Does this apply to you?

Are you a "salaried" or "exempt" employee?

Does your employer make you work "off-the-clock?"

Are you on-call? Do you carry an electronic leash?

There are lawyers waiting to take your call and send you some of the money you deserve!

NOAA comes to Second Life

So... I was at Lefty's for lunch today. Chris & Kris are expecting again in March. Michael is now with Xilinx. Dan's still with IBM. Jim is still with NOAA. Craig was too busy to talk. Lorenzo and his wife are still there and look healthy. The waitstaff has changed, though.

They all got a little bit caught up with me - and vice versa.

But, it turns out that one of the guys that used to do the IT for the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab (CMDL - now GMD, "Global Monitoring Division"?) is employed full-time playing Second Life. What a total waste. He's a high-paid guy, too. You might know Eric...

Anyway, I'm going to have to check this out and see if it's really outrageous... When My First Life gives me the time. :^/

Whose computer is it anyway?

Microsoft has probably been updating your computer without your permission.

It seems that they just want your Windows XP and Vista maintenance experience to be smooth. It would be so much more inconvenient to admit that they have to patch one more thing, wouldn't it?

Those who don't...

remember the past...

American Minute with Bill Federer

September 4

Rome fell SEPTEMBER 4, 476AD.

In the century preceding, Rome was overrun with illegal immigrants:
Visigoths, Franks, Anglos, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Lombards
and Vandals. They first assimilated, many working as servants, but
then came so fast they did not learn the Latin Language.

Highly trained Roman Legions marched rapidly on advanced roads but
were strained fighting conflicts worldwide.

Rome had a trade deficit, having outsourced its grain production to
North Africa, and when the Vandals captured that area, Rome did not
have the resources to retaliate.

Attila the Hun committed terrorist attacks.

The city of Rome was on welfare with citizens given free bread. One
Roman commented: "Those who live at the expense of the public funds
are more numerous than those who provide them." Tax collectors were
"more terrible than the enemy."

Gladiators had provided violent entertainment in the Coliseum.

There had been injustice in courts, corrupt government bureaucracies,
exposure of unwanted infants, infidelity, perverted bathhouses and
sexual immorality as seen in the ruins of Pompeii.

5th-Century historian Salvian wrote: "O Roman people be ashamed...Let
nobody think otherwise, the vices of our bad lives have alone
conquered us."

. . . You know the rest...

:^/

One of the things I don't have to worry about today...