Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
In a pretty unexpected move I've now joined the ranks of the unemployed
Sorry to hear? Anything worth noting on why? Simple redundancy or something more notable?
Hope you find something quick.
Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Sorry to hear? Anything worth noting on why? Simple redundancy or something more notable?
Hope you find something quick.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I've heard this a lot, but so far for my 1st semester I need a grand total of zero textbooks. All course materials will be provided electronically via PDFs as needed.
Stereodude
Not really a
I worked for a fairly large semiconductor company as a Field Applications Engineer. I was in the Automotive office supporting microcontroller, graphics, & 1394 products with 8 other people.
Well, they've been in the process of circling the drain for years with their high prices, obsolete process technology, & obsolete / non-competitive product (none of which is changing). Once or twice a year they would trim staff reducing costs to keep the balance sheet in the black since that apparently was the most important aspect of running the company. Myself and several coworkers commonly referred to these reorganizations as shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic and arguing about what the band was playing while ignoring that ship was sinking or steaming full speed ahead into an iceberg. So, we all knew it wasn't going to last forever.
Having said all this it was still a surprise since usually the technical people who interface with the customer are usually the last people who get the boot since they're part of the companies face to the customer. I was also the right hand man of the Sr. Director who ran the office who I worked for previously at another company. I took care of the local IT issues & was the jack of all trades, I fixed stuff when it broke, built demos (bending & cutting plexiglass, etc), and lots of other stuff that wasn't really my job to help out. Due to a power struggle and some staff shuffling at the very top the Sr. Director who brought me into the company lost most of his power and he couldn't protect my job from the arbitrary axe.
Apparently the higher ups in California just made the decision to eliminate the FAE position company wide (~3 of us total with only myself in Michigan) and rely on their Application Engineers (AEs) without really looking at how the loss of those people might impact things. Everyone I talked to in the office is in shock. The two sales guys I supported can't believe they had their first line of technical support pulled from under them. I typically went to most customer meetings and answered product and product support related questions.
This leaves them with no one in their automotive office to support their MCU products since they also broomed the Automotive MCU AE last year. They still have 1 graphics / 1394 AE left in the Detroit office. So now when an automotive customer needs MCU help they have to call the AE's in California and wait for someone to fly in to help them if they need on site help. That's just not going to go over very well with an automotive customer when the competitors have better local support (and offices with a lot more than 8 employees), lower prices, and better products.
So, to finally answer your question it wasn't redundancy since I had most of the same knowledge as the AE's, but I had it across all three product lines and was a lot more useful to have around the office.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Sorry to hear that, SD.
What do you want to do now?
What do you want to do now?
Stereodude
Not really a
Rest and relax and enjoy a little time on Funemployment.
ddrueding
Fixture
Rest and relax and enjoy a little time on Funemployment.
Hey, you paid your taxes, may as well get some of it back
Stereodude
Not really a
Yeah, max payout is currently $387 a week in Michigan. Booyah!Hey, you paid your taxes, may as well get some of it back
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
How are you for benefits? Can your wife take them over?
Sorry to hear the news, I'll have a drink for you.
Sorry to hear the news, I'll have a drink for you.
Stereodude
Not really a
Health care is good through the end of July on the current plan. The company will pay for the first 3 months of COBRA. After that they pay 65% of COBRA.
My wife is checking to see what the insurance situation is at her job. They're looking to start offering it, but currently don't. She's not sure when they will start.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
I believe Obama will pay for a significant portion of your COBRA costs (65%), given your involuntary seperation, for a reasonable period (up to 15 months).
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/174551.php
Not sure if it's still in effect, you should get an application form with your COBRA papers. Basically the insurance company bills you for the 35%, and gets the balance from the gov.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/174551.php
Not sure if it's still in effect, you should get an application form with your COBRA papers. Basically the insurance company bills you for the 35%, and gets the balance from the gov.
Stereodude
Not really a
FWIW, the HR person said that Obama makes them pay it.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-cobra-premiumreductionEE.html
Not sure if that premium reduction has been extended for those that were terminated beyond May 31st yet.
Stereodude
Not really a
Yeah, it doesn't say there. As always, the moral of the story is to take everything HR says with a grain of salt.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
With HR, it's usually management smoke and mirrors until proven otherwise Still, 3 months of fully paid is nice.
Still, 3 months of fully paid is nice.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Congrats on the house, DD! A colleague in NJ is suffering the mortgage closing blues just like you did (I hope you feel better now!). Your house will keep you busy for a long, long time.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
SD, sorry to hear about your job. My advice, at least on a part-time basis (since you're starting your home deck project) keep looking. It's very easy to be "too much out" for your next gig.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Stereodude
Not really a
Don't get me wrong. I'm already actively looking for another job. I figure it will take a while though, so in the mean time I'm gonna start on my Home Theater and then Deck.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Fixed link: Miniatur Wunderland
That's pretty amazing, the scale is beyond anything I could have imagined. Sort of a lilliputian Westworld.
Really cheap to see as well. The same thing here would be one twentieth the size and four times the price.
That's pretty amazing, the scale is beyond anything I could have imagined. Sort of a lilliputian Westworld.
Really cheap to see as well. The same thing here would be one twentieth the size and four times the price.
ddrueding
Fixture
ddrueding
Fixture
Ugh. This is the first night my wife and I have spent apart since we started dating nearly 5 years ago. Sucks.
