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Corporate deeds, misdeeds and everything else.

SCAD Shines

I went back to SCAD‘s website for some information on the new quarter, I noticed a catchy phrase on its newly designed home page:

Kaplan/Newsweek names Savannah College of Art and Design “Hottest for Studying Art” among “America’s 25 Hottest Colleges”.

Sure enough, a quick surf to MSNBC’s site turned up this page which puts SCAD among its top 25 picks for various fields of study. Unfortunately, Visual Effects Department (formerly part of the Computer Art Department) got all the attention again, as if that’s the only major SCAD is capable of producing talented students from.

SCAD among hottest colleges

I give credit to former Computer Art administrators and professors for doing so much for students in a competitive industry like film and visual effects in marketing and promotion of the department, but I’d like to see more from other departments to step up their plates and promote their majors like Visual Effects Department did. I mean, com’on, Prof. Tom Fischer in the Photography Department was a student of Ansel Adams, how come they don’t publicize more of that?

All in all, SCAD is a wonderful school (despite its politics with faculty and students) to study technology-related arts and crafts. Kudos to a job well done.

But I miss former President Richard Rowan still (founder and ex-husband of the current president). He’s so cool that students didn’t need to make any appointment to talk to him; walk-ins were welcomed. No matter how busy he was, he always stopped and talked to students about their days. This is definitely not something you can do with Paula. After Richard left, I noticed that almost every single department required an appointment to speak to anyone on almost anything.

So long small-town SCAD. Hello “University for the Arts” SCAD.

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Author shunPosted on 09/19/200512/23/2005Categories Arts, No LogoLeave a comment on SCAD Shines

Goliath, Meet David — How One Student Beat Microsoft by Himself

This is an inspiring story about a student beating out Microsoft’s entire legal team without giving in or going broke with legal expenses.

It’s a pretty long but interesting read. I wonder how much money Microsoft’s legal department has billed the software giant on BS lawsuits like this one. This effectively demonstrates what’s wrong with this country’s legal system in terms of bogus and baseless lawsuits. I remember reading something on law firms sending out baseless threats to sue private medical clinics unless they settle out of court. And most of the time, the owners of the clinics are doctors who’d rather spend his limited resources on the patients, therefore most elect to settle out of the court even though the claims are baseless.

Bush has vowed to limit lawsuits like these during his second term in office. Not much has happened yet. It seems like between Iraq, Roberts confirmation hearings and Hurricane Katrina, he can’t be stretched any thinner. He’s not exactly a multi-tasker to begin with anyway…

via [DownloadSquad]

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Author shunPosted on 09/12/200509/12/2005Categories Geek Stuff, No LogoLeave a comment on Goliath, Meet David — How One Student Beat Microsoft by Himself

Expensive Stuff

Got some money to burn? Unica Home would be the place to go if you just have get that designer titanium wallet for Christmas.

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Author shunPosted on 08/31/200512/21/2005Categories Entertainment, No Logo, RantLeave a comment on Expensive Stuff

Stupid Online Registries

I was trying to get something for Maggie for her bridal registry. She’d registered at Pier 1 Imports and Sears Canada. So I started shopping. First I started at Sears. After I added my items from the registry, filled in my billing info, all excited and ready to check out, it turned out that I had to supply Maggie’s address…

What the hell? The whole point of going through a registry electronically is so that THEY can provide all the vital information. So I ditched Sears.

Pier1.com was my next stop. I went through the same process of adding the items, filled out my billing info and ready to check out, but again, they expected me to have Maggie’s shipping info handy.

WTF?! Why can’t they do it like Amazon where the register’s information is provided without assuming that the buyer already knows what it is?

God, I hate stupid sites.

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Author shunPosted on 08/27/200512/21/2005Categories No Logo, RantLeave a comment on Stupid Online Registries

AppleCare

AppleCare Three years ago I got a third Mac and took the plunge for a PowerBook. Though I didn’t get AppleCare, I understood its importance thanks to Murdza’s persistent reminder. Before the warranty expired, I got AppleCare as an insurance policy.

