I'll be impressed when they give up on the stupid zoning system and open up the market to allow shops to import DVDs from around the world. Is that globalization? Isn't that what all those wacky corporate types want? Oh, only when it suits them. That makes sense.
With the latest chat about XBoxes being hacked to play DivX I had a thought. If I could easily play DivX on my TV I'd pay to download it (as long as it was much cheaper than going to the shop to get it, as I'm not getting anything physical and I must pay for the CD to burn it to and the internet connection which is IN THEORY cheaper than driving to the shop or having it sent to me... but that's not the point... is it?).
And I could do all that if I plugged my computer into my TV. Easy as pie. Everyone will now call for DVD players to play DivX? Why can't the DVD player have upgradable firmware that could be upgraded to play DivX? Why do we even need to do that? How long before your DVD player is a just a PC in a black box? Maybe it already is.
Got new Terms and Conditions today from my company. New terms of employment. On my radar so far are an extra half an hour a day with no extra pay (although our old minimum hours were pretty low compared to other companies I've worked at and all of us have been working that time "for free" anyway, you could argue this was just a formality) and the "standard" clause about no overtime or time-in-leau for any extra time worked. The usual open-ended statement that could allow the company to have you at work for 24 hours and not pay you extra, unless the company deems it "exceptional hours" and gives you some un-specified compensation. Is a weekend exceptional? How exceptional? I asked the last company I was at to be a little less vague about my time. I'll ask this one to do the same.
Yes, I care a great deal about my personal time. Any work pays you compensation of taking up your skills and personal time. If they didn't pay me, I wouldn't be there. No-one should work for free.
But hey quit winging IT boy, there are good things in there. Like the long overdue abolishment of Long Service Leave. The replacement is similar but you can start using it earlier. Effectively, you can take more days of annual leave for each few years you're at the company. I approve.
It's interesting to see how easily the "rules" about employment people spout (they can't do that, they have to do this) are broken or replaced with worse or better when you're purely under contract. Whodathunk.
bounce...