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Cutting the e-leash
Remember the time when science fiction writers and futurists were talking about permanent vacation? We were told that technology would reduce our workloads to the point where we would all have more holidays and leisure time?
Yeah right.
One in five workers now plan to stay in touch with the office during their vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.coms annual vacation survey. And the scary part is that one in 10 (9 per cent) say their employers expect them to check their voicemail while they're away and 14 per cent say they'll feel guilty about missing work.
CareerBuilder.com's Rosemary Haefner says that mobile phones, pagers and the Blackberry have created an e-leash that keeps you chained to your desk or workplace.
There could be a host of reasons why this is happening. A lot of it might be about guilt. Some people worry that things will fall apart when they're not around. Others might think if things go well, it might send a signal that they're not needed.
Some companies are starting to address the problem, reports BusinessWeek:
"Unused vacations, techno-stress: The situation has grown so dire that the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers offers wrecked and wasted white-collar types a cold-turkey detox program where they can hand in their cell phones and PDAs for lockup in the hotel vault during their stay. More than 1,000 guests have written the hotel to express their thanks. Hyatt hotels offer a BlackBerry-thumb massage.
"Then there's the kick-out-the-door approach. Companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers track employees who have not taken enough vacation, sending reminders to them and their supervisors that they should do so. At Intel Corp, all full-time employees get two consecutive months of paid time off after seven years of work. They can even stack the sabbaticals on top of their regular vacation. Going in a totally different direction, Netflix Inc has done away with vacation time altogether. The company tells workers that so long as they get their jobs done, they can take as much time off as they like."
So should companies here start looking at similar approaches? How much holiday time do you have banked up? Do you keep in touch with work when you're away? Or do you ditch the Blackberry, mobile phone and pager? And do you ever get an attack of the guilts when you take a day off? How do you deal with it?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:28 AM
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Is 70 the new 50?
Is retirement, as we know it, becoming a thing of the past? Is 70 the new 50?
That seems to be implication in a global HSBC report, The Future of Retirement.
The report found that life for most people in their 60s and 70s was now characterised by good health, independence and quality of life. It also found that 11 per cent of people in their 70s were doing some form of paid work, either full-time, part-time or casual. The same for one-third of those in their 60s and nearly two-thirds of those in their 50s.
Certainly the retirement picture is changing but it takes longer for older workers to get jobs. Out in the job market, they don't get much respect, reports the New York Times
Certainly more of them are finding work but the changes do raise a number of questions.
Are we talking here about quality work, or will the modest security be replaced by insecure employment in low skill and high-risk jobs? And will retirement of some kind be replaced by unemployment rather than work? Just some of the questions raised by Swinburne University of Technology professor of employment policy Philip Taylor.
Peter Drucker, the management guru's guru who invented or predicted most of the management theories and trends that have reshaped corporations and who died in 2005, warned that the ageing population worldwide is the big crisis facing economies and society. Drucker said it would reshape organisations and the way they are managed.
Also consider this: more people getting into their 70s, 80s and beyond means we have to get used to a greater incidence of Alzheimers, strokes, osteoarthritis and vascular disease. It will not only put more strain on the health system. It also means that more employees will have to take time out as carers for ageing parents.
To the older employees out there, how do you find the workforce? And are you planning to work into your 70s? More to the point, do you think you'll be forced to? If you're running a business, would you take on older workers? If not, why not? Is the ageing population having an impact on your lifestyle and work?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:24 AM
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The "presenteeism" epidemic
Back in March, I looked at the way more and more people were turning up for work crook.
Now we have figures showing that it's costing the economy billions of dollars.
About $26 billion annually in fact, according to a Medibank private study. By way of contrast, absenteeism costs the economy $7 billion a year.
Alternatively, you can read a news report about it here.
The study shows there's a drop in productivity when people turn up to work with all sorts of conditions, from allergies and arthritis, to heart problems and back, neck or spinal problems. Lower productivity because they're putting in the hours but not functioning properly.
According to the economic analysis done by consultants Econtech, which you can read here, the direct costs of presenteeism to Australian employers is estimated to be around 1.9 per cent of GDP.
Craig Bosworth, public and industry affairs manager for Medibank Private says that the study shows that measures taken by employers to address the problem, like flu shots, discounted health insurance and employee fitness programs, would go straight through to the bottom line.
But does presenteeism reflect a deeper problem about the presures on today's workforce? In an era when companies are running lean, and there are fewer bodies around, is there more pressure on people to turn up to work sick?
So how often do you turn up to work sick? How many of your work colleagues do it? How sick do you need to be to stay away from work? And are you more inclined to chuck a sickie if you're not happy at work?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:30 AM
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Reducing your carbon footprint - should the boss pay?
This week is shaping up as the critical week on climate issues with businesses waiting for the release of the report from the Prime Ministers Task Group on Emissions Trading. And one of the first things businesses will have to do is determine the size of their carbon footprint by taking an inventory of all their carbon emissions.
But some businesses are going even further by subsidising their employees to do their bit to save the planet.
Insurance giant Swiss Re this year launched a "COYou2 reduce and gain" program which provides its employees with rebates to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from such sources as heating, travel and electricity. The rebates can extend to low-emission hybrid cars, public transport, and installing solar panels or heat pumps.
It makes perfect sense for an insurance company to be setting the pace here with a United Nations backed report warning that climate change is the most serious issue facing insurers and society at large, particularly with losses from extreme weather events scaling new heights.
On a smaller scale, KPMG Australia announced last month that as part of its plans to go carbon neutral, it would help its employees reduce their carbon footprints through measures including subsidising their purchase of carbon credits.
Of course, it's all well and good for big companies to do this, but should smaller business be doing the same? Whose responsibility is it - the boss or the employee? What should businesses do to help their employees reduce their carbon emissions at home and on their way to work?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:36 AM
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Crash and burn projects
Working on a project that looks like going the way of the Hindenberg? You're not Robinson Crusoe.
I have come across research showing that the success rate of projects can be as low as 20 per cent. The same issues come up time and again: projects don't come in on time or on budget, they can't meet business requirements, there are turf wars between business units, business units dig their heels in and unleash campaigns of passive resistance, and there's zip accountability and ownership.
According to a study, cited in The Wall Street Journal, about eight out of 10 professionals and managers reckon they're involved in a project likely to bomb. And six out of 10 said they knew the project would be a dud before its launch or soon after.
Part of the problem might be that many projects are political because they're about tackling problems inside organisations (like outdated technology or waste and duplication) and dealing with managers tied up in subterranean treaties, rituals and arrangements aimed at preserving the status quo. And most project managers, trained in areas like target setting, budgeting, scheduling and monitoring, aren't that political.
As one project manager, who has been hauled in to fix things at some of Australia's biggest companies, said to me: "It's like running on quicksand. You don't run for more than three feet and then you start sinking. You get deeper and deeper until you're up to your neck in politics. Then my agency comes along with a big stick, pulls me out and sends me off running to the next one."
So are you working on a project that looks like turning into a Hindenberg? What are the problems? Do you always run into the same roadblocks? How do you get around them?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:23 AM
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The Ugly Betty effect
Do Workplace Minister Joe Hockey's claims about Julia Gillard's appearance say anything about our attitudes towards looks? Not only in politics but in the workplace?
No Johnny Depp, Hockey said he wasn't doing as well in the polls because he was "not as pretty" as his opposite number.
The Opposition's accountability spokeswoman Penny Wong leaped into the fray today, suggesting looks are irrelevant. "I'm not going to comment on how Joe Hockey looks, but I will say this, if politics were a beauty contest I'm sure there would be many of us who wouldn't be in parliament. I hope the Australian people are smarter than that, I think they are."
But do Hockey's comments reflect an increasing emphasis that people are putting on looks?
A survey conducted by British HR magazine Personnel Today suggests that workplaces today are becoming increasingly lookist. Call it the Ugly Betty effect.
Researchers asked the question: to what extent do you agree or disagree that society believes it is acceptable to tease people about certain hair, facial or bodily characteristics.
The results suggest that anything goes. Tall people cop it, but so do the vertically-challenged. Baldness is a butt of jokes but blondes and red heads don't fair much better. Underweight people do just as badly as the heftier ones.
The study found that men were more likely to have a go. But it also points out there can be a fine line between good natured teasing and bullying and between joking banter and political correctness.
All this seems to line up with an economics study, which I blogged about here, that shows good-looking people are treated better and are more likely to get ahead.
Personally, I question a lot of this stuff. Comments about people's looks were not invented yesterday and people have been doing it for centuries. And to paraphrase Penny Wong, if work and life conditions boiled down to a beauty contest, many of us wouldn't have a job. Or a relationship.
Do you notice people get teased more these days? Whether it's about their body type, hair or even their dress sense? Have you been teased at work? How do you deal with it? Does it get to you or do you just shrug it off as something that's not your problem? And what's your take on Hockey's comments?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:19 AM
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Cashing in on a Second Life?
