Ice Trays & Work Ethic

Increasingly the humble ice tray is becoming an anachronism. Most home refrigerators have an automatic ice cube maker, robotically churning out ice so the human always has a chilled beverage. However, in the interest of cost savings there are still some bastions of ice trays, where one has to actually fill the tray with water, let it freeze, and then break the cube free from its form. Most often we encounter this at work where we are glad just to have a refrigerator.

But this simple happenstance actually presents an interesting social experiment in terms of the work ethic of one's co-workers. I respectfully submit:

The full ice bin and full trays: The optimum state - here we have proactive worker bees who take it upon themselves to assess the level of ice in the holder, taking on the job of cracking & refilling the trays. You can bet these are the sort of folks who will also be proactive at their real job for the company.

The empty bin but full trays: The glass is half full. Here we have "just in time" staff who'll rise to the occasion but only when it bubbles to the top. Could be that the company has promoted this by chronic shortage of human resources so that people become accustomed to dealing with something only when it's immediately confronting them.

The empty bin and empty trays: Now we're straying into tunnel vision, not willing to think down the line in order to help others. You see a problem but because it's not your problem it is ignored. Not a great sign for your corporate culture.

The empty bin and partially full trays: This is terminal - you're surrounded by coworkers who are dedicated to doing the absolute least amount of effort to accomplish the job. Better get that resume in order.

The Internet Privacy Irony

"We got computers; we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed."
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

For some time now scholars and commentators have pointed out the sense of anonymity that one experiences when going online and how it influences us. Many have suggested that it is this sense of being cloaked that unfetters a coarser side of one's nature, tossing off epithets as if you're in the locker room, exploring dark corners of the web that you wouldn't do at the library. Oh there might be the occasional cookie or browser history to contend with, but hey, any modern browser lets one go into 'stealth' mode to deal with that. And I must say that from what I have seen I have to agree that when the possible stigma of being called out for bad behavior is removed then individuals behave differently.

And now we learn (although I have always suspected) that indeed 1984 is here, albeit a few years late. The government is amassing all sorts of "meta-data" about us - our phone records, our social media activity like Facebook, this blog, maybe even our credit card transactions. Couple this with a new gargantuan data center being built by the NSA out in Utah, and it's not hard to see where this is going. The techniques of mining large amounts of data with platforms like Hadoop (which businesses use to gain insight into their customers' habits) is being applied on this treasure trove of data. It is no exaggeration to say that when the supercomputers connect all the dots of your digital breadcrumbs they will have a stunningly complete picture of you. And we simply have to hope that the folks in charge will play nice and not use this information to consolidate their power. You dare to run for office against Boss Hog? Well we'll just see about that.

The grand irony here is that people surfing the net in supposed anonymity are in fact revealing the details of their political views, sexual interests, and only God knows what else. And while that is scary as hell, it pales in comparison to the people I meet whose assessment is "well if you haven't done anything wrong you don't have anything to be worried about." That sort of naivety must be comforting to those in power.

Cold Stone Stupid

So I get a call last evening from my son, "Dad, you have to check out this photo that I just sent you - it's classic." The photo was indeed a classic snapshot of our continued descent into illiteracy. There was a time when we expected a certain amount proofreading to be exercised before something went public, whether it be a newspaper article or a store sign. It reflected poorly on you if you made gross errors in spelling or grammar. No longer true - today there's no shame in being careless about the English language, nor any effort to correct one's mistakes.

No, it's not that I secretly long to be an English teacher. I grew up in a time when students suffered through learning the difference between affect and effect, imply vs. infer, and understanding why it should have been Winston tastes good as a cigarette should. The purpose was to help keep us from embarrassing ourselves as we started our careers following graduation. What's happened?

I guess part of it is Bill Gates' fault. We expect Word to find all our spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. The sign does make a sentence without spelling errors and conveys meaning (i.e., we do not reject $50 or $100 bills - the opposite of the author's intent). So Word blesses it and away we go to the Signs Tomorrow shop. There's no proofreading skill by the writer to see if the statement really conveys what they are trying to say.

I think we also have to take some of the blame for not responding when we see the language being openly mugged. I'll bet that in today's PC world that very few - if any - customers have bothered to point out to the shop owner that the sign is fodder for Jay Leno.

As we continue down this path I guess this is what our future looks like for communication...

Ambiguious Signs

So I'm heading back from a wonderful evening of observing at Tuckahoe State Park, traveling along 404 to the Bay Bridge. I get within reading distance of the box truck in front of me and I'm given the following warning: Caution! Show Flowers.

So what exactly does one do with this piece of information? Is this admonishment issued so that I will keep additional distance between me and the showy flowers? Are the flowers at risk of dropping their splendid petals if they sense that I'm getting too close?

Or perhaps we are talking about show as in Little Shop of Horrors show, and this is more of a disclaimer. Don't even think about trying to steal anything in this truck because you'll be lunch for our man-eating flowers.

