This, I found today, after a series of searches of Star Trek because I heard George Takei on the radio.  So I thought since we do have those who are “geeky, nerdy, or dorky”, I just thought it’d be interesting too.

Now… If there was a fight between Star Wars and Star Trek, I can say I would choose Star Wars because the Trekie’s Starship could crash into the Galactic Empire Ship and will pretty much do nothing.  Plus… They have three billion droids to do the fighting for them.

So I’ve been on a writing hiatus as of the past couple of weeks just to get myself on track with work and life.

So lately I’ve been noticing things at work that seem to make my day go by much quicker, puts me in a happier mood, and really allows me to crank a project out in a far rapider pace. I thought these would be good suggestions for your current working environment or office, or perhaps it could be something else that you can implement later in time when you get your own office.

1. The headphones – Nothing seems to pass my time quite like listening to morning radio shows or podcasts online. I find that when I am doing a good amount of mindless drafting or correcting drawings, listening to Adam Carolla bitch about how hard life use to be and/or listening to the Wake Up Call on endonline.com is just the cherry on top of my day, at least the first few hours.
2. Dual screens – Dual screens is not only cool, but it is very helpful in productive use. Often times you will need more than a window up, and instead of wasting seconds to minutes waiting for it to load and switch windows, you can just take a peak over at the other monitor to see that yes, in fact, you did have that damn line in the right spot already.
3. Lunch time with co-workers – As of my 4th week at work, I have only eaten out by myself once. And this is definitely a good thing (even though I might have to bring lunch one of these days), it allows you to bond with your co-workers instead of seeming like a homebody. You are able to talk about common interests, what happened that was cool, share bizarre knowledge that you have. Eating with the boss and able to keep the conversation going is also another great thing. Hell, if you are able to keep a good conversation, the next time they decide to lay people off, they might keep you because at least you are able to make a good impression and have the ability to hold good conversations.
4. Low Cubicles – The thing about cubicles are, they are nice, but not an office. If you are going to confine someone to a space where there is supposedly privacy, give them their own office, don’t just throw three walls together (sometimes four) and say good enough. The thing about high cubicles are, the person inside is probably wasting time and is in a constant state of worry because they don’t want to be caught. Therefore, this lowers productivity. However, if you have the low cubicles, the ones that go waist level… The person can no longer hide, therefore, they don’t always have to be constantly closing windows as someone walks by. IF you have to do something, then do it, your boss is not going to yell at you for taking a 1-2 minute break every hour because not only is it not a lot of time, but it improves productivity!
5. Make the space you have, YOURS – You work there, you will work there tomorrow, and you probably won’t be moving every week. Making your own space yours makes you more comfortable. Asking for dual screens cause you can increase productivity (and in general looking cool) is not something you should avoid asking for. It is your working space, if you think it’s better, it will be better. Also, within your computer, set everything up so that you are comfortable with it. If at home you increase the size of your task bar, then do it at work. The more comfortable you are, the more work you will do, the more money the company makes, the higher and faster you’ll get promotions (that is, unless you’re as high as you can go).

Those are just 5 things I’ve noticed and think is necessary to improve your working environment. If you have any suggestions, please comment or email us at tips@foodsexmoney.net. Until next time, enjoy your food, enjoy the sex, and make that money!

After the long awaited release of OS 3.0 in the middle of June 2009 (link), iPhone users rejoiced around the world as Apple rolled out it’s holy upgrade. As people woke up early to sync up their phones, they waited and waited, as the upgrade slowly uninstalled the old OS and replaced it with the upgrade OS.

“So many functions, what to try out first?” As users across the globe are frantically learning all the new functions to show off their tech-savy with “non-conformists” (yes…I’m a conformer and I love it), the harsh reality sets in…you know what I’m talking about. It’s the nature of any product created by two companies who have significant differences in business goals…that’s right, I’m talking about the epic “unrelease” of the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) feature (link) due to AT&T’s inability to support a feature that was promised to their customers.

Ah, but fret not. Because like all iPhone users, we are patient, loyal (link), and above all…

…we’re tied into the 2-year contract with AT&T. Alas, more than 3 months late, we are completely able to utilize all the new upgrades in the OS 3.0 software. The following are screenshots of me testing out the iPhone’s belated MMS release. Enjoy!

Very nice presentation

I messaged myself...it was late

I don’t consider myself to be a huge motorhead but this custom Aston Martin DB9 is, in my opinion, one of the best looking vehicles in existence. It has been redone almost completely in carbon fiber. It seems people either love or hate this design, but I am very fond of Aston Martins so my opinion may be biased. So what’s the price tag? With today’s exchange rate, you would have to shell out $557,688 USD on a $186000 car. Worth it? Maybe not. Gorgeous, nonetheless? Definitely. I almost want to categorize this post under “Sex.”

