The Whole Story

What is your weirdest experience in a job interview?

Well Yesterday which was Friday i had a job interview at Rebel Sport as a Department Manager, and coming from Coles Myer i thought that this interview would be a breeze. Let me tell you . . . some of the questions that i was asked where just plain weird.
There were the obvious questions that you would expect in any job interview such as:

• Why do you think you are suited to this job?
• What makes you different from the other people applying for this job?
• What are some key ideas that you can bring to Rebel Sport as a Department Manager?

At this point i was thinking ‘YES’ i can answer all of these, and thinking soon it will be over.

But then . . . the weird questions came:

Do you watch T.V?

Do you have a dog and if so how often do you walk it?

He even asked . . . If you could steal anything from this store what would it be? I couldn’t believe it lol. Over-all the interview went fairly well but i couldn’t stop laughing to myself about some of the questions he was asking.

If anyone has had any interesting or just plain weird Job Interviews it would be great if you could share them with us, its a very interesting topic. Looking forward to hearing them.

A few posts ago, I wrote a piece called ‘Top Open Source Software’ and I was devising a list in microsoft word document format that I will be making avaliable for download here on my blog sometime very soon. I just wanted to let you guys know that it is well under way and there are many applications on the list already. Sometime within the next week or two you’ll see it here for your open source downloading pleasure.

Many people I know, friends, family have asked from time to time whether there are any free open source alternatives to software which most of us currently pay for such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc and this was the main driving motivation which insipred me to write such a list, If not for my own reference as to what’s exactly out there.

Of course many of us hate having to pay for something we can get for free right! So be sure to check back here from time to time, the list will be completed soon.

On a more personal note, I have started back at uni for a new semester which I also wrote about a few posts ago. Just finished my first week back and things are going fairly well which is something. I have all my subjects worked out, and have started attending all the lectures and whatnot.

So, that’s about it really. A quick update mainly to let all you guys know about the Top Open Source Software list and its current progress. Any feedback regarding any cool applications I should also include would be greately appreciated as always.

Until next time, take care guys.

“The tweak I am going to describe below does several things. First it increase system stability by instructing the operating system to seperate processes for each instanace of an application. In other words if you have three Word documents open and one of them crashes it will alow you to close out that crashed instance of Word…”

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Well everybody, i’m still a bit sick, but well enough to be back at my computer writing again which is really great. Right now, I am in the middle of writing tomorrow’s post. Anybody interested in interface usability (ie. website design, application development) will find it interesting im sure.

So once again, just another quick post for today. Just letting you guys all know that Im back and ready to get writing again. Can’t wait!

Yup, I so hate being sick. Headaches, sore throat, coughing every 2 minutes, will it ever go away!  Its been a day or two since i’ve written anything new here on my blog, being sick will do that.

I thought i’d just write a quick post for today to let you all know that once I get better, i’ll have some new stuff to share with you guys here on my blog. Don’t be alarmed at the lack of posts recently lol I’m still here, just been too sick to write.

Take care everybody, keep checking back, you’ll see some new stuff on here soon.

It’s a celebration! 100 posts and still going strong.

I can’t believe it has been 100 articles I’ve written on The Whole Story already, bringing you the thoughts, ideas & stories…of all time (well, maybe). To some, 100 may not seem like a lot. If I wrote everyday (which I do now) it would only be 100 days, but the fact of the matter is that in the blog’s infancy, I would write maybe 3-4 posts a week so thinking if I’d ever get to 100 was really no more than fantasy.

For those who haven’t been with me since the beginning, let me give you a quick ‘Whole Story’ history lesson.

Where it all began:

The blog started early in 2005 as a technology news focused blog called Justin’s Tech Blog (oh how imaginative) which I typically discussed any recent technology news, new gadgets, new online services and things of that nature. Justin’s Tech Blog was merely a blip on the radar in the beginning attracting only a few unique visits each day while really only appealing to ‘geek’ audiences and the tech savvy.