Stereodude
Not really a
Hah... Man up... :hurl:
Is she the clingy type? Or do I dare ask, since she reads the SF? :crnval:
Neither of you travel for business?
ddrueding
Fixture
When I've traveled for business, I've taken her with me. She isn't the clingy type, but I would love to "man up"...and she is out of town
I bought a basic bike this weekend (Diamondback) (the human powered kind). I just got back from doing a 12 mile ride. I know that's only a basic warm up for some here (jtr), but it was a tiring ride for me in this heat (85-90 F). I had a lot of fun, but the seat hurts my butt.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 667
I sympathize, I got in an accident Fri. and the shop I towed it to won't even be open till Tues. to even look at it because of the July 4th holiday.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
Good for you! My health is deteriorating and nobody knows why. I'm not exercising anymore at all.
I am so bored being trapped here Sunday and Monday with no place to go or transportation.
I've been stuck at work. :???:
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
12 miles is actually pretty decent considering the weather and the fact that you just started riding. When it's like this, if I do 20 miles it's a lot. A lot of my rides this past week have been in the 15 mile range although I do try to ride almost every day ( I've done over 700 miles since the beginning of May ). Can't wait for the nice cool, crisp fall weather where I can stay on the bike for 2 or 3 hours. One nice thing since getting the airless tires is being able to ride as far as I want without worrying about flats. After over 2000 miles, the tires seem reasonably well broken in, to the point rolling resistance is close to that of pneumatics.I bought a basic bike this weekend (Diamondback) (the human powered kind). I just got back from doing a 12 mile ride. I know that's only a basic warm up for some here (jtr), but it was a tiring ride for me in this heat (85-90 F). I had a lot of fun, but the seat hurts my butt.
You might want to take a look at this thread also.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Sounds like a good case for Dr. House. If you can't get an appointment with him (he's a picky bastard), then there's always Adcadet as a leftover ;-)
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Just upgraded Firefox and Thunderbird on my main box, and got a waring that the flash plugin was old... Pretty neat. (I had Flash v10.0 installed, but v10.1 is the current version).
Also, for those in *nix land, to enable Java (and the Java plugin) in Firefox v3.6.4+, you need to softlink libnpjp2.so in addition to the normal libjavapluing_oji.so, into the 'plugins' folder in the firefox directory to make Java work. (Took 30mins of googling to find out why the Java plugin wasn't working).
Also Adobe has starting releasing Solaris versions of Acrobat Reader on a regular basis. While Evince does a good job of PDFs, nice to have the full-blown bug-riddled Acrobat available for those PDFs that don't work with Evince, xpdf or Ghostview. A good point is that it even installs to /opt/Adobe by default as well! (kudos to Adobe for getting that one right).
Also, for those in *nix land, to enable Java (and the Java plugin) in Firefox v3.6.4+, you need to softlink libnpjp2.so in addition to the normal libjavapluing_oji.so, into the 'plugins' folder in the firefox directory to make Java work. (Took 30mins of googling to find out why the Java plugin wasn't working).
Also Adobe has starting releasing Solaris versions of Acrobat Reader on a regular basis. While Evince does a good job of PDFs, nice to have the full-blown bug-riddled Acrobat available for those PDFs that don't work with Evince, xpdf or Ghostview. A good point is that it even installs to /opt/Adobe by default as well! (kudos to Adobe for getting that one right).
I was a bit off on my mileage estimation. I didn't ride 12 miles, but it was closer to 10 miles. This was my second ride on the bike since I bought it. I picked up a Diamondback Edgewood LX hybrid bike with 21" tires. I wanted something that would give me a little bit of off the road use with the majority being on the street.
I'll need to read into airless tires and if it's possible to get something like that for my bike or even if it makes any sense to do so. How often do you get a flat tire? Thanks for a link to the other thread with your bike info. I remember reading that a while ago, but forgot all about it.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I bought a basic bike this weekend (Diamondback) (the human powered kind). I just got back from doing a 12 mile ride. I know that's only a basic warm up for some here (jtr), but it was a tiring ride for me in this heat (85-90 F). I had a lot of fun, but the seat hurts my butt.
Good for you! It could be the seat but most likely just lack of saddle time.
I'm currently mostly recovered from some fractured ribs from 3 weeks ago. I've recently pulled a couple of leg muscles badly enough to cause severe bruising.
Keep up a regular schedule and it'll be easy soon.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
What changed? Were the tires slower before OR was it harder to stop? Softer or harder.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
On my road bike I have Continental Ultra Gatorskin Tires 700x23. Since I got them in September 2008 I have only had 2 flats. I have ridden close to 3000 miles on them. You don't need airless tires to not get flats, just get a good Kevlar tire.
That sounds painful. How did you fracture your ribs? The leg muscles also sound painful.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
I wrote all about airless tires on CPF. Here's the thread.
If you want to skip to the part where I actually did an evaluation, here is the post.
It may or may not make sense for you to get them. It ultimately depends upon how much you'll be riding, and also how many flats you get. For me, getting flats was becoming an annoyance in that I might get them 2 or 3 times in a bad week. Also, the skinny tires I ran tended to be more flat-prone than those on your new bike, and let's not forget I ride in NYC with its legendarily poor road conditions ( potholes, glass ). Bottom line-just ride for now and enjoy it. Eventually either flats will or won't be a problem. Tim is getting along fine with Kevlar tires, for example. I tried them once and they really didn't work much better than standard ones under NYC's conditions. If flats prove to be an issue, then airless tires might make sense. The only caveat is you need to measure your wheels because there each airless tires only fits a range of rim widths.