Quid pro-quo, Show me yours and I'll show you mine

Now jobs and conventional employment are subject to problematic approaches in securing ones personal identity.

It used to be common place to require a social security number to be placed on the very employment applications a job seeker would apply on, this was used to give to the Human Resource department the tax data for payroll to provide to the IRS to make the appropriate tax deductions. In modern days, this can be a dangerous president as many different people could handle these paper applications, which not only have the social security number written directly on it but also with a full name, work history, current residence possibly a drivers license number and maybe even a date of birth. This data is the crux of what is required to apply for credit cards and purchasing things on credit.

Savvier applicants are writing "will provide social security number upon receipt of employment" however some employment kiosks REQUIRE this number just to begin the employment process (KMart, 99-cent stores and Walmart are just a few that does this). But some employers go even further and REQUIRE background and criminal checks on applicants which in-turn this MANDATES the requirement of a personal Social Security Number as a primary ID to check these types of records.

This is disheartening for the majority of applicants to these firms. One would think that a fair exchange of this type of data would be in order. All things being equal, would it not be fair to require the personal Social Security Number and back ground data of all the people involved with handling this data to do the background screening? Or even the personal social security number of the CEO and the board of directors of said company? After all, if they insist on doing back ground checks, drug screenings, etc., on you you should in-turn be able to do back ground checks, drug screenings, etc. on a company that one would work for? Not all companies are straight players, Worldcom, Enron, Countrywide, etc. where seemingly on the up and up but now the former employees know better and are impoverished as a byproduct of not doing the appropriate research.

One would be hard pressed to actually ask and receive any type of sensitive data from an employer or from the people that would handle a background investigation or a drug screening. To date, I am personally unaware of any prospective applicant that was able to request (and actually acquire) such information.

Businesses and corporations that would scrutinize a prospective candidate for employment should be looked at with great suspicion. After all, if they are adamant about conducting such a rigorous screening process without allowing an equally rigorous screening process to be conducted by a prospective employee then trust issues are evident and if they have these issues before one is even hired by them, then one could expect their internal management to be problematic at best and a company to avoid.

Beware of http://www.refurbishedxbox360s.com/

Beware of this site it is a scam.   I want to extend a special thanks to  "elroyleday" on Yahoo answers to checking this out.   Here are some links to his research.   Take heed all gamers that are out there, and be wary.   As the saying goes, if it is too good to be true then...its too good to be true.

Referbished XBox360...a calculated risk

After mourning the loss of my 60 gb Playstation 3 for almost a year now (stolen right out of my house). I saw this site on the Internet. Asking a mere $34.99 for a refurbished XBox360 Premium with a 1 year warranty. Seems like a steal of a deal, and I am "tempted" to put my coin down and give it a try.

After spending an absorbent amount for my Playstation 3 ($1,000). I have been without a console and have been weighing the pros and cons of the major contenders (the Wii, the XBox360 and yet another Playstation 3).

I see the pros and cons in all systems and here is my assessment on them. I will start with my first love.

Playstation 3
I advocated for this unit from the beginning, knowing hands down that it was superior to anything on the market. The ability to install Linux sold me right away and backwards compatibility for Playstation 2 games was just cinch that made me pinch every last penny I had to purchase one. The Cell CPU and the 1080p capability along with being an inexpensive Blueray player (which is the current winner in the format wars, I won the bet with myself) made me a happy elitist to own one.

Why I am not getting one this time around...
Aside from the price, which after purchasing it at its high of $800 when I first got my hands on it. This platform has some limitations that has made me reconsider acquiring another one. First, it has a piss poor selection of games which drives me nuts. Second, the eternal delay of Home (Playstation's version of second life) has irked me to no end but the killing blow was their reversal to include backwards compatibility to Playstation 2 games. But the nail in the coffin was that Sony made no attempt to include a SDK to create games on the device like Microsoft did. This has made me sit on the fence just waiting for Sony to stop being such prudes and to get with the program.


Wii
Now the Wii was one I was really interested in, its price point is perfect, the games are interactive and fun especially in parties and groups. I have heard only good things about the Wii

Why I am not getting one this time around...
Ok, for all of its fun points, I still do not think it has the selection of games I really hunger for. Still I need a SDK to write my own games on this and no attempt to date has been made to do so. Yes, I will pass, but to the credit of the Wii it is in my next round of console purchases even over the Playstation 3.

The winner?
XBox360

Why?
Listen, the game console stability and horse power sucks when compared to the Playstation 3 it certainly doesn't have the full availability of fun and interactive games that the Wii has. But, it does score over both of them in two very distinctive ways.

First, it has the selection I like and has many RPG type games to ensorcel me for hours.

Second, XNA, the capability (for a price) for the common people to build games on.

Now red ring of death and overheating issues aside as well as the numerous complaints in the forums about having to return defunct systems and waiting weeks on end for another system that lasts for only a few months before it has to be returned yet again. I will spend the coin on a refurbished system until Sony gets its act together and the Wii becomes more competitive with its selection.

Where to go?

Where to go?

It is hard now, our economy is diminishing, contracts are few and far between giving a feast or famine future and local prospects just don't recognize an entrepreneurial spirit.

I have been contracting as a web designer, since early 2000 and have been reassessing and shifting to freelance photography and even to shooting video trying to build my skills in a diversified manner that marks me as "indispensable" to future patrons. But the truth is, I am just a clone of all the other "hopefuls" that are doing the exact same thing.

