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Tomorrow is my last day with my current employer.

I say this definitively even though I just got off the phone with someone at said company asking me to stay another week.

Although I won’t know if I am starting my new job until this weekend, it is a risk I am willing to take to not miss a week of the new project. I have my reasons and I’ve convinced myself they are correct.

I only gave a little over one week notice to my employer, who told my current client the next day. That gives everyone involved one week. I don’t even really care about the fact that Monday was a holiday, because I have already completed my assigned tasks for this week, so I am not leaving them incomplete work, at least in one area.

I’m a consultant, so when I signed on the dotted line, I knew that my “at will” contract stated I could be fired at any time. Conversely, I could quit without any notice.

When my soon to be former coworker called me and said that, “in her world” people don’t leave without two weeks notice and then tries to guilt trip me into staying an extra week, should I feel bad and say ok?

They could have let me go the same day I told them I was quitting. Then I would have been left without a job until my new one started.

With all of the consulting-type “at will” contracts, do people actually give two weeks notice anymore (non-executives)? I realize it is common courtesy to give your employers ample time to transition, but in this day and age with cell phones, e-mail, IM, and such, is a former employee really that far away?

I doubt people want to burn bridges in a professional environment.

I’ve probably said too much already, but please let me know if you think I am in the wrong in the comments….

Thanks to the price of oil going up, grounding of planes, and a so-called worsening economy, American Airlines will now be forcing more idiots through airport security.

How will they do that with reduced flights and employee layoffs?

In an effort to create profit, they have instituted a $15 fee for checking your first piece of luggage. While many airlines (including American) charge to check a second bag, usually $25, this is the first time an airline will be charging to check the first. Other passenger fees related to unaccompanied minors and pets will also be increasing.

Seeing as how most many people don’t know how to go through airport security today, imagine what will happen when all those cheap folks trying to avoid baggage fees try not to check luggage for possibly the first time in their lives.

TSA will have a field day. They will be searching all the clueless grandmothers (old people are penny pinchers) and bumbling foreigners (would get picked on regardless) who don’t know how to put their 3 ounce or less liquids in a 1 quart bag. 3-1-1 anyone?

I won’t get into a rant about how terrible TSA is (I literally saw an 80-year-old grandmother being patted down at the Dayon airport last week) because this is really AA’s fault.

When you walk into terminal three at O’Hare, you will feel the stupidity from the travelers and the contempt from TSA like a cloud ready to strike ignorance bolts.
I don’t even want to go to Dallas-Fort Worth, AA’s main hub. It will be complete chaos.

When all the rest of the airlines follow suit and try to avoid bankruptcy for the second or third time, good luck traveling. Even if you pay the $15 to check a bag, you will still have to deal with all of the people that didn’t pay.

Hopefully, TSA will get smart and create separate security lines:

1. Frequent travelers who don’t check bags
2. Travelers who did check bags
3. Idiots

I’ll probably be going to Nashville the week this policy goes into affect and possibly flying American, so I’ll let you know how it goes…

I realize how much I have talked up Twitter in the past, but today I am going to discuss a (potentially) more interesting social service:

FriendFeed

I use Twitter mainly to receive information, news, links, and content that I am interested in (tech and online social media). I only know a few of the people I follow in real life. Most of my friends aren’t that social on the web or just plain refuse to sign up for things (ACOM - only Villager without a widget dedicated to him on the blog sidebar).

FriendFeed is basically a lifestreaming service that aggregates content that you create or share around the web (see the post below by Jeremiah Owyang for a better description). It currently has 35 services available. It also integrates community aspects by allowing people to “Like” other people’s content or comment. It is still in the early adopter stage, but if you like the content shared by those early adopters, it can be very entertaining and informative. Side note - I use Twhirl to monitor both Twitter and FF.

Information or discussion on FriendFeed:
About FriendFeed
LouisGray.com
Some Conversations Have Moved to FriendFeed - Jeremiah Owyang

A couple competitors:
SocialThing! - LetsProve

Using the “Imaginary Friend” feature, you can track any of the 35 services for people who aren’t signed up for FriendFeed. I realize that asking my friends to sign up for FriendFeed is a bit much, since I’ve seen basically zero action towards Twitter. So, I have been setting up my real-life-people-I-know-in-th e-flesh friends as imaginary FriendFeed friends.