And what a fine decision that was. Second year into the AppleCare warranty (after which the original one-year warranty expired), I started to notice the bottom of the LCD screen showing some dark gradations, as if the monitor was slowly deteriorating from the bottom up. I called Apple. What followed completely exceed my expectations from a tech support stand point (having dealt with Dell frequently in the past).

The toll-free number that came with AppleCare was actually answered by a human operator. Within 5 minutes, I was already dishing out 411 about my PowerBook. Within a couple of minutes of that, a dispatch number and a case number were issued for follow up (also available online).

That same afternoon, Grace called and said someone from Apple had stopped by trying to pick up the PowerBook for repair. But since I wasn’t there, he left with me a box, some packing material and an nicely illustrated instruction on how to specifically pack the PowerBook for shipment (paid for by Apple, or should I say “pre-paid for with my AppleCare purchase”).

AppleCare Plan Warranty Chart

After I shipped the package to Apple, I expected them to take a week to go through the repair queue, perform the repair then return it. Ten days, tops, I thought. But by the fourth business day, my PowerBook was back in my hands. WOW!

It took a total of four business days for the repair, including shipping!

The PowerBook came back with a repair slip on everything that was done to it. And as expected, the LCD panel was replaced, but Apple was being nice and gave me a couple of extras:
1. Replaced the entire casing on the bottom half of the PowerBook; it didn’t look too bad before (very little chipped paints), but after the replacement, it appeared brand new.
2. They replaced the DVD drive which was making some funny sounds from time to time.

All in all, AppleCare paid for itself easily. Replacement of the LCD screen easily costs $350+. In the lifetime of any problems on a Mac, if anything goes wrong, AppleCare often saves the owner more money than the cost of the AppleCare itself.

In light of cost cutting measures to boost bottom line, many tech companies have instituted company sanctioned DIY self-service kits. Basically the customer would call the company, go through a problem-diagnosis procedure with a live tech support guy, and then they send the customer a kit to repair the specific problems.

Apple is also moving forward in that direction, but it is doing it way better than anybody else (given its excellent user-friendly processes). The new iMac G5s are made with built in self-diagnosis hardware for easy troubleshooting and replacement.

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Author shunPosted on 08/26/200512/23/2005Categories Apple, Geek Stuff, No LogoLeave a comment on AppleCare

Misrepresenting Christianity

Apparently Pat Robertson, the leader of Christian Coalition and a well-known tele-vengelical in the United States, decided that assassinating the president of Venezuela would be the right thing to do.

Pat Robertson comic

WTF!!!

This is what’s wrong with Christianity in America. Many political messages, like the one confessed by Pat Robertson, are embedded into religious events and rituals. Worst yet, his 700 Club organization gets televised to millions of Christians who are tuned in to his programming also get their minds brainwashed. I wonder why the Christian Coalition is not considered a cult and be investigated by the FBI.

Speaking of the Evangelical Christians, it plays a huge role in the past few presidential elections in America. It’s one thing to preach the gospels of Jesus Christ, but it’s quite something else to misinterpret the Bible (which can be so easily done and is done on a daily basis) to millions who put their spiritual lives in its literal (and interpreted) messages. Brian really has big issues with religion in general. But I really have an issue with Christianity and its in-your-face preaching methods in the United States. There are also other non-sense messages preached by the Christians in general. But I won’t get into that here. I believe a good majority of those who are Christians are good people. But it’s really those who are jack asses ruin its image as a religion for me.

Here’s a typical conversation I’d have with a Christian:

Christian: “Only believing in Jesus Christ the Savior can save your soul; this is the only way to be saved on the Judgement Day.”

ME: “What about bypassing Jesus Christ and believing in God directly?”

Christian: “Can’t do. You have to believe in Jesus Christ. He died for you. Only believing in him can bring you salvation.”

ME: “So only Jesus Christ can save my soul? What happens to those who never knew of his existence? Someone out in some remote location out in the wild?”

Christian: “He’d go to Hell. He can’t be saved.”

ME: “But how can God or Jesus blame that person for not having been told about Jesus Christ?”

Christian: “It doesn’t matter. He’s going to Hell.”

ME: “That’s not right. Shouldn’t believing in God be enough? God is bigger and mightier than Jesus, no? He’s Jesus’ father! That’s not enough?”

