A long enough title, but the standard which governs the rules which apply to telemarketing within Australia can be found on the ACMA website – and can be downloaded here.

The most important points to note are the following –

Minimum standards

2. Under the standard, contact information and the purpose of the call must be provided by the person making a telemarketing call as well as revealing, on request, the source from which the caller obtained the telephone number.

3. The standard requires the caller to terminate the call where the call recipient asks for the call to be terminated or otherwise indicates that he or she does not want the call to continue.

4. The caller is also required to ensure that calling line identification is enabled at the time that the caller makes or attempts to make a call.

If I recall – in most cases the telemarketing calls I receive show up as private numbers – something I’ll check on more thoroughly in future. I also notice that the callers are usually cagey about giving away information on the business they are representing.

The Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches offer an online directory of Career Development Professionals in your area. 

As the original career development organization, recognized for setting the industry standard in certifiying Certified Professional Résumé Writers (CPRW), Certified Employment Interview Professionals (CEIP) and Certified Professional Career Coaches (CPCC); you can be sure you are dealing with the best resources in the industry as you strive to reach your career goals. 

Some facts about our friendly little satellite up there:

It’s the belief of science that the moon was created via something called the Big Whack, which sounds like a mafia-themed porno. The gist of it: About 4.6 billion years, not long after our solar system was born, an object the size of Mars probably hit the Earth and large chunks of it split off from the rest of the planet. Some of those chunks mixed with other space junk and started to coalesce into a smaller, larger body, and when cooled, was formed together in the shape of our lovely moon.

The Crescent Earth, from here and here.

That lovely shape, by the way, is not round. It’s more egg-ish. When looking up at the moon, you’re seeing one of the ends pointing at you. That’s what the moonface is. Just like Earth, the moon gets fatter in it’s middle.

“One of these days… POW! Right to the MOON!”

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) launched on June 18 to begin mapping the surface of the moon from orbit with a never been seen clarity of detail. The technology is so fucking good now that it’ll be taking gorgeous pictures of the tracks left in the moon by lunar rovers, and even imaging the Apollo equipment left behind up there. Oh, in case I didn’t mention it, the LRO is a robot, part of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program. What a lovely sci fi type of name.

And then in a few months time, we’ll have the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which is part of the LPRP, and is intended to crash into Shackleton Crater, on the moon’s south pole. The purpose of that is to kick up dust that’s just been sitting there dormant for something in the neighborhood of 2 billion years and study it. Then, shortly after, they’ll crash another probe into a different spot on the moon and study that.

The above is one of my absolute favorite images of comic art ever. It’s by the wonderfully talent and incredibly tragic Wally Wood. No matter how many accolades he got, for me, it was never enough.

There is actually no dark side of the moon. Well, there will always be The Dark Side of The Moon, cause that’s just a classic, wonderful album, but as far as the actual moon goes: No dark side. There’s the side we can see, and the other side, the far side, which is usually illuminated by the sun. We can’t see it though and we tend to think that things are only lit up by us, but no, it’s there.

But there is more than one of The Far Side out there:

Under the category of things everyone knows: gravity is a lot less on the moon.

The moon is about 27% the size of the Earth and it’s gravity is about 1/6 of ours. If you weigh 300 pounds here on your home planet, you’ll only weigh about 50 up there. Nice, right?

from here.

A slight digression from the moon to… Rockets! For a lot of people, celebrating things like Apollo 11 isn’t so much about going to the moon and back, but about rockets. Seriously, just take a google image search at hits for “rocket porn.” Fun stuff.

Dr. Wernher von Braun in his office, from here and here.

And I should add to that digression, one of the fathers of the space going rocket: Werner von Braun.  Just look at his office up above. How cool is that? von Braun has always fascinated me, not just because he helped make being a rocket scientist look cool, but his background is still so interesting and full of intrigued. He was one of the many scientists snatched away from the Nazis at the end of World War II and was a prominent name on the Osenberg list and in Operation Paperclip. And thanks to him, we escaped Earth’s gravity and finally went to space and to the moon.

Speaking of which…

from here.

There’s moonquakes! The Apollo 11 and following missions left some seismographic equipment on the moon that monitored until the 70s when it was shut off, but showed that the moon does do a little shake, rattling, and rolling. Good thing to keep in mind for when we start building moon bases.

As things tend to always go in my life, the moon is leaving us. But slowly. It drifts away from the Earth about 3.8 cm a year.

from here.

The drift into space is actually caused by the Earth’s tides, which the moon itself regulates. High tides, spring tides, I’m not going to pretend to fully understand all of it, nor be able to explain it properly, but here’s how it works. And the moon does steal a bit of our rotational energy, slowly the spinning of the Earth down about a milisecond every year. Story of my life.

