Posts

House keeping in Silicon Valley

Paul Tully saw the woman from the swimming pool.   She had a clipboard, keys and walked from door to door, three floors above him with 17 steps between floors.   Sometimes she knocked at the doors and other times she walked past.   She wore a pink housecoat.   The pink was similar to the hybrid roses near the pool, next to the white foxgloves.   The housekeeping lady knocked at his door.    Not a good sign,  he thought.   He wanted to stay at least another night but it appeared he  was on the departure list.   Three children carrying green towels ran past the woman.   He clambered out of the heated pool.   It was exciting swimming outside in the morning after going for a run, especially with palm trees around.   He had to remind himself he was not here on vacation but for business.   He looked up, saw and heard an aeroplane, circling to land at nearby San Jose airport.    Paul was the Hotel Reye, Sunnyvale, California, 40 miles south of San Francisco.   Yahoo, Applied Micro Devices and
Post a Comment
Read more

Finding the New Sales Person

  Finding the     Right Sales Person By John Joyce    It was agreed by the  vice- president of sales and marketing, and the sales manager that there was a need for a new sales person. One of the territories. Europe,  was doing well. Too well, according to Bob Brigs the sales manager. They were   going to split it.  Reduce the work load of the present sales person, and of course reduce their earnings as they were on a sliding commission. Last year the sales person earned more than Bob Brigs. They were gathered in vice president’s office, Mark Davis. Sports photographs adorned the walls. Photographs of Mark winning races cycling kayaking and snow shoeing. Head of Human Resources,  L.V.Sugget,  sat in the corner making notes and promised to produce four or five strong candidates for this position. Mark added that an application engineer to assist the salesforce would be something to consider. # Hartley Electronics designed  and manufactured oscillators and data loggers. Oscillators were  
Post a Comment
Read more

Taking music lessons

              The first thing you notice about visiting a musical store are the steps. I have just climbed sixteen steps and I am now waiting to take a Jazz piano lesson The next observation is the myriad of musical instruments in the vicinity. You wonder is the store there for lessons or to sell instruments? I am at the Jerome Green music studio on any street off Lonsdale in North Vancouver. This year I am taking Jazz piano lessons. In previous years I have taken guitar, drums and harmonica. Not at the same time. There is a  Periodic chart of musical history on one wall and a Rodney Graham print on the other wall together with a painting of  Capilano Canyon Park labeled by a student.             I have arranged my book so that I can play Gershwin’s Summer Time and Three Friends ago by a local composer. I need help with Charlie Parker’s “Now’s is the Time” but I can’t find the sheet. Maybe I could try  Route 66?             You can tell the drum and piano students. They only bring thei
Post a Comment
Read more

A silly executive decision

                           A silly executive decision              It was a successful respected electronic company that I frequently visited. The founder was chairman of the board and went to work  everyday. There was a president who had been with the company from the early days. Like most companies there was folklore and gossip. The gossip was the president sole role was to prevent the founder “ putting his fingers in the pie.”and causing chaos. The founder had a son who had an impressive title which I did not understand. The spoken  word was the son worked very hard and on my visits to the company he was visible. I also recall he was often paged inferring that he was some where in the company solving problems and was in demand by important people. The founder passed away and everyone was sad. The president decided to retire citing it was time to leave. A new president arrived a few months later presumably  after an exhaustive search. I heard the Lionsgate Films studios casting agenc
Post a Comment
Read more

The Breakfast Thief

Here is a true story what do you make of it?  Could it be a spy story?   Mayne Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands situated off the British Columbia coasts. Others are Saltspring,    the Penders Islands, Galiano and Saturna  Islands. Art workshops and associated   artesian pursuits abound   here. It is easily accessed by a forty minute British Columbian  ferry ride from Tsawwassen , an hour’s drive from the Vancouver area. Rich people buy cottages there and invite other rich people to visit them. Being the closest    Gulf Island to Vancouver, I am expected to write it is a popular day tripping place for people living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Well, most go once, with a community group for cycling and hiking but then tend to venture else  where, seeking more kms to cycle or more strenuous hikes. Nothing much happens on Mayne Island, which of course is appealing. It has a light house but it is not as famous or well photographed as Peggy’s Cove one in Nova Scotia. The light h
Post a Comment
Read more

Catholic Church Syndrome

  I call it the Catholic Church Syndrome but the pattern appears in business and politics Essentially, it is a halfway attempt at democracy.  "Thank you for filling in the survey said Fr. Moore.”  It was six weeks before Christmas and the Parish Council with the assistance from the Knights of St. Columbus had prepared a survey asking if celebrating the principal Christmas Mass earlier say at 6pm or 8pm instead of midnight would be preferred. Of course there had been talk for years that a midnight service was disruptive in people’s lives but the cherubic image of the Church at 11:50pm even if it meant standing was hard to forsake until the heretical notion of fast tracking time zones began to prevail. This Parish Council was strong since two others vetoed the idea or rather did not want to approach 78 year old Fr. Moore who was probably going to made up into a Canon next year by Bishop Augustine. The Knights of St. Columbus gave legitimacy to the undertaking. “The results are overw
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tripod syndrome

      The cost of good tripod for taking photographs is exuberant. Can you get by with a much cheaper one? There is a low cost one and a middle cost one. Perhaps the low cost one will do the job. It does not. It is a piece of junk, so you buy the middle cost one persuading  yourself it will be a big improvement on the low cost one. It is an improvement but it is clearly not the real thing and you know there is such available. The third purchase is the  expensive one. The marketing term is   versioning. I have witnessed this with snow shoe buying, power tool purchases, software packages and holiday excursions. I have heard of  tales of low cost guided cycling holidays where the bicycles often failed the definition of bicycle. 
Post a Comment
Read more