Microsoft Access is for masochists. It’s expensive, a pain to learn, and—frankly—quite overkill for nearly any home application.
So, for too long, folks like myself have kept lists in Excel. This works… sort of. But it’s a pain to share, and it lacks a lot of the usefully-database’y features that make working with data multidimensionally both useful and fun.
For instance, I’m trying to keep track of where I’ve traveled around the world, what sets of pictures I’ve taken, where those pictures reside (online, in photo albums, etc.), who I have yet to share them with, and so on. I *could* do lots of messy filtering and sorting on Excel as I try to handle related action items, but a database (featuring multiple persistent views) would be so much easier!
Well… dabbledb and Zoho Creator to the rescue! Below I’ll talk about my initial experiences using both services, some advantages I perceive in each, and I’ll also demo my first “app”—a filterable/sortable list of movies I’ve seen and want to see (all 217 of them so far!)
Clearly, there are lots of professional uses for databases. But here are a few hobbyist uses I’ve thought of off the top of my head:
- Managing and showing off stamp / comic book / music / other collections
- Dealing with rosters (Little League, Church members, volunteer list, etc.)
- Working with a personal or team todo list.
* * *
Zoho Creator (“ZC”) is, at least for now, free. Dabbledb (“ddb”) offers a 30 day free trial, and various plans after that starting at $10/month.
Getting started on either service is a snap. You can easily import your existing data just by copying the cells from Excel and pasting one big block into a text box in either service. Both of them handled this data quite smartly!
Some other things both services have in common:
- Very passionate developers who regularly participate in discussions online about their services.
- The ability for users to put views and even forms on other Web sites.
- Active user forums.
- Helpful getting-started / overview videos
Some advantages specific to ZC:
- A unique and seemingly powerful scripting language
- Custom error messages and validation
- Multi-select-list fields.
- The ability to put an “active” view into another Web page
Some advantages specific to ddb:
- It’s fast!
- Handy grouping function
- Superior ease of data entry
- More choices of field types
- Multidimensionality (a bit hard to explain… but you can define relationships between tables)
I’ve included my movie database (in ZC) as a sample below. Have fun searching, filtering, sorting… and don’t worry, it’s read-only, so you can’t hurt anything! :-D
[embed removed since it was no longer working]
Sunday, July 30, 2006
ShareThis
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Selfishly raising money for cancer, one photo annotation at a time
I have an envelope on my desk from the American Cancer Society. A very, very worthy organization, and one that I do indeed plan to support financially. But—being the strange bird that I am—I’d like to do so creatively, selfishly, and, well, with your help :-D
No, I’m not going to ask you to send me money… at least not until I’m masochistically running some 42K fundraiser race or whatever where I have to raise [$x] and [x] is some relatively high number. Instead, I’m going to ask you to do work for me. Let me explain…
You see, I have thousands of photos. Tens of thousands of photos. Lots of them are pretty darn cool (if I say so myself) and many of them I’ve actually bothered to put online via Flickr or Fotki.
But—and here’s where you come in—lots of the photos are sadly unannotated. Heck, except for the country of origin, I probably don’t even remember anything about the people, the sculptures, the castles, the lakes… anything at all, really, and that’s rather regrettable IMHO.
Why not, as my boss has so aptly done in the past, invoke teh lazyweb! You, oh sundry and smart and good looking BLADAM readers from Amsterdam and Berlin and Cairns and every other letter of the alphabet… you probably can easily identify what goofy and beautiful people places and things I’ve taken photos of!
So here’s the deal: If there’s enough of a response, I’m prepared to write a check for up to $500 to the American Cancer Society which—when matched by my generous employer—will become 1,000 donated smackeroos… based upon how many of my photos y’all annotate. [x] cents per reasonable (and typically brief) annotation per photo.
In the end, it’s win-win-win.
- I get to remember and learn more about the places I’ve visited.
- My photo pages may get better indexed and more frequently viewed… and they’ll be more interesting and informative for everyone, too!
- You get warm fuzzies and certainly recognition and thanks on my blog at a later date :-D.
- The American Cancer Society gets up to $1,000! Plus more if I decide to do this on a yearly basis or others decide to responsibly copy-cat the idea.
* * *
I don’t yet have a timeline for this (though “by Thanksgiving this year” seems reasonable, no?). First, I have to upload a bunch more of my photos from around the world! Also, I’d love to hear (either privately or in the comments below):
1) Where you’re from and what you think about this idea.
2) Whether you’d personally enjoy participating by annotating my photos online.
3) Any particular restrictions or guidelines you think I should set / anything else to consider logistically or policywise.
4) Whether you’ve ever seen this sort of fundraising idea implemented :-D
Thanks in advance for your comments and, ultimately, your support! Remember, speak out—I’m only going to do this if I get a sufficient number of volunteers!
* * *
Update just a few minutes after I posted this:
Here’s a very non-comprehensive list of where I’ve been and taken photos (I hope to make a more comprehensive list someday!)
