Archive for September, 2011

How not to act in the office

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Forming a habit can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the nature of the habit. For instance, paying close attention to detail and making sure your workspace is clean and tidy are good habits to form in the office. We are all also aware of some bad habits workers can form. Research shows that any habit requires a minimum of 21 days to change. That sounds like a lot of work to put into breaking a bad habit. Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid forming the bad habit in the first place?  Here are a few bad working habits, as well as some tips on how to avoid them proactively.

Working Through Lunch

    It’s not uncommon for your day to get out of hand before noon. The fact is, sometimes working through lunch is unavoidable.
However, developing this habit can actually be detrimental to your productivity. We need to take breaks and give ourselves time to cool down and regroup. If you’re having a stressful day at the office, it’s best to take a full lunch rather than to try to power through. Try setting strict time boundaries on your lunchtime and start viewing it as its own work assignment.

Idealizing

    For most of us, the grass is always greener at another job. When we’ve had a bad day in the office, it’s easy to relive our childhood daydreams of exciting and harmful professions such as being an astronaut or firefighter.. Unfortunately, idealizing another line of work makes it difficult to be happy in your current position. Instead, try making a list of all the good things your job provides for you. Documenting each small joy will help you appreciate the job you have.

Work Time Distractions

    Comical YouTube videos and entertaining flash games are added to the Internet every minute of every day. It’s easy to waste hours of work time on these simple distractions. This is a bad habit to form, and one that should definitely be avoided. To help, schedule “small breaks” throughout the day.  Reward yourself after finishing a large project or after working solidly for several hours. Creating these time boundaries will help prevent forming a habit of being distracted.

    Forming bad habits can be easier than you’d think and breaking a bad habit can be much more difficult than you’d imagine. The next time you notice yourself slipping into any of these bad habits, take some time to consider what good habits you could form to combat them.

What habits, good or bad, have you developed?

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Tablets in our World

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Our lives seem to change as quickly as technology evolves. It occurs so quick we hardly seem to notice. It wasn’t that long ago that when you would purchase something on your credit card the clerk would have to make a carbon imprint of the card. Today credit cards can be scanned almost anywhere if you have an attachment for your tablet computer.

Making credit card purchases is not the only way the tablet has changed business. It has in some cases fundamentally influenced the way many businesses operate. Here are a few examples of companies that have come up with some innovative uses for tablets.

New York City’s West Village is home to De Santos a high-end Italian restaurant where the wait staff uses iPad 2s. Orders are taken and credit cards are swiped all on the iPads. The owners hope that this will minimize human mistakes and streamline the ordering process.

Puma stores in Africa, Asia and Europe have installed iPad stations called The
Creative Factory. At these stations customers can design sneakers and see other designs around from people around the globe as well as find out about the other creators. Puma seeks to connect the world with active footwear.

The DeKalb Market in Brooklyn has a new addition called SHOPBOX.
People can shop at SHOPBOX but it has no store clerks and no storefront! SHOPBOX is composed of shipping containers with an iPads mounted on the ends. Shoppers register on the iPads then text the item number they wish to purchase to the phone number that is printed on the glass on each SHOPBOX. The item is then shipped to a location of their choice. This definitely redefines window-shopping!

People will continue to find innovative uses for tablets as technology improves. It may eventually become old fashioned to have a wait staff in restaurants and future generations may wonder what the purpose of a mall was. It is the nature of the world to change, and the more advanced technology gets the faster change happen. Maybe one day we’ll get teleportation devices after all.

Beam me up Sc0tty!  How are you using Tablets?

Posted in Technology and How it's Used, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Write the best email

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Writing an email is a form of communication removed of several exterior influences like voice inflection and body language. This makes choosing the right words even more important. You wouldn’t want your boss getting the wrong idea by signing a vacation request email with “All my love,” for illustration. Here are a few tips to remember when deciding what to say.

Opening an Email

Informal

Writing an email to a close friend isn’t something that needs a lot of propriety. Much like other forms of communication, an email can be more relaxed when writing to someone you know well and with whom you are comfortable. Using just the recipient’s name or a simple “Hi,” should be sufficient and communicate closeness to the reader.

Formal

Writing to someone you don’t know well or to an employer figure requires a bit more formality. Using “Dear” followed by the intended reader’s name or “Good afternoon” or “Good evening” Should convey the proper amount of respect and formality.

Respectful

Use this tone when writing to a higher institution such as a prospective employer. Opening with “To whom it may concern” communicates a high level of respect and lets the reader know they are being approached in a highly professional tone.

Closing an Email

Informal

Again, using your name is always a good way to end an informal email. However, using “Love,” or “With love,” is also a good option in this setting, as it communicates closeness.
Unlike writing in the formal and respectful tones, letting the reader know the closeness you feel in your relationship is a good thing.

Formal

Much like opening a formal email, you should end your message with respect but not too much pomp and circumstance. Using “Sincerely,” is the classic choice, however ending with “Yours truly,” or similar will communicate respect while also sounding less programmed. This is a nice bridge between an informal and a respectful tone.

Respectful

Be sure to follow through with a respective tone until the end of your message. Ending with “Sincerely,” or “Regards,” communicates respect. Depending on the nature of your message, you may also want to include “Thank you for your time,” if the email is requesting any sort of action.

    The next time you sit down to send an email consider the nature of your email, the relationship you share with the recipient and the message you want to communicate. Doing so will help ensure that your friends don’t fear they’ve lost your friendship, or confuse your boss with a miscommunication of romantic advances.

Posted in Just for Fun, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Unbelievable Tech Lawsuits of the Last Decade

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Usually when people file lawsuits it’s very serious business, but every so often lawsuits are filed that are rather ridiculous.
Below are a few interesting and amusing tech industry lawsuits which have been filed in the last ten years.

Pentium Hives? – In 2002, a Dutch woman filed a lawsuit against the government and Intel because she said that she got hives from her Pentium processor. Her 486-base processor did not give her the hives however and no judge was “itching” to take the case.

A Woman Lead into Danger by Google? – In 2009, Google was sued by a woman who had been hit by a car on a dark narrow highway that did not have pedestrian paths. She blamed Google because she was just following the walking directions they gave her. A judge dismissed her case and Google “dodged” the lawsuit.

Star Wars Galaxies Killed by Sony! – In 2010, angry fans of Star
Wars Galaxies filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony for shutting down the game. The MMORPG had had a steadily lessening subscribership for several years.  I guess the “force” was not strong enough to sustain the game, the fans, or the case.

Failed Mafia Wars Romance Ends With a Lawsuit – A woman sued a man over for damages from their broken Mafia Wars romance. After meeting and falling in love over the Facebook game, Mafia Wars, the woman spent thousands of dollars on game credits and gifts for her new love interest. After the relationship ended, she sued him for the money spent. Both the relationship as well as the case are now “sleeping with the fishes.”

If you have heard of any interesting lawsuits, let us know by commenting on this blog or on one of our other social media accounts! 

Posted in Just for Fun | No Comments »