“Every night, she was to think of three good things that happened that day and analyze why they occurred. That was supposed to increase her overall happiness.
“I thought it was too simple to be effective,” said Miller, 44, of Bethesda. Md. “I went to Harvard. I’m used to things being complicated.”
Hang out at a playground, visit a school, or show up at a child’s birthday party, and there’s one phrase you can count on hearing repeatedly: “Good job!” Even tiny infants are praised for smacking their hands together (“Good clapping!”). Many of us blurt out these judgments of our children to the point that it has become almost a verbal tic.
Plenty of books and articles advise us against relying on punishment, from spanking to forcible isolation (“time out”). Occasionally someone will even ask us to rethink the practice of bribing children with stickers or food. But you’ll have to look awfully hard to find a discouraging word about what is euphemistically called positive reinforcement.
Lest there be any misunderstanding, the point here is not to call into question the importance of supporting and encouraging children, the need to love them and hug them and help them feel good about themselves. Praise, however, is a different story entirely. Here’s why:
A friend recently wrote:
“I’m wondering what you think of this company (you being the in-house skeptic:) Sounds like it would be a good investment if only it were public!”
I was looking into XDrive for [a major client]. They are the grand-daddy of this business. I wouldn’t generally trust anyone but a long established company with that kind of potentially dangerous data (financial records, private comm, SS#’s contact info, etc). (I think iBackup was another good one)
I also don’t trust “unlimited” and “free” with something as sensitive as my data. The standard dodge for this type of “unlimited” services (others companies do this) is to terminate you as an “Abuser”. Under the Carbonite T&C’s (http://www.carbonite.com/TermsOfUse.aspx): YOUR USE OF CARBONITE PRODUCTS IS SUBJECT TO CARBONITE’S “TERMINATION AND FAIR USE POLICY.” THIS POLICY IS INTENDED TO ALLOW CARBONITE TO DENY SERVICE TO ABUSERS. USERS WHO ARE DEEMED TO BE “ABUSERS”, IN CARBONITE’S SOLE DISCRETION, MAY BE NOTIFIED PRIOR TO SUSPENSION OR TERMINATION OF THEIR ACCOUNTS, HOWEVER, CARBONITE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE OR SUSPEND SUCH ACCOUNTS WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE IN THE EVENT OF A POLICY VIOLATION.
And I won’t even rant about the privacy issues.
Go with a DVD backup strategy first, or XDrive second, IMHO.
Some insights from an anonymous contributor:
1. Stay focused on your goals. Contemplate only successful attainment of them and never dwell on possible failure.
2. Focus your thinking on thoughts that make you feel good and not on ones that make you feel bad. This is necessary because it takes time to achieve a goal and you need to stay positive until completion.
3. Then get crackin’ on pursuing your dreams.
Tecopa Hot Springs is located on a paved road approximately two miles off State Highway 127, fifty miles north of Baker, California and lies just east of the southern end of Death Valley National Park at an elevation of 1,325 feet. Las Vegas, Nevada is approximately eighty miles east.
Honorable Places of Procrastination
http://tech.msn.com/products/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1620239
This program allows you to search for relationships between words, concepts, and people. It is a combination thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, pun generator, and concept navigator. Use it to find words that fit the needs of whatever writing endeavor you’ve undertaken, or just to browse concept space.
To use the system, enter one or two words into the boxes at the top of the page, select a function to perform, optionally select some word relations to allow, and click Submit Query!
Here is an overview of the seven functions that are available.
There’s nothing anonymous on a computer or on the internet. This guy postedsomething anonymously, made yahoo give them his real name, then the company fired him. “Companies use more devious means than just software, though, as Clifton Swigert, a former employee of West Virgina power company Allegheny Electric, knows to his cost. He was fired after anonymously posting some views about the company in a Yahoo discussion forum. “It was the most horrific thing I ever experienced,” recalls Swigert. “I had perfect attendance for 13 years at the plant.”
Anonymous no more
Swigert had vented his frustration about the company’s retirement programme, and admits he “used some poor language” to complain about a diversity workshop. What he said may have offended some, but he wrote it anonymously, used his own computer and wrote long after work hours. The board where he posted was specifically for discussions of Allegheny Electric, and many of thehundreds of comments left by other people were also derogatory and critical.
Nevertheless, Allegheny decided to track down the anonymous poster and sue them. The lawsuit meant Allegheny could subpoena Yahoo and obtain Swigert’sreal name, but once they had it they dropped the lawsuit and fired him. Ina counter-suit filed last year, Swigert’s attorneys claimed this action was an abuse of legal process, but there has been no ruling yet.
www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19125715.700-the-boss-is-watching-your-every-click.html
We’ve been using WebScribble’s WebDate software for the past few years, and are looking at alternatives. Here are some overviews:
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?p=772813
http://www.2coolcode.com/ourspace/
We may look closer at PHPFox. One PHPFox ser writes: “First off, I spent the money, purchased PHPFOX and now run a VERY successful community. I average 400 THOUSAND user sessions and get a MILLION hits per day. The site has been up for a little over a month. NO LIE!
“The customer support has been EXCELLENT and yeah, the script has had a couple of minor tweakings, but lemme tell you, they always work to improve things and have gone out of their way to ensure satisfaction, from day one, I sent a support request and they did what they had to do.
“I have 340 active users on my site now. YES, I did some legwork, but the users are very happy.
“No sir, not affiliated in ANY way with PHPFOX other than the fact that I purchased the script. My community is www.HauntSpace.com
“It’s two months old now and we’re getting over a MILLION hits per day now. Over 450 members strong.”
Google Earth’s images of giant marauding insects, mysterious scale reproductions of bits of the China/India border, not to mention swastikas and black helicopters too numerous to link to.