http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_2785449

IT TURNS OUT what your mother always tells you is true: People judge you by your looks.

Nichols experienced a far different response from store employees, who basically made it clear: Don’t let the door hit you on your gothic backside on your way out.

There’s a big discussion going on about this on FARK, but I’m of two minds on this subject. On one hand, there’s no way in hell Nichols should have expected them to be willing to hire her. Presentation is part of a first impression, and such impressions do count.

On the other hand, if I had been a customer in the store when Nichols was in there, I would have walked out. I didn’t paste that part, but the clerk treated her extremely rudely despite Nichols being very polite. I don’t care if it’s a customer or an applicant: if you can’t treat someone with basic courtesy when they’re being courteous to you, then I have no desire to do business with you.

It’s kinda like that scene in Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts’s character (in full prostitute gear) goes into this store and is trying to be very nice, but is told very rudely she isn’t welcome. She comes back in hours later much more well-dressed, and the clerks (not recognizing her) fall over themselves to try and help her. That’s when Julia’s character bluntly tells them that she was in earlier, and because of their attitude they lost a sale worth several thousand dollars.

The lesson to be learned here, kids? Attitude is a big part of one’s presentation, and it doesn’t help to mean to those who are trying to be courteous to you.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163702981

When Office 12 debuts next year, the default “save-to” file format of the applications will be XML. Or at least a version which Microsoft is calling Microsoft Open XML Formats.
A company exec was quick to note, however, that the new applications will also support the traditional binary .doc, .xl, and .ppt formats, but unless users designate otherwise, their work will save to the XML choice. The default format can be changed during or after deployment, Microsoft said. With this version of Office, PowerPoint is brought into the XML fold, along with Word and Excel.

The current Office 2003 allows users to save Word and Excel documents to its own WordML and SpreadsheetML (XML) formats. The new version adds PowerPoint to the mix. Numoto said those formats, as well as the upcoming iterations, are completely compliant with the XML 1.0 standard.

Granted, the cynic in me wonders how much MS will keep in line with what they’re saying. However, if this goes anywhere like I think it would, this could be a very good thing, especially as far as other programs like OpenOffice.org and WordPerfect having full MS Office compatibility. I’ve always believed MS should open the formats and compete on features, just like Adobe does with Acrobat and its PDF format. Like it or not, even though I use OpenOffice.org at home, I would be foolish to say the best office suite right now is anything other than MS Office.

In any event, it should be interesting to see where things go from here.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/bizarre/3201666

WASHINGTON – A Prince George’s County, Md., jury would not convict a man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death because a half-eaten hamburger, recovered from the crime scene and assumed to have been his, was not tested for DNA.

Prosecutors say jurors are telling them they expect forensic evidence in criminal cases, just like on their favorite television shows, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigators.

Yet, increasingly, jurors are reluctant to convict someone without it, a phenomenon the criminal justice community is calling the “CSI effect.”

“There is an increased and unrealistic expectation that every crime scene will yield plentiful forensic evidence,” said Alexandria, Va., Commonwealth’s Attorney Randolph Sengel.

*sigh*

You know, I really do hope I’m never called on a jury in a case like this. I’d hate to be the one that has to sit there and agree with the prosecutor that, “I know you watch CSI, and it makes for good drama… but real forensics just isn’t like that!” One of my biggest peeves is how some of the stuff they show is outside the realm of possibility; a good example is taking a blurry or low-resolution photograph and turning it into a crystal-clear image. For that matter, I kinda know how the crime lab people feel; I’d end up watching movies or TV shows that feature such feats as using a laptop to hack into anything without a network connection or the like, and thinking, “It’s NOT LIKE THAT!”

It’s called artistic license, folks. The sooner you realize that, the better off we’ll all be.

*going back to my not-so-glamourous job sitting behind a desk, working with a Mac that can’t hack into an alien computer system and give it a virus no matter how much of a genius I might be…*

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3182087

<i>
<p>CHICAGO – Perfect attendance is such a virtue at Lawson Products that employees who go a year without missing work or arriving late are rewarded with extra paid days off.</p>
<p>But for some, there's a downside. At the distributor's warehouse and customer service center in Addison, Ill., there are no excuses for missing work unless time off is scheduled in advance. Any unplanned absence, whether for illness, a flat tire or family emergency, is a black mark.</p>
<p>Punching in one minute late earns half a point. Missing one to two hours merits one point. A full day adds two points.</p>
<p>Six points results in a reprimand; 10 points, suspension without pay. Employees can be fired if they exceed 12 points within a year.</p>
<p>Such "no-fault" attendance programs, which run counter to the trend toward more family-friendly approaches, are migrating from factories and warehouses to white-collar workplaces as employers try to standardize discipline and wrest greater control over workers' schedules.</p>
<p>…</p>
<!–StartFragment –>
<p>No-fault policies eliminate judgments about whether an absence could have been avoided. Instead, they draw a strict line between planned and unplanned time off. Typically, no more than six unscheduled absences
are tolerated within a year, although multiday illnesses count as one "occurrence."</p>
<p>Those with paid days off for illness or emergencies still get paid, but these unplanned absences count against their attendance records.</p>
<p>…</p>
<!–StartFragment –>
<p>"It's kind of like three strikes and you're out," said George Faulkner, absence management practice leader at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. "We try to tell employers, you have to give employees some
kind of flexibility here."</p>
<p>Strict proponents take a different view.</p>
<p>"When management says, 'We're going to give you an opportunity to fire yourself,' people understand that," said Gene Levine, a California-based consultant. "You decide how many times you want to be absent, and you begin to count down to termination."</p>
<p>Levine described his approach at a company that was unhappy about having to fire an employee after she missed work because of her grandmother's death.</p>
<p>"In each of the absences you had before, was there any one you could have avoided?" Levine recalled asking the woman.</p>
<p>She acknowledged one, he said.</p>
<p>"We're not firing you because of your grandmother but because of that date," he told her. "After that, absenteeism dropped because people said, 'If they can let this person go, they're serious.' "</p></i>

I doubt he'll read this… but Mr. Levine, I want you to do me a favor. Scratch that… I want you to do yourself a favor.

Go home to your wife, your kids, your parents. Tell them they're irrelevant. Tell them your job is more important. Tell them that you'd rather save your career than help them.

If you can't do that… then I want you to sit down, and realize <b>that is exactly what you are telling your employees to do</b>. Think on that. If this truly does not bother you… then I weep for humanity, as you are obviously one of its first casualties.