In no particular order…
EUROPE:
NORTH AMERICA:
ASIA AND PACIFIC
LATIN AMERICA
* I’ve visited here, but I don’t think I have pictures from this city.
No, I’m not going to ask you to send me money… at least not until I’m masochistically running some 42K fundraiser race or whatever where I have to raise [$x] and [x] is some relatively high number. Instead, I’m going to ask you to do work for me. Let me explain…
You see, I have thousands of photos. Tens of thousands of photos. Lots of them are pretty darn cool (if I say so myself) and many of them I’ve actually bothered to put online via Flickr or Fotki.
But—and here’s where you come in—lots of the photos are sadly unannotated. Heck, except for the country of origin, I probably don’t even remember anything about the people, the sculptures, the castles, the lakes… anything at all, really, and that’s rather regrettable IMHO.
Why not, as my boss has so aptly done in the past, invoke teh lazyweb! You, oh sundry and smart and good looking BLADAM readers from Amsterdam and Berlin and Cairns and every other letter of the alphabet… you probably can easily identify what goofy and beautiful people places and things I’ve taken photos of!
So here’s the deal: If there’s enough of a response, I’m prepared to write a check for up to $500 to the American Cancer Society which—when matched by my generous employer—will become 1,000 donated smackeroos… based upon how many of my photos y’all annotate. [x] cents per reasonable (and typically brief) annotation per photo.
In the end, it’s win-win-win.
- I get to remember and learn more about the places I’ve visited.
- My photo pages may get better indexed and more frequently viewed… and they’ll be more interesting and informative for everyone, too!
- You get warm fuzzies and certainly recognition and thanks on my blog at a later date :-D.
- The American Cancer Society gets up to $1,000! Plus more if I decide to do this on a yearly basis or others decide to responsibly copy-cat the idea.
* * *
I don’t yet have a timeline for this (though “by Thanksgiving this year” seems reasonable, no?). First, I have to upload a bunch more of my photos from around the world! Also, I’d love to hear (either privately or in the comments below):
1) Where you’re from and what you think about this idea.
2) Whether you’d personally enjoy participating by annotating my photos online.
3) Any particular restrictions or guidelines you think I should set / anything else to consider logistically or policywise.
4) Whether you’ve ever seen this sort of fundraising idea implemented :-D
Thanks in advance for your comments and, ultimately, your support! Remember, speak out—I’m only going to do this if I get a sufficient number of volunteers!
* * *
Update just a few minutes after I posted this:
Here’s a very non-comprehensive list of where I’ve been and taken photos (I hope to make a more comprehensive list someday!)
In no particular order…
EUROPE:
- Austria: Vienna, Ischgl
- Belgium: Brussels, Antwerp
- Czech Republic: Prague
- Denmark: Copenhagen
- Estonia: Tallin*
- Finland: Helsinki*
- France: Paris
- Germany: Berlin, Mainz, Mannheim, Weinheim, Viernheim, Maulbronn, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Strausberg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart
- Hungary: Budapest
- Ireland: Dublin, Glendalough
- Italy: Venice, Rome
- Luxembourg: Luxembourg
- Netherlands: Amsterdam, Venray, Haarlem, Rotterdam
- Spain: Barcelona
- Sweden: Herrang, Stockholm
- Switzerland: Geneva, Berne, Lucerne, Interlakken
- United Kingdom: London
NORTH AMERICA:
- California: San Francisco, Daly City, Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles, San Diego, Marin, Santa Cruz, Oakland, Berkeley, Sacramento
- Colorado: Denver*
- Hawaii: Kauai
- Illinois: Evanston, Chicago
- Maine: Er, I forget where!
- Nevada: Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas*
- New Hampshire: Hebron, somewhere else
- New York: New York City
- North Carolina: Charlotte*
- Other: D.C.
- Tennessee: Knoxville, Gatlinburg
- Texas: Austin,
- Virginia: Newport News
- Washington: Seattle
- Canada: Vancouver
ASIA AND PACIFIC
- Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns
- Singapore: Singapore
LATIN AMERICA
- Costa Rica: San Jose, Montezuma
* I’ve visited here, but I don’t think I have pictures from this city.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Charges
On a recent business trip, I ended up staying at the Hilton London Islington Hotel, since it was next to the business centre hosting the conference I was attending.
Though by this point I shouldn’t have been shocked, I was nonetheless outraged that a colleague and I paid $57USD for one night of Internet access in our room and also we were expected to pay about $5.50 per minute to call another colleague on his London cellphone from our room phone. Oh, and adding insult to injury: we discovered that we had to pay separately for wireless Internet access downstairs; it wasn’t included in the $57 we had just paid.
So this got me to thinking: Why do hotels charge so much for such ridiculously minimal (and actually low-cost) incidentals and—more critically—how do they get away with it in a free marketplace? And what other industries feature such utterly obnoxious gouging?
As you can imagine, when I came across this article recently—The Hidden Economy—I was fascinated to read some justifications from economists about this very subject.
They explain that primarily two different types of people patronize establishments and services with cheaper up-front costs but higher per-use or incidental charges:
- The clueless n00b (except they politely call this person “myopic”) who simply doesn’t expect or even notice the high incidental charges at the “cheap” place or with the “discount” service.
