General Chit Chat

[TANGODANCER]

through Second Life which even at the beginning was a bit weird and surely now is only used by the bearded types who live in their parents' basement and wear foil hats.

Two questions:1, Do you have trouble growing a beard? , and 2, how many of these crank ideas are actually put forward by clean-shaven, Armani suit wearing, career ladder-climbers?

[Worthy4England]

I really couldn't be arsed reading it all, but am I right in understanding that they're going into practice on a computer game, in effect?

If that's a reply to what I posted, I think the whole thing is long forgotten apart from the occasional sniggering of a indiscreet colleague with a few beers inside him (which is how I heard about it!).

Plenty of right-on types last night. One person, who otherwise was v good, kept talking about 'Generation Y' as an actual thing, and they all kept referring to 'cyberspace' and 'cyber this' and 'cyber that'. She also had a powerpoint presentation set to Jeff Beck with quirky animations. I wanted to laugh so much, but I was there in place of my boss who is away so I was on best behaviour.

Generation Y is an actual thing, in the same way Generation X is. Sorta.

A fair few businesses we deal with can't string a sentence together without mentioning Gen Y...

[Beefheart]

Are Generation Y different to the Millenials? Do they come before? How many years does a generation last?

[Prufrock]

through Second Life which even at the beginning was a bit weird and surely now is only used by the bearded types who live in their parents' basement and wear foil hats.

Two questions:1, Do you have trouble growing a beard? , and 2, how many of these crank ideas are actually put forward by clean-shaven, Armani suit wearing, career ladder-climbers?

1) Nope. I am quite often in some stage of beardiness myself. Some of my best friends have beards.

2) Dunno, but the guy yesterday coming out with it all had a beard.

[Prufrock]

I really couldn't be arsed reading it all, but am I right in understanding that they're going into practice on a computer game, in effect?

If that's a reply to what I posted, I think the whole thing is long forgotten apart from the occasional sniggering of a indiscreet colleague with a few beers inside him (which is how I heard about it!).

Plenty of right-on types last night. One person, who otherwise was v good, kept talking about 'Generation Y' as an actual thing, and they all kept referring to 'cyberspace' and 'cyber this' and 'cyber that'. She also had a powerpoint presentation set to Jeff Beck with quirky animations. I wanted to laugh so much, but I was there in place of my boss who is away so I was on best behaviour.

Generation Y is an actual thing, in the same way Generation X is. Sorta.

A fair few businesses we deal with can't string a sentence together without mentioning Gen Y...

No it isn't! Different people use it for different things. Some people use it for basically those under 30. Some, like the guy yesterday, mean computer-literate 'young' people. Just say what you mean instead of trying to justify your speaking fee by making up vague, unnecessary, sound-like-the-bad-guys-in-a-sci-fi-film stupid term! What's wrong with saying 'the under-30s'?!

[Worthy4England]

I really couldn't be arsed reading it all, but am I right in understanding that they're going into practice on a computer game, in effect?

If that's a reply to what I posted, I think the whole thing is long forgotten apart from the occasional sniggering of a indiscreet colleague with a few beers inside him (which is how I heard about it!).

Plenty of right-on types last night. One person, who otherwise was v good, kept talking about 'Generation Y' as an actual thing, and they all kept referring to 'cyberspace' and 'cyber this' and 'cyber that'. She also had a powerpoint presentation set to Jeff Beck with quirky animations. I wanted to laugh so much, but I was there in place of my boss who is away so I was on best behaviour.

Generation Y is an actual thing, in the same way Generation X is. Sorta.

A fair few businesses we deal with can't string a sentence together without mentioning Gen Y...

No it isn't! Different people use it for different things. Some people use it for basically those under 30. Some, like the guy yesterday, mean computer-literate 'young' people. Just say what you mean instead of trying to justify your speaking fee by making up vague, unnecessary, sound-like-the-bad-guys-in-a-sci-fi-film stupid term! What's wrong with saying 'the under-30s'?!

Well if we have to say what we mean, we'd still call 'em "the kids" at under 30.

It does seem to get rolled out a lot when dealing with retailers as a "market demographic" - you're right there isn't a set definition - but I doubt the person(s) using the terms made it up - it's in pretty common usage - it's not always necessary to have the exact definition nailed, to get across a general concept.

[bobo the clown]

GenY was often used 10-15 years ago by people to justify that "the coming generation are different than us and if we're to attract them we'll have to get used to things being different".

An excuse to try and appear very hip and forward looking ... or a prat, depending on your take on it.

So we were told these next lot were tech savvy, they wouldn't put up with formality. Don't expect them to wear suits, ties, formal shirts, clothes at all. Don't expect them to tolerate set working times, organised regimes. They work in their own way and will be remarkably efficient. Pointless rules will simply not be tolerated ... oh, & btw, 'pointless' rules means more or less any rules.

