Just to wish a Merry Christmas to all (all right, both) my regular readers - Jorge and Beverly - to the less regular visitors - Miguel, Eme and Lumife - and to the other lurkers who come back from time to time without leaving comments, especially Sunnyvale, CA and Lancaster, UK.
Got a new piece of brilliance from Windows today in the office. Windows XP Professional is very good at dealing with most things you throw at it. Give it a corporate network and it will recognise it automatically. Today it decided to no longer recognise a network card. Help said try uninstalling - it wouldn't allow that: "required for boot-up". Then Help said "update drivers from the internet" - bloody brilliant considering that the PC "knows" that internet access is via the corporate network and that there is no network card installed. Doh!
This is just another in a long series of great messages. Try: "USB device error - click here to continue", when the only USB device is the mouse. And how about the MS-DOS classic when booting a PC with no keyboard: "Keyboard Error - Press F1 to continue".
There are some brilliant guys at Microsoft. It's a shame the ones who write the error messages have never manned a help desk.
In my opinion, the best performance in the Presidential election debates so far has been from Miguel Sousa Tavares. It's a shame he's not standing...
Just what Soares needed: a personal attack to make voters sorry for him. I don't think the phrase "Atrasado Mental" was the best judged reaction however. (Try putting that into Google's translator!)
If it comes to a fist fight, my money's on Jeronimo.
"Barroso warns Blair not to act like Sheriff of Nottingham" - Financial Times
Arioplano would have done it better...
So the media, and even the banks, have been provoking mass panic about tomorrow's likely quarter point rise in the Eurozone base rate. Now I can understand journalists not knowing how the markets work, but the banks?
Just a quick summary - market rates rise and fall in accordance with the economists' expectations of Central Bank decisions. Those economists have been expecting a quarter point rise in interest rates for months now. So rates have been creeping ever nearer to 2.25% in anticipation of the ECB decision. Many homeowners and other borrowers are already paying the higher rate, because their revision date has occurred since the market has been reflecting the expected ECB rate increase.
What will be the practical effect of a quarter point rate rise tomorrow: NONE WHATSOEVER. The ECB decision tomorrow is only newsworthy if the rise is not 0.25%.
Admittedly this is not an easy concept for many people, but the media should show some care in what they say. If they can't explain a subject adequately, they shouldn't bring it up!
Having been woken by Netcabo's advertising on SIC Notícias over a long period, claiming that Netcabo is the best ISP in Portugal, I was surprised to hear that the above Diário de Notícias survey stated the opposite.
Shame it's not possible to get the details online. The link doesn't work. Couldn't be because the DN site is hosted on a Portugal Telecom server, could it?
Looking at the practical aspects, what is the percentage of internet users who have ever changed ISP? It's hardly practical to compare your only experience. I have used four ISPs, two of which PT group. I now use Oni ADSL, which is very good and the best of the four. I will shortly be changing to Netcabo, not because I want to but because I have no choice. Watch this space for feedback.
What is Jorge Sampaio playing at?
After ten years of invisibility, he is spending his last three months running round the country, pointing out all that is wrong. What's the point? He's not going to leave a legacy - it's too late.
And then he starts on Higher Education - "we need more graduates". "It's wrong to close degree courses with less than ten students". Both statements are superficial.
Why can't he take his five years off quietly and make way for the Presidential Election Circus.
Graduate Unemployment
Why is there so much graduate unemployment in Portugal? Because the mix of courses is wrong, that's clear. What can the country possibly do with so many Economics graduates, for example? But that's only the surface.
I avoid recruiting new graduates because they are little use to me. They have theoretical knowledge but no skills. Most of them can't even write a letter or draft a memo or report in Portuguese.
In a small company you can't afford the luxury of taking on unskilled staff. What I value is experience.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry is faced with a monumental task in turning the Higher Education establishment away from what they want to teach, towards what employers need. Either that, or send everybody to Hotel and Tourism Schools, so that at least service to tourists is improved. That's quite a safe bet for the future, as climate change is relatively slow...
