NewtonTalk.net July 2009 archive: Re: [NTLK] Office Politics

From: Ed Kummel <tech_ed_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Jul 10 2009 - 00:09:00 EDT

Sounds like you are one of the lucky ones who has a boss who is somewhat intelligent.
When I was working for WorldCom (yes, *THAT* worldcom) I had a boss whose favorite pastime is to get the entire hosting team in a big room and have several non-productive meetings per week. During these meetings, he made the announcement that there were to be *NO* laptops what-so-ever. So, I brought my Newton. When he spied me at the back of the room taking notes, he stopped the meeting and singled me out. He pointed to my Newton and in a rash and abusive tone asked me if I was playing video games on that thing. I had to explain that I was taking notes...he said OK, but to do so quietly...that's when I realized that the reason for no laptops was not because he wanted everybody to pay attention during the meeting, but because of his own insecurity in thinking that all people would be doing is playing solitare while he was speaking' what a narrow minded boob he was
Ed
web/gadget guru
------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Richard Feynman, Physicist, Nobel winner (1918-1988)

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."

--- On Thu, 7/9/09, Andy Hill <adhill@fastmail.co.uk> wrote:

From: Andy Hill <adhill@fastmail.co.uk>
Subject: [NTLK] Office Politics
To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 5:28 PM

Hi there,

As anyone who uses their Newton at work will know, the good olde green
machines will often arouse interest from new colleagues or visitors.

All my current colleagues are used to it now but yesterday I was talking
to my new Director at my desk, and trying to make a good impression,
when he spotted the MP2000 on my desk and asked what it was. I started
to explain it's age and some of its capabilities (notes, todos, diary,
reminders, address book, long battery life) when another colleague
joined in and explained (in a rather mickey-taking fashion) that I was
part of the *worldwide community *who like to use these older gadgets
(with a facial expression indicating that this community was potentially
full of Odd-Bods).

The Director said, go on then show me what it can do, so I wrote his
full name and a bit of text at full speed on a new note and
(fortunately) the HWR was in a very good mood and translated it
perfectly at which point he raised his eyebrows and said, 'that's
incredible' and went on his way.

Ok it wont get me a promotion but at least it didn't let the side down!!
And I appreciate this isn't a thrilling story like previous threads
about Newtons being taken up Mount Everest, or Newton's on special
military missions but hey - little victories are still victories.

ps - we're not Odd Bods...................................are we?

All the best.

Andy

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