Windows Vista
http://tinyurl.com/yfj4c5
This is one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever seen. I hope we can switch to 9 day week some day
Dr. Varsavsky rounded out his map of the nine day week’s full year by setting aside five days to celebrate carefully selected events like Christmas and the Fourth of July – days when everyone would be free from work except those needed for maintaining safety and order. The diagram below illustrates the arrangement of one nine day week, which would be repeated 40 times during the year. XXX shows the leisure time of three days; the letters OOO and QQQ represent the six work days but are split into two categories because some workers may want three day part time employment and six days of leisure – an individual choice that the Doctor thought would be particularly useful to senior workers who were tapering off toward retirement. Also, part-time work might serve families well by having one or both parents choose part-time employment in the interest of their children. The letters A, B, and C designate the three “cadres” that all workers are assigned to in approximately equal numbers in their workplaces.
DAYS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A – X X X O O O Q Q Q
B – Q Q Q X X X O O O
C – O O O Q Q Q X X X
Listen to Dr. Varsavsky on the flexibility of this arrangement:
“We can picture the nine day week as made up of three periods of three days each that we call triads. Today most people work five days per week or 71.4% of the time. To maintain about the same ration of work to leisure on the nine day week, people would work two of the three triads, or 66.7% of the time. But in fact there will be many job openings for people willing to work just one triad of 33.3% of the time.” He goes on to praise the overall gain in leisure time created by the new work week and its significance in the quality of life in families and for individuals.
Read the entire article for the benefits of such a scheme. Pure Genius!
Hello Real World: Student’s Approach to Great Internships Co-ops and Entry Level Positions
by Jengyee Liang
Paperback: 146 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (February 8, 2006)
Language: English
We all learn from others experience, we all stand on the shoulders of others work. Jengyee Liang presents her real life experience from which all students who are looking for an internship or an entry level job can benefit greatly. We learn great deal more by doing something than by reading about something. So internships in that aspect present a unique and beneficial experience. This book will serve as your guide to get into that boat. This nice little book consists of 6 parts, actually seven. All quotes are taken from the Liang’s book except for the last one which is from Creating Passionate Users blog post.
Part 1: Where to Start
“You don’t have the luxury of experimenting for two months and bailing if you end up not liking your work. So, you should take care to practice working and practice interviewing. Internships and co-ops are your dress rehearsals for your career.”
This part starts of with some tips on who/when/how you should read this book. And then goes onto to explain when you should start looking for internship and presents a nice information about what you can as a freshmen, as a sophomore, as a junior or as a senior do about internships/co-ops.
Part 2: The Job Hunt
“Be proactive. Being proactive basically means not limiting yourself to a single source for finding job leads. Try everything.”
Great advice on hows, whats and wheres of job hunting. This part consists great tips on where to look for employment, art of mingling(aka networking), being positive. Liang advises to treat your job search like a 4 unit class, this is so true, you have to take job search as serious as a class. Explains how to choose right company(like big or small), resume, reference letters and interview preparation tips.
Part 3: From offer to first day on the job: sealing the deal
Liang presents the importance of having the luxury of multiple offers and how to handle multiple offers. She then presents the need to have pre-conversation with your to-be-manager and what to ask her/him to ease your transition into your new job.
“Just like you don’t need perfect grades, you don’t need to attend a prestigious school in order to enter the workforce and succeed in the real world. Your employer is concerned with the work that you do, not your academic background. You’ll make more friends too if you don’t flaunt a superiority complex.”
Part 4: Once you are there : Shining at your new job
This part gives an overview what to expect at work place and how to make most of your internship. Tells you how to balance your work and social life, how to get used to and take leverage of the corporate ambiance, how to cope with surprises. Includes some great tips like keeping journal, project log as tools for tracking your performance.
“Companies value a well-rounded student and a well-rounded employee. They want to see you interact with your coworkers and enjoy yourself at work.”
Part 5: Reflecting on your experience
Liang presents some tips on how to evaluate your internships experience. Whether your experience was good or bad, Liang tells about how to leverage this experience for your future internship or full time jobs.
“I encourage you to appreciate your internship because this is an exploratory time where mistakes are expected and won’t be crippling to your career. This is also an opportunity for you to meet new people and hopefully, experience living in a new place.”
Part 6: Tables turned
Liang presents a case study of an intern and explains important aspects to keep in mind in order to convert the internship to full time offer and to have a pleasant internship. She presents employers perspective on how interns are evaluated, lets you see the other side.
There are 6 appendices which can be chapters onto themselves, so I consider this as seventh part of the book, as each appendix has great information like “Internships vs Co-Op”.
Read this and this post at CPU by Kathy Sierra on story telling
So, what are you doing to help your users on a hero’s journey? What can you do to associate what you do/make/sell/write/build with a hero’s journey? What can you do to help your user through the “I Suck” phase and into the “I Rule!” phase
Thats what this book is about, excellent story about her own experience. Liang’s book is available on Amazon.com for $15, costs about 2 movies tickets(with your student pass), fairly priced and packed with excellent information. And Jengyee Liang perfectly understands about this short span attention world, thats why this book about 150 Pages, you can read it in about 2 hours. And read it again and again. You can get more information at the book’s website
I guess I’ll write about my own experience in other post.