I wish and hope that some day companies will start to address mental health as well as physical heath, specifically related to sick days. If you have a sniffle, they tell you not to come in to work, you'll make someone sick, but if you're stressed out, unable to sleep, on-call for weeks, going through a breakup/divorce, have sick parents etc, and can't handle the mental strain, then you're SOL. Work on a salary? you know all those extra hours you put in for free for the company? Want to get something *back* from them? yeah, right ...

"Mental Health" days are widely recognized by non-management types as beneficial, but you don't see companies promoting them. 'take a vacation day' is the common line, but when you're only provided with 10 of them a year , it's awefully 'expensive' to take one because your boss has had you working 12 hour days for 2 weeks and you just need 1 freakin day off to sleep, do laundry, maybe buy some real food for a change.

But seriously, mental health, when you work in a job that is focused on mental performance (as much of IT/geekery is), is just as, or more, important as physical health. I can sit and read documents/manuals, catch up on email, update a few spreadsheets etc with a cold, but if I'm tired/stressed/"out of it", I'm next to useless.

Taking care of employees isn't a concern of companies any longer, if it ever was, despite the fact that giving a little can get them a lot. Policy, process, executive bonuses are all worked around 'you must be in your desk working from x to y and always being productive, or else', instead of the realization that we aren't machines and our brains are more valuable when they're functional than not.

$0.02.

You must have dealt with the 407 ETR highway in Ontario.

I am being chased by collections by them right now, even though I am still disputing the $8000 bill they suddenly sent me.

With no warning they sent me the bill, and though I called them the next day, they'd already sent it to collections. So now I have a ding on my credit, I have collections after me, all for a bill that isn't even REAL. There is no way I used $8000 of their services in a month - it's clearly a billing error. however, they refuse to settle things and insist that I drove thousands and thousands of km on their highway in a month, even though I don't even live in the area.

Companies have no feedback loop on this sort of shady billing. It costs them very little money to bill someone for some huge amount, argue with them, send it to collections and wait. Reading online, 407 ETR does this ALL the time, to people that don't even live in Canada, and have never been here.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fixer/article/732443--407-bills-can-hound-drivers-for-15-years

I wonder how many people just pay to get rid of them, and how much money they clear every month due to their disgusting billing practices.

And the icing on this cake - the Government has given them the power to block you from getting your licenese renewed if you have unpaid bills.

I wish there was actually someone on _our_ side against these kinds of practicies.

I love The Shining, as well as Full Metal Jacket, for this exact reason. Some of the long takes in those movies are beyond impressive. Kubrick had a great vision, and demanded a lot from his actors, but when everything comes together the long takes make you sit up and pay attention.

The long (30 second?) shot of Danny on his big-wheel riding through the empty Overlook in The Shining is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ... the sound of the wheels moving from each surface to the next is perfect, and it is the perfect expression of an empty space. That would have been ruined if there had been cut shots to various angles. Same with the chase through the maze - one long shot of Jack slogging through trying to catch Danny. amazingly, thought the shot is ahead of the character, it's not obvious that a camera and sound crew are running ahead of him.

I love long shots, especially ones that start off standard (say, a person walking down the street) but then after a bit of following them, the shot backs off and up into the air - makes you sit up and go 'how the hell??'

The author is right - CGI doesn't impress anymore, it's just assumed. Long shots show skill and dedication to the craft.

Since you talk like someone who knows what they're talking about, pretend that not all of us (me) do ...

Why exactly is it that the ISS in a silly orbit, that can't be reasonably used to reach the moon? My knowledge of orbital mechanics/physics is par for the average highschool student, so this isn't immediately obvious to me.

Thanks for helping edjimicate me.

I have worked for a large retail chain, and I can whole-heartedly confirm this logic. They have a chain of over 1000 stores, and some of the costing that was done blew your mind.

Want to put a lock on the IT cabinet in each store? $100 per cabinet (buy the lock, pay the service guy to go in, train the store people to use the key/make duplicates). *1000 stores, and you're suddenly looking at a non-trivial amount of money for something that should be a simple, no brainer.

We saw similar things when we wanted to put a shelf in each cabinet to help organize the various little device that went in the cabinet. $200 per store ... forget it. Print labels to put on each piece of equipment to help the store identify it? $50 per store. Forget it.

It was a good experience ... we learned how to think in massive scale for every project, every little idea we had, but we also found it incredibly stifling. And thats why I *used* to work there.

they didn't really play up the fact that purchasing through them rather than torrenting provided a *legal* copy to the purchaser

This is why I didn't end up buying from them, I was never sure if it was legit or not. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is ...

I have done the same thing, but for work "friends". There is huge pressure to add people you work with, even if you don't care to see what their home life is about. I've created a group for work people, and block them from seeing anything remotely personal. That guy over in change management you only deal with when he's messed up your ticket? They get the joy of knowing that someone added them to facebook (woo) and I can avoid the whole weird social thing. Only occasionally will I move someone out of that group into a friends group, but even then it's generally to a more limited friends list, who can't see pictures other have posted of me, can't see my contact information, etc.