They will want to work in the dead of night, or at weekends. Will demand sabbaticals and role changes. Work from home, never coming into a central office, meetings by Skype. Home could well be anywhere at all. etc., etc. If we didn't 'get with it' our recruitment would dry up.

Then the recession came. Funny how much of that was proven to be a load of bollox when the chips were down.

[Prufrock]

Plenty of right-on types last night. One person, who otherwise was v good, kept talking about 'Generation Y' as an actual thing, and they all kept referring to 'cyberspace' and 'cyber this' and 'cyber that'. She also had a powerpoint presentation set to Jeff Beck with quirky animations. I wanted to laugh so much, but I was there in place of my boss who is away so I was on best behaviour.

Generation Y is an actual thing, in the same way Generation X is. Sorta.

A fair few businesses we deal with can't string a sentence together without mentioning Gen Y...

No it isn't! Different people use it for different things. Some people use it for basically those under 30. Some, like the guy yesterday, mean computer-literate 'young' people. Just say what you mean instead of trying to justify your speaking fee by making up vague, unnecessary, sound-like-the-bad-guys-in-a-sci-fi-film stupid term! What's wrong with saying 'the under-30s'?!

Well if we have to say what we mean, we'd still call 'em "the kids" at under 30.

It does seem to get rolled out a lot when dealing with retailers as a "market demographic" - you're right there isn't a set definition - but I doubt the person(s) using the terms made it up - it's in pretty common usage - it's not always necessary to have the exact definition nailed, to get across a general concept.

No, it isn't. But it is wholly unnecessary, when there is an already clearly understood way of saying what you mean and that means precisely what you mean, to use instead some bullshit buzzword. Particularly when, as I suspect was happening last night, it is aimed to try to make you seem 'right-on' and 'with it'. I listened to her thinking, 'well, I know that's definitely a phrase, but in this context I have absolutely no idea what you mean.' Then, a few minutes later when it became apparent what she meant through what she said, 'oh, you just meant people who are comfortable with computers'.

[Bijou Bob]

To be fair Bobo, I dont wear a tie, work from home and I can't be arsed going into the office much. Do I qualify??

[bobo the clown]

To be fair Bobo, I dont wear a tie, work from home and I can't be arsed going into the office much. Do I qualify??

I think 'Public Sector' is an entirely different scenario altogether.

... as is 'lazy arse'.

[William the White]

GenY was often used 10-15 years ago by people to justify that "the coming generation are different than us and if we're to attract them we'll have to get used to things being different".

An excuse to try and appear very hip and forward looking ... or a prat, depending on your take on it.

So we were told these next lot were tech savvy, they wouldn't put up with formality. Don't expect them to wear suits, ties, formal shirts, clothes at all. Don't expect them to tolerate set working times, organised regimes. They work in their own way and will be remarkably efficient. Pointless rules will simply not be tolerated ... oh, & btw, 'pointless' rules means more or less any rules.

They will want to work in the dead of night, or at weekends. Will demand sabbaticals and role changes. Work from home, never coming into a central office, meetings by Skype. Home could well be anywhere at all. etc., etc. If we didn't 'get with it' our recruitment would dry up.

Then the recession came. Funny how much of that was proven to be a load of bollox when the chips were down.

Practically all future telling is inaccurate - sometimes lamentably so...

Some of us might remember the crisis of the imminent 'leisure' economy, given the technological and information revolution, when people would only work a 25 hour week.

Not live in a poverty on a zero hours contract. Or a nice steady junk job.

[bobo the clown]

I do indeed. And the 'paperless office'. Not to mention the bizarre view that we'd all be delighted to eat nothing but oxo cube sized food concentrate.

... & what happened to flying cars. I was supposed to have a flying car by now.

[thebish]

to be fair - there are robot vacuum cleaners!

[bobo the clown]

Oh .... no sooner do I mention it than ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-28460739" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not quite how 'Tomorrow's World' pitched it though.

[thebish]

bit hot today?

need to cool down a disappointingly warm canned/bottled drink in a hurry?

look no further...

http://www.viralnova.com/cool-can/

[Prufrock]

Amazing!

[thebish]

apparently, 'Super ants' with a dangerous attraction to electricity are being spotted around southern England.

not really sure what I am supposed to do about it!

[Prufrock]

Dangerous for who? If it's for the ants, well, sucks to be an ant. If on the other hand dangerous to humans, as they gain special powers (hence Super Ants) well someone needs to look into it!

[Gary the Enfield]

Apparently they climb into sockets and cause short outs and start fires the little bastards.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 7212,d.d2k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Apparently they climb into sockets and cause short outs and start fires the little bastards.

...at the cost of their own lives though, poor little buggers. It's like heroin addiction, it's a disease; they can't help being attracted to electricity, they'd give it up if they could!