Christian: “Doesn’t matter. He’s going to Hell.”

ME: “What about someone born before Jesus Christ?”

Christian: “That’s too bad. He’s going to Hell.”

ME: “WTF! That’s nonsense!”

Christian: “You are going to Hell.”

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Author shunPosted on 08/23/200512/23/2005Categories No Logo, Politics, Rant, Society + Environment1 Comment on Misrepresenting Christianity

No Hugs to Huggies

The hospital gave us enough Pampers diapers for a couple of days. And we sure used them up fast. So we switched to the Huggies diapers we got at a discount from Costco. What a mistake.

Those Huggies, how do I put this delicately… um, they are pieces of crap. Not only does the texture inferior to the free diapers given to us by the hospital, they leak easily. Apparently I am not the only person complaining. A quick Google will result in many complaints about the same thing.

Good thing Costco has great return policies. On the shelf is where this product belongs. God damn pieces of crap!

Speaking of Costco, I had to get a huge 38 oz can of Enfamil baby formula from Costco (this one). Grace has been in the hospital since Saturday night and has been receiving antibiotics to treat her infection. Her breast milk, naturally, is not usable for the baby. So formula it is for now. The damn thing cost me $28! Yikes! I wonder how long the can is going to last.

While researching on the Huggies issue, I discovered this dad blogging about everything baby. Cool! Given the amount of coverage given to family matters, my blog may soon turn into one of those daddy blogs too…

UPDATE: I ran out to the supermarket and got Pampers right after I posted this. And 10 diapers later, no problemo. Huggies is definitely going back to Costco.

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Author shunPosted on 08/08/200512/21/2005Categories Baby stuff, Day to day life, No Logo, RantLeave a comment on No Hugs to Huggies

SCAD Says — Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated

ACA homepage

SCAD has been expanding its territory like a stray cat marking its ‘hoods. After its expansion to Atlanta at the end of 2004, I guess the presence is too strong to ignore for another local art college. Today, Atlanta College of Art announced that its board of directors have been bought out by SCAD proposed to marry its operations as part of SCAD. Ironically, ACA is celebrating its 100th birthday since its founding in 1905.

What I’d like to really see is assimilation of Ringling School of Art and Design. The staff and faculty of that school’s bad-mouthing SCAD for a long time. When I worked at SCAD admissions years ago, parents would come to me and tell me horror stories they heard from Ringling admissions staff. I would be like, WTF. But most parents were wise enough not to listen to the rumors they were spreading and decided to see SCAD for themselves. And for most of them, it turned out to be the best decision. SCAD has its own share of problems (which can easily be found on several online forums). But to be so unprofessionally spoken about was just stupid on Ringling’s part. Hopefully someday SCAD will swallow them up “like a box of chocolates”, as Forrest Gump would put it (incidentally, the movie was filmed in Savannah).

Another interesting thing also happened a few days ago. An ex-professor of SCAD, Philippe Houeix, operated a site called scad.info (Google cache). He basically made public some information he thought SCAD was doing wrong and shared it through the site. His detailed and documented information prompted a flood of people, mostly ex-SCAD students and employees, to share their experience through the site as well. And of course, that didn’t sit well with SCAD’s chief. So lawsuits and threats were made against Mr. Houeix and the site. A few years later, Michael recently noticed that the site is now unavailable! And the “scad.info” domain name now belongs to an administrator we know is working for SCAD. It’s like WTF! Did SCAD buy out get to this guy too?

Not to be undermined, Mr. Houeix registered another domain name “scad-and-us.info” to continue documenting his affairs with the superpower of art colleges. Nothing much is there yet (probably restraining orders). But he’s not known to be quiet. Expect something to be up soon. SCAD probably got an injunction to take the sites down since they hurt SCAD’s business. And if he did get paid off, we’ll never see the information again. Interestingly, it’s been said that SCAD has never lost a lawsuit in the State of Georgia. So the fight continues and so does the drama.

Michael commented that Mr. Houeix probably must have sold the site for a million bucks to SCAD. Considering how many potential students SCAD could lose if they found out about this site, Michael thinks it’s worth at least that much to shut him up for a million. Jokingly, I said maybe I’d get a “scadsucks.com” going and sell it back to SCAD. But guess what… they got THAT, and .net and .info. But I like SCAD, despite its issues. I am sure there are things students at MIT or Harvard don’t like about their schools. SCAD is the same. So kids, just use your common sense when choosing your school. Don’t be a dumb ass and only read one side of the story.