At some point, we’re going to go back to the moon (and mind you, we haven’t been back there since the 70s, so it could have reverted back to being made of cheese!), but in a big way, possibly setting up the aforementioned moonbases and having astronauts living up there for months at a time. It’s a notion that gets a lot of criticism since it would be beyond extremely costly and we’re living in harsh economic times, but on the other hand, we seem to have gently drifted into the beginnings of another space race with the Russians and the Chinese. And everyone wants to knock the moon notch off their belts once more before heading to Mars.

Mars would be cool, to sound like a geeky little kid (which, honestly, is what I really, really am). But Luna? I still love ya. And not just because you gave us the setting for this excellent book:

And RIP Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America:

Mad Moon Linkage:

NASA lost the moon landing footage, but Hollywood can restore it.

Who owns the moon?

Space law is kind of fascinating (to me, anyway).

Is the Apollo 11 moon landing flag still standing?

How the Earth, the moon, and the sun work together.

Pick your favorite moon god or lunar deity.

Maria on the moon.

Walking On The Moon.

Strange things to do happen at each Full Moon.

List of artificial objects on the moon.

Don’t forget: Snoopy went to the moon too.

Sacrifices in the pyramid of the moon.

Well, we all shine on! Like the moon, the stars, and the sun…

Trees: 181,000 of them to be exact. That’s the number of leafy green lives we will save if we pay our bills online, writes Vicki Kriz, author of GreenSmart: Save trees, pay bills online in a July 5, 2009 USA WEEKEND Magazine column. A wise idea, right? “To find out the impact your household could make, use the ‘Green Calculator’ at payitgreen.org,” the article concludes. 

That’s all well and good, but who’s asking the even bigger question: How many trees are we trading for coal-burning smokestacks vis-à-vis the increasing load our proliferating gadgets place on the electric grid?

Consider the carbon footprint of the Internet itself. The electrical requirements are astounding, yet as long as the public perceives all things Internet and electronic as a “free Green lunch”, no end to this grand, green e-lusion lies in sight.

“A typical server farm uses 10 to 20 megawatts of power per hour — roughly the equivalent of 10,000 to 20,000 homes with every light and appliance turned on, says Jeff Monroe, VP of design and construction for Metro-media Fiber Network. “On a watts-per-square-foot perspective, data centers are one of the highest energy users in any industry,” Monroe told writer Elinor Abreu of The Industry Standard in 2001.

Today, the demand for new server farm territory has grown more than ever, Microsoft, Google and others admit. Undoubtedly, these football-field size data facilities, some larger still, compete for woodlands and prime agricultural growing areas, too. The green side to digital would appear, in fact, gray.

Who, for that matter, is factoring in the reality that trees are a fully recyclable, renewable resource — excluding old growth and endangered rainforest habitats — whereas the pursuit and production of petro-chemicals in plastics and the electronic circuitry used in everything from desktop PCs to electronic reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle contain heavy metals and a host of other toxins?

“On average, the production of one eight-inch wafer [chip] requires 3,787 gallons of waste water, 27 pounds of chemicals, 29 cubic feet of hazardous gases and nine pounds of hazardous waste. These chemicals and gases include glycol ethers, which have been identified as ’serious reproductive toxins’ by the EPA; and arsine, one cylinder of which if leaked could be lethal to an entire semi-conductor production staff,” the Earth Action Network, Inc. published in 1997.

To feed the world’s growing obsession with all things tech and geek, workers in Third World high-tech manufacturing plants are exposed, potentially, not merely to paper dust, bleaching agents or printing inks, but to far worse. And it is the Third World nations, again, who accept thousands of tons of electronic scrap the First World discards — with impoverished children in Africa, India and Asia on the front lines of exposure!

All things considered, does the notion of a “carbon footprint” tell the whole story — or has it perversely enticed us to embrace another form of harm entirely?

In pursuit of our electronic love affair, it would appear that even the most eco-conscious among us have all but forgotten that few of the devices we depend on offer biodegradability and/or minimally toxic manufacturing processes. Lest we forget, those are fair considerations too — more so than a carbon footprint alone can hope to quantify.

The mythologies of going Green are frightfully deep and pervasive. If only it were so simple: Trade this evil for thus-and-such eco-friendly solution! Yet for every action, an equal but opposite reaction. And from the looks of things, a more insidious one at that.

###

Resources:

I Screen, You Screen, We All Screen | The Boston Globe

Digital Fallacies

Carbon Myths | The Guardian

Internet Struggles to Contain Carbon Footprint

Alarming Trends: The Internet’s Carbon Footprint

Experts Urge Limited Internet Consumption | UPI

Soaring Internet Usage ‘is threatening the future of Google and YouTube’

Internet Power Usage A Trade Secret — Lawrence Berkeley Lab California

Why is E-Waste Dangerous?

