Loser Blog

This must be by far the most unsuccessful blog ever! Almost no visits and average visit time almost 0:00!!!

Landing a new job: Behind the scenes - [4]: "Why did you leave your last job?"

This is by far the most commonplace job interview question of them all [maybe with "Which is your biggest disadvantage/weakness?"]. There are really no fixed answers. Maybe you should judge by the cover on this one, i.e. try to figure out what type of person the interviewer you are dealing with is and go accordingly.

For example, with men it is easier to tell the truth, whereas with women you will inevitably have to come up with fancy answers. The case is, in any case, that this is a very stupid question because you only leave a job for one of the following reasons:

1. Get fired
2. They are idiots so you quit
3. You see no light at the end of the tunnel so you leave to try something better

I cannot see the point in having to give some beautiful answer [in our case this is answer 3] only because the interviewer expects to hear one. This is more like taking your SAT rather than actually being interviewed for a job.

In any case, some nice answers to this question include:

• When you have been fired:
  
• I left my former employer because I was downsized.
• I left my former employer because the offices moved and I could not follow.
• When you resign:
• I left because I could see no professional perspectives and I am a really ambitious and hard working person.
• I left because I had completed my route in that company and I felt it was time to move on.

I am waiting for your comments and suggestions. Maybe we are able to come up with some killing answer after all.

The Simpsons Movie trailers

I don't know about you people but I really adore these creatures so here are some of the trailers for the upcoming movie in 2007:

Windows Media Player 11: a must have [90/100]

I must say that I always loathed Microsoft Windows Media Players. Since Windows 98 with its greyish windows-styled appearance until recently in release 10.

It was always changing drastically [if not completely] from release to release and never user-friendly enough so as to prefer it over, say, Winamp. Let alone the fact that should Microsoft incorporate some really useful and facilitating to the use of the software feature, that was removed on the very next release!

However, with Windows Media Player 11 the above do not hold true. It is the very first time I actually not only use it, but use it as my main media player!!! A really lightweight application with an intuitive and beautiful interface plus the best, handiest and most functional library seen on media software to date.

The one feature I did not like is the home page of Windows Media having been removed but in any case I had never personally used this one.

Getting rid of it all!!!

Wanna get rid of all your credit cards and the accompanying anxiety and stress?

Just watch out this video carefully! It should give you an excellent idea to start with!

Landing a new job: Behind the scenes - [3]: The networking

In order to land a new job nothing can help you as much as networking. Fortunately or unfortunately, no matter what university your degree was earned in, how many years of job experience you possess or how many skills you have acquired through the years, it is much much easier to appoint a job interview through one of your friends or acquaintances.

This is why once down and out the first thing you should do is call your friends and acquaintances and let them know you are on the lookout for a new job. Nothing to be ashamed about.

Furthermore, it is very important no matter what the circumstances of your disappointment, downsizing, laying off etc. that you keep a working relationship [even if this is limited to new year's wishes] with as many people as possible. You may as well do the following:

• Buy an agenda and keep it for life. Note down everyone you meet and write his job, phone and position with a pencil. After all, you are not the only one whose details change over the course of life!
• You may achieve the same result as above by using an address book software such as Microsoft Outlook or the Mozilla Thunderbird address book or even the Windows Address Book. CAUTION! Before you pledge allegiance to one software you like be sure you know how to back it up and transfer the data in case of a format, software data migration etc.
• You may also use some networking website such as LinkedIn.com. I will provide an overview of LinkedIn.com soon. For now, a YouTube video on LinkedIn may be found by clicking here.
  

Yahoo! Mail Beta [80/100]

Very good are my impressions of the new Yahoo! Mail, recently in beta. Making use of the latest rich-content technologies offers in-site tabs, drag and drop files and folders organization plus a handy timeline on the bottom of your inbox so you can rotate over your calendar without leaving a message.

What it lacks however is a color scheme changer and some more innovation, because no bad feelings but these things have been incorporated into other webmails long ago...

Blogger Beta [86/100]

My first impressions of the beta version of blogger I would state to be very good. The new template and page design drag & drop manipulation are an excellent help for everyone who does not want to spend hours over HTML hard coding.

Yet, please be aware that all of your adjustments will be lost and that should you want to enter something by hand you cannot do it on the template HTML any more but only by adding special HTML/JavaScript snippets.

Another thing to notice is that eversince I joined Blogger Beta I cannot seem to post a comment on many blogs! All I get is an error message about some technician that will fix the problem so that I will be able to comment again...:

Error

We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it.

The most probable reason for this that I could come up with would be my using of the Blogger beta because I can post on beta users' blogs without any hassle.

Regarding how to tell beta blogs from old ones, just look at the archive links. Old blogger uses text links whereas blogger beta uses expandable links [like the ones on this blog].

Photo Album Update

Some 13 new photos have been uploaded to my photo album on Picasa Web. Please feel free to give them a look and leave your comments.