Want a "better'' life"? Or at least another one? Welcome to Second Life where you become a hunk with a killer six-pack or silicon-inflated babe in the form of an Avatar. You can rock on at great bars and wild parties, buy virtual goods, get into virtual real estate speculation and use your skills to make money in the form of Linden dollars (The exchange rate fluctuates but generally $L250 = $A1).
Or if you want, there's virtual sex and gambling.
The take-up of Second Life has been nothing short of extraordinary.
According to mind-blowing stats published in Mother Jones, the current population of virtual worlds is estimated at more than 20 million, roughly the same as Australia's population. About one in five gamers say that the virtual world is their primary place of residence. The real world (otherwise known as "meatspace") is where you sleep and eat. Virtual-world gamers play an average of 22 hours a week but one in three spend more time inside the game than at their real jobs and two in five say that if they could make enough money inside the game they would quit their jobs.
And its going to grow. Technology analyst outfit Gartner claims that 80 per cent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a second life by the end of 2011 and it's advising companies to consider it as a space to do business. Businesses that have already moved into Second Life include Reuters and Reebok.
It's a point that hasn't been lost on governments either.
There are claims that the easy-cruising standards of Second Life regime may soon become a haven for money launderers, fraudsters and terrorists to hide and move funds. Britain's Fraud Advisory Panel is pushing for real-world financial regulations extending into Second Life and similar virtual worlds.
And Second-Lifers may soon up having to pay real taxes with inquiries underway on how governments should treat money made by Avatars.
So what's driving the popularity of SL? Do people just want to have fun? Or could it be a failed first life? Are you considering getting into it? For the Second Lifers, how much time do you spend in the alternative universe? What do you get from it? If it was profitable, would you chuck your job in?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:49 AM
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Workplace whingers
No workplace is perfect. And right around the world, people always seem to be whinging about their jobs. But where are the world's unhappiest workplaces? Who are the world's biggest whingers?
Australia is right up there, according to new research.
The global study by the FDS research group (it's a massive file so be patient) found that Australians were the fifth worst whingers, just behind the yanks (4), Swedes (3), and Brits (2). The biggest whingers are the French, notwithstanding the experiment with the 35-hour working week. One suspects that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy and the likely shift to more Anglo-Saxon economic practices is not going to make French workers any happier
The study, which draws on the attitudes of thousands of workers in 23 countries, also raises the question of whether job satisfaction has anything to to do with money. Places like Thailand and Russia seem to have happier workers. Or at least ones that are less inclined to carry on about their jobs. But incomes there are much lower than in Australia, US and Britain. Go figure.
So what's making people so unhappy? Drill into the data and you might find some answers there.
Australians scored relatively high in complaints about the number of hours they worked and the time it took them to commute. Also, they seemed more likely to say they were not enjoying the work they were doing.
On the question of work-life balance, Australians were less likely than their counterparts in other countries to say it was about good co-operation with their employer and about the boss understanding their issues at home. Also, they didn't seem to put much stock in employers being aware of their needs, particularly when compared with workers in other countries. Which suggests that bosses and workers here have quite a few issues to sort out.
So why do you think Australians figure so highly in the misery stakes? Is the number five spot justified? Do we deserve to be higher? What are your biggest complaints? Or is whingeing about work just a natural thing?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:55 AM
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Green building plan - is it enough?
Last week, we had news that Melbourne was among several of the world's cities that would get money to make our buildings more energy efficient. All part of a climate change initiative led by former US president Bill Clinton. Clinton has persuaded top finance institutions to fund a multi-billion dollar program in 15 cities around the world to retrofit buildings, improve energy efficiency and make them greener. Other cities taking part in the plan include New York, Chicago, Houston, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Toronto and Mexico City.
Projects could include projects include replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy-efficient networks, making roofs white or reflective to deflect more of the sun's heat and putting in sensors to control more efficient use of lights and air conditioning. It's a good start. Experts say that buildings are among a city's worst contributors to greenhouse emissions. Buildings, they say, account for 50 percent of energy use in newer cities and more than 70 percent in older urban areas.
But the question is whether the Clinton plan is enough, and whether we have the time to wait.
Consider for example New York mayor Michael Bloombergs idea. In addition to creating greener buildings, he wants a congestion pricing model where the city slaps fees on drivers coming in to certain parts of NYC from 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays. It's similar to the scheme operating in London.
On top of that, we have the report in today's Age that the Victorian government's five-star green building rules are a joke.
Now we learn that new houses using up more energy and producing more greenhouse gases than existing homes. According to the report, residential greenhouse emissions from new housing are growing at 532,000 tonnes a year. Increased emissions from lights, particularly halogen lights, are linked to the expanding size of new houses.
So it seems all the voluntary efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions have made little headway. For all the rhetoric, there's a question mark over whether people are prepared to make sacrifices to save the planet.
Should owners be forced by law to make their buildings more efficient? And do we need a congestion levy here to ease pollution? What other suggestions would you have?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:20 AM
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Generation change and the workplace
Plenty has been written about how the generation gap is transforming the workplace.
The 20-somethings are marching into the workforce and we're told they bring a completely different set of values, writes Fortune magazine's Nadira Hira:
"Generation Y: Its members are different in many respects, from their upbringing to their politics. But it might be their effect on the workplace that makes them truly noteworthy - more so than other generations of twentysomethings that writers have been collectively profiling since time immemorial.
"They're ambitious, they're demanding and they question everything, so if there isn't a good reason for that long commute or late night, don't expect them to do it. When it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list - behind their families, their friends, their communities, their co-workers and, of course, themselves."The piece makes out that this is the most high-maintenance workforce in history.
Personally, I think it's crap, just a wet dream of consultants and marketing executives trying to flog their expertise to business.
Research shows there not much difference between the values, attitudes and behaviours of the different generations. I look at this research in a piece I wrote here.
Whenever I read about alleged generation gaps and conflicts, I always think back to the quote commonly attributed to Socrates:
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
No, he wasn't talking about Gen Y. So what's changed?
But then, that's me. Do you think Generation Y is different? Are they changing your workplace? If they are, how is it different?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:10 AM
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Avoiding boring meetings
Last year, I looked at the art of holding useless meetings. Unfortunately, meetings remain a fact of working life. Most workplaces seem to have them, most of us hate them.
So what do we hate the most about meetings?
A survey from Opinion Research USA found that the meeting most of us detest is the one that goes on forever and nowhere.
According to the survey, more than one in four (27 per cent) nominated disorganised rambling meetings as their pet hate. And 17 per cent nominated people who are always interrupting and and trying to dominate, 16 per cent said they hated those constant mobile phone interruptions and 9 per cent said they had an issue about people dozing off. Interestingly, fewer seemed to care about meetings that started late or people checking their Blackberries.
Some rules about how meetings should be run. First, you should only have people who really need to be there. Otherwise, you're stuck with a bunch of prisoners. Secondly, every meeting needs an agenda and a specific purpose. And finally, it's always a good idea to have a time limit, the shorter the better.
Still, I was having coffee with a manager of a medium-sized business this morning who told me his outfit has two formulas. "We have them at a coffee house or we have them standing up," he said."It works for us."
So what do you hate most about meetings? And how would you make them better? Or is it a lost cause?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:54 AM
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Good looking premium
Is beauty only skin deep? Or do Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie clones get preferential treatment? Either at the workplace, the shop counter, the restaurant or in general? Do they get better jobs? Are people more willing to help them?
That seems to be the suggestion in a recent joint paper from academics in Britain and Amsterdam. The study Is Beauty only Skin-deep? Disentangling the Beauty Premium on a Game Show analysed data from the Dutch game show Shafted.
In this game, there are five players who score points by answering quiz questions. At the end of four rounds, the player with the most points must choose one of the remaining players for elimination. When it gets down to two contestants they have to play the Prisoners Dilemma game where they choose to either share or try and grab it all.
The researchers found there was found no reason to discriminate in favour of attractive players. There was no evidence of superior performance or that they were more cooperative. But they found that average attractiveness seemed to increase steadily over rounds one to three and that the most attractive player was the one chosen to be in the final, at the end of round three. The least attractive player was almost twice as likely to be eliminated at the end of Round One than any other player.
The researchers conclude that beauty might be skin deep insofar as it has it has nothing to do with skill or your level of co-operativeness. But it does make a difference, even down to how much money you might earn.
"We find that beauty is indeed only skin-deep, and has no implications for a person's performance or their cooperativeness," the academics write. "Nevertheless, it is an attribute well worth having, even from a narrow monetary standpoint. Attractive players earn a substantial premium, that arises from the reluctance of other players to eliminate them."
So do better looking people seem to get better breaks at your workplace? Do they get better treatment? And is this as discriminatory as racism or sexism? Let's hear some stories?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:03 AM
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Should we have a carbon tax?
One of the things we did not see in last week's Budget was a carbon tax. Speaking to the National Press Club last week, Treasurer Peter Costello warned that this sort of tax would result in big increases in power and petrol prices.