Early ideas, big dreams:

The blog had its experiments of different ideas in this early time, but in September of 2005 a new concept called Monday Tech Questions (MTQ) took off and to my suprise, the most successful idea and (moderately) longest running idea. MTQ was a weekly series of questions visitors to the blog would either email in or comment on regarding technology advice, discussion and queries. I would research the topic discussion and give a short answer to help them out with their problem, or to entertain their curiosity. With the introduction of monday tech questions, traffic to the blog and its overall popularity steadily grew, becoming one of the most frequently visited blogs on tblog (which it was then hosted at the time).

Tortured times, Justin’s Tech Blog neared its end:

In December (2005) while the blog’s popularity was as strong as it had ever been, a lust for breaking into bigger domain had developed within myself and found myself wanting to push the blog into new territory and give it a new lease on life. News stories were hard to come by and the appeal to a larger audience was something the blog really needed. Throughout December, writing of articles was put on hold and the blog was taken down for redevelopment, in preparation for a new format, and indeed…a new home.

The end of the month was here, a final farewell post was written on the blog, bags were packed and its move was just around the corner.

A new home, and a new life…The Whole Story was born:

In February (2006), the blog was reborn, revampt and The Whole Story came about. The move from tblog to WordPress was no doubt the turning point in the blog’s life with the first ever post on The Whole Story ‘Justin’s TechBlog moved to wordpress’ taking shape and off the presses.

Growth is steady…the blog is here to stay:

In recent times I have experimented with all kinds of new concepts, ideas and layouts for the blog. While wanting to appeal to larger audiences, articles have been written on numerous topic areas such as health, sports, academics, current affairs, gossip and science & technology just to name a few.

More recently, experimentation with audio posts proved popular amongst visitors, but in the end was too time consuming for me to sustain for any length of time, however surviving for 7 Episodes between the months of April and June. The episodes are still avaliable for download via the audio section of the blog to the right.

Yep, its been one hell of a ride since I started, and nowadays The Whole Story continues to enjoy steady growth and many search engines (including Google, Yahoo, msn etc) keeping up with each new post, helping more and more visitors find their way.

I’m glad the things that interest me and topics I write about also appeal to many others and without a passion for writing, there would have been no way I would have made it to the 100th one. To all my regular visitors, and to those who stop by on occasions, thank you so much. Your interest means alot, and so long I have people like you stopping by and reading what I have to say, The Whole Story will still be around.

Just wait, soon enough, you’ll be back here reading the 200th anniversary article. Thanks guys!

Bink has posted an email that Bill Gates sent out to all Microsoft employees and Subsidiaries.

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Hi there guys. Yes as you may have noticed, I have changed the layout of the site once again. I was fairly happy with the previous (green simple) design, but it felt a little too 'slim' and wasn't the best design to display all the content I have here on my blog.

So i've decided to go with a layout I used once before on my blog (about 5 months ago) with a few variations which (i hope) improve the usability of the site drastically.  I have:

• Moved main sidebar to the left of the site and changed content shown.
• Removed Audio streams list as can be found in AUDIO page anyway.
• Totally new blog header image gives a new 'feel' to the site.

I know it seems like I change the design every week, but if you know me you know I like change and I only make such drastic chances when i need to or feel it is required to do so. I'm sure this new design will be around for a while to come (i quite like it) and I hope you like it too.

This is pretty funny. I hope that they fix this. I know currently in Windows XP if you want to remove a shortcut it does tell you that this is not the actual program, and you’re just removing a shortcut. But this is ridiculous, follow the “Read More” link and check out the pics. This truely is microsoft at its best lol.

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I have been pretty busy with schoolwork for uni over the past week so unfortunately I haven't really had the time to sit down and finish Episode 7 which was slated to appear on here a few days ago (May 26th) but I should have it finished real soon and be ready and avaliable for download on Friday 2nd June. Again, i'm sorry for the delay, just been real busy thats all. Hope you all understand.

 I take a look at a few interesting posts over last week in this week's episode so just hang in there for it, it will be a good one i promise!

Also, I have been testing out a new look for the blog over the last few nights as you can see. Please tell me what you think of it and If you would like to see something differently or if you like the old one better, please let me know. I'm always trying to improve the look and usability and any feedback either via comments or email are always greately appreciated.

Thanks for your patience guys!