Thanks to Mike again… for his Trekky quote which made the title of this entry.

UPDATE 12.05.2005: It appears that scad-and-us.info now belongs to SCAD as well. Mr. Houeix must have been totally bought out! The story just keeps getting more and more interesting. Now I really want to know what happened. But knowing SCAD (and most of Corporate America, for that matter), they probably made him sign a non-discloure agreement to gag him. The interesting thing is, just two days ago, the index page on scad-and-us.info was still “under construction”… God damn it, I want to know what’s going on!

Also, some sites that have Mr. Houeix’s name mentioned regarding his involvement with the scandal have all disappeared (“Page Not Found” errors)… or at least the English ones I could find. Amazing.

DISCLOSURE: I happen to like SCAD a lot: its staff, faculty members, facilities and “some” administrators. I received a BFA and a MFA, both from SCAD, and don’t regret my time (and money) spent in Savannah and SCAD. Like I said, you need to do your own due diligence and decide what you like/don’t like. To talk to as many people as you can (current, ex, staff, students… whatever) and arrive at an educated conclusion yourself. That is, if you value your education to the extend that this kind of research matters to you. Like I said, EVERY FREAKING school is going to have its issues. Decide what’s important to you and move on. Search and read my other opinions about SCAD on this blog.

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Author shunPosted on 07/26/200502/20/2007Categories No Logo, Politics7 Comments on SCAD Says — Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated

Results Oriented Work Environment

Best Buy figured out that if employees can just focus on the result of their work, time isn’t necessarily the essence. Time is reporting Best Buy’s shift of focus on how much work is done rather than how much time employees spend at work.

Results-oriented work schedule could actually benefit all parties in question. Employees are happy because they have a flexible schedule; no more panics when something comes up at home — telecommute is always an option. Employers are happy because the moral is up and they actually get more results with the same 40-hour weeks per employee. Vendors feel good because they no longer have to deal with disgruntled or shoddy contracts handled by in-a-hurry-to-get-home-by-5PM employees.

The freedom, employees say, is changing their lives. They don’t know if they work fewer hours–they’ve stopped counting–but they are more productive. That’s welcome news for a company that hopes its employees will give it a competitive edge. Along the way, they go through a wrenching reprogramming of their attitudes toward work. What if you didn’t get credit for putting in the longest hours? As a manager, how do you establish your authority? As an employee, how do you get ahead? “It takes away everything that you felt was normal,” says [Best Buy veteran] Owens.

Stop counting the hours?! Isn’t that the ultimate goal for most companies anyway? Increase everyone’s work hours without anyone noticing. Not that everyone’s out to cheat the company, but when needed, most employees will pitch in additional time and effort to get the job done.

One manager, faced with low moral in her store, was asked to ” try flexible scheduling, trusting his team to work as it suited them.” Well, that magic little word “trust” worked wonders:

Turnover in the first three months of employment fell from 14% to zero, job satisfaction rose 10%, and their team-performance scores rose 13%.

I used to work at a place where trust was to be earned, not something to lose. Managers were micromanaging. And everyone’s presumed to cheat the company until that trust is gained. From a complete stranger-to-stranger point of view, I completely understand the approach. But when someone is hired to perform a certain task, a certain amount of trust should already be there. Otherwise, why hire anyone at all?

A little trust can go a long way.

And here’s another good one:

… as everyone started to rethink their priorities, guess what fell to the bottom of the list? “We spend a lot less time in meetings,” Tobias [a manager] says. They used to have a two-hour weekly staff meeting that often devolved into chit-chat. Now, if they don’t need to meet, they don’t.

I remember days when there were meetings to talk about good times for meetings! And sometimes we met just so that we can meet again later. And really, a lot of those meetings were about the manager’s insecurities on what was really going on. Those who were working on projects all knew what each other’s responsibilities were and held micro meetings on the fly all the time.

