Category ‘Personal’
RapidShare. Completely unusable?
RapidShare is changing it’s free download limits (as in speed, time and size) like others are changing their underwear. Their current setup however, is the worst I’ve experienced so far and makes RapidShare almost completely unusable without a client software.
I had to reload about 20 times and wait around 15 minutes, before I even got a download ticket. I had to wait 90 seconds after I got the ticket for the download to finally start. For each reload I had to click twice, after I got the ticket it took another click to start the download. In total, that sums up to 20 * 2 + 1 = 41 clicks on a website that advertises itself as “1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting”.
The download itself took 43 minutes 25 seconds for a total of 114.83 MiB, that’s about 45.14 KiB per second. Compare that to a test download I did from a full-speed server that delivered 657.37 KiB/s for a 30.6 MiB file in 48 seconds. That’s more than 1400% as fast as a download from RapidShare, not counting the waiting time.
The numbers speak for themselves – in my opinion RapidShare is completely unusable at the moment (and even more for less tech-savvy people than for me).
Bon Appetit at the Erlangen canteen
It’s no secret the canteen on the Erlangen university’s southern campus is not the best – but I haven’t seen something like that before.
A little bit disgusting if you ask me – I was lucky, it wasn’t my meal, though…
on work atmosphere
I don’t have a lot of experience working yet — however I noticed something that does have a huge impact on my work regarding efficiency, quality and my motivation: the atmosphere at my workplace.
Whether I feel comfortable in office depends on a lot of criteria, some subtle, less important, some of uttermost importance. I'll try to list some factors here, but this list doesn't claim to be anywhere close to complete. Note that this list is compiled from my experience; your mileage might vary. You're welcome to share your opinion using the comment form.
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Co-Workers
Colleagues probably have the largest impact on the atmosphere at work (at least when working in an office with a couple of other people around). Whether they are friendly, open and humorous (jokes make work a lot more fun) is one of the two key factors deciding whether I feel comfortable working at that place.
Unfortunately you hardly talk to your co-workers before picking up work, but that's probably why there's a probationary period… -
Your Boss
They guy in charge at your company can make your work life a misery. If he doesn't like you (or he's a complete id**t) and you don't have backup from your colleagues work can be a pain.
Hey bosses, if you're reading this, here's to you: how to be a good boss (PDF document, 98KB) at number17.com -
Your Client(s)
If you're working in the services sector you're working for someone. That's fine, however there usually is a simple problem with this person (or these persons, depending on whom you're working for this might be a large user base): they've got the money. And as we all know having the money makes you the king.
We all know the saying customer is king, but sometimes you should (at least try to) parent your customers to be less exhaustive towards you.
Oh, hey clients, read this: how to be a good client (PDF document, 66KB) at number17.com -
Equipment
This one's not a very big part, but it helps if you can work with a somewhat current system. Oh, and two screens are luxury, too.
Inspired by Lektion in Unusability und “Placebo forte!” on Keep Smoking
number17 comics via pixelgraphix.de