of my favorite quotes from his books, and by him:

“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.”

- J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

– J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

I’m not going to bed after all. Somebody around here hath murdered sleep. Good for him.

– J.D.Salinger (1919 – 2010), Seymour:An Introduction

I can’t be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.

– J. D. Salinger (1919 – 2010)

I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.

– J. D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), Franny and Zooey Pg. 30

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

– J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.

– J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

“I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.

- J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

- J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

I’m not going to bed after all. Somebody around here hath murdered sleep. Good for him.

- J.D.Salinger (1919 – 2010), Seymour:An Introduction

I can’t be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight.

- J. D. Salinger (1919 – 2010)

I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.

J. D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), Franny and Zooey Pg. 30

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

- J.D. Salinger (1919 – 2010), The Catcher in the Rye

The most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.”

– J.D. Salinger (Nine Stories)

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Posted in Pop Culture, Theory, Words to Live By

Tags: bunch of flowers catcher in the rye franny and zooey immature man j d salinger paranoiac

Moving Pictures, the Netflix Way

January 20th, 2010

Saturday I mailed a dvd back to Netflix.

Since Monday was a federal holiday, I expected to Netflix to receive the returned DVD on Tuesday, then ship the next dvd in my queue to arrive on Wednesday.

But – no.

Netflix emailed me Monday morning they received the dvd I mailed them on Saturday.

Later that day my updated dvd queue noted the next dvd would ship on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday.

Instead, it arrived TUESDAY.

Netflix gets a lot of things right – which is in line with its entertainment product offerings – but even better, sometimes its efficiency is magic, too. <G