The change also has exposed some ugly attitudes among managers. When [Jody] Thompson proposed extending flexibility to hourly workers, the managers resisted, arguing that “there are certain people that need to be managed differently than other people. ‘Because we believe that administrative assistants need to be at their desk to ‘serve’ their bosses,'” she says. That issue is not yet resolved, but Thompson says ROWE is forcing the company to confront it.

Aw man… that sounds all too familiar. But I am glad it’s being portrayed as an “ugly attitudes among managers”.

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Author shunPosted on 07/19/200512/21/2005Categories No Logo, Rant, Society + Environment8 Comments on Results Oriented Work Environment

Lies and the Lying Liars

Jon Stewart, once again, brought the truth to the general public with accuracy and a little humor.

Stewart on Rove

I have two movie clips here as Jon Stewart continues to scrutinize the news. Very funny, entertaining and reveals the awful truths on the Capital Hill.

Download Lies and Lying Liars (Quicktime 7MB 8’12)

Download An On Going Investigation (Quicktime 3.6MB 3’08 )

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Author shunPosted on 07/15/200512/23/2005Categories No Logo, PoliticsLeave a comment on Lies and the Lying Liars

Canon Survey

I continue to be surprised by Canon’s service. After having dealt with Canon (here and here) for problems with my camcorder, I got another email from Canon today to follow up on the repair experience:

From: Canon USA
Reply-To: canonusa@ecem1.com
To: “*****@wiredatom.com” < *****@wiredatom.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:50:15 (GMT)
Subject: How Was Your Canon USA Factory Service Experience?

To Our Valued Canon Customer:

Canon USA strives to maintain the highest standards of quality and service. It is our goal to meet and exceed your needs. In our ongoing effort to provide the best service possible, we would like to know how well we handled your recent repair at Canon’s Factory Service Center, as outlined below:

Repair Number: LG092630
Date Received: 06/21/2005 12:00:00 AM
Model: ZR70MC

Your opinion is very important to us. Please take a few minutes to share your feedback in an online survey. The information you provide will be used to improve the quality of our services to you. To access the survey, click on the URL below or copy and paste the address into your browser.

http://www.customersat3.com/m.asp?si=1PBj3Fx1hso%3D&IID=vrdS5Zt8EVDvLywLDIwF1w%3D%3D

Canon respects your privacy and will not share your name, email address, or other information with other parties.

Thank you, in advance, for taking the time to complete the survey and for being a valued Canon customer.

Sincerely,

Camera & Video Service Division
Canon U.S.A., Inc.
One Canon Plaza
Lake Success, NY 11042

I guess the point of this entry is, not only did Canon score very high on my satisfaction for their service, even the company they hired to conduct the survey, CustomerSat, Inc, did an exceptional job.

This experience has certainly casted a shadow over my loyalty for Nikon.

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Author shunPosted on 07/13/200512/21/2005Categories Day to day life, Geek Stuff, No Logo1 Comment on Canon Survey

Environmentally Friendly with Style

I was reading an article about biodegradable diapers and bumped into this site: Treehugger. And from there, I saw this eco-friendly online store: Vivavi, and this eco-friendly design school, Ecosa Institute.

There seems to be an increasing number of environmentally conscious population in the United States, especially here in California. When I was back in New York, terms like “organic”, “environmental” and “vegetarian” are associated with Yuppies from the Upper Westside of the town.

In the Bay Area, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are pretty busy places. Steve Jobs is known to frequent Whole Foods since it’s only blocks from Apple’s main campus.

This reminds me of the notion of a “sustainable” business with minimal footprints mentioned by Ray Anderson (his info here and here) in the DVD The Corporation. If CEOs of Fortune 500 companies can think the way he does, the world would be a far better place. It’s rare to see a business with some conscience. Most others do it because of pressure from their customers or regulatory constrains (ahem-GE-ahem). But whatever it takes, it’s a popular thing to do now. So everyone’s doing it.

Since I started talking about diapers, here’s a company a former kozmo.com employee founded in NYC to deliver diapers (and some other stuff) — MaxDelivery.

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Author shunPosted on 07/13/200512/21/2005Categories Blogging, No Logo, Politics, Society + Environment, Steve JobsLeave a comment on Environmentally Friendly with Style

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