Sam Fisher snake-cam now a reality

Attention all wannabe Splinter Cell operatives: super-small snake cameras are now available. 

From GizMag.com:

Misumi has just released what it claims is the smallest camera ever, a tiny cylinder measuring only 4.4mm in diameter and 15mm in length, capable of 320x240 pixel QVGA capture.

How freakin' cool is that?  All I need to do now is hack it into a wristband-mounted LCD display.  It's unlikely I'll squeeze into that skin-tight stealth suit any time soon, however.

Posted by Dito @ 12:42 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Letter

[Why am I having such trouble posting this? The system has a weird problem with the phrase "union member" - don't ask me why.]

Here's what I wrote to the leading Democratic candidates yesterday.

Dear Candidate,

I would appreciate hearing your position on changing our country's anti-worker "employ at will" laws. I am a hard-working, middle-class American who was recently dismissed from a job through no fault of my own. This was not a layoff or plant closing; it was personal retaliation. My former employer found it easier to fire me (and several others) than to try and solve the company's problems. They can tell their clients - and themselves - that they've made changes and the future will be different. Firing me will not magically restore the millions of dollars wasted by inefficiency, lost to cost overruns, or rebuild the client's faith in the company.

The employ-at-will statues all but encourage this sort of unethical conduct. I did nothing wrong, unless working hard and asking questions is wrong. Yet I have no legal recourse.

I was not a victim of any legally-defined discrimination and not covered by a collective bargaining contract. I'm just an average middle-aged guy whose manager didn't like him. Now I'm collecting unemployment and trying to restart my career.

I hope you and your fellow Democrats will try to strengthen worker protection laws. We are the backbone of this country, not the lobbyists and corporations who have written these labor laws.

Thank you for your attention. I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming election.

If you agree with even a small part of this, please do the same and contact someone. We can't expect change if we don't attempt to make a change.


This is likely to be the last entry in Job Hunting Idiocy. I grow weary of complaining about my situation. Starting with my next entry, I'll try to be more entertaining and less soap-box. Thanks all for reading.

Posted by Dito @ 6:15 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Job Hunting Idiocy, part four

Note: I'm having trouble posting the full entry - I think it's too long, although I haven't seen an error message. Here's an excerpt.

Most Americans work under laws commonly known as the "at-will employment" doctrine. This means you're able to quit your job at any time. More importantly, though, it means your employer can fire you at any time, without cause. Your employer does not need to demonstrate any wrongdoing or incompetence on your part. They can, and often do, simply chuck people out whenever it suits them.

If you think this is just me ranting, read this decision from the California Supreme Court, one of the few courts to recognize that employers should be held accountable for their actions:

We have become a nation of employees. We are dependent upon others for our means of livelihood, and most of our people have become completely dependent upon wages. If they lose their jobs they lose every resource except for the relief supplied by the various forms of social security. Such dependence of the mass of the people upon others for all of their income is something new in the world. For our generation, the substance of life is in another man’s hands.

Rather than simply sit around and complain, I decided to take a little bit of action. I sent letters to the leading Democratic presidential candidates (Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich) urging them to address this imbalance of power. Why not the Republican candidates, you ask? Simple. Democrats care about individuals, Republicans care about large corporations. Feel free to disagree, but kindly don't muddy the waters around my employment law discussion.

I'll post my letter a bit later.

Posted by Dito @ 1:15 pm EDT | Permalink | 6 Comments

Job Hunting Idiocy, part three

Welcome once again to another episode of Job Hunting Idiocy. 

Today's topic: How to deal with former colleagues who continually check in with you?

In the year I worked at ABC Engineering, I made friends with a few guys.  As most people know, there are "friends" and then there are "work friends".  Work friends are the people you gripe with, go to lunch with, maybe sip a few beers with, etc. 

Two weeks ago, I was unexpectedly thrown under the bus and left without a job.  My work friends are still there, still drawing paychecks, while I spend my days sending in resumes and writing blog entries.  Good for them, I guess.  Not so good for me.

One of my work friends insists on emailing or calling me nearly every day. 

He thinks he's being funny with one-liners like:

    "Man, it must be nice sleeping in every day.  Wish I could."

    "Now that's the life - send your wife to work and sit on the couch all day long."

Or sometimes he tries a different tactic: telling me how rotten the office morale is.

    "You're so lucky to be gone - I fucking hate it here."

    "Everyone's complaining - it's not the same since you left."

What he fails to understand is that I don't want to hear it.  There's very little that's funny about being unemployed.  While I certainly don't miss dragging myself out of bed and going to a job I hated, it still paid the bills.  Sure, I had already begun looking before I was fired, but as the old saying says, "it's easier to find a job when you have a job."  Now I'm unemployed, and every day that goes by widens the gap on my resume and deepens the hole in our checkbook.

I realize I'm no longer trapped by the misery of a lousy job.  I realize my buddy thinks he's trying to cheer me up, let me know he sympathizes, and so on.  But enough already.  I know how bad that office can be, trust me. 

It's a chapter of my life that I want to close.  Hell, it's hard enough to go on job interviews and make the best of it when describing my former position.  I don't want to be constantly teased, nor do I want the constant reminders of how rotten things are there.  It may be rotten, but that paycheck sure helps mask the odor.

If my former colleagues want to cheer me up, they'd call and tell me other things.  Like how the asshole project manager who fired me has contracted a painful, disfiguring, and ultimately fatal disease.  Or that the feds raided the office and frog-marched the management team out in handcuffs.  But no - instead they tell me that the same fucking morons are still employed, still in charge, still coated in Teflon, still driving their luxury cars.  And I'm still on the couch, still sending resumes out into the ether.

I realize I'm still very angry, but I don't think I'm wrong by saying, "I don't want to hear it."  You're more than welcome to disagree. 

In the next installment of Job Hunting Idiocy, I'll look into the anti-worker, pro-business "employment at will" laws that allow your employer to terminate you at any time, with no cause whatsoever.

Posted by Dito @ 3:25 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

New blog header

The previous header was a quickie I threw together while still employed.  It did the trick, for a while.

This new one is more meaningful and took a bit more effort.

I'll give a shiny new penny to the first commenter who can identify the source. That's right - a shiny new penny.

Another installment of Job Hunting Idiocy will be posted later this morning.

Posted by Dito @ 8:36 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments