This is the 12th Poop I’ve uploaded. Some parts of this turned out to be a bigger pain to produce than I was originally expecting. Also, I accidently put the King sequences in the wrong order… Darn…
Your credit history is a very important document that creditors, insurance companies, utility companies, cell phone companies, landlords, associations, and employers request and review in order to determine your credibility. Creditors look at your credit history and your Fair Isaac Corporation FICO score in order to determine the likelihood of your ability to make future payments. Your past payment history, score, and number of obligations (credit threads) are good determinants of your future ability to fulfill new agreements. It is considered the report card of your financial life. In the associations or employer’s situation, they want to determine your integrity, accountability, and stability. When you complete an application for a loan, credit card, insurance, employment or association approval, they will be analyzing your credit history and more importantly, your score.
How is your credit score? 0-600 Poor, 601-659 Fair, 669-699 Good, 700-758 Great, 760+ Excellent, or 800 + elite in the 800 club?
Now that your aware of how important your financial situation is to your future ability to obtain a loan, insurance, utilities, cell phone, housing, and employment, it is essential to become educated on your credit score and where you are within the credit rating scale. The credit score rating scale ranges from 300 – 850. Fair Isaac’s has reported that approximately 5% of the general population has a credit score below 550 and roughly only 10% of general population have a score rating above 800. It is important to be properly educated whether your current score is over 700 in good standing or under 660 and in need of repair. Below is a chart to display the categories and there description.
Credit Score Rating Chart
Score Description
760 – 849 Excellent score. Able to obtain the most favorable terms.
700 – 759 Great score. Able to obtain favorable terms.
660 – 699 Good score. Able to obtain good terms.
620 – 659 Fair score. Able to obtain approval at moderate rates.
580 – 619 Poor score. Able to obtain approval with high interest rates.
500 – 579 Undesirable score. Uncertain if approval will be granted. Do not worry as there are options available. The rate will usually be the highest possible rate a creditor can charge.
How does your Score match up to the scale?
The next question is usually, “How is my credit score determined and how do I obtain my score?
The simple answer is that creditors, such as banks, lenders, and credit card companies are always in communication with the credit reporting agencies. If you pay your creditors on time, they will report your accounts as current and in good standing. However, if you are late on payments or even miss a payment, they will report delinquent and negative comments. This is the strongest determinant of your score. Nevertheless, make an effort to pay your bills on time!
Your score is not fixed, it will go up and down depending on your actions. Your credit rating can vary 20, 40 or even more depending on your financing activities and creditor reporting. The fundamental principle is to continue paying your bills on time in order to improve your scores within the credit rating scale.
If you do not know what your credit is by now and have not been monitoring it for safety and security, you can order it through the three major credit bureaus in the United States. Your report can be obtained for free once a year every year or if you have been denied credit, employment, insurance, housing, public benefits, or employment based upon consumer credit report. There are online websites where you can order all 3 reports at once to easily compare, analyze, and spot errors that may possible be hurting your credit score. 3 in 1 report is a must so you know what all reporting agencies have been provided.
By knowing and monitoring your consumer credit report, you have accomplished the first step in improving your score. Always keep in mind that maintaining a good score means a lot in today’s society. By having a good score, you will increase your chances of obtaining loans and be able to capitalize on future financial opportunities that may cross your path in life. Be proactive and educate yourself on how to improve your score through articles and online research.
CONTENTS
Introduction
a) The Project Manager
b) The Project Team
c) The Project Plan
d) Project Plan Elements:
1) Cleanse Data
2) Create Test Environment for Application
3) Employee Numbers
4) Configure Organisational Structure
5) Configure Posts (Jobs)
6) Configuring Shift Patterns
7) Configure Employee Details
Configure Users’ Access Security
9) Configure HR and Pay Rules
10) Configure Reports
11) Configure Triggers
12) History Carried Forward
13) Populating the New Application
14) Parallel Running
15) Migrate Test Data onto Live Evironment
16) Old Data
16) De-commissioning
THE PROJECT
Introduction
This is a rather more detailed look at the HRIS implementation. This has been done with the intention of giving a sense of scope and scale to the professional contemplating the acquisition and implementation of a new or replacement HRIS, and is not exhaustive, nor constitutes the ultimate Project Plan.
Most of this article deals with HR and Payroll applications, but a lot of the actions are generic to Time & Attendance systems. We shall update and expand this article from time to time to build on our visitors’ knowledge base.
