Job Description Translations

by philrw
152 words - 1 min read
Rants and Raves
Here’s a rough translation matrix for those of you out there looking through job listings online and otherwise. Fast paced and fun work environment: Crazy busy and chaotic Competitive pay: Competitive for us: you get just over minimum wage and definitely not a living wage. Excellent opportunities for advancement: Start at the bottom and stay at the bottom until someone above you dies or has a psychotic break. We don’t care about any degrees you may have. Sales contest awards: If you don’t sell enough then you’re fired. Discounts on merchandise:
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IM cool

by philrw
264 words - 2 min read
Tech
I run my own IM server based on the Jabber protocol. “Yeah, that’s great,” you say, but isn’t it just another closed, proprietary system that won’t actually let you connect with anyone else? Think again. All my friends on Gmail who have that chat feature built-in can now talk to me just by adding me to their chat list. My IM address looks the same as my email address, but that doesn’t mean it goes to my email. Google did something right: they based their Gtalk service on open standards (Jabber/XMPP).
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Review, Feelings, Mixed

by philrw
291 words - 2 min read
Film/TV/Theater Rants and Raves
This is a quick blurb about Disney’s Enchanted and my present-moment feelings on fairy tale endings in general. I saw the movie Enchanted tonight. Going in I didn’t know what to expect: a childish film? A silly movie? I said that I thought it would be cheesy and I was going to see it to have Disney prove me wrong. That wish was granted: they did. It is a wonderful little film. The first half of the first act runs a bit long and the last half of the third act goes by a little too fast, but overall it was a lot of fun.
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Gmail follow-up

by philrw
43 words - 1 min read
Tech

I was able to log in to Gmail the following morning as if nothing had happened. Go figure.

I still don’t trust them and I will be using my own server for my anonymous emailing needs from now on, thank you very much.

Gmail sucks and blows

by philrw
163 words - 1 min read
Rants and Raves Tech
Another reason why I really love running my own email server. Today I tried to log in to my anonymous Gmail account that I created for various identity-protection reasons and i was told that my account was disabled. Disabled. Instantly and without warning. Google sucks and if they ever want to get off my sh*t list they’d better do things right. I have a feeling my account was deleted because of some kind of automated message scanning thing they have going on and not a real live person ever looked at my account activity.
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Record Bathtub Earth Alphabet Foot Woman

by philrw
50 words - 1 min read
Tech

I got a spam with this in the subject line: Record Bathtub Earth Alphabet Foot Woman. I just thought it was funny.

If enough spammers send enough spam with enough ramdomly-generated subject lines, isn’t it only a matter of time until they come up with something funny, clever, or profound?

Gangs vs God

by philrw
34 words - 1 min read
Personal

Organized religions and gangs: are the two that different? At their core how are religion and gangs similar and how do they differ? I would propose that the two are more alike than not.