Much Toxic Computer Waste Lands in Third World

Recycling Gone Bad: Where Does Our High Tech Waste Go?

Toxic Technology: Electronics and the Silicon Valley

Are Electronic Gadgets Really Energy Vampires?

Part 1: The Electric Grid—Now and in the Future

Part 2: The Electric Grid—Now and in the Future

Waste Not, Want Not: Energy via the Smart Grid

Energy Hogs on the Server Farm

Behold The Server Farm

Down on the Server Farm (PDF)

More Trees in the Arctic Could Mean…Worsening Climate Change

Trees to Offset the Carbon Footprint?

If You Hug the Trees, Can You Have More Renewable Energy? | NYT

NRDC: Trees vs. Books

Save Trees and Read Green with a Kindle

Toilet Paper and Other Moral Choices | NYT

How Many People Are Using the ‘Net?

Make Your Website Green | CO2Stats

and how often do you call and text?

4play
Meeting women is never an issue — like a squirrel gathering nuts under an acorn tree, I meet women in a variety of places and have zero issues starting conversations and getting numbers. I must admit I often drop the ball with regard to calling and timing it right, but lately I’ve made some changes and the conversion rate is much better.

In the perfect world you’d think that if someone gave you their number it would be ok to call that day or the next. Well, it’s not–and if you do it too early, odds are you will come off or look desperate even if you’re not. If you do it too late, you come off like you don’t care. Either way is very bad for you and will probably be a deal breaker.

The Do’s:

• If you meet someone and get the number it’s ok to send a quick text that night or next day stating, “Had a good time hanging out, looking forward to doing it again.”
• If you call, you must wait 2 to 3 days. If you didn’t make plans after that first conversation, I’d wait another 2 days for another call. If you did make some plans for the following Friday you can give a call on Thursday, but that’s about it. Sounds stupid, but your patience will pay off.

The Don’ts:

• Don’t call the same night you met. You will go down harder than the Titanic.
• Don’t call the next day. She may be very interested and it may even work out for you, but if you wait you’ve done yourself no harm.
• Even after the first success call, don’t call the next day. Pace yourself stallion, it’s a marathon, wait a few days.

Follow the simple rules and it will be one less obstacle in your way.

4Real

Let me preface this by saying, at the end of the day, there are exceptions to every rule. With that said, here are my rules:

Don’t call the night you get the number! Unless of course you’re just looking for sex. In which case you’re gross, but best of luck to you. And don’t expect her to answer the next day.

If you really like her, then in some situations, a text that night to say you look forward to talking or meeting up can be very flattering.

Note: Not flattering? A text that says “Where are you now?” or “Still up?” or “Want me to come over?”

A good rule of thumb is to call 2 to 3 days after getting the digits. Any sooner, you seem too eager. Any later, well, she might’ve forgotten about you. Most likely she hasn’t, but she’ll want to seem that way. For who knows what reason, I’m just telling you how it works.

Do not call repeatedly until she answers.

Do not text her that you can’t stop thinking about her or you think she may be your soul mate or  some variation of ‘I love you’

Now a good way to avoid all the nervous-butterflies-when-do-I-call-jitters is to set something up when you first score the digits. Even if it’s totally vague, let her know when (roughly) to expect your call. This eliminates the guessing game on both sides. Plus, it’ll give you insight into just how interested she may be. Something like “Maybe we could catch dinner later this week?” or “I’d love to meet up for coffee this weekend if you’re up for it”. (Read: no “Dinner tomorrow at Olive Garden, 7pm, I’ll pick you up? What’s your address? Yes or no? Tell me now!!”)

At the end of the day, if you reallllly want to call the very next day, just tell her you didn’t want to wait and that you thought you guys hit it off. If she doesn’t seem to reciprocate or makes excuse that she’s busy every day for the next week, back off. If she cancels the first date you set up, let her slide. If she cancels the second, stop calling!
 
meta4

In a perfect world, if you like someone, you should be able to call them whenever without inspiring some death-spiral of speculation about your intentions, desperation or sanity . . . after all, if they didn’t want the call, why’d they give up the number?

Personally, I’ve never been good at playing the games. If I like you, you know it, ‘cuz I told you. If you like me, I know it, ‘cuz I asked. If you don’t, that’s fine—I’m a big boy and you have every right to like whoever you want to, which doesn’t necessarily have to include me.

So, if I wanted to call the next day, I always did. In this case–as in all cases where  stupid dating “rules” applied that I refused to be bound by—I’d just acknowledge the rule and that I was breaking it . . . and let my soon-to-be lover know that I was doing so because she was worth breaking the rules for.

