My employer, Corillian Corporation, has a few openings, including one for an employee to work on the IT Department's Help Desk. Maybe you'd be interested, or maybe someone you know would fit the bill?

Corillian is a Portland, Oregon-area software company, and IMHO it's a pretty darn nice place to work. Great challenges, great opportunity, and great people.

The IT Help Desk job is an entry-level or early-career position, working in the corporate IT department. The employee in this position acts as the point person for the company's internal help desk. Managing requests for service and basic Windows computer and network troubleshooting are the primary day-to-day job tasks. Excellent customer service skills and a customer-oriented, confident, on-your-game personality are critical. The company is looking for someone who can hit the ground running from a customer-service standpoint.

If you or someone you know is interested, time is of the essence - So email or call me and I will put you in touch with the hiring manager. My email is greg@greghughes.net and my office phone is 503-629-3771.

QA and Software Developer Positions: I am told that Corillian is also looking for QA and Software Engineers, so if you are what a leading-edge software company would consider a top performer in either of those areas, email or call me about those positions, too, and I will make sure you are put in touch with the right people. It'll be competitive, I can tell you that, so be prepared, but don't hold back.

Note: This post is my own, and is not a communication by or for my employer. I am just trying to make people aware of some opportunities that I happen to know about. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that if you get hired, depending on the position they might spot me a small bonus that would probably pay for a nice lunch or dinner for you and me. But don't count on it - and the help desk job reports under me in the organizational scheme, so I am not eligible for any bonus on that position. Phew! 

Nikon has announced that their cool new D2X digital SLR camera will be available on February 25th, and that it will sell for a "suggested" street price of $4999.00. Hook up a GPS device to record location data. Transmit data via WiFi. Remote control the camera. Instant-on and fast shutter response time of 37ms - great improvements for low-lag operation. Flash sync at 1/250th of a second. Awesome metering. Fast continuous shooting. All nice stuff.

But there's one thing that will keep me from even considering buying this camera. And it's not the price.

It's this bit of info, gleaned from the fine print in the spec sheet:

• Approx. 1.5x focal length in 35mm [135] format equivalent

Argh, no! I have to say, I was pretty darned surprised to find this hidden in the back of the specs list, especially since they are marketing the D2X as being capable of "5fps continuous shooting mode full size or 8fps in a 6.8MP cropped mode." Turns out the "cropped mode" means a 2x multiplier over 35mm equivalent, as opposed to non-cropped mode, which has a 1.5x multiplier.

Very sneaky. Very sucky.

At 12.4 megapixels and $5000, someone tell me why in the world camera manufacturers can't put a chip in the thing that will make it act like a real 35mm camera from the field-of-view/coverage perspective. I'd take lower effective resolution (say 8 megapixels or so?) and no multiplier at this point.

Believe it or not, to someone who was a film photographer for several years, this actually matters to me. Nothing aggravates me more about digital SLR cameras than an image that has a telephoto-style crop and a short-lens depth of field. I hate that. I have a D70 that does that. Don't get me wrong, for $1000 I like the D70 just fine. It's a consumer-grade camera, and sure I'd like it a heck of a lot more if it had a chip that would use the lens the way it was built to be used. But this camera is more than the D70 can dream of being.

So, if I am going to pay five times the cost for a better camera, put in a full-sized chip that uses the full field the lens was built to cover. Seriously.

Hey Nikon - Just so you know, I was actually ready to seriously consider spending $5000 on your new camera - but now I guess I'll just wait. Again.

John Pultorak decided to build a real, working replica of the Apollo Guidance Computer - the ones that were used in the actual Apollo spacecraft.

"This report describes my successful project to build a working reproduction of the 1964 prototype for the Block I Apollo Guidance Computer. The AGC is the flight computer for the Apollo moon landings, with one unit in the command module and one in the LEM.

"I built it in my basement. It took me 4 years."

What a great project. Building one of these looks to provide useful insight into the entire computer system, from top to bottom and beginning to end.

This is the computer that got the first people to the moon and back. And you can make one yourself. Now that's cool.

(via engadget.com)

"Louis is here with the weather..."

The painful, awful, terrible weather.

"Maybe Louis, you can tell us what we can expect for the rest of the week..."

If you're ever having one of those days where you feel like the clumsiest person on the face of the planet, just click the link above, and find comfort in the fact that someone, somewhere has almost certainly had a harder day than you.

(I recall my time in journalism school, which is almost certainly where this tape came from, and it could be brutal at times. Broadcast news performance is an art, and artists are few and far between).

The other day I decided to change to using passphrases instead of single passwords on my Windows accounts. Aside from the minor headache of having to remember I made the change at all, it's been a good thing.

That is, until today.

This afternoon I decided re-enable my wireless sync with my Exchange server on my Windows Mobile 2003 smart phone (Audiovox 5600). I had disabled it when I changed the password the other day, with plans to set it back up when I had time. So I went to enter the new passphrase on the mobile device, but no workie... Apparently, while Windows and Outlook and Exchange-HTTPS and pretty much everything else in the Windows world supports passphrases that include spaces, not so on Windows Mobile 2003.