Your selected Vendor will have a wealth of experience in the management of Projects such as yours, but it is useful for you to have your own appreciation of what is involved.
A lot of this material is based on real-life experience (or scar tissue!) acquired by our Team over the course of years, and we mean it to be presented in understandable language and easily-followed format.
a) The Project Manager
If there’s one message to get across here it’s DO get your own Project Manager; do NOT rely on the Vendor to project manage on your behalf as they will ultimately fail to meet everyone’s expectations, no matter how hard they work. They will always have difficulty balancing priorities that will occasionally be in conflict. You wouldn’t expect a lawyer to act as both prosecutor and defender at the same time!
Importantly, having your own person will give more ownership, and that the introduction of your new HRIS isn’t just something remote “happening to” your organisation
Let’s get this in context right away:
i) the Project Manager is unlikely to be able to combine the PM role with another day job.
ii) The Project Manager must have experience in interpreting the Vendor’s plan, marshalling (and cajoling) resources, meeting deadlines and liaising with the Vendor. It’s not a job for the amateur.
It’s very tempting for, say, an HR Manager to assume the role, but it is inadvisable unless they have the above-mentioned experience. Really – trust me on this one.
Ideally, you should use someone with the relevant experience from elsewhere within the organisation who can look at the picture dispassionately and impartially. Doing it this way, the experience stays in the organisation. Failing this, hire a professional Project Manager; it won’t be cheap, but having committed yourself to the solution you are not improving your chances of success by skimping on the essentials.
An option to reduce external costs can be to appoint a Programme Manager to oversee your Project Manager if their overall experience is not comprehensive. The Programme Manager brief will involve taking a broad view of the project, and review – probably on a weekly basis – with the Project Manager. In this way, the contractor expenditure is minimised, and the Programme Manager can provide a mentoring role.
Whoever lands the Project Manager position MUST have discretion to take decisions (within budget and other agreed limits) and have priority access to resources when required with causing unnecessary interruption to normal activities. It is essential that all affected departments are consulted during the planning of the project on all matters that affect their people and resources.
b) The Project Team
Keep the team small. Only people who have direct influence on the Project should be in the core team. Others can be co-opted for various stages of the Plan that relate to them.
A good number for the core team is 3. Beyond that, you have a committee, which will make consensus difficult and may slow matters when team members are unable to make the meetings. The more members, the more unlikely you can get everyone together on a regular basis.
c) The Project Plan
It is usual for the Vendor to draw up a project plan detailing the actions required to load, configure, implement and test the application up to purchaser acceptance and sign-off.
As the client, you will need to draw up a shadow plan to meet the case that will comprise all the steps to be taken from your side, the persons responsible for resourcing those steps and the timelines for those steps to accord with the Vendor plan.
If you do not have the (expensive) Project planning software tools for this, you can draw up your chart in Gantt format using MS Excel.
d) Project Plan elements
Below is an illustration of some typical actions in the client plan that respond to a required action in the master plan.
1. Cleanse data
Either circulate a blank form and ask employees to complete it, or print out what you have on them and ask them to correct or add information. I actually favour the former course, as it starts the data up from a zero base and means the employees have to make the effort to get it right.
2. Create Test Environment for Application
This will be your IT /ICT department that sets this up, generally by allocating a server and loading a copy of the application on to it, ready for data entry. At a later point, they will set up a Live Environment which will be the permanent home for your application.
3. Employee Numbers
Ensure that the new application can carry the sequences that you use. If you have a historical set of employee numbers, it can be a good opportunity to start from scratch
4. Configure Organisational Structure
My recommended action here is to replicate the organisation structure on the basis of the Chart of Accounts used by the Finance Department. Not only does it make the reporting understandable across the organisation, but it facilitates the smooth export of information to other applications.
Departments can be configured to carry an alpha description and the numeric Chart number as well.
Example:
And so on…
Tip No 4.1
When setting up the structure, remember to have the organisation itself at the top of the “pyramid” otherwise you will not be able to transit people between departments.
5. Configure Posts (Jobs)
A Post (Job) can be considered as the empty “suit” for a job that exists before anyone actually fills the job.
Attached to the Post will be a range of conditions:
Hours:
If standard organisational hours are 40 per week, and the Post in question, e.g. Payroll Manager, is a 40 hpw job, then it will be considered to be 1 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) If the Post was only 30 hours per week, then it would be expressed on a headcount report as 0.75 FTE.
Grade:
Most posts will be allocated within an agreed grade. Certain benefits or conditions may automatically accrue from grades, and will need to be added to the Post accordingly.