- The savvy planner (someone who aims to be aware and beat the system by substituting others’ cheaper offerings to replace the main provider’s usuriously-charged services); this person reasonably believes he or she can actually save money overall by being a tightwad and purchasing incidentals elsewhere.
But what this article fails to address is the apparent inelasticity of business purchases. That is to say… even as the price rises, purchases of a business good or service often do not fall off proportionally.
Take the example of hotels, for instance. Contrary to the inverse relationship exampled in the article (low price hotel has high incidental charges and visa versa), my experience has shown a rather wacky but ultimately understandable proportional ratio of base charges to incidental charges. Specifically, the pricier the hotel is, the more outrageously high their incidental charges are while, conversely, places like Best Western have relatively low base charges and give away stuff like local calls and Internet access for free.
So why do companies—even generally thrifty ones—still often book their employees into the expensive-all-‘round hotels? I don’t think it’s for the amenities or overall comfort (frankly, I’ve found the “cheap” hotels often scoring better on both issues!). Rather, I’ve found that it seems to come down to proximity issues. The hotels attached to or near conference centers just seem to be damn expensive in general.
Of course, this shouldn’t be so surprising, eh? Time is productivity is money, and time spent schlepping from the conference center to one’s cheaper-but-distant hotel particularly takes time away from in-person networking opportunities and/or naps and so on.
* * *
With that said, though, I do wonder what would happen if there was greater transparency in hotel charges. If corporate booking agents for large companies—undoubtedly reasonably cognizant of cost control issues and cost/benefit analyses—were able to quickly compare total expected business-related costs for a stay (e.g., Internet access + breakfasts + a bit of printing or photocopying), might the difference finally tip the scales in favor of the slightly-more-distant hotel? Or ultimately even result in slightly more sane incidental charges at the near-conference-center hotels?
For instance, say it’s $270 a night at the Hilton and $170 at the Best Western. Okay… a thoughtful manager or travel planner might weigh the difference and decide… hmm… I can see my employees, especially if sharing a room, gaining well over $50/day productivity and serendipitous networking encounters by being “close to the action.”
But after meals and incidentals, if the costs are respectively $350 and $175, then the choice becomes a bit more difficult, right?
* * *
I suppose the same question of the value of transparency could be asked for other industries in the context of business, but at the moment, it seems like other choices are generally already more transparent. When we move into the realm of consumer purchase choices, then I agree partially or largely-hidden charges are far more common (in credit cards, telecommunication services, etc.), but in that case I think the base price compared to incidental charges more closely follows the gameable inverse relationship noted in the article above.
So, then, some questions for you…
1) What are some other examples of largely-hidden charges in popular business or consumer services? Do you think greater transparency of these these charges will result in them being lowered over time, or will something else reduce them (gov’t intervention?) or will they remain relatively high?
2) Other than business-area hotels, what are some other examples of relatively inelastic service/product purchases with high incidental charges?
3) And on a more fun / less wonky note… what’s the most ridiculous amount you’ve paid for an item or service in the context of a larger product/service? (Mine has to be an $11USD pineapple juice at the top of a large building in Singapore. I was excited that the base price—for traveling up the elevator to the site-point—was free! But the incidental cost associated with being required to make a purchase at the top was a bit shocking to me, especially given that I had just enjoyed many glasses of fresh-squeezed juice for 50 cents each that same day :-P)
Though by this point I shouldn’t have been shocked, I was nonetheless outraged that a colleague and I paid $57USD for one night of Internet access in our room and also we were expected to pay about $5.50 per minute to call another colleague on his London cellphone from our room phone. Oh, and adding insult to injury: we discovered that we had to pay separately for wireless Internet access downstairs; it wasn’t included in the $57 we had just paid.
So this got me to thinking: Why do hotels charge so much for such ridiculously minimal (and actually low-cost) incidentals and—more critically—how do they get away with it in a free marketplace? And what other industries feature such utterly obnoxious gouging?
As you can imagine, when I came across this article recently—The Hidden Economy—I was fascinated to read some justifications from economists about this very subject.
They explain that primarily two different types of people patronize establishments and services with cheaper up-front costs but higher per-use or incidental charges:
- The clueless n00b (except they politely call this person “myopic”) who simply doesn’t expect or even notice the high incidental charges at the “cheap” place or with the “discount” service.
- The savvy planner (someone who aims to be aware and beat the system by substituting others’ cheaper offerings to replace the main provider’s usuriously-charged services); this person reasonably believes he or she can actually save money overall by being a tightwad and purchasing incidentals elsewhere.
But what this article fails to address is the apparent inelasticity of business purchases. That is to say… even as the price rises, purchases of a business good or service often do not fall off proportionally.
Take the example of hotels, for instance. Contrary to the inverse relationship exampled in the article (low price hotel has high incidental charges and visa versa), my experience has shown a rather wacky but ultimately understandable proportional ratio of base charges to incidental charges. Specifically, the pricier the hotel is, the more outrageously high their incidental charges are while, conversely, places like Best Western have relatively low base charges and give away stuff like local calls and Internet access for free.