Apparently you simply can't enter spaces in the password box on the smart phone.

So, I have a choice to make: I can either change back to using passwords in order to allow my Windows Mobile device to sync with Exchange (one step forward, two steps back), or I can stay with passphrases and leave my Windows Mobile device crippled (don't even get me started on that one).

Needless to say, I am not very happy with either option...

Anyone have a solution? Am I missing something here? Seems to me when you create a password interface, you'd support what the back end system allows you to use?

National Geographic: Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy

"Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal..."

Makes me uncomfortable when I think about it for more than ten seconds. Anyone else feel the same?

Johan van Rooyen's Really Learn Spanish weblog includes a series of MP3 podcasts geared toward people who want to learn the Spanish language in the real world. I've just subscribed.

"A series of podcasts aimed at helping you in your efforts to learn Spanish using unconventional techniques I developed during the seven years I spent in Spain teaching English and learning Spanish."

Interviews, pronunciation explanations, and suggestions for how to learn all combine to help you grow in your acquisition of the language.

Very cool use of the delivery mechanism, and great content to boot. It will be interesting to listen to this new series over time. As of the time of this writing, Johan had released three installments in the podcast series.

(via blogyourway.com)

Mt. St. Helens continues to rumble and spew steam and ash, and Portland, Oregon radio station 1190 KEX posted a news story today with audio from the instrumentation used to monitor and listen to the mountain as it continues it's activity.

• Click here to listen to the seismic audio from 1190 KEX
• Click here for the story at the 1190KEX.com web site
• Latest Mt. St. Helens eruption information
• More St. Helens links than you could possibly ever need

Presenting to a group? Always disable your Instant Messenger client before you start with your desktop on the projection screen. (via Mitch Ratcliffe)

Another useful tip: Never, ever use your live email client on the screen during a presentation. That XXX Porn Superstore spam email will almost certainly be the first thing on the screen when you bring it up in front of the whole company during your demo... (I know this from personal experience)

Google has launched their Google Video Search, which lets you search through what appear to be transcripts from television shows for any terminology you woudl typically use in your Google searches.

For example, click here to search for "blogosphere" and you can click through and see where the term was used on television in recent weeks.

Cool stuff, especially if you're looking for coverage and use of key terms or names:

• Enron
• hubris
• tsunami
• "snow storm"
• "Academy Awards"

You get the idea.

I had to change one of my passwords today (good security practices and all that), and with the recent discussions around the 'net concerning using passphrases in place of passwords, I decided to go full tilt and start using passphrases on this account rather than passwords.

One of the great things about passphrases is that they can be quite long and secure, yet easy to type and remember. For example, I could use either of these as a secure passphrase that more than meets all the security requirements of a Windows standard password-complexity template:

Is this my nifty-difty passphrase?

   - or -

Wow yo thats a really cool Red Radio you have there!

Of course, I could also be more paranoid (and in real life I am) by using something like "Is this my nyftie-dyftie passphraze?" but even with the standard dictionary words, the combination of having to determine the number of words, case, punctuation, order and spacing is a pretty darn complicated task. For more information about effectiveness of passphrases and their complexity, read what Jesper Johanssen wrote on the topic.

I can included spaces and everything - they're part of the passphrase, and the fact that I am using dictionary words works in the case of a passphrase, where they don't really pass muster when using 8-character-minimum passwords.

Passphrases use multiple words or variations, can be out of place and odd, easy to remember and easy to type quickly. The only problem I have had since changing to my new passphrase is remembering that I changed my password at all - I keep typing the old one... It's like writing "2004" on checks, I guess... This, too, shall pass.

Anyhow, I can type my passphrase accurately every single time, very quickly and reliably, so I am happy with that. If I choose a phrase that means something to me at the time, it will be easy to work with until I have to change it again in several weeks. I think it's a good thing - all in all better from a user standpoint than convoluted and hard-to-type passwords.

More on passwords vs. passphrases can be found here. Also, Susan Bradley, who blogs about Small Business Server quite a bit, has some thoughts on the subject and some policy configuration information (via Adam Field).

Last year, a company called MailFrontier produced their Phishing IQ test. Phishing is a form of fraud, where the bad guys set up web sites to collect personal data and then send out emails to get you to visit the web sites. More often than not, the web sites look at least semi-official, and at times they look like the real thing. While financial institutions are the most frequent targets (emails and web sites that look like they came from a bank, but did not), insurance companies ad other online merchants are also often spoofed in these phishing scams.

Now MailFrontier has a new Phishing IQ Test:

Ready for more? Over 225,000 people took the first MailFrontier Phishing IQ Test, successfully raising "phishing" awareness to an all-time high in both the industry and consumer media. But with phishing emails increasing daily—and the online holiday shopping season officially open--it's time for a whole new challenge: the MailFrontier Phishing IQ Test II.