Reports to:
This will be the immediate report in the organisational hierarchy. This has additional importance when Triggered Actions are set up, to ensure, for instance, that all employees reporting to a certain manager are advised of impending Appraisal meetings or Training Events.
The issue is a little clouded when an employee in fact holds two Posts – both perhaps part-time – and reports to more than one Manager. Some software applications cannot handle this without having two different accounts set up for the person, which is highly unsatisfactory, especially when it then impacts on the Payroll. If you have what are known as Multi-Posts in your organisation, you will have to look very carefully at your vendor specification. As a rough guide, most vendors who sell into the Public Sector will have this feature, by necessity.
Benefits:
Either dependent upon grade or perhaps as a standard feature of employment, benefits may be attached to Jobs. Theses can include Life Assurance, Permanent Health Insurance (Salary Continuation), Holidays and other Contractual provisions.
Property:
Some positions automatically require corporate property, such as Mobile Telephones, Laptops and Company Cars.
6. Configuring Shift Patterns
Most organisations will have differing shift patterns for their employees, and can range from weekly through to rotations that repeat every 12 weeks or more. Check that you have every available current shift pattern defined, and then configure them on the T&A system. After this, you will tie each employee to a shift.
Some workers are defined as “floaters” as they have no fixed patter, but you can establish a no-shift category, and the Shift Supervisors can manually add them to shifts as required.
Good quality T&A systems make setting up and editing shifts very easy indeed. A further refinement on some applications is analysis of specific work activities within shifts.
Tip No. 6.1
Sourcing a new Time & Attendance system is the right time to re-evaluate your clock-in points. The clocks represent an investment of around couple of thousand pounds each, and so you really don’t want too many of them. Study the dynamics of your operation; are your clocking points too far away from the actual work stations?
7. Configure Employee Details
Apart from routine employee information such as Name and Address, there may be a requirement to add organisation-specific fields, or to configure existing fields.
In the former group could be Fire Officers, First Aiders or Appointed Persons; in the latter will be the organisation’s required fields for categories such as Equal Opportunity Monitoring.
8. Configure Users’ Access Security
Defines who can access the application/s and to what level of information or action that they have access.
Access policies differ from organisation to organisation, but one rule should be constant: employees must not be able to change their own records (except allowed fields in Self Service environments) although they should be able to see them (Read Only) and have them included in reporting.
You may wish to allow the Training department to see employee records relating to Job and Training History, without having access to personal and salary data or in-house Recruiters to see Job detail only.
With Time & Attendance, the most common security set-up is to allow Shift Supervisors to edit their own shift workers’ absence records. Non attendance is edited in arrears when the cause for absence is known, and can then be shown as Unpaid, Sickness, Compassionate or made up later on the shift, etc.
Access issues will also arise in Time & Attendance, where the system is used for Access Control to a building or parts of a building as well as a Time Recording device.
Self Service presents a much more complex task, as you will need to organise security levels for the majority of your workforce (those who have easy access to online access). This will involve setting parameters for the fields that can be changed by all employees (address, bank details, absence and holidays), their managers and supervisors (approvals and training recommendations) and senior management (e.g. headcount, budgets and corporate communications).
9. Configure HR and Pay Rules
There are two sets of Rules: Statutory and those set by the organisation.
Statutory rules are set by Government and standard across every organisation. These will include categories such as Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Sick Pay, Minimum Wage and Basic Holidays.
Organisational rules are particular to that organisation and may affect Occupational provisions such as Sick Pay, Long Service Entitlements, Pay Grades and Organisational hierarchy.
As with Data Cleansing, it is never too early too early to start collecting these rules together and tabulate them. Be sure to contact the vendor for a matrix of rules that will be required so that you have a guide. Running round looking for information of this type while the vendor’s consultant has the meter running is a wasteful way to work!
10. Configure Reports
You will have to think about the variety of reports to which you will need access from the outset, what fields should appear, how they are to be filtered and if there are any time or departmental parameters. These can be used in the Report writing Training sessions, as there is no substitute in learning as doing these things for yourself!
Some examples of the most commonly used reports are:
Headcount:
Employee Number, Employee Name, Cost Centre, Full-Time Equivalent
Salaries:
Employee Number, Employee Name, Cost Centre, Annual Salary
Long Service:
Employee Number, Employee Name, Date Joined, Years’ Service (run from date of report)
Employee Turnover:
No. of employees (within given period) x 100 divided by Average Number of Employees
Stability (example shown for annual figure)
No. of employees with 1 year’s service x 100 divided by Number of Employees employed 1 year ago.
