Random Thoughts

Wow! I found a cool web site with a ton of useful info. Can’t believe I hadn’t found this place yet…

The article that led me to this mecca: (from tech republic)
Steer clear of these 10 illegal job interview questions

* Date: September 17th, 2007
* Author: Suzanne Thornberry
Although HR departments should be aware of questions that are illegal to ask prospective employees, some hiring managers aren’t so savvy. Many illegal questions are easy for just about anyone with elementary social graces to avoid, but others might surprise you. In general, you should not ask interviewees about their age, race, national origin, marital or parental status, or disabilities.

Note that this list offers only some very broad guidelines and is not exhaustive. Check with your company’s HR department to see if your state or locality, or even your company, has additional restrictions on what you may ask.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.
#1: Where were you born?

This question might seem like small talk as you get to know a person, but it could also be used to gather information illegally about the candidate’s national origin. Although it may seem more relevant, you should also avoid asking, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” You can ask whether a candidate is authorized to work in the United States, but avoid asking about citizenship.
#2: What is your native language?

Again, the problem is that this question could be used to determine national origin. You can ask whether the person knows a language if it is required for the job. For example, if job responsibilities include supporting Spanish-speaking customers, it’s fair to ask whether the candidate speaks Spanish.
#3: Are you married?

Here’s another question that would seem innocent in most settings, but definitely not in a job interview. Because you can’t discriminate on the basis of marital status, this question is off limits.
#4: Do you have children?

This might sound like small talk, too - an innocent question in most settings - but not in a job interview. It’s covered by a general prohibition about discrimination over parental status.
#5: Do you plan to get pregnant?

In the past, employers sometimes asked this question to weed out women who might take a maternity leave. It has always been rude coming from a casual acquaintance, and now it’s illegal as well.
#6: How old are you?

Some companies used to avoid hiring older workers for a variety of reasons, ranging from a fear of higher healthcare costs and absences to a social bias in favor of youth. But age discrimination is clearly illegal, and you should avoid this question. Don’t try to get the information by asking when the person graduated from college, either.
#7: Do you observe Yom Kippur?

You can’t discriminate on the basis of religion, so this question is illegal, as would be asking about Good Friday, Ramadan, or the Solstice. If you’re concerned about the candidate’s availability, you could ask whether he or she can work on holidays and weekends, but not about the observance of particular religious holidays.
#8: Do you have a disability or chronic illness?

This information is not supposed to be used as a factor in hiring, so the questions are illegal. If the job will require some specific physical tasks, such as installing cables in walls and ceilings, you may ask whether the person could perform those tasks with reasonable accommodation.
#9: Are you in the National Guard?

Although some managers may find it disruptive when employees leave for duty, it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because he or she belongs to the National Guard or a reserve unit.
#10: Do you smoke or use alcohol?

In general, you can’t discriminate on the basis of the use of a legal product when the employee is not on the premises and not on the job.

Tip: To avoid asking the wrong questions, develop an interview form and use a copy of it for each candidate. It will document that you asked each interviewee the same questions. Failing to do so may establish a pattern that could seem discriminatory. For example, if you ask only women about their willingness to travel, thinking that the responsibilities of childcare would make them balk at business trips, you could establish a pattern of discrimination.

Are you a bad boss? I found an article today via yahoo finance from Inc.com that has 7 things to look for. There is another article there explaining more details about things that could hint to people working under you hating you. Enjoy. I know a few people who could use this article forwarded to them from an anonymous email. LOL!

If you go through these hoops hating your boss, perhaps it’s time to check out the growing field of home based businesses. Here’s a look at some legit businesses you can do from home, a couple require specialized degrees or training, but there aren’t any multi-level marketing scams presented here.

