Contractors vs Content

A coworker recently told me a story about a previous project he was on. Quite typical of any Big Company.

I had a project manager that had some money in her project budget that needed to be spent…it’s around October time so she’s really starting to look for ways…the project is delayed because we can’t get content from the providers (we were converting from their format to ours). She says “I’ve got money in our project that we could use for contractors to help with development.” I said we don’t need developers, we need content. She says “well, we’ve got the money so why not hire some contractors?” I replied that I don’t have anything for contractors to do. she then asks “well, let’s say we get a contractor or 2…what would you have them do?” I’m sitting there looking at this woman thinking she’s either f-ed in the head or deaf and say “I’d buy them airline tickets to Australia and have them go get us the content”…the meeting ended shortly thereafter

Im not anti-social, Im just not user friendly

If you want to know how to get the best deal on your Cingular plans and phones, Take a look at the 7 Confessions of a Cingular Sales Rep. It’s worth a read, and some of the tips would probably work with more sales reps than just Cingular.

A while ago I wrote about how Toshiba was going to be including solid state drives (or SSD’s) in some of their laptops. The biggest drive they had thus far was 32gb. Samsung just released a 64gb drive with some crazy performance specs. Check it out.

Continuously Variable Transmissions (or CVT) have been around for a long time. In fact snowmobiles have been using them since they were originally created. Just recently some incredible advancements have been made. I just read about a new implementation on a Bike by Ellsworth. They call it the Continuously Variable Planetary Drive. Be sure to watch the video, it’s very interesting.

If you’ve got money to burn I suggest you either throw it my way or buy one of these million dollar laptops.

Matt was talking about how he wanted to have a conductor game for the Wii. A while ago I saw a video with people conducting using the Wii. Yesterday I ran across the Wii Loop Machine. Pretty interesting the amount of stuff it can do and how easily.

Youtube has announced the winners its first official Youtube Awards. My favorite is the following:

how to freak out other drivers:
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Art is never finished only abandoned

Moon Woman - Jackson Pollock

Could you imagine putting your elbow through a painting you just purchased for 139 million dollars? I think I’d get sick. I just read in Maxim that the most expensive painting ever purchased/sold was a Jackson Pollock. I wasn’t familiar with any of them so I did some searching and I can’t believe anyone would be willing to pay anything for them. This one seemed to be one of the more popular ones.

Ryan was talking about this video the other day and I had to check it out. Please do not watch if you are easily offended.

I’m not even going to begin to try to explain where or how I found this one but its worth a look.

He was a wise man who invented beer

Saturday we went out with some friends for St Patrick’s. We pre-gamed at Cory’s place and then out to the bars. There was a giant brawl that got us into Pig N’ Whistle for free, afterward I interviewed one of the participants to find out what happened. Check out the Video:

Behind every argument is someone’s ignorance

NOTE: Some of the internal links in this post are now dead. The pages they refer to no longer exist so they cannot be fixed.

Yesterday I decided that since I’m going the WordPress route I might as well migrate all of my old stuff from websites in the past. I began moving some things but I can’t decide how I want to deal with most of it. For the time being i’ve created a Quotes page and some sub pages. I can’t seem to figure out how to make Pages search-able, If that doesn’t happen they may not stay a Page. I also added some cigarette facts.
Friday on my walk to the parking garage from work I saw a Red Stripe bottle laying on the sidewalk. It made me think of some funny commercials I saw a while back. I couldn’t find a listing of them together so I created my own.

If you want to see Old Grandma Hardcore kicking ass and taking names in Resistance: Fall of Man check out the following video:

Cigarrette Facts

Please take these tidbits with a grain of salt. They have not been proven and I make no claim to their authenticity. If even 50% of these are true the cigarettes should be outlawed.

  • Of kids who smoke, 86% smoke the three most heavily advertised brands. The majority of adult smokers don’t smoke those brands
  • Of all people who have ever tried a cigarette, 88 percent tried their first cigarette by age 18.
  • Every day, the tobacco companies get about 3,000 new customers — kids.
  • Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year among nonsmokers.
  • 75% of all teenagers who smoke have parents who smoke.
  • After the first month of life, infants of parents who smoke have higher mortality rates through the first year of life, mostly because of an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory conditions such as bronchiolitis
  • If both a child’s parents smoke, it is the equivalent of the child actively smoking between 60 and 150 cigarettes per year.
  • Children under five who are exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher risk factor for the development of food allergy
  • Tobacco companies fought and won in the Supreme Court to advertise cigarettes near schools and playgrounds.
  • They add licorice and cocoa, which sound innocent, except when you burn them they act as bronchodilators — which makes you inhale more smoke so the nicotine gets further into your body.
  • The tobacco industry lets people believe that light cigarettes are better for you, when actually, they can be even worse
  • Tobacco companies put ammonia in cigarettes which makes your brain absorb more nicotine than it normally would
  • The product they sell kills more people than AIDS, murder, suicide, fires, alcohol and all illegal drugs COMBINED
  • Smokers are admitted to hospitals twice as often as nonsmokers
  • Tobacco companies know that 70% of smokers want to quit but can’t.
  • No one knows exactly what they’re putting in different cigarette brands, but we do know that there are 599 ingredients tobacco companies mix and match any way they want to
  • Tobacco companies know that nicotine changes your brain so, eventually, your brain can’t function normally without it.
  • They also know that of the ones who try to quit only about 3% succeed.
  • “Marlboro…and Kool…have their largest share among very young smokers (18 and younger).??
  • “Realistically, if our company is to survive and prosper, over the long term, we must get our share of the youth market. In my opinion this will require new brands tailored to the youth market.?? ~ Tobacco company
  • “We have been asked by our client to come up with a package design… a design that’s attractive to kids.?? ~ Tobacco Company
  • “The base of our business is the high school student…It is the ‘in’ brand to smoke if you want to be one of the group.?? ~Tobacco Company
  • “The desire to quit seems to come earlier now than before, even prior to the end of high school. In fact, it often seems to take hold as soon as the recent starter admits to himself that he is hooked on smoking.”
  • “Products yielding .4mg of nicotine or lower failed to satisfy the smoker.”
  • “It’s a well-known fact that teen-agers like sweet products. Honey might be considered.?? ~ Tobacco Company
  • “Would disclosure of urea as a tobacco additive have a negative effect on consumer perception given that it is a constituent of urine??? ~Tobacco Company
  • In 1953 they knew: “Studies of clinical data tend to confirm the relationship between heavy and prolonged tobacco smoking and incidence of cancer of the lung.??
  • Tobacco companies have called kids replacement smokers. That means we’re supposed to replace the 1200 smokers who die every day
  • They spent $9.57 billion on advertising and promoting their products in 2000.
  • Look at your watch. In the next hour, the tobacco industry will spend over $1 million on advertising
  • Amonia is Added to Cigarrettes
  • Cigarette smoke contains Arsenic
  • Smokers Inhale Cyanide
  • Tobacco Contains Radioactive Lead
  • Tobacco Companies put propylene glycol into Cigarrettes the same stuff found in Anti-Freeze.
  • Nicotine is addictive. Tobacco companies manipulate the nicotine delivery of cigarettes.
  • Cigarettes contain amonia. So does dog poop.
  • Ammonia is great for cleaning toilets, AND increasing the impact of nicotine in cigarettes.
  • Your Pee Contains urea, thanks to tobacco companies so do cigarettes, Enjoy.

50 years ago i could understand smokers. Today? Try again.