Some reports use the same building blocks and only needed to be modified, perhaps for data between two dates. You can set up two blank dates in your report (start and finish), so that when you run the report you can insert the required dates at that time. This is known in some reporting suites as Runtime Prompt.
11. Configure Triggers
Set out on paper a list of the actions of which you want notification, what triggers them, to whom notifications should be sent, and when.
For example, all new employees are on a 12 week probation period, and you want to ensure that the probation interview is carried out in a timely fashion. You configure the trigger by ensuring that the Probation rule for this employee is 3 months. You can then set the trigger to forward a formatted and mail merged email reminder to the Line Manager, the employee (and HR department, if necessary) at start date + 10 weeks.
Example:
Trigger: New Employee
Field: Probation
Condition: Start Date + 12 weeks – 2 weeks (or +10 weeks)
Action: Email
Message: “Please note that (employee name) is due for Probation review on Date (derived from the Start Date + 12 weeks). Please ensure that this review is completed by the due date.”
This is simplistic, but gives an indication of how these Triggers are constructed.
12. History Carried Forward
Payroll history is easy to manage, as only the current tax year is held live and previous data is held as an archive. These must be accessible for not less than seven years by statute, so you will need to have arrangements in place for this to comply (see Old Data).
Time and Attendance records, too, are not usually carried forward from previous holiday years. It is advisable to retain a reasonable amount of this data, perhaps 3 years, as it may be relevant to possible disciplinary action, or litigation in respect of Sickness Absence and Industrial injury.
HR records are rather more difficult to decide upon. It’s probably fair to say that the longer an employee is with an organisation, the thinner the file! The tendency is to gather more and more information about newer employees, and the trend is escalating.
Factors that should affect the amount of employee history will include:
How often do you actually refer to records more than a year old?
Does anyone ever look back at career progression over the past 10 years?
Just how accurate – and detailed – is the history?
The more history you bring forward, the more costly it becomes. Every historical post going back in time must be created, populated, and then depopulated as the employee moves on, even though the jobs, and occasionally departments, may have passed out of living memory. You are in fact reconstructing the past, and, as previously mentioned, this history may be inaccurate enough as to be of dubious worth.
An effective way of resolving this would be to agree a point in time, say 2/3 years previous to the current migration time, and import this into the new application. Earlier data can then be retained in a form of History file (see Old Data Item 15)
13. Populating the new application
Many applications are populated by uploading a series of related spreadsheets (usually.csv derived from Excel) by way of a data importer.
You can assist this process by requesting the spreadsheet templates from the vendor, and populate them from your newly-cleansed data sources. Although this is time-consuming, it is a very good sense check on the data that you have, and gives you at least a bit more ownership and control over it; you will find at times during a project that there are times that it seems like something happening elsewhere!
14. Parallel Running
It goes without saying that the most “mission critical” application is the Payroll. Whether you are moving from one application to another, or to your first computerised HRIS you will need to parallel run – that is, run it alongside your current arrangement, for a period, mainly for testing purposes to compare and validate output as well as to discover any running problems before going live.
Payroll and, to a lesser extent, Time & Attendance run more in “real time” than HR, and therefore should be prioritised.
One of the most frequent questions we are asked is “how many parallel runs should we do?” There is no hard and fast answer, and it will all depend on your resources, but we would recommend a minimum of two, and probably no more than three. If you are still encountering significant discrepancies after two parallel runs, you must quickly establish where the faults lie and correct them, otherwise your project will come unstuck.
When the parallel running and other testing is completed satisfactorily, the purchaser will then sign off an End User Testing Acceptance document. The data is then ready to be loaded in to the Live Environment.
15. Migrate Test Data onto Live Environment
This will be carried out by the IT/ICT function, and will involve decanting the validated data into the live application Environment, ready for live use.
On web-hosted applications, this will be done by the host on their own location, and the purchaser merely points their browser to the new live address.
16. Old Data
Often overlooked. As well as establishing how much history you bring forward into the new application, you still have a decision to make on where to store historical data.
Payroll is required to be accessible for no less than seven years, and HR is an ongoing record. The main options are:
Maintaining an environment version of the previous application, where records can be accessed and read;
Data converted into a contemporary format such as Excel where it can be used at will;
The old-fashioned giant pile of printout.