But with climate change dominating the political, economic and legal agendas all over the world, the issue is unlikely to go away.
Over the in the US, former vice president Al Gore has claimed that businesses are treating the atmosphere like an "open sewer" and says that the only way to stop them is with a pollution tax. Gore argues that you would offset it with reductions to payroll tax. Exactly how that would work, and whether that would flow through to prices are the great imponderables.
Writing in the Accountingweb newsletter from the UK, Simon Sweetman says it could be extended beyond companies.
"At the core of this would be an environmental audit to find the size of your carbon footprint. Every year (or perhaps more often) you would be required to complete a carbon return (online of course - you would not want to increase your use of paper). That should include everything you do, so points would be scored for owning a second home (treble points if it's abroad) putting out too much domestic rubbish, for using too much energy heating your house, for using the car too much, for driving a Chelsea tractor, for flying too often and too far, for not installing double glazing, for failing to write on both sides of the paper, for not registering for the postal preference service and so encouraging the production of junk mail, for using timber from non-renewable sources, for leaving your television and stereo on standby, for using an electric screwdriver or food mixer, for failing to visit your local recycling centre, for buying any product that has been freighted in by air...Your return would give you a score on a scale of (say) 0 to 200 (let's not worry about the fine details here). That then becomes a percentage and is applied to your tax bill for the year."
The other argument for a carbon tax is that it could be cheap insurance for a massive risk of potential catatstrophic costs, especially when compared with the premiums for the much lower risk of house fire or burglary. Age columnist Ken Davidson explores the issue here.
Should there be a carbon tax? Or are there better ways of addressing climate change? And would you be prepared to pay more for your petrol and power to save the planet?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:45 AM
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What's your daily ritual?
We all have certain daily rituals.
Mine are totally predictable: the early morning coffee (black no sugar), driving everyone mad by blowing long notes, playing harmonics, endless scales and John Coltrane exercises when I practise sax - at about 10 pm, reading before bed etc.
Everyone has their own routine. That's why we love those huge research studies that look into how and why we do things.
The giant ad agency BBDO WorldWide has come out with one that's nothing short of ambitious.
The study, published in BusinessWeek, slots every person on the planet into five easy behavioural categories: "preparing for battle" (the morning ritual), "feasting" (reconnecting with your tribe over food), "sexing up" (primping), "returning to camp" (leaving the work place) and "protecting yourself for the future" (the ritual before bed).
These rituals can mean anything. Returning to camp can involve meeting up with friends for drinks after work, to slumping in front of the TV at night with chips and a beer. Sexing up can mean anything from teenage girls asking each other what they're going to wear to lining up a date.
The researchers surveyed 5000 people in 21 countries about their daily rituals. They came up with some interesting findings. True, I don't know what you do with the information but interesting nonetheless.
Like more than half of all Indian respondents surf the Web before leaving the house, as opposed less to one-third of Americans. And 84 per cent of Polish consumers shower at night, 44 per cent of Brazilians read in the bathroom, women in Columbia, Brazil and Japan apply make-up in their car at twice the global rate and 41 per cent of Chinese respondents schedule sex.
So what are your rituals? What sort of things do you need to do to get you through the working day?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:46 AM
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Training the boss
The mantras these days are about skills, workplace training, the "learning organisation" and "life-long learning". But it seems all that applies to everyone except senior executives.
While nine out of 10 first-line managers will receive training this year, only six out of 10 senior executives will be there with them, according to a study by Boston-based consulting and training firm Novations Group.
The problem is that there are lots of first-line managers who might be brilliant technicians. They get promoted to a senior role and suddenly they're out on their own, thrust into a world where resources are squeezed, the pressures intense and the politics toxic. It's the kind of role where support and training are important.
I have already done a blog post looking at this problem for new managers.
The Novations study suggests that we under-estimate the amount of training senior executives are getting. And it also tells us that senior managers are probably ambivalent about training. They would say they have too many other things to do.
It's an issue raised by Professor Russell Ackoff in his great little book Management f-laws. The book sets out 81 laws that show why all the conventional thinking about management is a crock.
One of those F-laws is "The higher their rank, the less managers perceive a need for continuing education, but the greater their need for it."
Unless, of course, you hold the learning session in an exotic resort. Preferably with a golf course, restricting the learning to only a few hours a day and letting them bring their wives, partners or a facsimile thereof.
So if you're in a senior role, how much management training do you get? Could you do with more? Do you have time? And for those lower down the food chain, do your senior managers need more training? In which particular areas?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:55 AM
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Federal Budget - how did you fare?
Peter Costello delivered his 12th Budget yesterday and there's something in it for everyone. If you vote, you'll find at least one gift, maybe more.
Age national affairs editor Tony Wright sums it up neatly:
"If one needed guidance on whether the budget was primarily fashioned to seduce voters in this election year, a single detail might do the trick. Five in every six dollars of all the money earmarked by Peter Costello for spending next year is for personal tax cuts. In short, Costello is offering the least subtle but most reliable of all persuasive techniques: bribery.
"The Treasurer, however, is much smarter than to leave this bald fact hanging like an unfortunate odour in a theatre (and besides, he insists, cutting tax does not amount to spending - it is, he says, simply a matter of not taking people's money). He has crafted a budget he can sell as responsible over the longer term."
So are you a winner from the Budget? Are you better off, or is there no change? More to the point, will it change your vote?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:48 AM
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Firing lines
Ever been fired from a job? Do you talk about it at the next job interview? Or do you pretend it never happened?
According to a report commissioned by Linkme.com.au, explained here, more than 34 per cent of Australian workers say they have been sacked at least once and most of them are reluctant to talk about it with their next prospective employers.
Interestingly, one in three say they were dismissed without any notice, more than 15 per cent were escorted from their company premises immediately and about 9 per cent said they were sacked with a phone call.
Obviously, getting fired from your previous job is a red flag in any interview, the elephant in the living room. So how what are the best strategies when you go for the next job?
Put the best spin on the truth, says career counsellor Arlene Hirsch.
"If you were downsized rather than terminated for cause, you can easily explain the situation. Even if you secretly believe that personal problems at work were behind the termination, you can benefit from the company's official explanation," she says."If your division was sold or your department was eliminated, discuss the reasons that the entire group disappeared rather than your specific situation.
"If your termination was related to 'boss problems' or other interpersonal difficulties, use a 'mismatch' explanation, but never blame your former employer for the problem. For example, you might say, 'My boss was a real hands-on type manager, and I prefer to work more independently.' (Translation: My boss was micromanaging my work.) Always stay close to the truth. Don't say there was a mismatch with authority if your real problem was with a colleague, and don't complain about co-workers if you had difficulties with clients.
"To avoid future trouble, compare past problems concerning your work style, goals and needs with what a potential employer can offer you. To do that, you have to know what you really want and be willing to express these preferences in interviews."
Sound advice. Would you add anything to that? What's been your experience? Do you mention it, and put some sort of spin on it, or do you avoid it altogether? And if you're interviewing someone and the subject comes up, how do you as prospective employer usually handle it?
- Posted by Ed in Leon Gettler at 9:31 AM
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A greener Budget?
How green will the Federal Budget be?
Climate change issues now seem to be at the forefront of legal, economic and political news worldwide this year so Treasurer Peter Costello is expected to announce some green initatives tomorrow night.
And with environmental issues seen as the big negative, the Howard Government will no doubt be pushing to neutralise them in an election year so it can pull the polls back.
Ceiling insulation subsidies and various R&D initiatives are expected to be in the Budget, reports The Age. Farmers are also looking for drought funding, according to other news reports.
The big issue to look out for is what will happen to the subsidies that encourage the production and consumption of fossil fuels.
Will the Budget, for example, do anything about fuel tax credits for the mining sector? Will there be a rethink of fringe benefits tax concessions for company cars? The Australian Conservation Foundation says that tackling those issues would have the biggest impact.
So what green initiatives do you want to see in tomorrow's Budget? Which ones are you expecting? And will a greener Budget influence your vote?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:31 AM
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Life in the slow lane
Sick of the 18 hour days and no time to chill out with family and friends? In Britain last month, they had National Downshifting Week.
Downshifting, where people slow down their lives by working less and buying less, definitely seems to be a trend capturing attention around the world.
Four years ago, an Australia Institute study found more of it was happening. Reducing working hours was seen as the most popular way to downshift but changing to a lower-paying job, stopping paid work and career changes were also common.
People could do it for many reasons. Some want a more balanced and fulfilled life and spend more time with their families. Some want a less materialistic and more sustainable life. Then there are those who have made the change following a crisis, such as a severe illness, the death of someone close or a marriage breakdown.
So how to downshift? The National Downshifting Week website offers suggestions for individuals and companies. The Toronto Star also provides some tips for living a simpler life. Like booking a half-day off work and spending it with a loved one, doing volunteer work, sharing bulk purchases with neighbours, car pooling, eliminating three non-essential purchases this week and cooking a meal entirely from scratch. Better still, spend some time in the kitchen cooking with your partner or family.