So why do companies—even generally thrifty ones—still often book their employees into the expensive-all-‘round hotels? I don’t think it’s for the amenities or overall comfort (frankly, I’ve found the “cheap” hotels often scoring better on both issues!). Rather, I’ve found that it seems to come down to proximity issues. The hotels attached to or near conference centers just seem to be damn expensive in general.
Of course, this shouldn’t be so surprising, eh? Time is productivity is money, and time spent schlepping from the conference center to one’s cheaper-but-distant hotel particularly takes time away from in-person networking opportunities and/or naps and so on.
* * *
With that said, though, I do wonder what would happen if there was greater transparency in hotel charges. If corporate booking agents for large companies—undoubtedly reasonably cognizant of cost control issues and cost/benefit analyses—were able to quickly compare total expected business-related costs for a stay (e.g., Internet access + breakfasts + a bit of printing or photocopying), might the difference finally tip the scales in favor of the slightly-more-distant hotel? Or ultimately even result in slightly more sane incidental charges at the near-conference-center hotels?
For instance, say it’s $270 a night at the Hilton and $170 at the Best Western. Okay… a thoughtful manager or travel planner might weigh the difference and decide… hmm… I can see my employees, especially if sharing a room, gaining well over $50/day productivity and serendipitous networking encounters by being “close to the action.”
But after meals and incidentals, if the costs are respectively $350 and $175, then the choice becomes a bit more difficult, right?
* * *
I suppose the same question of the value of transparency could be asked for other industries in the context of business, but at the moment, it seems like other choices are generally already more transparent. When we move into the realm of consumer purchase choices, then I agree partially or largely-hidden charges are far more common (in credit cards, telecommunication services, etc.), but in that case I think the base price compared to incidental charges more closely follows the gameable inverse relationship noted in the article above.
So, then, some questions for you…
1) What are some other examples of largely-hidden charges in popular business or consumer services? Do you think greater transparency of these these charges will result in them being lowered over time, or will something else reduce them (gov’t intervention?) or will they remain relatively high?
2) Other than business-area hotels, what are some other examples of relatively inelastic service/product purchases with high incidental charges?
3) And on a more fun / less wonky note… what’s the most ridiculous amount you’ve paid for an item or service in the context of a larger product/service? (Mine has to be an $11USD pineapple juice at the top of a large building in Singapore. I was excited that the base price—for traveling up the elevator to the site-point—was free! But the incidental cost associated with being required to make a purchase at the top was a bit shocking to me, especially given that I had just enjoyed many glasses of fresh-squeezed juice for 50 cents each that same day :-P)
Friday, July 14, 2006
Being under the microscope
I’ve been at Google about four months, and it’s been a hell of a great ride so far. I really need to write more about this later, but in a nutshell… my colleagues rock, the flexible and trusting environment is awesome, and I’m very excited about what I’m working on.
However, I do have to admit to sometimes being a bit freaked out :o.
I spend a good chunk of my morning reading relevant industry news and also thoughtful blogs from Webmasters and others all around the world. I glean a lot of great ideas (and yes, sometimes also bugs) that I share with colleagues here at Google.
A few days ago, I came across a pretty untraditional note, and I thought, hey… wouldn’t it be kinda funny if I actually went ahead and mailed Al a Tylenol packet? So I did. I figured he’d get a chuckle, maybe share it with some friends or even post a quick update on his blog.
I had no idea that something this silly would capture this much attention!
Anyway, yeah, this little mailing was indeed sent on a whim from a random Googler (me!), and though I’m a bit shocked by the response, I’m glad that my letter ended up entertaining not only Al, but also lots of other people.
Along with many others here at Google, I’m working on some very cool projects dealing with Webmaster communications. But aside from all of that official stuff, I’m reminded that it’s clearly the little things now and then that give a human face to this company. Not to mention that when one of us Googlers decides to be a bit wacky, it’s far from a private moment :-P
However, I do have to admit to sometimes being a bit freaked out :o.
I spend a good chunk of my morning reading relevant industry news and also thoughtful blogs from Webmasters and others all around the world. I glean a lot of great ideas (and yes, sometimes also bugs) that I share with colleagues here at Google.
A few days ago, I came across a pretty untraditional note, and I thought, hey… wouldn’t it be kinda funny if I actually went ahead and mailed Al a Tylenol packet? So I did. I figured he’d get a chuckle, maybe share it with some friends or even post a quick update on his blog.
I had no idea that something this silly would capture this much attention!
Anyway, yeah, this little mailing was indeed sent on a whim from a random Googler (me!), and though I’m a bit shocked by the response, I’m glad that my letter ended up entertaining not only Al, but also lots of other people.
Along with many others here at Google, I’m working on some very cool projects dealing with Webmaster communications. But aside from all of that official stuff, I’m reminded that it’s clearly the little things now and then that give a human face to this company. Not to mention that when one of us Googlers decides to be a bit wacky, it’s far from a private moment :-P
Monday, July 3, 2006
What I like about being an American and living in America
I’ve recently written some things a bit critical about America and American culture (particularly pop culture), and—seeing as how it’s nearing our Independence Day—I figure I ought to share a more positive vibe. Therefore, I’m offering a few things below (in no particular order) that make me happy to be an American and living in America :-D. I know that not all of these things are unique to my country or nationality, but I think—in combination—they highlight a positive uniqueness.
I know this just scratches the surface.
What things about being American and/or living in America make you happy?
- The freedom to fail and make a comeback (or comebacks!)
I know of no other countries where folks can fail—go bankrupt, make their companies go bankrupt, do something really stupid or dastardly in public—and still have such high chances of redeeming themselves with later, more favorable actions. Sure, there’s still often some stigma to failing, but it’s not fatal or absolute. - The encouragement to be creative and innovative
I’ve lived in Europe, I’ve traveled to at least two dozen countries around the world, and I’ve never seen a culture with such an openness to wacky, outlandish, and yes, impossible dreams. This, among admittedly many other factors, is why America has been and remains the center of dot.com bold insanity and brilliance.
The opportunity to get world-class and well-rounded university educations
Yes, I think many other countries offer better and more comprehensive primary education systems. And yes, I also know (and envy) that colleges in many other countries charge students $200 USD or less per year! :o But with that said—from personal experience and the experiences of my international friends—I truly believe that our universities offer exceptionally top notch educations in both practical and unpractical fields.
The freedom to speak our minds
In print, on the street corner, and on the Internet. Within some limits, we can hold up signs depicting our public officials in Nazi regalia, call major CEOs imbeciles and tyrants, and even (confirmed recently) burn our country’s flag. Though bearing a female nipple is (usually) out, we have a freedom of speech and assembly that billions of others around the world can only dream about.
The environment which straddles superficiality with friendliness, often with charming results
I’ve cynically derided the American tradition of “How are you?” as a symbol of superficiality. But when it comes down to it (and again, this is confirmed by many of my international friends), it’s easier to start a friendly random conversation with folks in America than in a great many other countries. Whereas a former non-American colleague of mine looked baffled and a bit uncomfortable in an elevator when a fellow rider struck up a conversation with him, such goofy friendliness—even if initially superficial—is something that’s often much appreciated and yet also taken for granted.
I know this just scratches the surface.
What things about being American and/or living in America make you happy?
Sunday, July 2, 2006
A blunt note to HR folks and interviewers
I wrote this quite a while ago, both to vent my frustrations and also to sincerely urge HR folks and interviewers to improve their practices. I’ve had pleasurable experiences with most of the companies I’ve interviewed with in the past, but there has still often been quite a bit of room for improvement. Also, I figured my rant below might make for a useful counterpoint to the plethora of interviewee-advice pages out there :-D.
* * *
Dear HR folks and interviewers:
Write or call back when you say you will. If you don’t, apologize.
Don’t ask us about our salary history. That’s rude and completely irrelevant. Perhaps we were working for the Peace Corp. Maybe we were wildly underpaid at our last job. Or crazily overpaid. Instead, tell us (at least a range of) how much your position is paying and we’ll let you know if that’s aligned with our expectations.
Make job descriptions descriptive… complete with some day-to-day details. Cut the jargon and market’y crap. When your Craigslist ad contains verbiage about “best of breed solutions” and “every customer is #1” and “we offer GENAROUS [sic] benefits! [ahem, such as?]” we don’t know whether to laugh hysterically or run screaming.
Make the interview day pleasant. Let us know the names and positions of each person we’ll be interviewing with. Don’t have us sitting in a room alone for 45 minutes wondering what’s going on. Maybe even take us out for coffee or lunch with a potential colleague or a group of colleagues if we’re one of the finalists for a particular position.
Consider starting off with at least a brief bit about your background to help establish a friendly rapport. Help us see you as a (real, well-rounded) person we’d like to work with, not an adversary or mere interrogator.
Be respectful of us and our time. Don’t manage your scheduled phone interview call time on a “+/- 20 minute” basis. Don’t be on a speakerphone. Both of those behaviors scream to the candidate “You’re not very important and I really don’t want to be interviewing you.”
Don’t be cheap-ass about reimbursements. Reimburse us (promptly, please) for our transportation from the airport, for crying out loud, and the sandwich we grabbed in the terminal so we wouldn’t be starving when we sat down with you at the office.
Make sure you have our latest resume, not one that you got from the recruiter 6 months ago.
Remember that interviewing is a two way street. You’re not just there for grilling us, you’re there to make us excited about your company and the position we’ve applied for (or you’ve recruited us for!)
Cut it out with the stupid “strengths and weaknesses” questions. Ask us to tell you about a favorite project or least favorite project, talk to former managers about us, anything where you’re bound to get more interesting and less fake commentary (e.g., “My weakness is that I tend to get too into my work and forget to eat lunch sometimes…”)
Do share some of our key answers and info with future interviewers at your firm so we’re not asked the same question 5 times in one day.