Test hotel lets guests try new gadgets in lodging
University of Delaware’s Room 114 at the Courtyard by Marriott ‘room of the future’ with 17 experimental features
Article found via the Tennessean

In Room 114 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel at the University of Delaware, it takes more than reaching over and pressing the snooze button to silence the alarm clock. In addition to bleating an ear-splitting tune at the designated wake-up time, the gadget rolls off the dresser and hides in a corner, forcing sleepy users to get out of bed.

The showerhead in the bathroom has 70 percent stronger water pressure than the average fixture, but it uses 70 percent less water.
Advertisement

When visitors arrive, there’s no looking through a peephole. Instead of glass, the hole in the door contains a digital video camera connected to an LCD screen mounted on the inside of the door.

Room 114 at the Courtyard in Newark, Del., is unique for now, but researchers at the University of Delaware hope it won’t always be that way. They’re using the experimental “room of the future” to test new technology in a real hotel environment.

Guests’ feedback helps industry insiders figure out which gadgets should be rolled out at hotel chains worldwide and which need more work.

“It’s a living/learning lab of lodging technology,” said William Sullivan, managing director of the hotel.

With analysts expecting little, if any, increase recently in occupancy rates nationwide, hotels are looking for more creative ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Since last year, for example, guests at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville have the option of getting recorded wake-up calls from country singers such as Kellie Pickler or Montgomery Gentry.

Owners of the Union Station Hotel in Nashville, meanwhile, recently completed a $10 million renovation that included the addition of high-definition TVs and clock radios with iPod docking stations.

But with Room 114, University of Delaware researchers are hoping to find even better ways to serve guests.
17 new features offered

Room 114 also features flameless electric candles, a digital picture frame and a bedside digital assistant that allows guests to control room temperature, lighting and a digital radio from under the covers.

Right now, Room 114 includes about 17 experimental features, worth a total of about $50,000. There are more are on the way — including an electronic wine chiller and a version of Nintendo’s Wii designed with hotels and business travelers in mind.

Some products will be removed eventually, others will take their places, and a few may return after changes.

Guests can stay in the X-room by choice, but some have been booked by chance. All are given a survey so the UD researchers and developers of the products can collect data about what travelers like and don’t like.

For example, guests complained that it was hard to figure out which of the six remotes operated which gadget.

Cihan Cobanoglu, an associate professor who co-manages the project, is hoping to develop a voice-recognition program that would control all of the machines.

While hotel rooms always contain the standard bed, desk and dresser, travelers’ increased reliance on technology is changing expectations.

“It used to be that we’d only have two electric outlets per room,” said Sullivan, the hotel’s director, but today’s travelers need more.
Cleaner beds sought

Sullivan said technology can be a powerful marketing tool for hotels because certain features may persuade travelers to seek out a particular chain.

Increasingly, travelers are interested in hotels with all the comforts of home, he said.

The Courtyard-Newark is testing a stain-resistant mattress cover from W.L. Gore on all beds, including Room 114.

“You used to see all of those 20/20 stories about hotel bedspreads, and the hotel said they needed to get rid of spreads. Now the bedding is changed every day,” Sullivan said. “It’s a lot better sleeping experience.”

Wendy Lee of The Tennessean contributed to this story.

Worldwide copyright and copy fight issues continue…

First off I get forwarded this surprising article:

From Adult Video News
U.S. Copyrights Waived in Antigua
Ruling clears nation to ignore copyrights on U.S.-produced entertainment.

By Bianca Fox

BRUSSELS, Belgium - In an unusual ruling by the World Trade Organization, the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda won the right to waive U.S. copyrights on films, television and music.

In theory, Antigua will be allowed to distribute copies of American DVDs, CDs, games and software with impunity.

“That has only been done once before and is, I believe, a very potent weapon,” said Mark Mendel, Antigua’s lawyer. “I hope that the United States government will now see the wisdom in reaching some accommodation with Antigua over this dispute.”