The reality is, while knowledge of computers and enthusiasm for writing and creating videos are fun to do. They tend to leave one standing beside themselves.

While I have had dreams of working for Google and Apple, even to the extent of bettering my odds by actively promoting Google's technology with the gPhone and proudly attended the Apple's Developers Conference. Not a single offer has come to my table. Oh I get recruiters calling me to no end, promising me the moon and all the cheese it is made of but as the date progresses I am just another name and number for their little black book and I don't even know how many stars they give me.

So, I stick to my freelancer ways, insisting to contract out my professional services as opposed to delude myself into thinking that a job will really give me security, not that I believe that any corporation could truly provide anything more stable than I could.

True to my nature I find it hard to work for people than to work with them for a mutual business advantage. To be an employee seems to be a joke, not because I am adverse to working as a team or to work for a greater common goal of fiscal success, far from it. The frustrations of dealing with the politics of nepotism and playing favorites to under-qualified "buddies" of the manager is a constant theme of working a regular job, with regular people as opposed to an interesting gig that will allow for more dynamic possibilities.

All things being equal, I must confess hindsight being 20/20 I do not feel that my focus in freelancing endeavors are a waste of time or my resources. To be honest, I don't think I would of been introduced to the variety of opportunities (even if those opportunities did not land anything or go the direction I had hoped for). But that is just me.

So, would I ever consider conventional employment? Well, as strange as this may sound I do not see the distinction between a full time job or a contract that requires my full time attentions. The legal world seems to create a artificial circumstance for a full-time employee, a W2 employee seems to be more controlled and dummied down control of creativity and time (punch in the time clock, do work, clock out for lunch, eat lunch, clock back in for lunch, do more work, clock out).

As a contractor you have more control over this time to use it creatively and more efficiently and here in lies the problem as described to me by the CEO of Javaground:

I was interviewing with the CEO who explicitly told me that he would never consider incorporating me into his company as a contractor for the main reason that he could not have complete control over me. As an employee he could better have control over me and my loyalties would be more to his company and not my own consultancy.

I protested and told him that as a consultant, contractor he would have access to my entire professional network and as far as my loyalties to his company, Non Disclosure Agreements would legally prohibit me from playing the field and compromising secrets of his company. He still wanted me to be a regular employee, he still wanted that illusionary control over my time and loyalties. To my perception as a contractor/consultant the demand on my time and the loyalties to my new patron would be no different than being a regular full time employee.

My rational words fell on deaf ears, he didn't care, he wanted an employee and I wanted a business partner and I politely disengaged from further negotiations on the subject and consequently did not receive an offer to work for his company.

It would of been a cool company to work for, but in retrospect I am glad he never followed up with me. In my eyes if he was honestly that adamant over the semantics of my professional relation to him and his company then we probably would not of been able to work well with each other in the first place.

So, Where to go? Is probably not the right question to ask, more to the point should be the question Whom do I ally myself with?

Prius, our next car? biodiesel?

Next car a Prius, NHW20?

The next car I would purchase is a Hybrid hands down. I would like to remove myself from purchasing gasoline all together, I have targeted Biodiesel as viable alternative, eliminating pure gasoline, to use the renewable biodiesel but i do not find very many viable selections for these capabilities in the US. Toyota's Prius is a stop gap measure, that has enough interest in the subject matter to spawn well versed enthusiast

I do however see cutting edge alternatives in other countries, specifically Germany and Japan. I asked my brother a top end mechanic, about diesel bikes and he did not know of any so I decided to Google my way to finding out.

The technology is certainly out there, but not really here. Of course, as expected, the cutting edge is not available to the US bubble we are living in. But a man can dream and really get serious research done so when I do step foot on a dealership I will walk in with a loan and the exact specifications for the vehicle I want.

Gas in the US is still "relatively cheap" at $5 a gallon, yes I know there will be a few to take issue with this statement. But my research is on a global scale and I base this on UKs prices (somewhere around $8-9 euros a gallon, also bear in mind that the cost for a Euro cost more than one american dollar at the time of this writing).

I am leaning to the 3rd generation Toyota Prius as it is clocking at 60 MPG and if driven with fineness this could be bumped to an even higher number and if hacked to increase the battery capacity it may be even higher MPG. Of course, any tricking to the vehicle's internals may void the warranty so I will have to take great care to read and understand the specifications as to not botch any modifications I do.

Hybrid Motorcycles

In October 28, 2005, at the trade shows in Tokyo, Yamaha, has a bike known as the Gen-Ryu it holds a light weight, compact YZF-R6 600cc motor AND a electric motor. Looks impressive and very savvy.

Well its 2008 and still no word on its price or if it is even being sold in the US. I would like to eventually get a bike like the Gen-Ryu, but for now (and for practical reasons) I have my sights set on the Toyota Prius

Reporting Life

Hello again.

Well we are being called to a professional gig this week to take graduation pictures on the 11th, 12th and 18th for the classes of 2008. This should be fun.

I will try to post when I get time.

The Business of Scripts (movie and .php)

Well we just finished our calling card website.   I will be making some .php scripts while working on our movie scripts.   We have 3D Animation (blender) on both of our MacBook machines.   We have the tools and the talent, we are just looking to getting better tools, a 1080p camera and a 1080p monitor.

I am faced with whatever my camera can "see".   The magick is in the editing to be sure.   We are gathering our sound files into a Database (MySQL), and keeping them on a independent Harddrive.  Thats the technical stuff I will post more on the source as it is developed.