For more information on the uses of the imaginary friend feature:
Micro Persuasion - Using Friendfeed’s Imaginary Friends as a Master Aggregator

Here’s an example of one of my imaginary friends, a co-worker: Depasta

I’ve also added the rest of the Villagers as imaginary friends (ACOM is the weakest social web person I know).

If you already are on FriendFeed, I can be found at: elroy

If you aren’t on FriendFeed and use any of the services in the screenshot in this post, feel free to post your username(s) for the service(s) in the comments or e-mail me so I can start stalking you on the web.

Thanks to Disqus, our comment provider, and Seesmic teaming up, you can now leave video comments on Villager With Wheel.

For more info on this partnership, read this, this, or this.

I know, I know, you are all excited…all three of you who read this blog outside of its authors.

Out of the three of you, we’ll be lucky if one of you has a webcam.

Ed, I’m really pulling for you to leave the first video comment.

I’m not too proud to leave video comments on my own posts….(yes I do have a webcam)

At my current client, a large grocery company, our 19-year-old intern just went back to school. He was a highly motivated, intelligent, hard-working, socially awkward employee. The IT project manager really liked him and tried to convince him to come back next summer and after he graduated. The intern wouldn’t even take a loaner laptop to work part-time from school. I heard he vowed never to return to this company again.

According to some of my co-workers, he probably could have quit school and taken a full time job. They proceeded to name several manager level employees who don’t have a college degree.

What’s the point?

The intern currently attends the University of Toledo. I don’t know what the school’s national rankings are but I would bet it is at most a regional stand out. How many people in Colorado are thinking, “I hope I get into U of Toledo”? I’d guess not many.

So, does it matter if you go to Harvard or Missouri College in St. Louis as long as you get a good internship?

You’re probably thinking, the college you attend determines where you can get an internship. That may be true, but if you are intelligent and apply to enough good internships, you’re bound to get a few responses. Then, impress your employer and the sky is the limit. What’s more important, the classes you take at school or the experience you gained actually working? I vote for your internship experience.

There is probably a glass ceiling if you don’t have a college education. I’m not advocating quitting school to take a full-time job. But, a manager in this grocery chain (top 10% of the S&P 500) probably makes at least $100K a year. That’s nothing to sneeze at when you are living in suburban middle America and not a major city with a high cost of living. You could always finish your degree while you work (requires lots of motivation).

So, is it worth spending an arm and a leg and going into several years of debt to attend a highly ranked college? Or can you do just as well finding a good internship or two, working hard, and not have to be paying for school at the age of 30?

Full disclosure: I went to a highly ranked public college which my parents paid for. Also, I was lazy and didn’t have any true internships while at school. The above opinions are mine and mine alone.

I want electronic receipts when I go shopping.

I don’t see it being that hard…if by not too hard I mean massive Point of Sale software implementations at grocery chains.

But, seriously, this is how I see it happening:

1. I shop
2. I pay with a credit card
3. Credit card has my e-mail address
4. Store pulls my e-mail address from my credit card
5. Receipt lands in my inbox

Simple.

Somehow, I see Whole Foods as the first implementation of this technology. I really like their no signature for credit card purchases under $50. I’m still confused if that is a credit card policy or store policy.

Also, with this electronic receipt concept there are extensible possibilities with future state RFID shopping and payment. When Wal-Mart (or the Department of Defense) truly forces RFID adoption at the piece level of every product, a RFID scanner totals my order at the door, reads my RFID enabled credit card (similar to MasterCard PayPass) and e-mails me my receipt.

Yes, yes, I know there are tons of security issues with all of this, but it will happen some day.

Currently online, shoeboxed.com provides scanning for your paper receipts and storage for electronic receipts (like ones from amazon.com). They have several different plans for scanning in receipts, but you can use their service for free if you just want to store e-receipts or ones you’ve scanned in yourself.
If you are looking to spend money on a specialized receipt scanner and software (for a receipt database), neatreceipts.com is for you. They also have a business card scanner for you big time networkers.

I would love to send all of my receipts to shoeboxed, but I won’t even pay for something over the phone without using a virtual credit card. Clearly I’m a bit paranoid. Ironic, since I want unencrypted e-mails with personal financial information sent from large corporate entities.

Plus, this method would waste less paper! Although, let’s be honest…a lot of people would probably just end up printing their emailed receipts (READ: OLD PEOPLE). But, I’ll still say the idea is eco-friendly.

I realize I’ll have to wait a few years, but I hope one day some folks make this happen.