Still, downshifing does raise some questions.
Like, for example, how do you convince your employer you want to take a lesser job, title and salary without appearing suspect? Some tips from The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com might help. You can start by defusing any suspicions that you want to jump ship or that you are losing interest in the job. And make it clear what your expectations are. Another suggestion is to go and work for a nonprofit (although some of my friends at nonprofits talk about hideous hours).
So have you downshifted? Are you thinking about it? Why do you want to do it? How are you going to go about it. Give us some tips.
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:04 AM
- Comments (30)
Lord Browne: a glass ceiling for gay execs?
The tale about the demise of BP chief executive Lord Browne following revelations about his homosexuality raises some confronting questions.
Browne's saga is complicated by the fact that he might now face perjury charges because he lied to a court.
Let's put that to one side. Yes, he handled it badly and he was undone by his stupid dishonesty. But did outing him end a stellar career? And what does that say about homosexuality in the business world?
The rest of the world has moved on but not corporations, says Matthew Parris in The Times.
"Men like John Browne have had the misfortune to rise to power and prominence during a time of transition," writes Parris. "Their careers straddle two eras. When he was (a) young man, just starting, there is no way he would have made it to the top as an openly gay junior executive. The choice was between celibacy and a discretion bordering on deception.
"As the years rolled on and attitudes began to shift, it was too late for him to shift with them, disavowing impressions he had allowed to arise at the start. Now he was too exposed. It would be news. It would not be news his shareholders and colleagues would have liked. He became stuck with a version of himself that he would never have chosen if he had known how times would change. And he persuaded himself that it was in the interests of his company, too - and Britain, for BP pays a bit of all our wages - not to spoil the picture the world had of him.
"There must be thousands of senior men, and a few women too, in Lord Browne's position, but undiscovered."
And as Patrick Collinson reports in The Guardian, Lord Browne's homosexuality was an open secret and his decision to keep it out of the public glare was entirely understandable.
"The career path inside a multinational oil company follows a route through the world's petroleum production centres, taking in the Middle East, Russia and sub-Saharan Africa, locations where homosexuality is at best socially unacceptable and at worst punishable by death. BP's roots are in Iran, which has executed thousands of gay men since the Islamic revolution."
But there is a broader question of whether there is, as Collinson calls it, a "pink plateau", a glass ceiling that makes gay men and lesbians virtually invisible in the boardrooms of big companies.
So is there a "pink plateau"? Society's attitudes have changed but is business lagging? Let's hear some views and personal stories.
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 10:44 AM
- Comments (45)
Robot watchers and other BS jobs
Would you like to be paid for watching a telephone or robot? How much do you make advising business people on etiquette? Hey, at least it pays.
Fortune magazine contributor Stanley Bing gets some tips from readers on where the BS jobs are in his blog.
The list includes a robot operator. Get paid to sit and watch a robot all day, record the stats and call maintenance every now and then. Or there's the poor sod who has to sit in a small room with a desk and phone and take the call every time some unseen person in another part of the building leaves the desk. Or the payphone account manager who has to monitor the number of calls made from payphones.
Some of the jobs on the list sound fairly standard and it reads like the person at work is having a whinge. But there are some real hoots.
Or consider the self-esteem consultants for canines. If Rover's a wimp, you know where to go.
Or how about working as a doggie yoga teacher?
The most insane job I had was to sit and check the arithmetic of people in accounts. In the past, Bing has talked about roadkill collectors and people flogging Yoga franchises. But do you have any to add to the list? What's the most ridiculous job you've had?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:52 AM
- Comments (21)
Should women pay less tax?
With reports coming in of a widening pay gap between men and women, both in Australia and overseas, two academics have come up with a provocative solution.
Economics professors Alberto Alesina from Harvard and Andrea Ichino from the University of Bologna say women should pay less tax, and men fractionally more. They explain it in the Financial Times and in their paper Gender based taxation.
Basically, their argument boils down to this: the supply of labour of women is more responsive to their wage post-tax, so a reduction in taxes would increase the labour participation of women substantially. Doing that, they reckon, would have the same impact as affirmative action policies, quotas or subsidised childcare.
But isn't this discrimination unfair? "We do not believe so," they write in the FT. "There is nothing more hypocritical than to invoke equal treatment in some areas (taxation) for those who are not treated equally in many other areas (the labour market; sometimes in the family allocation of tasks, such as rearing children or caring for elder family members). We already have a host of policies that are not gender neutral. We could eliminate many of them by adopting a simple differentiation of tax schedules for men and women. And do not forget that a large part of the redistribution of the tax burden implied by this proposal would occur within the same family: the husbands of married women who choose to work would also benefit from their wife earning a higher take-home salary."
Personally, I have a few problems with the argument. First, many women go part-time when they re-enter the work force post-baby. I'm not sure whether a tax cut would change that. Secondly, should single fathers also get a tax cut?
So what do you think of this idea? Could it work? Is it fair, bearing in mind that in many cases the husbands and families of the women would benefit from the cut? If it won't work, how would you fix the pay gap?
- Posted by Leon Gettler at 9:47 AM
- Comments (90)


text:
Current Law Students / Re: Depression and the Legal Profession« on: January 19, 2009, 03:51:44 AM »
DEPRESSION (di-pres/en) -- a lowering of vital energy (Webster's Dictionary)
Depression is a broad term used to refer to a range of different diseases recognized by the medical field. We also use the term to refer to temporary and minor negative feelings (i.e. I'm depressed because the Pacers lost last night or the post-holiday blues.) Depressive illnesses include major depression, the bipolar disorders, dysthymia, cyclothymia, and variations of these based on timing of the onset (i.e. seasonal or post partum), duration of symptoms, or severity of symptoms. These illnesses impact over 19 million adults in America each year. Depression is frequently seen as a complicating factor in heart attack, stroke, diabetes and cancer patients. In fact, depression increases one's risk of having a heart attack. Almost anyone who kills him or herself suffers from a mental disorder, most often a form of depression or substance abuse or both.
The key factor in diagnosing most of these illnesses is the presence of a major depressive episode. To be diagnosed with a major depressive episode your symptoms must last at least 2 weeks. The symptoms must also appear to be a change from previous functioning. There are people who resemble Winnie the Pooh's Eyre their whole life but are not depressed. The symptoms of a major depressive disorder include:
- Depressed mood.
- Diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.
- Significant weight loss or gain without effort or loss of appetite.
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much.
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation.
- Fatigue.
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
- Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness.
- Recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation, or a suicide attempt or plan.
Thankfully, most people do not experience all of the symptoms. To be diagnosed with a major depressive episode one must experience at least 5 of the above symptoms and 1 of the 5 must be either depressed mood or diminished interest or pleasure in most activities. If one meets several of these symptoms, but less than 5, there are milder depressive disorders that can still be diagnosed. It is important to remember that each person will experience a different set of symptoms with their depression and that the symptoms will look different with different people. No two people will experience depression in exactly the same manner. There are, however, some common themes that do repeat themselves, particularly in lawyers. In lawyers the most common symptoms are closely related to the work we are trying to do. Reduced ability to concentrate is one of the most bothersome symptoms for attorneys. They may have had trouble sleeping and a poor appetite for some time but attorneys often seek treatment when they realize that their ability to concentrate and get their work done is compromised. When you add together reduced ability to concentrate with fatigue and loss of interest in most all activities it is highly likely that the attorney's work is going to suffer at least in quantity if not in quality. In addition, attorneys in this condition often try to remedy the problem by working longer hours to keep up on the quantity of their work. In doing so they reduce contact with significant, supportive people in their life, reduce the amount of time they spend on exercise, hobbies, and other stress reducing activities, and cut back further on what is most likely already inadequate sleep. In their attempts to solve the problem they are doing the opposite of what they need and falling deeper into the hole of depression.
If you have a strong family history of depression you may decide that it is best to stay on medication for some time. On the other hand, if you have no family history and your depression occurred during the year that your divorce was final, your mother died, and you lost your job, you might have more of an acute and situational depression and might not be on medication very long. Regardless, the skills you learn in therapy are what will help you to avoid future episodes of depression. This is critical because it is generally accepted in the psychiatric field that if you have one episode of depression there is a 50% chance that you will have a second episode. If you have a second episode of depression there is a 70% chance that you will have a third episode and if you have a third episode there is a 90% chance that you will have yet another episode. Clearly, it is worthwhile to do all you can to treat a first episode of depression to increase the chances that it will be your only experience with depression.
Erand, marvellous post!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
ciniva needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 28 designs submitted by 21 freelance designers.
We have a great track record here at 99designs and want to continue working with all of you talented designers! We need a logo that can easily be adapted into different implementations. Take a look at our mockup!
Tanning Salon EFT*
We are getting ready to launch a network of websites to promote our electronic funds transfer service. Our first implementation is for Tanning Salons but we want to be able to use the logo for other markets as well. Take a look at our first mockup of the site here: http://www.ciniva.com/images/tanning.jpg
The logo should be clean, professional with a beautiful icon to convey our business.
