Blessed by the Potato

I just found out that there’s a movie version of the Time Traveler’s Wife in the makings. I don’t think I’m going to go see it. It’s not that it’s shaping up to be bad: I don’t see any mention of Joel or Uwe, and the casting looks pretty appropriate. It’s just that it was such a good book. Such a powerful read. I don’t think the movie could ever be that good, that emotionally gripping and wrenching, so it would ultimately be a disappointment.

And if it was that good, I especially wouldn’t want to see it. I’ll recommend that book to just about anyone who will listen, but I don’t want to go through that again. I can’t.

Back at my parents’ house they have a lot more channels on cable than I get, so I’ve been watching a lot of crap. One show that I used to like was Mythbusters. It’s such a good concept, and the two main hosts are even fairly entertaining. However, the more recent episodes I’ve seen have really stunk. The three new kids are really, really super lame. Their dialogue is obviously scripted, but it’s really terribly done. It’s like they’re trying to make it sound like they’re having a normal conversation, but it’s very painfully not. A conversation may go “What are you doing, I’m completely clueless about the objects in front of you.” “I’m trying to answer this myth.” “Oh, this is one of my favourite myths, let me explain what those objects in front of you represent.”

The useless kids are also a big contributor to how vapid the show has become. I think they could condense the hour-long episode into 15-20 minutes or so. They first set up the myth, then say how they’re going to test it, then go to commercial. When they come back from commercial, they go over how they have it set up to test it, then go to Jamie & Adam and their myth being tested, then get back to the useless kids where, for the 3rd time, they describe their set up and how cool and unbelievable it is, and then they actually test it. Then after another commercial break and a cut to Jamie & Adam, the useless kids get to describe their setup yet again as they test it again with another variable.

Some of the myths and experiments are either really just dumb, or not well-controlled. For example, tonight they tested the “myth” that “tongues can stick to frozen steel poles”. Seriously? Ok, maybe they’re from California or some place that’s never seen winter, but haven’t they gotten their tongue stuck to a fudgescicle? Or called one of their friends from Canada or the northern states who did get their tongues stuck to something when they were kids?

I know they’re not scientists, but they don’t seem to have much of a concept of positive controls, either. They were testing the myth that yodeling could set off an avalanche. They “busted” it… but then couldn’t set off an avalanche with a couple of automatic rifles, either. Avalanches do happen, and rangers/mountain overseers try to set them off in controlled manners by firing off artillery shells — if they couldn’t set one off with their rifles, then it might just indicate that that particular mountain wasn’t primed for an avalanche, and not necessarily that yodeling couldn’t prompt an avalanche. (At the end of the show, one of them did say that there are documented cases of skiers setting off avalanches).

I’ve been having a problem with my VCR lately that I just can’t figure out how to fix. (Aside for those who don’t know: a VCR is like an ancient PVR that can hold up to 6 hours of analog video on a removable magnetic cassette medium.) It’s getting a little old now, having served my time shifting needs very well for what must be over a decade now. The problem is basically that the sound on some channels is wrong. There are a few with video but no audio, and a few with video but the wrong audio. Most notably, CBC has the audio of 680 news (which is, actually, an interesting way to pick up 680 News out here in London). I only have basic cable, which translates into something like 8 watchable channels (sure, I get the weather network, two news channels, a TV guide channel, and a few others that I just never watch, but only about 8 that might ever have shows I’d want to tape). Of those, 3 have no sound. Fortunately, I’ve found work-arounds for every show I care to tape, thanks to the networks often airing the same show on another channel, but if anyone has any idea of what might be wrong or if I’ll be able to fix it (or vice-versa, if this is a sign of more failures to come), I’d like to hear it.

In a related note, I’m also open to any suggestions for the next step. With x-mas coming up, a DVD recorder/VCR/PVR might be a good gift idea for the ‘rents, so if anyone has an implementation they like, feel free to mention it. At the moment I’m still leaning towards getting another VCR: it’s cheap, it’s familiar, we have a huge VHS library, and I don’t really plan on switching to digital cable in the near future.