The first two have a cost attached; a) is usually an ongoing rental charge and b) is a one-time charge. Neither is particularly cheap. The last option is not as impractical as it might sound; people generally overestimate the amount of access they need to historical data. Providing the history reports are produced in a range of sorts (Surname, Employee Number, National Insurance Number, Operating Division) then look-ups are not time-consuming.
17. De-commissioning
Remember if you are phasing out a previous application then you will need to study the terms under which you give it up, with special regard to notice periods and financial considerations attached to them.
Existing systems should be maintained until complete cut-over to the new application is complete, and then they can be cleared down and withdrawn from the operating platform. Ensure that all master disks are accounted for are returned to the original vendor, or disposed of in line with their wishes.
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With the presentation of the Third generation of Amazon Kindle, the online retailer has all the reasons to celebrate: this ebook reader is not only better than everything has been built before in this category, but it is also ready to meet the mainstream masses. With the Amazon Kindle, Amazon solves all the negative aspects of earlier ebook reader generations, such as slow page turns, finger-unfriendly button designs and heavy weight. This doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement, but this Kindle is the first I will certainly recommend to my friends.
Value
There are two versions of the third-generation Amazon Kindle. The Kindle Wi-Fi costs $139, while the Kindle that has both Wi-Fi and 3G and costs $189. The 3G-only Kindle 2 cost previously just as much. Please remember the third generation Kindle is not only a minor update, display improvement or a color refresh, just like we have seen in the case of Kindle DX (Graphite). It can be seen from a distance that there is a lot of work and attention in this ebook reader. This might show that the company thinks its hardware strategy to be very important, in complementing its software (the Kindle apps for Mac, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, and PC) and e-bookstore strategies.
One has to notice that the new Kindle comes in two colors: eye-pleasing graphite (just the same as the Kindle DX presented earlier this summer) and the usual Kindle white. Some might argue that dark ebook readers are easier to read, because they give a perception of better contrast. However, this is only an impression. Others might feel they can read the white one better. The display was enhanced, too. The Amazon Kindle now has a 6-inch E-Ink Pearl display just like the Kindle DX (Graphite). This display has 50 percent better contrast, which is quite noticeable in use. Just like on Kindle DX (Graphite), the text looks smoother, and the blacks are more solid. The Pearl display also has faster screen refresh rates, which improves user experience significantly (more on that later).
Smaller
The streamlined design of the Amazon Kindle made possible to shrink the reader by 21 percent. However is we look at the numbers, it doesn’t seem that much is shaved off. The new model measures 7.5 by 4.8 by 0.34 inches, versus the 8 by 5.3 by 0.36 inches of the Kindle 2. However if you look at the two devices side-by-side, it is obvious that the third generation Amazon Kindle became significantly smaller. In order to get this smaller design, the manufacturer primarily trimmed the superfluous, wasted space around the edges, so the device is now dominated by its 6-inch screen. The functionality is not affected by this: there is still enough room around the edges for the fingers to rest comfortably while holding the device.
Lighter
The design of Amazon Kindle is a pleasure to hold in hand. The user can read a couple of hours without feeling any pain or stiffness in his hands. This fact is even more interesting because the same thing cannot be said for the multipurpose Apple iPad: this device with its 1.5 pounds (25 ounces) weight is almost three times heavier than the Kindle (8, 7 ounces). This fact makes a really strong argument in favor of the Kindle.
However, this review is not only about comparing the iPad to the third generation Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is a masterpiece in itself, and it is the first time I can say that it is a pleasure to hold a Kindle ebook reader in hand. I must also say that the Kindle is not the lightest ebook reader available on the market: there is an ebook reader that is nearly one ounce lighter, the Kobo eReader, which also has a 6-inch display. Then the Bookeen Cybook Opus, with a 5-inch display, is even lighter, with 5.3 ounces. At the same time, the Barnes & Noble’s Nook (11.6 ounces for Nook Wi-Fi, 12.1 ounces for Nook Wi-Fi + 3G) is significantly heavier than the Amazon Kindle; and the new Kindle is 15 percent lighter than its 10.2-ounce predecessor.
Better Design
The new Kindle, with its lighter weight and more compact design, the third-generation Kindle also provides a more pleasing reading experience than the earlier models. Its curved back cover made from a subtle, rubberized material, also makes it easier to hold. Because of the more compact design, Amazon had to modernize and thoroughly redesign the keys and buttons. Near the screen now there are very simple forward and back buttons, mirrored in shape and size, and signaled by arrows instead of words. With this feature, the Kindle is suitable for both left- and right-handed users. The unit’s buttons, when used, seem to be in very well-thought, convenient and ergonomic places.