- Take a look at our mockup: http://www.ciniva.com/images/tanning.jpg
- The logo placeholder is where this logo will go
- You can use the colors, but we will be changing the colors to match different variations of this layout.
- The next variations that we need are MEMBERSHIP EFT and DONATION EFT
- The site represents a recurrent billing and fund transfer service.
- The typical icons that I can think of off the top of my head are CALENDARS, DATES, CLOCKS, CYCLES, MONEY anything that represents the fact that we can BILL MONEY on the same day every month, year, etc. Use your imagination to help us represent our business!
- We love web 2.0 style
- Nothing crazy.
- We want to market this to big time businesses so it must look professional
- Font should be sans-serif
- Ask us if you have any questions!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
The internet may be getting a little more international
Subject: General Tech | March 17, 2014 - 02:33 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Internet, icann, iana, ntia
The root DNS of the internet has been run by National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of of the US Government though in truth they contracted out this responsibility to the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and their Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. This will not really change much in the way that the root DNS has handled but is more a handover of official responsibility as the US Government hands off it's past role as overseer of the internet. If ICANN and IANA are unfamiliar to you then pop over to The Register for a very brief overview of what they actually do.
"The US Department of Commerce is ready to leave the keys to the internet's worldwide DNS system in the hands of non-profit net overseer ICANN."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- What could you do with 264 Sandy Bridge cores and 6TB of RAM? @ The Register
- Is no browser safe? Security bods poke holes in Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox and earn $1m @ The Register
- Digitimes Research: Insufficient panel supplies to limit 2K-resolution smartphone penetration in 2014
- Origami Microscope for Just 50 Cents @ MAKE:Blog
- Intel to increase focus on desktop computers @ Kitguru
- CeBIT 2014: A Quick Tour @ Madshrimps
- CeBIT 2014: Fractal Shows off Node 804 and Watercooling Solution @ Madshrimps
- Office 2013 Crashes on Start Up - Solved - PCSTATS TechTip


text:
Eight women's teams and seven men's teams are ranked in the top 25 entering the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships this weekend in College Station, Texas. Five women's teams are ranked in the top seven in the nation, paced by Florida, which is ranked No. 2. On the men's side, Arkansas, Florida and Texas A&M, in that order, are the top three teams in the nation.
Ole Miss is among the seven SEC teams on the men's side, entering the SEC Indoor Championships as the No. 20-ranked team in the nation.
"If you ask any of the coaches in this league, they would tell you that this is by far the best conference in the United States," head coach Brian O'Neal said. "Our young men and women are just looking forward to competing against the best."
The Ole Miss men have eight athletes ranked, highlighted by junior Sam Kendricks, who jumped 18-8.25 this past weekend at the Albuquerque Convention Center, which ranks him No. 1 in the NCAA, No. 1 among Americans and No. 13 in the world this year. The Ole Miss women have three athletes ranked, led by senior Fabia McDonald who is ranked No. 14 and No. 22 in the pentathlon and long jump, respectively.
The three-day SEC Indoor Championships from Thursday to Saturday in College Station, Texas will be the Rebels' last meet before the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 14-15) and then the start of the outdoor season.
"We're young in a lot of position areas," O'Neal said. "Our young men and women are excited to come in here and compete and see where we stack up against the best and get our feet wet as we compete against the best. The SEC Championship is the pinnacle for us, in terms of the regular season. We're trying to go out there, line up, represent the Red and Blue and compete to the best of our abilities."
1. Arkansas
2. Florida
3. Texas A&M
12. Alabama
20. Ole Miss
24. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Texas A&M
4. Arkansas
6. Kentucky
7. Georgia
23. Mississippi State
25. Missouri


text:
The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen is planning a travelling exhibition entitled "Life in transit - trauma and new beginnings. Survivors of Nazi persecution." Items from displaced persons´ lives are being sought, such as photographs, report cards, voting papers, newspapers, posters, certificates or...learn more
Picking up the trail of his granduncle Joseph who had disappeared without a trace in 1945, Laurent Guillet and his companions, a forty-person team, had a short stop also at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The institution's French Liaison Mission had contributed to the book he titled "Il...learn more
"As long as I find people I will continue to do this," says Kitty Brom from Hummelo, the Netherlands. The hobby genealogist helps locate relatives of former concentration camp inmates so that the International Tracing Service (ITS) can return their personal effects. The ITS archive still contains nearly 2,900 personal...learn more
Vladimir Kukin, director of the Office of Maintenance of War Graves and Commemoration Work in the embassy of the Russian Federation in Berlin, spent two days at the International Tracing Service (ITS / International Tracing Service) in Bad Arolsen to get an overview of the archival records, the request handling, and...learn more
Pava Raibstein, Director of the Youth Aliyah Committee in Frankfurt, recently visited the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen to explore the possibility of a collaboration. Her visit was twofold: she was also interested in discovering details about her father´s fate. "I know the basics about my father´s...learn more
For several days, Claudia Stefanetti Kozrowicz of the University of Buenos Aires researched in the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) the subject of Polish Displaced Persons (DPs) who immigrated to Argentina after the Second World War. "We are aware of the two groups -- of the former Nazis and of...learn more
In 24 pages, The Facts About Refugees describes the situation of displaced persons three years after liberation. The booklet deals with issues like supply problems as well as administering and funding of DP camps; graphics and photos supplement the texts.learn more
The US-American researcher Alicia Wolf has researched at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for her master's degree at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The subject of her thesis is the physical impact that the incarceration in concentration camps had on survivors. "The...learn more
Ingrid Schupetta, Head of the Nazi Documentation Center in Krefeld, has passed four days of intensive research at the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen for a renewal of the 20-year-old exhibition of the center. "I have been looking at the documents in the ITS database from various...learn more
Early in July 2012 Victor Voronin from the State Archives Service of the Ukraine and Yaroslav Zhilkin from the Ukrainian State Commission on perpetuating memory of victims of war and political repression visited the archive of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen. The two top officials came to inform...learn more


text:
by Bobbi Christensen-Meins, Community Program manager from Cancer Lifeline
Probably the second most paralyzing thought after you have been given a cancer diagnosis is "How am I going to pay for all of this?" Following are some questions and answers about insurance and cancer, as well as some helpful resources.
Q: My insurance company denied my claim for part of my treatment. What should I do?
A: One of the most important points for cancer patients concerning paying for treatment is never to accept the word "no." You will have to spend time preparing and filing appeals, but you may be able change a "no" to a "yes" and get the procedure covered. Check your plan benefits. If you think a procedure should be covered but your insurance company denied it, appeal in writing and ask them to reconsider. Include with your appeal a letter from your doctor explaining why the procedure was necessary.
Q: Can my new employer's group health plan deny me or impose a waiting period if I have been treated for cancer in the past?
A: If you have had continuous health insurance for at least 63 days before switching to the new plan, your new insurance cannot deny you or impose a waiting period for any pre-existing conditions, such as cancer. If you have had a gap in coverage, your new insurer can make you wait before it will cover care for pre-existing conditions.
The following organizations can provide you with more information:
SHIBA (Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors)
(800) 562-6900
For information about and assistance with insurance.
Senior Services of King County/Seattle
(206) 448-5720
Not just for seniors! Cancer patients may qualify assistance with a variety of issues.
Cancer Lifeline
(800) 255-5505
A 24-hour resource that provides information, emotional support and referral to other cancer services.
Q. Where I can turn for help and information about my rights and responsibilities concerning health insurance?
It is always best to first ask your insurance company or your employer for help answering your questions or solving your insurance problems. If this does not work, though, there are other resources.
Your state insurance commissioner's office is always a good place to turn for help in understanding state laws and programs; in additional, personnel may be able to direct you to other sources of assistance. They also can help you determine whether your plan is one that is under their jurisdiction. The Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner can be reached via the following:
Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner
P.O. Box 40256
Olympia, WA 98504-0256
Phone: (800) 562-6900 (in state)
(360) 753-3613
Fax: (360) 407-0186
The United States Department of Labor regulates health plans offered by many large employers. For more information try www.dol.gov.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) runs the Medicare program and works with states on Medicaid programs. The CMS web page can be found at www.cms.gov.
Finally, many consumer groups such as the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship may offer assistance. For very complicated problems, you may need to consult a lawyer or another expert for professional advice and help. Or you may want to ask a friend to help you make some of these calls, gather information, and keep track of the paperwork. If a professional is needed, make sure he or she has expertise in health insurance (not all lawyers or accountants do). Health insurance can be complicated and frustrating, but you are not alone. Be persistent and take advantage of the help that is available to you.
What Cancer Survivors Need to Know About Health Insurance, by Kimberly J. Calder, MPS and Karen Pollitz, MPP. Published by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. (2006), 34 pages.


text:
NetworXNZ needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 94 designs submitted by 34 freelance designers.