Here’s two quick links I saw while browsing the “blogosphere” today regarding job hunting. I know some of our readers (and even one of our writers) is still searching in this dismal economy, so these links may help:

1. Tips on Improving your Resume
2. Tips on the Interview Process (via Lifehacker)

I hope that helps! Happy hunting!

Alright guys and girls, you know what time it is…time for September’s Girl of the Month! This month’s girl can’t be found in Maxim (yet), Cosmo, or on the cover of any American mag; but she’s one of the biggest self-made hotties out in Vietnam. This month, the team at FSM is proud to bring you, Elly Tran Ha a.k.a. Elly Kim Hong!

I had one hell of a time trying to find info on this minx, but all I got in the end is really basic background info and “stats”. Elly is like the Paris Hilton of Vietnam (sans uber rich father). Her self-made fame arose from her circulation of sexy photos around the web. She’s 22 years young, and an American-born Vietnamese…her European blood would explain some of her noticeable “assets”. Sorry fellas, you’ll have to travel to Ho Chi Minh if you want a shot at her, since she moved from the U.S. back to the motherland. At the moment, she’s working as a part-time model while furthering her studies; however, I find it highly unlikely that her future career will have nothing to do with what she’s studying.

Here’s some information that I pulled from http://wayangtimes.com:

Real Name: Tran Ha
Nickname: Elly
Blood Type: A
DOB: 08/06/1987
Height: 168 cm (5′ 6″)
Weight: 47 kg (104 lbs)
Measures: 88-58-90 (35-23-35)

That’s all I got guys. But seriously, I’m pretty sure that’s all the information you care for. As always, I’m proud to present you guys with a desktop background for your viewing pleasure. Resolution is at 1680×1050 — e-mail me for other resolutions.

Sources and pics from: MMA Fight Girls Wallpaper, Wayang Times.com, and The Chive

A Korean designer, Jinsu Park, has created a pen that acts like the eye dropper tool from Photoshop. As you can see from the pictures below, you can scan in any color and the pen’s red, green, and blue ink cartridges will combine to recreate that color.

via TheNextWeb via TecheWeb via Toxel

Which lane should you stand in? (The numbers represent the number of items.)

All of us have had to make the sometimes difficult decision: Which grocery checkout lane should I stand in? Well, the blog dy/dan takes a mathematical approach towards finding the answer.  I won’t go into the blogger’s methodology, which included some legwork, but below are the results:

Check is slower than credit which is slower than cash. Students are sometimes surprised that cash is faster than credit. From my observations, the fastest cash transaction will outpace the fastest credit transaction by a wide margin but there is also huge variance in credit transactions. I mean, some people have absolutely no idea what they are doing with that thing. The same can’t really be said of cash.

The y-intercept is non-zero! This never fails to trip my fuses. It should take you zero seconds to purchase zero items but you can’t ignore the fixed time cost of the pleasantries (”Hi. How are you doing? Do you need any help out?”) and the transaction itself.

The express lane isn’t faster. The manager backed me up on this one. You attract more people holding fewer total items, but as the data shows above, when you add one person to the line, you’re adding 48 extra seconds to the line length (that’s “tender time” added to “other time”) without even considering the items in her cart. Meanwhile, an extra item only costs you an extra 2.8 seconds. Therefore, you’d rather add 17 more items to the line than one extra person!

The last item is especially interesting: Each person in line adds 48 seconds even if they buy nothing. On the other hand, each item takes 2.8 seconds. Roughly speaking, one additional person is equivalent to 17 additional items (not including what that extra person is buying)!

uSocial represents a new breed of advertising company: They will sell you or your company Facebook friends or fans. From a Wired article:

The company offers packages for Facebook, the world’s number one social networking site, that start at 1,000 friends up to 10,000 friends at costs ranging from $177 to $1,167.

“All we do is send them a welcome message or friend request from the client. If they decide to go ahead and add that person as a friend or a fan then they will; if not, then they won’t,” Hill told Australian media.

The best part, is that in addition to helping companies with advertising and viral marketing, they also have a personal service and will sell you friends on Facebook. It’s not clear to me who would be desperate enough to pay for friends they will never meet nor interact with, but if you want to seem popular to impress the few real friends you have, uSocial may be the solution for you.

If we were to flip this service around, would you be interested in becoming friends or fans of random people/products for a small fee? Given the rates they are charging, I expect that each Facebook user that they sell would probably only get a few pennies per “friending,” but it’s minimal work.

Always looking to improve myself professionally, I found this article about email etiquette especially interesting. While a lot of points are just common sense (as is etiquette in general), the author points some some less obvious tips, such as inline responses and when to use more “modern” forms of communication, such as IM or text messaging over email. As many of us are either making or will be making the transition from academics to industry, what other tips on professionalism do you suggest?