The decision by the Geneva-based trade watchdog essentially enables Antigua to violate intellectual-property protection worth up to $21 million as part of a dispute between Antigua and the United States over online gambling. The ruling closes a five-year legal battle that ended with the WTO finding that Washington had wrongly blocked the island’s online-gambling operators from the American market while allowing online betting on horse racing.

Antigua, with a population of about 70,000, is a center for offshore Internet-gaming operations and attracts large numbers of U.S. residents to its online casino-style games and betting services.

Though the WTO award is greater than the $500,000 offered by the United States, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative welcomed the outcome, saying Antigua’s initial claim, at three times the size of its economy, was “patently excessive.” Antigua and Barbuda had claimed damages of $3.44 billion a year.

The WTO often makes decisions awarding trade compensation in cases in which one nation’s policies are found to break its rules. The WTO ruling in this case marks only the second time the compensation lets one country violate intellectual-property laws.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has warned that though the award was limited to Antigua, “it would establish a harmful precedent for a WTO member to affirmatively authorize what would otherwise be considered acts of piracy, counterfeiting, or other forms of [intellectual-property-rights] infringement.”

Then I am told that the All of MP3 site (or is it mp3sparks now?)which was selling mp3s of virtually every musician, band and musical artist at various bit rates for cheap prices in Russia has been allowed to continue it’s operation, even after it was brought up that this site continuing to violate US copyrights will keep Russia out of the WTO… not sure if that info is correct or not, as I have not yet been able to find additional sources.. but there is no shortage of Russian sites selling MP3s of bands at cheap prices.

Amazon is now selling a bunch of music at around 89 cents a song. It’s about time we got DRM free music at varying prices under a dollar. Now I compare the prices, and I think to myself, if a not so copyright friendly place is selling an mp3 for 50 cents, yet I can buy the same song from a company like amazon which does get the artists paid for 89 cents, then I am more likely to go for the 89 cents. However I still think that songs should have varying prices depending upon popularity. I do not think that old songs should be worth the same price, I also do not think that we should paying 89 cents per song, or $8.99 per album without getting more liner notes, song lyrics and the like. A recent news article does insinuate that the record companies are moving in that direction however.

For the first time it seems that things are coming real close to be dead even in the copyright wars, and prices versus quality are really close. Good for everyone.

Article from Reuters / Billboard:
By Antony Bruno

DENVER (Billboard) - There is a reason people still buy CDs more than they do digital albums. Actually there are several, but viruses that come along with music via peer-to-peer sites (P2P) and a concern over digital rights management (DRM) aren’t the only culprits.

Digital music files just don’t provide the same amount of content that a CD package does. That includes liner notes, extended album art and lyrics. Buy a digital album today and all you get are a list of tracks and (maybe) a thumbnail image of the album cover that you can’t even read.

It’s one of the reasons music fans still turn to P2P networks for their music. In addition to providing music free of charge and free of DRM, P2P sites in many cases also include digital copies of such extras typically found in the CD. According to label sources and pirate network tracking firms, fans downloading full albums from BitTorrent sites almost universally choose files that include scans of the CD booklet over those that don’t.

Of course, there is little that can be done with those scans other than view them on a computer. Imagine if the music industry and the digital music services got together and offered an official way to access the same content, but make it available on portable devices as well as make it interactive.

There are two ways to accomplish this. One is working directly with a digital music service and hardware developer to ensure all this new content has an outlet. The other is to go it alone.

For the former, iTunes is the most likely candidate.

Although hardly life-threatening, iTunes is facing new competition from Amazon and a variety of social networking sites. While it has made great advancements with the iPod, iTunes’ innovation has been slow. The service looks and operates much like it always has. The only new features are in video.

In 2008, look for Apple to make nice with its label partners by offering a bit more with each download, such as lyrics and more interactive album art.

iTunes is the only music service that has a built-in video download feature. The others offer only streaming video. It’s also one of the few services that feature a tightly integrated device — the iPod. Apple is in a great position to roll out new features across its online store and its devices at the same time.