As much as I don't like Facebooks information sharing, I do appreciate that they've made fairly simple ways to organize your information and let only certain people see it.

The magnets are fun, but I really enjoy the spacers. The little aluminum(?) circles between the platters. Those things make amazing toys. Next time you manage to scrounge one, throw it edge-on into the ground .. gently at first. They bounce like a super ball, and make an amazing ringing sound while they do it.

give it a try.. they're pretty neat.

wow .. you could actually be the worst person I've even come across on the Internet ... and I've spent a lot of time here.

'grats to you.

Worse still, I wonder how many of those kids are permanently put on drugs.

As an ADHD child myself, on various drugs from grade 1 to OAC (Grade 13 in Ontario), I was put on drugs, but I assure you that by the time I reached the end of school, there was no permanently about it. Maybe when you're younger it's easier to make a child take the drugs, but as they get older and more independent, and as they start to see the effects the drugs have on their personality, there is no permanence unless they want it.

By the time I reached my final years of high school, I hated every day I took my pill. I used to not take them over the summer, and can still remember the week before school started, taking my pills and feeling like I wasn't me anymore. First of all, I was on Dexedrine, which severely impacted my appetite (which is probably why I was a bean pole in high school), but the effect on my personality was drastic. I guess that was the intended effect of the pills, to change me from wildly unfocused, silly and far too chatty/outgoing into a quiet, obedient child who would do as they were told. But as the person taking it, and feeling myself changing every time I took the pill, I found (and still find) the whole thing very unsettling.

Having said that, I am now dating a wonderful girl who is startlingly like me, except she didn't have parents who made her take the ADD meds. Seeing how much of a mess her education was, how much it impacted her social and family life and even her career, made me respect the decision my parents made for me, even if I still disagree with it. Without the drugs I took through elementary and highschool, the odds are I wouldn't have passed, or learned as much as I have, and I probably wouldn't be where I am in life.

To bring things back to the subject at hand, over-diagnosing ADD/ADHD puts millions of kids through the crap I had to go through, as well as putting their parents through it both emotionally and financially. I'm sure my dad (who will most likely read this) could comment on how hard the decision to put me on drugs was, and keeping me on them, fighting me sometimes daily to take them, but I assume the decision wasn't always easy. However, I'm sure these TV parents, which my parents were most assuredly not, enjoy their quieter, more docile children, so maybe they don't care if their child is mis-diagnosed.

ADD/ADHD is a real thing, that should be treated with drugs or behaviour modification (I went through various training classes about "coping skills", learning to identify ADD moments and control them). Just assigning any child who is energetic, or even just a normal 6/16 year old, to the ADD/ADHD bucket in hopes of making them docile is tantamount to a crime. Modifying someones behaviour through drugs for your own convenience and for the teachers convenience is morally reprehensible.

but then a guy at work said he wanted them. Turns out his kids love to play phone, so he gave them all their own phone with their name painted on them. The batteries are removed, but they each enjoy their own phone. My problem solved, his problem solved (they no longer want his phone).

I don't know if I can handle another iconic game this year, already the lawn is growing longer, and that's just Starcraft 2.

Next up, a WoW expansion, then CIV5.

A good excuse to upgrade the computer, but I can only handle one addiction at a time ... which ones are going to suffer?

I'm going to have to see if I can get my girlfriend hooked on one to save me some pain. Thank goodness the winters are long and cold.

Congratulations, you have proven that people want to buy Tablet computers.

Well, given that the tablet PCs in the office don't get any attention, I'd have to say no, I've proven that people are interested in the iPad

For a little less money you can buy an Asus tablet with a keyboard.

I don't want a keyboard. I have a laptop that has a keyboard. And a PC. And another PC. And a server. And another server.

Congratulations, not only are you an elite, but you're also arrogant.

yes, because stating something that is obvious (people who make less money have less money to spend) makes me arrogant.

I sure spend a lot of my time altruistically handing my iPad over to every nay-sayer who says that the "iPad sucks/why would you want one/why don't you get a netbook", and have been pretty amazed at the change of heart when they start using it.

I've converted 2 hardcore haters into buyers, and a bunch of "mehs" into "hey, can I borrow your iPad for a bit, I want to show someone this..."

I don't know if the hate comes from the giant price tag, or the closed platform, but once you actually use it, instead of looking at it from a theoretical standpoint, it's incredibly useful.

So sure, maybe us iPad owners have a little more money, but when the base model costs over $600 (stupid taxes) you aren't going to find many minimum wage earners that can afford to play yet ...

Again with the personal attacks. While I enjoy a spirited discussion, there is no need for that.

You know nothing about me to judge me, and we will leave it at that.

Cheers