If someone at your company is consistently an unpopular or lousy interviewer, don’t have them interview people!
Ask what we like in a job and work environment. Ask what makes us happy. Ask what stresses us out. This is the sort of thing that’ll help determine if your job is a good match for us (and visa versa).
And, for the love of God, if at all possible… please don’t make us fill out an application—by hand!—after we’ve already given you a detailed resume and other documentation with all the same info on it. At least let us type it… please? We’ll all be much happier :-D
* * *
Dear HR folks and interviewers:
Write or call back when you say you will. If you don’t, apologize.
Don’t ask us about our salary history. That’s rude and completely irrelevant. Perhaps we were working for the Peace Corp. Maybe we were wildly underpaid at our last job. Or crazily overpaid. Instead, tell us (at least a range of) how much your position is paying and we’ll let you know if that’s aligned with our expectations.
Make job descriptions descriptive… complete with some day-to-day details. Cut the jargon and market’y crap. When your Craigslist ad contains verbiage about “best of breed solutions” and “every customer is #1” and “we offer GENAROUS [sic] benefits! [ahem, such as?]” we don’t know whether to laugh hysterically or run screaming.
Make the interview day pleasant. Let us know the names and positions of each person we’ll be interviewing with. Don’t have us sitting in a room alone for 45 minutes wondering what’s going on. Maybe even take us out for coffee or lunch with a potential colleague or a group of colleagues if we’re one of the finalists for a particular position.
Consider starting off with at least a brief bit about your background to help establish a friendly rapport. Help us see you as a (real, well-rounded) person we’d like to work with, not an adversary or mere interrogator.
Be respectful of us and our time. Don’t manage your scheduled phone interview call time on a “+/- 20 minute” basis. Don’t be on a speakerphone. Both of those behaviors scream to the candidate “You’re not very important and I really don’t want to be interviewing you.”
Don’t be cheap-ass about reimbursements. Reimburse us (promptly, please) for our transportation from the airport, for crying out loud, and the sandwich we grabbed in the terminal so we wouldn’t be starving when we sat down with you at the office.
Make sure you have our latest resume, not one that you got from the recruiter 6 months ago.
Remember that interviewing is a two way street. You’re not just there for grilling us, you’re there to make us excited about your company and the position we’ve applied for (or you’ve recruited us for!)
Cut it out with the stupid “strengths and weaknesses” questions. Ask us to tell you about a favorite project or least favorite project, talk to former managers about us, anything where you’re bound to get more interesting and less fake commentary (e.g., “My weakness is that I tend to get too into my work and forget to eat lunch sometimes…”)
Do share some of our key answers and info with future interviewers at your firm so we’re not asked the same question 5 times in one day.
If someone at your company is consistently an unpopular or lousy interviewer, don’t have them interview people!
Ask what we like in a job and work environment. Ask what makes us happy. Ask what stresses us out. This is the sort of thing that’ll help determine if your job is a good match for us (and visa versa).
And, for the love of God, if at all possible… please don’t make us fill out an application—by hand!—after we’ve already given you a detailed resume and other documentation with all the same info on it. At least let us type it… please? We’ll all be much happier :-D
Baseball and the unfairness of the American way
$29 for nosebleed seats at a recent baseball game. You’ve got to be kidding me.
Okay, first let me admit a few things. Baseball itself bores the hell out of me; I attended only for the social atmosphere and the opportunity to hang with some friends. And yes, I do pay (less grudgingly) $40-$70 for an evening of live theatre.
But I got to thinking… $29 for this activity is just ridiculous, and not because it’s not worth $29 of fun for some people. No, it’s because I’m being inundated with bazillions of blaring, garish ads all around me, I can barely see what’s going on on the field without binoculars, and these overpaid oft-steroid’ed babies down there are raking in millions of bucks per year. Frankly, if all was right with the world, I thought, these folks (and their managers and everyone associated with such a non-critical function of society) would make, say, $150,000 a year, tops.
My dad, the semi-retired award-winning teacher featured on CNN and in People magazine for his life-changing dedication to young people… he certainly never topped six figures in a year.
Firefighters, paramedics, Peace Corp engineers… how many of them make in a year what some whiny brats make in the stadium in one week or even one day?
Clearly, there’s absolutely zero correlation in our country (or, sadly, most countries) between intrinsic-worth-to-society and compensation.
You can argue that sports pulls us together, promotes harmony, makes our lives brighter. Pshaw. Maybe in a bygone era. How many of our current sports “heroes” can rightly be called, well, heroes? How many of them serve as shining examples to our kids? Are there ANY highly-paid pro athletes who clearly play for the love of the game, for the love of their fans, for anything other than more bling-bling? When I walked out of the ballpark the other day, I felt like I had just paid to be witnessing a long, drawn out commercial featuring plastic video effects, plastic runners, and plastic fans who dutifully cheered on cue whenever “Make some noise!” flashed on the ad-covered jumbotron.
It’s not just the world of sports, though. If we stopped paying [x] million per movie or per CD, would we really find ourselves without any willing and talented actors and actresses or writers or musicians? Would NO ONE contribute athletically or artistically without the potential for striking it rich?
* * *
In my ideal society, people could still easily make a comfortable living as athletes, entertainers, artists. But the spectacle of a handful of people—and, frankly, often not-very-nice people at that—getting filthy stinking rich while the majority of others have to work two unglamorous jobs to make ends meet… that just really irks me.
And, hell, I’ll go off on a tangent here… why is America so addicted to Names? Why do we go see an unflinchingly horribly crappified movie just because it stars a star? Can’t we just get a poster of the guy or girl and put it up in our bedroom? Conversely, why do fine films languish simply because they’ve “got no star power”?
In a larger sense… why are we so addicted to fame, or, more specifically, the famous? Are our lives that meaningless and empty that we have to hero’ize and throw money at those who already have way too much adulation and moolah?
Blah. Unfortunately, I have no answers. Where people will pay, people will earn. And, as usual, we’ll continue to be blind to the long-term benefits of truly supporting (okay, subsidizing) careers that truly make the world a better place.
Until someday, we idealistic geeks and goddamn commie-pinko intellectuals take over the world. Maybe even in my lifetime… ;-)
* * *
P.S.—If, even after being subjected to this rant, you’d still like to see my photos from the baseball park, you’re welcome to :-D
Okay, first let me admit a few things. Baseball itself bores the hell out of me; I attended only for the social atmosphere and the opportunity to hang with some friends. And yes, I do pay (less grudgingly) $40-$70 for an evening of live theatre.
But I got to thinking… $29 for this activity is just ridiculous, and not because it’s not worth $29 of fun for some people. No, it’s because I’m being inundated with bazillions of blaring, garish ads all around me, I can barely see what’s going on on the field without binoculars, and these overpaid oft-steroid’ed babies down there are raking in millions of bucks per year. Frankly, if all was right with the world, I thought, these folks (and their managers and everyone associated with such a non-critical function of society) would make, say, $150,000 a year, tops.
My dad, the semi-retired award-winning teacher featured on CNN and in People magazine for his life-changing dedication to young people… he certainly never topped six figures in a year.
Firefighters, paramedics, Peace Corp engineers… how many of them make in a year what some whiny brats make in the stadium in one week or even one day?
Clearly, there’s absolutely zero correlation in our country (or, sadly, most countries) between intrinsic-worth-to-society and compensation.
You can argue that sports pulls us together, promotes harmony, makes our lives brighter. Pshaw. Maybe in a bygone era. How many of our current sports “heroes” can rightly be called, well, heroes? How many of them serve as shining examples to our kids? Are there ANY highly-paid pro athletes who clearly play for the love of the game, for the love of their fans, for anything other than more bling-bling? When I walked out of the ballpark the other day, I felt like I had just paid to be witnessing a long, drawn out commercial featuring plastic video effects, plastic runners, and plastic fans who dutifully cheered on cue whenever “Make some noise!” flashed on the ad-covered jumbotron.
It’s not just the world of sports, though. If we stopped paying [x] million per movie or per CD, would we really find ourselves without any willing and talented actors and actresses or writers or musicians? Would NO ONE contribute athletically or artistically without the potential for striking it rich?
* * *
In my ideal society, people could still easily make a comfortable living as athletes, entertainers, artists. But the spectacle of a handful of people—and, frankly, often not-very-nice people at that—getting filthy stinking rich while the majority of others have to work two unglamorous jobs to make ends meet… that just really irks me.
And, hell, I’ll go off on a tangent here… why is America so addicted to Names? Why do we go see an unflinchingly horribly crappified movie just because it stars a star? Can’t we just get a poster of the guy or girl and put it up in our bedroom? Conversely, why do fine films languish simply because they’ve “got no star power”?
In a larger sense… why are we so addicted to fame, or, more specifically, the famous? Are our lives that meaningless and empty that we have to hero’ize and throw money at those who already have way too much adulation and moolah?
Blah. Unfortunately, I have no answers. Where people will pay, people will earn. And, as usual, we’ll continue to be blind to the long-term benefits of truly supporting (okay, subsidizing) careers that truly make the world a better place.
Until someday, we idealistic geeks and goddamn commie-pinko intellectuals take over the world. Maybe even in my lifetime… ;-)
* * *
P.S.—If, even after being subjected to this rant, you’d still like to see my photos from the baseball park, you’re welcome to :-D
Super-speedy-search tip for Firefoxers! (search keywords)
I love RottenTomatoes.com. It’s one of the most useful and addictive movie sites I’ve found, right along with IMDB.com. Now I can look up movies on either database in a snap by using a surprisingly little-known Firefox feature that lets you assign a keyword of your choice to any search on any site.
I’ve set up my browser so that I can type “rt [moviename]” or “imdb [moviename]” in my Firefox addressbar and be whisked right to that movie’s page in RottenTomatoes or IMDB respectively.