A drawback of the second-generation Kindle was that the page-forward and page-back buttons depressed inward, into the screen: as a result, when they were pressed, a noisy, mechanical sound was heard. The third generation Kindle now has buttons that depress away from the screen, and are much slimmer, like a rocker-style button that melds into the edge of the device. This solution is much better, as the fingers don’t need to hover in a single place to turn the page. The hand can be moved and the page can still be turned with the heel of the palm, or even with the thumb: a rather unique experience. In addition to this, Amazon corrected the unfunctional, outwardly page-turn buttons of its first-generation Kindle that led to many accidental page turns.
Navigation
The navigation buttons were also completely redesigned. They were rearranged and clustered together, the page-forward and -back buttons have shrunk dramatically: to only one-quarter of an inch wide. At the bottom of the keyboard there is the Home button, ant the joystick-navigation cluster of the Kindle 2 was replaced with a very comfortable D-pad-like approach with a five-way navigation square, with an oval Menu button above it and a Back button beneath. When you use the Amazon Kindle, your fingers will find the new layout very convenient and finger-friendly. It is very easy to adapt to the new organization, which is way better than the joystick of the previous models. The buttons respond promptly, and the Amazon Kindle is kept up well.
There is a tighter keyboard layout, the key are a bit closer and the row of numbers is removed. So you will have to press the symbol button to get to the numbers, just like you do on a touchscreen phone keyboard. Because the keyboard buttons are rounded and they are closer together, it is much easier to type on this keyboard than that of the second-generation Kindle. The typing experience resembles very much the typing on a physical cell phone keyboard.
Every Amazon Kindle button and port (the headphone jack, the micro-USB, power switch and volume rocker) is now situated along the bottom edge, in a neat row. The power switch was on the top, and on Kindle 3 it was moved down, which might seem a little bit unexpected and awkward, but the other buttons are very comfortable. And there is a cute thing: when you slide the switch or plug the device into the power, the healthy battery life is shown by a green light. When the battery needs to be charged, it glows in amber.
Technology
The Amazon Kindle, unlike its predecessors, just breezes thorough the pages. Even very impatient persons can be happy with the way the new Kindle turns the pages. And there is virtually no lag in scrolling through the menu options. The page turns are 20 percent faster, according to Amazon. The manufacturer says that the increased speed comes from the Amazon’s proprietary waveform and controller technology (this technology is essentially a series of pulses that move white and black electronic ink particles to give the grey level that makes the final text or image), and the new display. When the page turns, there is still an annoying flicker, but because the speed is much increased, the flicker is rather acceptable.
In my experience, the speed issue is very important. The second generation of Kindle was quite unresponsive and sluggish, but I must mention that the slowest ebook reader I ever saw was the Kobo eReader. There is only one place I noticed a lag: in a Kindle bookstore. However it is until today unclear to me whether the lag was due to the speed of the display’s redraw, the bookstore’s responsiveness or the integrity of the 3G connection. No matter the cause was, in this situation several times the book cover thumbnails lagged behind the page load of the rest of the content.
The Experience
The e-reading experience on the Amazon Kindle remained largely unchanged. However, even here Amazon added some cool new features. You can change line spacing from within menus (there are three options: small, medium and large), and you can also change the typeface too (the options are condensed, regular and sans serif). These options can be accessed from the font’s button, now situated on the bottom row, between the space bar and the home button. Some other font options would be welcome, and the options could be presented in the sample text, much like the font-size options are presented. Despite this, it is good to see Amazon add the option to change fonts, because virtually all LCD-based ebook readers have this feature for some time.
It would be also great if Amazon would take the opportunity to start to improve the speed and presentation of its bookstore. While shopping, it occurred to me that the page redraw speeds are slower than when I was elsewhere in the device. This might be caused by the Kindle bookstore’s design or 3G connection.
Just like Kindle DX (Graphite) and the second-generation Kindle with updated firmware, the third-generation Kindle supports sharing passages via Twitter and Facebook. It also supports popular highlights and viewing collections: these are created from the data of what passages Kindle users are sharing. There is also a new WebKit-based Web browser in the new Kindle. This browser is still in an experimental stage, but it evolved from the second generation Kindle. The PDF viewer is also improved, but the manufacturer still has to come up with a solution for how to reflow PDFs so we can read them directly on the unit. (The closest approximation today requires you to email a PDF to your Kindle device.)
