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Comment There are already Facebook settings for this (Score 3, Informative) 201

Other than maybe not drinking if a psychologist says that alcohol has an adverse effect on the medication she takes and maybe asking the photographer not to take her picture while drinking, she could untag herself from unflattering pictures like these. There is already a setting to limit who can see tagged photos and also automation to have the system send an email and/or SMS when a photo is tagged. I frequently check the Privacy settings to make sure that I know how much information is being shared. I essentially have three groups: people I actually know (full access to what I share and access to see each other's posts on my wall), people I am 'Friends' with but do not have the heart to de-friend (basic information like photos I have shared and tagged myself, email address, status updates), and everyone else (name, default profile pic... and nothing else).

To limit who can see tagged photos:
Account > Privacy > Customize > Photos and videos I'm tagged in > Edit Settings > Who can see photos and videos I'm tagged in > Custom > Create a group of people you actually know or set it to 'Only Me'.

To receive alerts about being tagged:
Account > Account Settings > Notifications > Photos > 'Tags you in a photo'

Comment Re:Purpose of an interview (Score 1) 569

If you're inexperienced (and from what you say I'm going to assume you are) you're resume's going to be pretty short. Put those hobbies on there, they'll give us something to talk about - or I'll ignore them. No harm in having them on there.

You are right, I do not have a lot of experience. My resume does have more empty space on it now that I have a couple years of real-world experience and I took off High School and jobs that are not related to my career. I do not believe putting unrelated activities and interests is in the best interest of an applicant, though. In your case, you may take it as something to talk about, but what about a hiring manager with a disability that and does not want to feel bad for him/herself by hearing about the weekend the new hire spent at a fancy resort skiing.

Sure, this may be an extreme case, but in looking at the three possibilities, I see it is weighted against.

  • The interviewer has similar interests: it brings up a common topic that can be talked about, but it does not really matter.
  • The interviewer does not hold the same interest: the topic does not come up and it really does not matter.
  • The interviewer is ashamed, upset, jealous, or discouraged by what is written: the applicant gets marked down (consciously or subconsciously).

Overall, I would rather not risk getting an interview (or getting past the first interview) because of something that does not matter. Again, I do not have a lot of experience and may be missing a point here.

Comment Purpose of an interview (Score 5, Informative) 569

I recently returned to school to complete my degree and was able to hear a very intresting presentation from one of the instructors last year. Being that I have applied for many jobs in the past year (and currently working full-time while going to school in the evening), a lot of these made sense. Here are some of the points I found most interesting to take into account during an interview.

- There are only two things that the employer wants to know during the interview: "Can you do the job?" and "Are you going to cause trouble?". The information on your resume will answer the first. Your answers and attitude during the interview will answer the second.

- During the interview, focus on proving you are able to do the job and that you will not cause trouble. Trouble would be absenteeism, incompatibility with co-workers, etc. Keep your personal life personal and your special interests and hobbies to yourself unless they directly pertain to the job. If you interests require you to take time off from work, that should come up during the negotiation period and not during the interview. Also, do not bring up money, pay, vacation, training, "team lunches or get-togethers", hours, or other trivial items. This should all be addressed after the job offer has been extended, while you negotiate, and before you start.

- Once the employer has gone through the process of interviewing all of the candidates and decided that you are the best candidate, you should have already prepared a list of priorities for what you want. If you need six weeks of paid vacation per year, if you need to make a certain salary, or if you need to work a certain schedule, that is all negotiable at this point before the job is accepted. For all of the effort they have put into posting a job opening, sorting through all of the applications, spending all that time interviewing, and somehow still decided that you are the best candidate, it is not in the employer's best interest to start the whole process over because you want six weeks of vacation time instead of the normal four. Everything is negotiable.

- If you are asked during the interview how much you are expecting to make at the new position, a correct answer is "I earn $XXXX at my current job and I am certain you will be fair, but I would like to lean more about the company". It does not ignore the question, but it does not put either party in a tight spot or make either party feel guilty. Again, pay is part of negotiation and not part of the interview.

- One item that should be addressed during the interview is asking about company culture: military (directives from management), team (groups work together to solve problems), competitive (individuals work "against" each other), artistic (try to create the best product), etc.

- Another item that should be asked is what the interviewer sees in the job. Each interview may give a different answer from HR, the department head, the department manager, and the team leader. Taking each of those into account will give a better impression of what is expected.

- I suspect that developers and other specialized positions would want to know what type of systems would be used and the development tools required. This, however, should already be answered to the employer by what is listed on the resume. If the tools required are not listed there and the candidate was still being considered, the tools must not matter very much to the employer and they may be willing to offer training on that system. I am not sure asking about what type of hardware, email, ticket tracking, system environment (Dev/QA/UAT/Prod), or documentation system would be used, since those are basically universal and two companies with the same system may use them in different ways and a new hire will need to become oriented with how the company wants to handle details. Also, if questions about dress code, hours worked, overtime availability, weekend catch-up time, or anything else not normally covered in an interview are important to you, save those for the negotiation period and keep them out of the interview. I cannot figure a reason why a t-shirt, polo, or shirt-and-tie would make a difference in the questions of "Can you do the job?" and "Are you going to cause trouble?"

Not all of these thoughts will apply to every interview or company and not all of them may be applicable to every candidate or position. Take this with a grain of salt and do what you think is best.

Comment Per-episode graph (Score 2, Interesting) 140

I am not sure how much I really trust that per-episode chart once I started looking at one of the sample episodes. At some points the face recognition will not pick up on main characters for apparently no reason. For example, in episode 53 at about 1:30 in the sample there is dialog between Spock, Kirk, and someone else. The camera angles are steady and consistent (other than people turning their head while talking) and sometimes the system does not recognize one of the characters after it did just a few seconds earlier. On the right side it shows the name of the character or "Other" if it recognizes a face, but not compared to something it knows about.

Overall, this is simply amazing!
Security

EFF To Appeal Court Order Vs. Subway Hack Demo 189

snydeq sends along InfoWorld coverage of the EFF's plans to appeal a US District Court order that kept three MIT students from presenting detailed flaws in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority e-ticketing system at Defcon. And an anonymous reader points out that the MBTA, in addition to triggering the Streisand Effect, released in open court more information on vulnerabilities (PDF) than the students had any intention of presenting. See Exhibit 1 to this court filing.
Television

Submission + - Battlestar Galactica ends after season 4 officiall (aqfl.net)

Ant writes: "TV.com reports David Eick and Ronald Moore released a statement on Thur., May 31, 2007, stating that they will conclude the show on their own terms. They said it was a creative decision. The show was always planned with a definite beginning, middle and end, unlike many other sci-fi shows and dramas. Sci Fi Channel has accepted the decision. The news had been foreshadowed this spring through statements from stars Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff. Ronald Moore himself had said that the show was heading into its final act, although he said the final act could be one or two more seasons. Now we know that the final act will last for one season. The special 2-hr. episode "Razor" starts off the season in November. The first regular episodes of Season 4 will air in early 2008."

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