We're back with 10 new suspect "phish" fresh from our collection – all actually received by real people like you. Whether you're brand new or a repeat tester, the question is the same: If you received one of these emails in your inbox – what would you do?

Take the Phishing IQ Test II

Now on eBay - You can bid to purchase absolutely nothing. Bidding started at £1.00 and is now (at the time of this post) up to £1,000,100.00, which means if the bidding progresses at a constant rate until the auction closes is 8 days, 18 hours, the closing price will be something like, ohhhh maybe £9,000,100.00... What a bargain!

From the auction listing:

---

This is a fantastic, once in a lifetime opportunity to buy absolutely nothing! The successful bidder will receive absolutely nothing direct from me.

• The perfect gift for the person who has everything.
• Takes up no space. Easy to store.
• Helps fight capitalism. Possibly.
• No postage required.
• Environmentally friendly, 100% organic and edible.

(Note. It is not recommended that you eat absolutely nothing for prolonged periods.)

 Bid now on this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Please note. This is a genuine auction, and the successful bidder will receive absolutely nothing.

---

Also note the Photo of Absolutely Nothing at http://www.fotothing.com/dom/photo/ea67a03a320c1f80a5a3ca95dd975952/

Wow. I'm in!

Jeremy Zawodny points out the Blogger's Bill of Rights and gives his opinion on the matter. He doesn't like it. Neither do I. It's just another example of people making something out of nothing, and trying to avoid personal responsibility in the good name of free speech. Here's where I speak up and say why I think it's crap, too...

Now, I'm a fairly outspoken person. I've also had a tendency in the past to open my big mouth, say exactly what I think, and then go into another room to extract my foot from my esophagus. But when I stick my foot in my mouth, I am keenly aware that it's my foot, it's my mouth and it's my choice - regardless of whether or not I thought it through ahead of time. Whether or not I was correct isn't relevant. You can be correct every time, but that doesn't necessarily make you right.

People, this is all about responsibility and ownership. You want to say something? Fine, but ya gotta own it, like it or not.

Let's define a couple of terms for the purposes of the discussion:

• Consequences: The results of something one chooses to do, or not to do. All choices have results, both good and bad. Some of those results impact the chooser, some impact others.
• Speech: Pretty much any form of communication - collective, individual or otherwise - in a variety of forms. In this context, we'll keep it somewhat simple (since we are talking about individual weblogs) and say it's an individual's written or spoken words.

Okay so - Right up front I'll say this: There is no special, magical set of rights that bloggers can (or should) expect, not with regard to employers, husbands/wives, boyfriends/girlfriends, coworkers, friends, family members, governments, or anyone else. The idea that blogs are somehow special or different and should be treated differently is arrogant and probably and indicator of the root of the problem - people think they are entitled to say whatever they want, however they want, with no consequences. Sorry, Charlie. Ain't happening.

• Your right to free speech does not apply to the specific medium in which you exercise it. Speech is protected in certain circumstances, in certain locations, regardless of the form that speech takes. You have no more right to expect protection on a blog than anywhere else. Your rights are reasonable to expect, but when your exercising of your rights infringes upon the rights of another, you're crossing a line.
• If you shoot off your mouth on your weblog, it's not an ollie-ollie-oxen-free home-base super-top-secret say-anything-I-want kind of thing. You are responsible for what you say, at the time you say it.
• Speech is behavior. In a previous career I was always amazed at the idiots who thought if they could just get their car into the driveway, they were safe, regardless of the level of alcohol in their blood while there were on the street that got them to their driveways. It's not where you land, it's who and what you affect along the way.
• Your speech is your speech, and with it come consequences. If you choose to say or write something on a weblog, keep in mind, it's speech in a public place and you are making a choice, and with that choice comes certain consequences. Your choices may impact others (coworkers and employers), and as a result, the very second you post your words, you choose to accept all of the consequences of that speech, regardless of whether or not you have taken the time to think about said consequences.
• Your employer can hire and fire based on the quality of your behavior and how it impacts business, your performance, personalities, coworkers, morale, anything. You should remember this before you post on your weblog for everyone to read. And comment on. And quote. And read again. And copy/paste/email to your coworkers and your boss and his/her boss. And to end up on the Wayback Machine.

It's not about who yells the loudest or who thinks/knows they're right. What it is about is being responsible for oneself and thinking ahead about the impact of exercising one's right to free speech.

One important aspect of thinking ahead is considering the consequences and weighing the risks. Preferably before speaking. But if you don't take the time to do that, it shouldn't be (and isn't) someone else's problem.

Anyhow, that's about all I have to say about that.

According to a part-time tutor at Cardiff University, Monday will be the crappiest day of the year. He even has a formula used to determine that fact.

It might be a good day to sleep in, says the BBC.

JANUARY BLUES DAY FORMULA:

1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA

• W: Weather
• D: Debt
• d: Money due in January pay
• T: Time since Christmas
• Q: Time since failed quit attempt
• M: General motivational levels
• NA: The need to take action