More Memory
The new Kindle increased its memory from 2GB to 4GB, which means that it can hold up to 3500 books (the second-generation Kindle only could store 1500). The manufacturer also claims that the Kindle can function up to one month with one single battery charge. Amazon says that it doesn’t use any revolutionary battery technology for this: the performance could be obtained thorough software modifications. The 3G wireless is still delivered by AT&T with no charge.
For those who want a lighted E-Ink screen, the case solution of Amazon can be a great choice. The case worked splendidly on a night-time plane ride, without the need of an overhead light. The leather case sold for $60 feels good in hand, and has an ingenious pull-out extendable light that curves around and illuminates the screen. It is a clever, but not perfect design: if you don’t have any fingernails, the light might be difficult to pull out. Besides, the light spread proved to be uneven: more intense in the upper right quadrant than in the lower left.
My Conclusion
The third generation Amazon Kindle is ideal for those who want the advantages on a dedicated ebook reader. Its greatest advantages are long battery life and a paper-like screen that can be read in bright light. The new Kindle is worth its money because the mix of its price, features and performance. Its great build quality, along with the improved design, integrated store and cross-platform transportability make the third generation Amazon Kindle a leader in its segment. I have to say that this is the first ebook reader after a long time that left me wanting to read more. I will probably buy one myself.
www.mslaw.edu A Gracie Award winning episode of The Educational Forum! In thisepisode of the Massachusetts School of Law’s Educational Forum Professor Diane Sullivan interviews New York Times columnist Gail Collins on her book; When Everything Changed – The Amazing Journey Of American Women From 1960 To The Present. Professor Diane Sullivan interviews New York Times columnist Gail Collins on her book; When Everything Changed – The Amazing Journey Of American Women From 1960 To The Present. Professor Sullivan and Gail Collins discuss how much the world has changed for both women and men since the 1960’s from the era of the housewife to NOW, to equal rights and Title IV and to women’s successes and failures in politics, law, athletics, the sciences and journalism. The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit mslaw.edu.
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The purpose of this article is to simply describe what you need to do to buy your first pair of glasses online. I will not recommend particular retailers, as you can find that info in several of my other articles and also check out the links on the right of this page. Purchasing eyewear online seems daunting at first. If you’re like me, purchasing and fitting prescription glasses always seemed like a complex procedure best left to professionals. The truth is, if you know your prescription and have your existing rx glasses handy, it is really quite simple to purchase glasses online.
The Seven Critical Numbers
First, find your current prescription. I keep mine in the health file in my filing cabinet. If you can’t find your prescription, visit wherever you last had your eyes examined and request a copy. Your optician, optometrist, or ophthalmologist is required by law to release your eyewear prescription to you. You now need to make note of a few critical pieces of information from your prescription (see example above–click to enlarge). Among other information, you should see three columns on your prescription–sphere, cylinder, and axis.
In the example above, these are abbreviated SPH. CYL. and AXIS. These three columns will have two rows, Right and Left. In the prescription above, this is simply abbreviated R and L. Many doctors instead use the latin abbreviations, which are OD and OS. OD means right eye and OS means left eye. Jot down a quick copy of the six numbers or simply keep your prescription handy. These six critical numbers define how your lens will be carved. Any online eyewear retailer will ask for the input of these six numbers.
In addition to these six numbers, there is one more critical number, the Pupillary Distance, or PD. This is a measure, in millimeters, of the space between your eyes. In the example prescription above, you’ll see the Pupillary Distance of the patient is 62. Jot down this number also, it is the seventh of your seven critical numbers.
A Final Measurement
A somewhat less critical number is your temple length. If you’re lucky, you’ll also see a temple length and bridge size in your prescription. If not, don’t sweat it, you can figure it out yourself. The temple length describes the length of the two bars that connect the glasses to your ears. It is measured from where the 90-degree curve from your lens structure to the side bars (temples) begins to the very end of the temple, including the curve. It is not measured from the flex point of the temples, because the “stub” between the flex point and lens structure is not a standard size.
Now, take out some measuring tape (preferably the type of tape used for fitting clothes and sewing, as it is very flexible) and measure an existing pair of glasses that fit comfortably. An average temple length for men is 135mm or 145mm. For women, 130mm to 140mm is standard. If your tape only has inches, measure to the nearest eighth or sixteenth and multiply that number by 25.4 to get the measurement in millimeters. Temple lengths are generally available in 5mm increments, such as 130, 135, 140, 145, etc. At most online eyeglasses stores, temple length is shown within a frame description and is not customizable. Therefore, you need to find a frame with an appropriate temple size. This sometimes varies if you are at a site specializing in designer glasses, where you have the option to input your own temple size.
