The worst debt collection practice I was hammered with, called, didn't state for who they were,, did not leave any options to complete the call from them, but only gave a call back number for Jeromy to call Bob. I'm not Jeremy, so I let it run for a couple of months to see if it would quit. It didn't. Collectors continued to call even after my new number was not so new at 8 years.

I pity anyone who does not speak English as they wouldn't understand the message, there was no option to respond to the call, such as press any key, and it would continue until you did call in. They only quit after I called and didn't ask for Bob, but asked for their legal department. I think I shook them up a bit. Anyway the calls quit from them.

I asked for the legal department. I then told them they can not legally disclose any debt info to third parties. Then told them of the issue with the robocall. I gave them the number they robocalled and the times. They feigned ignorance and stated it must have been forwarded to my number from another number. I then asked for the number they were using to call Jeremy and gave time stamps. They then claimed they could not release Jeremy's contact info to 3rd parties. LOL.. Nice snow job. Anyway the calls quit with threat of $50 for each additional call per the telemarketing and fair collection practices laws.

A Google search of the number revealed the law firm in Chicago IL, their address, office phone numbers, staff names, etc. Nobody there is named Bob or Robert.

Jeromy Taylor, Please update your contact info with your creditors. I'm tired of taking your calls.

And I got issued your number. Your bill collector still calls on occasion Mr Taylor. Pay your bill!

I'm surprised he got it to run that fast. AM radio in the US broadcasts from about .5 to 1.5 Mhz. Without a ground plane and shielding, there is a lot of coupling between wires. I bet he can't listen to any distant AM radio stations in the same room with that running.

Good job getting a breadboard computer to clock over 1MHZ.

What the liberals want is;
30% Chinese
30% Japanese
30% Korean
30% Hispanic
30% Black
30% Vietnamese
What ever us keft over % Male
50% Female
50% Gay
30% Mexican
30% Guatamalan
and 30% Native American.

All cry inequality when less than 50%

Liberals have some other shortcommings in STEM besides math.

I had a job offer in Seattle that I turned down due to the cost of relocation, traffic, housing, etc. If I had taken the job, my spouse would have moved too and looked for work. She would not have looked for an engineering job, so yes, there would be pay inequality, but she would not need to deal with 2nd housing, etc. I suepect some of the pay inequality is spouses of engineers working at Microsoft or Boeing working the two income family positions to make the mortguage instead of full time homemaker. These positions are rarely the same income bracket as the primary breadwinner who can have >40 hours work and are not the primary family member taking the kids to soccer practice.

If MS drops support for all the Polycom Lync devices including conference speakerphones and desk phones, Bluetooth Lync headsets, etc, Corporate will be a hard sell.

Best of Lync and Skype should not obsolete all the business telcom hardware products in use by corporate users. That would be dropping the most useful parts.

I don't wear headphones all the time. I don't have disruptive speakers, and I can still hear my phone ring, and answer it, even while the PC is in a locked screensaver, in hibernation, or even rebooting.. Not all my job is screen time.

Do you ever reboot? Lock the screen and step out? Read a paper list, drawing, manual, or report?

Missing calls while not watching the screen or have another app on top is unacceptable.

Lync can be used with communications headsets. UN-checking the option to use the sound device only for communications permits using the headset for Lync as well as for all other PC sound playback.

The best option in my opinion is to use a desk phone for Lync calls. Polycom makes some nice ones as well as Snom. Alternate firmware can change the SIP phone into an OCS VOIP phone able to integrate with your Lync account. Search for Snom OCS firmware for more info.
Desk phone, speaker phone, or headset is your choice.

The main reason peers block Comcast by deafult is the number of vunerable XP machines that get hijacked to send spam. Dropping mail from home users has almost no false positives. Mail if permitted by peers would increase the number of botnet attempts to send bulk spam. The fact the mail is blocked makes compromised Comcast user's machines much less valuable.

Even home configured business accounts on static IP addresses do not have a super good IT department to prevent compromised machines becoming part of a spam botnet, which is a good reason to not accept mail from home IP blocks.

The point is after the education market, business is mostly non Apple. The exceptions are media production and related fields. Mobile media (tablets) should belong to Apple, but Android at lower price points has higher unit sales.

Google Chrome is poised to do to MS PC's what Android did to Apple Tablets and phones.

Early in the PC vs Apple days, Apple was heavy into the education market as the theory went as kids lift school they would continue to use what they learned in school.

Apple faced the reality of aftermarket gray box PC's running DOS, then Windows at a lower price embraced by business. Microsoft rode in on commodity hardware.

Now Windows and the support structure is high priced and Google is doing the Apple playbook getting into schools with an easy to use, secure platform, but with a price advantage. This could go somewhere. There is not much cheap platform hardware that can out perform the inexpensive hardware and software.

The only Achilles heel is the underpowered nature, but with proper growth, that could soon end. Chrome is not an enterprise platform, yet.

Actually there is nothing to see here, but thanks anyway for the weak attempt at a Bill Hicks rant.

Not sure why, but auto spellcheck doesn't work on this site for me. Works on other sites.

Some employers want more than your diploma. They want to know what certifications you obtained and your ability to answer questions on the fly at the interview. Microsoft and Google interview questions come to mind. Can you problem solve?

Industry knowledge is very helpful. For the telcom people out there, do you have a CFC certificate (USA)? On one of my jobs requiring a clearance to enter the facility, this is a plus. The ability to give the managed network switch logs and the HVAC logs in one trip can separate basic trained and experianced skilled. Some employers will ask not only what software tools you are trained on, but want to know what tools you have in your tool kit. If you have a tone kit, crimpers, and a scope meter, they may expect you to be able to solve the software problems and check the actual port samples on the hardware.

Some engineers are just plain dangerous with a screwdriver. One that has a torque screwdriver and knows the tork to use on DB connectors, bay screws, and so on will get a job ahead of one that just has MSIE certifications. In the US even explaining a JIS screwdriver and why you have one can separate you from the other canidates.

How many of you just Googled JIS screwdriver?

How many of you already have one?

One item that is a possibility wasn't mentioned. It could be simply collison avoidance instead of jamming. Fear of a high speed collsision would make most any animal pause. Is it loss of targeting, or avoiding a high speed crash?

Temp agencies seem to be worse. They offer the worst health care and 401K plans in existance.

A health plan that has NO out of pocket maximum? That only has the Maximum it will pay instead, such as $25/ per perscription, $250 for a hospital stay, etc. Seriously, this protects the employee none against any high cost medical needs. Anyone who has had a medical stay at a hospital and seen the bill will know that $250 for the visit barely dents the bill. Diabetic? $25 for your supplies and perscription is only a small co pay the insurance pays, not really protecting the employee with any meaningful insurance. Seriously, I would be far ahead to self insure at the rate the insurance pays in the event of any medical need. Why pay the premium for a plan that pays next to nothing?

On a tem agency 401K, I reviewed a plan that has 0 employer contributions and a $250/quarter maintenance fee on top of some other fees. Seriously, with fees like that brudening the account, how the **** is it possible to grow enough equity to earn enough interest to even cover the fees, let alone grow. I hate to say it, but a 401K in a Passbook savings account would be much wiser as the account is not heavly erroded by fees.

When consioering a temp agency, be sure to examine their "Health Plan" and "401K" offerings. Many of the benifits are worse than no offering at all.

Take any offerings and see your finincial planner. They will be able to direct you into plans with much less damaging fees.

Your benifit plans should not be a huge liability.