Archive for the ‘Human Behaviour’ Category

On Job Requirements, Equal Opportunities and Positive Discrimination

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

I once worked in an IT company that had a ‘Data Preparation’ department. Every single member of the team (I seem to recall there were about 15 of them) were women. I asked one of the bosses about this once, regarding the equality issues, and he said that only one man had ever applied for a job in that team. Well it was one or none anyway. These days, I sense that answer would not have been enough. Today, I suspect that he would have had to prove that any job adverts for roles in that team would have been ‘equally accessible’ to men and women, that special efforts had been made to ensure men had felt able to apply for the role. What is the equality world coming to?

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Human Interaction and the Sugar UI

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

Jeff Atwood has posted about the Sugar UI, which is the proposed operating system for the $100 PC, ‘One Laptop Per Child’ initiative. He looks at the new OS, which has been designed to be a new experience for first-time users of a PC - read ‘Children’:

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The Best Job I Never Got

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

Today I’m going to tell you the story of the best job I never got. And it’s entirely true, which is nice. (more…)

I am Thor, God of Thunder

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

Well no, actually, I am the guy standing out on his balcony in shorts, in a lovely summer downpour.

The weather had been hot and close. In London, the hot weather often sits without a breeze. We’re not really used to it. (more…)

Data is not like Sheep

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

SheepI hate it when I hear or read phrases like ‘these data’. It looks, feels and sounds plain wrong to me, and if not wrong then clumpy and turgid, like something you’d regret stepping in. (more…)

Top Stuff I Always Wanted to be Able to Do

Sunday, September 18th, 2005

The X Factor is currently on British TV again. If by some chance, you don’t know what that is, then it is like ‘Pop Idol’ (or ‘American Idol’) - a talent show for singers, with the potential reward of some recording contract or other for the winner. (more…)

Going to Venice

Thursday, September 8th, 2005

Weather forecast image from the BBC Weather websiteI’m going on a short break to Venice later today. My stress-levels are rising, and I suspect that this is mostly because of a nervousness that I do not know the language and I feel embarrassed to be another Brit abroad trying to communicate in loud English. (more…)

15 Ways to Waste Time

Thursday, September 1st, 2005

I believe that I may be a master of wasting time. It’s not that I can not be productive and achieve, but it is the case that I am a person who can work hard, followed by bouts of extreme laziness. (more…)