Trust Smart Online Ltd
Our customer is a NZ based group of professionals with respective backgrounds in property conveyancing and IT. They are currently creating an application to allow conveyancing practitioners to adopt a more effective system to perform the transfer of property between buyers and sellers.
The user base will be made of certified conveyancing practitioners (CP's), legal executives and lawyers/solicitors that specialize in property conveyancing. The site will not be accessible to the general public but in time portions of it may well be made available to other parties involved in any given real estate transaction, namely real estate agents, buyers and/or sellers.
We need a logo that will set the tone in terms of colours and look and feel for a web based application. Hence it should be clear, clean, uncluttered but impactful.
Given the target market we want to create a feeling of trust, stability and speed. The buying and selling of property is one of the most significant events in the lives of most people and hence the professionals that operate in this space need to know they are dealing with the very best professionals available - our design should reflect this.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Luxury Car Maker Sales Soar in 2012
The economic crisis and the fiscal cliff didn't stop luxury car makers' sales from soaring last year, with record sales for Porsche in the U.S.. Dow Jones's Steve McGrath reports. Photo: Bloomberg
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
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text:
Danny Weitzner
Director, Decentralized Information Group, MIT CSAIL
Daniel J. Weitzner is the Director and co-founder of the MIT CSAIL Decentralized Information Group. His group studies the relationship between network architecture and public policy, and develops new Web architectures to meet policy challenges such as privacy and intellectual property rights. He teaches Internet public policy in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department.
From 2011-2012, Weitzner was the United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy in the White House, where he led initiatives on online privacy, cybersecurity, Internet copyright, and trade policies to promote the free flow of information. Weitzner 's work led to the development of the Obama Administration's Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, adoption of an international agreement on Internet Policymaking Principles by 34 OECD Countries, and the Administration position the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). He also was Associate Administrator for Policy at the United States Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Weitzner was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.
Weitzner has been a leader in the development of Internet public policy from its inception, making fundamental contributions to the successful fight for strong online free expression protection in the United States Supreme Court, crafting laws that control government surveillance of email and web browsing data. His work on US legislation limiting the liability of Internet Service Providers created the legal foundation for social media services and global free flow of information online.
Weitzner's computer science research introduced Accountable Systems architecture to enable better awareness legal rules and automated compliance auditing. As head of the World Wide Web Consortium's Technology and Society group, he led the development of security and privacy standards, and new architectures used to make information on the Web easier to analyze. While at MIT he launched the Web Science Research Initiative with Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, Nigel Shadbolt and James Hendler, a cross-disciplinary research initiative promoting research on the technical and social impact of the Web.
Before joining MIT, Weitzner was founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He has testified before the United States Congress, the European Commission, and leading international bodies. Weitzner has law degree from Buffalo Law School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. His writings have appeared in Science magazine, the Yale Law Review, Communications of the ACM, the Washington Post, Wired Magazine and Social Research. In 2012 he was named to the Newsweek/Daily Beast Digital Power Index as a top 'Navigator' of global Internet public policy.


text:
Fresh off losing their top two men's seeds, Sydney International organisers were left with a nightmare scenario on Saturday when their top two local hopes were drawn against each other in the first round.
Just hours after top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and his French compatriot Richard Gasquet withdrew from the Australian Open warmup tournament, Australian number one Marinko Matosevic was drawn against compatriot Bernard Tomic in the first round.
The 27-year-old Matosevic, who was the ATP Tour's most improved player last year after jumping from 201 to 49th in the world, has moved ahead of Tomic, who faded in 2012 after a meteoric rise in 2011 and finished the year ranked 52nd.
The 20-year-old Tomic, who was also dumped from the Australian Davis Cup team because of doubts about his commitment, has actually been in good form at the Hopman Cup in Perth, winning all three singles matches, including a 6-4 6-4 victory over world number one Novak Djokovic.
World number eight Tsonga was earlier forced to withdraw from the Sydney tournament with a hamstring injury that he sustained at the Hopman Cup and he will be facing a battle to be fit for the January 14-27 Australian Open in Melbourne.
"Unfortunately Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sustained an injury in Perth and has been forced to pull out ... with a left hamstring injury," Sydney tournament director Craig Watson said in a statement.
Gasquet, who would have been top seed after Tsonga's withdrawal, pulled out for "personal reasons", Watson said.
The 10th-ranked Gasquet reached the final of the Qatar Open against a resurgent Nikolay Davydenko and possibly felt he had enough match practice under his belt before the year's first grand slam begins at Melbourne Park on January 14.
American John Isner, who was forced to withdraw from the Hopman Cup with a niggling knee injury, was installed as the top seed at Sydney and has a bye into the second round.
Photographs: Will Russell/Getty Images


text:
Super Suite gives you our bundle of Dreamweaver extensions for one low price. Build unlimited websites and content management systems.
Browse our in-depth training sessions led by WebAssist President, Ray Borduin, on relevant web development topics.
With this new extension, you can easily create MySQLi recordsets, repeat regions and use various server behaviors to generate MySQLi code.
This new tutorial series will teach you how to use eCart to configure various types of coupons for your eCommerce website.
Suggest new features for our products and vote on other suggestions made by the WebAssist community.
Upgrade your site from using PayPal buttons to an on-site, custom shopping cart and checkout. Also see complementary written tutorial.
Your friends over here at WebAssist! These Dreamweaver extensions will assist you in building unlimited, custom websites.
These out-of-the-box solutions provide you proven, tested applications that can be up and running now. Build a store, a gallery, or a web-based email solution.


text:
Robert J. "Bob" Baurle Landing Area Dedicated
By Georgia DNR, Wildlife Resources Division
Published: September 20, 2011
Anticipating thousands of users each year, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the City of Augusta today dedicated the Robert Baurle Boat Ramp, giving boaters and anglers improved access to the river.
This facility includes the existing double wide 100' ramp, gangway and dock, new single wide 100 ' ramp with ground out gangway to new courtesy dock, parking designed for 27 vehicles w/trailers, 3 handicapped parking spaces for vehicles w/trailers, spectator parking, 4 regular and 2 handicapped and grassed overflow parking, staging areas for tournament related activities. The area will be accessible to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This ramp area is one of more than 17 ramps being constructed around the state as part of the Go Fish Georgia Initiative. This initiative seeks to establish Georgia as a national fishing destination through a three-tiered approach: 1) improving the quality of fishing in Georgia waters; 2) improving access to water bodies for fishing in Georgia; and 3) increasing participation through active promotion and marketing of Georgia's exceptional fishing resources.
There have been several participating people and agencies involved with the development of this area, including the Facility Design Team (Joe Guerry of Taylor & Associates led this group which included members of the Augusta-Richmond County Consolidated Government, DNR Fisheries staff, local business leaders and fishing groups); Augusta Engineering Department (Director Abie Ladson and staff), Alpha Construction Company, Gator Dock & Marine LLC and Ron Houck (Planning and Development Manager with Augusta Recreation, Parks and Facilities Department).
For more information on fishing or boat ramps, visit http://www.gofishgeorgia.com . For more information on the City of Augusta, visit http://www.augustaga.gov .


text: I have bought an Iiyama HM903DT A monitor and I have some problems with it. My pc has Win XP installed and, resolution 1024x768, refresh rate 120Hz. If I turn the monitor off and 5 minutes later on, the screen is smaller than I adjusted before (about 0.5 cm on each side). Please who can tell me what it is I'm going crazy from this. (Iiyama coulnd't help me they gave me some stupid answers).


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"If ever I should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley." - Washington Irving
The internationally known American author, Washington Irving (1783-1859), who wrote the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, is interred in the aptly named Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester, New York. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, established in 1849 and historically significant in the areas of landscape architecture, sculpture, and funerary art, stands as an important example of a mid-19th century rural cemetery in New York State. The cemetery, with its stunning views of Hudson River, the babbling Pocantico Creek, and lush landscape features, as well as its list of noteworthy people buried there, exemplifies the best qualities of the rural cemetery movement. The cemetery was the brainchild of Washington Irving and Captain Jacob Storm, who both recognized the need for more burial space in the growing villages of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown. The cemetery, first named the Tarrytown Cemetery in October 1849, was renamed Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in 1865, which was Washington Irving's wish.
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Holly Lemkau and Terence Doran were destined to marry by the sea. The two avid surfers met in the Hamptons, the A list–filled beach towns outside New York City, and got engaged in Osterville, MA, a coastal Cape Cod town where Holly summered as a child. For their June 4, 2005, nuptials, the couple returned to Osterville, the perfect setting for a "beachy, yet elegant wedding weekend," says Holly. A golf tournament, deep-sea fishing excursion and cookout kicked off the weekend in true Cape Cod style.
For the main event, Holly, whose job it is to plan ultrachic parties at Vogue, called upon Abby Gordon of Hopple Popple in Boston to help coordinate the details. Gordon worked with the couple to incorporate a scallop-shell motif on the invitations and welcome tote-bags. Their inspiration for this theme, 150 coral-toned shells that Holly found on a Hamptons beach, served as escort cards, and shell-shaped chocolates were given as favors.