Microsoft’s Zune is another place to watch for this, for the same reasons. It also has the integrated service and device, as well as ownership of the technical building blocks needed (such as Windows Media Player). And since it’s still lagging far behind Apple in the digital music game, Microsoft could easily tap digital extras as a battleground for new market share.

The problem is that the four major music companies rarely work together on anything. So another angle would be for each to go it alone. If digital music services can’t or won’t incorporate better metadata into their downloaded files, look for third-party applications to emerge that will do so after the fact.

Early examples of this are two games developed for the iPod — “Musicka,” created by the developers of the original music rhythm game “PaRappa the Rapper,” and “Phase,” created by “Rock Band” and original “Guitar Hero” developer Harmonix. Both are rhythm-based games that let users “play” along to the songs on their device by pressing buttons at the right time.

The point is that if these game companies can do it, there is no reason why labels can’t offer (or commission) their own iPod plug-in that will import better album art, liner notes and lyrics directly from the label or artist and ported into iTunes and the iPod.

In the year ahead, look for several efforts from both camps as digital music distribution becomes more important to the music industry as well as a point of increasing competition among service providers.

Here are a few areas to watch:

ALBUM ART

As music formats have changed through the years, album artwork has suffered. It has gone from sprawling center spreads adorning vinyl LPs to stamp-sized thumbnails accompanying MP3 files. But as digital becomes the predominant format, look for album art to evolve.

The early groundwork for this already has been laid. Last spring, Warner Music Group (WMG) added interactive booklets based on Apple’s Quicktime software to about 75 albums sold on iTunes, providing photos and links to more multimedia content. The problem was it was also based on Flash technology, which the latest version of Quicktime disabled due to a security flaw.

There is additional activity on the mobile front. All labels are working with phone manufacturers on the “mobile album” concept — a bundled digital package that includes the full song, ringtone, wallpaper image and other assets for one price.

LYRICS

While a lyrics page is quite commonplace in the pages of a CD booklet, they are nonexistent with digital music files. In fact, most digital music services only let users search for songs by artist, track or album name. None have an integrated lyrics search tool, and you certainly can’t download lyrics to your iPod or other device.

Slowly, things are changing. Yahoo Music last year launched the first publisher-authorized online lyrics search page thanks to Gracenote, which has taken on the task of untangling the Gordian knot of music lyrics publishing rights for service providers.

That search page isn’t integrated with the Yahoo Music Unlimited service, though. What’s lacking is an affordable way to attach those lyrics to the digital file of the song they belong to. Digital music services would have to pay an extra fee per download to offer that capability, and devices would have to add a new “lyrics” tab or some other functionality for users to subsequently access the words while the song plays.

Look for Gracenote and its service provider partners to develop exactly that in the year ahead.

LINER NOTES

Perhaps the most fundamental changes coming to album extras are in the liner notes. In a CD booklet, it’s all well and good to list a bunch of people to thank and leave it at that. In the digital age, liner notes become far more interesting.

Rather than thanking so-and-so producer for doing such a great mixing job or their family for support, digital albums can provide behind-the-scenes footage of the producer and band at work, or perhaps a “making of” featurette, interview Q&A, family photos/video, etc.

One area to look for such innovation is with the CDVU+ and MVI formats created by Walt Disney and WMG, respectively. Technically these are multimedia CD formats, not digital music formats. But both represent a step toward expanding the way all involved view a music product.

Both add what can best be called “digital magazines” to a CD that, when inserted into a computer, allow fans to access videos, link to online features, lyrics and more. These physical products represent the bridge between old-school CDs and the digital future. As labels focus on selling more digital albums instead of individual tracks in the new year, expect them to learn from these experiments and begin creating similar all-digital packages as well.

Reuters/Billboard

from yahoo finance / Forbes

Fortune
Play office politics without getting dirty
Thursday November 29, 11:52 am ET
By Anne Fisher, Fortune senior writer

Look up “politics” at websters.com and you’ll find a secondary entry, “play politics,” defined thus: “to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way, as for job advancement.” I’d guess that’s the way most of us think of office politics.