It’s easy to do! Just go to your favorite site (movie or otherwise) in Firefox and right-click on a search bar on the page (e.g., where you’d normally enter in a movie to look up) and then select “Add a Keyword for this Search.” You’ll then see something like this:
Enter in any title you want in the first box (that's what'll show up in your bookmarks), choose a short but easy to remember keyword, and the URL should be filled in automatically for you.
From then on, you can enter in stuff like "rt an inconvenient truth" (great movie, btw!) directly into your Firefox addressbar and save yourself the hassle of navigating to the RT homepage, then finding the search box, etc.
* * *
But what if you'd like to make use of such a handy feature at home and work (or on your personal desktop and laptop) and don't want to set up such shortcuts multiple times?
Google Browser Sync to the rescue! (insert standard disclaimer here... I work for Google, I don't work on this particular product, I'm not paid to write this, yadda yadda yadda). It's a super-nifty way of having your bookmarks, cookies, and other stuff (you choose!) automatically synchronized across all your computers. And yes, privacy-keen geeks, you can opt to have all of this stuff encrypted, too :-D. The downside: This extension causes my Firefox to load more slowly (sometimes taking 10-15 seconds), but I'm guessing that's because I have a crapload of settings, extensions, bookmarks, etc. It's still well worth the initial load-wait for me.
* * *
Anyway, I hope you find these tips helpful, and feel free to share any of your own Firefox tips below! :-D
I’ve set up my browser so that I can type “rt [moviename]” or “imdb [moviename]” in my Firefox addressbar and be whisked right to that movie’s page in RottenTomatoes or IMDB respectively.
It’s easy to do! Just go to your favorite site (movie or otherwise) in Firefox and right-click on a search bar on the page (e.g., where you’d normally enter in a movie to look up) and then select “Add a Keyword for this Search.” You’ll then see something like this:
Enter in any title you want in the first box (that's what'll show up in your bookmarks), choose a short but easy to remember keyword, and the URL should be filled in automatically for you.
From then on, you can enter in stuff like "rt an inconvenient truth" (great movie, btw!) directly into your Firefox addressbar and save yourself the hassle of navigating to the RT homepage, then finding the search box, etc.
* * *
But what if you'd like to make use of such a handy feature at home and work (or on your personal desktop and laptop) and don't want to set up such shortcuts multiple times?
Google Browser Sync to the rescue! (insert standard disclaimer here... I work for Google, I don't work on this particular product, I'm not paid to write this, yadda yadda yadda). It's a super-nifty way of having your bookmarks, cookies, and other stuff (you choose!) automatically synchronized across all your computers. And yes, privacy-keen geeks, you can opt to have all of this stuff encrypted, too :-D. The downside: This extension causes my Firefox to load more slowly (sometimes taking 10-15 seconds), but I'm guessing that's because I have a crapload of settings, extensions, bookmarks, etc. It's still well worth the initial load-wait for me.
* * *
Anyway, I hope you find these tips helpful, and feel free to share any of your own Firefox tips below! :-D
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Very fun lindy hop (swing dancing) clips from Australia
We all know that water drains in the opposite direction down under in Australia, but their lindy hop (swing dancing) is anything but backwards.
Check out the clip below—including teens and senior citizens—for some crazy fast footwork and awesome on-the-fly (no pun intended) fun moves.
Incidentally, Google Video now lets you rate, tag, and comment on videos. Nice!
And hey, interested in seeing some other fun clips and learning a bit more about this lindy hop thing?
Some great info resources
- The wikipedia entry on lindy hop.
- The world’s biggest swing dance forum, Yehoodi.
- More Lindy Hop videos on Google Video and You Tube.
- My humble Lindy Hop Whiteboard Supreme (wiki).
And some other fun video clips I just uploaded
Remember, none of this is rehearsed or pre-choreographed… it’s all spontaneously danced with input from the music and each others’ partner!
1) Playful style!
2) Ooooo bluesy!
3) More bluesy fun
4) Another entertaining group
5) Noni and partner have fun showing off :D
What did you think of these clips? :-D
Check out the clip below—including teens and senior citizens—for some crazy fast footwork and awesome on-the-fly (no pun intended) fun moves.
Incidentally, Google Video now lets you rate, tag, and comment on videos. Nice!
And hey, interested in seeing some other fun clips and learning a bit more about this lindy hop thing?
Some great info resources
- The wikipedia entry on lindy hop.
- The world’s biggest swing dance forum, Yehoodi.
- More Lindy Hop videos on Google Video and You Tube.
- My humble Lindy Hop Whiteboard Supreme (wiki).
And some other fun video clips I just uploaded
Remember, none of this is rehearsed or pre-choreographed… it’s all spontaneously danced with input from the music and each others’ partner!
1) Playful style!
2) Ooooo bluesy!
3) More bluesy fun
4) Another entertaining group
5) Noni and partner have fun showing off :D
About these clips
They were filmed with my old Canon SD550, with me (sadly) sitting in the back row of a big theatre. That explains some of the shakiness and graininess… but still, not bad for a little pocket camera AND a guy who just flew across the world a few hours prior to the show ;-)As always, your comments are welcome!
Do you have any questions about lindy hop?What did you think of these clips? :-D
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