From Still Life

Pandora Internet Radio [77/100]

Blogging around lately I checked out a link by a lady's blog's links, reading "The Best Internet Radio". The only thing I can tell you is that it is indeed the best. I have tried several of them [not to say all of them] since their very first days back in 1999 and all I can say is give it a try.

What I especially like is the really great automatic personalization and the really cool feature of mix stations, i.e. you can create as many stations as you like and choose some of them and listen at a mix of their songs.

Mentioning should go as well to the exceptional sound quality which comes to your PC without all the "What's your connection speed?" hassle.

Yet, I think that their gizmos for connecting Pandora to your home stereo selling for $249 is not a great idea.

On the downside, there is the common found limitation of track skipping [not more that 7 per hour] but you can always switch to another station of yours or create a new one and bypass it.

Also note that [at least for now] variety is limited compared to, say, Yahoo! Radio.

Landing a new job: Behind the scenes - [2]: The interview negotiation

I cannot point out how commonplace this is but should you be having a job and looking for a new one the most important card up your sleeve is exactly this: That you already have a job.

Going to an interview as an out-of-market fella does just one thing: Tear down all your negotiating power, because let us face it: no matter how good you are, no matter how experienced you are, your future employer [or the representative of your future employer] sees you as yet another supplier of their company.

That is, they will try to buy your services on discount. And by being out of the jobs marketplace you give them a pretty good reason to ask for that discount and insist on it.

Landing a new job: Behind the scenes - [1]: The cover letter

Almost everyone [ok, EVERYONE] specialized on interviewing, personnel recruiting and selection and HR will most definitely tell you to accompany your resume with a cover letter when you send one for a position you are interested in.

Well, guess what! I have sent over 250 resumes in my life and no email accompanied by a cover letter was answered but one! And guess what this one cover letter was stating: "I am willing to work very very hard"!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, do not lose time writing this pathetic type of letter just to state your goals, your skills etc etc.

Should you be good enough for the job they will call you and give you a try. It is that simple. OK?

P.S. And for those of you out there who just had the thought crossing their heads: NO, I am not a lousy cover letter writer at all!

Nameday Greetings...

Today I thought [and I was certain about it for days now!!!!] that all Nick's and Nicole's in Greece celebrate their nameday. So I opened up my cell phone in the evening full of bad feelings because I left my sms wishes to be sent too late.

I sent 3 sms messages only to be called back by a Nicole and be taught that this nameday is actually a month ahead on December 6th!!!

What a shame!

Everything About You!

One of my favorite pastimes is downloading. Actually, I am a download junkie. And one of the things I enjoy the most is downloading other people's private data. You know, many p2p sharing networks impose a sharing limit in order for you to be accepted so the question is:

"How are we gonna reach this limit???"

The easiest answer is:

"Share My Documents and my Windows directory!!!"

Voila! We have just reached some gigabytes of sharing! However, what all these folks do not take into account, is that their documents and Windows directory contain far more data than what they would like the world to know about them. Examples: your and your family's photographs, your dissertation, your resume, even your bank and credit card details and passwords! So, whenever I come across some folk who tries to "cheat" the p2p community by sharing crap, I very carefully dig into his share and download whatever one can imagine. Examples of staff I have downloaded only recently:

1. A guy's whole mobile phone catalog!
2. A guy's whole mobile photos catalog!
3. Some dozen guys' dissertations and papers for their schools!
4. A guy's resume with full home address, phones and name particulars! Not to mention, that it was scanned bearing the fax addressees!!!

This for, everybody should be more careful [much much much more careful] with what he decides to make public. Because - yeah! I am talking to you! - we may share things in order to bypass someone or something but let us keep in mind that what's exactly what these - once personal - things become: SHARED!

Photo Album Initiation

My two first photos have been uploaded. You may see them here. As a matter of fact I used Picasa for the job and it striked me pleasantly that this software is getting better and better over time.

From Honda Jazz

At last, a freeware that is not destined to become abandonware, because most of the time a company offers some software for free but what happens is that very few and minor improvements over the software actually take place. Thanks God this is not the case with Picasa [let us not forget to thank harsh Web companies competition as well!].

Give it a try by clicking the banner on the right.

Helena Paparizou "The Game of Love" [95/100]

I really think that everyone should check out Helena Paparizou's new album "The Game of Love".

In my humble opinion, it is one of the most professionally crafted Greece-related music products. And I really mean this. Even the accent is 99% US sounding [although the album is clearly Europe-oriented!]. Sorry for the 1% but in some words the Greek accent drops by.


As for the compositions, they are very easy going and within the current music trends [listen for example to "Somebody's Burning"]. Helena's voice is exceptional which is more than obvious on "Teardrops", "Gigolo" and "The Game of Love". Those of you who remember the 80's will recognize a Taylor Dayne tone in the more western styled songs.

Above all, give an ear [or two or three or four or...] to "Carpe Diem [Seize The Day]". I firmly believe that we are in front of a massive superhit. Hopefully, with the right support from the label...

We should also not forget to mention the high quality art design of the album booklet as well which was a very pleasant surprise.