Insisting

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I’ve just seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – IMDb: In the movie, everybody insists: Captain America is a regular guy with big wishes. He insists, he gets superpowers. He has a friend, the winter soldier. He insists. He gets superpowers. Hydra has some problems. They insist. The solve the issue. There’s a fight. At some point, somebody just insists. The good guys win by insisting, the bad guys win by insisting. The movie is so incredibly stupid. The Bond series used to do the same. Did James Bond like gadgets? Let him have the best gadgets. Did he have a car? Let him have the best car. Usually, the villain also had some gadgets, and some cars, but Bond was, generally better. In Skyfall (2012), things changed. He doesn’t get get a big gun, but a small pistol. Old style, very simple, very small. He doesn’t get an advanced gadget. He gets a radio frequency emitter. A small radio, that is. That’s all he gets. You generally know that James Bond is going to use the gadget: Setting up fantastic gadgets and intriguing devices is a cornerstone of the spy genre, and the James Bond franchise in particular. When the buzz-saw watch is issued to James Bond by Q, it seems a bit fantastic, but still congruent with the world Bond inhabits: a world of super-villains, gorgeous female spies, deceptive appearances, and cool gadgets, cars, and weapons. So we have no problem accepting the existence of the watch. And with that set-up accomplished, the …

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Librarie.net – cel mai über-tare site de cumpărat cărți noi online!

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Metode de a citi o carte - online / bibliotecă / second-hand / carte nouă

Aseară m-am uitat după niște cărți, de cumpărat online. Luam o carte oarecare de pe librărie.net, o comparam cu prețurile de pe elefant.ro. Toate, dar absolut toate, inclusiv cele de la promoție pe elefant, erau mai ieftine pe librărie.net. Am comparat cu eMAG. Același lucru. Dacă aș căuta titlul cărții pe price.ro și pe alte comparatoare de prețuri, dacă aș căuta la Google “titlu carte preț” (de pus și cuvântul “preț”) și aș merge din link în link, sunt sigur că, cel puțin pentru cărți individuale, aș găsi ceva mai ieftin. Dar, la modul general, librărie.net e un site foarte OK la preț. Am comandat de trei ori cărți de la ei, de fiecare date au fost profesioniști. Un amic mi-a recomandat și edituri.net. De văzut. De văzut și: Metode de a citi o carte – online / bibliotecă / second-hand / carte nouă: Olivian Breda. P.S. #1, 2014.08.12: am mai comandat o dată. :)

De ce să cumperi de pe dx.com?

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De ce să cumperi de pe dx.com?

logo-dx

DX.com este un site de chinezării (ei le zic gadget-uri, dar n-aș merge atât de departe) care livrează în România. Marele avantaj? Prețul, cu tot cu livrarea prin Poșta Română, e de obicei uluitor, dar uluitor de mic. Imaginează-ți că te plimbi prin complexul Europa (un bazar al Bucureștiului cu lucruri ieftine, de obicei chinezești), dar online, la prețuri mai mici, de obicei decât în Europa, și cu mari facilități de găsi rapid ce cauți. Teoretic, numai avantaje.

Am comandat până acum de 7 ori de pe DX.com și am anulat alte 6 comenzi, iar o comandă e în procesare. Ce am învățat din asta?

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The middle path in customer care

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Recently, I had an unfortunate event buying from an online store (the price I paid was different than the one displayed on the web site). I sent them an email. This has happened to me before on their web site. After a few days, they replied that I’m wrong, and they’re right. Still, they might be wrong, nevertheless (they admitted). To settle the situation, they gave me around 1/3 than the required amount of money, and they thanked me for my understanding of the situation.

The topic of this blog post: what can you learn from the above example?

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De ce să faci back-up?

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De ce să faci back-up?

Dacă te uiți la prețurile recuperării datelor (sursa): Recuperare Date HDD DEFECT LOGIC 50 – 150 EUR + TVA DEFECT FIRMWARE 80 – 250 EUR + TVA DEFECT ELECTRIC 80 – 200 EUR + TVA DEFECT MECANIC 200 – 450 EUR + TVA Recuperare date Memory Card DEFECT LOGIC 30 – 50 EUR +TVA DEFECT FIZIC 70 – 250 EUR +TVA Recuperare date Memory Stick USB DEFECT LOGIC 30 – 50 EUR +TVA DEFECT FIZIC 70 – 250 EUR +TVA Și compari cu prețul unor hard disk-uri interne / externe / USB stick: 234 lei: 470 lei: 280 lei: 490 lei: 70 lei: Îți dai seama că ar trebui să faci back-up. Un hard disk intern secundar de 2 TB + un hard disk extern secundar de 2 TB costă cam cât cea mai ieftină reparare a hard-disk-urilor. Fă back-up redundant (mai multe copii). E mai ieftin, simplu și sigur. N-ai niciun motiv să nu ai back-up. :)

Simple / complex decisions

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You may want to watch the following video: through this paradigm: The first instincts & thoughts about wolves are negative (they are killers, they are hunted by few animals, themselves, their social structures are closer to Mafia than Old-village-with-nice people, they’re aggressive and dangerous to humans). The movie first starts by telling you some reasons on which the wolves actually do some good (they kill deer, which helps the vegetation, but they also make deer stay away completely from vast areas, in which they can be caught easily). Then the movie gives some implications of saving vegetation → birds appear → then some rodents → then other birds, for those rodents → then some castors → then some bears, eating berries → then more deer get decimated, by the bears. But the movie also shows that vegetation has a deeper impact – due to river banks being influenced by the vegetation, some rivers change their course / stay on their course more, depending on the vegetation just brought up by wolves. Thus, wolves influence the direction of rivers. It’s a big difference between the first impulses & thinking the situation over. First instinct is based on primary emotions, thinking requires more cognitive functions (primary emotions, also). More than this, by deeply analyzing a situation (or studying previous situations), you can get to very powerful insights (wolves change the banks of rivers). In some management decisions, things are based on simple thinking (I apply this rule – “wolves are bad” / “delegation is key” / “do coaching”). The better solution is to try & have …

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Delegation

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I asked some people for invitations to an event, in exchange for services & online branding. The response from the person delegated to do PR activities for the event – you’ll have to wait for a week, we’ll hold a management meeting, and I’ll present the situation to them. What’s the purpose of this person in the company? Why don’t they make some software to gather voice commands, record them, and have them discussed in the meeting? If the PR manager for an event can’t decide a PR package, and each single situation must be discussed at the top level, why did they hire that person? If the skills required are “but she must interpret what you say!”, you could get a 18-year-old person, no experience, very low salary, and just have a simple conversation, get the data, and present it in a meeting. Also, since when a group meeting is the best place to decide such a thing? To me, this is clearly the situation in which a single person must decide. At the Ritz-Carlton, every single employee (even the maintenance folks) has a budget of $2,000 per guest to make things right. On the spot, without asking. Without a doubt, the guest is blown away by this rapid response. A caring person who, instead of saying, “I’ll have to ask my supervisor,” just makes it right. But even more important, I think, is the effect of trusting your people. You’ve already given them the keys to your brand, you’ve already made them the …

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