But Mitchell Kusy, Ph.D., a Fulbright scholar for international organizational development who teaches in the doctoral program at Antioch University, has a different idea. Co-author of a new book called Manager’s Desktop Consultant: Just-in-Time Solutions to the Top People Problems That Keep You Up at Night (Davies-Black, $18.95), Kusy sees politics as “the art of building relationships that will help you and your team accomplish more than you could on your own.”

“Playing politics the right way can have a tremendous impact on your career,” he says. “It’s a matter of learning good gamesmanship.”

I talked recently with Kusy about how to play politics at work in a positive way. Some excerpts from our conversation:

Q. In your consulting work, do you often find that “politics” has gotten a bad name?

A. Oh, definitely. But you can’t escape it. Every organization is political. You can’t just say, “I won’t get involved in office politics,” because that simply won’t work, especially if you hope to get to a position of power or influence. So what we try to do is, teach people how to engage with the political structure of the company in a positive way.

Q. How does one do that?

A. The first step is to figure out how success is measured in your organization. This might sound obvious, but when we poll people in companies, we find that they often don’t know exactly what makes someone successful - or not - whether it’s generating revenues, or delivering excellent customer service, or any number of things. But once you have analyzed what is really valued by the organization, you can start to align what you’re doing with that.

Then, take a good look at the prevailing management style. How does your style fit in? If the power brokers in the company all have a very autocratic style, and yours is more consensus-driven, or vice versa, try to adapt your style. But do it in small steps. Trying to suddenly act in a way that is totally out of character for you is likely to backfire.

Q. Besides how success is measured, what else do you find many people don’t know about their company’s power structure?

A. How much risk is tolerated, and what happens if you try something new and fail. This is crucial, yet many people don’t take it into account ahead of time. Let’s say you work for an entrepreneurial organization where people are expected to make decisions quickly and rely a great deal on their intuition. If you’re a very analytical person who has to dot every “i” and cross every “t” before you can reach a decision, you’ll probably miss the boat. And the reverse is true as well. If you want to achieve influence in the organization, you have to be operating on the same wavelength as the people who have power.

You also need to know what the consequences will be if you take a risk and it doesn’t work out. Will you get a slap on the wrist, or be ostracized for a while and then forgiven, or will you be fired? If it’s the latter, you might decide to take a calculated risk anyway, but you won’t be blindsided by the result.

Q. What’s the most common mistake people make in trying to increase their own influence?

A. One very common mistake is, aligning themselves too closely with any one group or faction - which has the effect of needlessly alienating other factions. Try to find a variety of benefits in a wide range of alliances. One sure way to build your influence is to learn how to work with your opponents and find areas of mutual interest and agreement. In my consulting practice, I’ve seen people really try to understand an “enemy’s” position, and end up changing their own views as a result. That’s very powerful. It shows that you’re confident enough to be flexible.

Q. What if you do all these things - analyze what the organization defines as “success,” adapt your style to the prevailing style, understand the risk tolerance, and so on - and you decide you’re in the wrong place? Does that happen much?

A. Yes, and at that point I’ve seen people leave one organization and go to another one where they have a better chance of achieving real influence without having to change their entire personality. As a psychologist I can tell you, everyone can adapt to some extent, but people’s essential personalities do not change.

So if you find yourself in a situation where you are struggling to connect to the power structure and build influence, but you just don’t fit in well enough - especially if what is expected is an affront to your sense of integrity - maybe you don’t belong there.

You have to be authentic. The cardinal rule of good politics is: If it isn’t really you, don’t do it.

Readers, what do you think? Can office politics ever be positive? Or have you only seen the negative effects? What are the best and worst examples of office politics you’ve seen? Post your thoughts on the Ask Annie blog.