Since the rules are so often stupid, shining the light of acknowledgement on them usually robs them of their power. They are self-debunking, if you care to take the time to challenge them.

Remember: Start the games, and they never end . . . and since the games are hopelessly skewed toward the fairer sex, starting them at all is like signing your own death warrant.

But if you can’t handle standing up to the games, try one of these: Ask when you can call when you get the number. Or give an indication when you intend to. Or, tell the person you are giving your number to when you’d like them to use it.
 
Done and done.

4sight

There is a fine line between calling too soon and calling too late, and often times the looming “rules” of when to call are more of a hindrance than a help. Personally, I’m not one for the whole “call me, I’ll call you” situation. Often times, I prefer a more virtual form of communication. Texting, e-mail, Facebook/MySpace, even instant messaging is preferable to the ominous call in my book. Yeah, sometimes voice-to-voice conversations are preferable, but in many cases the pressure is far less intense when relying on your fingers to do the talking.

With electronic communication, it’s almost too soon for there to be a rule book specifying the when’s and how’s of macking on that potential love interest. Too soon or too much and suddenly you’re the creepy guy with stalker-esque tendencies. Too little too late and you’re just looking for a booty call because all of your real-life girls have realized what a dirtbag you are. My personal preference is this: Text me the day after you get my number, where we can exchange e-mail addresses and set up a date. Flirting is far more fun when typing.

One of the trend topics during the recent Vision trade show in Stuttgart has been standardization. Boring, yawn, unsexy – one might think. But wait a second ! Standardization of the main parts of a machine vision system, is just the opposite: a highly attractive topic. And this is so for all parties involved. Customers and users of machine vision profit by standards due to the increased transparency of the decision relevant criteria, the improved possibility to integrate different modules with each other, the avoidance of interface problems and the resulting cost eficiency as well as significantly higher security of their investments. The supplier of the machine vision product gains from the subsequent increase of the product´s usage, owing to the fact that technical and economical barriers on the user side are reduced. It is also to their benefit, of course, that at least for the standardized aspects of their product range they do not have to re-invent the wheel over and over again and thus can direct their development resources to areas where significant competetive advantages can be won.

Before either one of both sides can leverage these advantages, however, much time, effort and a good measure of enthusiasm has to be invested. A successful industry standard naturally requires that the technical details are worked out by the industry itself and that the result is accepted and put into action by at least the major part of this industry. For Machine Vision, this work is executed today in standardization working groups surpassing the barriers of companies, countries and languages, supported by the three major Machine Vision associations: EMVA; AIA and JIIA. The current status of the standards has been presented during the Vision trade show with lectures as part of the Industrial Vision Days but also at the special exhibition „Vision Standards“. Organized by the EMVA and the trade show all three associations presented here the standards they host: GigE Vision, CameraLink, GenICam, EMVA 1288 and Lens Mount. This exhibition has been highly informative, well presented – one could even say sexy. 

“industry standard”
Means it’s been around too long
Crappy old software

IDG-ägda The Industry Standard har bytt till Drupal. The Industry Standard är ett IT-nyhetsmagasin som ett tag även fanns i en svensk version.

Sajten är uppbyggd med tjänster som försöker förutspå hur IT-marknaden ska utveckla sig tillsammans med ett “ryktesbaserat” socialt nätverk (community).

Sajten är en av de första IDG-sajterna på Drupal. I Sverige har IDG.se valt Polopoly (installerat och implementerat av bl a Xlent).

Hot on the heels of the news of Business 2.0’s demise comes strong rumor of the re-birth of the Industry Standard – poster child of the dotcom bubble and famed for its rooftop parties.

Brad Stone reports the details here, including the hunt for an editor-in-chief. Check out this interesting comment from a former European editor, Mike Butcher:

“As a former European editor with The Standard (and blogger, during their abortive blogging experiment after the mag closed) I’d be amazed they make this work. What IDG should have done was to keep the brand going online during the Nuclear Winter when the market tanked. They didn’t and others have taken the Standard’s place. One thing they could do, however, is concentrate on investigative reporting. There is a lot of chatter these days but very few real dirt-digging scoops.”

Technorati Tags: Industry Standard, Business 2.0, publishing

Writing about Silicon Valley in the rise and fall of the dot-com era would have been an interesting time.

Wired Magazine, The Industry Standard, Federated Media: These are only three of the things that John Battelle has done with the Web in the past ten years. And there’s more to come.

In this interview with Andrew Keen, Battelle casts a keen eye on what is past, and passing and to come in the Brave New Internet. Google, the subject of his latest book, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture is only one of these.

AfterTV: John Battelle

MP3 audio