This is somewhat like the "Caution - Show Dogs" or even the "Baby on Board!" stickers that you'll see on the back of a car. I've always kinda put those into the "My Child's an Honor Student" classification - the driver wants you to know about their special cargo of which they are very fond. If the intent of these rear end communications is a plea not to run into their vehicle then I have to wonder about the owner's grasp on reality.

Here's a suggestion to the box truck - put your logo and/or contact information on the back - that way you get some advertising out of the effort instead of puzzled looks.

Dude! You're gettin' a Dud!

Ever wonder where the "Dell Dude" went? I suspect he's on the factory assembly line as evidenced by my sister & brother-in-law's recent experience with Dell.

Flashback to March of this year. My nephew orders a new Dell laptop for his mom and dad, knowing the convenience that a laptop and wireless connection can afford. I happened to be there when it arrived and so, being the family "tech" guy, offered to help get things up and running. One small problem though - it was dead as a doornail right out of the box.

Should'a taken that as a bad sign right there. But being the optimists and having a reasonably good experience in contacting them (not a lot of waiting or run around) the decision was made to ship it back for a replacement.

Fast-forward to October. The Dell goes dead again, refusing to boot up. Calls ensue and a local technician comes by to render a verdict that it's a goner - the motherboard is kaput. At this point my brother-in-law contacts Dell looking for a replacement - as in a new laptop. And considering it didn't quite go six months I think he's got a pretty strong argument - after all he's now faced with the aggravation of having lost whatever content was on the laptop plus being without one again for a period of time. However, Dell felt that things would be just fine with a refurbished laptop and proceeded to quote chapter and verse from their fine print.

You know, if you're thinking of buying a Dell as a holiday gift I'd suggest that instead of contacting the company simply go online to one of the "dented and scratched" retailers and pick one up there. At least that way you'll end up with a refurbished computer that you didn't pay full retail price for...

Ernistine's Revenge

If you're more of a baby boomer than a Gen XYZ you may remember the lady pictured here - "Ernestine the Operator" played by Lily Tomlin. Her short skits lampooning the monopolistic phone company of the 1970's were hilarious - in part because they resonated with viewers who had been frustrated getting decent customer service. With the breakup of ATT Ernestine got a pink slip as - theoretically - competition among the baby Bells would deliver an attitude adjustment towards customers if they had a choice.

But I'm beginning to think that Ernestine is alive and well at ATT/Cingular, and is just having a blast dissing all the cell phone customers. Case in point - about four months ago Deb's phone went on the fritz so she went in and picked out a new one. There was, as usual, a rebate that you could have if you extended the contract. And the representative actually cut out the barcode, filled out the form, and dropped it into an envelope for us to mail. So imagine our surprise in about four weeks when we get a note saying that they're sorry but no rebate because there was no barcode enclosed. How do you prove it was in there? Guess next time we need to photocopy it before sending it off.

Then the bills start coming. Aren't cell bills fun? It is positively painful to try to assess one for why your bill has jumped by $20, especially if you have 3 phones on the account like we do. After wading through comparisons I finally figured out that they had increased the "family plan" base rate - a facet of extending our contract that the saleswoman conveniently omitted. But then looking further there's also a "multi-media" charge for this new phone - again, a feature not asked for (Deb is not about to be sending & receiving pictures with her friends). So Monday I'll be at the ATT store dealing with the latest incarnation of Ernestine. I'd switch companies but somehow it always seems that right as we're near the end of the contract somebody's phone gives out - and besides, would it really be any better over at Verizon? Nahhh....

If That's True, Why Bother?

So I'm reading the Examiner today and see the story about the annual crack down on drivers not wearing seat belts. Knowing me you might assume that this blog will be a commentary on how a law that was sold to voters as a "you'll only get a ticket if you're stopped for some other infraction" has morphed into what it's become today - but you'd be wrong! No, what has my ire is the opening line of the article, "In Maryland, 52 percent of drivers killed at night last year failed to wear sear belts."

This is supposed to be a compelling statistic that makes the case for wearing a seat belt - that nearly just as many people wearing their seatbelt are killed as those who blithely disregard the law? Forgive me, but in the words of Dick Cheney, "So?"

Does anyone read these articles? I know we're not talking about an article for a peer reviewed journal but my rant today is that the article is really nothing but a press release and probably should have been paid for as advertising (wait - maybe it was....). The article then goes on to state that seat belts could have saved an estimated 180 lives, but then I'm wondering if we could also say that 170 lives could have been saved if people didn't wear them.

What's missing here of course is information on the percentage of people that routinely wear seatbelts. If the article had stated something along the lines of "while it's estimated that only 10% of drivers fail to buckle up they accounted for over half of the nighttime fatalities last year", then you have compelling statistics for buckling up. So while pouring resources into this enforcement campaign is not a great ROI in my opinion, what troubles me more is the lack of critical writing (which probably comes about from a lack of critical thinking).

For the record:

• I wear my seatbelt religiously
• I make all human passengers wear their seatbelt