Stan Taylor

A few months ago, Apple was criticized for the working conditions in its iPod factory in China. So, Apple made an investigation–good for them (and good for PR)–and put the investigation’s findings on its web site. This caught my eye (emphasis added):

We found no instances of forced overtime and employees confirmed in interviews that they could decline overtime requests without penalty. We did, however, find that employees worked longer hours than permitted by our Code of Conduct, which limits normal workweeks to 60 hours and requires at least one day off each week. We reviewed seven months of records from multiple shifts of different productions lines and found that the weekly limit was exceeded 35% of the time and employees worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time. Although our Code of Conduct allows overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances, we believe in the importance of a healthy work-life balance and found these percentages to be excessive.

So, working more than 6 days a week and more than 60 hours per week jeopardizes an employee’s ‘work-life balance”? Wow.

This morning, I called Katie from the office:
Katie: Hi honey. What’s up?
Me: Just trying to get this damn release out the door.
Katie: That’s what you always say.
Me: Well, we’ve been working on this release for a while.
Katie: No, I mean, that’s what you always say at every company where you work.

From Kung Fu Monkey:

FDR: Oh, I’m sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we’re coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How’s that going to feel?
CHURCHILL: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We’ll be in the pub, flipping you off. I’m slapping Rolls-Royce engines into untested flying coffins to knock you out of the skies, and then I’m sending angry Welshmen to burn your country from the Rhine to the Polish border.
US. NOW: BE AFRAID!! Oh God, the Brown Bad people could strike any moment! They could strike … NOW!! AHHHH. Okay, how about .. NOW!! AAGAGAHAHAHHAG! Quick, do whatever we tell you, and believe whatever we tell you, or YOU WILL BE KILLED BY BROWN PEOPLE!! PUT DOWN THAT SIPPY CUP!!

A while back, I wrote about an experience I had in the grocery store. But this grocery-store story is amazing.

I just helped Ducks in a Row software launch their new web site. They sell home inventory software, and–soon–other software for personal risk assessment.

This article tells of a woman who used her own sleuthing skills to track down the youths who vandalized her house and cars. The article focuses on the woman’s tenacity and ingenuity, but another aspect of the story struck me: the local grocery store went through receipts for her, and after locating the likely purchase, they went through their surveillance tapes with the woman to identify the purchasers. The article mentions that the perps made a cash purchase. If they’d paid by credit card, would the store have given her the purchaser’s name?
I find it disturbing that the grocery store management went to these lengths to help a PRIVATE investigation.

Now I’m getting some use out of my new dSLR camera. As we were loading up to drive home from San Antonio this afternoon, this dragonfly landed on the car’s antenna.

This is funny.

Over at slacktivist, Fred has another post about wealth (see my earlier post). While reading the comments to Fred’s latest post, I was reminded of an experience I had a couple of years ago.
One evening, I stopped on my way home from work at the local grocery store to grab a couple of items. As I was waiting to check out, I noticed that the couple at the register were doing something I didn’t immediately recognize. I started to pay attention and realized that they were checking the balance on their EBT card. The cashier told them their balance was less than three dollars. Then the woman dug in her purse and came up with two or three dollars. They ended up putting back part of their intended $5 purchase and paying with the couple of dollars that they had on them. It suddenly dawned on me that this was all the money they had to their names.
We’ve certainly had to budget carefully and do with less to make it from paycheck to paycheck sometimes. After doing the checkbook, I’ve said to Katie numerous times, “We’re broke until payday”, but, I realize, not broke like the couple in H.E.B. I have little idea what this couple’s life is like. It makes me grateful for the blessings that I have and I try to keep in mind how fortunate I am.

As the video below demonstrates, getting computers to work with human language is hard–even after decades of research and development.