Flack wrote:Two. One around 9:30am or so, and another around 3pm or do. They're not scheduled, that's just what time I like to get coffee and poop, respectively.

How many breaks do you typically take. Are they scheduled?

I currently ... I mean, at my last job ...

I went (go) to lunch at 11am, for two reasons. The first reason was (is), for years and years we had no cafeteria, so it was either "bring a lunch" (which I never did (do)), or go off campus to have lunch. Places are packed at noon, thus the 11am lunch. The second reason was (is), our organization's headquarters was (is) in Washington DC. Noon their time is 11am Central time, so it worked (works) out best if we all took (take) lunch at the same time.

Sixteen years ago when I first started as a help desk support tech, our office was open from 7am-5pm. Half of us worked from 7am-4pm and the other half of us worked from 8am-5pm. At one point we started getting complaints from our west coast customers, since we were closing at 5pm central time which was 3pm their time. We eventually changed our hours of operation to 6am-6pm, but that still didn't appease our offices in Alaska (-3 hours from us) and Hawaii (-4/-5 hours, depending on DST). Eventually they solved the problem by giving us pagers. Boooo.

Wait, was all that in past tense or past perfect? Jesus Christ, I feel like I'm in a bad time traveling film.

Two. One around 9:30am or so, and another around 3pm or do. They're not scheduled, that's just what time I like to get coffee and poop, respectively.

Flack, does that lead to a lot of meetings being held at noon, or between noon and one? That would drive me CRAZY. I would be seriously pissed if I had to hold a meeting at noon because a bunch of guys are leaving at 2, and already had a meeting from 1-2 booked up.

Actually, it's probably unwise to talk about our specific jobs on the Internet. Let's take this to the hypothetical realm of..... our previous jobs!!!

We had core hours of 9-3 toward the end of my time at AMD. Everyone hated our manager, so you'd see guys work from 6-3 because they hated him so much, and that gave them 2 hours away from him before he showed up at 8. I was too stupid to do that.

pinback wrote:I like how you get to leave at 4:30. Nobody else does.

Gub'ment work.

Our core hours are 10am-2pm, so we can work any 8 hour shift as long as those hours are covered. A lot of guys in my area work 6am-2:30pm.

Either that or I'll just buy a TV and use that. Anyone ever done that?

My kid, the gamer, bought a nice 48" TV and was playing Halo on it for the longest time. It gave me the vertigo when I tried to use it, must have been too close.


THE
STAR TREK
WALL SCREEN
AARDVARK

I like how you get to leave at 4:30. Nobody else does.

Yup, two 22" monitors, running at 1680x1050.

Several years ago we all sent our boss a link to this article, which cites a 20-30% increase in productivity in users with two monitors vs. one. We have rooms full of monitors and he certainly didn't care if we got one, but this helped justify it on paper.

During the day I monitor a network map that shows downed circuits and servers in real time, which is almost impossible to keep an eye on with a single monitor. Typically, I keep that map and my mail open on my second monitor, and do my other work on the left hand one.

I ran dual monitors at home for a while but I found I didn't like watching movies full screen with a big bar down the middle, so instead I just bought one giant monitor ... which has since died. I guess I'll go back to dual monitors at home. Either that or I'll just buy a TV and use that. Anyone ever done that? Walmart has a 32" 720p TV for $299. That would make a heck of a wall-mounted monitor!

Flack wrote:This was more of a test of the Flip camera than a real attempt at ... entertaining.

You have TWO monitors, Flack? I'm jealous. I just have one, but it can pivot 90 degrees so that if I'm working on a document I can view it in landscape mode. (I was amazed to find the video card on my computer supported 90 degree rotation natively.)

I remember, oh, must have been 12, 15 years ago I had a 13" or possibly 15" monitor (the older huge CRT ones, not todays flat screens) and I wheedled my boss to let me have the 17" that one of the other people who quit had.

I currently have a 19" NEC flatscreen that pivots. Cost me $75, used, from a used computer store something like a year ago. It is a nice monitor, it'll handle up to 1280x1024; currently I'm running 1024x768.

Just to point out the difference, I think regular TV is the close equivalent of standard monitor, 640 by 480. (Actually, standard would be either 704x480 for that, or 720x480 which is equivalent to 650x480 for NTSC 16:9).

I saw Unstoppable. It was a B movie having a dress-up day.

I wanted the dumb guy to get killed but he only ended up working in fast food.


If I were to make a daily video I would pull up to the biggest, most expensive looking house in town and walk up the steps, fishing in my pocket for my keys, then just as I'm at the front door I'd fade out.


THE
MOVIE TRICKS
AARDVARK

Note to self: Never watch "Unstoppable".

I saw the movie "Unstoppable" last weekend. This was better than that. (Though similar themes.)

[youtube][/youtube]

This was more of a test of the Flip camera than a real attempt at ... entertaining.