Following an early-evening ceremony at a local Catholic church, Holly and Terence's reception commenced at the Wianno Club, a private golf and tennis club on Nantucket Sound. Marge Bastos of Columbine Custom Floral Design in Boston, created centerpieces of peonies, tulips and English garden roses in coral and hot pink, which stood out brilliantly against the white organdy table linens. The couple's 200 guests enjoyed hearts-of-palm-and-avocado salad, tuna tartare and filet mignon, then hit the dance floor for the rest of the night. "We wanted a big, fun weekend with our friends and family," says Holly. "The whole thing was perfect."
Learn From Holly and Terence
Incorporate culture: As a tribute to Terence's Irish heritage (and for luck), floral designer Marge Bastos interspersed Bells of Ireland in the church arrangements, and the priest said an Irish blessing to close the ceremony.
Share local favorites: Holly and Terence filled welcome tote-bags for their out-of-town guests with goodies from the Cape Cod area: bottles of Nantucket Nectars, Fenway Park peanuts and Cape Cod Potato Chips.
Give your menu meaning: The couple arranged for the chef at the Wianno Club to re-create dishes from their first-date restaurant. Holly and Terence also served the cake with butter-pecan and mint-chip ice cream, their favorite flavors from the Osterville ice cream shop where Terence proposed.


text: Salary.com's compensation experts have put together a checklist of the ten most important questions you should be able to answer about your stock options. Use this checklist as you prepare your research for a salary negotiation, or at your next performance review, or when you are in line for a promotion. Some of these questions are essential to understanding the value of your stock options award, and others simply help explain the implications of certain events or situations. Don't be surprised if you have options now and can't answer some of these questions - they're not all obvious, even to people who have received stock options before. The answers provided here are relevant for people from the United States. If you are not from the United States, the tax information and some of the trends discussed may not be relevant to your country. The ten most important questions about your stock options are as follows. What type of options have you been offered? How many options do you get? How many shares in the company are outstanding and how many have been approved? What is your strike price? How liquid are your options, or how liquid will they be? What is the vesting schedule for your shares? Will you get accelerated vesting if your company is acquired or merges with another company? How long must you hold your shares after an IPO, merger, or acquisition? When you exercise your options, do you need to pay with cash, or will the company float you the exercise price? What kinds of statements and forms do you get or do you need to fill out? 1. What type of options have you been offered? In the United States, there are essentially two types of stock options: incentive stock options (ISOs) and nonqualified stock options (NQSOs). The primary difference between the two with respect to the option holder is the tax treatment when the option is exercised. When you exercise ISOs, you do not normally have to pay any taxes (although there is a chance you may be required to pay an alternative minimum tax if your gain is large enough and/or certain other circumstances apply). You will eventually have to pay taxes on this gain, but not until you sell the stock, at which time you will pay capital gains taxes (the lesser of your marginal rate or 20 percent) on the total gain - the difference between the amount you paid to exercise the option and the amount for which you ultimately sold the stock. Remember, though, you must hold the stock for at least a year after you exercise the option to protect this tax break. Otherwise your incentive stock option will automatically become a nonqualified stock option and you will have to pay ordinary income tax. When you exercise nonqualified stock options, you are required to pay ordinary income taxes on your gain as of the time you exercise the option. This tax is based on your marginal tax rate (between 15 and 39.6 percent). When you eventually sell the stock, you will have to pay capital gains taxes (the lesser of your marginal rate and 20 percent) on the gain you realize between the market price on the day you exercise and the market price on the day you sell the stock. Insights. Companies offer nonqualified stock options for a few reasons. There are a number of restrictions on when and how many incentive stock options a company can grant, as well as the conditions for those options. For example, if the company issues stock options with an exercise price below the actual share price, those options cannot be incentive stock options. Also, the company receives a tax deduction for nonqualified stock options, but not for incentive stock options. The deduction helps reduce the company's tax burden and therefore can help increase the value of the stock. 2. How many options do you get? The number of stock options you receive is a function of several variables. Option grant sizes depend on your job, the frequency of the grants, the industry, the company's pay philosophy, the company's size, the company's maturity, and other factors. In a high-tech startup, for example, the grant you receive is generally much larger as a percent of the company's total shares outstanding than a grant you would receive from a more mature, established company. But often when a company is awarding a large number of shares, it is because there is more risk associated with them. Insights. People often have a hard time comparing option grants from various job offers. Don't focus solely on the number of shares you're being granted. Try to keep in mind their potential value to you and the likelihood that they'll achieve that value. For a startup, your options may have an exercise price of $5 or $1 or even 5 cents per share, but at some point a year or two from now, those shares could be worth $50 or $20 or $10 or even nothing. Presumably less risky are options from mature companies that provide more stability but also less chance of a "home run." In these companies, look at the exercise price of the options and how you think the stock will perform over some period of time. And remember, a 10 percent increase in a $50 stock is worth $5, whereas a 10 percent increase in a $20 stock is worth $2. 3. How many shares in the company are outstanding and how many have been approved? The number of shares outstanding is an important issue if your company is a startup, because it is important to gauge your option shares as a potential ownership percentage of the company. For most people, this percent will be very small - often less than half a percent. It is also important to know the number of shares approved but not issued. Insights. Although this number is most relevant to startups, it is relevant to everyone because approved but unissued shares dilute everyone's ownership. If the number is large, it could be an issue. Dilution means each share becomes worth less because there are more shares that must make up the same total value. 4. What is your strike price? The strike price of an option - also called the "exercise price" or "purchase price" - is often the price of a share of stock on the day the option is granted. It does not have to be the share price, but it often is. This is the price you will eventually pay to exercise your option and buy the stock. If an option is granted above or below the stock price on the day of the grant, it is called a "premium option" or a "discounted option," respectively. Discounted options cannot be incentive stock options. Insights. Companies that are not publicly traded (traded on a stock market or "over the counter") may still have stock options, which do have a stock value. The fair market value of a share of stock in one of these companies is normally determined by a formula, by the board of directors, or by an independent valuation of the company. If you are working at one of these companies, you should ask how the share price is determined and how often. This will help you understand what your options are worth. When you are negotiating, don't be surprised if the company representative tells you they cannot award you options below the current stock price. Although it is legal to do, and many plans allow for it, many companies have the policy of not awarding options below fair market value and they don't want to set a precedent. The number of shares you receive and the vesting are typically easier to negotiate than the strike price. 5. How liquid are your options, or how liquid will they be?Here, liquidity refers to how easy it is to exercise your stock options and to sell the shares. The primary issue here is whether your company's stock is publicly traded. If so, there are thousands of investors looking to buy or sell those shares on any given day, so the market for those shares is said to be liquid. Certain other companies, including partnerships, closely held companies, and privately held companies, normally have restrictions on whom you can sell your stock to. Often it is only to one of the existing shareholders, and it may be at a formula or fixed price. Insights. A stock that is illiquid can still be quite valuable. Many companies with low valuations and illiquid stocks over the past few years have either been acquired or gone public, greatly increasing the value and/or the liquidity for the option holders. These types of "liquidity events" are never guaranteed, but they are always possible. 6. What is the vesting schedule for your shares? Vesting is the right you earn to the options you have been granted. Vesting normally takes place over time, but may also be earned based on certain performance measures. The concept is basically the same as vesting in a retirement plan. You are awarded a benefit - in this case, stock options. Over some period of time, you earn the right to keep them. If you leave the company before that time has passed, you forfeit the unvested options. The current trend is for options to vest in monthly, quarterly, or annual increments over three to five years. For example, your options may vest 20 percent per year over five years, or they may vest 2.78 percent per month for 3 years (36 months). Insights. Vesting seems to be trending toward shorter schedules with smaller increments (e.g., monthly over 3 years rather than annually over 5 years). Companies try to keep consistent option terms for people at similar levels, but vesting terms for stock options are sometimes negotiable, especially special grants for new hires and special recognition awards. Once an option is vested, it's yours regardless of when or why you leave the company. So the faster your options vest, the greater your flexibility. 7. Will you get accelerated vesting if your company is acquired or merges with another company?Sometimes, upon certain "changes in control" of a company, stock option vesting schedules accelerate partially or fully as a reward to the employees for increasing the value of the company, or as protection against future unknowns. Usually these events do not trigger full vesting, because the unvested options are one of the ways the new company has of keeping the employees it needs. After all, often the employees are one important reason for the merger or acquisition. Some companies also provide an increase in vesting at the IPO, but that is normally a partial increase rather than full immediate vesting. Insights. It is important to know whether you get accelerated vesting so that you fully understand the value of your options. But unless you are a senior executive or a person with a very important and hard-to-replace skill, it is difficult to negotiate any acceleration above and beyond the plan's stated terms. 8. How long must you hold your shares after an IPO, a merger, or an acquisition? If your company merges or is acquired, or if it goes public, you may not be able to sell your shares right away. The length of time you must hold your shares after an IPO or merger depends on the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and individual company restrictions. Review your option agreement, plan documents, and any pre-IPO or premerger communications for descriptions of any holding period or lockout period. Insights. Although you can't change the lockout period, you can use it to plan how you will use the proceeds from any sale of stock. Note that the price of a company's stock sometimes decreases on or after the day a lockout period ends, as employees sell their shares in large numbers. If you want to sell after a lockout period, and the price decreases, you might benefit from waiting a little longer until it stabilizes, provided the stock is performing well in other respects. 9. When you exercise your options, do you need to pay with cash, or will the company float you the exercise price? Depending on the company you work for and the terms of the stock option plan, you may be able to exercise your options in one of three ways: by paying the exercise price out of your own checking account; by borrowing the money in a bridge loan from your company; or by completing a cashless transaction that allows you to receive the net number of shares you would end up with had you borrowed the money to exercise the options and sold just enough shares to pay back the borrowed money. For the second and third alternatives, you should know whether any taxes you owe can be paid from the loan or cashless exercise. Insights. If you must pay the cost of the exercise, you may need a significant amount of cash. To preserve the favorable accounting treatment of any incentive stock options you exercise, you will not be able to sell the stock for a full year. Well before you exercise your options, you should consider contacting a financial advisor to determine the best approach for given your financial situation. 10. What kinds of statements and forms do you get or do you need to fill out? Some companies provide a regular statement or even a daily update on your company intranet summarizing your holdings, what's vested and what's not, the value of each based on the current stock price, and perhaps even an indication of the after-tax gain. Other companies give only an initial option agreement with no updates until the option term is about to expire or you are about to leave the company. Insights. Whether the company provides updates for you or not, be sure you receive, in writing, a dated statement from the company that tells you how many options you have been awarded, the exercise price, the vesting schedule, the expiration date, exercise alternatives, terms for changes of control, and terms for adjusting based on reorganization. This last issue is important because if the company's stock splits or mergers with another company's stock, your stock options should be adjusted accordingly to make sure your financial position is maintained. Be sure to keep all option agreements. These are legal contracts, and should there ever be an issue over what you've been promised, that statement will help protect your rights. - Johanna Schlegel, Salary.com Editor-in-Chief


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http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/b ... 0ORDER.pdf
I'm still too much of a noob to have a large opinion, but I am interested in what everyone thinks about this. For me, it was interesting that soft breakouts were mentioned and to not count it as negative if you aren't a 1 of X officer. It makes sense that CDR Milestones and CDR Command are valued so high, but I had no idea the % was so low of those who actually have achieved those checkmarks.