Honestly, temple size is not a huge deal. I have one pair of glasses with 135mm temples and another with 140mm temples. Both pairs fit comfortably. If for some reason you can’t come up with a temple measurement, don’t let that stop you from making an eyewear purchase online. Instead, simply choose 140mm temples if you are a man and 135mm temples if you are a woman. Chances are, this length will fit comfortably.
What’s your Style?
Armed with your seven critical numbers and an idea on your temple length, start browsing the myriad of online retailers. Pick out some favorite frames and open the individual pages in separate tabs or windows of your web browser. Similar to trying on glasses at a standard retailer, you need to figure out if the frames you like are appropriate for your face. You might visit my post on the topic of face shape. If you have a nice oval face, you’re in luck, most any pair will look on you. If you have strong, angular features, a rounded or rimless pair will look god on you. If you have a very round face, choose a rectangular or hexagonal pair of glasses. If you just want a basic pair of professional glasses, go with titanium rimless.
Using your trusty measuring tape, you can compare other measurements of your existing glasses with what you are looking at online. The bridge measurement describes the distance between lenses, the height describes the distance from the lowest point on the front of the frame to the highest point, and the lens describes the distance between the end of the bridge and the beginning of the temple. Some retailers also offer free virtual try-on. This service, which I describe in will allow you to upload a picture and place a variety of frame types on your face.
Place your Order
So you’ve found the perfect pair of frames. Begin the checkout process. You should see boxes where you can enter your prescription information (the seven critical numbers). This will sometimes be in a table format similar to your prescription, or it may be a simple list. You’ll also have the option to choose from a variety of coatings and add-ons. If you will be wearing your glasses day-in and day-out, I recommend choosing the anti-scratch and anti-reflective coatings. These really do make a difference and ease night driving (anti-reflective) and the longevity of being able to see clearly through your lens (anti-scratch). You can add on the UV coating if you wish, though it isn’t critical. Photochromatic tinting (aka “transition lens”) is also an option. Personally, I prefer buying a separate pair of prescription sunglasses, but that is up to you.
If you only wear glasses occasionally (maybe as a supplement to contact lenses), or are just purchasing a pair of Rx sunglasses that won’t be worn every waking hour, you might choose to save money by skipping on the extras. If you are buying a pair for your accident-prone child, skimping on the extras might not be such a bad idea either. Avoid coatings and other add-ons will also allow you to get a great pair of prescription glasses for well under $40. After you’ve placed your order, you’ll typically wait about 2-to-3 weeks for your glasses to be custom carved and delivered. The finished product will typically include a hard case and a soft cloth for lens cleaning.
In this I show a video of the exact product received from a popular online eyewear retailer.
Side Note One: “Help, I don’t have a prescription!”
If it has been a long time since your eyes have been examined, or if you just can’t get a hold of your prescription, it’s time to go visit an optometrist. While your neighborhood optometrist may charge $100 or more for a simple examination, discount stores like Wal-Mart, or optometrists in working-class neighborhoods will often offer an eye exam for $40 or less. Grab your yellow pages and start making phone calls. Chances are, you’ll get the best price if you find an optometrist who has many customers without vision insurance.
Side Note Two: “How can it be so cheap?”
The price difference between online eyewear and glasses bought from a traditional retailer, or even Wal-Mart or Costco, is startling. An identical pair of titanium frames might cost $60 online and $220 at Wal-Mart. How can this be? What about the quality? I will categorically state that the quality of glasses received from the majority of online retailers is equal to or exceeds the quality found at your neighborhood eyewear shop or optometrist. The price differential comes from a number of factors, including the relative obscurity of online eyewear purchases, the fact that highly paid optometrists do not spend one-on-one time with the eyewear purchaser, and the fact that insurance companies are typically not involved with online eyewear purchases, thereby discouraging inflated prices.
Give it a try. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied with your online eyewear purchase if you follow the steps outlined in this article.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvoTCMqwuS0&hl=en
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This is the original Eagleman commercial from 1993. Considered by some the worst commercial created, it has been featured on the David Letterman show, the BBC, local news and across the internet. More information here www.rdrproductions.com and here www.theeagleman.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4-e4nlfdRI&hl=en
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