The CBC is reporting on a new traffic light timing scheme that will see pedestrians scramble across the road with traffic stopped in all directions. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I remember in Kanazawa there was an intersection which a few times stopped all car traffic and let pedestrians cross (there were even separate diagonal crossing walk/don’t walk signals). It seemed really strange and bizarre at the time. For time when intersections can really build up with a backlog of people waiting to cross, I suppose it could help move the pedestrian traffic. It could also make crossing safer since cars won’t be able to turn during the scramble, which is where most close calls seem to come from. But I can’t really say if it would actually help the pedestrians as much as I would guess it would impede the car traffic…

There was an article in the London Free Press today about a lack of skilled workers in the city. (Note: the LFP has pretty terrible online retention, this article may not be accessible after a week).

A London company is poised to grow, hiring as sales increase — but it will have to expand outside the city.

Autodata Solutions is an example of how the shortage of skilled workers is hurting the city’s economic growth.
…
In fact, 62 per cent of companies said they faced a shortage of qualified candidates and another 29 per cent said they had trouble finding people to relocate here.
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The most ambitious of the plans is to bring more than 1,000 students from Fanshawe College and the University of Western Ontario to the London Convention Centre in January to meet with businesses looking for workers.
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For companies such as Autodata Solutions, which cannot find software developers, the labour shortage has had a serious effect.
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Over the last year, the company has hired about 100, and it now employs about 200.

“The problem is we do not need people out of school. We need workers with three to five years’ experience. The issue is skill,” said Lisa Harrison, director of human resources. “I would prefer to grow here; we love London, we’d be happier if we could find people here.”

[Emphasis mine]

This is just retarded. It’s not that there’s a shortage of skilled workers: this is a university town, with way more skilled workers graduating every year than the city can possibly hire all by itself. The problem is with a lack of skilled, experienced workers. But companies have to realize that someone has to hire recent grads in order for them to get skilled. Yes, they’ll need a bit more training, but they also cost less at first, so it’s a bit of an investment, really. After all, someone with 3 years seniority at another company will still need to be trained to the specificities of your company. It might take only a few months instead of a year or two, but it will hardly take 3 years for a recent grad to actually catch up in the experience specific to your company. If nobody in the city hires recent grads, then the grads move away. And once they move, it’s very hard to get them to come back. While many students may come here with a plan to move to Toronto as soon as their finals are done, there must be a substantial portion who would stay if they had a local job offer within weeks of graduation.

As one advances in life beyond graduation, one tends to settle down, start a family, etc. Once that happens, it becomes hard to convince one to move cities for a job. Especially considering how difficult the “two-body problem” is to solve in London. If I am a talented, experienced software engineer, there may be a nice selection of jobs for me. But if my wife is a teacher or librarian, then there might be no work for her, and I might instead try to find a job for myself in a larger city like Toronto or Ottawa, where we could both find jobs. These factors make it much harder to lure someone away from another city as they progress in life, and again the solution appears to be hiring recent grads and training them up within the company. Get them while they’re single, then keep them while they put down roots here, and it might even help reduce turn over down the road.

If indeed this one company in London has hired 100 skilled employees over the last year, how many of those really needed to be veterans, and how many could have been trained in house? If they have a need for another 100 in the next year or two, how much easier and how much sooner could those positions be filled with local recent grads than job searches abroad? Is it better to have a position lay vacant for a year while one searches for an experienced employee than it is to hire a fresh employee and have them trained up by the end of that year?

And, moreover, how much does training cost vs. opening another branch?

The company is looking to add branches outside London and is considering the United States, Guelph and Windsor, where there are workers.

“Our growth will not be in London and the skills shortage here is a big part of the issue,” Harrison said.

There may be skilled workers in Guelph and Windsor at the moment, but with cities that are even smaller than London, how stable is that job market/pool of workers?