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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Poyet proud of Black Cats
Sunderland boss Gus Poyet hailed a "great night" for his players and the club's fans after the Wearside outfit secured a place in the Capital One Cup final at the expense of Manchester United in dramatic circumstances at Old Trafford.
After goals deep in extra-time from Phil Bardsley and then Javier Hernandez had made it 2-1 on the night to United and 3-3 on aggregate in the semi-final second leg, the Black Cats triumphed 2-1 in the resulting penalty shootout to progress to a Wembley showdown with Manchester City.
Sunderland, currently in the Barclays Premier League relegation zone, have not been in a major final since 1992 and were last in the League Cup final in 1985.
Poyet said afterwards: "I would have been proud even with the 1-0.
"If the game finished 1-0 and we were out after extra-time, I was feeling it was my team playing all night, going on believing, taking risks, passing the ball around, trying to put Man United on the back foot.
"We kept going and going and going, so credit to the players - how they put an extra bit in to go to another level.
"After the (Bardsley) goal, I was not expecting to concede and it was difficult to pick them up for the penalties, but they looked very confident.
"I think it is a great night for a group of players and a group of fans that have been having a very difficult season."
The Uruguayan manager reserved special praise for Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone, who saved two spot-kicks.
Asked about his team's achievement, Poyet said: "It is very difficult to explain.
"I don't remember another game like this one, being involved as a player or anything.
"Why? Because normally, when you score in the last minute or so you don't expect to then concede within one or two minutes, and then if you miss the first two penalties, you don't expect to win the game either.
"So how we did it? I think we need to ask Vito Mannone - I think he can personally answer that because he has been getting better and better and today he was the difference between the two teams."
He added: "When Vito got into the dressing room, the whole squad and staff started singing his name and there is no better feeling for a football player.
"He was half happy, half embarrassed. It was a special night for him."
Poyet revealed that his players had been so keen to step up for penalty duties that there had even been a heated dispute between two of them over who would take one of the spot-kicks - Bardsley and Ki Sung-yueng, who ended up scoring it.
Poyet said: "I couldn't believe it. The players were asking for the penalties. You don't get that too many times.
"We even had a little bit of a fight between Phil Bardsley and Ki for the fourth! We are going to have to practice more for the final, just in case."
In City, Sunderland - who fell behind in the first half of normal time through Jonny Evans' goal - have opponents in the final who are in formidable form.
The Black Cats will start the Wembley contest as heavy underdogs, but they did beat the Blues in the league this season and Poyet believes they are capable of defeating them again.
He said: "What a task it is going to be there at Wembley. We will try (to win).
"We will need to play well, have a good day, be brave, be fit and they will have to not have a good day, because they have very good players.
"But if you want to win something you need to be the best - you are not expecting to get to the final and play a bad game. So we will see.
"City are probably the most in-form team in the league, but it is just a game.
"You need to play well, play your best - to be spot on, practically perfect to win it.
"But it can happen.
"I just hope we don't have the other situation - being terrible and conceding four or five and suffering embarrassment."


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Dual Cell – HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)
HSPA on top of WCDMA networks has been a true success story around the globe. Meanwhile all WCDMA networks have been upgraded to support at least HSDPA operation. Furthermore a number of enhancements known as HSPA+ features have been added in 3GPP Releases 8 up to 10. The aim is to increase peak data rates, to improve spectral efficiency and to reduce latency in the system. One of the features added in 3GPP Release 8 is DC-HSDPA, i.e. the operation of two adjacent HSDPA downlink carriers (5 MHz each) in combination with a single uplink carrier. Peak data rates applying this feature reach 42 Mbit/s in downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s in uplink direction. By the end of 2012 more than 100 operators have commercially launched DC-HSDPA services.
There is one signaling channel (HS-SCCH) in each of the two downlink carriers, i.e. scheduling flexibility in terms of different transport formats depending on CQI feedback is maintained on each carrier. Dual Cell HSDPA is activated via HS-SCCH orders (layer 1) as already used for other HSPA+ features like continuous packet connectivity (CPC). One uplink HS-DPCCH acknowledges the data packets on each of the two downlink carriers.
Testing the DC-HSDPA feature affects a number of scenarios including infrastructure, mobile devices and chipsets. Primarily, maximum data rates need to be verified in the lab as well as in real life operation. Additionally components of both base stations and mobile devices need to be tested on RF and baseband level. Rohde & Schwarz offers a wide variety of test solutions for DC-HSDPA.
Resources for Dual Cell – HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)
This White Paper introduces key features of HSPA+ and outlines the changes to the radio interface.
This Application Note describes how HSPA+ features can be tested using Rohde & Schwarz instruments.
Presented at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.
Products for Dual Cell – HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)
R&S®CMW Platform
- Universal tester for testing the air interface of wireless devices, supporting all relevant wireless standards, e.g. GSM, UMTS/HSPA+, CDMA2000® and LTE as well as associated inter-RAT messages
- R&S®CMW CallBox offers physical layer transmitter and receiver testing in addition to RLC throughput measurements. E2E application layer testing is available with the integrated data application unit (DAU). The R&S®CMW protocol tester offers MLAPI test scenarios (R&S®CMW-KF453) as well as TTCN-2 protocol conformance test cases (R&S®CMW-KC428)
R&S®SMW200A Vector Signal Generator
- Unique one-box solution with integrated realtime fading for 2x2 MIMO receiver tests
- 2x2x2 MIMO mode for realistic 2x2 MIMO simulation for dual-cell HSPA+
- R&S®SMW-K83 HSPA/HSPA+ digital standard allows generation of 3GPP-compliant DC-HSDPA RF and baseband signals for component and single-ended receiver testing
- Component testing, e.g. power amplifier, is possible both on RF and baseband level
R&S®FSW signal and spectrum analyzer
- The R&S®FSW signal and spectrum analyzer with the K72 firmware option and the integrated MSRA functionality allows easy characterization of the DC-HSDPA downlink signal
- Straightforward and intuitive touch screen operation allows correlation of measurement results on multiple component carriers
R&S®TSMW Universal Radio Network Analyzer
- Ideal tools for network planning, installation, optimization, monitoring, etc. in combination with the R&S®ROMES4 Drive Test Software
- One software for all technologies (GSM, WCDMA, LTE, CDMA2000®1xEV-DO, WiMAX, Tetra: "all under one roof")
- Mobile coverage and QoS measurements for DC-HSDPA
More About WCDMA / HSPA / HSPA+
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